Pay to win

In the end, Gorlick chose to submit.

After throwing his weight around the North Mountain Mine for decades, when had Gorlick ever suffered abuse like this?

Unable to bear such humiliation, Gorlick was exhausted in both body and mind. He promptly agreed to Rowan's unfair terms.

Leonard shackled Gorlick's ankles. That afternoon, the soldiers escorted Gorlick to the North Mountain mining site to dig ore.

In truth, the flatbreads Jenny had made contained neither croton nor laxatives. Byron had sold off all the medicine in town long ago. Even plain flatbreads had worked quite well, though. Gorlick would probably never eat anything made from wheat again for the rest of his life.

With a hundred unpaid miners at his disposal, Rowan restructured the working arrangements at the North Mountain Mine.

The former miners no longer had to go underground to work. Instead, they put on matching work clothes and became overseers, supervising the troggs.

Rowan sent the town's tax collector, that tall, thin, middle-aged man, to the North Mountain mining site, promoting him straight to mine manager.

Hammer was very grateful to Young Master Rowan for the promotion, especially since it came with a salary of two gold coins a month. He was already middle-aged, his hairline was in increasingly dire straits, and he was still unmarried.

Hammer had always worked diligently at the Council Hall, keeping busy all day long. He was also an upright man who never used his position for personal gain.

To Rowan, Hammer was a loyal, honest employee. To the townspeople, however, he was a fool.

A tax collector who was still so poor and shabby? Any daughter married off to such a stubbornly principled man would only suffer. That was why Hammer had remained single all this time. Ah, society really was ruthless.

"You should find someone to marry first, Hammer," Rowan advised as Hammer prepared to take up his post at North Mountain.

Hammer gave an awkward smile. "Young Master, with what I have to offer, who would take an interest in me?"

For some reason, Rowan felt that Hammer was remarkably like his former self. He immediately patted Hammer on the shoulder and said, "Don't worry. Byron knows plenty of girls. I'll have him introduce you to a few in a couple of days."

Byron furrowed his brows and said in all seriousness, "Young Master, I'm not that sort of man. I've been in Morris Town for so long, but I don't know any girls."

"Heh."

With Hammer overseeing the North Mountain mining site, Rowan felt comfortable shifting his current focus to building a large steam engine.

Rowan now needed a great deal of iron plate, and the Whitewater River Smelter simply could not produce iron fast enough to meet his current needs.

If he relied solely on the iron ingots produced by the Whitewater River Smelter, he would not finish the steam engine even by the end of the year.

So Rowan decided he still needed to ask Jaina for help.

When you're in trouble, isn't asking your wife for help only natural?

Rowan went to the shipyard and tossed the magical carrier pigeon Jaina had given him into the air.

In an instant, the magical carrier pigeon transformed into a clear, shimmering magical glow, dancing through the air as it drifted south.

Fifteen minutes later, a blue-and-white arcane magic circle appeared out of nowhere at the harbor, and Jaina arrived at the Morris Shipyard dressed as a student.

With her little blue-patterned dress and pale blue cloak, Jaina looked rather cute today.

"I'm a little touched. Your Highness actually skipped class just to come to my shipyard."

Jaina gave a forceful huff and turned her head away, looking at the ships moored in the harbor. "Enough sweet talk. If you need something, spit it out."

Rowan took a list from his pocket and handed it to Jaina. "You left far too quickly the day before yesterday. I actually had a few more things I wanted your help with."

Jaina glanced over the list Colin had given her, feeling somewhat bewildered.

Ten tons of iron plate, twenty cannons, a list of contacts at the Goblin Trade Company, five iron-smelting blast furnaces, and twenty tons of grain.

"Pah! What do you take me for? Where would I get that much money?" Jaina was so angry that the name badge on her chest kept rising and falling.

Rowan was being utterly unreasonable, wanting everything handed to him ready-made. She was sure to end up lazing around again.

"Just do your best. At worst, I can pay for some of it myself, can't I?" Rowan spread his hands, pretending he had made a huge concession.

Jaina rolled her eyes at Rowan. "I don't have any money. My monthly allowance is only twenty gold coins, and I still have to buy clothes, skincare products, and pretty jewelry. Yesterday, I saw lots of lovely dresses at a shop, but I couldn't bring myself to buy them. Besides, I still owe a lot of my classmates in Dalaran money. How would I have any left to buy things for you?"

The daughter of the Kingdom of Kul Tiras's lord admiral, a princess of Kul Tiras, actually has to borrow money to buy things? Just how much do you love spending? Rowan realized Jaina was something of a spendthrift. He took a bag of gold coins from his pack and handed it to her. "Could you pay back what you owe people first? Honestly, watch yourself when you're out from now on. Don't embarrass me, understand?"

His words filled Jaina's heart with warmth. She lightly pressed her lips together, her cheeks turning red. "What am I to you, anyway? What do you mean, embarrassing you?"

Happiness from Jaina +500.

So I can pay to win, too? If I'm short on emotion points in the future, I'll just give Jaina more gold.

"If you run out of money, come to me. Don't borrow from anyone else again."

"Okay."

"For the things on this list, you only need to put me in touch with a few trade companies. I'll handle the actual negotiations myself. Also, we can't buy the blast furnaces and iron ingots in the Norwington Family's name. As you know, the Ashvane Family doesn't get along with us, so Lady Ashvane definitely won't sell to me. That's why I need your help." Rowan had considered everything carefully as he explained.

Jaina nodded. "Then I'll think of a way. Oh, right, I can buy the blast furnaces and iron ore under the pretext of providing aid to Dalaran. We'll say it's for magical research."

"Good idea. Let's do that."

"But Father and my mentor always tell me I mustn't lie," Jaina said awkwardly, pinching the hem of her dress.

Watching Jaina's affected expression, Rowan fought back the pain in his wallet and took another hundred gold coins from his pack.

"Here."

"I was only teasing you." Jaina did not take the gold coins from Rowan's hand, but the system still chimed.

Pleasure from Jaina +300.

What's going on? I can earn emotion points even if she doesn't take the gold? Ah, a girl's mind really is hard to fathom.