You were made to farm, and now you're the emperor of an empire?

Chapter 243 Claims and Identity

The King of the Valley sat in his chair, deep in thought.

Lord Damon, however, was in no hurry and patiently waited for the King of the Vale's reply.

Roman built a huge reception room on this side of the dock.

The previous negotiations with the Liejia and the Papacy were also conducted here.

The unique brick structure surprised Damon.

After all, this is a completely new architectural style, square, spacious and bright, with a strong sense of regularity and sharp lines, unlike the style of castles and manors.

“I can pay this money to His Majesty the King.”

“This is 11 gold coins, Lord,” Damon repeated, making sure Roman didn’t mishear.

This is equivalent to half of the Black Iron Royal Family's annual fiscal revenue.

“I know it’s 11 gold coins.”

How do you want to take it out?

As far as he knew, although the Liejia and the Papacy had paid the ransom, it was all offset by various supplies.

Not much gold actually ended up in the hands of the King of the Valley.

He thought it might take Roman ten years to slowly pay off the debt, relying on that salt mine.

"I will give His Majesty the King 700 catties of gold, and the rest will be used as seigniorage," Roman said calmly.

Damon's smile vanished instantly; his expression stiffened. "You've found a gold mine?"

Now that things have come to this, Roman no longer wants to hide it.

That's right, my family owns a mine!

"Lord Damon, you seem surprised?"

How could you not be surprised? 700 jin of gold, that's no small amount.

"Your gold ore is of excellent quality?"

"The quality is average, and the reserves aren't particularly large either. It's far inferior to the Rossia family's gold mines," Roman said.

Damon gently stroked the cat's eye stone on his finger.

When did you start mining the gold?

"Last winter."

"That's less than six months... Mining a vein is a troublesome matter. Can you deliver so much gold?"

Roman said coldly, "I have my own methods, Lord Damon. You are a high-ranking official of His Majesty the King, so I respect you, but that is on the condition that... you must also respect me!"

“Well, Your Highness Roman, my apologies for my rudeness.” The Chancellor of the Exchequer had no choice but to shut up.

Before him now stood the King of the Valley, the largest armed separatist force in the region.

However, the nobles were all armed separatist forces.

It's simply a matter of who can fight.

The King of the Valley is undoubtedly one of the most formidable fighters.

The army was highly skilled and undefeated, annihilating tens of thousands of enemy soldiers, which was enough to terrify anyone.

If this level of martial prowess had been during the Conquerors' era, he would have been at least the fourth Black Iron Duke, someone who could rival his ancestor.

But you still have to pay taxes!

What's wrong with your potential being at the Black Iron Duke level?

The Iron King is a legitimate member of the conqueror family!

When Gale ascended to the throne, he still had to pay the Iron King an inheritance tax of tens of thousands of gold coins.

“However, if you own a gold mine, then this amount will have to be calculated separately,” Damon said. “As you know, in the Black Iron Lands, one-fifth of the gold and silver mines' output must be paid to the Black Iron Royal Family.”

"Therefore, Your Excellency, you will need to pay... one thousand catties of gold... which includes the mining rights and mining tax. I will help you apply to His Majesty the King."

Roman pondered for a moment, without haggling or arguing, and finally nodded slowly: "Okay!"

"You are a straightforward and generous person!" Damon praised.

This was the first time he had encountered such a courageous young man. Before he came, he had heard about the ruthless and domineering nature of the Valley King and had already prepared for the worst.

It would be best if it could be resolved peacefully.

Roman stared at him coldly. "No need for flattery. Just send someone to receive the gold this winter."

Damon knew he was angry and didn't dare to provoke him further.

Now that we've got the money and haven't delayed for too long, let's make a quick getaway.

……

In Roman's view, the King of Black Iron was just there to fleece people.

Not giving it to us isn't impossible, but that would mean a new war.

Roman wasn't prepared to antagonize the Black Iron Lands, which meant he wouldn't receive any external resources.

We can't flip the table yet.

But the Black Iron King didn't come without benefits. First, there was the recognition he received, since he was ultimately a self-taught individual.

Gail would never have admitted it before, but now she has no choice but to.

The fact that he is a descendant of the first Lord of the Cracked Armor indicates that he has sufficient grounds to claim the position of Lord of the Cracked Armor.

Guardian of the valley, ruler of the valley inhabitants, and eternal king.

A standard royal declaration.

After a few more years of development, once his power and reputation were firmly established, Roman would have the audacity to demand the right to mint coins and trade licenses from the King of Black Iron.

Secondly, there was the claim of Lord Conqueror.

In a sense, he now shares the same identity as the Duke of Black Iron, the King of Black Iron, and the land rulers of various nations.

He didn't quite understand why the Black Iron King had granted him the title of knight, a title that ordinary nobles couldn't afford.

Because this is absolutely the highest status in this land.

The title of Last Hand of War is also quite special.

This means Roman can now unleash his full power.

Of course, they were going to fight pirates and barbarians openly and honestly.

It doesn't sound very useful.

In fact, it's really not very useful.

This is a special claim that the lord and the Hand of War together grant the right to legally interfere in the internal affairs of other countries and send troops to invade other kingdoms without fear of condemnation.

Don't ask, the answer is the Order of the Conquerors.

I'm here to help you defend democracy, protect human rights, and fight terrorists!

What? You dare to resist? I think you're a terrorist!
If we consider the hierarchy of nobility, Roman could be considered to have risen to the top in one leap.

But there are no real benefits at all.

His status as King of the Valley and Lord meant he could no longer act recklessly.

After all, they had just paid a war fine.

Count Condé took him to the Iron King for an explanation.

Roman's actions were a serious violation of the Conqueror's Order and the laws of the Iron Kingdom.

Of those 11 gold coins, at least 3 are related to this matter.

But it doesn’t matter.

That amount of money would be a huge financial drain for other nobles.

For the rapidly developing Origin City, there isn't much pressure.

The surge in chive prices far exceeded expectations, even for the "King of Iron" (a metaphor for a stock that has been heavily traded).

He originally planned to use gunpowder for mining.

Manual excavation is still too slow.

Bomb it up!
There is no problem that cannot be solved by equivalence!

If so, then the amount of equivalence is insufficient!
Once you find the blasting point, dozens or even hundreds of kilograms of black powder can be used to make explosives that can split mountains and rocks!
There is absolutely no need to use it on the battlefield at this stage.

In fact, his army was capable of sweeping across the entire land.

Unfortunately, they encountered the Holy See's knights of judgment.

The Flag Knights are an advanced unit of ordinary Conquest Knights, and the thirty Judgment Knights basically all possess the power of Flag Knights.

If it were ordinary conquering knights, let alone thirty, even a hundred, they wouldn't be able to inflict the same losses on Roman as in the Battle of Spring Rain.

Once the entire army is fully armored and the cavalry has developed.

From then on, his army was truly unafraid of any conquering knights.

Therefore, for now, black powder should just stick to blasting mines.

Roman will personally oversee this work.

This also indicates that the mining capacity of Origin City will increase by an order of magnitude.

In fact, to this day, the main source of gold in Roman is still placer gold.

Gold production has remained low due to the high difficulty of mining it.

One thousand catties of gold is equivalent to Roman having to mine hundreds of thousands of tons of rock gold ore.

It sounds like a huge project, but rock veins are something else...

One cubic meter of stone weighs two or three tons.

Once a suitable blasting point is found, hundreds of cubic meters of rock gold can be easily blasted out, making it dozens of times more efficient.

Roman might call himself a demolition expert.