A horse carriage left Saltan City and was quickly moving along the road towards Banta City.
There were four people sitting across each other inside the carriage.
Other than Baron Hannas, the other three people were a young man who was a bit younger than Baron Hannas, a beautiful girl who was younger than twenty, and finally a middle aged man who was balding and a bit chunky who looked to be around forty.
After the horse carriage drove on the dirt road outside Saltan City for a while, the young man suddenly patted his butt and said with a sigh, “After this horse carriage changed to that whatever tire, it really is much better than before. If I knew about this earlier, my butt could have been spared all those hard years.”
Baron Hannas laughed, “Kennard, now do you believe what I said? Not mentioning anything else, just with the appearance of this tire, it changed our lives this much. There’s no need to mention all those other Frestech Chamber of Commerce magic machines.”
The young man called Kennard said with a smile, “I’ve never not believed what you said. But now that I’ve experienced a few of those magic machines, I feel that with the appearance of the magic machines, perhaps it can change the entire continent. If I didn’t think like this, why do you think I want to go to Banta City for a look?”
When Baron Hannas was about to speak, the young girl on the side gave a soft snort and said, “I don’t believe that that whatever Xu Yi is that powerful. Big brother, Hannas, you say that him and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce are that great, but why do I feel that my life hasn’t changed at all? What it was like before is how it is now. You keep saying that Xu Yi and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce will change the continent, but I don’t think so.”
Baron Hannas looked at Kennard and they both revealed smiles.
“Beloved Sophia, you really don’t feel that your life has changed?” Baron Hannas asked, “Is the bread you eat still made by hand like before? Is the water you drink now still boiled using firewood? Or to be more direct, does your family not have a single Magic Lamp? If your family’s lives haven’t changed at all, then I can only say that your family has fallen behind and it isn’t related to Xu Yi or the Frestech Chamber of Commerce at all.”
“My family hasn’t fallen behind!” Sophia stomped down and said in a slightly angry voice, “But our family doesn’t need any Magic Bread Maker or Magic Kettles. As for the Magic Lamp…..”
Speaking of the Magic Lamp, Sophia fell silent and couldn’t keep going.
Baron Hannas laughed, “What about the Magic Lamp? Is it that it is so pretty that you’re not willing to say you don’t need it?”
Sophia’s face turned a bit red, “So what if I like how pretty it is? Then again, the Magic Lamp is pretty because of the design of the elves, it isn’t related to Xu Yi.”
“But the appearance of the elves is closely related to Xu Yi. If it wasn’t for him, even if you walked all over our Lampuri Kingdom, you wouldn’t be able to see a single elf.” Baron Hannas added.
“Humph! The elves didn’t disappear, he was just lucky, it isn’t anything special.” Sophia said in an unwilling to submit voice.
Baron Hannas wanted to keep discussing with Sophia when Kennard waved his hand at him with a smile, “Alright, Hannas. If you keep arguing with her, do you believe that you will make her hate Xu Yi?”
“I just don’t like how to keep discussing that fellow in front of me and how you praise him all the time!” Sophia said in a loud unwilling to submit voice, “He just invented a few things because of luck, how could he be that great?”
“Because no one else invented these things and he did, which means that he has abilities that other people don’t have, so he’s great.” Kennard said with a serious face, “Sophia, no matter what you feel about Xu Yi, you have to acknowledge this logic. When other people have abilities that you don’t have, you have to honestly study them and you shouldn’t pick problems with them, understand?”
“I don’t like those ice cold magic machines.” Sophia said with a snort, turning her head to look out the window.
Seeing Sophia’s attitude, Kennard could only helplessly give a sigh and turn back to Baron Hannas and said, “I’ve heard that the «Banta Times» is the largest newspaper in Banta City and if they were to know that their founder was suddenly coming to Banta City, would the «Banta Times» do a big report?”
Baron Hannas shook his head with a smile, “How could they? Although I am the founder of the «Banta Times», the reason why this newspaper appeared was all because of Xu Yi. Whether it is the creativity of making the newspaper, the required initial funds for setting up the office, or even the Magic Printing Press, it is all related to him. So to be honest, the founder of the «Banta Times» is not me. Thinking about it now, this fellow instigated me to make the «Banta Times» and was completely using me.”
“But weren’t you happy being used?” Kennard said.
Baron Hannas said while laughing, “That’s right. Whenever I think of those days, I always feel very happy. So even though I’m very clear on the fact that Xu Yi was just using me, I’m very grateful to him. If it wasn’t for him, I might still be bored at home and feeling that this world is very boring. But now, I’ve found something that I’m willing to offer my entire self to.”
Hearing Baron Hannas’ voice being filled with honest gratitude, even the spiteful Sophia couldn’t help looking over at Baron Hannas’ strange expression and feeling depressed.
Is this Xu Yi really that great? He could actually create such a large change in Hannas’ listful appearance.
Humph! He was just lucky.
Kennard said with a soft sigh, “Hannas, I really envy you. Being able to find something that you’re willing to devote yourself to, I still haven’t thought of what I want to do yet.”
Baron Hannas revealed a faint smile, “Perhaps you’ll be able to find it on his trip to Banta City?”
Kennard shook his head. When he wanted to speak, the carriage trembled and his words were shocked back.
The four people in the carriage knit their brows. They thought the road had changed, but after that, the four of them found that after the initial shock, the rest of the trip was incomparably smooth and they didn’t feel any jolting at all.
The four of them were very curious and Kennard couldn’t help pulling aside the curtains. When he looked out, he found that the scenery outside was flying by, obviously showing that the carriage was moving much faster than before.
The horse carriage became faster, but the road was very smooth, which was a bit strange.
Kennard and Sophia stretched their heads out the window and looked down on the ground under the horse carriage.
The grey flat road kept rolling under the wheels and looking forward, they found that the same grey road stretched all the way to the horizon. There were countless horse carriages that were moving along this road, looking very lively.
“This should be the public road, right?” Kennard pointed at the road under them as he asked Hannas.
“Un, it should be.” Hannas was currently looking out the other window, also looking at the smooth road, “This is my first time seeing it. Xu Yi described this road to me before in his letters, saying how smooth it was, but after seeing it now, I’ve realized that this road is smoother than I imagined.”
“Un, it has far surpassed my expectations.” Kennard said with a nod, “I thought that your «Anvilmar Times’» report had exaggerated the situation with the road because I didn’t believe that there would be a smooth enough road in this world that would allow a horse carriage to not feel a single jolt. Looking at it now, your report actually didn’t describe it well enough. With this road, traveling conditions will be much better.”
Hannas said with a sigh, “Before seeing this, I also never expected it. You have to know that after this road is finished, it will connect Banta City and Saltan City, which is a long sixty kilometers!”
Kennard looked back in the direction of Saltan City and found that there were people working on the side of the road with unknown machines placed beside them.
“Those should be workers from the Amrit Chamber of Commerce. This road was built with money from the Fersen Carriage Company and the Amrit Chamber of Commerce is building it. It seems like after the Amrit Chamber of Commerce built the Falling Rain Road, their speed has increased quite a bit from their experience. I thought that this road would take more time than the Falling Rain Road, taking at least half a year to finish, but now I think it’ll take less than a month to finish. Taking the total, it should be around three months.” Baron Hannas explained.
“This road isn’t related to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce?” Kennard asked in a surprised voice.
“It’s not completely unrelated. Look, the magic machines those workers are using to build the road, those were developed by the Frestech Chamber of Commerce. Moreover, the concrete that is used to make this road, the most important parts are the cement and the steel bars used, which are products of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.”
Kennard was even more surprised, “Didn’t the Frestech Chamber of Commerce only make magic machines? They still make these cement and steel bars?”
Baron Hannas pointed down, “Don’t forget, the tires used by this horse carriage are also produced by the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.”
Kennard’s expression became a bit strange, “The Frestech Chamber of Commerce can step in these many industries, can they manage it all?”
“You can just ask Xu Yi when you meet him. At least right now the Frestech Chamber of Commerce can handle it and there hasn’t been a problem yet.” Baron Hannas looked forward and suddenly said with a smile, “Alright, you’ll be able to see a novel thing soon.”
“What novel thing?”
Kennard and Sophia stretched their heads out to look forward and saw a small creek in the road in front of them. There was a large bridge over the creek and beside the bridge, there was a tall gate like building that was blocking the road.
No matter which side of the door it was, there was a long line of horse carriages there that seemed to be waiting for something.
Sophia looked at it and suddenly clapped her hands, “I know, this is the toll booth that many people have complained about, right?”
