There was only one reason for Morkan’s prejudice. It was because there wasn’t much interest in the iron mine.
He didn’t know why Roman came to work, but he couldn’t ignore his attitude now.
’What the miners do is already well-known to the public. We work hard
every day to earn our pay and dedicate our lives to these tunnels. However, Roman Dmitry comes to work as if he is on a picnic. If he visited the forge with that kind of attitude, he would have been yelled at by Hendrick.’
Jacob was a good person. He didn’t accept nor reject Roman, who came to work in the mine.
On the first day, Morkan was a bit nervous. He worked around the point where Roman was working on purpose and kept an eye on Roman, trying to catch him red-handed skipping work. However, contrary to that, Roman worked harder than he thought. He thought he would only pretend to work, but Roman was actually meeting the quota like others. It was surprising.
He is really working hard?
He sometimes found him chatting, but that wasn’t such a huge deal.
‘Did he really come to help in the mine? Or did Lord Dmitry make him suffer just like us to push him to take on the position of the heir? I cannot believe the former, and the latter is too weird of a thing for Lord Dmitry to do. Rodwell Dmitry is the second son of the Dmitry family and has been through all kinds of troubles in the forge since a young time, but he did not come to the iron mine even once. Then what is Roman Dmitry, the strongest of them now, doing in the mine?’
It was bizarre. No matter what he thought, Roman’s actions made no sense.
At first, he thought Roman was doing work in the mine to become the heir, but that didn’t make too much sense.
And then, one day, Morkan heard words that were too shocking for him.
“I heard from a servant in the mansion that Lord Dmitry never gave the order for Roman Dmitry to work in the mine. I don’t even understand why he is coming here and suffering, but at the very least, it’s certain that this wasn’t a decision someone else took for him.”
Hearing those shocking words, his biased perspective on Roman vanished wholly.
‘…Why?’
In his one week working there, Roman was quite sincere. He got along well with workers without creating any trouble, and no one was dissatisfied with his work. The dissatisfaction they had on the first day had vanished as if it were a lie.
As Roman gave up his status, ate the same meals as them and even showed up in the same way they did, they couldn’t hate him anymore. Their thoughts had utterly changed. Roman Dmitry was better than they thought. When people got together to have meals, they looked at Roman and said he was different from what they expected.
And in such a situation, Morkan couldn’t contain his doubts anymore. The three heirs of Dmitry—Among them, he wanted to check the purpose and thoughts of Roman Dmitry, the only one who came to work in the mine.
And finally,
“Can I ask you something?”
Morkan approached Roman for the first time and then asked him a question about his purpose.
Roman looked at Morkan and asked instead, “What do you want to hear? The ideal answer or the realistic one?”
That was also a reaction different from what Morkan had thought. He thought Roman would just tell him the reason, but instead, he asked Morkan to decide.
The ideal answer or the realistic one—Morkan wanted to know about both of them.
“Can you tell me about both of them?”
“Then I will tell you the ideal one first.”
Ideal—Just as he told Hans, it was a sweet answer.
“Dmitry is a mining town. Just as Lawrence earns its livelihood through agriculture, Dmitry’s estate makes its living through mine. So I wanted to experience first-hand what the daily life in Dmitry was like—What it meant to live like a person of Dmitry. I didn’t want to just hear about people from afar and with statistics. Instead, I wanted to face the reality of them by myself.”
“…Do you really have to do that?”
“I need to. As long as I have the last name Dmitry, I need to.”
That was Roman’s ideal answer. These were the words one would want to hear from their leaders, and in an instant, his wariness against Roman vanished.
Then what about the realistic one?
“The real reason comes from the fact that I am not the lord of Dmitry. Even though Dmitry has enormous wealth, it belongs to my father, not me. So I intend to find out how much wealth Dmitry had accumulated, exactly how the estate works, and what I, as the eldest son, can do in the process.”
“What is that supposed to mean? As your father is the lord, then doesn’t everything already belong to you?”
“No.”
Father and son were tied by blood. However, it didn’t mean that he would inherit everything. The former Heavenly Demon had 12 kids. He passed on his knowledge to his sons, but in order to achieve something, one had to win it themselves. And it was then that Roman found out that even family can turn into strangers. In order to get as much of his father’s things, he had to pay a reasonable price.
“I will ask you—If I ask my father for 100 gold, how do you think he will react?”
“Of course, he will ask why. 100 gold isn’t exactly a small amount.”
“That is exactly why I came to the mine. If I am looking to do something for Dmitry’s daily life, and even if it’s something I want to do personally, I will constantly have to ask my father for something. It is my privilege as his son, and it is the same about me wanting to claim my rights. I need a lot of money and people for the things I want to do in the future. And rather than building it up down from the ground, I will try to use only my father’s name and background and get what I need.”
It was truly a bit too frank an answer. Nevertheless, Roman made his purpose clear with that.
Seriously.
Hearing the absurd and straightforward answer, Morkan couldn’t help but laugh.
“Kuahahahah! So that was the reason. You have to pay the price to claim your father’s assets. I didn’t even think of that. I simply thought that young master Roman came to the mine to aim for the successor’s position, but I couldn’t understand the hidden meaning.”
He chuckled so much that it seemed his throat would burst at any moment.
Roman’s answer must have felt a bit bad. In the end, it meant taking advantage of the iron mine. Although, Morkan interpreted it differently.
‘Young Master Roman came to the iron mine, not the blacksmiths. That means the miners’ work is just as important as the others, and he must have considered it worthwhile enough to even cover himself in the dirt. That’s good. In that case, I don’t have to stop him.’
Acknowledging the miners’ worth was enough for Morkan. In fact, all the miners wanted was approval from the people. Unknown to even himself, complaints about discriminatory treatment had piled up within him, and they erupted when he met Roman.
However, Roman recognized the value of the mine and used them. And that was nice to hear for Morkan. And due to that, Morkan didn’t care about being taken advantage of, so he asked, “So what are you so curious about? I will answer all of the questions I can with my knowledge.”
Morkan, who had been hostile from the first day till now, took down the walls around his heart. And from that point onward, the conversation proceeded smoothly. Roman asked many questions about the reserves of iron ore, the daily production, how they were distributed and further on. And Morkan honestly answered all his questions.
“People say that the iron mine of Dmitry is the largest one in the entire kingdom. However, in reality, it is much more than that. In fact, it isn’t inferior to being the best out there. The Cairo Kingdom is located in the North-East region of the continent, and to the northernmost tip is where Dmitry lies. People call Dmitry the end of the continent, but in reality, it’s different. Numerous mountain ranges lie in the North-East region and don’t allow people to move further beyond. That’s why people often depend on Dmitry’s border roads. Thus, those mountains ended up being our source of income. Because it is an unknown world outside, no one forced them to be developed, and according to what we have learned, there are dozen more mines that haven’t even been touched yet.”
This was incredible information. Beyond the northernmost estate of the kingdom lay the place named Endless Mountains, and that place could be said to be the source of what made the Dmitry estate the richest in the North-East.
There were numerous iron mines beyond Dmitry. And with the help of a single one, top-grade iron ores were obtained and then processed. Obviously, Dmitry had the necessary conditions to accumulate wealth. Roman knew the Dmitry estate had enormous wealth. Nevertheless, the information he had just gained was beyond imagination.
‘The wealthiest family in the North-East region of Cairo. People say there is no end to their wealth, but Dmitry hasn’t even fully used its potential yet. Then, if I give him the right cause and price, my father might truly fully support me.’
However, Morkan wasn’t done even speaking yet. He next answered Roman’s question about daily production, “Actually, Dmitry isn’t very productive with the conditions we have as of now. That is why we don’t sell iron ore immediately, and the working conditions are quite dangerous. As we try to work stably in here, the production speed turns slow, which further results in a decrease in production.”
“From my experience, I think there are enough safety precautions.”
“That’s indeed true. Lord Dmitry has given us enough support to make the work here as safe as possible, but the mining is dangerous despite that. The mountain ranges in the North-East region are known to often have earthquakes. Thus, it is impossible for miners to go deep into the tunnel at times, fearing it might collapse at any time. Also, if an accident actually happens, the work is halted for days altogether. However, this isn’t a problem that can be solved. How can a human being prevent natural disaster?”
That was the real problem. Even though they had the best possible conditions, Dmitry couldn’t fully utilize the resources due to safety concerns.
Nevertheless, that was the kind of answer Roman was waiting for.
Hearing the attractive point of safety issues, Roman asked, “If… If that is somehow handled once and for all, how much will Dmitry benefit from it?”
“I cannot say for sure, but let’s put it at around 50% more production than our current one. The reason we do not use excessive manpower in the mine is because the lives of the miners working in it cannot be guaranteed. So only the number of people who can be managed get sent in after they are informed about the safety. However, that is another reason Lord Dmitry is a wonderful person for us. Even though it would benefit him, he never pushed us to work harder because of safety reasons.”
As Morkan said, Baron Romero was a good man. If he was vicious, he would have constantly pushed people into the tunnel, not caring if they lost their lives or not. However, this certain Baron was different. He didn’t run after money. He was satisfied with what he got and valued the people around him.
Even though the miners, like Morkan, knew how dangerous the work was, and even though their dissatisfaction had built up inside due to the discrimination against the blacksmiths, they went out and worked hard each day because of their gratitude to their Baron.
’I found it—What I can do for Dmitry.’
A problem in the mine. If this could be solved, then Dmitry would gain enormous profits from it.
Just then,
Kwang!
Rumble!
A crashing sound was heard from somewhere.
It was a sign of disaster. It was a sound that turned Morkan pale.
