Ch.102Branding

After the Guild Council was established, Amurtat’s industry and commerce were running quite efficiently.

Occasionally there would be some disruptions, but they were minor—like a cart wheel hitting a pebble on the road. Aside from such minor frictions, the association of guilds was functioning well together.

The most important role of the Guild Council was to mediate conflicts between guilds. In particular, the Transporters Guild was practically the public enemy of the guild world, as there wasn’t a single guild they didn’t clash with.

Not only were they the most numerous, but their lack of unity due to the diversity of their professions was problematic. More importantly, their tight financial situations left them with little room to accommodate others.

Employed coachmen faced termination if they failed to meet their quotas, while self-employed cart owners weren’t wealthy enough to afford their vehicles in the first place. Missing even a single day of work meant they couldn’t afford even a cup of tea due to debt payments.

Naturally, this led to frequent conflicts with other workers as they tried to squeeze out more money. Among the Transporters Guild members, those who experienced the least friction were the ones who transported preserved food.

Since preserved food wouldn’t spoil, they weren’t bound by strict deadlines. With more flexible schedules, they could drive their carts more gently, which meant lower maintenance costs.

However, such jobs were highly competitive and paid less, so many transporters worked moving heavy metals or equipment. Among these, coal delivery was the most common occupation.

The amount of coal needed by the Steelyard, Boneyard, and Brickyard, which kept their fires burning all day, was beyond imagination. Tens of thousands of carts came and went to meet their consumption needs.

Among them, carts heading to the Steelyard suffered from much stricter time constraints than those going to other yards, due to the nature of the steel industry where an entire furnace would be ruined if the fire went out.

“The time constraints are too tight! We don’t just have one or two carts—is it so difficult to space them out by an hour or two?”

“Do you have any idea how quickly coal disappears in a furnace? Even thousands of carts a day aren’t enough for coal!”

“Then increase the number of carts! We’re all just trying to make a living—will you continue to act so inconsiderately?”

As a result, the Guild Council met almost every three days, and these meetings typically began with one-sided accusations from the Transporters Guild and the Metallurgy Guild and ended with mutual recriminations.

It was a bizarre situation where there were perpetrators and victims on both sides, but no clear distinction between them. As it became increasingly difficult to take sides, relations between the two guilds grew more hostile. Surprisingly, it was the Adventurers Guild that resolved this situation.

“What if our Adventurers Guild supplies coal to the Steelyard?”

“The Adventurers Guild?”

“Yes. Wouldn’t carrying coal to the Steelyard be perfect for training the physical strength of novice adventurers? We would supply much less coal than carts could, but enough to keep the furnaces from going out.”

“Hmm… that doesn’t sound bad…”

“The issue is funding. The Adventurers Guild’s funds aren’t unlimited, are they?”

“It’s not much, but we can certainly assign coal delivery requests to novice adventurers. Isn’t the reason the Metallurgy Guild can’t increase the number of coachmen because they lack the funds to hire and maintain more?”

“Hmm…”

At this, the Metallurgy Guild and the Transporters Guild each folded their arms and began calculating their profits and losses.

After a few minutes, the Adventurers Guild’s proposal was accepted, and the time allowed for transporters assigned to the Steelyard was extended by a full 80 minutes. Isn’t this the very definition of compromise and consideration?

*

At a brewery in downtown Amurtat.

Construction was underway to expand the brewery, and the scale of this “expansion” was so remarkable that even strangers would wonder if it was a brewery or a skyscraper.

It was a major construction project that involved purchasing two entire residential complexes and converting them entirely into brewing facilities. Naturally, this was beyond the financial capacity of a single brewery and was part of an aggressive investment supported by the government.

The reason for supporting such brewery expansion with national funds was for “branding” purposes.

Just as on Earth, where wine brings to mind France or Italy rather than America, and whiskey evokes America rather than England, in this world too, companies that produced good alcohol were deeply loved by drinking enthusiasts.

Not just wine, but beer and whiskey as well. Since grain alcohol existed in this world too, many types of alcoholic beverages circulated in Amurtat.

The brewery currently being expanded was undergoing construction to produce larger quantities of spirits for export not only within Amurtat but to other countries as well. Not just this brewery, but all breweries within the city walls were rapidly expanding, swallowing up surrounding buildings.

But factories are useless without raw materials.

The grains and fruits needed by these enormously expanded breweries were to be supplied from large-scale farms and orchards that had been established earlier. These had already been built to supply food to Woodbury, so they could immediately provide fruits and grains, allowing the breweries to produce alcohol without any downtime.

Of course, reducing the absolute amount of food going to Woodbury was not ideal, so dozens more villages sprang up in the plains of Amurtat, and immigrants coming to Amurtat could find another homeland.

Now that water concerns were gone, the government could easily handle the immense water consumption of crops and fruits, implementing aggressive agricultural promotion policies. Immigrants flowing into Amurtat couldn’t help but shudder at the fields and fruit trees stretching from one end of the horizon to the other.

Now Amurtat’s history had surpassed 20 years, and its population exceeded 2 million.

No longer was Amurtat a small city—it was truly shining as the pearl of the North.

*

“Sigh…”

Time passes quickly.

I reminisced about the past 20 years while pinching and releasing the cheek of Michaela, who was sleeping in my arms.

Over the past 20 years, Michaela hadn’t aged at all, and the same was true for my aide.

It was literally an achievement made with my blood and sweat, but I couldn’t help feeling trapped in a loop since I couldn’t see the passage of time in the two people I saw most often.

Perhaps Ignatz, who had no intention of sharing blood and sweat with me, was the only one who made me feel the reality of time?

Now that he had reached his forties, his experience as a knight commander was second to none.

In fact, I was somewhat regretful about his aging and offered him a blood transfusion, but he said that receiving blood would interfere with his ability to sense aura.

Hmm… certainly, as someone who might have to face master-level knights in emergencies, he couldn’t afford to have his aura operation disrupted, so I couldn’t press the matter further.

Actually, I teased him a bit because he still hadn’t reached the master level, but as soon as the word “master” came up, he suddenly became depressed, making me think I’d done something wrong and hurry back to the palace.

For a warrior, reaching a certain level is like life itself. Even though the last war ended quickly, more than forty knights died, so it’s not strange at all that it remained a trauma for him as the leader of the knights. I think I was too insensitive.

“Mmmmph…”

As I played with Michaela’s stretchy cheeks, I thought about what to do next.

Now that the population had exceeded 2 million, Amurtat had become the second most powerful entity in the North after Fahrenheit.

As the universally acknowledged number two, what more should I do?

“Sigh… it’s difficult.”

Like a fully grown adult who can no longer increase in height, Amurtat had also reached its growth limit.

More precisely, the current system could no longer handle further growth.

Having accomplished in just 20 years what would take other countries decades, it was now time to carefully consolidate what we had built and strengthen our foundation.

More precisely, it was time to give a grace period.

The people of Amurtat had been running non-stop following my orders, and just as muscles need to recover from damage to grow larger, the people needed a pause in the changes they were experiencing before they could climb higher again.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I’m going to rest.

I was the one who directed the branding work for the breweries for alcohol exports, and my next mission would be to accept all those coming to Amurtat and create a nation of tens of millions, beyond the current millions.

Now, enough time has passed that those born in Amurtat have grown from boys and girls into strong men and beautiful ladies. Amurtat, the pearl of the North, will continue to prosper.

With these thoughts, I met the half-open eyes of Michaela, who had awakened because I had played with her cheeks too much.