Work Prophet
Chapter 414 - 32 The Dream of the Arias Family

Chapter 414: Chapter 32 The Dream of the Arias Family

Lu Weijia had a taste of what it felt like to be a superstar, surrounded and paraded around Teacup Castle for several rounds.

Some even squeezed through the crowd to hug him. Moved by their persistence, Lu Weijia had just reached out his hand when two burly men emerged from behind the person and without a word, pinned him to the ground.

"Captured an assassin from the Blood Moon Association!" an excited warrior from the Black Dog Guard reported to Jude.

The grim-faced man was noncommittal, "Interrogate him first, the assassin from the Blood Moon Association shouldn’t be just this incompetent."

Indeed, his guess proved correct. When captured, the man had acted arrogantly, claiming he feared not death and was willing to die for the goddess, but he couldn’t endure the severe torture for long and soon confessed everything, begging for his life.

Li Yu was somewhat speechless after hearing the interrogation results.

The assassin was very young, just eighteen this year, a year younger than Ireya, with an inexperienced face.

According to him, his family had been followers of Pisya for generations. Somehow, after hearing a sermon by the Blood Moon Association, he harbored a seed of hatred in his heart, always hoping to teach the noble lords of the West and other heathens a lesson.

But until today, it had been just thoughts. Until last night, his uncle had given him a barrel of poor-quality ale, of which he drank half alone. The more he drank, the more the fury in his chest burned fiercely.

The next morning, upon hearing that the Double Rest Sect was to hold another ceremony to summon the Heroic Spirits, fueled by last night’s drunkenness, the youth decided to do something for the goddess.

Thus, he set off to Green Field to assassinate the newly arrived Servant and eliminate a formidable foe for the Blood Moon Association.

However, no sooner had he stepped onto the Arias family’s territory than he was simultaneously targeted by the territory’s guards, the Double Rest Sect’s Black Dog Guard, and Greta’s rats.

The only path that awaited him then was obvious.

After suffering brutal torture, the young assassin had completely sobered up, realized his mistake, and wept bitterly, swearing to Pisya that he was absolutely not a member of the Blood Moon Association.

Li Yu was still inclined to believe his story. This young assassin couldn’t even be considered a fanatic of the Silver Moon Goddess, as his performance after the torture was too embarrassing.

Today’s behavior was clearly a momentary high from the alcohol, youthful arrogance, but Li Yu had no intention of letting him off.

People, especially adults, still need to be responsible for their own actions.

However, killing him now seemed a bit wasteful, so Li Yu temporarily threw him into Miss Rabbit’s dungeon, considering it an addition to the Double Rest Sect’s body reserve.

Thanks to the help of Niu Xiangui, the Newbie Guide, this summoning ceremony was much smoother for Li Yu than the last, saving him a lot of effort, including in the follow-up.

The 10 Divine Country points spent were well worth it.

Speaking of Divine Country points, Li Yu roughly went through the recent accounts of the Double Rest Sect. As more projects were initiated, expenses had increased compared to before, but revenues had grown even faster.

Four paper mills had already been built, with the fifth and sixth under construction. As for the textile factories, there were three of them.

Li Yu had specifically selected a piece of land that was not very suitable for farming, designated it as the manufacturing district, and planned to centralize all the workshops and factories there in the future.

One reason was for easier management, and the other was for confidentiality.

The principles and processes of papermaking technology were not complex, nor were its demands on raw materials high. Anyone who mastered this craft could produce paper on their own.

The pedal-operated loom worked in a similar manner. Compared to papermaking technology, it was perhaps a bit more challenging to replicate, but it was not prohibitively difficult. As long as one loom was taken out, given the skill level of carpenters on the Bratis Continent, it was not impossible to imitate.

Li Yu knew that these technologies would eventually spread, and he was not particularly worried about this, for there were many other things that could be made.

Yet, Li Yu still hoped that the rate of information leakage could be somewhat slower, as this would also allow the Double Rest Sect to accumulate greater wealth.

Apart from isolating manufacturing to a specific district for management, Li Yu also centralized trade at Teacup Castle, to prevent visiting merchants from snooping around too freely, while also contributing some tax revenue to Miss Rabbit.

Although the paper mill and the textile factory had little to do with the Lady, if it were not for the recent rise of the Arias family in the western territories, which brought them their current prestige and power, Li Yu’s sudden venture into trading and selling high-profit new goods would surely have attracted coveters.

And now, while there were indeed those who envied the Double Rest Sect’s two lines of business, especially the production of white paper, no one had yet dared to make a reckless move.

Last month alone, the gross profit of the Double Rest Sect reached an astonishing three thousand and five hundred Gold Coins, even after deducting the twenty percent tax owed to the Lady.

That left a net profit of two thousand eight hundred Gold Coins. Even if they merely maintained their current scale, they could amass over thirty thousand Gold Coins in a year.

They were even close to matching the current income of the ruling Figrola family in the western territories.

And Ireya obviously valued this matter highly, having established a small market outside Teacup Castle specifically for collecting taxes, no... for meeting the trading needs of the Double Rest Sect and other trade caravans.

Later, as the number of people coming to Green Field increased, merchants who smelled opportunity rented the land and began opening inns and taverns.

In short, the area outside Teacup Castle had begun to develop a commercial ambiance, no longer just barren land.

Although Miss Rabbit sometimes felt those people were somewhat noisy in the early mornings, chattering away and spoiling the natural scenery outside the castle,

once she heard the sound of Gold Coins falling into the money bag, the Lady felt that all these were tolerable.

She believed that it would become even livelier outside the city after some time.

With the immense prestige brought by Dragon Slayer, and Li Yu performing miracles several times, the population in the Lady’s territory had greatly increased, along with a substantial boost in spending power.

Moreover, after using new agricultural tools and farming methods, if all went well, Green Field would experience an unprecedented great harvest, and then people’s pockets would be fuller.

That would definitely attract more merchants to come here to open shops, and conduct trade, establishing a beneficial cycle.

Ireya had already started planning to build a city.

Establishing a town centered around Teacup Castle had always been the dream of successive generations of Arias Family Heads, but that dream was too distant for them, so much so that no one dared to speak of it openly for fear of other nobles’ ridicule.

But now, the Lady was getting closer and closer to the long-held goal of her family, and after checking the funds she had accumulated, Miss Rabbit realized building a large city might not be feasible yet, but a small one should already be within reach.

She could manage to obtain the materials needed for building the city, the only real challenge was manpower.