A Famous Traitor and Treacherous Genius

236 – How to Dispose of Waste (5)

Gibraltar is crazy.

Correction.

Gray Gibraltar, the Governor of Barcelona is crazy.

Selling mining rights in Barcelona.

It grants the right to develop new land, including the coal mine previously mined in the Marquis of Barcelona.

Both the kingdom and the empire could not help but discuss this situation.

One perspective.

“There is a tunnel somewhere in the Marquis of Barcels, and there is the slush fund of the Marquis of Barcels or Saint Geo Nostrum!”

A view of Nostrum as a guardian trying to uncover corruption in the royal family.

There is a possibility that the writer Barcel Hu has been loyal to Saint Geonostrum for quite some time, and in the process, he has secretly embezzled gold from behind.

I couldn’t help but erase my doubts.

If the Margrave of Gibraltar had done that, you would think, ‘Oh, no way,’ but if the target was the Marquis of Barcels or St. Geo Nostrum, you would think, ‘I knew that would happen.’

“If there are people who have this idea, please look for slush funds. In the land where development rights have been granted, look around the land to your heart’s content and look for slush funds in that land.”

What happens if slush funds are discovered?

“Take it or leave it. I feel like my hands will get dirty just by putting it in my pocket, a slush fund that has been touched by the dirty hands of the Golden Dawn.”

Gray Gibraltar implicitly hinted at the existence of a slush fund.

Another perspective.

“Gray Gibraltar is trying to sell Barcelona to the empire!”

The traitor Gray is trying to bring the imperial people into the land of Nostrum and overturn and plow the land as they please.

“Let me make it clear to those who think: As long as you pay the right price, it doesn’t matter whether you are a commoner or a noble, a kingdom or an empire. You are free to bid. You are also free to buy mining rights and develop them.”

Gray Gibraltar did not specifically deny this.

“If nothing comes out of digging, all we have to do is restore the land, and if a new gold mine opens, a certain amount of that gold will be managed by the Barcelona Governor-General.”

And no one knows what the consequences of that action will be, but at least this one thing was clear to the citizens of the Barcelona Government General.

“Ah, yes. What are you going to do with the money left over from selling the mining rights? There will be money left over from running the Barcelona Governorate, so what are you going to use it for?”

In the end, will the result of flipping Barcelona’s land be helpful to them?

“For people from the Empire to come, a train route will be needed. Accommodations for the people of the Empire will also be needed, and if a train is built, a large amount of Imperial food materials will come in through the Gibraltar Gorge. Money will be spent on building infrastructure. People will live there. The region will not be plowed.”

They say they will do it in a helpful way.

“Watch and watch. Let the results prove it. History will prove whether this is treason or patriotism.”

Even if the territory residents were dissatisfied, they could not say anything.

What kind of complaints could the residents of the territory make to their lord directly to his face?

To the lord who said he didn’t have to pay any taxes for a year.

“You’re dissatisfied? You’re not a resident of Barcelona. You can’t say, ‘Pay taxes.’ Right? Hehe.”

* * *

A few days later.

“Hey, Gray Governor of Gibraltar?”

For some reason, someone who seemed unlikely to come to the Government General came to visit.

“What should I call you?”

“Does that mean that I will be called differently depending on what purpose I came here for?”

“That’s right.”

Bathory Erzsebet.

“Vice President of Orosol Academy. Shadow of the Empire and direct right-hand man of the Emperor. Director of the Gibraltar Magic Research Institute. “Under what pretext did you come here?”

“Coal mine development manager who personally came to investigate the development area in charge of Morgania at the request of Marquis Crimson.”

“Wow, the number of new positions has increased.”

“It’s still the same as being a director.”

“Have you not changed from being the director of a research institute to feeling like the director of a construction site?”

“Either that or that.”

She came to me not as an educator or a spy for the empire, but as an alchemist, scholar, supporter of Gibraltar and a technical mother.

“For what reason?”

“There is no vein of gold in Gibraltar.”

“…”

“Have you investigated whether the gold vein is real?”

I cut the rectangular biscuit I was about to eat in half.

“50% as an alchemist curious about whether there is a vein of gold or not.”

“…”

“30% as a shadow who was asked by the emperor to find out what Gray Gibraltar was thinking. And the rest…”

“If I have some gold, I can invest some too.”

“…20% selfishness.”

“Actually, that is more important.”

Director Bathory suddenly picked up a piece of biscuit equivalent to 20% and stuffed it into his mouth her.

“Gibraltar hasn’t been developed in 500 years, so there won’t be any gold veins down there. That’s speculation.”

“Is this speculation?”

“Yes. There is no gold vein. If there was, it would have been discovered 500 years ago, right?”

Director Bathory pulled a chair across from me and sat down, chewing his biscuit.

“If there had been a vein of gold beneath Gibraltar that was so easy to exploit, Gibraltar would not have been the same as it is now.”

“Is that so?”

“Why are you asking such questions when you know it? They used it as a border because there was no gold vein, and they cultivated the barren land to become a gateway to the empire.”

“Well, if there was an ore vein, things would have been completely different.”

Gyeonmulsaengsim.

“Because if you have gold, you can do anything.”

If there had been a level of gold similar to that found underground in Barcelona, Gibraltar would have overthrown Nostrum and established the Kingdom of Gibraltar more than three centuries ago.

“Are you here because you’re worried about being scammed?”

“A little?”

“Why?”

“Of course. It has never been like that in history, and how could you know information that even the Imperial Intelligence Service could not secure?”

“What did your Majesty say?”

“Gray Gibraltar, do whatever you want, but if you’re really curious, go and ask yourself.”

“Do you believe it, or is it a warning that you will quietly watch what you do?”

Probably both.

This adds further basis to speculation as to whether it is a returner or not, and at the same time, it must have already begun to move in line with the movements of Gray Gibraltar.

“How does His Majesty Habsburg view gold?”

“Guess what. Which side would you bet on? The gold mine is depleted, or the gold mine will explode again?”

“Both.”

“…”

“Where mining rights are officially sold, very little gold will come out, but where mining is done unofficially or sold secretly to officials, there will be gold.”

“Aren’t you two planning this to make fun of me?”

“No way.”

Just as the emperor knows me well, I know the emperor well.

“What Your Majesty is curious about is not the location of the gold mine, but the amount of gold. You will be able to set the tone for the empire’s economy by knowing how much gold is produced.”

“…You didn’t tell me where the location was?”

“Isn’t Major General Bathory paying attention to the direction of Gibraltar, the area in charge of Morgania?”

“That’s right. The Emperor is guessing that a gold mine may be found in the area you prepared for Queen Carmen. Gray Gibraltar, aren’t you a dutiful child?”

“It was just a small bribe for Queen Carmen.”

Location of the gold mine.

The border from Barcelona to Gibraltar.

“Now it’s the job of people to find it.”

“People… Are they really real?”

“There is something wrong with asking whether something exists.”

“No, I don’t know anything else, but it’s a gold mine. Don’t you know what the residents are saying in the square over there?”

“Sir Robert is telling us, but what new story is coming out?”

“Gray Gibraltar knows that there is a gold mine so huge that the one-year tax on the Barcel fiefdom looks like nothing more than a penny. In fact, the reason they tried to win the fief war was all because of the gold mine.”

“That can’t be right.” The former is correct, but the latter is not.”

The territory transfer did not happen because of money, but because his father was angry.

“I think that’s scarier. How long is it?”

“Well, you’ll have to dig to find out, right?”

“Okay. What do you want from me? Do you want me to quit being vice president, become the director of the research institute, and then make at least a golden magic automatic ship?”

“…I’m attracted to it.”

“What. Electronics?”

“No. This time it’s the latter.”

It’s a golden airship.

There is no other sign that symbolizes luxury, pleasure, and treason as much as that.

“…No, wait a minute. You’re talking about plating, right?”

“It might be possible to make it entirely of gold, from the frame to the interior. It’s not even a galley, it’s the size of a caravel.”

“Are you kidding me? You’re going to make a large ship entirely out of gold? Well, the amount of gold is more important than technology!”

“That’s right. To put it bluntly, making a ship the size of a large ship entirely out of gold means using the entire golden body of the legendary Gold Dragon to make one ship.”

Now, [Gold Dragon]-

No. Let’s name it [Golden Dawn].

“Even if you search the entire empire to collect that much gold, there would be a huge economic loss. It could be worth hundreds of billions of thalers flying across the sea.”

“…If that amount of gold appears, it might become as expensive as copper due to its scarcity.”

“Even if we know that there is a lot of copper, wouldn’t it be okay if we didn’t mine that much and put it on the market? Keeping the fact that it exists a secret.”

“…”

“The price of gold in the market depends on the officially known amount of gold, not how much gold is actually buried underground in Gibraltar.”

“…”

Director Bathory covers his face with one hand.

“Okay. If you have enough gold to build dozens of magical automatic ships, I’ll find it somehow. Tell me. Where on earth is the gold that no one has found? Exactly.”

“It’s a good thing, Director Bathory. I needed your power.”

“…Huh?”

“I was going to call you already, but thank you for coming. I guess this is the pull of fate, right?”

I approached Director Bathory and held her hands in both of hers.

“Um, over there…?”

Hold on tightly so that it cannot be removed.

I am not foolish enough to miss an opportunity and let someone who came to work run away.

“Director Bathory Erzsebet. You, the alchemist, are the hero who can save Nostrum.”

“…What nonsense are you talking about?”

“The corpse of a gold dragon sleeping underground in Nostrum. Buried beneath the ground for a time so far beyond human estimation, it can only be revealed by going down to a depth underground that humans cannot dare to go down to. “

“…”

Bathory seemed to sense something and immediately tried to pull his hands away.

“Oh, no. I think I came to the wrong place. I have a lot of questions, but…”

“Your alchemy is the only power that can revive the continent’s economy and prevent the situation where many people turn the gold bars stored in their safes into copper bars.”

“I don’t think you need to do that. Yeah. There are a lot of excellent wizards in Nostrum, right? Let’s tell them to dig, okay?”

“Magic is for dragons, alchemy is for humans.”

“…”

No matter how much you struggle, you cannot escape from the Master’s grasp.

“Major General Bathory Erzsebet. You are my hope.”

“Well, even if you say that…!”

“When the ground was dug using only pure human power, not magic. When a vein of gold buried in the ground was found using a magical excavator that was faster than a shovel.”

Gulp.

“Contemporary mankind uses the power of alchemy to discover underground veins that cannot be detected using the ‘magic of Nostrum.’ Director.”

“…”

“In the name of Bathory Erzsebet.”

While holding on to Bathory Erzsebet, I crossed the table and whispered into her ear

“Now that you have become the director of Gibraltar, you can freely study the gold mined in Gibraltar like dirt.”

“Woe, gold like dirt…?”

“Yes. You can produce more gold than working with dirt. Well, this is an exaggeration.”

I pulled Bathory’s her hand her her and pressed her her her her shoulder her her her.

“The founder of alchemy, the king of gold, and the great sage leading to a unified continent. The true golden dawn. And…”

I lightly brushed Bathory’s hair down with my hand, then took out her hand mirror and pointed it at Bathory Hergébet’s eyes hers hers.

“Red gold mirror Erzsebet.”

“…”

Director Bathory licked her lips with his tongue.

“…How do I find it?”

“We need to research that now.”

I smiled broadly at Director Bathory.

“I’m not the alchemy master, am I?”

“…”

“I’m just kidding. I’ll tell you the correct answer right away.”

The returner’s ultimate skill.

“Let’s make a dowsing rod made from vampire powder and explore the land.”

Bringing the Way of the Future.

“Even if you are a powdered vampire, if you get close to the gold that contains the energy of the sun-nostrum itself, the direction will reverse, right?”

What you can bring is one of the contents listed in the discarded papers that traitor Gray brought from the Empire’s Magic Research Institute, and he actually discovered it.

“Isn’t the Gold Dragon buried only in Barcelona?”

Barcelona was the tail exposed outward.

Contents of the paper.

There are only guesses and inferences, and I don’t even know the truth.

The body of a gold dragon is buried underground in Nostrum, and the gold dragon has turned into gold.

Perhaps its size is the land called Nostrum itself.

A ridiculous thesis that Nostrum lives on top of a gold dragon.

“Let’s give it a try. If not at a time like this, when else would you dig underground in Nostrum? That’s enough to create a large cavity.”

Although it is not a dragon, it lives on gold, which is more valuable than a dragon.

“Who knows if there is a huge amount of gold buried two or three times below current technology?”

Excavation technology that was impossible even 10 years later.

“You can do it. Red Geum Sutra Bathory Erzsebet.”

With this woman, it might be possible.

“…Time and budget?”

“Of course.”

I opened my arms.

“As you call me.”