“There is no ‘but’, however,” Roland immediately interrupted him, “they are willing to buy the ore with gold royals, and at the same time they sell wheat, cheese, bread, honey and more at market price… which we can buy with the royals we got from the former transaction. But,Mr. Ambassador, even if you are willing to lend us a month of food, would the other five factions agree with your decision? As far as I know, it isn’t even easy for Duke Ryan to reach an agreement with the other families.”
Petrov kept silent, the 4th prince had put it right. Not just the remaining five, he even feared his own father wouldn’t agree. If they wanted to maintain the monopoly, it would be necessary to modify the trading scheme, but he did not know how he could have the last word. He was called an ambassador, but in reality, he was just the spokesperson. Perhaps the Duke did not want someone to come to any private agreements with Border Town, right? Whether it was during the time of the former governor or now with the 4th prince, he assigned a different candidate every season, and these people were never the rulers of their families.
Regardless of the outcome, he had to try, so when he thought up to this point, Petrov spread out his last cards.
“Thirty.” he held up three fingers, “Longsong Stronghold will buy the ore and rough gems for less than thirty percent of the market price. I think this price should be higher than the price of Willow Town, Your Highness.”
Roland responded, “Indeed it is higher, but there is still the old question, can you guarantee the agreement of all 6 families?”
“I will immediately go back to Longsong Stronghold tomorrow. After I get an agreement, I will come back with a new contract.”
“But my people are unable to wait that long. You should know, that if you want to reach an agreement between the aristocracy, it is usually very time consuming.”
“Your Highness, the cooperation with Longsong Stronghold would be a better choice for you and your people. Willow Town is too far away, so you and your people can also escape to them during the Months of the Demons,” when speaking up to this point Petrov felt that his throat became dry, “but the road isn’t easy… it is quite dangerous.”
Good God, what the hell am I doing? Petrov’s heart pounded madly, did he really threaten the prince?
“Ha ha ha ha!” surprisingly, Roland did not fly into a rage, but instead laughed, “Mr. Ambassador, you seem to have mistaken something, I never thought of retreating to Willow Town.”
“What do you mean…”
“Of course, I didn’t intend to go to Longsong Stronghold either.”
Roland watched the ambassador’s expression with interest, “I’m not going anywhere.”
Petrov momentary doubted whether his ears got it right or wrong.
Fortunately, the prince didn’t let this awkward silence continue for long, and he then explained, “This winter, I will always stay in Border Town. Border Town will become the new border of our kingdom. Do not be so surprised, my friend, I’m not spouting nonsense, I can show you the new masonry walls at the Northern Mountain Slope . “
“City… Wall?”
“Yes, connecting the North Slope Mountain and Chinshui River is a twelve foot high and four foot wide stone wall. With this, we can defeat the demonic beasts here at Border Town.”
Petrov felt his brain power wasn’t enough, when the former ambassador got back last season, he did not mention any city walls. No, at that time the lord of Border Town and the people were at Longsong Stronghold, how could they build the wall with the limited manpower they had? In other words, when the 4th prince arrived, he immediately began to build the city walls? Even so, until now it had only been only three months, so how could they have built something in this short amount of time?
Also… What was it His Highness just said? Twelve feet high and four feet wide, connecting the North Slope Mountain and Shishui River? Petrov estimated this in his heart, building a wall of this size wasn’t something possible to be done in less than 3 to 5 years, and first of all he did not even have enough stone masons for cutting and grinding so many stones! Even more, Border Town was only a mining town, most of the people living here were only common people.