The witch thought I am a Demon God
Chapter 162 - 122: The Fury of the Florcana Republic 3406_1

Chapter 162: Chapter 122: The Fury of the Florcana Republic 3406_1

Lady Alice, straining to suppress her excitement, stepped forward and began to closely inspect the cast-iron ingots.

The Blacksmith Guild of Parviga had their own methods and tricks for judging the quality of iron ingots, Ivita saw them encircling the ingots, striking them with a small brass hammer, listening carefully to the sound of the iron.

With each strike, the faces of the five showed growing excitement.

To prevent any accidents, Lady Alice even returned to the carriage and picked out another cast-iron ingot from the bottom of the basket to continue their test.

Finally, all five people glanced at each other, an eerie silence settling among them.

Lady Alice took the initiative to speak. "Ivita, your supply is unexpectedly excellent, it would be praised anywhere you take it. It’s our luck you decided to cooperate with us, I apologize for the people who detained you before."

"These are indeed cast iron, one hundred pounds of raw iron worth 3 shillings, and one hundred pounds of wrought iron worth 5 shillings."

"Iron that’s gone through a single forging and quenching process is worth 6 shillings, twice is worth 8 shillings, and thrice is worth 10 shillings. But else, these prices are ideal but impractical, quality iron sources are always quite scarce."

Ivita waved his hand. "Those who detained me and my goods were the Lord’s doing. You have nothing to do with it."

Ivita drew a one-handed sword made of cast iron from the carriage, then walked over to Mr. Holman and took the wrought iron sword he carried.

Although Mr. Holman didn’t quite understand, he remained silent out of respect to Ivita’s status.

Under everyone’s puzzled gaze, Ivita raised the two swords, striking them together.

With a resonating clink echoing through the air, the cast iron sword in Ivita’s hand remained unscathed, while the wrought iron sword in his right hand had a gaping hole.

Ivita handed the cast iron sword to Mr. Holman. "I’m sorry for damaging your sword, this one is my compensation to you."

Mr. Holman bowed, taking the sword with both hands, "It’s a trivial matter, Baron, there’s no need to worry."

He started to smile.

Being a merchant, profits were his priority, and a cast iron sword was much more expensive than a wrought iron sword.

Not to mention a continuous supply of them.

Ivita turned around and addressed everyone:

"I guess, by now everyone should have a more intuitive understanding of weapons made from cast iron."

"This is its superior performance."

"Imagine, if our guild could produce such swords on a large scale for a long time, how much benefit would it bring to Parviga?"

Lady Alice’s eyes lit up. "This could become a symbol of Parviga’s quality."

"It could boost the sales of [Parviga]’s weapons made from other materials, even other industries."

The guild leaders also started discussing.

"War is coming, by then Ambros will have an even larger gap for quality weapons, I can foresee Parviga’s rise, our city will become richer, maybe even surpassing the cities currently ranked above us, becoming the fifth, the fourth largest city!"

"If Parviga can really produce such weapons on the battlefield continuously, we will rapidly expand in other industries. We might even become the largest city in the Ambros plains apart from Ambros City itself. Never forget the economic destruction war brings to a city."

"The economic scale of other cities will shrink due to war, but we can profit from it."

The guild leaders seemed to be considering how to surpass other cities when the intensity of the war escalated.

As the city’s scale expands, so does their business.

The upper limit for each city guild was determined by the upper limit of the city itself.

Lady Alice thought about it and offered her left open palm to Ivita, who remained silent as they all discussed, and said, "Considering all this, let’s settle the price like this: the cost of cast iron, including your transportation and labor costs, should be ten times that of wrought iron."

"On one condition, you must sell all the cast iron to us."

The guild leaders’ pupils shone for a moment, such a high pricing?

But it seemed reasonable.

It included the money for the monopoly.

After hearing this, Ivita thought for a while, which means one hundred pounds of cast iron would cost two gold pounds and ten shillings.

The price more or less matched his expectations.

However, he could not quite accept the monopoly part.

"I can only guarantee you that under the current production level, I’ll only sell to you," Ivita said.

Before Alice could speak, he said, "If you can take in all the output from our territory, of course, I can always sell it to you."

"But if you can’t take it all, then I’ll look for other cities that can."

Ivita said, "But I’ll try to avoid Parviga’s competitors and nearby cities and territories."

"Would that be acceptable?"

Lady Alice started laughing. "Of course."

"So we can purchase this carriage of cast iron."

The cast iron Ivita brought on this carriage weighed about twelve hundred pounds, and the weight Lady Alice had estimated was roughly the same.

So, she paid Ivita 30 gold coins.

Watching the glittering gold coins enter a small pouch, each one making a crisp clinking sound, was so pleasant to the ears.

Ivita happily received the bag of money, "Lady Alice, you told me before that you would give me a hundred gold coins as a reward."

"Yes, I did make this promise to you on the street before. Also, because of the mayor’s promise to you, you don’t have to pay any commodity transaction tax or toll tax. In the future, when you come here to sell things, you can take back whatever amount of money you sold it for, without having to pay any tax in between." Lady Alice was full of smiles, handing Ivita a bag of money that had been prepared beforehand. "Please count it, I won’t be responsible after you leave."

She said to Ivita, with a hint of jest.

Ivita shook his head. "No need."

"Your reputation is worth much more than a few gold coins."

He believed that Lady Alice would not do such a thing to him.

How foolish one must be, to resort to tricks in this situation.

For a big merchant like Lady Alice, the most important thing is not money, but credibility.

Credibility can be exchanged for money.

Lady Alice joked, "If the mayor knew what a big deal he had bypassed, he would surely regret it."

"Um, I will gradually increase the production of cast iron in the future," said Ivita.

The existing blast furnaces should be able to produce the equivalent of twelve carriage-loads of cast iron per month, which could bring in 360 gold pounds.

The original Baron’s territory only had about seven hundred gold pounds of income per year.

The future cast iron business of the territory is expected to bring in around 4320 gold pounds per year.

This revenue has already surpassed the income of many ordinary Viscounts’ territories.

Previously, the Baron’s territory was only involved in the downstream business of mining iron ore, which is why most of the income was being exploited. Iron ore is not valuable and is even less valuable than the worst iron material - pig iron.

Because iron ore is essentially just dug up stones, it needs to go through many processes to become iron material.

Thinking of something, Ivita said to Alice, "I want to ask, do you have a mirror worth a hundred gold pounds here?"

Mr. Holman widened his eyes. "A mirror worth a hundred gold pounds? My lord Baron, are you looking for the queen’s vanity mirror?"

Not exactly.

It’s just that the Spirit Mirror Divination requires such an expensive mirror.

Ivita said to Lady Alice, "I need a mirror that really matches this price, not a mirror that has had its price inflated temporarily for me. Madam, do you have any recommendations?"

Lady Alice frowned and pondered. "To my knowledge, such a pricey mirror is unlikely to exist in Parviga."

"Even if someone really sells a mirror at such a high price, it is most likely because they are reluctant to sell, or they have a difficult mind."

"And not because the seller thinks that the mirror is worth that much money."

"A hundred gold pounds, if you’re lucky, is already enough to buy a small village."

"That is quite luxurious."

Lady Alice shook her head and smiled bitterly. "There is no such mirror in Parviga."

Ivita also began to worry.

Perhaps he should consider learning another divination method.

However, the Old Witch only knew those three types, and the Spirit Mirror Divination seemed to be the only normal type of divination.

If he wanted to learn other types of divination, the Old Witch would definitely persuade him to go to Ambros City and look for her favorite disciple.

The problem was that her disciple was blamed for the murder of the Grand Viscount.

Who would dare to find her?

A risky choice would be to stage a fake transaction, like finding a servant, and having him sell the mirror in his hand to himself for a hundred gold coins.

That would be too risky.

Ivita still remembered the Hearthstone Witch telling him that her disciple had turned into a Chimera due to the risk of the spell.

If you try to take a shortcut for something that already carries a risk, there’s no telling what could happen.

He didn’t need to take such risks.

Just as Ivita was pondering what he should do, Lady Alice suddenly thought of something and her eyes lit up. "Ivita, do you know about Madalena City?"

"Madalena City?" Ivita shook his head.

Lady Alice laughed and said, "Madalena City is the third largest city in Ambros Territory."

"The city’s main economic pillar is the textile industry, and the Madalena fabric is top-notch in both feel and color."

"The reason I mention this is that a big event recently occurred in Madalena City."

"The daughter of the Weaving Guild has turned fourteen and the Chairman of the Weaving Guild wants to marry her off."

Lady Alice explained, "This isn’t a rare occurrence. But because his daughter was once cursed by a witch—if she did not get married by the age of fourteen, a beast would carry her off on her fifteenth birthday."

"So the Weaving Guild has started issuing invitations widely, inviting handsome young men to look for suitors. A banquet is held in the middle of every month, and it is said that many people have already gone. Most people go there not for the sake of the Chairman of the Weaving Guild, but to see the excitement. They want to meet the girl who will become the beast’s wife, so many dignitaries will go."

"You might find an opportunity there."

"But it’s best to send one of your subordinates."

"Because it’s too dangerous outside right now."

Lady Alice said, "Didn’t the Lord say before that the Viscount is plotting all the cities? News has been coming in these few days that several cities in Ambros Territory have been subverted by the Viscount, and the aristocratic faction has achieved victory."

"His actions have reportedly triggered the anger of the Florcana Republic."

"The governor of the Florcana Republic is even preparing to provide greater assistance to all the cities of Ambros."

"A storm is brewing," said Ivan.

These external forces are steadily intensifying the conflicts within Ambros Territory.