Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest
Chapter 117 - 21: He Wants

Chapter 117: Chapter 21: He Wants

Roman returned to Origin Manor.

He sought out Dick and asked the middle-aged knight, "Does this land possess the means to mend broken bones?"

Dick was slightly startled and speculated inwardly that Roman intended to heal someone.

"I have only heard of it.

"The Pope’s ’Divine Hand’ possesses divine power capable of correcting all imperfections;

"Over a hundred years ago, there was a ’Redemption Witch’ named Vivian in the court of the Conqueror. People rumored that she had the power to bring the dead back to life;

"The legendary Elf Race possesses unique and astounding medical skills, wielding Natural Energy;

"Some of the Dragon Clan’s blood also has special miraculous effects, bathing in dragon blood can transform one’s physique..."

Dick went on to list many examples.

Roman glared at him, "If you don’t know, just say you don’t know, don’t spout all this nonsense."

Let’s set aside the Dragon Clan and Elf Race for now.

Roman would one day sever the Pope’s ’Divine Hand.’

But that was a long-term goal.

The Redemption Witch Vivian had vanished without a trace a century ago, even harder to find than the Dragon Clan.

She was also considered by people to be the main culprit why the Conqueror did not die of illness, those fools always believed that one day the Conqueror would return from the Nether Sea leading his army.

Roman had thought Dick, being well-informed, would have some valuable information, but it was all useless chatter.

"Can Galin not do it?"

Dick gave a bitter smile, "You’re asking too much of him... If we could find Blood Coral, perhaps Galin could give it a try."

Blood Coral was an extraordinary material from the deep sea.

Roman knew of it but wasn’t familiar.

Dick explained, "Blood Coral has the ability to regenerate blood. I saw such a treasure in my youth in the Free City—it looked like the legendary dragon horn, some parts crystal clear, yet filled with dense blood vessels inside, its form exquisitely beautiful. My lord, a small piece of Blood Coral at an auction in the Free City fetched a sky-high price; I heard a Bishop from Divine Mysterious bought it for 50 Gold Coins—you must know that is an enormous amount..."

Roman understood.

That meant more than ten warhorses!

Such extraordinary resources were very scarce and outrageously expensive.

If he was to raise Yaki up, not only would he need to invest various resources, but also a piece of Blood Coral.

Roman didn’t mind these matters, as long as the Angel Envoy was loyal and valuable, let alone one piece of Blood Coral, even ten, he wouldn’t be stingy.

Dick continued, "There aren’t many places where Blood Coral can be found, I remember only Coral Island, Ice Island, and the fjords."

Roman quietly noted these places, planning to seize them later and cultivate them once he had risen in power.

He didn’t care at all that Ice Island was a vast kingdom.

He asked, "Is Galin still unwilling to come?"

"Sometimes older people can also be stubborn..."

Roman then asked how Kao was doing. When Dick thought of that shadowy and fierce youth, with eyes seeming to flow with blood, he couldn’t help but shake his head.

"Everything is going smoothly. Kao has high Talent, but deep inside him hides a sharpness that will eventually hurt himself."

Roman nodded, "The terror of a sword lies in its tip always aimed at the enemy, just train him well. I need to unsheathe him soon."

Dick hesitated, wanting to know where Roman intended to wield the sword, but for the sword, the answer seemed unimportant.

"I’ll do my best."

...

The next day.

Roman and Seth rode fine horses, following the tract paved by the paving team.

Where the ground was dented, they filled it with soil, and where it bulged, they leveled it with shovels; the undulations of the road were not steep.

This fresh dirt road was somewhat narrow, but fortunately, it allowed the passage of carriages, moving straight ahead as if extending into the horizon without end.

They had been riding for over two hours.

The two arrived at the end, where the low-lying ridges were barren, devoid of any vegetation, with only the busy farmers around.

He had surveyed this coal mine before.

From this, Roman also noticed an issue: the coal reserves in this basin seemed sparse.

However, there was a significant amount of peat — peat being immature coal.

When Roman planted soybeans, he unearthed millions of pounds of peat, a load of three thousand carts, each person averaging tens of thousands of pounds of peat from the swamp.

But compared to the vast reserves of peat in the swamp, it was but a drop in the bucket, nowhere near depleted.

Perhaps it hadn’t had the chance to form into coal yet.

Moreover, Roman had only explored about one-tenth of the basin area so far, who knew if he might find larger, more easily mined coal deposits in other areas later on.

For now, a single coal mine was enough for his transition.

Relying solely on coal wasn’t sufficient for iron refining; it needed to be burned into coke.

Roman had to build kilns to seal and smolder the coal into coke.

He specifically left a hundred farmers to mine coal and build the kilns here.

The coal seam was relatively shallow, about ten meters deep from the surface, not very difficult to mine, but it was a tremendous challenge for these inexperienced farmers.

Roman had no choice but to become the foreman, overseeing and instructing their work steps.

Most of the time, it was he who personally took charge.

It was difficult to conduct open-pit mining. The difficulty of stripping the topsoil was too high.

The method of mining shafts was more convenient, but the downside was its danger and darkness.

Thus, Roman prepared to use both methods; open-pit mining where possible, choosing easily dug sections, and shaft mining where digging was not feasible.

Once the hazardous gases had dissipated, the dark coal seams were clearly displayed before him.

Seeing this, Roman also breathed a sigh of relief. Although it was a small-scale coal mine, the coal quality was relatively good, with a high degree of coalification, which would make coke refining less difficult and improve the efficiency of the end product.

He descended, chiseled off a chunk of hard coal with a cross pickaxe, and climbed up holding it.

Seth wiped Roman’s face, which was stained with black marks, with a handkerchief. The clean white handkerchief quickly became spotted.

"Can this black stone really replace charcoal?"

Roman wore an extremely proud expression.

He clenched his fist, enthusiastically said, "Seth, watch! From now on, I’m going to tell everyone on this land that a new era has arrived!"

Roman possessed unmatched confidence, a surging power seemed to burst forth from his body.

Only at times like this could one see his exuberant youthfulness.

Seth thought.

This young lord of his was usually very composed, only when discussing his grand future plans did he speak incessantly, just like other noble heirs— but when underage noble heirs discussed these in public, it was more about showing off, trying to capture everyone’s admiring gaze—a kin to a child boasting.

But he was different.

He would never talk about this matter in front of outsiders; he would only tell Green and Aaron about his future plans as if he was certain of their support.

Because of this, the two Conquest Knights had bet the rest of their lives on Roman.

While other great lords’ heirs talked about vague objectives, embellishing their nonsense with the grand deeds of conquerors.

The young Roman waved his fists, assertively talking about how to organize an invincible and unstoppable army.

He claimed that the glory of the army was just icing on the cake, the welfare of the army was the real relief.

Conquest Knights couldn’t represent the army; he only found it laughable, the landlords’ private armies weren’t even remotely like a real army.

Knighthoods were too backward still; he planned military reforms for the future, adjusting social relations, designing a new army system.

He wanted centralized power!

He wanted authoritarian rule!

He wanted to conquer everything!

—Those bold declarations from his youthfulness lingered before his eyes, gradually overlapping with the slightly matured face before him, giving Seth a disorienting sense of time flowing by.

...