Volume 2 Chapter 122 Marquis Jole
While Urgot and Anke Eren were bravely fighting at the Awp Casino, Xu Yi had already entered the royal palace. He was currently participating in the celebration banquet that the king was holding for the rich harvest the Lampuri Kingdom had.
As a major contributor designated by the king, not only did Xu Yi get called out by the king during the banquet to be praised in front of everyone, he also gave Xu Yi a special reward.
In order to reward Xu Yi and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s contribution to this rich harvest, the king had specially promoted Xu Yi’s title, turning him from a lord to a baron.
The lord title could be considered an honorary title and wasn’t considered a real noble, but becoming a baron of the kingdom meant that Xu Yi had truly stepped into the circle of nobles, becoming a true noble of the Lampuri Kingdom.
Hearing this reward, everyone who came to this banquet was very shocked.
This was because according to the laws of the Royal Parliament, nobles of the kingdom weren’t allowed to directly engage in business. So even if nobles of the kingdom wanted to engage in business, they had to find a representative for themselves and pull the strings from behind the scenes.
However, the king had directly made Xu Yi, the chairman of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce a baron. Although a baron was the lowest noble rank, this was still directly going against the laws.
The stranger thing was that the speaker of the Royal Parliament Duke Risedo was present and he didn’t oppose this at all.
So when Xu Yi received his title as a baron, he became the most special baron of the Lampuri Kingdom.
This let everyone know how much the king was favouring Xu Yi.
While giving Xu Yi this rich reward, the reward the Frestech Chamber of Commerce received wasn’t that special. He just gave the Frestech Chamber of Commerce an “Honoured Kingdom Company” title.
This title was just an honour and it didn’t have any meaning.
To speak of it, perhaps it would just give the Frestech Chamber of Commerce some fame.
But Xu Yi didn’t think that way.
As a person who transmigrated from earth, he was very clear how highly approved officially recognized brands were to normal people.
If there was a company on earth that received a direct commendation from the government, this advertising effect would far surpass all kinds of advertisements on TV and in other forms of media.
Now that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce received the title of an “Honoured Kingdom Company”, it might leave doubts in the minds of the stubborn people on earth, but for the Sines Continent, all the citizens that believed in the Lampuri Kingdom would believe that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was a first class trustworthy company.
This was very advantageous to Xu Yi who wanted to spread the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s products all over the Lampuri Kingdom.
Of course, this reward had been something that Xu Yi had suggested to Seveni in private.
The king wanted to give the Frestech Chamber of Commerce a more substantial reward, but Xu Yi had rejected it all and suggested that they be awarded just this title.
Under Xu Yi’s insistence, the king could only agree with Xu Yi’s request.
Therefore the king had thanked Xu Yi through Seveni. Because of the kingdom’s weak finances, if they really were to give the Frestech Chamber of Commerce a substantial reward, it would increase the burden of the kingdom finances.
Now that Xu Yi had taken the initiative to deny this, it was equal to helping the king.
“Hey, as for substantial reward……Can’t his majesty just give me a few more mines?” Xu Yi thought of how apologetic Seveni looked and revealed a smile. His eyes swept over the hall and he locked onto his first target.
Even if the king had given him the spotlight earlier, in the eyes of the nobles at the banquet, Xu Yi was just a small scale merchant who had entered the noble circle, so he didn’t incite any special interest.
But when these people saw him going to find Marquis Jole, they couldn’t help being surprised.
Marquis Jole was the current head of the Jole Family, his position was several times higher than a small merchant like him. For him to rashly look for him like this, wasn’t he afraid of being embarrassed?
But contrary to what people expected, although Marquis Jole was clearly surprised that Xu Yi would take the initiative to come find him, after thinking about it, he left the nobles that he had been talking to and went to find a rather private corner in the hall to talk to Xu Yi.
“Lord Marquis, thank you for giving me the chance to talk to you.” Xu Yi raised his wine cup to Marquis Jole to show his gratitude.
Marquis Jole was forty seven this year, but because he took care of his body, he seemed like he was in his early forties, still looking like a young man. His body wasn’t that developed, but his eyes were beaming, one knew that he wasn’t a normal person once they looked at him.
Hearing Xu Yi’s words, Marquis Jole gave a slight nod, “Actually I have long wanted to talk to chairman Xu face to face, today seemed like a good opportunity.”
“That’s good. I know that the Lord Marquis’ time is precious, so I won’t beat around the bush.” Xu Yi said with a faint smile, “Lord Marquis, I came to find you mainly to discuss the Falcao Chamber of Commerce.”
Marquis Jole took a slight sip of the wine in his hand before saying in a thoughtful voice, “You should talk about this matter with chairman Morgan, I generally don’t meddle with the company’s matters in Banta City.”
“The problem is that the matter I wish to discuss isn’t related to Banta City, rather it is related to the business of the Falcao Chamber of Commerce in the entire kingdom. It even involves the Falcao Chamber of Commerce’s business in other countries.”
Marquis Jole raised a brow, “Oh? Chairman Xu, isn’t your tone a bit too big? Although your Frestech Chamber of Commerce has developed well, it doesn’t have the qualification to discuss the Falcao Chamber of Commerce’s business in the kingdom, right?”
Xu Yi said with a smile, “Lord Marquis, can I ask you a question first?”
Marquis Jole gave a slight nod, “Ask.”
“According to what I know, the Falcao Chamber of Commerce other than running the iron ore business and some copper mines, it hasn’t participated in the business of any other non-ferrous metals, right?” Xu Yi asked.
“Other non-ferrous metals?” Marquis Jole narrowed his eyes and thought for a bit before suddenly asking, “Chairman Xu, I’ve heard that your Frestech Chamber of Commerce has found some non-ferrous metal lodes on the Black Rice Wasteland, are you talking about that non-ferrous metal?”
Xu Yi’s smile couldn’t help becoming brighter. Based on this, although Marquis Jole didn’t seem like he cared about the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, he actually cared about their actions quite a bit, even knowing their movements in the Black Rice Wasteland.
“Yes, I wanted to discuss with you matters related to this non-ferrous metal vein.” Xu Yi said with a nod.
“With all due respect, chairman Xu, I don’t see any use for the non-ferrous metals that you mentioned. Those things have existed on the Sines Continent for several thousand years, but no one has discovered a use for them, so no one has ever mined them. I don’t think that you or your Frestech Chamber of Commerce can discover a use for them.”
“Before humans refined iron from ores and made all kinds of iron tools, the elves ruled the continent for so long and they didn’t discover the major uses of iron, right?” Xu Yi asked back with a smile, “Right now I know those non-ferrous metals have a very good use that isn’t below that of iron and I know just how to use them. The Marquis Jole, are you willing to let the Falcao Chamber of Commerce work with our Frestech Chamber of Commerce to mine those non-ferrous metals together?”
Marquis Jole took another sip of wine before thoughtfully saying, “Chairman Xu, now that you’ve reminded me of the use of non-ferrous metals, with the strength of the Falcao Chamber of Commerce, we can completely mine those veins by ourselves. If your Frestech Chamber of Commerce wants to use them, you can just buy them from us. Since it’s like this….why would I cooperate with you?”
“Because in this world, only I know how to use those non-ferrous metals.” Xu Yi confidently said.
Marquis Jole was silent for a bit before shaking his head, “Chairman Xu, you are thinking too highly of yourself. Before iron was discovered by humans, no one knew what use they had. But after they studied it, humans have fully discovered the uses of iron. Then even without you, I can also find someone to study the so-called uses of non-ferrous metals.”
“You’re saying…..that we’ve fully discovered the uses of iron?” Xu Yi revealed a smile of contempt, “Perhaps not necessarily? If it was like this, how could our Frestech Chamber of Commerce have developed our special alloys?”
Marquis Jole’s expression changed slightly. He looked at Xu YI for a while before suddenly saying in a deep voice, “Chairman Xu, I’ve heard that you’re working with the army headquarters and you’re specially making armour and weapons with magic machines?”
Naturally it was impossible to hide this matter from the great noble Marquis Jole, so Xu Yi just honestly admitted it.
“Then do you know that because this factory was built, our Jole Family has lost a large order with the army headquarters?” Marquis Jole asked again.
Hearing Marquis Jole’s question with a slight tone of dissatisfaction and warning, Xu Yi actually felt much more relaxed because he knew that since Marquis Jole had taken the initiative to change the topic, it meant that his words had moved his heart before.
“Lord Marquis, since the army headquarters has discovered that they can mass produce armours and weapons with magic machines, then it is natural that they would choose to build a factory. In fact, building armour and weapons with blacksmiths is not just costly, it’s also very inefficient. I think that you should already know the drawbacks of this, right?”
“Of course I know.” Marquis Jole gave a soft snort, “But this order was lost because of your Frestech Chamber of Commerce, shouldn’t you give me some kind of explanation?”
Hearing this, Xu Yi’s heart was set.
“Lord Marquis, I came to find you today to give you this explanation…..”