“Company…” Roland said softly.
“What?” Victor was slightly taken aback. “If you have any doubts, I can explain it again—”
“No need,” he waved his hand. “This is indeed an interesting plan, at least it looks like there are no problems. If we were to implement it, how long would it take you to prepare the funds?”
Victor's eyes immediately lit up with joy. “I knew you would understand it—forgive my impertinence, Your Majesty, if you were also a merchant, you would absolutely not be under any large merchant guild!”
This metaphor seemed to lower the King's status, but placing the other party at the top of their field of expertise was a noble way of expressing high recognition, and could also be considered an undisguised flattery.
At this moment, Roland had a completely different idea: wasn't this a large industrial company from later generations?
Bringing technology to settle down, spontaneously recruiting personnel, organizing production and marketing, independent profit and loss… he didn't expect to hear such a complete concept from a contemporary person. The biggest difference from a merchant guild is that this plan combines production and sales, which can be said to be the prototype of a modern private enterprise.
This may be an excellent opportunity.
In the past four years, his territory has made considerable progress, but it has also gradually revealed its shortcomings—that is, the Administrative Office is almost taking care of everything. Any project requires the administrative department to control it, from staffing to budget allocation, these cumbersome work procedures take up most of the officials' time. As the scale of the project continues to expand, it will inevitably make the organization more bloated, and administrative efficiency will also decrease.
This can be regarded as the common problem of "state-owned enterprises"—once profit and loss have nothing to do with the participants, stability becomes everything. It has the advantages of disregarding returns and being determined by higher-level will, which can quickly meet needs in the early stage, and can also be used to tackle those strategic projects with high risks in the later stage, but it does not mean that it is omnipotent.
This is also one of the reasons why Roland is fully developing heavy industry and agriculture in Neverwinter City, but rarely cares about light industry—in addition to the limited labor force, the Administrative Office can't spare so many officials to deal with the expansion of industrial categories.
After all, issuing orders is simple, just a sentence, but if it is really to be implemented, even if it is just building one more steam engine assembly plant, it requires a whole set of people to support it.
And now, he has a new choice.
Before he even had a chance to use methods such as attracting investment, someone took the initiative to deliver it to him, so Roland naturally had no reason to refuse easily.
Although this "company" has a foreign family background, and profits will inevitably cause a certain outflow of gold royals, as long as its production departments are all within the territory of Graycastle, this shortcoming is nothing.
After reaching a preliminary agreement, Roland personally escorted Victor to the castle gate. "After you are ready, I think new cotton seeds should also be cultivated. But there is one thing I must explain in advance, if other merchants plan to imitate you in the future, the Administrative Office will also sell the seeds to them at the same price—the more abundant the market's commodities, the more affordable the price will be, you should know this principle better than I do."
“Of course, Your Majesty,” Victor’s eyes revealed a confident look. “The Dawn Merchants are never afraid of competition. My father always said that competition has already begun from the moment we are born.”
When he was about to take his leave, Roland suddenly stopped him again, “By the way, I also wanted to ask you a question. My ministers found out that you had tax payment records to Longsong Stronghold six years ago, why? If you wanted to save that amount of money at that time, it should have been easy for you to do so, right?”
Victor nodded, "But the lord at the time promised that as long as the taxes were paid in full, he would provide certain conveniences and protection for the caravans traveling between Border Town and Longsong. And he did do so—at that time, this expense could at least eliminate the threat of beasts and the troubles of fellow merchants' attacks. I always feel that paying a small price to obtain a stable and orderly rule is actually a good thing for merchants. It is a pity that many people would rather invest large sums of money in unworthy goods than regard the rules as one of the costs."
Sure enough, he's an interesting person, Roland thought to himself, watching the merchant's departing figure. With such a person as an example, Graycastle’s "private enterprises" should also usher in a rapid and vibrant development period.
As he was about to return to his office, Nightingale's anxious voice suddenly rang in his ear, "Your Majesty, Lightning is back, she seems to have encountered trouble—"
“What’s the situation?” Roland asked quickly.
“It’s not clear yet… I just received a message from Sylvie, she was brought back by Maggie and sent directly to the Medical Center!”
His heart sank suddenly, "She's injured? Take me over there to see her now!"
“Yes,” Nightingale reached out and grabbed him, then the two of them disappeared into the mist together.
...
After rushing to the Medical Center on the west side of the city, Roland saw the little girl lying on the hospital bed.
The moment he pushed open the door, the worry in his heart was dispelled a lot—Lightning looked unscathed, her face had no obvious scars or bloodstains, and her chest was still rising and falling, which meant that she would not be in any serious trouble. Even if this reconnaissance mission really encountered danger, she is now safe.
However, he quickly noticed something was wrong.
NanaWawa did not have the relaxed feeling of completing the treatment at all, but frowned, looking down at her hands, with a puzzled look.
Maggie was even more nervously lying on the bedside, wiping Lightning's forehead with her hands. When she saw Roland, she shrank her neck into her clothes, looking like she had done something wrong—at this time, he noticed that fine sweat was constantly emerging from her face, and she was making a shallow shenyin between her slightly opened lips, as if she were immersed in a nightmare.
“What’s going on?” Roland looked at NanaWawa. “Where exactly is Lightning injured?”
The latter raised her head and slowly pointed to her chest.
“Nightingale.”
“Yes.” Nightingale stepped forward, carefully picked up Lightning, helped her take off that special windproof jacket, and then unbuttoned the inner lining little by little. When she reached the collarbone, she couldn’t help but stop, “Your Majesty, this is—”
Roland approached the hospital bed and found a thumb-sized wound two fingers below Lightning's neck. Against the surrounding snow-white skin, this scar looked particularly conspicuous, but on closer inspection, it didn't even damage the muscle layer, it only broke the epidermis, belonging to the kind of small wound that would heal itself if left alone.
Logically speaking, healing such a wound would be a small matter that NanaWawa could complete in the blink of an eye.
But her next sentence stunned Roland in place.
“I can’t heal her…” NanaWawa murmured, “No matter how I drive my magic power, I can’t make the wound disappear, it’s as if my ability has failed.”