The Stonemason's Arrival Pt2

Mathew's gaze was full of expectations as he observed the group of stout men leaving the first carriage. -" Welcome to Hard Pine Village, and I'm Mathew, its magistrate." Mathew opened his arms wide open and gave a slight bow to them. " Why don't you accompany me to the accommodations so that you all can settle in? We have much to discuss." He smiled warmly and motioned for the group to follow him

The group of stout men had a weird expressions on their faces, as they thought that it was weird for such a small village to order their services, but, they nonetheless followed him.

"Please excuse me, sir." One of the stout men finally mustered the courage to speak and asked the question that was in the mind of everyone present. " Where is the noble that requested our work?"

-" Huh? Noble? There isn't a Baron currently in this prefecture." Mathew answered firmly, not understanding why they would ask about the local noble.

-" No noble? So who requested our work? Some rich merchant?" One of the Stonemasons grew even more confused, as he couldn't believe that such a petty village had the money for the work that they requested.

Matthew came to a halt and looked at them; he could see why they were perplexed; after all, the Hard Pine Village appeared to be impoverished. " I was the one who requested your work. Well... The prefecture to be exact." Mathew turned around and continued to walk. " You don't have to worry, we have the funds to pay for your work, and if I find your work commendable, I may even request some more of your guild."

Some of them snorted as they noticed a tinge of pride in Mathew's voice, especially as he spoke about their work.

-" I fear that you aren't in the condition to judge our work." One of the men looked around the village and sneered. " For this rundown village, even the work of our guild's newcomer would be commendable."

-" Jack... There is no need to get so worked up." Ronald, quickly interrupted the conversation as things appeared to be heating up. " Sorry if we sounded arrogant, it's just that it isn't common for such a small prefecture that have the funds for such things, generally the local baron is the true shot caller of the village."

-" No offenses taken." Mathew gave the man a nod, and lead them to Clifton's villa, where the stonemasons would stay for their stay in the village. " Please feel free to choose any of the rooms in this corridor, after settling down we can discuss the rest of the matters."

The stonemasons were all surprised by the luxurious state of the villa and were even more curious as to how this small prefecture had so much money.

-" Isn't this a Noble house?" Jack, the leader of the Stonemason guild, could clearly tell that this wasn't a common villa, as he had built many manors for various nobles. " Ronald? Do you think that something shady is going on here?"

-" You can clearly tell that this village isn't common." The guild's vice leader, Ronald, shook his head and thought. "Perhaps someone higher up is interested in developing this village?"

-" It would only make sense, there is no baron here and it looks like the prefecture is swimming in money." Jack closed his eyes, if Ronald's suspicions were truly right, it would be good to create a good relationship with the Magistrate of the village. " Sigh... Let's go talk to the man first, we can't jump to a conclusion."

-" Let's just Erwin, I want that boy to get some experience." Ronald looked at a room not far away and sighed.

-" Do you still have hopes for that boy? Tsk! He got quite the bright mind, but, he is too caught up in his own head." Jack couldn't help but show his displeasure as Ronald mentioned the boy.

"What can I do? I choose him as my disciple, there is no way that I will abandon him." Ronald's eyes brightened as the boy finally left the room, carrying in his hand a small pouch. " Finally! What was gotten into you? We need to hurry."

-" Sorry, I was just preparing something." Erwin, avert Ronald's gaze and held tightly to his pouch.

-" Don't tell me that you are thinking of showing off that powder of yours! Don't you think that it's already enough? Your damned insistence on using this already cost us a job! We can't afford to lose this one too!"

-" Jack is right... We are lucky that no one was hurt in the collapse that happened when you used this powder." Ronald couldn't help but feel let down as Erwin continued to insist on his daydreams. " It looks like we are going to work on restoring a mine, so any mistake can be deadly."

-" Master..." Erwin sighed in defeat, he didn't understand why they couldn't see the potential of his invention. " Okay, I won't show this to anyone."

-" It's good that you understand!" Jack was irritated, but, as Erwin wasn't his disciple he couldn't do anything. "Let's go, we can't keep the man waiting for so long."

The three of them quickly headed to the central room of the villa, where Mathew was already waiting for them.

-" Sorry for the wait." Jack sat down and stared at the scrolls on the table. " May we discuss the work now?"

-" Of course!" Mathew passed each of them a cup filled with tea and continued to speak. " We have quite a bit to do, but, the two most urgent matters are the restoration of the mine, and the expansion of the village's forge."

-" The restoration of the mine may be quite the complicated work, we can only calculate its cost after seeing the state it is in." Ronald gave the tea a sip and gazed at the man. " As for the forge expansion... How big do you want it to be?"

"As big as we can make it right now, it currently only got two furnaces, but, I hope to increase it to at least twenty." Mathew knew that Milton could produce his own tools, so he only needed to expand the building, and make the pits and furnaces.

-" Twenty? What are you planning on doing with so many furnaces?" Jack nearly spit out his tea, only industrial forges had this many furnaces. " Do you plan to create an arms industry here?"

-" Not an arms industry... We can build tools too." Mathew smiled as the man finally began to understand his plan's scope. " I just need to have a forge that can supply the village's industry with everything they needed."

-" Village's industry?" Ronald was confused, as those were two words that didn't fit together. " May I know what industries are you talking about?"

"We have a lot of iron mines here, but I'm not going to rely on them too much." Mathew opened one of the scrolls and passed it to them. "I want to build the world's largest furniture and pottery hub of the region."

"Pottery and furniture?" Jack was surprised, as those were two industries that had quite a big market, especially when talking about luxury goods. " I must say... It's quite unconventional for a prefecture to own its industry, as most of the time barons will hoard the wealth of such a small village."

-" Hard Pine Village does have this advantage, Our baron was arrested a few months ago, and the prefecture acquired all of his assets." Mathew grinned as he explained the situation. "That's why we have so much gold and, of course, so many resources to develop;"

-" Oh? And no other baron arrived? Aren't you afraid that all this effort will be taken advantage of by the next baron?" Jack commented, he found the magistrate to be quite ambitious, but, somewhat naive.

-" You don't have to worry about this, your job here is just to build things." Mathew wasn't worried about the next baron trying to take over the industry, as he would not sit still and watch as someone plundered his efforts.

-" It's true... We had enough talk for now." Ronald noticed that Jack didn't like the man's ambitious attitude, and decided that it was better to get to work. " Why don't you show us around?"

-" It's my pleasure." Mathew finished his tea, and got up, feeling excited to finally have progress on his plans again. " Let me take you to the village's forge first, we can go to the mines next."