Chapter 48
Chapter 51: Operation ‘Move' 1
After making a thorough and detailed relocation plan with the party of Reina, Luke returned to the Estate.
As soon as he returned, he had given the 30,000 pesos out of the 210,000 pesos to Philip.
Philip immediately set off for Lamer.
It was because they had decided to meet the princess there.
After sending Philip, he headed to the underground workshop in his castle.
He wondered how many minerals have been gathered.
His eyes s.h.i.+ned when he saw minerals piled up like small hills in his workshop.
The golems and the monsters were still mining minerals in the three mines, and every time the teleport magic circle flashed, the minerals would come in.
"Oh! They seem to be working pretty hard."
Luke decided to provide plenty of food to the monsters when he met them.
"Should I start with gold or silver? It takes a lot of money to accept refugees and develop the land."
Luke summoned a golem and stowed the minerals from the workshop into the blast furnace.
The blast furnace was engraved with a magic circle that would give out high-temperature flames.
So, with enough mana, it was possible to smelt any metal without adding any other materials necessary for the smelting, such as coal.
"Let's see, the temperature to melt silver is lower than that of gold?"
Luke tried the melting temperature of the metal and triggered the blast furnace magic circle.
Hwarrr!
A huge fire broke out in the blast furnace, and after a while, the silver turned into liquid and flowed into the hole below it.
The silver flowed out and cooled in a rectangular frame, and it later transformed into a silver ingot.
"Okay, let's make gold this time."
Luke melted the gold mineral by raising the temperature of the furnace by a bit.
As time went by, gold and silver bars piled up in front of Luke in the form of a pyramid.
Luke grinned while holding a gold ingot in his hand.
"Huhuuuh, at this rate, not only the refugees' migration funds but also the development funds for the land won't be a problem."
However, Luke suddenly became confused.
"How am I supposed to use them?"
The golds and silvers of the current day would be worth thousands of Pesos.
They could be useful for the princess and the trailer, but the problem was that the sources of the funds couldn't be revealed.
‘There's nothing in here that would make the others believe…'
Luke pondered on what he had to do. Suddenly, he clapped his hands upon having a good thought.
"Right! I can do that!"
With a bright look, he went to the underground lab and began to search for boxes and samples with appropriate size.
After hearing from Rogers about what had happened in Brandon, Rakan's retainers went crazy.
"I don't get it. Does the young Lord really have no thought!"
"Because of his age the young Lord was swayed with the thought, but Sir Rogers shouldn't have been swayed!"
"This is huge. Count Monarch won't stay still. What do we do now?"
"What needs to be done! We are totally ruined now!"
For a while, the meeting room was cluttered with everyone's thoughts.
As the turmoil subsided, Dixon—the person in charge of finance—asked Hans, who was the head of the retainers.
Hans had been listening to the others with a firm face.
"Sir Butler, what are your thoughts on the young Lord's action?"
"Nothing."
Dixon looked puzzled upon hearing the unexpected answer.
"Do you think that the Rakan Estate will be in flames because of the young Lord's actions?"
"We are going to fight to the death with the Count Monarch anyway. It was likely that the Count Monarch had something to do with the Gigant accident that happened two months ago."
Hans wasn't able to say it as he didn't have any clear clue. However, he was 99% convinced that the Count was behind it.
The Rakan estate was almost alone in the entire Empire. However, there was the Count Monarch with whom the estate had a bad relations.h.i.+p with.
In addition, recent information gathered suggested that the Count Monarch wanted to swallow the Rakan Viscount.
Hans had heard it from the west side of the Empire. At those words, all the servants burst into anger.
"No way, is that true?"
"That greedy pig!"
Their anger soared like an active volcano, and it soared higher upon hearing what Rogers said.
"I wasn't so sure about it, so I tried to not say it, but this time, we met with an a.s.sa.s.sination attempt by a group dressed as peddlers on our way to buy a Gigant."
"Oh my!?"
"The fact that they had Gigants, and some of the a.s.sa.s.sins were knights, it is likely that they belonged to the Monarch. It's certain that he is eyeing this land."
"Kuuu! That dirty b.a.s.t.a.r.d!"
That moment, no one blamed the young Lord for his decision.
The same applied to Hans. He tried to cope with the situation as calm as he could.
"If so, then it is most likely that the Count Monarch would seek our young Lord once again."
"He has failed in one a.s.sa.s.sination attempt. The next one might be a territorial war."
Territory war wasn't possible to be done at any time.
In order to declare war, one must have a justification and permission from the Imperial Council.
However, if one was a large n.o.ble like the Count Monarch with contacts, they could bring up a plausible cause and get the permission they wanted, specifically because they were related to the Imperial family.
"The war cannot be avoided, so we shouldn't be getting more refugees."
Dixon nodded at the words of one retainer.
"I agree. It would cost a lot of money to feed thousands of them. Would we be able to spend money on them when we need to prepare for war?"
It was the truth that the land was in need of more people than it currently had.
But in the face of crisis, there would be serious problems if they accept tens of thousands of refugees at a time when they had no funds.
"The refugees will turn into mobs if their basic needs aren't solved. We will collapse before we even reach the fight with the Count Monarch."
As Dixon's words seemed right, anxiety rushed over the faces of the retainers once again.
"You wouldn't be objecting to taking in refugees if the problem with money is solved, right?"
"Of course, since we need a larger population for the estate to survive. However, we only have enough to get by…"
At one time they heard that the young Lord was in possession of more than 100,000 pesos.
However, they were later informed that the funds were used to prepare for the construction of a Magic Tower, and the rest of the money was spent to buy the new Gigant.
"I wish the money was spent on the estate."
"I'll grant you that wis.h.!.+"
The doors of the room opened as if he was waiting for Dixon to end his words. Luke went in.
Walking toward the center of the room, he dropped something on them.
"That… That…!"
"That… isn't that gold?"
The rectangular objects placed on the table s.h.i.+ned brightly.
The retainers were looking at the objects with eyes wide opened.
Even though the gold's size wasn't that huge, it looked like they would be around 10 kilograms.
"Where did all of this came from?"
Dixon's eyes went wide.
It was common knowledge that gold bars of that size would only be found in the Imperial banks and in the vaults of the royal families.
"Where it came from is not important. Can you really do what you said?"
"Yes, of course."
"You guys too?"
"Ye, yes."
All the retainers nodded their heads, and Luke took them to the Devil's castle.
"Young Lord, why are we near the Devil's…?"
"Do you guys remember when I bought the building materials from the Hades Co. the other day?"
"Yes, you thought that the Devil King's Castle was too old and thought of repairing it."
"That is true. I was looking around to see what needs repairing when I found a strange a box in the ground beneath the fallen wall."
"A box?"
"Yes, I don't know why, but I wanted to open the box. When I did, it was a box of gold and silver bars."
"Ugh!"
He wasn't sure how big the box was, but Dixon thought that it would cost at least tens of thousands of pesos.
The gold bar that the young Lord had shown them was over 3,000 pesos.
"Quickly, show it to us quickly, young Lord."
At the urge from Dixon, Luke took them behind the castle.
There was a half-finished wall and the ground beneath it was dug.
"Where is the box?"
"It is hidden here."
Luke brought a big, heavy box from one side.
The antique box was filled with gold ingots and silver bars that looked just like the gold Luke had shown earlier.
"Oh, oh my G.o.d!"
"Finance officer, how much will this be?"
One of the retainers looked into the box and wondered.
Dixon replied with a trembling voice.
"I think it will be at least 100,000 pesos."
"… 100,000 pesos!"
Their surprise didn't end there.
Luke smirked and said,
"Three boxes are buried."
"Huuu!?"
300,000 pesos was close to three years of Rakan estate's budget.
And it was buried in the ground!
"Who could have…?"
"Who? The Devil King Saymon might have secretly buried it for his military money?"
The box was marked with the golem legion's crest that was used by Saymon.
And the box, with gold and silver in it, had traces of soil that looked like it was buried for many years along with mold and rust.
Perhaps Saymon had buried it for himself or his family for later use.
However, that wasn't possible because he had died in the hands of Rakan.
The retainers believed the words of Luke very strongly.
The Rakan's smiled.
Honestly, the gold and silver bars were made in the workshop the other day, and the boxes were taken out of the workshop and rusted.
The mold was made using the sample from the lab.
"Can we use this?"
"Isn't it natural for a winner to loot the losers? And from the standpoint of the Estates, it is our time to take over!"
At the question from a retainer, Dixon explained.
"You, you think so? But what if it had the curse of the Devil…?"
"Shut up! Then we will overcome the curse! Things we don't know are scary!"
There was a proverb that gold changes people.
It meant that man would surely fall for material things, and Dixon just changed sides from one to another.
He was dying inside every day because of the financial crisis in their estate, and now, he was overflowing with courage like a warrior.
"Not just the Devil, even if the devil's grandfather comes, I won't give this back. This here is now the Rakan's!"
‘This guy here has a harsh side!'
The warlock, formerly called as the Devil, admired Dixon.
At any rate, the discovery of military funds hidden by the Devil in the past made the retainers accept the refugees.
And even though Luke didn't ask them to, the retainers began to accept them.
The plan, of course, was to be more in line with what he talked about with Reina.