25 Urgent News

Mathew sighed in relief as they finally finished gathering all the pieces of rocks, and began to take them to the prefecture hall while asking for Irelia to go call Ronald over. If his theory was right, not only they would be one step closer to perfecting the formula of cement, but, the village would get a hefty source of income too.

Mathew placed all the stones in the prefecture courtyard, and sat down with the group, observing the pile of rocks with a happy face. -" There are about twelve kilos here... if this is truly limestone, doesn't this means that I just got a bunch gold?" Mathew smiled as he grabbed one of the stones and crushed it.

The stone was still wet, so it didn't break into fine powder as he had expected, and he made a mental note to dry the stones before using them. Mathew proceed to get another one, but, this time, he placed it next to a small fireplace he had lightened up.

The white stone quickly began to react to the heat, and cracks began to appear, slowly causing the stone to crumble, Mathew grabbed the small pieces of rock and crushed them, and this time, the stones turned into a fine powder.

-" Drying seems necessary, but, I'm pretty sure that we could bake it too." Mathew was observing the powder when he heard the sound of the door opening and quickly turned around, expecting to be Irelia and Ronald, but, to his surprise it was Evan. " Oh? Finally arrived?"

-" A few minutes ago." Evan looked at the stones in the ground with curiosity. " What are you up to?"

-" Nothing much..." Mathew grinned as he threw one of the stones to Evan, and continued speaking. " I was just searching for Limestone."

-" Limestone?" Evan looked at the rock and asked in amazement. " Is this really limestone? How did you find it?" He was shocked to learn that the village still had more hidden resources.

-" I think it is, but, I can't be sure. As for the location, I will tell everyone later." Mathew felt that he was already jumping the gun too much, and decided to calm down; " I'm waiting for the confirmation before planning anything else."

-" Sigh... and here was I thinking that your stroke of good luck had come to an end." Evan sat down next to Mathew and took out a letter. " Something happened while he was selling the demonic beats items, it's better for you to see this."

-" Something happened? It's serious or urgent?" Mathew grabbed the letter and asked while observing Evan's tense expression.

-" Serious, but, not urgent." Evan let out another sigh and lay down on the ground. " You will understand the situation better after reading the letter."

Mathew nodded and looked at the letter, which had a seal shaped like a rose, but, completely dark. -" Dear Magistrate, it's come to our attention that your village wasn't paid the protection fee in the past few years, this was due to a previous agreement between our sect leader and the previous magistrate, and now that the leadership of the village has changed, this agreement is nullified." Mathew began to read the letter out loud, but, he had to pause for a moment as he couldn't believe how brazen the person who had written it was, and after only a few seconds of calming down, he then continued to read the letter. " As for today, your village will not be considered to be a protectorate of the Blooming Dark Rose Sect, and if you wish to keep the bandits at bay, it's recommended that you began the monthly payment as soon as possible."

-" So? "Are you going to pay for it?" Evan wasn't sure about what to do, especially since Hard Pine Village barely had any guards. " The man sounded quite aggressive when he spoke to me."

-" Blooming Dark Rose Sect? Are they strong?' Matthew threw the letter in the fireplace after folding it.

-" Well, it depends, if you compare it with another sect, not so much, however, they could easily crush us."

"Would they risk it?" Isn't attacking a city a suicidal move?" Mathew didn't believe that they would be so careless.

-" Well, they could disguise themselves as bandits, and come rob us, or even give the local bandits a go-ahead on pillaging. " Evan shrugged his shoulders as if it were inevitable. " There were too many ways for the sect to completely destroy the village if they trully wants it."

-" How much are they requesting?" Mathew let out a deep breath in defeat, it looked like each time he made progress, a new problem would arise.

- " Three gold coins per month..." Evan's voice was faint, as he knew that this was an outrageous amount of money to ask for the protection of such a small village.

"Three gold coins? There is no way that I'm paying that...." Mathew shook his head and jolted up in fury. " We are better off paying mercenaries with this money!"

-" It's true, but, I doubt that this will work in the long run." Evan had already thought about it, but, he knew that this would only make the sect even more enraged. " I don't think we have another choice."

-" Of course we have! Where is Simon?" The lurking danger caused Mathew's mind to work on overdrive, searching for a way to increase the village's defense force.

"I suppose in his house." Evan shook his head, as it was already clear that Mathew would stand up against the sect. " Mathew they are cultivators... They may not have many strong cultivators, but they are cultivators nonetheless."

Mathew shook his head, he understood why Evan was fearful, but, if they couldn't just bow their head like this. "I don't care if we use up all of the city funds; we will stand up to ——— " Mathew was still mid-speech when the door was flung open and Ronald ran inside.

-" Limestone! Did you really find limestone?" Ronald's eyes were bloodshot, as he couldn't believe that the man had gotten the material so quickly.

Evan and Mathew looked at the man in surprise, and before they could even speak, Ronald rushed towards the stones on the ground and began to observe them.

-" Dear Lord! It's true." Ronald grabbed one of the stones and run up to Mathew. " How did you get it? There had to be a mine around here, right?" Ronald was sure that no Limestone mine existed around this area.

Mathew's eyes flashed as he locked eyes with Ronald, and his mind cleared up. " Where is Erwin? Go call him and Simon, we have something to discuss."

Ronald felt the tense atmosphere, and curiously looked around, even finding this amount of limestone should be something to be happy about, and he didn't understand why Mathew was so serious. " Did something happen?"

-" You will understand soon enough." Mathew walked to the table in the courtyard and took a seat. " Go and bring those two to me."

Everyone was astonished by how serious Mathew was acting, quickly running outside to get the two, and before long, everyone was already in the courtyard.

-" Evan, why don't you tell us what happened in Maplehill?" Mathew regretted throwing the letter away, but, there was nothing he could do now.

-" The Bloosimg Dark Rose Sect... they are threatening us." Evan looked around, curious about who were the two new people here, but, it seemed that Mathew trusted them, so he continued. " They are requesting three gold pieces per month or else...."

-" Brazen!" Irelia shouted in rage, the thought of a sect threatening a village like this was too much for her to hold back. " Who do they think they are?"

-" Three gold pieces? I never heard about a village paying this much..." Ronald finally understood Mathew's mood and looked at him in pity. " So? Are you paying?"

"No, I'm not going to pay." Mathew took a deep breath as he opened the map of the village. " I would like to ask how long and how much it would cost to build a wall around the village?"

-" Around the village?" Ronald quickly made the calculations in his head and came up with an estimation. " About sixty gold coins, I guess... of course, this cost includes the mortar and all the stones needed."

-" Mathew... A wall won't be enough if they decide to act." Evan didn't understand what Mathew was thinking, after all, it was better to pay the bribe than to build such a wall.

Mathew completely ignored Evan's remarks and continued to speak -" Sixty? I'm not speaking about just the village itself, but, the whole area around it." His words nearly knocked everyone off their chairs.

-" T-T-The whole village?" Ronald looked at the map and asked with his voice shaking. " Can you show me what you are thinking about?"

Mathew quickly made some marking on the maps, the wall around the village wouldn't be enough, as he wanted to keep not only their houses but, the mine and some parts of the rivers safe too. " A wall that can connect those four points." Mathew's drawing went from one river bank, up the hill, past the iron mine, and descended down to the opposite river bank.

-" No! Mathew wake up! We don't even have the manpower to patrol such a big wall!" Evan had enough of Mathew's lofty dreams and shouted in anger. " Just pay it! It's better this way."

-" This wall.. it would cost around one hundred coins just in materials, and the manpower needed would be too great too." Ronald sighed, they would have to dig the foundation, clean the area, and build the wall, making this a work that would last for very long. " You would have to spend nearly four hundred gold just in wages for something like this."

-" So about five hundred gold coins?" Mathew let out a grin and held his chin. " How many more stonemasons do you have back in the guild?"

-" Uh... Around forty or something." Ronald's face was stricken with horror, as it looked like Mathew truly was resolved in going ahead with his plan. "Just pay it, Matthew. You can get some more time this way."

-" Evan, how long do you think we have until they act?" Mathew didn't pay any attention to the advice he got, and remained focused on the map on the table.

-" Three to four months, I guess." Evan shook his head, and stood up." I'm not taking part in any of this! If you truly want to do such a useless thing, go ahead, but, I won't be helping you."

-" And how long do you think the wall will take to get ready?" Mathew turned to Ronald with a serious face, his tone completely serious.

-" Around five months, if we have everyone here." Ronald wanted to advise Mathew against building the wall, but, it seemed that no matter how much he tried, Mathew would never listen

Mathew let out a sigh, and observed the pale faces of everyone around him, he knew that this would be risky, but, he was sure that he was capable. -" Just sit down... Erwin, I want you to write a letter for the father of that friend of yours..." Mathew knew that an alchemist, even if amateurish, would be of great help. " Evan will be tasked to deliver it to him, and you will also bring some of the volcanic ash from that village."

-" Volcanic ashes? Good Lord! Just listen to us!" Evan didn't know what had gotten inside Mathew's head, and he was having none of it anymore.

-" Irelia, you will accompany him this time, I want Simon to begin to train the village's guards." Mathew closed his eyes, as he tried his best to remember the composition of the gunpowder. " Manure... We need tons of manure, and sugar too."

-" Manure and Sugar?" Simon was kinda baffled by Mathew's actions, he hadn't spoken up like Evan due to the help that Mathew had given him.

-" Yes, charcoal can be made here... the only other thing we would need is sulfur." Mathew opened his eyes as he remembered that volcanos were rich in sulfur. " Evan, ask around Erwin village for sulfur too, they should have plenty of it."

-" Manure, Sugar, Charcoal, and Sulfur?" Evan froze as he realized that the materials that Mathew asked for were generally used to make fireworks. " Do you want to make fireworks? At a time like this?"

Mathew laughed, as he didn't know that fireworks existed in this world, and felt the need to analyze Sigebert's memories more closely. " No... I'm not looking for fireworks, but, gunpowder."