Free Web NovelChapter 287: Blabbermouth
Victoria was quite taken aback, as this response was very different from what she had been expecting.
When Lucas had asked her to resign from her position as Viscount and sign a work contract with him, she had originally believed he just wanted to keep her close in order to monitor her, and the best way to do that would be to make her a personal maid of some sort.
Even if moving to the South-East Province meant Victoria would drop a rank to become a Baron, there was still no comparison between being the head of the noble house and being the servant of a boy.
This kind of massive demotion, along with having to abandon her family name, were the two main reasons Victoria was so infuriated, but it now seemed she had jumped to conclusions.
Lucas didn’t want her to be a decorative piece by his side, he wanted to use her talents as some kind of manager.
To Victoria, this would still be a huge drop in status, but it was at least a bit less humiliating compared to what she had been imagining.
Make no mistake, Victoria still felt extremely reluctant to accept this offer, but knowing it was more a threat than a friendly request, she decided to at least try to learn a bit more before making her decision, "Can you tell me exactly what you are planning to have me manage?"
Pursing his lips, Lucas thought about it for a moment and realized that without giving this woman enough incentives, she would likely refuse him.
Once that happened, things would get... complicated.
It was apparent to him now that while Victoria was interested in the knowledge in his head and thought it must be quite valuable, she didn’t yet realize how world-altering it was.
On the other hand, both Lucas and Celestina knew that the information he now possessed could re-shape the balance of power not just of the Rockwell Kingdom, but of the entire Blue Sky Continent, possibly even the entire world of Servist.
As such, even if there was only a 1% chance that Victoria leaked what she knew to someone, and that person believed her and tried to take action against Lucas, it could very easily develop into a life-threatening risk.
Such potential risks needed to be dealt with before they could be realized, and the best way to do that in this case was to...
Lucas didn’t even want to think about such ruthless measures, so he decided that he needed to have Victoria become one of his people, firmly tying both her life and future to his own. That way, harming him would be the same as harming herself, reducing the potential risks to a minimum without the need for more extreme actions.
Having decided so, Lucas seriously answered, "In the immediate-term, I’d have you take charge of re-establishing and expanding my soap-making business."
Since she already knew about the origins of soap, Victoria wasn’t too surprised by this proposal. Lucas letting her manage this kind of up-and-coming industry was a bit interesting, but it was hardly enough to really attract her attention, not when compared to controlling the Moore Family, at least.
However, Lucas wasn’t done yet. He knew that he would have to reveal a bit more about his potential if he really wanted to hook this ambitious woman, so he decided to toss out the biggest lure he currently had, "Once a proper soap factory is up and running, I’ll need you to start looking into ways to maximize this winter’s sugar harvest."
"Wait, what?" Victoria frowned, thinking she must have misheard Lucas just now, "Sugar harvest? Since when did the Rockwell Kingdom start producing sugar?"
"Since the beginning of this year, when I worked out a method of extracting and refining high-quality sugar from... certain plants," Lucas replied, revealing the fact that he had a way to make sugar while still holding back the critical details.
It was like an explosion went off inside the Viscount’s head.
Soap?
It was a valuable, useful product, one that had great market potential, but exactly how widespread it could become and how much of it could be sold was still unclear.
Sugar, on the other hand, was a completely different story.
Victoria didn’t know all the specifics of the sugar trade inside the Rockwell Kingdom, but as a Viscount, she naturally wasn’t ignorant of the general situation.
First and foremost, the overwhelming majority of sugar consumed in the Rockwell Kingdom came from the Darr Kingdom, their not-so-friendly neighbour to the east. There were several different qualities of sugar, but using the units introduced to her by Lucas, Victoria estimated even the lowest grade product was at minimum 4 Gold per kg.
If Victoria recalled correctly, last year alone, the Moore Family purchased about 2,500 kilograms of sugar at an average cost of about 6 Gold per kg.
That 15,000 Gold worth of sugar was big enough to appear as a separate item from the general ’food’ category in the family’s budget!
2,500 kg might sound like a lot, but when you consider there were some 200 direct members, another 500 or so extended members, and then hundreds more high-level staff and servants in the Moore Family, such an amount no longer seemed like much.
Beyond the family’s own consumption, there were also the need for sugar whenever important guests were hosted, when banquets were held, or at any number of social events where food and drink were served.
Even Victoria herself guessed she didn’t consume more than 1.5 kg of sugar in a year, and each time she did, it was for some sort of special occasion!
What was even more outrageous, though, was that the Moore Family didn’t buy just 2,500 kg of sugar because it couldn’t afford more, or because they were being frugal, but rather because they couldn’t!
The Darr Kingdom was the closest thing to an enemy the Rockwell Kingdom had, so a hard cap of 10 million Gold Coins, or about 1.2 million kilograms worth of sugar, was imported from them per year.
Now, more than that much sugar was definitely brought into the kingdom each year thanks to various enterprising individuals who weren’t afraid to bend the law a bit, but because of the risks involved for these smugglers, they tended to charge 3 to 5 times as much for their products.
12 Gold Coins for a kilogram of the poorest quality sugar that was wet, sticky, and barely sweet was an outrageous price, yet whenever these precious crystals showed up on the black market, they were instantly snatched up.
In other words, demand far, far outstripped supply. If Lucas really had a way to make sugar, no matter how much he produced, and no matter what price he charged, he would always be able to sell it.
Even if, by some miracle, Lucas could supply enough sugar to satisfy all of the Rockwell Kingdom’s needs, he could simply export the excess to foreign nations for an even higher profit margin!
On the Blue Sky Continent, making sugar was basically the equivalent of minting money, a business that would be zealously guarded and protected, yet right now, Victoria was being offered a chance to essentially become the manager of such an operation.
Tempting! This offer was incredibly tempting!
While Victoria Moore was lost in a daze, however, Lucas continued his pitch unabated, "The sugar season only lasts for a few months, after which there’s not much to do with it, so I’ll probably move you to supervising the construction of a series of public works, like bathhouses, public toilets, sewer systems, fertilizer plants..."
"Then of course there’s the deal with the Carlson Family for the production of farm machinery," Lucas droned on, "That’ll probably require setting up an independent factory with dedicated smiths..." freēwēbnovel.com
"A research department will also be necessary to continuously improve the machines as well as work on some other designs I have in mind..."
"Settling the refugees from the South-West Province will also require building new towns and villages, maybe even new cities... those will need to be planned out properly so they can accommodate the new technology I’m hoping to introduce over the coming years."
"There’s also the need for a sea-port and shipyard to start developing ocean-going craft."
"I had an idea about how to concentrate World Qi as well, but that’ll probably take a bit longer to achieve as it’ll require a lot of experiments to test its feasibility..."
"As for industrial scale metal smelting and advanced weaponry..."
"Stop stop stop!" Victoria hurriedly shouted, waving her hands frantically as she finally snapped back to her senses, "Please stop!"
"Hm?" Lucas, who had at some point gone off on a tangent as he went through all the different plans and projects he had been thinking about for the last year or so, also snapped back to his senses, only to find the 3 women in the room staring incredulously at him once more.
"Ah..." Realizing he had unconsciously let his guard down, allowing his bad habit of getting caught up in his own thoughts to emerge once more, and that he had blurted out several things he shouldn’t have, Lucas scratched his head awkwardly and apologized, "Sorry, I guess that was a bit much."
*Whack!*
"Tsss!" Lucas curled up after receiving a swift punch to his head from his disgruntled Master.
"I swear, one of these days your loose lips are going to get you killed!" Celestina snarled with a loud snort.
Allina was also massaging her temples thinking about just how big this mess had suddenly gotten.
As for Victoria Moore, she swept her eyes over the trio in front of her a few times before letting out a defeated sigh and slumping back into her seat.
She might have been a bit out of it just now, but as a Second Step Sea Establishment Practitioner, she had definitely heard and memorized every word Lucas had said; and that, had sealed her fate.
Glancing up at the frustrated red-headed woman before her, Victoria flashed a wry smile and asked helplessly, "I don’t suppose, after everything I’ve heard here, you’re going to let me leave this room without agreeing to this little blabbermouth’s proposal anymore, are you, Lady Balfour?"
