Volume 2 Chapter 78 Different scenes of Banta City
Even though they were far away from the toll booth, there was still a deep look of disdain and hatred on Sophia’s face.
Kennard and Baron Hannas were happily discussing with each other, not caring about her at all. Rather they were discussing the fact that the toll of fifty silver coins per horse carriage was still rather cheap.
Seeing the two of them ignore her, Sophia finally couldn’t take it anymore and gave a strong snort.
“Humph! Building a road is to make it more convenient for people to travel and he’s actually taking money, it really is too much!” Sophia’s eyes popped out and looked to be filled with righteous indignation, “You were still praising that fellow Xu Yi, but I’ve heard that the idea of the toll booth came from him, right? This person is actually this greedy, he’s completely corrupted!”
Baron Hannas and Kennard looked at each other before they couldn’t help shaking their heads with smiles.
“Sophia, I want to ask you a question. The Fersen Carriage Company invested a total of over four hundred thousand gold coins into building this road. If they didn’t take tolls, how do you think they would earn back this investment?” Baron Hannas asked.
“Why do they have to earn it back?” Sophia loudly said, “Since the road is something that is good for so many people, everyone should be rushing to do it. Since the Fersen Carriage Company is willing to pay to build this road, many people will thank them for it and praise them for their good deed. Why do they need to build this toll booth and be cursed by so many people?”
Kennard gave a sigh and shook his head as he said, “Sophia, you’ll be eighteen soon and you’re no longer a young girl. Can you still think like a child from now on? Even if what you said is correct about how if the Fersen Carriage Company didn’t build this toll booth, they would be doing a great thing and would be praised by many people, can you ask all the companies in the kingdom to be this selfless? This clearly isn’t something that is realistic. If everyone didn’t discover the benefits of building roads, how many companies do you think would be willing to pay for this thing?”
Although Sophia didn’t really understand worldly matters, she wasn’t a fool. Of course she understood what Kennard meant, but she was still a bit unwilling.
“Four hundred thousand isn’t considered much for those large companies, isn’t it good for them to build roads for everyone to use for free? Their company’s fame will become better and their business will be better.”
“No one’s money came from falling out of the sky, based on what are you requesting others to selflessly make such a contribution?” Kennnard said, “Other than that, four hundred thousand definitely is not a small amount. Even if the Fersen Carriage Company is a pretty good company in our kingdom, it would take quite a bit of courage for them to take out that much to make a road. Speaking of this, the Fersen Carriage Company’s chairman is quite bold, actually choosing to build a road at the same time as the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.”
“Un, Xu Yi has praised chairman Pompeii in his letters to me. He said that although this person is easily shocked, his eyes are indeed worthy of praise.” Baron Hannas said with a nod. He turned to Sophia and said, “Sophia, you said that many people were cursing the toll booths, but do you know that the one who should be taking the infamy is our noble king and not the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and the Fersen Carriage Company?”
Sophia was stunned, “How is this related to his majesty? It’s not the majesty that had them take tolls.”
“You’re right. To be honest, his majesty really did make them take tolls.” Kennard took over and said, “This is because in building the roads and improving the travel conditions of citizens is something a ruler should do, but our kingdom’s finances is lacking and his majesty can’t take out any money to build roads with. At this time, Xu Yi could give such a perfect method to solve this problem. To be honest, I really do admire him.”
“He just wants to rely on this thing to earn money, what is there to admire!” Sophia immediately disagreed.
“If he is just doing this to earn money, he wouldn’t just charge a trivial fifty silver coins per horse carriage. If it was me, it would be very likely that it would be several times higher. This is because after the pleasant sensation of traveling on these roads, I think no one will be willing to travel on those broken gravel roads again.” Kennard said, “Sophia, don’t you agree?”
Although Sophia really wanted to refute it, as they were traveling on this road without any jolts to her butt, it was countless times better than traveling on the gravel roads. She didn’t have the conscience to refute this.
Seeing that Sophia had nothing to say, Kennard smiled and didn’t force her to admit her mistakes. He turned to the middle aged man who had been sitting there without making a sound and said, “Uncle Hank, after we return to Anvilmar City, you have to advise father that we should also build several roads. I dare to guarantee that we will be able to earn quite a bit of money on these roads.”
The middle aged man nodded with a smile, “I had the same thought. After personally experiencing the comfort of these roads, I have a very good view of the road’s future prospects. I even feel that if nothing unexpected happens, in just a few years, our Lampuri Kingdom will be linked up by these roads.”
“If it really is like this, that would be great.” Kennard said in an emotional voice, “If the roads can become like this, I can imagine that when kingdom is connected by roads, the roads will have countless horse carriages traveling back and forth. The kingdom will become lively when the time comes.”
Hearing Kennard, Baron Hannas, and uncle Hank begin discussing business, Sophia suddenly felt very bored. She pursed her lips and leaned out the window, looking at the scenery outside.
At this time, she once again felt the benefits of the road.
If it was the same bumpy gravel road from before, if she dared to stick her head out of the window like this, not mentioning the fact that she would be very dizzy, she might even bite off her tongue from the shaking.
But now that she leaned out like this, even though she felt the faint shaking from the glass, it didn’t affect her at all.
Traveling on this smooth road, the horse carriage naturally traveled much faster.
Not long after, Sophia saw a large sign at the side of the road. It was completely blue in colour and there were two rows of letters written on it.
Welcome to Banta City.
We wish you a wonderful time.
Sophia was a bit surprised.
They had come from Anvilmar and passed several cities, but this was the first city that they saw this kind of sign by the road.
This sign was this eye-catching, it was hard for people to ignore.
Just based on this, Sophia felt a bit better about this Banta City that she had never visited before.
When the horse carriage entered the vicinity of Banta City, there were changes in the scenery around the road.
When they were still in range of Saltan City, although there were farmlands by the side of the road, there was still quite a bit of desolate land.
Although it was better than the other cities that Sophia saw where there was only desolate land, when compared to Banta City, it was quite lacking.
The horse carriage walked past the blue sign and they were welcomed by a large bright patch of yellow.
Looking over it, the sides of the roads were covered in wheat.
Because it was close to the fall harvest, the wheat had produced their wide ears and it covered the farmland completely, not leaving a single gap.
Sophia was greatly shocked.
When she was still at the Lampuri Royal Academy, she had taken some political and agricultural classes. She knew that the Lampuri had a lack of people, so there was a lack of people available for farming, causing most of the fertile land to be desolate.
But at this Banta City that was clearly on the edge of the Lampuri Kingdom, a tried and true small city, it could open up all the farming land under its name and show her such a rich harvest.
Sophia at first thought that this was a special example, but as the horse carriage continued heading towards Banta City, she found that the farmland on the sides of the road didn’t change at all. It looked all the same in the distance, like every place in Banta City that could be open was filled with wheat.
“So much wheat, can they even harvest it all?” Sophia couldn’t help muttering to herself.
“How could they not harvest it all?” Baron Hannas said with a smile, “Don’t forget that Banta City is the base of the Frestefch Chamber of Commerce and the agricultural magic machines have become popularized here. Not mentioning Banta City’s farms, I’ve heard Xu Yi mention that some farmers in Banta City have formed small harvest companies and they’re planning to help other people harvest in the surrounding cities.”
“It’s the Frestech Chamber of Commerce again…..” Sophia muttered. She turned back to look out the window and she was so angry that she ignored Baron Hannas.
But as soon as she looked out the window, she saw that there was a bigger sign by the side of the road in front of them.
And on this giant sign, there was peerless beauty on it with bright eyes and shining teeth.
This beauty had a pearl necklace with pearls of the same size on her neck and there were two bright glowing amethyst earrings on her ears.
Although the necklace and earring looked very refined, being able to tell that it was precious jewelry with a single glance, they didn’t cover the beauty’s glow at all.
It could even be said that these two pieces of jewelry only shined this brightly because they were on this beauty’s neck and ears.
“What is that?” Sophia couldn’t help pointing at the large sign in surprise as she asked this.
Baron Hannas stuck his head out beside Sophia and took a look before revealing a bit of a confused expression.
“Sarank Jewelry, it will make women shine even brighter? Strange, young miss Still is actually not doing advertisement for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and is doing one for the Sarank Chamber of Commerce instead. What is going on?”
“Young miss Still? Is she the beautiful girl in the picture?” Sophia asked in a curious voice.
“Right, is she beautiful?” Baron Hannas asked.
Sophia looked at the approaching sign and couldn’t help nodding, “Un, she’s truly beautiful. How great it would be if I could be this beautiful. But Hannas, this is a picture, is there really such a person who is this beautiful?”
“No, I can guarantee that young miss Still is even more beautiful in person.” Baron Hannas looked at the disbelieving Sophia and he revealed a teasing smile, “I can also tell you something else about young miss Still.”
“What is it?”
“Young miss Still is currently Xu Yi’s girlfriend.”
Sophia showed a wonderful expression on her face.