The Development Plan

Waking up in the morning, Roland was not attended to by Tyre, but an old maid.

Walking out of the bedroom, Chief Knight Carter was waiting outside for him.

"Your Highness, I have to tell you a piece of unfortunate news," he said, "Your head maid was found dead last night."

"What?" Roland's eyelids jumped, although he already expected this result, his heart still felt uneasy. After all, she died because of him.

"She fell from the balcony of the room, and there were no traces of fighting. The guard did not see outsiders come in. So... she must have accidentally fallen. It was an accident."

The knight reported the results of the investigation, while looking at Roland a little weirdly. Roland knew what he was thinking of course. In the Kingdom of Graycastle, everyone knew that Prince Roland wanted to possess Tyre. In that era, the prince and the maids having relationships was very normal. There was hardly any entertainment, much less nightlife, so there was literally nothing else to do except fornication. Besides, the prince and the noble would also exchange women among themselves, and even organized orgies. So to say that the circle of noble was chaotic was more than a harmless joke.

Prince Roland was already considered tame in this aspect, and after Cheng Yan woke up as Roland, he did not touch a single woman. Other than Tyre, the rest of the maids were considered quite shabby. Plus after the time travel, he had to face the Months of Demons, so his brain was full of the farming project. He did not have the time to enjoy the decadence of noble life yet.

"It's a pity," said Roland, with a feigned look of remorse. "About Tyre's funeral, ask the old maid who served me this morning to handle it. And she'll now be the new head maid."

Carter nodded, bowed and left.

As soon as Roland entered the office, he saw Nightingale sitting on the mahogany table.

"Did you manage to find out anything?"

"Nothing, she committed suicide when she saw me," Nightingale said, with some frustration. "It was too fast, she didn't hesitate at all."

"You didn't try to stop her?" Roland went round the other side of the desk, and sat back on the chair.

"I had tied her up," said Nightingale, leaning over, "but I didn't know she had poison in her teeth. So I had to set it up like an accidental fall."

"I thought you were very experienced, and you expect to be rewarded for this?"

"Hey, hey, don't put it like that. Although I didn't get any information from her, that does not mean I have nothing to report." Nightingale chuckled and put a folded paper in front of Roland. "Found in her room."

Roland spread out the paper. It was a letter, from someone who called Tyre elder sister, and the content was just ordinary chit-chat. But he noticed that the writer mentioned the sea several times, such as how beautiful the seaside scenery was, and how she liked to stay on the beach to watch the sunset and the like. Finally the writer asked Tyre when she would come back, as she deeply missed her. Recalling the domains of his siblings, Roland asked uncertainly, "Garcia of the Port of Clearwater?"

"That's probably the case as the sea can't be seen in the domains of your two brothers. I guess Princess Garcia Wimbledon must have taken Tyre's sister as a hostage, and used Tyre as a hidden pawn. From Tyre's decisive style of suicide, it's unlikely to be a coincidence. That means before she was arranged to be by your side, she had received at least two to three years of professional training."

Roland sighed softly, and reiterated that the Royal Decree on the Selection of Crown Prince would not end so easily. Even if he did not fight for the throne, it did not mean he could stay out of it. To get the throne, his brothers and sisters had no scruples, therefore it was likely something similar would happen again later.

"Ah, somebody is here. I'd better make my move, Your Highness."

Nightingale blew a flirtatious kiss through the air towards Roland, and disappeared with the blink of an eye.

Even if this was not the first time he saw this, it was still shocking to see this in bright daylight. He hesitated, and stretched out his fingers towards the empty space now beside the table, but was stopped halfway by a soft hand. "Your Highness, you'd make Anna sad in this way."

[Well it seems her ability was invisibility and not disappearance,] Roland thought. [That would have been too scary.]

There was a knock at the door. "Your Highness, I'm Barov."

Roland took back his fingers and became expressionless. "Come in."

With a large bundle of files in his arms, the Assistant Minister began to report nearly a week of government affairs right after he came in. Roland also cleared his thoughts, and concentrated on his report. After more than a month of contact, he found himself familiar with Barov's working style, rather than being completely confused and puzzled like in the beginning.

In general, the finance of Border Town had a certain degree of improvement. This was mainly due to the ore and gemstones being sold to Willow Town in exchange for nearly 200 gold royals. After being used to purchase food and pay wages, there were still 90 royals remaining.

Barov was also in a good mood, now that there was some extra money, surviving this winter would not be too difficult.

But Roland was determined to not let him be idle. "I want to pick a group of people from the subjects to fight demonic beasts. And from now on they must be gathered to receive training. The instructor will be my chief knight, and I'll give him the specifics later on. You need to make a purchase plan, as these people must have solid leather armor and a gun, but also two sets of winter clothes."

"Your Highness, this... according to the convention, isn't this a temporary recruitment of subjects for war?"

"Fighting on the battlefield without proper training makes them but a group of mobs. Can we scare off demonic beasts by relying on sheer masses? It's more troublesome if they break up."

"Don't tell me you really want to stand by Border Town?" Barov hesitantly asked.

"If we really can't protect it, of course, I'll retreat. But I don't think we can't defeat even a few mutated beasts.

"If we go according to your plan, you'll need more money."

Barov's miserly face made Roland laugh. "These're necessary expenses, go take care of it."

There were still more than 300 pieces of gold royals in his own vault, mainly used to pay for the cost of building the city wall. He also paid the blacksmith shop for the steam engine materials and components. The first machine cost him almost 20 gold royals, and he needed at least three more.

The steam engine triggered the first Industrial Revolution, but it did not mean that the steam engine was equal to the Industrial Revolution. At that time, the United Kingdom urgently needed a new power to replace people and livestock in order to satisfy mine production. After Watt improved the steam engine, massive orders were immediately received from overseas, and the new power quickly spread to various industries.

At this time, Border Town did not have the foundation for the Industrial Revolution, and industrialization did not even exist. So Roland did not expect to sell steam engines to make the first pot of gold. He just wanted to invest the machine in the Northern Slope Mine Area for mining and gravel. When the mine production increased, then he would expand the steam engine's scale of usage. This was the equivalent of promoting industrial development from top to bottom.