Chapter 325 - Black Tail Town

BaleTown has made the most tremendous progress in a time span of 6 months. As mentioned on a previous Chapter, they have a total piled up Budget of of 450,000 Gold Coins. Based on that number, they have the biggest Budget in the triangle of Kingdoms.

They've reached such a large number because they earn barely made any expenses due to King Zar helping them out, lifting them from the ground. And because they either thought of or discovered two amazing business opportunities.

The biggest one, is the Coal Mine business who has currently met a little shift in income and arose to 30,000. Secondly, they thought of a Tailoring Business who brings them 18,000 a month with just 20 employees.

At the start, BaleTown managed to pile up such a big budget because of those sole reasons but also because the monthly expenses are around 4,000 Gold Coins. Fair to speak, the employees weren't paid well.

The small pay was continued for nearly three months by the Guard Commander since he figured that BaleTown would need a lot of gold if they want to stay untouched by the hungry ill.u.s.tratian Alliance. Food and warmth were provided as well, so he figured it unnecessary to raise the salaries too quickly because where would they spend that gold?

Once the third month in business almost ended, Delrus Aze noticed a lot of slacking around. Asking some Guards to tell if they heard anything, the topic immediately became Salaries. That's when the Guard Commander decided to do a pay raise, because regardless of where they want to spend it, the current salaries are just too low.

So for a start, he decided to give a 20 gold coin raise. It felt good enough as it neccesarily equals to a 30% raise here which is indeed great. Most employees became happy about it, and what's better? The total expenses shifted only around 1,600 Gold Coins more. Meaning, 5,670.

We need to take it in to consideration that this still isn't a big pay and at some aspects it is pathetic. But compared to 6 months ago when they just worked for free to unwillingly support the ill.u.s.tratian Alliance, this is heaven even though the salaries haven't reached over 100 Gold Coins yet.

Delrus Aze feels it reasonable to do another pay raise at the end of the month. Because the Zamerians, who before ordered 5 tons of Coal each month for 4 months, have now made a new order asking for 7 tons a month.

Considering 15% of the Coal profits spreading around on different domains, such as 5% towards Pameres Kingdom and 10% towards Gaster Kingdom for the usage of the port, they still will make a stunning 29,750 Gold Coins each month from this little shift on the Coal order.

Considering all expenses, plus the 5% Gustav Iron claims for his investment in this town to begin with, the monthly expenses rise around 10 thousand and the town still remains making a great 37 thousand Gold Coins as a pure profit!

Another reason why Delrus found it a good idea to stretch raising salaries, is because with so many employees bringing profit, it is time to invest on employees that won't bring any profit gold-wise but will bring protection and better living conditions. Such as more Guards and Stonemasons.

Stonemasons are generally a huge problem throughout this set of years because there aren't too many to use and the demand for them is high, especially in Pameres Kingdom. Hiring more apprentices is a good idea, but only when there are enough skilled people to host them. For such a case Delrus would need to consult with King Zar.

...

Mert, Eert and Bert have done great self progress in the past few months. They now can properly read, write and count. These are enough characteristics for one to get a governing job here, so that's what Delrus did.

With the increasing salaries, the town needs official people who count the coins by hand and fill little leather bags with them, so every individual can get their salaries. Delrus trusted the Willson brothers with such a task, since they are tremendously progressive.

They have learned the Alphabet in 1-2 weeks and learned to read without stutter in 2 months, not to mention count up to a thousand. This all happened in a time span of 2 months, it got the whole town in shock and they indeed were valued thanks to their abilities.

Now they are in charge of the treasury, and make sure that everyone gets their salaries in time, they do all the preparations while Gustav Iron just manages the employees and what task they are supposed to take.

They play an important role in this Town, although their task is becoming harder by the passing day due to the salary raises. Counting all day long is indeed hard and requires the toughest concentration.

But at least they are very dependable for such a case, to make it even better they would never dare to steal the treasury although they have a great chance to do so. They wouldn't need too either, being governing officials they now earn a salary above any other, 150 Gold Coins a month.

...

One thing that will most likely develop in to a minor to huge problem the more popular BaleTown gets, is the fact that people will try to rob the treasury brutally if not kindly.

BaleTown has 450 thousand Gold Coins in it, who would not risk a lot to steal it? The Alliance for example, the moment they will find out that BaleTown has a nice coal mine they can use to gain tremendous profit, there would be an Army up here willing to rip every Ignite in two until they reclaim BaleTown.

Thankfully no army came up here to battle, even if they found out officials wouldn't really care since BaleTown isn't the richest domain. If they would consider loosing Guards over some wheat, than they could attack. After all they likely don't know about the Coal Mine yet.

Other dangers BaleTown is exposed too, are groups of bandits or pirates. Bandits for example, just walk around Ignis robbing individual people (Mostly Merchants) on the road, but if they find a domain who has around 60 Guards in total, they might gather forces to conquer it. Especially if they knew how much loot the town is carrying.

Pirates are probably a less possible danger, since the sea is around a hundred Kilometers away from the town. But if they have been monitoring the countless sh.i.p.s coming and going to Zameria, they might track the source back here. Although less common for them to do so, since they consider these domains poor.

All of which these possible encounters are pointing out, is that BaleTown needs a wall surrounding it and of course more Guards. Let us take the wall as the prime example, it wouldn't be impossible to build if they just start a small one which doesn't really give the town much space and lets them do most of their businesses outside of the walls.

For example farming and mining, it would be a economical nightmare to cover up such a landmass and at many aspects it would be unnecessary. Covering just the town on the other hand, might be not so expensive since it requires 200 meters of walls to cover each side and it doesn't have to be circular either.

We can get in to further details about the walls later, but for now let's consider how hard it would be to get their hands on proper Stonemasons. The amount they manage to recruit and the work they can put in neccesarily equals to how long it would take to build a wall.

Pameres Kingdom has hired Stonemasons over and over, meaning they have tens who have at least a few months of experience. They can come in handy, but King Zar is trying to build a second wall that would take years and a hell lot of gold. Bottom line, he can't spare any Stonemasons at the moment.

For such a case, Gustav Iron has a better idea. He knows many ill.u.s.tratios who specialize in Stonemasonry, hopefully they weren't forcefully recruited in the army. Mixing more ill.u.s.tratios here might cause conflict, so he wants to try recruiting Ignites.

In another way, this means that he will have to leave the domain in order to help BaleTown progress. He has to make his way up to the other side of the Continent, surf the Capital and come here with at least 10 Stonemasons if not more.

It might be hard, because if not recruited in the Army, the Grand King of Meridionali Ignis might be paying them a lot more just to keep them there, race regardless. If he manages to recruit more Stonemasons however, it will prove as a Victory ego-wise. Because first this town revolted, now they would be stealing their craftsmen.

As for getting Guards, it isn't really hard considering that it doesn't require any experience and let's people just swing swords, but training them requires extra work since after all they will be responsible for the safety of the prospering town.

Another good idea about recruiting Stonemasons, is to visit this other Ignite ruled town nearly 100 Kilometers away, of whom the ill.u.s.tratian Alliance didn't touch because their main food resource is just fishing and they aren't fishing out enough to make a profit out of them.

By Chance, a Stonemason or two might be isolated there for any reason. Although they don't plan to have great relations with that town, if they somehow can monetize an income there as well, it would neccesarily equal to the triangle of domains turning in to a line of domains or left turn of domains.

Now, two journeys will start. Gustav Iron the respected will be heading with 10 Guards towards the Capital on his motherland and 10 more Guards will be heading towards the town 100 Kilometers away, or better known as Blacktail Town.