The Runesmith

“I don’t think the local populace appreciates me too much…”

A certain silver-haired noble lord gave out a sigh while looking through a window. There he saw some servants moving around as they continued with their work.

“You did great my lord, I’m sure you have reached the hearts of the common folk!”

“Mary, you can drop the honorifics, we aren’t in Isgard anymore, not like anyone really sees me as a proper Valerian…”

The young man waved his wrist around while slumping into a large chair by his desk. After coming to this city he had done some research before doing his inauguration speech. When he thought back to it, the speech might have been a bit too flowery for the people living here.

From how bored they looked he had to reconsider doing any other long speeches ever again. Now that the announcement was done he needed to get informed about the region that he would be managing.

It wasn’t really much land, to begin with, the only points of interest were the growing city and the C rank dungeon that was here. His siblings had also received similar plots of land with other points of interest.

“Lord Arthur, I’m sure that with time they will learn to respect you, you just need to show them that you are on their side and not like the other nobles!”

The cat maid that was with him was one of the few people that he could trust. She was a few years older than him and was raised as a bodyguard. But considering that she was a maid instead of a butler her position had been lowered.

Arthur knew Mary since they were young as she was one of the maids in training when he was growing up. She was the only servant that was willing to go with him. Even now he felt somewhat bad for this turn of events as from his point of view she was getting a bad deal here.

With how skillful she was, Mary could have gotten the position of a head maid at one of the larger estates. Instead, she was stuck with an ‘impure’ member of the family which would probably cause her future prospects to disappear.

“Not like the other nobles? I wouldn’t be so sure about that, Mary. Just like them, I want to use the common people to further my cause.”

He didn’t fool himself into believing that he was any better than the other nobles just because he felt slightly more sympathetic to the plight of the common person. Through his life as an unlawful member of the Valerian line, he had gone through a lot of prejudice from his older siblings.

This was due to his mother being part moon elf. It planted a target on the son that came from this unorthodox match. While his father was proper enough to allow his mother to live a good life, she was nothing more than a bird in a cage. Without any real power to speak of he would not be able to do anything about it. Thus he needed to prove himself, his goal was to aid his mother that was locked away in the mansion just withering away without the freedom to leave.

She was seen as a blemish on the good name of the Valerian household. She was not allowed to attend the noble get-togethers as his father’s wife. She was nothing more than a commoner-born mistress that was not to show herself to others.

His and her existence was not something that his family wanted to admit. The best option for the Valerian household was to keep them at arm’s length. While his mother was locked away in the mansion he was sent away to the far reaches of their territory.

No one really expected much from him or this city. The dungeon here was only a C rank which was somewhat ordinary. There were many such dungeons sprinkled through the entire kingdom, only when it was B rank and above would it pull in interest. A dungeon of such rank could supply tier 3 monsters and tier 3 materials which went for a lot of coins.

“You are right about one thing Mary, if I want respect from them I should probably stop wallowing in self-pity. Have you brought over what I had asked?”

“Yes, here is the current map of the region along with the most important locations.”

“Good.”

Arthur nodded while unrolling the map on the large desk. On it like Mary described were all the sites of interest that were instrumental to this growing city. As he examined the map he began noting down some information into his own notebook.

This was not a simple matter as he needed Mary to bring over the ledger that the Mayor was previously responsible for. The old man apparently didn’t want to part with the book of records but Arthur at least had enough power to make the previous city leader bend the knee.

Through the examination of some of the open records, he could see some of the cash flow that was going through the city.

“The adventurer’s guild is at the center of it all, It’s the most important part of this city's development.”

He realized fast that without the dungeon the city would probably go under quite fast. It didn’t really have any export goods to make any money besides the monster parts that the adventurers were bringing in.

These adventurers also put their hard-earned coins back into the city. Pubs, inns, and brothels were on the rise as the sellswords spent an exorbitant amount of their earnings on alcohol and women.

Without the adventurers, Arthur couldn’t see the city existing as it was. There were some old records pointing that before the dungeon appeared here Albrook was just a dying village with a dwindling population. Now after the dungeon existed here for close to five years it was quite booming.

“I can’t really do much with the Adventurer’s guild, it has its own autonomy, even the King would have trouble making it move…”

While rubbing his chin he decided to put the adventurer guild to the backburner. There was not really much he could do for the guild at this point in time. He might have been the lord of the city but not like he could reduce their taxes.

These were agreed upon by the Duke as the lands belonged to him. Part of the money that was created in these lands would then be put to use for further development of the kingdom.

Each noble needed to relegate resources to the country's war effort. This could be done in several ways, sending troupes, sending food, or just plain money. Some of the nobles that lived in poor regions were forced to send their sons instead if they were not able to pay.

Everyone needed to pitch in, if not they would be in danger of having their noble title revoked and their lands seized by higher-standing nobles. This was also a reason for marriage proposals always going to the nobles with rich lands. A tactical betrothal could save a dying noble house from certain doom.

Arthur was quite a good-looking young man. He was also offered a choice of being married off to a daughter of a rich noble. For the time being, he was still confident in managing the issues by himself but if all failed he might have to sell himself off to gain his mother's freedom.

“What if you offer them some land instead?”

“I don’t think there is any left for me to give…”

While he couldn’t really affect the tax percentage as the lord of the lands he could lend it out. In reality, people that bought houses and land in this kingdom didn’t really own them fully. They were mostly paying a set sum for a timed deal.

While normally even the common people would be able to pass over houses to their children or siblings, there were ways that the kingdom could take back the previously bought parcels. One of the reasons would be not paying taxes on time or committing some kind of crime.

Arthur as the lord could dictate where specific partitions of the land could be sold to. In a developing city like this, the land would be auctioned off to the highest bidder. That is if the lord agreed to it.

He could outright sell it to whoever he wanted to, thus some underhanded dealings could surface. It wasn’t odd for rich merchants to line the pockets of nobles out to get their hands on the best spots for their shops.

The money the nobles gained in such a way would not be taxed as they never showed up on the record. They could also do it in a less underhanded way by giving the nobles gifts of jewelry, various goods or lowered prices to their wares.

“If we need money, why don’t we just increase the taxes a bit?”

Mary asked while Arthur just shook his head. While increasing the taxes would let him take the surplus for himself, it would make the citizens angry. This was still a developing city that was attracting new people.

If the taxes were too high the new citizens would find it hard to sustain themselves in the new environment. When in such a situation it was not rare for the common man to turn to the life of crime, which in the long run might cause them to lose more money.

They would need to invest more into security and would also risk the ire of the merchants. If the city wasn’t safe for the merchants they would just pack up and leave. With fewer people to tax they would need to increase taxes even further which could lead to an even bigger collapse.

“Let us move on, the biggest asset that our family has here is still the auction house.”

While the adventurer guild produced the most money in the city the auction house wasn’t that far behind. The allure of auctioning something off in a bidding war was still quite something very addicting with the people in this kingdom.

Not everyone had time to become a merchant and heckle the prices up or gather the right customer for the best possible offer. Thus auction houses had been created for this purpose in mind. It was a place where the masses gathered, with more eyes on the items the sellers were hopeful of getting a better deal than directly selling them to stores.

This didn’t mean that the auction house was used for low-quality items. The goods were always checked by a person with a high appraisal skill. Only if the item brought in a good profit would it be auctioned off.

“It’s the only real asset that I can use now if I manage to increase the sales…”

The Auction house belonged to the Valerian household, as the new lord, he would be given part of the monthly earnings. With more profits, he would be given some pocket change through which he could slowly build up his power base. By showing that he was making good profits for the family he would show his worth.

“We need to see this auction house, schedule a meeting with whoever is running it, and I will pay them a visit personally.”

While normally the lord would not have to do something like this by themselves, Arthur didn’t trust the people in the city. They probably saw him as an eyesore that could alter the power balance.

“No wait, let us not schedule a meeting.”

“Oh? Want them not to be prepared for your visit?”

“Yes, let us see how they really handle things here.”

Mary nodded while grinding as she had an idea what her lord was thinking about.

“Should I do the usual?”

“Yes, I’ll be counting on you but try not to cause any problems in the city, my reach is very limited.”

The maid chuckled while shrugging.

“Don’t worry lord Arthur, I will be very discreet!”

“Good, while you tend to the problem I’ll have a look through all this paperwork…”

Arthur looked at the pile of record books that he had nabbed from the city hall. There was a lot of information about the dealings happening in the city and he wanted to look through them. He didn’t expect to learn much through them but he needed more information about the biggest factions in the city.

The adventurer guild was something that he couldn’t really touch but the merchants were another thing. He could make life really easy for them or really difficult if he wanted. While the guild could not be replaced the peddlers could. What he needed to see was who was in bed with whom.

Going through the records would probably give him a clue but he didn’t expect everything to be in there. There were various ways of doing business without involving any written down proof.

He didn’t think that any of the merchants would attempt tax evasion as the penalties for that were quite severe. If he actually managed to pin something like that on the rich business owners it would make things a lot easier for him.

“This might take a while.”

Mary asked while moving towards the exit.

“I’ll give you a week, try finding some trustworthy allies if you can.”

“You are a real slave worker, lord Arthur, leaving everything up to a weak young maiden.”

Mary chuckled while opening the door, behind it were the two soldiers that arrived with them.

“Sir Gareth, Sir Morien, I’ll trust the young lord’s safety to you, I’ll send a replacement maid soon.”

The two armored men nodded with their heads as Mary clued them in. They knew that this was not just a simple maid, the way that she walked without making a sound was proof.

As this was happening Roland the city Runesmith was looking through some personally drawn schematics. Next to him was his trustworthy assistant and his large wife that was also a blacksmith.

“Now that’s some metal you got there.”

Dyana commented while looking at one of the Durium ores. They were stacked to the side and created a nice pile of resources that Roland was intending to use.

“Yeah, the current smelter might not last too long but it should be enough to produce the ingots we need…”

While the current runic smelter was created from lesser metals it would be momentarily able to last through the smelting process. What Roland needed was Durasteel to make his new forge. Some of that fire-resistant mythril would also go into the mix.

With its addition to the durasteel alloy, he would be able to make really high-quality tools and equipment. The resistance would allow him to work with higher quality materials without needing to worry about the new forge.

This type of mythril was resistant to fire but even it wouldn’t last forever. The three people in this room had gathered here with the intent of remaining here for multiple days for the melting to occur.

“I hope you ate enough, don’t even think of leaving this workshop before we are done. Don’t forget about the potions, there should be enough for everyone.”

Roland pointed to the stack of fire resistance potions that he bought for this occasion. The workshop was decked out with runes to alleviate the problems but it would get quite toasty in here.

Everyone here was a high-level blacksmith with skills to alleviate heat in one way or another. Even with that accounted for he wasn’t sure if it would be enough to last through the scorching flames.

“Just fire it up sugar but don’t forget that you’ll let me use that fancy forge of yours from now on~”

Dyana replied while grabbing one of the potions from the workbench. Next to her Bernir just smiled while doing the same.

“Okay, let's go then…”