Chapter 77 He just has good luck
A horse carriage left Saltan City and was quickly moving along the road towards Banta City.
There were four people sitting across each other inside the carriage.
Other than Baron Hannas, the other three people were a young man who was a bit younger than Baron Hannas, a beautiful girl who was younger than twenty, and finally a middle aged man who was balding and a bit chunky who looked to be around forty.
After the horse carriage drove on the dirt road outside Saltan City for a while, the young man suddenly patted his butt and said with a sigh, “After this horse carriage changed to that whatever tire, it really is much better than before. If I knew about this earlier, my butt could have been spared all those hard years.”
Baron Hannas laughed, “Kennard, now do you believe what I said? Not mentioning anything else, just with the appearance of this tire, it changed our lives this much. There’s no need to mention all those other Frestech Chamber of Commerce magic machines.”
The young man called Kennard said with a smile, “I’ve never not believed what you said. But now that I’ve experienced a few of those magic machines, I feel that with the appearance of the magic machines, perhaps it can change the entire continent. If I didn’t think like this, why do you think I want to go to Banta City for a look?”
When Baron Hannas was about to speak, the young girl on the side gave a soft snort and said, “I don’t believe that that whatever Xu Yi is that powerful. Big brother, Hannas, you say that him and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce are that great, but why do I feel that my life hasn’t changed at all? What it was like before is how it is now. You keep saying that Xu Yi and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce will change the continent, but I don’t think so.”
Baron Hannas looked at Kennard and they both revealed smiles.
“Beloved Sophia, you really don’t feel that your life has changed?” Baron Hannas asked, “Is the bread you eat still made by hand like before? Is the water you drink now still boiled using firewood? Or to be more direct, does your family not have a single Magic Lamp? If your family’s lives haven’t changed at all, then I can only say that your family has fallen behind and it isn’t related to Xu Yi or the Frestech Chamber of Commerce at all.”
“My family hasn’t fallen behind!” Sophia stomped down and said in a slightly angry voice, “But our family doesn’t need any Magic Bread Maker or Magic Kettles. As for the Magic Lamp…..”
Speaking of the Magic Lamp, Sophia fell silent and couldn’t keep going.
Baron Hannas laughed, “What about the Magic Lamp? Is it that it is so pretty that you’re not willing to say you don’t need it?”
Sophia’s face turned a bit red, “So what if I like how pretty it is? Then again, the Magic Lamp is pretty because of the design of the elves, it isn’t related to Xu Yi.”
“But the appearance of the elves is closely related to Xu Yi. If it wasn’t for him, even if you walked all over our Lampuri Kingdom, you wouldn’t be able to see a single elf.” Baron Hannas added.
“Humph! The elves didn’t disappear, he was just lucky, it isn’t anything special.” Sophia said in an unwilling to submit voice.
Baron Hannas wanted to keep discussing with Sophia when Kennard waved his hand at him with a smile, “Alright, Hannas. If you keep arguing with her, do you believe that you will make her hate Xu Yi?”
“I just don’t like how to keep discussing that fellow in front of me and how you praise him all the time!” Sophia said in a loud unwilling to submit voice, “He just invented a few things because of luck, how could he be that great?”
“Because no one else invented these things and he did, which means that he has abilities that other people don’t have, so he’s great.” Kennard said with a serious face, “Sophia, no matter what you feel about Xu Yi, you have to acknowledge this logic. When other people have abilities that you don’t have, you have to honestly study them and you shouldn’t pick problems with them, understand?”
“I don’t like those ice cold magic machines.” Sophia said with a snort, turning her head to look out the window.
Seeing Sophia’s attitude, Kennard could only helplessly give a sigh and turn back to Baron Hannas and said, “I’ve heard that the ?Banta Times? is the largest newspaper in Banta City and if they were to know that their founder was suddenly coming to Banta City, would the ?Banta Times? do a big report?”
Baron Hannas shook his head with a smile, “How could they? Although I am the founder of the ?Banta Times?, the reason why this newspaper appeared was all because of Xu Yi. Whether it is the creativity of making the newspaper, the required initial funds for setting up the office, or even the Magic Printing Press, it is all related to him. So to be honest, the founder of the ?Banta Times? is not me. Thinking about it now, this fellow instigated me to make the ?Banta Times? and was completely using me.”
“But weren’t you happy being used?” Kennard said.
Baron Hannas said while laughing, “That’s right. Whenever I think of those days, I always feel very happy. So even though I’m very clear on the fact that Xu Yi was just using me, I’m very grateful to him. If it wasn’t for him, I might still be bored at home and feeling that this world is very boring. But now, I’ve found something that I’m willing to offer my entire self to.”
Hearing Baron Hannas’ voice being filled with honest gratitude, even the spiteful Sophia couldn’t help looking over at Baron Hannas’ strange expression and feeling depressed.
Is this Xu Yi really that great? He could actually create such a large change in Hannas’ listful appearance.
Humph! He was just lucky.
Kennard said with a soft sigh, “Hannas, I really envy you. Being able to find something that you’re willing to devote yourself to, I still haven’t thought of what I want to do yet.”
Baron Hannas revealed a faint smile, “Perhaps you’ll be able to find it on his trip to Banta City?”
Kennard shook his head. When he wanted to speak, the carriage trembled and his words were shocked back.
The four people in the carriage knit their brows. They thought the road had changed, but after that, the four of them found that after the initial shock, the rest of the trip was incomparably smooth and they didn’t feel any jolting at all.
The four of them were very curious and Kennard couldn’t help pulling aside the curtains. When he looked out, he found that the scenery outside was flying by, obviously showing that the carriage was moving much faster than before.
The horse carriage became faster, but the road was very smooth, which was a bit strange.
Kennard and Sophia stretched their heads out the window and looked down on the ground under the horse carriage.
The grey flat road kept rolling under the wheels and looking forward, they found that the same grey road stretched all the way to the horizon. There were countless horse carriages that were moving along this road, looking very lively.
“This should be the public road, right?” Kennard pointed at the road under them as he asked Hannas.
“Un, it should be.” Hannas was currently looking out the other window, also looking at the smooth road, “This is my first time seeing it. Xu Yi described this road to me before in his letters, saying how smooth it was, but after seeing it now, I’ve realized that this road is smoother than I imagined.”
“Un, it has far surpassed my expectations.” Kennard said with a nod, “I thought that your ?Anvilmar Times’? report had exaggerated the situation with the road because I didn’t believe that there would be a smooth enough road in this world that would allow a horse carriage to not feel a single jolt. Looking at it now, your report actually didn’t describe it well enough. With this road, traveling conditions will be much better.”
Hannas said with a sigh, “Before seeing this, I also never expected it. You have to know that after this road is finished, it will connect Banta City and Saltan City, which is a long sixty kilometers!”
Kennard looked back in the direction of Saltan City and found that there were people working on the side of the road with unknown machines placed beside them.
“Those should be workers from the Amrit Chamber of Commerce. This road was built with money from the Fersen Carriage Company and the Amrit Chamber of Commerce is building it. It seems like after the Amrit Chamber of Commerce built the Falling Rain Road, their speed has increased quite a bit from their experience. I thought that this road would take more time than the Falling Rain Road, taking at least half a year to finish, but now I think it’ll take less than a month to finish. Taking the total, it should be around three months.” Baron Hannas explained.
“This road isn’t related to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce?” Kennard asked in a surprised voice. 𝙗𝙚𝙙𝙣𝒐𝙫𝙚𝙡.𝙤𝙧𝒈
“It’s not completely unrelated. Look, the magic machines those workers are using to build the road, those were developed by the Frestech Chamber of Commerce. Moreover, the concrete that is used to make this road, the most important parts are the cement and the steel bars used, which are products of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.”
Kennard was even more surprised, “Didn’t the Frestech Chamber of Commerce only make magic machines? They still make these cement and steel bars?”
Baron Hannas pointed down, “Don’t forget, the tires used by this horse carriage are also produced by the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.”
Kennard’s expression became a bit strange, “The Frestech Chamber of Commerce can step in these many industries, can they manage it all?”
“You can just ask Xu Yi when you meet him. At least right now the Frestech Chamber of Commerce can handle it and there hasn’t been a problem yet.” Baron Hannas looked forward and suddenly said with a smile, “Alright, you’ll be able to see a novel thing soon.”
“What novel thing?”
Kennard and Sophia stretched their heads out to look forward and saw a small creek in the road in front of them. There was a large bridge over the creek and beside the bridge, there was a tall gate like building that was blocking the road.
No matter which side of the door it was, there was a long line of horse carriages there that seemed to be waiting for something.
Sophia looked at it and suddenly clapped her hands, “I know, this is the toll booth that many people have complained about, right?”
Chapter 78 Different scenes of Banta City
Even though they were far away from the toll booth, there was still a deep look of disdain and hatred on Sophia’s face.
Kennard and Baron Hannas were happily discussing with each other, not caring about her at all. Rather they were discussing the fact that the toll of fifty silver coins per horse carriage was still rather cheap.
Seeing the two of them ignore her, Sophia finally couldn’t take it anymore and gave a strong snort.
“Humph! Building a road is to make it more convenient for people to travel and he’s actually taking money, it really is too much!” Sophia’s eyes popped out and looked to be filled with righteous indignation, “You were still praising that fellow Xu Yi, but I’ve heard that the idea of the toll booth came from him, right? This person is actually this greedy, he’s completely corrupted!”
Baron Hannas and Kennard looked at each other before they couldn’t help shaking their heads with smiles.
“Sophia, I want to ask you a question. The Fersen Carriage Company invested a total of over four hundred thousand gold coins into building this road. If they didn’t take tolls, how do you think they would earn back this investment?” Baron Hannas asked.
“Why do they have to earn it back?” Sophia loudly said, “Since the road is something that is good for so many people, everyone should be rushing to do it. Since the Fersen Carriage Company is willing to pay to build this road, many people will thank them for it and praise them for their good deed. Why do they need to build this toll booth and be cursed by so many people?”
Kennard gave a sigh and shook his head as he said, “Sophia, you’ll be eighteen soon and you’re no longer a young girl. Can you still think like a child from now on? Even if what you said is correct about how if the Fersen Carriage Company didn’t build this toll booth, they would be doing a great thing and would be praised by many people, can you ask all the companies in the kingdom to be this selfless? This clearly isn’t something that is realistic. If everyone didn’t discover the benefits of building roads, how many companies do you think would be willing to pay for this thing?”
Although Sophia didn’t really understand worldly matters, she wasn’t a fool. Of course she understood what Kennard meant, but she was still a bit unwilling.
“Four hundred thousand isn’t considered much for those large companies, isn’t it good for them to build roads for everyone to use for free? Their company’s fame will become better and their business will be better.”
“No one’s money came from falling out of the sky, based on what are you requesting others to selflessly make such a contribution?” Kennnard said, “Other than that, four hundred thousand definitely is not a small amount. Even if the Fersen Carriage Company is a pretty good company in our kingdom, it would take quite a bit of courage for them to take out that much to make a road. Speaking of this, the Fersen Carriage Company’s chairman is quite bold, actually choosing to build a road at the same time as the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.”
“Un, Xu Yi has praised chairman Pompeii in his letters to me. He said that although this person is easily shocked, his eyes are indeed worthy of praise.” Baron Hannas said with a nod. He turned to Sophia and said, “Sophia, you said that many people were cursing the toll booths, but do you know that the one who should be taking the infamy is our noble king and not the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and the Fersen Carriage Company?”
Sophia was stunned, “How is this related to his majesty? It’s not the majesty that had them take tolls.”
“You’re right. To be honest, his majesty really did make them take tolls.” Kennard took over and said, “This is because in building the roads and improving the travel conditions of citizens is something a ruler should do, but our kingdom’s finances is lacking and his majesty can’t take out any money to build roads with. At this time, Xu Yi could give such a perfect method to solve this problem. To be honest, I really do admire him.”
“He just wants to rely on this thing to earn money, what is there to admire!” Sophia immediately disagreed.
“If he is just doing this to earn money, he wouldn’t just charge a trivial fifty silver coins per horse carriage. If it was me, it would be very likely that it would be several times higher. This is because after the pleasant sensation of traveling on these roads, I think no one will be willing to travel on those broken gravel roads again.” Kennard said, “Sophia, don’t you agree?”
Although Sophia really wanted to refute it, as they were traveling on this road without any jolts to her butt, it was countless times better than traveling on the gravel roads. She didn’t have the conscience to refute this.
Seeing that Sophia had nothing to say, Kennard smiled and didn’t force her to admit her mistakes. He turned to the middle aged man who had been sitting there without making a sound and said, “Uncle Hank, after we return to Anvilmar City, you have to advise father that we should also build several roads. I dare to guarantee that we will be able to earn quite a bit of money on these roads.”
The middle aged man nodded with a smile, “I had the same thought. After personally experiencing the comfort of these roads, I have a very good view of the road’s future prospects. I even feel that if nothing unexpected happens, in just a few years, our Lampuri Kingdom will be linked up by these roads.”
“If it really is like this, that would be great.” Kennard said in an emotional voice, “If the roads can become like this, I can imagine that when kingdom is connected by roads, the roads will have countless horse carriages traveling back and forth. The kingdom will become lively when the time comes.”
Hearing Kennard, Baron Hannas, and uncle Hank begin discussing business, Sophia suddenly felt very bored. She pursed her lips and leaned out the window, looking at the scenery outside.
At this time, she once again felt the benefits of the road.
If it was the same bumpy gravel road from before, if she dared to stick her head out of the window like this, not mentioning the fact that she would be very dizzy, she might even bite off her tongue from the shaking.
But now that she leaned out like this, even though she felt the faint shaking from the glass, it didn’t affect her at all.
Traveling on this smooth road, the horse carriage naturally traveled much faster.
Not long after, Sophia saw a large sign at the side of the road. It was completely blue in colour and there were two rows of letters written on it.
Welcome to Banta City.
We wish you a wonderful time.
Sophia was a bit surprised.
They had come from Anvilmar and passed several cities, but this was the first city that they saw this kind of sign by the road.
This sign was this eye-catching, it was hard for people to ignore.
Just based on this, Sophia felt a bit better about this Banta City that she had never visited before.
When the horse carriage entered the vicinity of Banta City, there were changes in the scenery around the road.
When they were still in range of Saltan City, although there were farmlands by the side of the road, there was still quite a bit of desolate land.
Although it was better than the other cities that Sophia saw where there was only desolate land, when compared to Banta City, it was quite lacking.
The horse carriage walked past the blue sign and they were welcomed by a large bright patch of yellow.
Looking over it, the sides of the roads were covered in wheat.
Because it was close to the fall harvest, the wheat had produced their wide ears and it covered the farmland completely, not leaving a single gap.
Sophia was greatly shocked.
When she was still at the Lampuri Royal Academy, she had taken some political and agricultural classes. She knew that the Lampuri had a lack of people, so there was a lack of people available for farming, causing most of the fertile land to be desolate.
But at this Banta City that was clearly on the edge of the Lampuri Kingdom, a tried and true small city, it could open up all the farming land under its name and show her such a rich harvest.
Sophia at first thought that this was a special example, but as the horse carriage continued heading towards Banta City, she found that the farmland on the sides of the road didn’t change at all. It looked all the same in the distance, like every place in Banta City that could be open was filled with wheat.
“So much wheat, can they even harvest it all?” Sophia couldn’t help muttering to herself.
“How could they not harvest it all?” Baron Hannas said with a smile, “Don’t forget that Banta City is the base of the Frestefch Chamber of Commerce and the agricultural magic machines have become popularized here. Not mentioning Banta City’s farms, I’ve heard Xu Yi mention that some farmers in Banta City have formed small harvest companies and they’re planning to help other people harvest in the surrounding cities.”
“It’s the Frestech Chamber of Commerce again…..” Sophia muttered. She turned back to look out the window and she was so angry that she ignored Baron Hannas.
But as soon as she looked out the window, she saw that there was a bigger sign by the side of the road in front of them.
And on this giant sign, there was peerless beauty on it with bright eyes and shining teeth.
This beauty had a pearl necklace with pearls of the same size on her neck and there were two bright glowing amethyst earrings on her ears.
Although the necklace and earring looked very refined, being able to tell that it was precious jewelry with a single glance, they didn’t cover the beauty’s glow at all.
It could even be said that these two pieces of jewelry only shined this brightly because they were on this beauty’s neck and ears.
“What is that?” Sophia couldn’t help pointing at the large sign in surprise as she asked this.
Baron Hannas stuck his head out beside Sophia and took a look before revealing a bit of a confused expression.
“Sarank Jewelry, it will make women shine even brighter? Strange, young miss Still is actually not doing advertisement for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and is doing one for the Sarank Chamber of Commerce instead. What is going on?”
“Young miss Still? Is she the beautiful girl in the picture?” Sophia asked in a curious voice.
“Right, is she beautiful?” Baron Hannas asked.
Sophia looked at the approaching sign and couldn’t help nodding, “Un, she’s truly beautiful. How great it would be if I could be this beautiful. But Hannas, this is a picture, is there really such a person who is this beautiful?”
“No, I can guarantee that young miss Still is even more beautiful in person.” Baron Hannas looked at the disbelieving Sophia and he revealed a teasing smile, “I can also tell you something else about young miss Still.”
“What is it?”
“Young miss Still is currently Xu Yi’s girlfriend.”
Sophia showed a wonderful expression on her face.