Mine Owners on the Plateau

Mine Owner Harold looked at the Half-Elf boy opposite him, who was much younger than himself. Although Roy looked more human, he still had many elven features. You might not be able to tell from a distance, but when sitting face to face, Mine Owner Harold could still tell.

Although Mine Owner Harold is now a prisoner, he still exudes the aura of a Mine Owners as he sits in his chair.

He adopted a humble posture, taking the initiative to greet Roy with a polite greeting.

Roy didn't say anything discouraging; he simply sat down calmly and whispered to Mine Owner Harold:

"On the Pagisto Plateau, I have traveled with both Half-Elf Warrior and Dark Moon Elf Warrior. I took over these mines to establish a new order within them. So, Mine Owner Harold, I may not be able to promise you anything."

Roy paused for a moment, then said, "Just stay in the castle and wait for the Logistics Regiment team to take you away. I guarantee that no one will bother you."

Mine Owner Harold, did not expect Roy to be so direct and state his bottom line.

"I know I will definitely be tried in court this time. Whether it was the previous slave trade or the later ordering the Half-Elf miners to work in the mine, it was all my doing. If the Mine Owners Roy is going to write a report, I hope you can include this information."

As Mine Owner Harold spoke, he pushed a jewelry box in front of Roy and casually lifted the lid.

Roy glanced at the box, which also contained silver Metal Ingots. Unlike mithril, the magical aura emanating from the Metal Ingots was much softer.

Roy knew it was simply a manifestation of the higher magical affinity of Metal Ingots.

'A slightly better Magic Metal than mithril might be thorium,' Roy thought to himself, without revealing his thoughts.

"I did take over the North Mithril Mine. Regarding the report on the North Mithril Mine, I will only list the data such as the materials, number of miners, and buildings that I received at the North Mithril Mine. I will not write about other aspects."

Roy refused to include information he was unaware of in the report.

Mine Owner Harold, did not insist further, took back the metal box, and said without changing his expression:

"Mine Owners Roy, if you encounter any problems while managing the Mithril Mine, you can come to me. I am extremely familiar with every tunnel in the mine, and I have decades of management experience, so I can handle any problem in the mine."

Roy stared at Mine Owner Harold, wondering if Mine Owner Harold were motivated by some ulterior motive...

A faint, bitter smile appeared in Mine Owner Harold's eyes. He glanced around and said:

"I did this... just so my family could suffer less."

After saying that, Mine Owner Harold frowned and downed the wine in his glass in one gulp.

Roy, however, took a piece of Breadfruit from the basket and casually said:

"Because you are involved in the Elf Slaves trade, you are destined to be sent to the court for trial, and no one can change that..."

Knowing the consequences he was about to face, Mine Owner Harold's eyes became incredibly calm. He smiled self-deprecatingly, poured himself another glass of fruit wine, and then drank it all in one gulp.

The Silver Moon Elf Kingdom has no death penalty; the worst-case scenario is serving time in the most arduous prison...

Although Roy did not grant any of Mine Owner Harold's requests, this actually made Mine Owner Harold in a different light.

Harold stopped talking about these unpleasant topics and said to Roy, "When this furnace was built, I invited two inscription masters from Buenos City to decorate it with many magic arrays, hoping that the furnace would be more exquisite and could produce more Mithril Ingot every day."

Although the furnace's structure hasn't changed much, it was originally designed to melt twenty Mithril Ingot per day, and it's not currently at its peak production capacity..."

"The Mithril Mine in the Sudaso Mountains is not bad. Although it is not a rich Mithril Mine, it is located under the rock crust of the Sudaso Mountain Range. If you dig in from both sides, as long as you are careful, you will definitely not collapse the mine."

"The reserves of Mithril Mine are also extremely rich. At the current mining speed, it can be mined for at least several hundred years."

Mine Owner Harold continued speaking.

"The biggest problem you're facing in managing this mine right now is that you've released the Half-Elf miners. This will lead to a shortage of ore in the mine, which will then trigger a series of reactions that will ultimately affect the speed at which Mithril Ingot are smelted."

Mine Owner Harold looked at Roy and said gently.

"Then... how can we keep this mine profitable?" Roy suddenly became interested and asked Mine Owner Harold.

After finishing their lunch, the elves in the restaurant all left.

At the table where Mine Owner Harold was, besides Roy and Mine Owner Harold, there was no one else present...

Roy looked at Mine Owner Harold with some confusion.

Mine Owner Harold, looked somewhat smug and said to Roy, "Expand production capacity. Of course, the larger the production capacity of this kind of Mithril Mine, the more profitable it is. This way, we can also spread out other costs and expenses."

After hearing Mine Owner Harold's words, Roy gained a lot.

The two then talked about the private army in the North Mithril Mine. Mine Owner Harold, said somewhat awkwardly, "On the very first day the Silver Pegasus Warrior arrived at the North Mithril Mine, they announced that they were officially disbanding."

Mine Owner Harold said a lot, and his words were very helpful to Roy.

"Where did you recruit these private soldiers from? As far as I know, your private army isn't Half-Elf from the highlands..."

Mine Owner Harold wiped his face with a handkerchief before saying, "These private soldiers are almost all escaped from the Padesto City. After Lord Alvis was captured, they came to the highlands from Padesto City. Because these elves were the ones who traded slaves before, and they often dealt with us, when they came to seek refuge with me, I let them join the Mine Private Army. I didn't expect that when they saw the Silver Pegasus Warrior, they were the first to run away..."

It turns out that many of the Mine Private Army were Slave Traders...

Roy continued chatting with Mine Owner Harold for a while. From the conversation, Roy discovered that he was a very shrewd elf mine owner who was very familiar with the North Mithril Mine.

The furnaces in the North Mithril Mine are significantly more efficient than those in the South Mithril Mine.

Besides these, Harold the mine owner also paid close attention to the mining efficiency of the Half-Elf miners. After a series of exchanges, Roy benefited greatly.

Perhaps it was Mine Owner Harold's intention, but Roy gained a deeper understanding of how to manage Mithril Mine.

Mine Owner Harold told Roy that the biggest expenses for his Mithril Mine were the cost of maintaining the furnace and hiring a private army. Because he had spent money to buy the Half-Elf and Gray Dwarf, there were almost no extra expenses for mining Mithril Mine and smelting ingots.

Therefore, the Mithril Mine they operate are profitable every day. However, the Pattington Plane has been under lockdown for the past few years, and the Mithril Ingot smelted in the mines have been piling up without any opportunity to be sold.

At this point in the conversation, Roy finally understood something.

These Mine Owners on the Pagisto Plateau originally had powerful backers; they were not rootless duckweed drifting aimlessly on the Pagisto Plateau.

Roy had never known who was secretly supporting these Mine Owners, allowing them to open mines on the Pagisto Plateau.

Now Roy finally understood: these Mine Owners must be from the Padesto City.

The construction of these mines was likely secretly supported by the nobles of Padesto City.

The powerful backers behind these elven mine owners are actually the Elven Nobles of Padesto City.

If that's the case, then the slave trade in Padesto City must be related to this...

Lord Alvis sold his adventurous Half-Elf slaves to the Pagisto Plateau because these Mine Owners were his men.

Thinking about this, Roy understood that Lord Alvis accumulated his wealth not only through the Selling Elf Slaves, but also through a large amount of illicit income from the Pagisto Plateau mines.

It was the mines on the Pagisto Plateau that brought Lord Alvis enormous wealth, to the point that the young baron became somewhat arrogant in the Pattington Plane. He spent a huge sum of money to buy a large piece of land south of Padesto City, the southern end of which almost reached the foot of the North Slope slope of the Bulwark Mountain Range, and the eastern end was close to the Blackwater Swamp.

This vast forest quickly took over the living space of all the Half-Elf.

Large numbers of Half-Elf were displaced, and Half-Elf did not even know where to escape to. Lord Alvis took advantage of this opportunity to capture a large number of Half-Elf and bring them to the Pagisto Plateau, where they were thrown into various mines.

However, the Mine Owners on the plateau never expected that Lord Alvis would suddenly run into trouble, and that all the captains would have to go to the courthouse to attend the trial.

As for most of the properties held by Lord Alvis, they were all taken over by Earl Swynborne...

Unexpectedly, the Mine Owners of the Pagisto Plateau also bear the shadow of Lord Alvis.

Once Roy had fully figured these things out...

Watching Roy frantically trying to manage the mining operations...

There was always a hint of schadenfreude in the smile on Mine Owner Harold's face.