Survival Strategy for Weak Territories! ~ My Territory Will Be Destroyed No Matter How Many Times It Is Repeated. How Can This Be Saved? ~ - Chapter 7

Fourth Run, One-shot Reversal Silver Vein

“Just for whose sake do you think I am working myself to the bone here!?”

The moment he woke up in his same old bed. He suddenly screamed.

Klein was fuming with anger after he got hit by a stone and died.

Although a part of his reason to do his best in protecting his territory is to protect his ancestral home, most of the reasons that went behind his survival strategy are to prevent his citizens from being slaughtered.

Since he received a proper education, he also has a sense of responsibility as a lord.

He can tell what is right and what is wrong.

He is indeed being driven by a passion that he does not quite understand yet but his goal to prevent such slaughter came purely out of his sense of justice.

With that being the case, he did not expect to die at the hand of the very people he was trying to protect. That’s why the first 30 seconds after he woke up, he was struggling with his rage.

However, he managed to calm down after that and started to settle down.

“Well, I would get angry too if the taxes I have been paying for over 200 years were suddenly used up in a single day.”

It indeed was an extravagant expense considering that they were in the middle of a recession.

He can’t pretend to not understand where the dissatisfaction of his people was coming from.

While convincing himself so, he once again decided to look at the situation from the bright side.

“Well, this is fine. Now I have even more information than last time. What a shame, scholars. I will make full use of your wisdom for free.”

Because time has rewind, he does not have to pay out any reward for the proposals they presented to him.

The wisdom of the experts who he lured in by that exorbitant prize money will be used for free.

Klein, who still remembered the usable ideas, immediately wrote them down so as not to forget them.

However,

“Eh? Hmm? This is bad. It seems I forgot some huh.”

Although he was supposed to just hear it yesterday, he has already forgotten some of them.

Did the shock from dying make him forget?

While starting to get impatient, he tries writing down what he actually remembered.

“Well, whatever, as long as I remember the general idea, I should be able to manage! Let’s do this!”

While pumping himself up with a smile, Klein continues to write.

After a while.

His maid, Marie half opens the door and nervously calls out to him.

“K, Klein, -sama?”

“What, Marie huh. What are you doing? Shaking like that.”

“No, Um, I thought that you were angry about something.”

It seems that she overheard his earlier outburst when he first woke up. Seeing her lord snap like that, it probably took her some courage to call out to him.

Understanding the situation, Klein sighed while awkwardly scratching his head.

“I saw an irritating dream you see. I don’t remember it anymore so don’t worry about it.”

“U, Understood. I will bring you some water right away.”

As usual, Klein’s day starts with a glass of water.

After drinking his water and having his breakfast in the dining room, Klein heads back to his room and grabs a map

Then, after he marked something on it, he went to the mine inside his territory.

“Eh? Young Master, it’s rare to see you here.”

“I’m already the lord, Vargas. Stop calling me young master already.”

“Hehe, to us, you still look like our own grandchild after all.”

Said a miner in a tank top with short brown hair.

His name is Vargas, the chief miner of Asgard Territory.

Since he’s the leader of the miners here, he sometimes visits the lord to discuss worker rights and such topics.

In short, he is the man who is in charge of managing the relationship between the miners and the Asgard house.

He had been in and out of the mansion since Klein was a child so he was a person that was like a close relative to Klein/ a quasi-servant of the house.

“So, what is your business here today?”

“I have something important to talk to you about.”

“Something important?”

Vargas cocked his head as he wondered why Klein, who rarely climbs all the way up to the mine, went out of his way to visit him today.

When Klein beckons him, they head to Vargas’s office in front of the mine where Klein shows him the map.

“Alright, Vargas. This will be a secret between us for now. You must never leak what I am about to tell you, okay!”

“You are too loud, young master. So, what’s this secret?”

“First, take a look at this map.”

The map Klein spread on the table is marked with several [X] marks.

These marked spots are scattered to the east of the mountain they are currently mining.

“This is……toward the direction of the large forest isn’t it.”

On the southeast side of Klein’s territory, there was an undeveloped area surrounded by steep mountains and forests.

There are many cliffs and other hazards and even if they cut those trees down, it’s not a place that can be used for agricultural purposes.

Moreover, no valuable herbs or wild plants are growing there either. That’s why it’s considered a worthless barren land.

Besides, even if they don’t bother developing it, there are still many undeveloped areas on the flat land.

This is why the place was left untouched for the past 200 years under the Asgard house’s rule.

It is still a waste to not try investigating it at all though.

When Vargas was puzzled about what these [X] marks represent, Klein leans in close to his ear and whispers.

“I heard that there might be silver deposits near these spots.”

“……what?”

If they can mine silver here then both the influence and importance of the Asgard house in this country will increase in an instant.

The reason is that the silver mine owned by the royal family had been completely mined out since the end of last year.

“We are living through a silver crisis. If we can mine silver here then……we will gain a lot of influence at the royal court.”

As a privilege for those who discover the silver deposits, they would gain the right to manufacture silver coins and the title of the Coin Maker——In other words, they will be able to gain the right to manufacture the Kingdom’s currency.

Naturally, you need a certain level of status to gain such a right but that should not be a problem for a viscount family.

“I found these spots from the old records but it’s still worth a try to look into them.”

“If we truly found the silver then this will be a big deal. How reliable is this information, young master?”

Klein did not know how reliable this is but he’s still reasonably confident.

The locations they pointed out were all different but he thinks that the information is credible because several scholars at the contest had made the same claim.

“Anyway, I want you to look into them immediately. I will give you the necessary budget.”

Even if he can’t deny the possibility that those scholars were only trying to give him a flashy proposal, they were all convinced that the silver is there and what they were focusing on at the contest was where it actually is.

“But if I can’t find anything then..…”

“Even if you can’t find anything there, the information would still be useful right? I can tell my descendants where not to look in the future after all.”

For example, in case the tin and copper mines currently operating inside the Asgard territory were to dry up, it would be easier to find a new vein if they know where they don’t have to look.

With Klein emphasizing that this is also for the sake of their future, Vargas conceded.

“If you are willing to go that far then I will do it. Please don’t expect too much, okay?”

“I understand, this is still better than not doing anything after all.”

With a sigh, Vargas couldn’t help but obey the command which sounds almost like a request from his lord.

Since they are going to be venturing into a dense forest and crossing steep cliffs, the team Vargas assembled was something close to a suicide squad.

It was a week after Klein went to Vargas.

“Move aside, Get out of the way! MAKE WAY, MAKE WAAAY!!”

Vargas burst through the door to Klein’s mansion like a soldier storming a castle.

His eyes were bloodshot from running non-stop for the last three days.

His demon-like aura made him seem like someone who’s about to commit a suicide attack.

“W, What’s going on!?”

“E, Enemy attack! Enemy attack!?”

It is currently 5 am.

It wouldn’t be strange for an intruder to be killed when they rushed into the lord’s mansion at a time like this. However, Vargas did not stop.

“Young master! Big news, BIG NEWS! Young Master!!!!”

“N, Nn…..so sleepy. What is it? This voice, is it Vargas?”

Klein woke up from the sound of the commotion and got out of his bed.

In front of the stairs, he found Vargas being held down by the guards.

“What is it, this early in the morning.”

“I, I found it! I found it, Young Master! The silver!”

“Hmm, the silver? Well……good for you.”

What’s he talking about. If it’s silver then——

Klein was still half asleep so he couldn’t think clearly.

However, after a few seconds, he finally understood what Vargas was saying.

“—–wait. You found it!?”

His one-shot reversal plan.

The backbone of his plan to enrich his territory and strengthen his military.

Vargas is saying that he found it.

His drowsiness was blown away in an instant.

Klein ran down the stairs and firmly grabbed Vargas’s shoulders.

“G, Good work! I will reward everyone on the survey team handsomely!”

“Thank you! Now, young master, I will take you to see it!”

After that, Klein went to prepare himself and headed to the spot where silver was discovered.

It seems that there is a considerable amount of reserves that silver will come out no matter where you dig.

There is so much that rather than digging a tunnel, they can just do surface mining for a while.

“We did it, now the fund is secured! I can hire as many soldiers and mercenaries as I want. I can even develop the territory with this!”

“You did it, young master!”

To think that there was such a treasure trove just a couple of cliffs away from the mine.

If his predecessors had seriously investigated this area, they would have found this spot immediately. Fortunately, his predecessors did not see the value of developing this area and left it untouched for him to discover.

Klein cheers while pointing his gratitude toward his predecessors for leaving such a big source of income untouched for him.

“Young master, since we found one here, we might be able to find more silver at the other spots too right!”

“Yeah, I will give you as much fund as you want, go investigate all of them, Vargas! ……..also, I told you, stop calling me young master already.”

It has been a long time since he last heard any good news.

Klein decided to invest almost all of the property of his house to develop the mining industry but this time he will not forget to take care of the fundamentals.

“With this, we will become a rich territory! You guys, expect the tax cut alright!”

Since he declared so, no one objected to how he decided to use his house’s assets this time.

Rather, everyone happily agreed with his decision.

Everyone in his territory is hopeful for the mine development.

Elated, Klein also sent a messenger to the royal palace to obtain the right to manufacture silver coins from the kingdom while he was preparing to develop the mine.

—————a few days later, a mysterious assassin infiltrated his mansion, and Klein was assassinated.

Kingdom Calendar Year 500, April 28th.

Due to the sudden death of its lord, the Asgard territory was annexed and put under the direct control of the royal family.