Chapter 216: Business Plans

The plump Patrick Pom sat rather awkwardly and restlessly in the parlor of the Cecil feudal lord’s “castle”. He adjusted his tie for the third time.

He wasn’t someone who was green and inexperienced, but it would be difficult — even for people who’d had the most experiences in this world — to get the opportunity for a private talk with a pioneering hero. He knew that the situation this time was completely different from that talk in the Kant territory previously. The last time, he’d accepted Duke Cecil’s appointment as a representative of the Kant territory, and this time, Duke Cecil had gotten him to come over from the Kant territory for a private, face-to-face conversation.

The pressure resulting from these two kinds of talks was entirely different.

And at the same time, Patrick was also curiously surveying this place that was incomparably novel in his eyes.

This residence was Duke Cecil’s “castle”, but its style and profile were completely different from the aristocratic forts in the masses’ impression. Instead of calling it a castle, it was closer to the construction style of “vacation manors” that had recently sprung up amongst some aristocrats in the central region. It probably wasn’t as sturdy as a castle, but the environment inside was surprisingly comfortable: broad casement windows, a bright parlor, and warm corridors and rooms. Moreover, the humid and rotten smell often present in castles couldn’t be detected in the air at all. This was something truly astonishing.

The majority of the walls here had been painted a spotless white with bright magic crystal lamps illuminating every corner of this building like they were free —— in fact, it wasn’t solely inside this castle; ever since entering the Cecil territory, the number of magic crystal lamps that Patrick had seen had even exceeded the total number of magic crystal lamps he had ever seen in the earlier half of his life.

The heavens would know how this pioneer territory that was just constructed managed to achieve this —— in just a few months, orderly rows of brick houses had been erected; broad and straight streets were built; piers, sawmills, and logging sheds were all available. And amongst all of these, the most striking thing was the magic crystal lamps that were lit up once it was almost dusk. They’d actually been installed in rows by the two sides of the roads and in front of the doors of the residential houses — not used to illuminate the feudal lord’s residence, but illuminated places where the common people resided.

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Originally, Patrick had felt that the Kant territory allowing half of its residents to light up oil lamps at nightfall was already a remarkable, magnificent feat, but after seeing the Cecil territory that was brightly lit in the night, he actually felt the town he was familiar with instantly become gloomy and dim in comparison.

How wealthy was the Cecil territory? Had they employed tens to hundreds of official Mages to specially charge the lamps in front of the common people’s doors?

Besides, what was with this unbelievable construction speed of theirs? What was with the construction projects that still did not stop in winter? And what was up with those residents who moved freely in the territory, chatted loudly, and did not tremble in fear when they saw soldiers on patrol? What were those huge buildings called factories that emitted loud noises?

It was as if countless mysteries cloaked this territory, but Patrick did not dare to pursue further. He knew the owner of this land, knew the background of that Duke Gawain Cecil —— a legend who went through the Gondor period and the Second Settlement. It was said that he’d also established an agreement with the four elemental lords; he had close relationships with the royals of the elves and the dwarfs. Such a person was almost “non-human” in Patrick’s eyes. Even if he’d borrowed the powers of the elemental lords to build this territory, Patrick found it absolutely unproblematic ——but if he were to have a loose tongue in this aspect as a nobody, the problem would be big.

When Patrick adjusted his tie for the fourth time. That little maidservant who appeared to be muddle-headed walked forward again and filled up the teacup on the round table for the umpteenth time. “Sir, please have tea.”

“Oh, oh. Thank you.” Patrick let out a burp with the sound of water. But he’d learned this time. He only picked up the teacup and took a small sip. —— He already realized that this young lady before him wasn’t intentionally making things difficult for him, nor had she been instructed by the Duke to sound him out. On the contrary, she probably really hadn’t learned from high-ranked maidservants or maidservant supervisors on how to receive guests. She only recklessly filled up the guest’s teacup again and again and then watched the guest drink the tea. However, if the guest was too honest or thought too much —— for example, himself half an hour ago —— there was an extremely high chance of being chugged to death by her through tea.

“May I ask…? Does the Duke know that I’m here?” After putting the teacup down, Patrick gingerly looked at Betty and asked.

She was only a mere maidservant. In terms of status, she could never compare to himself, who was a feudal lord advisor (ex). But only a fool would use such a simple way of comparison —— it was true that this young lady was a maidservant, but she was the Duke’s maidservant!

Then this “Duke’s maidservant” fell into a daze for a few seconds with her finger propping up a chin. After thinking hard for a while, Betty shook her head. “I don’t know!”

Patrick sighed and gave up trying to inquire anything from Betty.

And just then, the doors of the parlor were finally pushed open. A tall and big figure stood there and made Patrick, who’d just finished sighing, leap to his feet on reflex.

“Sorry to have kept you waiting,” Gawain walked into the room while speaking with a smile. “I was inspecting the alchemy factory, and sorting out the samples took up some time. ——Betty, have you served the guest tea?”

Betty lifted the big teapot in her hands. “I have!”

Patrick instinctively burped upon hearing the sound of water in that big teapot…

Gawain was dumbfounded. Why was there an echo with this plump mister’s burp?

But he did not delve into this matter. Instead, he was very gratified by the growth of his little maidservant. After giving the young lady a smile of approval, he looked towards Mr. Patrick who was a little nervous and burped with an echo. “Sir Philip was full of praises for you. When he came back the previous time to report on the situation, he mentioned that you had the finances of the Kant territory well-organized. Not only were the supply of resources for winter guaranteed, you even steadied the merchants who traded with the Kant territory in the situation where the feudal lord had passed away and got them to still do business with the Kant territory in the coming year?”

“I only did my duty.” Patrick nodded reservedly. “I was always in charge of communicating with the chamber of commerce in the territory and giving advice to the feudal lord in this aspect. I’m ashamed to say, although I am skilled in knowledge regarding heraldry, grammar, and etiquette, I invested more effort in money. This… is probably quite disgraceful.”

“It is truly disgraceful only when you’re skilled in dealing with money but don’t dare to admit it.” Gawain smiled. “I got you here today to talk about money matters. I think you already know about this?”

“Ah, yes. I saw your letter. Your territory has entered the stage of having surplus production. Therefore, you wanted to reach trade routes through us?” Patrick nodded. “It is alchemy potions, am I right?”

“That’s right, alchemy potions. But I’ve got to state in advance, the alchemy potions produced and sold by the Cecil territory are probably quite different from what you imagine them to be. I have a brand new trade model, and I need you to help me organize and realize it.”

“‘Brand new trade model’?” Patrick frowned, he didn’t know what Gawain meant. “Are you referring to your commission as a feudal lord?”

“It’s too troublesome to talk about it. It would be better if you read the materials directly,” Gawain said while gesturing for Heidi who followed beside him to hand a fairly thick booklet to Patrick. “This will tell you what the ‘new trade model’ is.”

Patrick took the booklet. However, although he was rather in awe of Gawain, he was quite conceited when it was regarding the field that he was skilled in. He reflected that having dealt with merchants for half his lifetime, he was extremely familiar with the skillset of laying trade routes, transactions, marketing, and storage. Even the most novel trade model wouldn’t be too complicated in his eyes; specially using a booklet to explain it was really making a mountain out of a molehill —— yet he didn’t dare to proclaim it and could only bow respectfully.

“Alright, I will read it now, Lord Duke. You can fully rest assured. I am still quite confident in the business aspects,” he said while catching sight of some keywords on the booklet: chain operations, regional agent, distribution network, split model, and market expansion…

Gawain did not utter a sound; he only quietly watched as Patrick swiftly finished reading that booklet that wasn’t very thick.

Patrick used a few minutes to hastily skim through the first time and then used three times longer to read it the second time.

As he prepared to read the third time, Gawain interrupted him. “Mr. Patrick, what thoughts do you have?”

Patrick rubbed his eyes and looked blankly at Gawain, as if he’d forgotten for a moment that he was in the parlor of the Duke’s residence. His whole mind was filled with those inconceivable terms and specific operational plans. When he realized that it was Duke Gawain calling out to him, he suddenly broke out in a cold sweat. “Yes… yes, Duke! I’ve finished reading, I’ve finished reading!”

“I know you’ve finished reading. I want to know your thoughts.”

“Um… This…” Patrick bowed his head and glanced at the booklet in his hands but suddenly found that he had lost all usable vocabulary. “These ideas are indeed things that I’ve never thought of. They appear to be strange and eccentric… yet also seem feasible? But…”

Mr. Plump repeated his “but” for a long while before he finally inhaled a deep breath. “Alright, I admit it has no problem logically. If it is achieved, then it would swiftly grow to become the business monster of the southern borders —— no independent itinerant merchants, tradesmen, or even district chamber of commerce would be able to counter such a group of merchants that are tightly organized, circulate effectively, move together, and even have a big aristocrat backing them up. But I also want to give an honest comment. These concepts are almost impossible to realize. You demand that everyone under this sale system be under a unified management. The shops at the lowest rungs will be directed by the regional agents, and the regional agents will be directed by the general manager that you appoint. However, there have never been any merchants who’d accepted such constraints. —— Of course, we can rely on monetary interests and contracts to narrowly achieve this, but you also ask that the stores at the lowest rungs get business from civilians, this…”

Patrick spread his hands open. “Alchemy potions aren’t stinky ointments that some village herbalists concocted. Even mercenaries who are slightly poorer may not be able to afford them. How could civilians afford to use them? Even if we were to sell them to civilians, none of them would buy them!”

“You don’t have to worry about this. Since I’ve said that the new alchemy potions can be sold to civilians, I have naturally taken the price into consideration. I can guarantee that they’ll be so cheap that the average civilian will be able to afford them with a grit of their teeth. The local aristocrats can also get such potions for their armies.”

Gawain did not want to exaggerate. He did not promise “alchemy potions that even serfs could afford” —— because this was unrealistic. Not every territory was like the Cecil territory. In most places in this world, the personal assets of serfs were almost zero. Regardless of how cheap Gawain made the alchemy potions, the serfs still wouldn’t be able to afford even a bottle cap. In this aspect, Gawain was currently still powerless.

That he could allow middle-income civilians (or residents) in the other territories to be able to afford alchemy potions was already his biggest goal at present.

With regard to Gawain’s words, Patrick’s first reaction was still to view this plan as impossible. However, when he saw the unwavering expression on the other party’s face, he sensibly kept the thought to himself. Instead, he purely assessed the trade model in the booklet. “Alright, then I want to say, the contents in this are filled with intelligence. —— If what you were selling wasn’t alchemy potions, but grains and cloth, my assessment of it would have been higher. But I have one final question… Do you have this many alchemy potions?”

This “business scholar” spread his hands. “To feed such a sale system, the amount of alchemy potions needed isn’t a small number.”

Gawain smiled and waved a hand at the two servants that’d followed. “Go move those few boxes of samples in here.”

“Few… few boxes?”