Chapter 57: The Aristocracy and The Duel

On the way out of the Commerce Guild to the Adventurer’s Guild, I suddenly wondered about what happened to coke.

It was not that long since we started making it, and it was natural that the patent fee had not arrived yet, but I’d like to see the situation.

It was still a few hours until the evening, so I decided to check it out.

There was no need to rush it.

I observed the scenery while flying over the road to Herrera.

But it was hard to observe the whole scenery since I flew at a tremendous speed.

It took about a week when I arrived, but at the current speed, it took at most 3 hours.

It was a lot longer than going to Decibator, but based on the current time, I shall arrive around the evening.

After flying for about 20 minutes, I saw a field at the end of the road.

I didn’t notice it when I first came here. Like sugarcane, it could be related to monsters.

Anyway, I could see Herrera in about 2 hours.

Entering the city from the sky was a great shortcut instead of going down the mountain when I first came here.

However, as I tried to enter from the sky, I remembered the gatekeeper and hurriedly returned to the gate.

When I landed in front of the gate, the gatekeeper looked astonished.

It could be a problem if people were constantly surprised by the appearance of people coming from the sky.

Even if I approached him with the Guild card, the wariness would not go easily away.

There was no choice but to call him out from here and try to reason with him.

「Hey, gatekeeper. I’m here for work, yeah work.」

「Ah, yes…Okay, you can go. Was it Flying Magic or something? 」

「Yes, it’s just Flying Magic. 」

「…I see. But I wouldn’t describe it as “just”.」

After saying that, I quickly passed through the gate and headed for the charcoal shop.

I thought the gatekeeper was saying something to me, but it didn’t matter since I didn’t want to waste any time.

Compared to when I left the city before, things remained largely the same. Therefore, it was useless to waste time with small things.

The only thing that had changed was the proportion of bluish weapons displayed in the weapon stores. They had increased significantly, and the city had become livelier.

In particular, the weapons were swords with a color between silver and blue.

The same was true for armors, which were similar to the swords, except that the number of armors was less than that of the swords.

Were there a large number of monsters that allowed them to take a large amount of iron, such as Metal Lizards?

Thinking about that, I arrived at the charcoal shop.

I arrived exactly where the charcoal shop was, but the charcoal shop had changed.

Or rather, there was no charcoal shop.

The charcoal shop’s building had been demolished and it seemed that something new and huge was being built instead.

Stones and other building materials were piled up on a huge site that seemed to belong to the former section.

Did the charcoal shop collapse?

I wondered what to do, and when I looked around, I found a small sign made of wood.

It said, “Those with business with the coal mine please contact the Coal Mining Association.”

It seemed that both the coal mine and the Coal Mining Association were safe.

When I went to the place where the Coal Mining Association was located, the situation was also very different from before.

It was much livelier than it used to be, and smoke was rising from a building in the back, which wasn’t there before.

While looking at it, a cart loaded with coke came out from the back and quickly left.

Coke seemed to be useful after all.

In spite of that, it seemed to be pushed by that blue iron.

I showed my Guild card at the counter near the entrance and asked for Ginta-san.

While I sat in a good quality chair at the place I was guided to, Ginta-san came out later in about 5 minutes.

「It’s been a long time. About coke, are you making money? 」

「It’s a big profit. Now that the equipment has been set up, the sales that we usually make in three months we are making in one week.」

「Is that so? I feel that the amount of iron I see is small for that, but does that mean that you sell it to other cities? 」

「Iron? What are you talking about? 」

「Eh? 」

「Speaking of which, I think that you don’t know about it yet. It was found that using coke can refine Mithril much cheaper than before. Coke raises the price and uses all of it for Mithril refining. I decided to raise the price without permission, because it changed so much in a single week. That’s why I couldn’t wait for you Kaede. 」

Then, was that blue metal Mithril?

Speaking of Mithril, I decided to use it on the ship. And there was a lot of Mithril here so unexpectedly?

「There is no problem with raising the price. You can do whatever you think it is right. By the way, I heard that Mithril refining is easy, but where do you bring Mithril ore?」

「Even if you bring it, if you throw a stone, it will hit Mithril ore. It is rare that there is almost no availability in Mithril ore.」

Eh, then why did I saw many Mithril here?

「But it wasn’t made that much until now, right? 」

I rarely saw those bluish swords before.

「The previous refining method cost a lot of money, so only the ultra-high-grade parts of Mithril ore are known to be produced in a way that resembles refining by investing a lot of money.」

It was no wonder that it was refined in such a way.

「Is that so? By the way, are there any talks from other cities about using coke manufacturing technology?」

「Yes, there are a lot of people coming. I have not decided yet, but there are two or more companies from one city coming to negotiate.」

「I’m glad, but it seems troublesome…Why not let them compete? 」

It would be profitable for us whichever wins.

「No, if the competition overheats, there is a high possibility that some people will do bad things. If one of them collapses, the technical fee will not be paid.」

「In other words, you want to narrow down to only one. 」

「No, after all, coal is needed to make coke, so at the moment we decided to provide technology only to organizations that own their own coal mines.」

Ah, it certainly seemed that unnecessary conflicts such as coal competition were to be avoided to some extent.

「I think it’s good. It’s only a matter of time before the capital investment is completed and the patent fee comes to me. Is there any other problem?」

「The Basis Kingdom will take on the role of mediator to sell this technology to foreign countries free of charge.」

「Are you talking about this country? Are you planning to use a diplomatic card? 」

「That’s right, because it’s an extremely useful technology against monsters. But there is one bad side of the story. 」

I wondered what kind of bad side it was.

「The Lord’s son… 」

The story was that the eldest son of the Lord noticed how the profitable Coal Mining Association was and tried to raise taxes.

Originally, such mining relations were indispensable to counter monsters, so the taxes had been reduced considerably.

It seemed that the eldest son of the Lord did not like it, so he tried to bring more taxes.

The Lord and his second son were decent people, but the Lord was currently staying in the royal capital and would not return for about a month. The second son had less power than his eldest brother, so he couldn’t stop it.

It felt unfair and stupid. What was the Lord’s son thinking about going against what the country had decided without the consent of his parents?

I was sure that his head lacked common sense.

「Okay, I’ll crush his head. I can hit him with a sniper shot with my Pressure Magic from a long distance.」

「Wait, wait. 」

Even if I left it alone, he wouldn’t change his tyrannical methods.

The heir of the Lord of the city, which was the foundation of coke-related business, was someone whose business I could not do with a peace of mind.

He was like a bandit, so I just had to erase him.

「Why can’t I do it? 」

「No matter how much of a bad person he is, if the Lord’s eldest son is assassinated, it will be regarded as a big incident. You’ll be labeled as a bandit. 」

Hmm, was that so?

Then, assassination was a no go. I just had to do it openly. (EN: Wha..what the hell Kaede?)

I felt that there was a system called duel in this world.

I wouldn’t be regarded as a bandit if I took part in a duel.

「Okay, leave it to me. I’ll fight him in a duel. 」

「I don’t think it’s possible. He has been trained as a knight, but only to some extent, and even if you include the expensive equipment, his rank will be D at most. On top of that, there is no way that he will receive a challenge for a duel from a person from a higher rank.」

I see. No, I was careless. And it was a good thing.

I inadvertently forgot to move up the ranks in the Photoren’s Guild.

In other words, I was still an E-rank now.

「What do you think my current rank is? 」

「All of a sudden? Isn’t it about C or B? 」

「No, it’s actually E. 」

「What…did you say…? 」

With this feeling, I decided to challenge the Lord’s son, who was named Radomkos, to a duel.

It could be possible with my current rank, so I could ask people who knew my true abilities to not spill the beans. I had a strategy for this.

Tomorrow noon, the eldest son would probably go through the square to tell them to pay taxes.

In the morning at the plaza, many people would talk about small things before work, and of course, there would be a lot of people.

While insisting that I was from the E-rank, I would challenge him to the duel.

Radomkos seemed to be proud, so if he was challenged to a duel by an E-rank in front of the public, it would be unlikely that he would refuse.

Once he accepted it, all I had to do was beat Radomkos in a way that would be humiliating.

Radomkos seemed to have a bad reputation with the people of the city too.

I shall reward him properly after becoming my enemy.

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Ohhh Kaede is angry now 😀

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