Starting Today, I’ll Work as a City Lord - CH 88

A small boat docked at the dock of Xi Yang City.

“Why does Baron Omar want this poor place?”

The envoy of Lie Ma City, Lyan, frowned as he stood on his boat and looked at the broken dock. Some of the wooden platforms had even collapsed.

Lyan wasn’t very popular in Baron Omar’s territory. He was a quasi-noble, a former knight, and had been made a clerk by Baron Omar. It wasn’t because Baron Omar favored him, rather, it was the opposite. Baron Omar had stripped him of his title of a knight and made him a clerk and forced him to deal with the complaining commoners in the territory.

Knights weren’t nobles, they were quasi-nobles- above commoners but below nobles. Even so, many commoners aspired to be knights. After all, as long as they made great contributions, they could become a true noble. The other path that people could take was to just buy the title of a noble, like Liu Feng did. That was pretty much impossible, however, as most of the knights don’t really have any savings.

Lyan, for example, only had about a dozen silver coins- which took him 20 years of hard work to save up.

The reason that Baron Omar had kicked Lyan to Xi Yang City was that there were apparently huge changes in Xi Yang City, and so he was there to see whether or not the information they got was true.

This was a horrible job for Lyan, who was about to get married. “Seems like I won’t be able to get back in time for the wedding. I hope that Liza won’t blame me.” Lyan wasn’t in a good mood. No one would be if they got called to go on a business trip before their wedding, and those who would be happy were the ones that went to see their lover on their trip.

He hadn’t been able to get into a nobles’ social circle and was just an ordinary clerk with a salary. Before Baron Omar came to Lie Ma City, he was a famous knight in Lie Ma City, and Baron Omar quickly demoted him to the position of a clerk. Was it because I reprimanded him for some of his actions?

“My lord, are you going to enter Xi Yang City now?” the servant asked. He didn’t know why Lyan was just standing there, but it didn’t matter to him. He just knew that Lyan was pretty good to him and that Baron Omar had been continuously making things hard for Lyan. Everyone in Lie Ma City knew that Lyan was way too upright and honest.

“Let’s go into the city first. This city is so small and remote that even travelers rarely come to this place. And yet they¹ still said that there were big changes in this city,” Lyan said, shaking his head. He had no idea what the person who spread this information was thinking, or whether or not it was just Baron Omar trying to make things hard for him and driving him away from Lie Ma City.

Hearing the sound of horses, Lyan turned his head to look, and he saw 5 carriages coming over to the dock.

The coachmen stopped the carriages, and Ying Ya jumped down from one of them. He then said, “Guys, help me unload the salt. I will give you each 2 more steel coins.”

“Sure!” The coachmen hurriedly went to help Ying Ya carry the salt. This was extra income that they could keep for themselves and didn’t have to hand over to the City Lord’s Mansion.

Lyan dumbfoundedly looked at all of this happening. How come he’s transporting so much salt away from Xi Yang City? Could it be that the commoners couldn’t even afford to buy salt anymore?

Curious, Lyan went next to Ying Ya and asked, “Excuse me, why are you transporting all the salt away?”

“You’re not from here, are you?” Ying Ya asked with a bitter smile.

“Yes, I just came here today.”

“You’ll know when you get to Xi Yang City,” Ying Ya said. He didn’t want to talk about it.

Confused, Lyan stared at Ying Ya as he was walking away. Lyan then turned his head to look at Xi Yang City with curiosity. Could the noble of Xi Yang City be so corrupted that even merchants were unwilling to stay?

“Let’s go,” Lyan said, walking towards Xi Yang City, with his servant following him. After walking for about ten minutes, they saw the wheat fields on the sides of the road and couldn’t help but nod their heads.

“The wheat is growing very well. It seems like it’ll only take about four days before it’s ready to be harvested,” Lyan said, smiling upon seeing the field full of wheat.

Hearing the sound of horses, Lyan and his servant hurriedly moved to the side of the road, seeing the previous carriages that they had seen carrying salt.

In the distance, one of the coachmen shouted, “Hey! You two visitors! Do you want to take a ride in the carriage?”

Lyan was stunned. Are all the people in Xi Yang City this friendly that they would ask passersby whether or not they want to take a ride in a carriage?

“We do!” Lyan quickly answered. There was still quite a distance to Xi Yang City.

The coachman stopped the carriage and said, “Because we are traveling from outside of Xi Yang City to the inside, it will cost 3 steel coins per person. If that’s fine with you, then get on!”

Liu Feng had told him that when giving outside visitors a ride, he had to explain things clearly or they would think that he was giving them a ride out of kindness.

“Steel coins? What are those?” Lyan asked, frowning. “Did you say it wrong? Did you mean copper coins?”

“Hey, are you trying to rob us? You want 3 copper coins to carry a person to Xi Yang City?” the servant was extremely displeased, as his monthly salary was only 60 copper coins, and that was only because he had served Lyan for many years.

“No, you guys are misunderstanding. Steel coins are cheaper than copper coins, and one copper coin can be exchanged for 10 steel coins. It’s a new currency invented by our city lord.” Saying that, the coachman’s head was raised a little. Steel coins were the commoners’ favorite thing, as they could be used to buy many things and were very convenient to use.

“That’s how it is?” Lyan said, his eyes widening in surprise. He had never expected something like that. He hurriedly took out a copper coin and asked, “Then can we use this to exchange for some steel coins?”

“Of course. Get on first,” the coachman said. He still had to go back to make a report and let the horse rest.

Lyan and his servant got up on the carriage. Lyan gave the coachman a copper coin, and the coachman gave Lyan 4 steel coins.

“So this is a steel coin?” Lyan held a steel coin in his hand and began to carefully inspect it. The front of the steel coin had a “1” and the word “dime”. Lyan hadn’t seen the number symbol “1” before, but he did know the word “dime”. The back of the steel coin was a picture of wheat ears.

Lyan sucked in a breath of cold air. Just this coin-creation technology is already more powerful than the coin-creation technology of the kingdom. This made him more curious about Xi Yang City and the city lord of Xi Yang City, who invented the steel coin.

“Coachman, aren’t you afraid that you’ll get in trouble if your lord finds out that you’re collecting money by giving people rides while on the road?” the servant whispered.

“Why would I be afraid? This is my job,” the coachman said, shaking his head in amusement. He had given a ride to a lot of people that had the same question. These people need to see more things and get more experience. They’re making too much of a fuss. Even the kids in Xi Yang City know that you can ride a carriage through Xi Yang City if you pay 2 steel coins.

Author’s Notes:

I need time to type up chapters, okay? It hasn’t even been 10 minutes since I posted the previous chapter before you guys started demanding me to post the next chapter. Are you all demons? (￣▽￣). Demons born with the words “more chapters”?

Translator’s Notes:

¹ Author did not specify who.