Chapter 191: Financial Issues

The guards watching over the Marsh Keep had been thoroughly replaced by members of the knight squad from Horse-Breeding City, while the former guards of Sane Fief were entirely interned within the castle dungeons, held alongside Knight Fenris and the wife and daughter of Laysen.

Ronin drifted through the estate like a casual tourist, casting a superficial eye over his surroundings.

Compared to Timber Keep, this place was undeniably more opulent; to say nothing of other luxuries, the sheer number of magic crystal lamps scattered about was a testament to that, items that were considered a rare oddity back in Timber Keep.

Yet the air here hung heavy with moisture, and insects thrived in abundance, demanding constant vigilance from the castle servants lest the furniture, garments, and books succumb to mold.

After this cursory inspection, Ronin joined Galier in the fortress keep to conduct a brief interrogation of Laysen’s family and his retinue of knights.

Only when Fenris beheld Ronin seated upon the master’s chair did he finally accept the bitter truth that Baron Laysen, whom they had followed so faithfully, was truly ruined.

“It was you, Joffrey—you were the one who betrayed Lord Laysen?” Fenris, bound fast in heavy iron chains, questioned through gritted teeth.

Joffrey stood at Ronin’s side, well aware that had it not been for Ronin’s peculiar favor, he would likely be perishing in the dungeons of Crow Mountain Keep by now.

He harbored no fondness for Fenris; back when Laysen had stationed the man in the Black-Neck Tribe, the two had frequently locked horns.

“Laysen has paid the price for his own foolishness; it has nothing to do with me.”

Joffrey spoke evenly, “Fenris, for the sake of our old acquaintance, I advise you to disclose everything regarding Laysen’s ties with the Skeleton Society to Lord Ronin and Sir Galier of Crow Mountain Keep without reservation. Do so, and you might yet spare yourself some agony.”

Fenris’s expression turned sullen, and he ceased his nagging of Joffrey; instead, a thought bloomed within him—if he were to surrender, could he perhaps be accepted by Ronin just as Joffrey had been?

The moment this thought took root, his demeanor softened, yet in truth, he knew nothing of any arrangement between Laysen and the Skeleton Society.

“I was kept in the dark, but Philiton might know something.”

Fenris offered, “In December of last year, Philiton departed Sane Fief and did not return for a very long time.”

Galier glanced toward Ronin, “This Knight Philiton...”

“My men will bring him in.”

Ronin replied, “If they are swift, we may have our answers by tomorrow.”

Philiton had been captured as well?

A tremor of shock struck Fenris’s heart; Lord Laysen had merely gone to Crow Mountain Keep for a New Year’s celebration—what in the world could have transpired in so short a span of time?

Ronin did not linger long in the fortress; he possessed no real passion for interrogations, nor did he intend to enlist a trained, volatile knight like Fenris into his service.

Conversely, the lesser-ranking knights, and even the ordinary guards and archers who comprised the Sane Fief knight squad, held a far greater appeal for him.

The cavalry, archers, and infantry of Timber Town were still in the midst of training; if he could seamlessly absorb these men from Sane Fief, the defensive affairs of his domain would be vastly simplified.

Presently, he held sway over six distinct locales: Marsh Town, Timber Town, Green Bamboo Village, Purple Fruit Village, Grey Earth Village, and the Black-Neck Tribe.

Marsh Town required no justification; it was the most populous region of the Northern Crow Domain and demanded an armed presence to maintain order.

Timber Town was Ronin’s base of operations, possessing vast tracts of farmland and ironwood workshops, which likewise required careful stewardship.

Purple Fruit Village served as his sericulture base, while Grey Earth Village was his pottery hub; neither could possibly be abandoned.

As for the Black-Neck Tribe, he had learned from Joffrey that its lands were exceptionally fertile and yielded bountiful harvests; they had already brought over four thousand mu of land under the plow, and last year alone, they had supplied Sane Fief with over seventy thousand catties of grain.

Evidently, the Black-Neck Tribe also possessed tremendous developmental value.

Reckoning them all up, it seemed only Green Bamboo Village offered little of true worth; Ronin could consider relocating the three hundred-odd souls of the Green Bamboo Tribe first.

“Are you the steward of Marsh Keep?”

Ronin chose a room at random and instructed Joffrey to fetch Laysen’s steward.

“I am, my Lord.”

The man who answered was middle-aged with short brown hair; he would normally have appeared quite sharp, but after several days of confinement, he looked utterly exhausted.

“Your former master, Laysen, has been stripped of his noble title and lands for the crime of assassinating a nobleman; I, Ronin Crow, am now the new master of Marsh Town. Inform me of the production, operations, and financial state of Marsh Keep, and I shall permit you to continue living upon this land.”

“Celine is honored to be of service, my Lord!”

Just as when he had first taken over Timber Keep, Ronin had no need for Laysen’s servants to pledge him lifelong loyalty, but he could certainly extract vital intelligence about the castle from their lips.

Celine was evidently a capable steward, holding the financial details of Marsh Town clearly in his mind.

Take the breeding of black water buffaloes, for instance; he knew the exact count of the herd within the pastures.

Among the mature black water buffaloes, there were 82 bulls and 566 cows, along with another 164 young calves.

Ronin made a rough calculation; if each beast fetched an average price of 20 gold coins, selling off the entire herd in a bulk deal would yield over sixteen thousand gold coins.

Of course, a price of 20 gold coins was likely an underestimate.

The black water buffaloes were massive creatures and excellent for tilling fields; a specimen of slightly better quality could easily rival a common warhorse and would have no trouble commanding 30 gold coins.

Yet compared to the equine industry of Horse-Breeding City, Laysen’s buffalo business was modest in scale, failing to reach even a thousand head in total.

Ronin intended to distribute a portion of these buffaloes to Timber Town and Grey Earth Village to accelerate the clearing of land and bolster the grain harvest.

Beyond this, Ronin gathered from Celine that Laysen also dabbled in the trade of fish, shrimp, and other aquatic products; though it could not compare to the fisheries of Lake Town, it still brought in a steady annual revenue.

Across the entirety of Marsh Town, the gold coins flowing into Laysen’s pockets each year still numbered in the thousands.

The sole regret was that fertile fields were scarce here; to sustain the consumption of the local populace, Baron Laysen had been forced to purchase grain from the outside.

It was precisely for this reason that he had cast his covetous eyes upon the Black-Neck Tribe to the north. The seventy thousand catties of grain shipped from the Black-Neck Tribe last year had saved him a considerable expense.

In addition to these details, Ronin also gleaned the approximate population of Marsh Town from the man’s lips—just over nine thousand eight hundred souls.

Once Wilson arrived and completed the census, the registered population across Ronin’s domains would comfortably surpass ten thousand people.

Based on his prior experience with the completion of the "Prosperous Wealth" achievement, Ronin wondered if he might claim two consecutive tiers of the "Thriving Population" achievement in one fell swoop this time.

After all, the second tier of that achievement merely required a registered population of five thousand, and it was highly probable that the third tier was set at the ten-thousand mark.

However, Ronin had yet to deduce exactly how to fulfill the "Conquering Territories" achievement.

By all rights, now that he had seized Sane Fief, it should have been deemed accomplished, yet the achievement status remained stubbornly unchanged.

Ronin suspected that this might hinge upon the literal definition of a "city."

Marsh Town was still merely a town, not yet recognized as a city.

And whether a territory could be dignified with the title of a "city" was primarily judged by the size of its population.

“If Marsh Town’s population exceeds ten thousand, could it then be regarded as a city?”

Ronin resolved to wait until the census of Marsh Town was finalized before deciding whether to station a portion of the thousand slaves purchased from the Viper Slave Exchange here, thereby pushing the population past the ten-thousand threshold.

Completing as many achievement quests as possible to earn attribute points and energy essences was of paramount importance to him at this juncture.