Volume 1 Chapter 104 Wanting territory is fine
Even though the weather was a bit cold, Harvey couldn’t stop the cold sweat from appearing on his forehead. He gave two dry laughs before saying, “Chairman Xu, if I may be frank, if you do not have the support of his majesty or the agricultural department and you only rely on your Frestech Chamber of Commerce to promote your agricultural magic machines, you will encounter many difficulties.”
Xu Yi gave a relaxed smile, “It doesn’t matter, I’m not in a rush.”
“You……” Harvey’s expression instantly changed.
Seeing that the two were in a stalemate, Seveni who had been silent on the side the entire time suddenly spoke.
“Chairman Xu, just like you said earlier, no one here is a child, so let’s not waste words.” Seveni looked at Xu Yi and said with a serious expression, “There is no meaning in senseless arguing, so let’s honestly discuss the issue. Chairman Xu, you are not satisfied with the proposal Harvey gave just now, that is not a problem. Now, can you tell us your proposal? I think that before you came to Anvilmar City, you’ve already made your plans, right?”
Xu Yi revealed a faint smile. He already knew that although Harvey was the one that usually spoke to him, the one with authority was Seveni. Now that Seveni had spoke, that meant he finally had the chance to bargain with the other side.
“My proposal isn’t complicated. First, I won’t, or more accurately speaking, for now I won’t give the technology for the agricultural magic machines. This is because to be honest, I don’t trust you. Moreover, with your current abilities, even if I give you these technology, you wouldn’t be able to grasp it. So my idea is to have our Frestech Chamber of Commerce continue to manufacture these agricultural magic machines and we can make all kinds of improvements based on the agricultural department’s requests, allowing these agricultural magic machines to adapt to the various terrains of the kingdom. And the work of the agricultural department is very simple, they just need to be a medium. To all the nobles and common citizens of the kingdom, you just need to advertise these agricultural magic machines to all your might. For nobles, the agricultural department can force them to buy these. As for the normal farmers who can’t afford to buy them, we can continue carrying out the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s farmer support plan. Like this, I think that it won’t take much time for the agricultural magic machines to be promoted across the kingdom, greatly increasing the kingdom’s farming efficiency in a short period of time.”
Harvey’s eyes were wide open. Although he didn’t agree to Xu Yi’s proposal, before Seveni spoke, he could only stare at Xu Yi and not say a thing.
After hearing Xu Yi’s proposal, Seveni was silent for a bit before she slowly said, “Like this, your Frestech Chamber of Commerce can earn a large amount of gold coins by selling the agricultural magic machines? You said that your company can receive one gold coin for each agricultural magic machine sold, but I don’t think that’s correct, right? This number might still be too small even if it was multiplied by ten. If your company could really sell ten thousand agricultural magic machines in the kingdom, your company would earn a large profit of over a hundred thousand gold coins!”
Xu Yi shook his head with a faint smile, “No, dear miss Seveni, your guess is wrong. This number isn’t just multiplied by ten, it could be twenty or even more.”
Harvey couldn’t help shouting out, “Wouldn’t that be two hundred thousand gold coins? God! Our Lampuri Kingdom only had a tax revenue of a million gold coins last year!”
Seveni glared at him and Harvey instantly realized his mistake. He quickly gave an awkward smile and turned around.
Seveni looked back at Xu Yi and gave a nod, “This kind of large profit, no wonder chairman Xu isn’t willing to accept our proposal. But chairman Xu, if you keep this fixed price, even with our help, it would be hard to expand all over the kingdom. Moreover, raising farming efficiency is a kingdom’s most basic policy, so doing this is going against the nation’s policy and would create consequences. I think I don’t need to remind you of this.”
This last sentence, there was no doubt that it was a bare threat.
But Xu Yi didn’t look nervous at all, rather he still had the same relaxed smile. He shook his head and said, “Miss Seveni, I think you’re mistaken. I am completely in support of this raising farming efficiency plan, so I made this farmer support plan. I wanted the farmers of Banta City to experience the convenience brought to them by machines, freeing them from their farms. It is because of this that I’ve decided to come to Anvilmar and cooperate with the agricultural department. Otherwise why wouldn’t I just stay in Banta City, comfortably and slowly selling these magic machines?”
Seveni gave a slight nod, “That’s right, the fact that you can have this thought means that you aren’t a normal merchant with dull eyes. But chairman Xu, I still don’t understand, why do you keep insisting on selling the agricultural magic machines yourself? Don’t you know that this several dozen gold coins price even for some small nobles isn’t a small amount?”
“It’s very simple, it’s because of business rules. Since our Frestech Chamber of Commerce has already sold agricultural magic machines in Banta City and have already set a price, if other places also had the same agricultural magic machines and the price was lower by several dozen gold coins, what would those people in Banta City who have already bought these magic machines think? How could our Frestech Chamber of Commerce face them? So the price cannot be changed, but…..”
Xu Yi suddenly changed the topic.
“The price cannot be changed, but that does not mean other places can’t be changed. Miss Seveni, I hope the tax department can give some tax rebates for the agricultural magic machines that we produce. At the same time, I hope that the agricultural department can give a document saying that everyone who buys an agricultural magic machine will be able to receive some benefits from the kingdom’s agricultural department. This benefit can be in the form of a fund or some tax rebates, in short, giving some commoners some real benefits and compensations.”
Seveni knit her brows, “Your thoughts aren’t bad, but……the agricultural department doesn’t have that much money……”
“Money is not a problem.” Xu Yi said with a faint smile, “Our Frestech Chamber of Commerce can take out this money and you can think of the amount.”
Seveni and Harvey were stunned.
“Chairman Xu, since you are providing tax deductions for the agricultural magic machines and taking care of the reimbursements, could it be that you aren’t planning on making money on these agricultural magic machines?” Seveni said in a shocked voice, “This is different from what you just said. If you really aren’t planning on earning money, you might as well have agreed to Harvey’s proposal.”
“No, no, no, this is completely different.” Xu Yi kept shaking his head, “According to mister Harvey’s proposal, me and our Frestech Chamber of Commerce would become a dependent of the agricultural department and wouldn’t have any authority at all. I cannot accept this at all.”
Seveni couldn’t help revealing a smile.
Her smile was different from Still’s. If Still’s smile was like a peerlessly gorgeous rose in full bloom, her smile was like a lotus that was slowly blooming.
“Chairman Xu really isn’t someone who is willing to be under others. Fine, chairman Xu, since you are giving up such large profit, what do you want to gain.” Seveni asked, “Don’t tell me that you are doing all this for the normal commoners?”
“Of course I’m not that noble.” Xu Yi stretched out a finger, “I only have one request, that is to get a piece of territory that belongs to me.”
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As the lights lit up in the night, Anvilmar City was even more lively compared to the day. People walked about in groups of twos and threes, strolling in the streets, filling the entire city with noise.
Only when this noise came to a wide residence in the west of the city, it was like it had been cut off by someone’s hand.
The president of the Lampuri Kingdom’s Magicians Guild Palmes Eren was sitting in the living room. There was a cup of tea in his hand, but he didn’t take a single sip as it was unknown what he was thinking.
Knowing that the master was not happy, the servants of the manor all went about cautiously. Not to mention them keeping their voices down, they even walked along as soft as cats, trying to make as little sound as possible.
The large manor was usually quite lively, but now it was like a ghost town, incomparably silent.
After a while, a beautiful woman who was still under forty walked out from the inner parts of the manor. After seeing Palmes Eren, her eyes turned red and tears fell down.
“Old master, Anke’s injuries are that serious, you must take revenge for him!” The beautiful middle aged lady begged in a pained voice.
Palmes Eren looked at her before saying with a cold snort, “What revenge? That brat doesn’t even learn properly and wanted to teach someone a lesson to get taken care of himself, do we still have to cause trouble for that person? The lesson that he learned this time will be helpful to him. It’ll stop him from not knowing the depths of heaven and earth, or he’ll eventually really be taken care of.”
Seeing that Palmes Eren wasn’t listening to her pleading, the beautiful middle aged woman didn’t give up.
She only had Anke Eren as a son and had spoiled him since he was young. Seeing him being brought back after being knocked out by someone else, she almost fainted on the spot.
Palmes Eren had a headache from her crying and impatiently scolded her, chasing back into the inner parts of the manor.
The things that happened at the test site today, the staff members of the Magicians Guild had explained everything to him.
No matter how he looked at it, one could only blame Anke Eren for this matter. Even if Palmes Eren spoiled him like his wife, he couldn’t say anything on this matter.
Of course, in normal circumstances, he would definitely help his precious son vent his anger. He would definitely make it so that the person who injured his son wouldn’t have a good life.
But the key thing was that the fellow who had injured his son was called Xu Yi.
Palmes Eren was not familiar with this name and at first thought that this fellow was hiding his strength. He clearly had enough power to beat his son, but he went to participate in the Primary Grade exam.
But after investigating this matter, he found that this Xu Yi wasn’t that simple.
First, he came from Banta City and was participating in the Magicians Guild’s certification exam on Great Magician Camilla’s special recommendation.
Next, he was a colleague of Duke Stagg’s son Viscount Leslie. They came to Anvilmar City together from Banta City and it seemed like they were quite close.
Then, this Xu Yi’s residence in Anvilmar City was actually Banta City’s City Lord Count Sean Samo’s other residence.
This Xu Yi was not some official from Banta City and was only a normal merchant. For him to enter this other residence, it meant that his relationship with Count Sean was quite good.
Finally, which was also the most important point, this fellow was actually being summoned by his majesty tomorrow!
Palmes Eren couldn’t help rubbing his pounding head.
If it was a normal low grade magician, he had his methods to take care of the other side to take revenge for his son. But there were all these important people that he couldn’t ignore that were related to Xu Yi, so he had to be much more prudent in how he took care of this.
Being a prudent and oversuspicious old person who was approaching sixty, Palmes Eren even suspected that this Xu Yi had been sent by one of his enemies to deliberately hurt Anke Eren and dig a hole for him to jump in.
As long as he dared make a move against Xu Yi, perhaps he would be met with great resistance.
“This fellow called Xu Yi, just where did he come from?” Palmes Eren knit his brows and after thinking for a while, he didn’t have the slightest clue.
A servant quickly ran in with a strange expression.
“Old master, there’s a guest here.”
Palmes Eren angrily waved his hand, “I’m not in any mood to see any guests, send him away.”
That servant didn’t leave and after hesitating a bit, he said, “Old master, he says he is called Xu Yi.”
Palmes Eren suddenly stood up from his seat in shock.
This Xu Yi, he actually came to look for him!