Chapter 328

Chapter 328

After nearly half a month of long-distance traveling, Wells finally arrived at the Northwest Bay with the caravan, to his surprise, this place was not the desolate and dilapidated as he had imagined at the beginning, the population density was not as much as that of the south, but not so much as to give the feeling of being deserted.

After entering a piece of land called Emden, the towns along the way gradually increased, and the pedestrians encountered on the road didn’t have the same colorful faces as the pedestrians encountered before.

“This is one of the richest territories in the Northwest Bay, it used to belong to the Kent family, but not long ago the Kent family failed because of their plot to take over the Duke of the Northwest, so this land is now under the management of our Earl Paul Gleiman. The people here were not as well off as you see them now, the former lord, Maltz Kent, was a brutal and uncaring man, now my Count has exempted them from a large number of harsh taxes so they can fill their bellies.”

While resting along the way, Wells heard the leader proudly boasting about his own lord, the same earl he would serve for five years, so this lord was a good fellow, certainly better than the one who would imprison himself in front of the city gates to show his face for a small matter.

The further north we go, the road condition is getting better and better, both wide and flat, the carriage is not bumpy like before, the merchants and travelers encountered on the road are getting more and more.

Finally the caravan arrived at the end of the journey – Lake Town, said town, in fact its size can already be called a small city. It could be seen that it hadn’t been developed for a long time, as many of the buildings were very new.

This small town completely subverted Wells’ inherent impression of the Northwest Gulf as a place of externalization.

The streets were clean and tidy, paved with green stone slabs, there was very little garbage on the roads, and you couldn’t smell any odor, which was better than even the king’s capital, Jingyao, making Wells very incredible.

Pedestrians were bustling about, and their speech, behavior, and demeanor were not at all like a country place. He heard all kinds of accents here, even foreign ones. Oh! There was even a Kokanese language, and even Kokanese merchants, whom Wells considered the “ends of the earth”, had come here to do business.

Constantly there are carriages loaded with goods coming in and out, it seems that the commercial development here is good, what makes Wells marvel even more is that the pedestrians and carriages are consciously driving on the right side of the road, so that the people and cars going in opposite directions go on one side, which greatly reduces the chances of congestion on the road.

“Perhaps staying here for five years would be a good choice.” Still harboring this thought, Wells followed the procession to City Hall to report for duty. The team of his peers was filled with all sorts of personnel, including blacksmiths, chirurgeons, teachers, and so on, but the alchemist was alone, and on the way, Wither was in a very bad mood, and didn’t have much interaction with the others.

The town hall of Lake Town is located in the center of the new town on the south shore of Lake Wes, the previous Lake Town was directly managed by the Council of State, but since the domination of the great territory of Emden, the Council of State has separated from the specialized town hall to manage Lake Town, and the office is also shifted from the Lake Island to the new town on the south shore.

The political officer of the city hall arranged temporary accommodation for them, and also issued a sum of money for their expenses in the past few days. After wandering around the city for a few days, Wells made a lot of new discoveries, and it turned out that many of the new things that had taken the royal capital by storm in the past six months-such as the fine porcelain that the nobles flocked to, the new type of paper that the scholars fell in love with, and the various kinds of [printed books]-had actually all been produced from here.

“I didn’t realize that the Northwest Bay even had a place like this.” Wells sighed once again, it looked like the rumors were not to be trusted. After he returned to his residence one day, the dormitory administrator handed him a letter from the city hall, which said that he had been assigned a job and told him to go to the city hall every other day. The next day he went, a government official led him to a nitrate boiling workshop or workshop, announced that he was appointed as the workshop’s [chemical technology instructor], Wells is not much of a problem, born from a family of alchemists, he is no stranger to nitrate boiling, so he just started his new job.

His daily work was to monitor the work of the workers, make sure that no mistakes were made, check the quality of the products, and train the apprentices, which was quite enjoyable.

Wells was quite dedicated to his job, proud of his status as an alchemist he had his own professional ethics. He used his knowledge to optimize the process of boiling nitrate, and received unanimous praise from the entire workshop.

There were several other [instructors] in the workshop, all alchemists that Earl Greiman had sourced from all over the world. While exchanging experiences with his peers (in fact, he was a bit contemptuous of the level of these peers), Wells had also inquired about every aspect of this workshop, and according to the others, this nitrate boiling workshop was the property of the Earl’s family.

“What does Earl Gleiman need so much nitrate for?”

“It’s rumored to be to supply the Count’s ice-making rink. Oh yes, speaking of ice making, the Earl also invented a delicacy called [Ice Cream], made with ice shavings, cream and honey, you can buy it and try it. Selling this kind of thing in the summer time can earn the earl a great deal of money.”

Wells was a bit puzzled, would the money from selling snacks offset the cost of boiling nitro? If you need to use a lot of ice, can’t you just collect it in the winter and store it in the ice cellar? There would be as much as one needed. Why use expensive saltpeter to make it now?
But Wells also do not want to go deeper, after all, the count is the boss, how he wants to use is his own thing, as long as he can pay his salary on time on the line.

Speaking of salary, the count treats him not too thin, considering that he is from the king’s capital to the “senior talent”, he was sent to three silver coins per month, boil nitrate workshop is also included in the room and board – I heard that the count opened a variety of industries in the treatment of employees are very good, whenever the recruitment of labor Whenever there is a job opening, a large number of people want to enter.

If it was Wells who used to run the store in Jingyao, a mere three silver coins would not have entered his eyes. But that ancestral store has been smashed into smoke, because of that humiliating public display, smoke and his reputation in the circle of the king’s capital.

And this being the Northwest Bay, three silver coins a month was more than enough for him, a single man, to live a privileged life.

Wells had nothing to be dissatisfied with in his current life, and his long-term plan was to slowly save up and open an alchemy store when his contract with the Earl expired, in the town of Lakewood, and he was very optimistic about the prospects of this small town.

Time point back to the present, the reason why Weisel was puffing up and drinking in the store was because of another [insult] that he had just received in the lord’s mansion. ……

(End of chapter)