Venus
Leylin put down the plate that contained the sugar in his hand and looked at Baron Jonas, “Father, how much do you think I can sell these refined sugar cubes for?”
Baron Jonas closed his eyes for a moment and answered with certainty, “It should be at least ten times the price of coarse sugar! If we weren’t afraid of someone backstabbing us or coveting this, we could perhaps sell it at even twenty times.”
Leylin smiled and nodded. “Then I’ll leave the avenues of selling it to Father!”
The moment the method to create such refined sugar cubes entered the market, it would have a huge effect. How could Leylin match up to Baron Jonas in behaving appropriately, finding backers, transferring profits, and building profitable partnerships and the like? His father was a very experienced trader.
“I’ve just seen the fish floss jars, and they’re not bad!” Baron Jonas looked at his son, his eyes full of indescribable emotion, “Sigh... You’ve really created a difficult problem for your father! Such immense profits...”
While he was sighing, the Baron still could not conceal his smile. Leylin always seemed to be able to surpass his expectations in unimaginable ways.
......
With enough manpower and physical resources, the fish floss and sugar trade that Leylin was anticipating finally began to take shape. Baron Jonas knew full well that such immense profits were something that his family could not handle alone, so he made use of the two items to rope in a few other noble families that had their lands in the outer seas. He also got in touch with the local forces, and gave them a large portion of the profits. This way, there were a lot of people he could drag into deep waters to bear the brunt of the backlash with him.
The moment Faulen Island’s refined white sugar entered the market, the effect even surpassed the baron’s imagination.
Its pure taste was as sweet as heaven, and immediately conquered many nobles. They rushed to find this luxury item like they’d been driven insane. Just the profits from the first month reached a startling 2000 gold coins!
The fish floss was not as popular, but the market’s reaction was not bad. Its characteristic of being convenient food as well as the benefit of being able to store it for a long period of time made it popular among mercenaries and adventurers. Even the military of the kingdom expressed their interest.
The profits of this becoming military rations... was there more to be said?
Making use of these two items earnt them tons of wealth, the Faulen Family began to grow at a rapid rate. Leylin had to even open up a few production lines in order to match the insane market demand!
Of course, this couldn’t have been done without the Scarlet Tiger pirates investing a lot of funds. With Leylin controlling everything from the shadows and the aid from the Barbarians, the Scarlet Tiger Pirates had gone all out, attacking numerous ships that belonged to Marquis Louis under Isabel’s lead.
Leylin waited on Faulen Island, like nothing had to do with him. The Barbarians were also exceptionally quiet, making the marquis unable to find any evidence. He could only grit his teeth in the shadows, preparing to exact revenge.
Nearly a year passed in the blink of an eye. The camp that Leylin had constructed had now turned into a bustling harbour with limestone floors and tiled houses. There was an imposing aura in the area, and the port was arranged very logically. Security was very good, and there was not a trace of trash on the ground.
When compared to other ports, this was unimaginable. They were nasty and filthy, and usually the sources of diseases and epidemics. Leylin obviously would not tolerate this. Furthermore, a clean, tidy, and orderly port was unimaginably attractive for sea merchants.
With the fish floss and the refined sugar cubes dominating the markets, the port was now a money-making area. A lot of ships stopped at the pier every day, loading up completely on goods before leaving. Even at night, the labourers would still work with much clamour; the place looked prosperous.
Leylin named the place Port Venus, an allegory for a rising star. And indeed, once it was constructed it attracted many merchants into frequenting Faulen Island, and it silently became another trading hub of the outer seas.
Originally, The Baltic archipelago and Pirates’ Cove which belonged to two different powers dominated the scene, but Port Venus marked the rise of a third power. Such a huge change obviously attracted the attention of intelligent people.
“My lord, here’s the latest news!” A middle-rank warrior in exquisite chainmail armour respectfully passed a letter sealed in wax to Jacob.
Jacob hastily opened it up, and after skimming through a few lines his expression changed, “This is... I’ll tell young master myself!”
Once they left the room, two rows of elite warriors followed behind him, all of them with a strong and bloody aura. Their eyes even seemed to glint, they were naturally elite warriors who had activated their qi.
After walking out of the city hall, Jacob mounted a handsome black stallion. While he could use a horse carriage as a public security officer, his fighter habits made it such that he preferred to ride horses himself.
Glancing at the luxurious and imposing city hall at his back, the many middle-ranked warriors behind him, and the eyes of people on the roads looking to curry favour with him, Jacob was slightly absent-minded.
‘Everything has really changed!’ Jacob sighed. When they came into their wealth, Leylin and Baron Jonas did not hoard their gold like greedy dragons. On the contrary, other than to construct more production lines and Port Venus itself, Baron Jonas had the great vision to take out almost all his savings to increase the power of the Faulen Family.
Exquisite chainmail and stainless steel longswords replaced the leather armour, metal forks and wooden pikes from before on a large scale. He even recruited huge batches of Professionals. While it wasn’t quite possible to get high-ranked ones at rank 15 and above, the middle-ranked ones and especially close combat warriors just could not reject the conditions the Baron had offered.
After serving here for a long time, many of these with professions fell in love with the atmosphere and brought their families here, becoming free citizens of Port Venus. Leylin was extremely welcome to the idea, and was generous in his treatment and the promotions. This formed a virtuous cycle, which helped his subordinates get even stronger.
Jacob knew that there were already Professionals over rank 10 siding with Leylin. If not for him following the Baron around since childhood and working hard for the family, his own position would long since have been filled with someone else.
Even so, the sense of danger kept lingering in his mind.
‘I need to train even more. I have a feeling that the bottleneck that’s been bothering me for years should be able to be broken this time!’ With the rise of the Faulen Family’s income, Jacob and those of his batch naturally benefitted.
Their salaries rose sky high, and Jacob felt that he was not deserving of this. Not only did he use this money for lessons from scholars, but he also sought powerful warriors for their advice. He had now reached the peak of rank 7, and was a step away from rank 8.
The new wheat farms met him outside the port, the green wheat filled with vitality freshening up the air. Jacob couldn’t help but take in several deep breaths.
Those farming here were the farmers who had migrated over from Faulen Island, and there were also slaves that had been released and the families of pirates.
Leylin especially made it a law that as long as slaves worked hard, they would regain their status as free people after a certain number of years, and would acquire 0.6 hectares of land. After paying three years of taxes, they could go to the city hall and apply to redeem it at a low price and become farmers of their own plots of land. The promise of becoming free men motivated the slaves to work with all their might.
Leylin knew that no matter how human society changed, a hierarchy would always remain. Allowing mobility between the levels would give those at the bottom hope, and was the only method that would ensure the vitality of both the organisation and government.
Past the wheat fields were even more guards. Jacob could sense knight-errants, thieves and even assassins spying from the shadows as the farms gave way to an industrial zone. This was where the fish floss and sugar were produced.
Ever since his first trade profits made their way into his hands, Leylin had shifted his production line to the area to give the port more space. It was also convenient to supervise it and ensure the secrecy of the place.
With the expansion of the profits from trade, the issue of security became increasingly serious. It was at the point that Leylin and his master Ernest came here personally to take charge of it. Most of the Faulen Family’s elite forces were here, which frightened off numerous spies. However, as long as there were huge profits, the spying would never end.
Leylin’s villa was next to the factories. He was never one to mistreat himself, and the villa took up a lot of space. He had even brought over his servants from the manor, including the housekeepers. Of course, Clara and Claire came as well.
Jacob only saw Leylin after two rank 10 warrior patrols. His sixteenth birthday had passed, and Leylin now seemed more mature. His curly blonde hair was like the sunlight, and his blue eyes like the sea. Every inch of his musculature was perfect, which made one feel that his proportions were in perfect harmony. Rather, with his current appearance he seemed like the ideal lover for a noble princess.
The sisters’ eyes showed how intoxicated they were by him; they hadn’t even noticed Jacob’s entrance.