The Devil Is Evolution Catalog - Chapter 829: Matters of the Territory (2)

On the topic of settling the refugees into Kesek, the first matter at hand should be to find work for them. In other words, finding a job for them.

Being without a means of livelihood for long would leave the refugees feeling alienated and long for “home”.

In light of that, my constant handouts to the refugees at the expense of the merchant class was basically just… a stupid bleeding heart at work. Other than farming some goodwill for myself, the refugees did not gain any sustainable benefit, and might have even made things worse in the long term.

As a remedy of sorts, I decided to hold an employment drive amongst the refugees. Those who were suitable would become conscripts, and even if they weren’t, the rest of them could still work in the province.

But that last point was inseparable from the merchants…

My young adjutant, the ever-helpful Ansom Krayt, might have just been of a high schooler’s age, but due to his noble upbringing, he was a capable kid. Thus I sent him off to negotiate with the merchants.

Actually, this whole negotiation affair was brought up by the merchants first, not me. Had it not been for the mountain of documents darkening my skies of late, plus some unimportant matters, I would have marched right in and taught them a lesson myself. I had already prepared a list of merchants I was planning to target. In fact, I was counting the days to the new year when I would finally act.

Their offer for a negotiation gave me a different path to take, however. For one, it made me realize that they weren’t even a single entity, and some had different ideas on how to proceed.

Else why would they even approach me?

A merchant sought ever-increasing profits. If they were seeking me out, it meant they had something to gain in this.

Regardless, there was no need for me to appear in person. After all, if some merchants wanted to meet the lord of the land, and I had to just meet them, what kind of a lord would I be?

Anyway, Ansom should be back with news soon.

With that in mind, I dug into the pile of documents, hoping to finish off as much as possible before his return.

However, I barely got to pick up a document before I heard a flurry of footsteps outside my door, followed by some light arguing.

“Belud, don’t you think we are being too presumptuous here?”

“That’s the problem with you, Amori, you’re such a stick in the mud. Look how close we are with Nana, we act more relaxed instead.”

“Excuse me, Meister Stonehammer, but I suggest you be more respectful in front of the lord of this land.”

“Fine, fine. Let’s go in, Lady Mo Na won’t mind anyway.”

“It’s not about whether or not she minds. As guests, we should…”

The meister never got to finish his words as his counterpart had already pushed open the door to my office. Then under the human’s shocked gaze, he smirked and puffed out his chest while smoothing out his beard. “Greetings, my lovely Mo Na, we’re here to see you…”

As always, his words betrayed his true intentions easily. He was an interesting fellow, for sure, but only if you were a spectator in this whole ordeal.

“You can cut out the lovely part,” I rolled my eyes at the short dwarf. “So you’re here about that matter, but didn’t I say tomorrow?”

“We’re terribly sorry about this, Lord Mo Na, we were too presumptuous…”

“What do you mean presumptuous? Our casualness is proof of how close we are. If it was someone else, this old beard over here wouldn’t have budged an inch.” He winked at me then.

I swear… this old shortie…

“It’s fine, Meister Amori, since Meister Belud feels that way, we needn’t be so formal either.” I chose not to reply to that open book of a dwarf, instead smiling at the ruffled Amori.

“Have a seat, we’ve been working together for some time now, so I’m sure you’re aware of how I work. Let’s not waste time and begin.”

“Exactly, that’s what I like about you little Mo Na.” Having said that, the dwarven meister pulled up a chair for himself. However, the chair was made for a human, so his feet couldn’t even reach the ground…

Looking at him, I was suddenly reminded of an elementary school kid sitting at the adult’s table. Assuming that kid could grow a beard and age prematurely, of course.

The reason why these two meisters were so eager to find me was about that message I had Old Adam send out. Honestly, it wasn’t some grand conspiracy, but rather a technical subject. The psychic resistance of the magitek knight armors.

Thus far, the armors had been undefeated, but that was merely because their enemies weren’t strong enough.

Right now, the bulk of the armies were made up of one-stars who had just learnt to sense Fighter’s Aura. Two-stars were squad captains in the army. This first generation of armors was the equivalent of foot soldiers in a magitek armor army. Their well-built nature meant that any decent enough pilot could output the firepower of a five-star. However, the magitek armors were particularly weak to psychic attacks. Though that was only because the pilots were humans, and all humans were weak to psychic attacks.

Even so, what was the point of these armors if they couldn’t protect their pilots from every sort of attack? The goal was to have a machine that would allow the weak to triumph over the strong!

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