The Transportation Corridor
The Transportation Corridor
"Only the Church and Timothy have the pills. Garcia has been far away from the Kingdom of Graycastle. It's completely unnecessary for her to assassinate me." Roland sighed. "More likely, it was Timothy. He doesn't dare to send his army out of King’s City to attack me, but that doesn't mean he has abandoned his plan for revenge."
Roland thought it was lucky that these attackers only carried pills instead of covering themselves with explosives. If they successfully ignited the explosives among the crowds, the efforts of these two months would have been wasted.
Actually, the Suicide Squad wasn’t his concern. He wore God's Stone of Retaliation and was protected by the guards when Nightingale wasn’t around. By doing so, he believed that those enchanted people could hardly approach him under the suppression of ten runner flintlocks, not even an Extraordinary.
He was surprised to see how quickly his mindset had changed in less than a year since he became the Lord. Any assassination or tumult like that attack would definitely make him get cold feet and feel at a loss if he remained to be his old self, that newcomer to the town. Despite the tension, he successfully hid his uneasy feelings and looked calm and in command. With absolute trust in his brave and loyal bodyguards, he was even amazed by himself. As the center of attention, he was able to stay cool during the emergency.
"Please bring the emissary delegation here. Ask them the details about how they recruited these people," Roland said to Barov, "and I also need to know where those people boarded the ship."
"Yes, Your Highness." As the City Hall Director, Barov felt uneasy. He didn’t expect that most capable City Hall officers he had chosen for this mission would have made such a great mistake.
"Don't blame them. Let's clarify the situation first."
When all the refugees went through the check point, Roland came back to his office in the castle. The emissary delegation brought him the good news this time. As the Eagle City and the Port of Clearwater in the Southern Territory were destroyed in the battle, the farmlands outside of the cities were deserted and all the former residents became refugees, looking for shelters. The food prices surged in bad weather when temperatures dropped sharply across the Kingdom of Graycastle. Under such circumstances, slave prices had already been halved.
If Roland could provide them a reliable, effective transportation corridor, those people would pour into Western Region. In fact, according to the report from the emissary delegation, many refugees were starting to head towards the Western Region, after hearing the news that Border Town was calling for recruitment.
But offering such a "transport corridor" was a tricky task.
As heavy snow in the "Months of the Demons" had covered all the roads, it was better to choose water transportation, using sailboats to transport refugees via Redwater River. "The Littletown", the witch-powered and the only boat of Border Town, obviously couldn’t meet all the needs in refugee transportation. To fulfill that task efficiently, at least twenty more sailboats were needed.
Shortage of boats remained a burning issue for the emissary delegation. On their mission, they found it hadn't cost them a lot to win the refugees over, yet they had spent most of their gold royals on the transportation and settlement of refugees. Only nearly 400 refugees had already arrived at Border Town and more than 3,000 were still settled in Willow Town, Silver City and Fallen Dragon Ridge, waiting for boats to fetch them.
Unfortunately, all the boat owners raised prices based on the current market trend. The budget cost for the transportation of the remaining 3,000 refugees was now almost the same as that for the last rescue plan in King's City. If this condition persisted, this refugee transportation would cost more money than they could imagine. After the delegation's report, Roland thought for a moment and quickly decided to ask the Margerie's Chamber of Commerce for help, hoping they wouldn’t bid an unaffordable price for the sake of Lightning.
He thought further and had a plan in his head. He wanted to build more boats for the town so as to control the transportation expenditure. With advancements in steel and cement production, the town now was able to build steam engine-driven huge punts, serving as transportation vehicles on the river.
...
After the lunch, Barov knocked at his door and came in, "Your Highness, I've found out what you want to know."
"Go ahead." Roland said.
"Cyron, one of my students, was in charge of the refugees in the North. He couldn’t find enough boats to transport refugees back to Western Region, so he contacted some old friends in King's City , hoping that they could help him with the boat issue." Barov sighed. "He settled his refugees in Silver City, which is close to King's City. I guess it was possible for Timothy to somehow hear about that and send his men to mix in the refugees."
"How many refugees are there now in Silver City?" Roland asked.
"About 800," Barov answered, "and the hired boats make a round trip in at least half a month. I'm worried about what will happen when they carry refugees back the next time. How about recalling the platoon of the First Army and abandoning those refugees in Silver City?" Barov suggested.
"No, no, let's improve our check process, pick out the ones sent by Timothy and separate them when they are passing the check of the town." Roland answered, "If we abandon the refugees in Silver City, driving some of them back to the North, the people there hearing about this will never trust us again." Roland said.
With the help of Silvio and Nightingale, spies and assassins could be identified easily. They weren't a threat to Roland. He just wanted to make proper arrangements to ensure the safety of the innocent refugees.
"Yes, Your Highness." Barov paused a while and asked. "So, what about Cyron?"
"I want to listen to you first." Roland suggested.
Barov hesitated for a moment and said, "I suggest removing him from the office and deducting two months' salary. He isn’t prudent enough for this job, but it seems cruel to exile him to the North Slope Mine area as a punishment. After all, he didn't mean it and it hadn’t caused any severe damages."
Roland couldn’t help laughing for he could easily tell that Barov felt awkward from his face. Roland smiled and said, "That's alright. Let him off. The salary deduction is enough. He didn't deliberately leak the information. He just lacked experience and had never done this kind of job. I remember he’s still in his twenties, right? He has room to grow and must have learned some useful lessons this time. Let's give him a chance."
"Yes, Your Highness." Barov answered and made a bow.
Roland smiled and shook his head. He knew that Barov wasn't willing to punish Cyron severely, despite the fact that he suggested a quite tough punishment in the beginning. Cyron was among his first group of students and had followed him since the time when he was still in King's City. He fostered him like his own son.
"That's it." Roland said and Barov withdrew.
Then Roland stretched. and took some blank papers out of his drawer, planning to draw sketches for steam engine-driven cement punts. At this time, Leaf suddenly ran in.
"Your Highness," she said excitedly, "Farsight is back!"
"Really?" Roland sprang up and quickly followed her to the castle backyard. A huge hot air balloon was gradually flying down, casting shadow on the garden.
As soon as it landed, Anna hopped off. Roland opened his arms to fetch her and Ana took this chance to give him a sweet hug.
"I am back."
.