Otome Game no Heroine de Saikyou Survival [WN] - Chapter 225.3

“Your Excellency, Baron… this is a problem. You were the one who asked us to buy wheat, weren’t you? You can’t just ask us to raise the purchase price this year?”

“… but, Lord Zel, if we do that, the people of the territory will starve. Can’t you do something about it?”

Baron Kelly, a subordinate of Duke Helton, was confronted by one of the Herman Company’s clerks in the reception room of his mansion.

When Herman Company started selling cheap wheat, there were no more companies buying wheat produced in Baron Kelly’s territory, and they had to lower the price.

Until then, in order for the trading companies in the barony to make a profit from wheat, they had to buy it at 60% of the previous price, and the trading companies had been doing their best because of their long-standing relationship, but when wheat could no longer be sold, it became difficult for the trading companies to even survive, and they withdrew from the barony.

Currently, 60% of the stores that handle food in Baron Kelly are under the umbrella of the Herman Company, and the Baron has no choice but to sell wheat to the Herman Company, even at a low price.

“Then why don’t you reduce your wheat production and sell timber like other territories? Our company will lend to villages that need initial investment.”

“…Lumber and other things are common around here. I don’t know if I can pay it back if I borrow money…”

“If you’re a little lenient, our company will take care of that.”

Zel looks behind the sofa where he was sitting, and the adventurer who seems to be his guard winks at him and nods with a mask-like smile, and the Baron quietly exhales.

Before, he could survive as long as he didn’t live extravagantly. Even now, if he restores food production and calls back the trading company that moved elsewhere, he can live the same life as before.

However, as long as the Herman Company, which Duke Helton had invited, was there, the baron could not sell wheat and could not drive them away, so he could only nod.

Some rural areas had reduced wheat production and switched to forestry, but as Baron Kelly had feared, common wood was not so easy to sell. As a result, one village was unable to repay its debts and sold the entire village to the Herman Company as serfs.

In the Kingdom of Cleydale, slavery without human rights is illegal, but serfdom is legal.

However, the Herman Company exploited a loophole in the law, transferring entire productive young families elsewhere to make profits while at the same time reducing the kingdom’s productivity.

Even dangerous coal mining and brothels are legal in the Solhoss Kingdom.

“Are you okay? We’re almost to the next town.”

“Yes.”

A man in his twenties with minimal luggage and his young wife were traveling down the night road, relying only on the faint moonlight.

The village where they lived was decided to become serfs by the Herman Company, which came to mediate. The villagers, who had no idea how to survive away from the village they were born in, had no choice but to accept it, but one villager happened to hear the Herman Company’s guards talking about how many young peasants they could take to the Solhoss Kingdom as slaves, and the newlywed ran away that night to protect his childhood friend.

But–

“It’s a problem. If we let a young person escape, our wages will go down.”

“What!?”

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Also check out my other novels: Reincarnated into a Game as the Hero’s Friend, Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, and A Girl Who Was Told “You Have No Talent” Turned Out To Be A Talented Monster