The subject of their conversation was, in fact, a deal.
After receiving word that Prince Eric had succeeded to the throne of the Lampari Kingdom, Xu Yi had proposed renting another tract of land from Count Wellen to expand Xinfei Farm and accommodate the factories, workshops, and research institutions of the various merchant guilds preparing to relocate.
At first, Count Wellen had been quite agreeable, readily promising to provide the Xinfei Merchant Guild with another tract the same size as the previous one-roughly one hundred thousand hectares.
He had even generously agreed to let Xu Yi choose any land under his ownership. According to Xu Yi's plans, this would allow the two tracts to be connected, giving the Xinfei Merchant Guild an enormous base in the Stantin Duchy with ample room to develop however it wished.
But as the situation within the Lampari Kingdom changed, the Xinfei Merchant Guild's prospects began to look increasingly bleak on the surface, and Count Wellen's previously generous, accommodating attitude grew more guarded.
He repeatedly stalled over Xu Yi's request to rent the land, no longer showing his earlier willingness.
Once the Lampari Kingdom's Magic Industry Administration announced that the Xinfei Merchant Guild was forbidden from producing any magic machinery within the kingdom, Count Wellen's attitude changed dramatically, and he became extremely hard-line toward Xu Yi.
It was not that he refused to rent land to the Xinfei Merchant Guild altogether. Rather, he seized the opportunity to demand an exorbitant price.
When the Xinfei Merchant Guild had rented its previous hundred thousand hectares, the annual rent had been only three hundred thousand gold coins. Now, for another tract of the same size, Count Wellen had raised the rent to an astonishing one million gold coins!
That was more than three times the original price!
Naturally,