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"Blackstone Fief! Your lord has returned!"
Lynn, with his hands on his hips, nimbly dodged the horse's mouth that was trying to bite him and stood beside the carriage, laughing loudly.
This trip out could be described as a bountiful harvest.
Although he was nearly played to death by a sadistic Dragonborn princess, he had secured two large orders!
Furthermore, the grain serving as his consultation fee was also on its way.
He had already begun to conceive how to complete a major leap in industrial upgrading for Blackstone Fief, and was even imagining where the Blackstone Tower should be built.
And then, a thrown stone shattered his fantasy.
"Bad guy! Give me back Sister Elysia's life!"
Along with a tender, childish voice came a stone that nearly hit Lynn's shoulder.
He raised his eyebrows and looked toward the source of the voice.
It was a plainly dressed... no, it should be said shabbily dressed... brown-haired boy.
He was glaring at Lynn viciously with his small eyes.
"Ho ho, how interesting. What's your name, brat?"
Lynn revealed a wicked smile, crossed his arms over his chest, and looked at the boy haughtily.
"Tom! Lord, please have mercy. Your status is noble; I beg you not to lower yourself to this child's level."
A woman rushed out from a nearby bungalow, hugged the boy tightly, and then knelt down, pleading with Lynn in an almost begging tone.
Lynn's gaze focused on the woman's face, and then he revealed an even more brilliant smile.
My, my, how had he not noticed before?
So there was such a noteworthy place on his own territory.
This was truly a great opportunity!
"Mmm, Iyanna thinks that every time the Boss smiles like this, he's thinking of bad things."
"Shut up and drive our new ride back to the castle."
After driving away the biting horse and Iyanna, he smiled and continued to walk forward.
Ignoring the woman's terrified face and the boy's even more intense hostility, he grabbed the woman's hand.
"My Lord, I beg you, at least not in front of the child..."
"My, my, Madam, look at your hands, they are all covered in chilblains. May I ask about your family's heating situation?"
(ED: Chilblains (also called pernio or perniosis) are small, painful, and itchy patches of inflamed skin. They are caused by an abnormal circulatory reaction to exposure to cold, damp air, but not freezing temperatures)
"Eh?"
Just like that, Lynn successfully completed his market research, roughly understanding the expenditure on heat sources for the residents of a remote northern border settlement like Blackstone Fief.
As expected, like most places in the Middle Ages, because trees were regarded as the lord's private property, besides a few individual lumberjacks, the residents could only pick up nearby fallen branches as firewood.
This would lead to the extension of a profession like firewood gatherers, who would sell firewood collected from a wider area.
In Blackstone Fief, to maintain the most basic heating, the expenditure on extra firewood purchased from lumberjacks or firewood gatherers would account for one-fifth of their income, and in winter, it would even reach one-third.
Although the situation might be slightly better in other places as they were not so far north, it wouldn't be much better.
This meant that as long as the supply was sufficient, cheap White Charcoal could theoretically earn one-sixth of the entire northern border's income.
And this was without even counting the demand from the Frost Kingdom.
The true market potential was never about how many distributors wanted to buy your product, but how many consumers urgently needed your product.
Therefore, he would not miss any user.
Looking at the woman who was, for some reason, looking confused, Lynn continued to speak with a smile:
"Madam, you wouldn't want this child to continue freezing, would you..."
Hearing this, the woman's face instantly turned pale.
"Then please look forward to the White Charcoal that your great lord is about to mass-produce!
The residents of Blackstone Fief will become the model for the northern border, breaking free from the fate of being accompanied by the cold!
And you, brat, you can look forward to it too, because you might just be able to see that Sister Elysia again! Hahaha!"
Watching the figure laughing wildly as it walked away, the woman did not recover her senses for a moment.
However, the boy named Tom clearly reacted very quickly.
He broke free from his mother's embrace and threw another stone:
"Liar!"
"Oof!"
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"Thanks to Miss Elysia's assistance, I have currently confirmed the conditions for the magical transformation of the black stones."
Theodore, staring with large dark circles under his eyes, looked at Lynn, who for some reason had a swollen lump on the back of his head, and continued to report at the group meeting:
"This is the first magical black stone we have discovered. For the sake of brevity and to distinguish it from magic minerals, I will call it a Magic Stone."
After Theodore took out the black stone that was emitting a red light, he continued to rummage through the things in his backpack:
"Then this is the black stone I placed inside the pile of wood that Elysia burned. This piece is the black stone that was outside the wood, and this piece is a black stone that I used a rack to place in the area of high rising heat but not in direct contact with the flames."
He took out three more black stones, but only the second one exhibited the form of a Magic Stone.
"Is it related to the degree of contact with Elysia's flames?"
Lynn rubbed the lump on the back of his head and offered his guess.
"That's right, that's exactly it! To be precise, according to the conclusion of my deductions, it should be related to the degree of contact with magical things."
Theodore's eyes were bloodshot. He excitedly leaned close to Lynn, scaring the latter into shrinking his body.
"Do you know what this means?
Theoretically, black stones can be transformed into Magic Stones of any attribute!"
Lynn pondered for a moment.
This meant that as long as he had enough types of witches, he could mass-produce various magic minerals at will?
In other wordsβ
He could earn the same amount of money as the Church!
Thus, he also excitedly leaned close to Theodore, and the two of them held hands and jumped up.
"A discovery of the century!"
"A super source of wealth!"
"Hahahaha!" x2
Elysia, wearing a long red dress, helplessly held her forehead:
"I'm speechless. These two fellows are the same kind of madman."
And beside her, Iyanna, who was inhaling food like a storm, completely paid no attention to what was happening around her.
"Then, Employee Number One, what have you been up to?"
Hearing Lynn's inquiry, the silver-haired witch proudly puffed out her chest:
"Hmph hmph, I have burned a stable full of charcoal, and the whitening effect is even better...
Wait, why should I feel proud?"
"Mhm, not bad. What about yesterday?"
Hearing this sentence, Elysia nearly tripped and fell on the spot:
"What are you talking about? This is the amount I've painstakingly burned over so many days!"
"Hah!"
Lynn let out a loud shout, and his endless anger gave Elysia a start.
"Under normal circumstances! You can complete one burning session in forty minutes!
Plus resting to replenish magic and eating, which is counted as work time, and assisting Theodore's research, that's one batch burned in one hour!
Then I've calculated, you should have burned three stables' worth of charcoal during this period!"
"What do you mean 'should have'! Are you saying I have to work twenty-four hours a day?"
"Am I such a cruel person? A normal calculation shows that only twenty-two hours would be needed."
After listening to Lynn's lesson, which included marketing and business trade, as well as the big pie he drew about the two large orders, Elysia gave her response.
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γFavorability: -10 (Completely not human!)γ
γD-Rank Magic Fluctuation, Roast Suckling Pig Burst Flame is taking shape.γ
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