Great Wealth

As the light of dawn rose over the fertile valley, Artys awoke once more to begin his day. The first course of action he took was his morning shower; the young lord refused to spend the day covered in sweat. Though now everyone in the castle was aware of her bathing habits. One could practically say that for the thirty minutes leading up to breakfast, the bathroom was reserved for Artys.

The young lord was especially excited about today's bath. You see, almost a month ago, after Artys convinced the family to start bathing regularly, he realized the need for a more refined bathing area. As such, he managed to convince his father to start a big project. During this last month, constant construction has been going on in the corner of the Castle, where a private bathhouse has been built within the castle walls. Today was the first day after its completion.

After confirming his appearance in the mirror, he left the newly designed bathroom and headed to the dining room, where he found his family and breakfast. As he ate his favorite breakfast sandwich, he turned his attention to his father.

"Dad, I have to say that the new spa is excellent; it was really a worthy investment."

When Lord Yohn heard the word investment, he nearly had a heart attack, that bathhouse cost him dearly. He couldn't believe he'd allowed his son to talk him into doing it. It would take some time for the family to recover from the amount spent on the commission. Or so he thought, the old lord was unaware of how much steel had accumulated in the last twenty-four hours. Virtually all of the iron ore stored in Runestone was converted into steel ingots overnight. Artys had plans to sell just a portion. The rest would be used as a basis for his industrial vision and to arm an army.

When Artys saw his father's pained expression, he was quite worried.

"Dad, you look sick. Are you okay?"

After recovering, Yohn looked at his son; he swore he would never forgive the boy for the financial loss he had in ordering that thing.

"I'm fine, it's just that the bath you enjoyed so much this morning cost us a lot to build. The gold could have been used better."

Artys took no notice of his father's words. At first, he just bit into a slice of his breakfast sausage nonchalantly. It was only after he realized what his father had said that he started to laugh. Which only made Lord Yohn's glare intensify; the man's face was practically boiling with rage.

"Is that a laughing matter to you, Artys?"

"Sorry Dad, if you only knew how many pure steel ingots are stored in our warehouse right now, you would never say such a thing. At this point, we have enough wealth to arm an army!"

Lord Yohn's jaw practically dropped to the floor upon hearing this news. He had not been following his son's industrial and agricultural ventures very carefully. In his opinion, Artys' claims were too crazy to believe. However, he had experts confirm that there would be no downside to adopting the various ideas. So he decided to take a chance and see if anything would come of it. If what Artys had said was true, then there were tens of tons of steel in his warehouse now waiting to be sold or processed. The old lord could hardly believe his ears.

Artys was thinking, did his father think he was going to coerce him into spending the family savings on a private bathroom with no plan to recoup his losses? What they would earn from selling a fraction of the steel would be enough to fill their coffers and invest in the mining industry. What was left of steel would be used to start a new era of industry. After all, he didn't have a strong enough position to use the gold he gained from the Merchant Union.

Still, steel was an important component of their irrigation plans throughout the Royce territory. Not to mention the innovations for other fields of agriculture, such as the steel plow, combine harvester, grain elevator, etc. All were inventions that he planned to make in due course, but they needed a lot of steel to implement on a large scale.

The young lord estimated that the fields of House Royce would be filled with the first forms of mechanized agriculture within a year or two. Which would allow for far fewer farmers and in turn create more traders who would be used to supply their fledgling industry. For now, his focus was on creating steel pipes for irrigation. As long as he had the four-field, irrigation, and phosphate fertilizer system used on every farm, this year's harvest would certainly be huge.

Lord Yohn could hardly believe what he was hearing; he decided to excuse himself from breakfast and immediately check with Axel about the details. He had to see the steel stash with his own eyes to believe it.

"Sorry my dear family, but it looks like I have some serious business I need to take care of. See you all at dinner."

Afterwards, the lord left the mess hall and ran to the warehouse, guarding the iron ore. Lord Yohn would spend the rest of the day having Axel walk him through the process and explain Axel's ideas on how best to use such a large amount of steel.

Artys, on the other hand, spent the rest of the day drafting designs for some of his farm projects. Although it took a while before they could be fully implemented, it was best if the designs were drafted as quickly as possible. After finishing his work for the day, Artys turned off the light of his oil lamp and crawled into bed, where he rested comfortably on his mattress for the rest of the night. Tomorrow was an important day in his plans for agricultural advancement.