The Usual Tricks of a Master

"Damn it, Frank, your room is a pigsty. Is your yearly wage meant for turning the castle into a pigsty? Hurry to the dock and haul the young master's luggage back. We'll spend the night in town." Butler Carson had no idea what Kerry was thinking. As he scolded Frank, he also assigned him work.

The people in the town—or rather, the little village—were simple and honest. There was no hostility toward nobles or resistance against the lord, largely because the Kerry Family had never collected taxes here.

When old Butler Carson asked the first family that appeared to have plenty of rooms whether they would be willing to host their lord, Baron Kerry, the Wesley family, which had seven children, immediately agreed to Carson's request and gave up the rooms of their eldest and second sons for them.

Even when staying in someone else's home, even in the home of his own subjects, Kerry would naturally pay. He had great ambitions and could not possibly do something like eating and lodging for free.

After settling in, Kerry found Arthur Wesley, the head of the Wesley household, after dinner and asked in detail about South Australia Island. Talking endlessly about his old territory before had been of little practical use. Now that he had at least seen the territory's surface conditions firsthand, he needed to properly ask the locals about its geography, customs, economy, military strength, and so on.

After a night of inquiry, Kerry gained an even clearer understanding of just how terrible his territory's situation was. Simply put, South Australia Island was one of the southernmost islands of the Raynor Kingdom. Further south lay the Gili Islands of the Gili Merchant Alliance, less than forty kilometers from the mainland.

The island covered forty square kilometers. It was only slightly larger than Macau.

Its population was only 1,200, all migrants from elsewhere. The main reason they had come was because they knew they did not have to pay taxes to the lord here.

As for the economy, there were two deepwater ports, though not many ships passed through. The island mainly survived by growing tobacco leaves and selling raw materials rather than processed goods. People's incomes were generally low, with an average annual income of 2,000 Copper Coins per person.

Even pirates rarely came here to collect protection fees. Its proximity to Little Nose Bay Port City was one reason, but the main reason was that there was simply no profit to be had here.

About fifty kilometers to the southwest lay the disputed waters between the Raynor Kingdom and the Kingdom of Ford. The two kingdoms frequently clashed at sea over the small islands and fishing resources there.

The nearshore catch was scarce, and venomous jellyfish were abundant. The only valuable underwater mineral deposits had no mining value due to this world's generally low technological level.

On land, one ton of Copper Ore sold for 30,000 Copper Coins, equivalent to three gold coins. But for Copper Ore mined from the sea, extraction costs alone reached 300,000 Copper Coins per ton. With a tenfold difference in cost, capitalists might take a business that cost them their heads, but no one would take a business that lost money. Thus, no merchants or mine owners on the entire continent had ever considered mining ore from the sea.

But this was Kerry's opportunity. He had just arrived in his territory and wanted to develop it, yet had no target. Now that he knew there were minerals in the sea, his first goal would be mining them and selling them for money. With money, he could launch major construction projects and attract more people. In short, development required money, and while others could not mine the sea for profit, Kerry could. He remembered seeing Mining Robots in the Dimensional Exchange, with many different models available.

As for military strength, there were only some adult men from the town who temporarily filled in when needed. There were not even guards, much less an army.

Kerry had no idea how skilled Frank truly was. The lack of security in his territory made his mood even worse, and he had already decided to go to the castle first thing the next morning to win over this possible master hidden in a small town at the edge of the kingdom.

Yet while Kerry was planning how to win over this master, little old Frank had already been battered black and blue from falling. It was a truly miserable sight.

Frank arrived at the dock so drunk that he could barely walk straight. He had only managed to get there by sitting in a carriage driven by his beloved horse, yet in the short distance from getting out of the carriage to retrieving the luggage, he had already fallen four times.

This was Frank's true situation. He was just an ordinary drunkard. As for the exquisite footwork he displayed in the castle, Frank said that every time he got drunk over the past decade or so, he had to walk through it once. He had tripped over the castle's clutter and fallen countless times. His mind could not remember how to walk it, but his body had.

When Butler Carson told Kerry the next day that Frank had been found sleeping at the dock after spending the night there, with fresh injuries all over his body from falling, Kerry felt utterly awful. He had stayed up until dawn planning how to win over that master of exquisite footwork, and now, first thing in the morning, he was being told that the great master had turned into an old drunkard. Did they think he would accept that?

Clinging to the belief that there had to be some misunderstanding, Kerry went to Frank's room in the castle. Kind townspeople had already brought Frank home. Looking at the little old man on the bed, who seemed to have half a foot in the grave, Kerry's image of a master was completely shattered.

No, this was a hidden master's usual trick. Having read countless classic tropes in his previous life, Kerry suddenly recalled one. The old master discovers that the protagonist wants to recruit him, so he deliberately blackens his own name. Only a protagonist with truly strong character can withstand the old master's test. That was it. It had to be. Perhaps influenced by the lack of security in his territory, Kerry had become convinced that Frank was the legendary old master.

"Mr. Carson, make the arrangements. I'm taking Frank to Little Nose Bay Port City to find a doctor. Frank should rest and recover properly. As the lord, I must personally take this servant, who has devoted more than a decade to the family, to the city with its better environment so he can recuperate." With a single sentence, Kerry established the image of a benevolent lord. Even Butler Carson, who knew Kerry fairly well, was somewhat surprised. Why had the young master suddenly become so considerate toward the servants?

Although Carson was somewhat puzzled, his execution was beyond question. Within half an hour, he had arranged everything. By the time Kerry arrived at the dock, Frank had already been carried into a fishing boat and had waited there for a short while.

After being hauled home and then hauled onto the boat, Frank, who had either been unconscious or dead drunk, had already awakened. When he learned that the young master, who barely knew him, was personally taking him to the city to recover, he was overwhelmed with emotion. "Young master, I never expected you to be such a good person. It is the greatest fortune of my three lifetimes that I, Frank, can work under you!" Frank's gratitude was impossible to hide.

Hmph, he's moved already? Being lucky for three lifetimes isn't enough. I need to keep at it until he says he'll give his heart and soul for me. Still convinced that Frank was a hidden old master, Kerry unconsciously raised the difficulty of his strategy by several levels. He never imagined that this old caretaker, carriage driver, and gatekeeper from the lowest rung of society had already been won over. After exchanging a few pleasantries with Frank, the fisherman at the helm slowly guided the boat away from the dock where Kerry had arrived, heading toward Little Nose Bay Port City.

The vast sea was a sight he had never seen in the royal capital. Clusters of Deep Purple Jellyfish occasionally drifted beneath the azure waters. Kerry had not paid much attention on his way here, but after learning from Arthur Wesley the previous night that fishing was not the island's main industry and tobacco cultivation was, he paid special attention during this voyage to the chief culprit behind it.

Large numbers of venomous jellyfish gathered in the waters around South Australia Island, disrupting the ecosystem and driving away vast numbers of fish and shrimp. Perhaps it was caused by ocean currents, perhaps by something else, but these venomous jellyfish had reportedly bred here for more than sixty years. After Kerry's careful observation this time, he discovered that it was not merely "a large number," as Arthur Wesley had said. These venomous jellyfish were everywhere in the sea for roughly twenty kilometers around the island.