The Stonemason's Arrival

Three carriages moved slowly forward, the heavy weight of their load put quite the strain on the horses pulling them, sitting at the front of one of the carriages were Evan and Simon, who waved back to Mathew.

-" Don't worry! I will make sure that nothing happens." Simon shouted as he gave Mathew a thumbs up

-" Be sure to return safely!" Mathew let out a smile, but, deep down he was torn with anxiety, the cargo was quite valuable and he feared that someone would try to rob them.

-" Simon and Evan can handle this, you should trust them." Irelia tried to comfort Mathew, however, even her words of assurance were unable to shake off Mathew's anxiety

"I certainly hope so." Mathew shook his head and turned around deciding to use the work he had to forget about this matter, this was his first day back at work, and he had much to do.

Mathew first decided to check on the state of the prefecture documentation, but, Evan was very diligent in his work, and had finished all the documentation before departing, so went straight to his next responsibility, dealing with the complaints of the villagers.

Some of the villagers had begun to complain about all the mining jobs going to people from outside of the village, something that infuriated Mathew as no villager showed interest in taking the job for the first two months.

It wasn't until they had finished tending to the land and had recovered that they decided it was time to finally take a job in the village, but it was too late for all of them.

Mathew grabbed the names of the villagers who had complained and went looking for them, he wanted to deal with this before the hate against outsiders grew too large.

"Is this Sir Raymond's residence?" Mathew asked one of the ladies that stood in front of a large mud shack.

-" The Magistrate? My husband is here, please enter." The woman was visibly shocked to have the prefecture magistrate visiting her. " Dear! The Magistrate is looking for you."]

-" Tsk! I can't wait to see what this guy has to say!" The man jolted up from a hammock that he was lying on and continued to spew curses at Mathew. " To bring all those people from outside and pay them with the money of our village! Hmph! He is just like Nicolaus." The man froze as he left the shack, and saw Mathew standing in front of his house.

"Oh, good day, Sir Raymond," Matthew spoke with a sarcastic smile on his face. " If I knew that you were so anxious for my response I would have come sooner."

Raymond panicked as he saw Mathew staring in front of his house, never expecting the man to come himself to visit him. -" H-Hello..." Raymond was lost for words as he didn't know how to explain his previous words. "I didn't expect you to show up... Is this about the words that I left in the prefecture Hall?"

-" You didn't expect it, but, you sure were looking forward to it." Mathew wasn't sure if his action were too docile and the villagers thought that they could pass over him, or if to this day he still wasn't able to gain their respect. " Go and gather all those people in the village's square, you have thirty minutes." Mathew passed a small note containing the names of all villagers who had lodged complaints about the miners, Originally, he considered appeasing them, but it appeared that he needed to be sterner.

The man nodded and rushed out, he felt that he needed to get on the good side of the magistrate, or his life in the village a living hell.

Mathew waited patiently in the square, and before long, the village was filled with people, many of them didn't know what was going on, and just joined in to see what was happening.

-" Coff, Coff... I came here to speak about some complaints that reached my ears.." Mathew stood up and looked at the villagers with a serious face. " Three months ago, I put out a job posting for mining jobs, and no one of you ever showed interest." Mathew gave a momentary pause and stared at Raymond. " But, now that I recruited workers from other cities, some of you decided that this was wrong and that all the mining jobs should be given only to those from the village."Mathew finished speaking and waited to see the reactions of the villagers.

-" The mine is the only place working in the village! We have no more jobs here!" One of them screamed. " This is our village! We should be the ones working there."

-" Not to mention their pay! Seven Silvers? Why are you wasting our money like this!"

-" Yeah! This is our village, why are outsiders getting the best jobs?"

Some of the villagers nodded in agreement, they all felt envious of the miners as they had now quite the good life.

-" Let me be clear! Not one person from here came forward when I requested workers. Every single one of you decided to focus on restoring your farms, but, now you come to me, complaining that people came to do the jobs that you all reject?!" Mathew raised his voice, putting all the power of his sixth cultivation level behind it, and scaring all the villagers.

-" We were very busy! We just received our lands back! Do you seriously expect us to leave them in that state?" Another village screamed in rage.

-" So? Did you also expect me to leave the mine abandoned, waiting for your goodwill to go to work?" Mathew snorted, a cold glint shining deep into his eyes. " Who do you think mined the ore that your tools are made off? Who were the ones working in the blazing heat and dust, who were risking their lives to bring the precious minerals out of the bowels of the earth?" Mathew infused small strands of Qi in his voice, trying to pass an even more powerful presence to the villagers present. " And one more thing... They are no outsiders! They are citizens of the Hard Pine Village, and it won't matter if they live here for one day or one year! I will treat every single citizen the same!"

Mathew's words left quite an impact on some of the villages, especially in those that never had a problem with the miners.

-" He is right! Wasn't it our choice to not go work in the mine? Why are they upset now?"

-" Didn't Raymond himself say that after receiving the three gold coins he would never set foot inside a mine again?"

Mathew was relieved to notice that only a small portion of the village thought ill of the decision to recruit laborers from the neighboring town to work in their mines. -" If this decision comes from fear of outsiders, I have nothing else to say... However, if you want to work, there is no need to worry because more job openings will be posted soon." Mathew finished his speech and locked his gaze with the crowd, who now seemed reassured by Mathew's words.

-" What types of jobs?" One of the villagers couldn't hold his curiosity back.

-" We will begin to recruit guards as soon as Simon comes back, and for now we will hire workers to help in the refurbishing of the town." Just as Mathew finished speaking, a group of carriages entered the village. " It looks like they finally arrived." Mathew lifted his hands and gestured for the villagers to disperse as he had already said everything he wanted to say, and walked to greet the guests that he waited so patiently.