Ore and Schools

When he returned to the estate, Theus found Alexei waiting for him.

Seeing Alexei's somewhat awkward smile, Theus guessed why he was there.

"...Out of money?"

"Yes." Alexei sighed. "Recruiting people to survey the islands costs money, and so does building schools. And that's not even mentioning the workshop renovations."

There was no way around it. Every industry required an upfront investment, and those costs couldn't be avoided. Theus had been prepared for that.

"Don't worry about the money. I'll find a way. Tell me how things are progressing."

Alexei nodded and quickly took out his notebook.

"We've mostly finished surveying the mineral deposits. Most of the information comes from earlier surveys of the islands. We went out to check the sites based on those records, then compiled everything."

Theus took the notebook and casually flipped through it. His eyes widened.

"You're saying the island has iron ore, copper ore, limestone, sulfur, and gypsum? These have all been confirmed?"

"Yes. I went to see each of the mining sites myself. We haven't determined the exact quality of the deposits, but everything else checks out." Alexei shrugged. "We don't have anyone who specializes in surveying, so we took some blacksmiths to have a look."

"How did you find these mines without doing any surveying?" Theus's eye twitched. "Don't tell me they're all open-pit mines."

Alexei nodded. "They are."

Theus fell silent.

The ore from open-pit mines wasn't necessarily the highest quality, but it certainly wasn't bad.

Besides, for Castel at present, even veins that were somewhat harder to mine would likely have to be abandoned. Theus hadn't expected much, yet every deposit here was an open-pit mine?

"Why hadn't anyone mined so many deposits before?" Theus drew a breath.

"My lord, this is the Storm Ocean." Alexei smiled wryly.

True, this was the Storm Ocean. The pirates had little ability to smelt ore, and preferred to buy finished goods.

The White Crow Duchy to the north and the Empire to the west had no shortage of ore. There was no need to transport it thousands of miles.

And as for the south? Were they supposed to cross the storms at the heart of the Storm Ocean?

Speaking of mines, Theus suddenly remembered how the Banshees' main task under the Fishmen's enslavement had been mining.

There were mineral veins under the sea, too. They just needed to drive the Fishmen away from the mines.

Wait, why were the Fishmen mining? Could they smelt ore underwater?

Theus narrowed his eyes.

"Let's leave that aside for now. How are the factories doing?"

"The olive oil factory is running smoothly. The trial production went very well, and the process is stable now. Production keeps increasing, but..."

"But what?"

"We're having trouble keeping up with the olive supply. Castel does have a lot of olive trees, but many of them grow on the mountains, where they're hard to harvest."

Theus nodded. He'd noticed that.

Olive trees weren't really suited to tropical climates. Castel had a towering volcano, and the climate at its foot was quite different from that higher up the mountain. Most of the olive trees grew in the valleys, and only a small portion were easy to harvest.

Transporting olives down from the mountains made the task several times harder.

Without suitable transport equipment—or even paved roads—harvesting the olives required a great deal of manpower.

"Don't force people to harvest olives in the mountains. Manpower is a precious resource. Our goal isn't just to produce olive oil; it's to train skilled workers."

"Skilled workers?"

Alexei was taken aback. He had no experience managing a factory. To him, the craftsmen were like the logistics troops in an army: there were elite combat units, but he'd never heard of elite logistics.

He'd visited the factories, too. The craftsmen did repetitive, simple tasks. What was there to become skilled at?

Theus smiled. "Look, I call the people in the factories craftsmen, not workers, because they haven't fully adapted to how a factory operates. Even in the factory, they're still doing work much like they did in the old workshops."

"And by workers, I mean people with basic competence—people who know what they're supposed to do, what they're capable of doing, what's dangerous, and what could get them killed."

"Don't underestimate that. You have to learn and gradually understand an industrial process. Many dangers aren't obvious at a glance. If people don't learn and adapt..."

"Then you have to fill the gaps with human lives."

Alexei was at a loss for words. He truly hadn't thought of that.

"You'll see. Once the craftsmen in these olive oil factories gain some basic proficiency, both production efficiency and the rate of accidents will change dramatically."

Theus flipped through the notebook again, then asked:

"How are the schools coming along?"

"We've found a few empty buildings. Desks and chairs won't be a problem, but it'll be difficult to gather enough books and paper in time..."

"There's no need to make things so complicated." Theus smiled. When people in this era talked about schools, they were usually thinking of something more like a modern university.

As for basic education? Nobles hired tutors. And commoners?

Why would commoners need to go to school?

What Theus needed to address was basic education: training competent engineers—or even starting lower, training competent workers.

"Our schools don't need paper and pens. Find a wall or a large enough wooden board and paint it black." A blackboard was all they needed to teach. The territory produced gypsum and lime, so making chalk required no particular skill. They didn't even need chalk; they could write on the blackboard with a clod of earth.

"Education isn't so difficult to provide. With students and a blackboard, knowledge can be passed on."

Alexei opened his mouth, as if to say something, but couldn't find the words.

Though he was an orphan, he'd received an elite education. He knew what would happen if Theus went through with this.

Universal education? Teaching a bunch of peasants to read and write? Even if word of such a school merely got out, Theus would become the laughingstock of the nobility.

And yet Alexei felt something he couldn't quite put into words.

He'd grown up in an orphanage and seen the toiling, aimless lives of the lower classes. He wasn't one of those lofty great nobles; his own feet had once stood in muddy soil.

In the end, he said nothing. He simply gripped the curved sword at his waist, the one Theus had given him.

It had become a habit of Alexei's lately. Whenever he gripped the sword, strength welled up inside him and sustained him.

"...In any case, the schools need to open as soon as possible. I'll personally choose the instructors, and we can't delay the workshop renovations, either. We don't have much time."

Alexei gave Theus a serious look, bowed, and left the estate.

"Why is he using that military salute again..."