"You may be seated. The old man stopped what he was doing, and gestured like Professor Pacian to sit down opposite his workbench.

Professor Pacien sat down obediently, and he looked around at a semi-underground workshop with a workbench in the middle of the room, surrounded by carpentry tools, and an unfinished chair leg in the middle.

The old man, who was also Mayor of Marula, was standing behind the workbench, patting the sawdust on his body and hanging the kerosene lamp on the workbench between the two of them.

"Hello, do you have any advice?" the mayor's tone sounded stiff, and he looked at Professor Pacien suspiciously, as if trying to see something in the middle-aged man who was not good-looking—the result was certainly not ideal.

At the same time, Professor Pacien was also looking at Mayor Marula in front of him, who looked burly, although he was old, his hair was still very thick, and it was shortly shaved, and the stubble on his cheeks was joined together, outlining the outline of a rough man.

He wears a shirt with cuffs pulled up to his elbows, revealing hairy, strong forearms. A leather apron was worn over the shirt – a typical carpenter's outfit. The only thing of value on him was probably the crystal glasses in his eye sockets, which had not been in vogue for so long that only the most fashionable nobles would prepare a pair.

The old man couldn't help but feel a little annoyed when he saw that Professor Pacian didn't answer, but looked at him unscrupulously, "What do you mean?

"Of course not, Mayor Marula. Pacien twisted himself in his chair and changed into a comfortable position, and then he spoke in a moment, "Of course, I have come here to seek an alliance, you know, we don't want the city lord to interfere with the town of Marula. ”

"Huh. Mayor Mare sneered, "I have a reason to oppose this, what reason do you have, what reason is there for you to risk offending the city lord?" he propped his hands on the workbench and forced his gaze at Professor Pacian sitting at the other end of the workbench.

It has to be said that this posture is very oppressive, especially if the other person is strong enough. Professor Pacien involuntarily shrunk his neck, as if he was shrinking on a stool.

Professor Pacien wasn't scared, of course, he just liked the feeling of pretending to be weak - if he was strong enough, if the other party was also strong, he would prefer to blow up and show off his muscles.

Professor Pacien pretended to be similar, pretending to be weak and frightened, but still keeping his composure, "Our leader, you know, that Mr. Faustus. ”

Professor Pacien straightened his back gradually, as if Faust's name had given him enough courage, "He said that a merchant would be active when he had twenty percent of his profits, and would take risks when he had fifty percent of his profits, and dare to trample on all laws with one hundred percent of his profits, and dare to risk hanging his head when he had three hundred percent of his profits." ”

"Mr. Faustus is a great merchant, and he found a profit here, even going so far as to fight against the lord of Redstone City. Pasion glared back into the mayor's eyes, "Of course we will help, but we also need to reciprocate. ”

"Oh?" said Mayor Marula, leaning back and hiding his upper body in the darkness that the kerosene lamps couldn't illuminate, only the crystal lenses still reflected a faint orange glow, "Mr. Faustus is an interesting man, and I can't wait to meet him." ”

"You'll see him. Professor Pacien stood up and smiled reassuringly, "And he's sure to have good news for you." ”

Then he stretched his waist, "I'm tired, when Mr. Faustus comes, I will naturally discuss the specific matters of cooperation with you, and I will go back to rest first." After saying that, without waiting for the mayor to answer, he turned around and left.

The mayor ignored Professor Pacian's faux pas, and muttered thoughtfully, "With 300 percent of the profits......, you dare to risk hanging your head?"

Faust explained his grand business plan to the gentleman, and he spat on it, and from time to time he took a sip of the local fruit wine, "...... As you know, Marula is a resource-based town, and its main industries are trees, which can be used as materials for witchcraft, and the other is the famous fruit wine. ”

Faust showed the gentleman the wine in his glass, drank it all, and then slapped the table in fear, "One more." ”

"As a small town, there are two pillar industries that are too many - Red Rock City can't be much more than here, right?"

The bearded gentleman couldn't help but be ashamed to learn that in fact, the main source of income for Redstone City was the taxes paid by the commoners, as well as the ocean-going fishing boats organized by the city lord, which were the main source of seafood in the southern part of the empire.

As the southernmost city of the empire, Red Rock City was adjacent to the Gisar Mountains, and the lord's domain actually stretched along the foothills to the coast on both sides of the Gisar Isthmus, which was calm and warm, and rich in seafood.

But the bearded gentleman didn't seem convinced, "But so what? It's too small here, the scale of production of these two products is too small, and there is no market, all the goods are bought by the middlemen in Redstone City at a very low price, and Marula Town doesn't actually make much money, unlike Red Stone, where taxes and fleets are real income, and they won't be exploited by those merchants......"

Faust shook his head, interrupting the bearded gentleman's rebuttal, and he shook his right index finger, "You made a mistake, sir, the scale of the industry in Marula Town is indeed very small, and the income is not even a fraction of that of Red Rock - but that is compared to the financial income of a city, or even a large territory. Faust took a sip of his wine and smiled mysteriously.

"But for a few people, that's a lot of money, and even the most powerful people in Redstone are jealous. Faust meant something.

"Oh?" the bearded gentleman was also interested, and he narrowed his eyes, "I think you know a lot, what else do you know?"

Faust shrugged, "I don't know anything big, it's nothing more than the city lord's intentions on the town of Marula, and your Excellency is his envoy - probably not the first." ”

"Can you tell me how you saw that?" the bearded gentleman looked at Faust with admiration, he was high enough in Redstone City to know the secrecy of the matter - if it wasn't kept secret, the other forces in the city would be obstructed.

"Of course, it was guessed, the matter was obvious, a lightly traveled nobleman inquired about the mayor's mansion in a colonial town, no matter what he thought, it was a dignitary from Redstone City who wanted to talk to the mayor about things, and it was certainly not a trivial matter, most likely to discuss trade. ”

The bearded gentleman nodded in satisfaction, and said to Faust with appreciation, "You are very clever, even smarter than the lord of the city—I have not come here for anything else, but to make the mayor of the town accept the canonization of the lord of the city and become a vassal." There was a lot of irony between the words, and Faust was clever enough to guess the city lord's intentions.

Faust pouted, he wasn't dismayed by his own misjudgment—in fact, the smartest people make mistakes, especially if they know too little information.

This time, for example, Faust pretended the lord of the castle to be a smart man, and put himself in his shoes to think about how to get the most out of the small town of Marula—he had no idea that the lord was a fool.

"In fact, the choice to take over the town of Marula is so stupid that it might as well just leave it alone, so that at least it won't be taken advantage of by others. Faust unceremoniously pointed this out.

"How dare you? The bearded gentleman seemed a little angry, but Faust knew it well—he had said the same thing to Albon less than an hour before, when in fact the gentleman was only feigning anger and trying to dominate the subject.

"Why don't I dare? The City Lord's achievements today are definitely due to a large think tank, and of course, it also depends on his ability to listen to advice with an open mind. Faust praised the lord of the city, skillfully preserving the face of both sides and retaining his own dominance.

Bazihu nodded, as if he felt the same way, "Father...... "Then what do you think will be the most profitable thing to do?, and how will you challenge a whole group of thinkers?"

However, Faust was not polite, and it was his purpose to get involved in this matter.

After Professor Pacien secretly interrogated him again, he made a new plan, the two of them wanted to evade the investigators discharged by Baba Yajia, they definitely couldn't do it on their own, they needed a force, and there was an opportunity in front of them.

Faust began to make a bold guess, "Let me guess first, the lord of the city did not fully adopt the advice of his staff this time, right? I can even imagine that the plan set by the staff should be to use middlemen as a starting point to gradually control the industrial chain of the village, but the city lord seems to have other considerations, and he finally decided to negotiate directly with the mayor of the town, hoping to take him under his command directly." ”

"I guess the city lord has quite a lot of good things to offer. Faust sneered, "Hmph, does the lord of the castle think he is the protagonist of a knight's novel? ”

The bearded gentleman seemed to forcibly suppress his anger, "What would you do if it were you? ”

"What, are you the son of the lord of the city?" exclaimed Faust this time.