Volume 1: Stranger in a Strange Land Chapter 19 Silver Mine
Compared with the indecisive previous Duke of Thorn City, Duke Simon is much tougher on issues involving his own interests, and sometimes even does not hesitate to create friction with the royal family of the Riel Empire.
For example, the ownership of the Silver Mine. From a legal point of view , since Terra I conquered the Blackwater Kingdom and changed it to Blackwater Province, several larger source silver mines headed by the Silver Mine should have been the assets of the royal family, and the Lord of Thorn City was just managing them on behalf of the royal family.
However, after Simon took over as the Duke of Thorn, the first thing he did was to remove all the forces that the royal family had planted in the Silver Stream Mine, making the Silver Stream Mine completely the private property of Duke Simon. The royal family could only collect a trade tax from the annual export trade of raw silver.
This incident made the people of Thorn City feel insecure, fearing that the fearless Duke Simon would openly confront the royal family over a disagreement and start a war again on this cursed land.
However, strangely enough, the royal family chose to compromise, and ultimately only signed a trade agreement that required them to give priority to providing high-quality source silver metal ingots to the Imperial Battle Mage Academy and the Star Council.
Today , the Silver Stream Mine is guarded by the elite Thorn Black Guards, and all the miners hired are locals with no background. Even the supervision and management are assigned to the court mages under their command.
For the Duke, this meant that he had firmly control over the industry. However, for the supervisor sent here, anyone would have complaints about a magic caster stooping to work as an overseer in the mines.
Especially the supervisor who was being provoked by the new miner in front of him. As a magic caster with an expert title, he should have been attracting attention in the court or continuing his research in the academy.
As a result, just because of a mistake in his political stance, he was sent to this mine to manage a group of dusty and ordinary people.
No matter who comes here, they will have a bad temper.
Therefore, the first rule he set when he came here was that anyone who spoke to him had to add "Sir" at the end. Although it was difficult for him to feel superior to these miners, it could at least alleviate some of the humiliation of being sent here.
And this new miner who had just been transferred here actually dared to make fun of these rules.
Everyone looked towards the daring newcomer.
The supervisor did not get angry immediately, but spoke with a gloomy expression.
"Show me your transfer order."
Every miner who comes to the Silver Flow Mine will have his or her identity strictly checked by the Source Silver Chamber of Commerce to prevent other forces from inserting spies into the Source Silver Mining Industry. Even if they are transferred from other mines, they need to sign a transfer order with a rose seal.
William took out a folded "transfer order" from his pocket.
This is a blank sheet of paper with nothing on it.
It's not quite right to say that it was a blank piece of paper. The moment the supervisor opened it, many fine tadpole characters appeared on the paper, but they only appeared for a moment before disappearing. The supervisor's eyes were also blank for a few seconds.
When he came to his senses, he folded the paper again as if nothing had happened and handed it back to William.
"You join the team first, and we'll talk about the contradiction when you come back."
The overseer said calmly.
The miners around looked at the supervisor in disbelief, and when he turned his gaze back, they quickly lowered their heads.
When did his temper become so good?
…………
I didn't expect that even the supervisor here is a magic caster. Fortunately, I prepared the legendary spell [Seal of Confusion] instead of the expert spell [Confuse Humanity] in advance, otherwise I would not be able to fool them.
In the game, these two skills are just illusion skills, and their effect is to make the enemy temporarily ignore you when you are stealthing. The only difference is that the former is effective against intelligent creatures below level 50, while the latter is only effective against humans below level 20.
But after traveling through time, William discovered that these two illusion skills were just as described, able to confuse the mind of the caster to a certain extent. Of course, the confusion was only for a moment and could not reach the point of control.
But it's okay to let him sneak into this mine first.
Rows of magic crystal lamps lit up in the mine, and miners filed in, putting on their personal equipment in front of the mine elevator.
William imitated the others and tied the rope around himself, but his technique was a bit messy and it took him a long time to tie it. At this time, the tall man named Sigmons came over.
"Go through this place from below and tie a knot here..."
He patiently instructed William to put on the equipment for going down the well.
"The equipment used by miners in the mines of Thorn City should be similar. Is this your first time in a mine?"
After helping William put on his equipment, he asked casually.
"Well, this is my first time down in the mines. Can you tell me what's going on here?"
Sigmund looked at the man in front of him in surprise.
Although I was just asking tentatively, I never thought that he had never been down a mine.
He had never seen such a thing before. How could it be possible to let someone who had never been down a mine enter the Silver Stream Mine? Even his old friend's child, Colter, had to be taught by him for a period of time before he started to go down the mine in the true sense.
Considering the strange attitude of the supervisor after seeing the "transfer order", Sigmund couldn't help but doubt the true identity of the man in front of him.
There are rumors that Duke Simon had disguised himself as a miner and visited several mines to conduct investigations before he came to power. Of course, his purpose was definitely not to understand the miners' sentiments, but to find out the specific operation of the entire source silver industry, so as to pave the way for him to completely regain the dominance of the source silver industry.
So who could this person who doesn't look like a miner at all be?
Thinking of this, Sigmund shook his head in his heart.
No matter who he is, he probably won't bring any changes to them.
The game between the Duke of Thorns and the Riel royal family twenty years ago seemed to have changed the situation in the entire Blackwater Province and affected the fate of countless nobles and bureaucrats. But for the miners, it was just a slave changing masters. Even after the Duke took power and sent the Thorn Black Guards and court mages as their managers, their lives seemed to have become even more difficult.
"Shall we go down from here?"
William asked as he looked at the bottomless mine.
Sigmund came back to his senses and then answered.
"Yes, but we have to wait for the elevator. The shallow mineral veins have been mined out. Now we have to go deeper underground to find the mineral veins."
As he was speaking, a five-square-meter elevator shaped like an iron cage was raised.
"Just like last time, go down to the No. 9 mine tunnel in groups of ten. Remember to turn on the magic crystal mining lamps after going down to save energy. Each group should bring a cage of golden-tailed birds. If you find any abnormalities with the birds, come up immediately."
After Sigmund finished speaking to the crowd, he spoke to William and the child named Cort.
"You two will be the first group to go down the mine with me."
The two nodded.
With the creaking sound of gears turning, the elevator slowly descended.
"You must remember..."
As the elevator was descending, Sigmons suddenly spoke.
"Remember to be gentler in front of the supervisor when you go back tonight. Although I don't know why he didn't get angry directly before, he is a vengeful person. Don't really make him angry."
William smiled and asked a question that had nothing to do with the previous topic.
"I heard that the Silver Stream Mine was briefly blocked not long ago. Do you know the reason?"
"Shh! Don't talk about that here."
