Chapter 317 - Where has the Grand King fallen to?

One thing that has struck Crutal Kingdom at a bad term, is the lack of gold the Kingdom faced thanks to the Castle exploding. The entire royal treasury is gone, which was used to pay employees and enhance on new business opportunities.

You would ask how much gold was lost in that explosion, well considering the expenses made to crumble the Snow Ignite Revolution in to dust which took about 30 million Gold Coins from the budget here in the Grand Capital, yes 30 million!

About 100 million Gold Coins remained in the royal treasury but got blown in to bits! You would ask how a little Kingdom carrying only 3,000 inhabitants, would attain so much fortune comparable with a Doman who has 100,000 people living in it.

I would ask that question as well! The 10% pure income became the Kingdom's greatest upper advantage. Because when piled up, this profit equaled 300,000 Gold Coins each month. At least that was the profit before all of the Snow Ignite trouble they've experienced.

This income aided them to achieve one key goal, the Grand King had the capability to make big business risks. Such as hiring 100-500 people in one craft all at the same time. Usually, domains of the same population would hire 1/10 of his amount considering the risk it would be on a budget.

The biggest investment he made, was to convince hundreds of farmers to work on the fields. The best part here, he didn't pay them anything but took a risk of wasting a year's around of harvest here in this domain only.

Considering the fact that the King offered of the highly unusual, which was to keep half of the harvest to either sell it or keep it. Hundreds of farmers be it Ignite or ill.u.s.tratios applied to claim a farm land. At the end of the harvest, the royal treasury recieved a crop profit of 1,000,000 Gold Coins.

Half of it was sold instantly to domains in Ratan, who you guessed it. Thanks to the different economy, sold the crops at a more expensive price there or aided other affairs of power perhaps? Whatever it might be, the domains of Ratan bought it all and asked for more.

But he didn't sell the rest, the rest of the crops were sold here in this domain. And some were sent to the motherland with a price of course, it is the best way to earn more and keep the Alliance strong. Month to month after, the crops alone provided around 40,000 Gold Coins.

It still remains a great investment, and it is the second purest kind because he didn't have to spend a dime over it. In that same process he invested a lot of gold coins on other crafts, Blacksmithery bringing the most.

Investing on this and investing on that, the average monthly profit in this domain alone equaled 500,000 Gold Coins. Of course there are a lot more investments he made that might have eaten more gold than it gave, but 100 million still remained in the Royal Treasury.

Now? All of that gold along with all of those crops which could at least help tame this wild economical nightmare, is gone. And the Kingdom is chest deep in debt, yes debt! You would be surprised how a grand King would be in debt here, well listen to this little order between him and some Guards in the next day.

"You are to go at the Grand King of Meridionali Ignis and demand 100,000 Gold Coins from him alone and 200,000 more from the closest domains there all together, not each." What the Grand King is making clear here, is that he is ordering for a pay of 300,000 Gold Coins.

But this isn't something he wouldn't want to pay back, the last thing he would need now is to make a move as stupid as this. The entire Alliance is weaker than it ever was thanks to the Snow Ignites, in every aspect you can consider.

Let's remember that the Crutal Kingdom had to throw 30 million in this war because the Kingdom's couldn't afford everything. Grabbing 300k would be greedy and in all ways a stupid move, people could even starve and cause a even bigger population drop.

So he assured they remember, "Tell the Grand King there, that this pay is only a debt. Explain to him our sensitive situation, and tell him that they can hold back the 10% they are supposed to send here each month until every gold coin of the debt is paid."

Speaking of debt, the Kingdom has been forced to take on even more desperate measures. Do you remember that half of the crops each farmer can keep for himself, what was left there was taken under the order of the King with saying no not being an option.

But even with his status, it would be a stupid idea to take everything like that since it would cut the farmer count almost completely next year. Even though these crops are old, from people who didn't manage to sell them, he offered those farmers 25% more than they would usually pay for it.

Now, it is just a debt considering that there is no budget to use. Unlucky enough, the Castle exploded a day after the 10% profit from each Kingdom of the Alliance arrived. When all combined these thirty tons of Wheat Grain mostly, cost 20,000 with the promised 25% more included.

What position did the Grand King fall too? One man was all it took to strip him out of powers, put him 320,000 Gold Coins in debt and made him demand left over crops from Farmers. Due to the sudden deaths, a few tons were just "Confiscated".

Now Crutal Kingdom has no imported Guards which is a large downgrade, although it used to have 1,000 before. It only has 2,000 residents even though it used to have 3,000 before (Imported Guards excluded.).

Another thing which will give a stain to this domain, is the fact that last month's salaries and this month's salaries have been cancelled! There is no gold to pay the salaries with, and considering all the people Xakro hired, it isn't exactly a small sum to pay.

There are 1,300 people under the employment of the Crutal Castle, or at least now we can describe them better under the Kingdom's employment. 600 of them are Guards and Guard Commanders, and the rest are Hunters, Blacksmiths, etc etc!

When all these employees are counted, the Castle would have required to pay 294,000 Gold Coins even though the highest salary is 300 Gold Coins. When divided by the total sum, the Average salary sums up 226 Gold Coins. Big pay, it is noticeable!

This is the amount they have to pay now that the total population is 2,000 people. When there were more people the monthly expenses were almost double the size, but so was the profit.

Now, they can't even earn an estimated 15,000 from the monthly house to house taxes. Here, either if people have a job or not they are supposed to pay tax. But considering that there are no salaries, the Kingdom can't claim tax.

The only bit of profit they have at the moment, is the lumber they sent all the way down to Meridionali Ignis to sell. Luckily the Lumber Storage rooms weren't damaged and the Kingdom could afford selling them at a mass amount while putting all the Lumberjacks in to an around the clock work.

The Kingdom received 10 thousand Gold Coins in this investment, obviously it isn't even enough to pay the miners. The fact that sh.i.p.s travel three times as fast as a Horse, the Kingdom managed to attain the Gold within one month.

There are 100 Blacksmiths still under employment, luckily they didn't face a bad fate. There is a order for full body armour from the closest domain of Ratan, the Continent a 1,800 Kilometers behind the high mountains of Ignis.

With a month's of work, the Blacksmiths will be able to bring 120,000 Gold Coins here in Crutal Kingdom but it obviously isn't enough and the pay will in no way arrive under 2 months. We are talking about sending a shipment while avoiding the ice behind the high mountains.

The port in Ratan, is completely covered by the aftermath of the Ice Age. The ice still didn't fade away and the only reason why a port was built there, is to carry out business transactions with Ignis easier. Otherwise why would anyone build a domain in ice and snow instead of going where precious green farm lands can be found?

The good thing is, this request of body armour will become even more ongoing since the Kingdom can only provide 400 full sets of body armour, there only are 100 Blacksmiths now after all. This doesn't even fulfill half of the order, but they won't break any relations because of it. It would be like kissing a business bringing 60% profit goodbye.

The point here is, after two months this economical nightmare will be a lot easier to handle thanks to the monthly income of 120,000 Gold Coins. Last month the armour order was put on hold so Iron armoury can be sent at the Grand Kingdom at the motherland.

One thing that will tremendously save them here, is the 14 hours of daily sun in this blessed continent. Odd enough, even though the high mountains of Ignis have an average year around temperature of -40°, here in the low lands it is the other way around!

The heat at summer can go up to 40°C and the day when spring hits, the sun stays up in the sky for 12 hours and stretches for 14 hours at summer. The great advantage here is that crops such a wheat, require 1-2 months less to grow. The planting seasons here for wheat are inverted, people can plant at summer as well and it is how most here do it.