'I admit it. I’m a country bumpkin. Anyone that comes here will become one.' Bryan was currently buying as much as he could. He brought half the lollipops from the counter with a few copper coins and was laughing happily like a kid. 'I wonder how much money Lucas will lose.'
'Did Lucas actually lose money? Well, the cost of a tiny bit of wheat flour, sugar, and dried fruit was… well, very cheap. It was easy to see that Lucas would make plenty of money.'
Bryan was the first customer in the Shopping Mall who was a noble. The energy he had during his shopping spree scared Mina, Annie, and Nicole. He cleaned every section he went to.
Bryan was currently in a ceramic store. He walked in with his servant and stared at the ceramics. He was looking at the wooden cabinet, one by one, the delicate ceramic plates, ceramic vases, and ceramic wine glasses.
“Hello, what do you need? This store has more than 300 kinds of ceramics. All of them came from the City Lord’s Mansion, with many of them designed by City Lord.” The clerk said, smiling.
Lucas had taught the Department of Scientific Research how to make ceramics. They weren’t as good as the ceramics from Earth, but they were still on a whole other level compared to the gray and brown ceramics in this world.
“Such beautiful white and clean ceramics.” Bryan said, captivated by the ceramics. 'Even though these ceramics aren’t as good as the ones Baron Lucas has, they’re still better than the ones that counts have. If I can use these ceramics to eat, I can eat one more bowl of food every time I eat. Plus, if I take these ceramics out when I have guests, they will definitely be shocked out of their minds.'
“I want to buy 50, no I want to buy 100 of these ceramics,” Bryan said, waving his hand. He hurriedly pulled a servant up and said, “Hurry up and count the money. Buy all of these for me.”
Lucas, Mina, Annie, and Nicole walked into the store. Bryan held a ceramic plate, went to Lucas, and said, “Lord Lucas. I’m sorry for being so disgraceful in your house yesterday. Please take this as compensation.” Bryan had taken out one of the more expensive ceramics in the store. They cost about five silver coins each.
“Sir Bryan, it’s just a plate. It’s not a big deal. You’re thinking about it too much.” Lucas said. He didn’t accept the ceramic plate, as the City Lord’s Mansion’s warehouse had a ton of these ceramic plates.
Bryan couldn’t help but slap his forehead. 'Shit, I almost forgot that the City Lord’s Mansion has way better ceramics. They even have various colored patterns. There’s no way Lord Lucas would care about these inferior products. Sigh, one man’s treasure is another man’s trash.' Bryan suddenly lost the urge to continue shopping, as he had treasured another man’s trash.
Bryan was frantically telling himself that he had to be calm and not act surprised. 'Be calm, Bryan, be calm. You’re a noble. You can’t act like a country bumpkin. It’s too humiliating.'
“Let’s go, the hides you want are over there.” Lucas said, going outside. He didn’t want to smell the odor Bryan was emitting.
Mina and Annie had very sensitive noses, so they stood even further away. After getting used to the smell of soap, they couldn’t stand the sweat odor.
Bryan didn’t realize it at all. After all, all the nobles in this world all had that bad body odor. This was because all of them ate a ton of meat starting from childhood. Neither they weren’t diligent in bathing nor in cleaning their clothes.
The group came to the Leather Section. There were a bunch of wooden shelves. Each one of them had animal hides on them, with a small piece of paper that introduced the hides.
“Sir Bryan, take whatever you want. We’ll put it on the City Lord’s Mansion’s tab and use it to pay for the wheat.” Lucas said.
“Okay.” Bryan immediately took his servants to pick out hides suitable for making armor. Bryan had seven servants with him, and each one of them carried something from Bryan's shopping spree.
“Young master, are we really selling all the hides? We also need leather armor.” Nicole whispered.
“Don’t worry. The highest quality hides are in the warehouse. These ones are of average quality.” Lucas said. All he did was pack them a little to make them look like they were of higher quality.
“Lord Lucas, you sell bows and arrows here?” Bryan suddenly ran out holding a longbow in his hand and asked nervously.
“This is just a light hunting bow for hunting small animals. What, you want to buy it?” Lucas asked. These longbows were pretty weak and could only kill small animals like rabbits from a short distance. They were unsuitable for use in war.
“Yes.” Bryan said, nodding. He didn’t care what kind of bow it was as long as they could be used to shoot arrows.
“Alright then. Nicole, give him a license.” Lucas said, nodding. The bows in the Shopping Mall were weakened versions of the ones used in the military, but everyone could only purchase one of them per month. If they wanted to buy more, they needed a Purchasing Martial Products License from the City Lord’s Mansion. It is required to purchase military-controlled items.
After Bryan got the certificate, he immediately bought all 30 hunting bows in the shop.
While Lucas was busy with Bryan, Carter and Fez were standing in the middle of the road in the Shopping Mall, staring blankly at the people around them. Everyone around them was nervous and happy, and all of them carried something in their hands. There were a few people that rested on the benches on the side of the road with something edible or what they call snacks in their hands.
Carter had a grim expression. Anyone would easily realize how much profit the Shopping Mall could bring to someone. He was pissed because he was the one who had given it all up. It had previously all belonged to him. He wanted to take it all back. He didn’t bother to think about where the Shopping Mall came from or why there was no Shopping Mall in the time he had been the noble here. He didn’t want to think about it, either.
'I must take this territory back. I will take it back. This is mine. All mine.' Carter thought while clenching his fist. 'As long as I have the Shopping Mall, I don’t need to go to the central land. I can just stay here. The Shopping Mall here will allow me to have a better life than counts. When I take back this territory, I will move to live in the Shopping Mall and just watch the coins stack up. I can just take whatever I want to eat or use from the Shopping Mall. Even if they give me the position of a king- cough cough – a count, I won’t leave this place.'
Fez looked at the somewhat insane Carter's expression and asked worriedly, “Lord Father, are you okay?”
Carter took a deep breath and said, “Go get ready. We’re going to go visit Baron Lucas."
“What?” Fez was dumbfounded as the decision was a bit too sudden. “Wait, Lord Father, why are we visiting him?”
Smack!
“Idiot!” Carter raised his hand and slapped Fez on the face. “Don’t you see what’s happening right now? We must take back this territory by any necessary means.”
Fez touched his face with his hands and slightly shrank back. He hadn’t been hit by Carter for many years and was about to say something when he saw Lucas in the distance. “Lord Father, look, Lucas is over there.” Fez tugged Carter’s clothes and pointed in a direction.
“Don’t expose us. It’s not the time to see him yet.” Carter said, pressing down on Fez’s head with his hand. They then turned around and randomly pointed at shops from time to time.
“An illusion?” Mina muttered, turning her head and looking at the crowd. She had felt someone watching them.
“What’s wrong Mina?” Annie asked.
Mina shook her head and got closer to Lucas. She swept the surroundings with a sharp expression in her eyes, causing many people to be scared to look at her.
Lucas raised his hand and patted Mina’s head. “Okay, you can stop now. Your eyes are going to be sore if you continue this. Don’t worry, the War Wolves are in the crowd.”
Bryan blinked. 'War Wolves? What is that? There’s a wolf in the crowd? Or is it a wolf beastkin?'
“Mhmm.” Mina blushed and quietly put away the military knife in her hand.
Lucas turned his head and asked, “Sir Bryan, how do you feel today?”
“I feel very good. Today is the only day I truly felt happy.” Bryan said. “This Shopping Mall is the best place I’ve ever been to. It’s a pity there’s no such place in Sakura City.”
These words made Nicole grin. 'Even “The Love Diary of a Noble Girl” written by Princess Lucy didn’t talk about a shopping mall. How could your Sakura City have it?'
“Then you can come over here often, or you can open a store or shop here.” Lucas said, smiling. Some core aspects of making a shopping mall could be copied. While some were hard to implement because it was easy to lose money when not done correctly. It costs a ton of things just to take care of the infrastructure aspect. Lucas had cement, people, and resolve to do so, which is why he was able to make the Shopping Mall without spending too much money.
“Am I really allowed to open a store here?” Bryan asked. “Lord Lucas, you’re not joking, are you?”
Lucas shook his head. “No, I’m serious. You also saw many stores inside that were closed, did you not? All of them can be rented out. You just need to pay rent and taxes every year.” Taxes were his ultimate goal and would be the core of his income source. As long as someone does business, they would have to pay taxes.
“Taxes? Do nobles also have to pay too?” Bryan asked, frowning. It wasn’t unheard of for a noble to pay taxes to other nobles, but it was extremely rare.
“Of course. In my territory, everyone has to pay taxes when they do business, no matter who they are. Either they are nobles or commoners.” Lucas said.
“I understand. I will go back and discuss it with my father.” Bryan said. He didn’t agree as it was a matter of the dignity of nobles but also because he didn’t have the power to do so.
“It has been a tiring day. Let’s go back and rest.” Lucas said, stretching his arms and leading the way out.
Bryan was distressed when he came out of the Shopping Mall. He had bought too many things and hadn’t brought a carriage.
“The carriage over here, here, here.” Someone next to him shouted.
Clip-clop, clip-clop, clip-clop.
Someone soon drove over a carriage and asked the man, “Customer, where do you want to go?” The carriage was a flatbed carriage, and there was a wooden sign at the back that said: “Limited to Four People”.
“North of the city…” The man gave an address and climbed into the carriage. He handed over two steel coins to the coachman.
The carriage quickly left, leaving Bryan dumbfounded. He turned and looked at Lucas. “Lord Lucas, that person doesn’t own the carriage, does he?”
“Of course not. The row of carriages over there, including the one that just left, all belong to the City Lord’s Mansion. To help people get around better, the City Lord’s Mansion rents out some of the unused carriages to help commoners get around easier within Sedona City. They just need to pay two steel coins to use them.”
“That- that’s amazing. How come no one has thought of it before?” Bryan asked, a little overwhelmed.
Lucas smiled. It’s not that no one thought of it, but no one was willing to do it. The nobles with a ton of horses didn’t care about the minuscule amount of money that could be made from this. Besides, there wasn’t a smaller currency before, and no commoner would be willing to spend a copper coin to use the carriage for one trip.
“Lord Lucas, you are a genius. You should go to the capital. You deserve to be in the position of a minister in the court of the king.” Bryan said.
Lucas only smiled faintly in response.
' Neither a golden nest nor a silver nest is as good as my own nest. Besides, I believe that Sedona City will soon become a golden nest that will be the envy of the world.' (Meaning: His own thing is better than something rental which can be taken away from him anytime.)
GreenBlue17 If you like reading this chapter then colour the heart red ️. You can also give rating to this novel.
'I admit it. I’m a country bumpkin. Anyone that comes here will become one.' Bryan was currently buying as much as he could. He brought half the lollipops from the counter with a few copper coins and was laughing happily like a kid. 'I wonder how much money Lucas will lose.'
'Did Lucas actually lose money? Well, the cost of a tiny bit of wheat flour, sugar, and dried fruit was… well, very cheap. It was easy to see that Lucas would make plenty of money.'
Bryan was the first customer in the Shopping Mall who was a noble. The energy he had during his shopping spree scared Mina, Annie, and Nicole. He cleaned every section he went to.
Bryan was currently in a ceramic store. He walked in with his servant and stared at the ceramics. He was looking at the wooden cabinet, one by one, the delicate ceramic plates, ceramic vases, and ceramic wine glasses.
“Hello, what do you need? This store has more than 300 kinds of ceramics. All of them came from the City Lord’s Mansion, with many of them designed by City Lord.” The clerk said, smiling.
Lucas had taught the Department of Scientific Research how to make ceramics. They weren’t as good as the ceramics from Earth, but they were still on a whole other level compared to the gray and brown ceramics in this world.
“Such beautiful white and clean ceramics.” Bryan said, captivated by the ceramics. 'Even though these ceramics aren’t as good as the ones Baron Lucas has, they’re still better than the ones that counts have. If I can use these ceramics to eat, I can eat one more bowl of food every time I eat. Plus, if I take these ceramics out when I have guests, they will definitely be shocked out of their minds.'
“I want to buy 50, no I want to buy 100 of these ceramics,” Bryan said, waving his hand. He hurriedly pulled a servant up and said, “Hurry up and count the money. Buy all of these for me.”
Lucas, Mina, Annie, and Nicole walked into the store. Bryan held a ceramic plate, went to Lucas, and said, “Lord Lucas. I’m sorry for being so disgraceful in your house yesterday. Please take this as compensation.” Bryan had taken out one of the more expensive ceramics in the store. They cost about five silver coins each.
“Sir Bryan, it’s just a plate. It’s not a big deal. You’re thinking about it too much.” Lucas said. He didn’t accept the ceramic plate, as the City Lord’s Mansion’s warehouse had a ton of these ceramic plates.
Bryan couldn’t help but slap his forehead. 'Shit, I almost forgot that the City Lord’s Mansion has way better ceramics. They even have various colored patterns. There’s no way Lord Lucas would care about these inferior products. Sigh, one man’s treasure is another man’s trash.' Bryan suddenly lost the urge to continue shopping, as he had treasured another man’s trash.
Bryan was frantically telling himself that he had to be calm and not act surprised. 'Be calm, Bryan, be calm. You’re a noble. You can’t act like a country bumpkin. It’s too humiliating.'
“Let’s go, the hides you want are over there.” Lucas said, going outside. He didn’t want to smell the odor Bryan was emitting.
Mina and Annie had very sensitive noses, so they stood even further away. After getting used to the smell of soap, they couldn’t stand the sweat odor.
Bryan didn’t realize it at all. After all, all the nobles in this world all had that bad body odor. This was because all of them ate a ton of meat starting from childhood. Neither they weren’t diligent in bathing nor in cleaning their clothes.
The group came to the Leather Section. There were a bunch of wooden shelves. Each one of them had animal hides on them, with a small piece of paper that introduced the hides.
“Sir Bryan, take whatever you want. We’ll put it on the City Lord’s Mansion’s tab and use it to pay for the wheat.” Lucas said.
“Okay.” Bryan immediately took his servants to pick out hides suitable for making armor. Bryan had seven servants with him, and each one of them carried something from Bryan's shopping spree.
“Young master, are we really selling all the hides? We also need leather armor.” Nicole whispered.
“Don’t worry. The highest quality hides are in the warehouse. These ones are of average quality.” Lucas said. All he did was pack them a little to make them look like they were of higher quality.
“Lord Lucas, you sell bows and arrows here?” Bryan suddenly ran out holding a longbow in his hand and asked nervously.
“This is just a light hunting bow for hunting small animals. What, you want to buy it?” Lucas asked. These longbows were pretty weak and could only kill small animals like rabbits from a short distance. They were unsuitable for use in war.
“Yes.” Bryan said, nodding. He didn’t care what kind of bow it was as long as they could be used to shoot arrows.
“Alright then. Nicole, give him a license.” Lucas said, nodding. The bows in the Shopping Mall were weakened versions of the ones used in the military, but everyone could only purchase one of them per month. If they wanted to buy more, they needed a Purchasing Martial Products License from the City Lord’s Mansion. It is required to purchase military-controlled items.
After Bryan got the certificate, he immediately bought all 30 hunting bows in the shop.
While Lucas was busy with Bryan, Carter and Fez were standing in the middle of the road in the Shopping Mall, staring blankly at the people around them. Everyone around them was nervous and happy, and all of them carried something in their hands. There were a few people that rested on the benches on the side of the road with something edible or what they call snacks in their hands.
Carter had a grim expression. Anyone would easily realize how much profit the Shopping Mall could bring to someone. He was pissed because he was the one who had given it all up. It had previously all belonged to him. He wanted to take it all back. He didn’t bother to think about where the Shopping Mall came from or why there was no Shopping Mall in the time he had been the noble here. He didn’t want to think about it, either.
'I must take this territory back. I will take it back. This is mine. All mine.' Carter thought while clenching his fist. 'As long as I have the Shopping Mall, I don’t need to go to the central land. I can just stay here. The Shopping Mall here will allow me to have a better life than counts. When I take back this territory, I will move to live in the Shopping Mall and just watch the coins stack up. I can just take whatever I want to eat or use from the Shopping Mall. Even if they give me the position of a king- cough cough – a count, I won’t leave this place.'
Fez looked at the somewhat insane Carter's expression and asked worriedly, “Lord Father, are you okay?”
Carter took a deep breath and said, “Go get ready. We’re going to go visit Baron Lucas."
“What?” Fez was dumbfounded as the decision was a bit too sudden. “Wait, Lord Father, why are we visiting him?”
Smack!
“Idiot!” Carter raised his hand and slapped Fez on the face. “Don’t you see what’s happening right now? We must take back this territory by any necessary means.”
Fez touched his face with his hands and slightly shrank back. He hadn’t been hit by Carter for many years and was about to say something when he saw Lucas in the distance. “Lord Father, look, Lucas is over there.” Fez tugged Carter’s clothes and pointed in a direction.
“Don’t expose us. It’s not the time to see him yet.” Carter said, pressing down on Fez’s head with his hand. They then turned around and randomly pointed at shops from time to time.
“An illusion?” Mina muttered, turning her head and looking at the crowd. She had felt someone watching them.
“What’s wrong Mina?” Annie asked.
Mina shook her head and got closer to Lucas. She swept the surroundings with a sharp expression in her eyes, causing many people to be scared to look at her.
Lucas raised his hand and patted Mina’s head. “Okay, you can stop now. Your eyes are going to be sore if you continue this. Don’t worry, the War Wolves are in the crowd.”
Bryan blinked. 'War Wolves? What is that? There’s a wolf in the crowd? Or is it a wolf beastkin?'
“Mhmm.” Mina blushed and quietly put away the military knife in her hand.
Lucas turned his head and asked, “Sir Bryan, how do you feel today?”
“I feel very good. Today is the only day I truly felt happy.” Bryan said. “This Shopping Mall is the best place I’ve ever been to. It’s a pity there’s no such place in Sakura City.”
These words made Nicole grin. 'Even “The Love Diary of a Noble Girl” written by Princess Lucy didn’t talk about a shopping mall. How could your Sakura City have it?'
“Then you can come over here often, or you can open a store or shop here.” Lucas said, smiling. Some core aspects of making a shopping mall could be copied. While some were hard to implement because it was easy to lose money when not done correctly. It costs a ton of things just to take care of the infrastructure aspect. Lucas had cement, people, and resolve to do so, which is why he was able to make the Shopping Mall without spending too much money.
“Am I really allowed to open a store here?” Bryan asked. “Lord Lucas, you’re not joking, are you?”
Lucas shook his head. “No, I’m serious. You also saw many stores inside that were closed, did you not? All of them can be rented out. You just need to pay rent and taxes every year.” Taxes were his ultimate goal and would be the core of his income source. As long as someone does business, they would have to pay taxes.
“Taxes? Do nobles also have to pay too?” Bryan asked, frowning. It wasn’t unheard of for a noble to pay taxes to other nobles, but it was extremely rare.
“Of course. In my territory, everyone has to pay taxes when they do business, no matter who they are. Either they are nobles or commoners.” Lucas said.
“I understand. I will go back and discuss it with my father.” Bryan said. He didn’t agree as it was a matter of the dignity of nobles but also because he didn’t have the power to do so.
“It has been a tiring day. Let’s go back and rest.” Lucas said, stretching his arms and leading the way out.
Bryan was distressed when he came out of the Shopping Mall. He had bought too many things and hadn’t brought a carriage.
“The carriage over here, here, here.” Someone next to him shouted.
Clip-clop, clip-clop, clip-clop.
Someone soon drove over a carriage and asked the man, “Customer, where do you want to go?” The carriage was a flatbed carriage, and there was a wooden sign at the back that said: “Limited to Four People”.
“North of the city…” The man gave an address and climbed into the carriage. He handed over two steel coins to the coachman.
The carriage quickly left, leaving Bryan dumbfounded. He turned and looked at Lucas. “Lord Lucas, that person doesn’t own the carriage, does he?”
“Of course not. The row of carriages over there, including the one that just left, all belong to the City Lord’s Mansion. To help people get around better, the City Lord’s Mansion rents out some of the unused carriages to help commoners get around easier within Sedona City. They just need to pay two steel coins to use them.”
“That- that’s amazing. How come no one has thought of it before?” Bryan asked, a little overwhelmed.
Lucas smiled. It’s not that no one thought of it, but no one was willing to do it. The nobles with a ton of horses didn’t care about the minuscule amount of money that could be made from this. Besides, there wasn’t a smaller currency before, and no commoner would be willing to spend a copper coin to use the carriage for one trip.
“Lord Lucas, you are a genius. You should go to the capital. You deserve to be in the position of a minister in the court of the king.” Bryan said.
Lucas only smiled faintly in response.
' Neither a golden nest nor a silver nest is as good as my own nest. Besides, I believe that Sedona City will soon become a golden nest that will be the envy of the world.' (Meaning: His own thing is better than something rental which can be taken away from him anytime.)
GreenBlue17 If you like reading this chapter then colour the heart red ️. You can also give rating to this novel.
