Upon entering Morris Town, Rowan met Baron Delin, the current director of the Morris Shipyard.
Baron Delin, who was over fifty, looked deeply grieved when he received his transfer papers.
Baron Delin told Rowan of his love for this land, his voice brimming with feeling, speaking of Morris Town as though it were his second home.
Whenever the old baron grew particularly emotional, he dabbed at the tears in the corners of his eyes with his sleeve.
"More than twenty years... It's so hard to leave, Young Master Rowan."
"Please rest assured, Baron Delin. Father has already made arrangements for you in Boralus. You can go straight to Hook Point to take up your new post," Rowan said with a smile.
"Young Master Rowan, I think Baron Delin really wants to stay. Even an outsider like me is moved by his love for Morris Town." Byron looked at old Delin admiringly and gave him a thumbs-up.
At the young Paladin's words, Baron Delin's slightly stooped back suddenly straightened. He fixed Byron with a stern look, his eyes blazing with anger.
Where did this Paladin come from? Would it kill you to keep your mouth shut?
Rowan pressed a hand to his forehead, thinking that Byron clearly had yet to learn any hard lessons from the world. The old baron had gone to all this trouble to put on an act, only for Byron to ruin it.
Beads of anxious sweat appeared on Baron Delin's forehead. He was terrified that the young, inexperienced Young Master Rowan would make him stay.
Of course, Baron Delin was worrying over nothing. After the old director had spent twenty years serving somewhere as poor as Morris Town, how could Rowan bear to deprive him of a promotion?
Seeing Baron Delin struggling to find anything to say, Rowan hurried to rescue him. "Everything must proceed according to Father's orders. I hope you'll understand, Baron Delin."
Baron Delin placed a hand over his chest and gave Rowan a noble's bow before slowly leaving the shipyard's meeting room.
What the hell? Why was that guy smiling as he left?
Byron pondered for a moment, then suddenly understood. "So he was acting. Nobles are so fucking fake."
"Leonard, did you catch that? That old bastard Delin was clearly putting on an act. How could he possibly not want to leave? And here I was admiring him," Byron muttered.
Leonard stared at him coldly. "One day, someone's going to beat you to death."
"We're just talking. Why are you cursing me?"
Lunch consisted of coarse flatbread. Jenny fried an extra egg for Rowan, which counted as a special treat.
Supplies were scarce throughout Morris Town. Meat and eggs were practically luxuries here.
After lunch, Rowan sent Byron to gather information on the town's smithies and local taxes.
Morris Town had no school, and the shipyard workers were almost all uneducated. At present, Byron was the only educated person Rowan could put to work.
Although Rowan was worried that Byron might well get beaten up in Morris Town, a few hard lessons from the world would do a young man good.
After Byron rode away, Rowan took Leonard to Morris Town's shipyard.
Accompanying them was Baron Delin's assistant at the shipyard, an elderly steward.
Once they entered the shipyard grounds, Rowan did not see a single seagull. That made sense. The people of Morris Town could barely feed themselves; even the seagulls did not want to come here and become meat for the townsfolk.
"As you said, Young Master Rowan, Lord Stormsong has reduced the supply of wind runes this year. Most of our shipyards can no longer fit our sails with runes. As a result, our ships cannot leave port at all." The old steward, Kande, explained the shipyard's current difficulties to Rowan.
From Rowan's understanding of sailing ships, they could sail out to sea using their sails alone. Even without wind runes, surely they should still be able to leave port.
Of course, the problem could not be that simple. Rowan did not press the matter. Five minutes later, they arrived at the Morris Shipyard.
The shipyard resembled those of medieval Europe. Its main structure was a broad walkway built out over the sea. Simple wooden lifting mechanisms stood on either side, and sailors used ropes to hoist shipbuilding timber onto the vessels' frames for the next stage of construction.
When Rowan saw the seven sailing ships lined up on either side of the harbor, he understood why the shipyard's vessels could not sail without wind runes.
Traditional sailing ships had a displacement of roughly 1,500 tons, but the ships before him exceeded the conventional sailing vessels in Rowan's memory in both size and draft.
The vessels built by the Morris Shipyard were only medium-sized ships in the Kul Tiras Fleet, yet these three-masted warships could reach 75 meters in length, 18 meters in width, and 10 meters in draft, with a displacement of over 2,000 tons. Ordinary sails naturally could not meet the needs of such large vessels, so wind runes, which could generate a steady wind, had become the warships' primary source of propulsion.
The Stormsong family's wind runes and the blessings of the Tidesages were undoubtedly among the Kul Tiras Fleet's greatest assets.
In an age when sailing ships fought for supremacy, the faster and larger a warship was, the greater its advantage in battle.
"Are these the only workers our shipyard has?" Rowan surveyed the yard and found only three or four workers maintaining the ships.
Kande shook his head helplessly. "These six ships are this year's orders. Now that they cannot put to sea, the Kul Tiras navy certainly won't pay for them. To keep the shipyard operating, I had no choice but to withhold the workers' wages for the time being."
I, Rowan, hate people who don't pay their workers more than anything. Now that I'm the boss, I have to pay them. Besides, the worse the shipyard's troubles became, the less they could afford to mistreat the workers. If all the workers left, who would Rowan find to do the work?
"I'll handle the wages. Just have the workers come to the shipyard tomorrow."
"Thank you, Young Master Rowan. I thank you on behalf of the workers."
After spending half the day inspecting the shipyard, Rowan took stock of the situation. The Morris Shipyard was a complete mess.
The workers were on strike, the ships sat idle in the harbor, and the shipyard faced a serious financial crisis.
On top of that, there had been more rainy days this year, making the idle warships expensive to maintain. The workers had to keep draining water from the ships, making repairs, and coating them with pitch and tar to prevent rot.
Of course, the bad news did not end there.
Byron spent the afternoon surveying Morris Town's smithies. There were currently three in town, but they only opened during the busy farming seasons to forge farming tools. The smiths otherwise hardly ever worked at their forges. They had to eat, after all, and in a town like Morris Town, where even basic food and clothing were hard to come by, smithing was undoubtedly a dead end.
Iron ore was also a scarce commodity in Morris Town, and Kul Tiras's entire iron and steel industry was controlled by Lady Ashvane. Although most of the ore came from the Norwington family, Ashvane charged exorbitant prices for iron and steel as part of her underhanded business rivalry.
Expensive ore meant expensive iron and steel. The Norwington family had not lost out in the trade, but for Rowan at present, this was undoubtedly another piece of bad news.
After taking stock of the difficulties facing him, Rowan began carrying out his plan.
To get anything done, he first needed strength of his own. Even after night fell, Rowan did not sit idle.
Jenny replenished the magical dust in Rowan's magic lamp, brewed him a cup of tea, then sat upright across from her young master and watched him work.
Rowan wrote and sketched at his desk, drawing up plans for a simple steam engine.
Since there are no wind runes, I'll create my own source of power.
Before you continue