A medium sized transport Magic Car quickly raced across the Black Rice Wasteland.
The road the tires rolled across was the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s invested road made with the Amrit Chamber of Commerce’s newly developed technology. This road was not only more than ten meters wide, being able to hold four large Magic Cars, it was also smoother than before.
Even running at close to fifty kilometers an hour, one wouldn’t feel any jolting at all and they wouldn’t feel any discomfort.
Actually this speed already passed the speed limit set by the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, but for an old driver like old man Sarkozy, it was a normal thing to pass the speed limit.
If it wasn’t for this Magic Car only being limited to fifty kilometers an hour, he definitely would have been driving faster.
Old man Sarkozy had one hand on the wheel as his other hand was holding a bottle of fruit juice, drinking it down.
It was already winter, so after the fruit juice was put there for a while, it was a bit cold. Drinking it down, old man Sarkozy couldn’t help shivering.
It was easy to get tired while driving, drinking the cold juice not only stimulated his mind, it could also supplement his nutrition. It was something that old man Sarkozy often did when transporting cargo.
Putting the bottle of fresh juice down, Baltro in the back woke up. He gave a yawn and got up to look outside before asking old man Sarkozy, “Where are we now?”
“We just arrived in the Black Rice Wasteland.” Old man Sarkozy casually replied.
Baltro looked around outside before nodding, “Un, that’s good. Alright, let me drive, you’ve already been driving for several hours.”
“It’s fine.” Old man Sarkozy declined, “We’ll be at the production base soon, we can swap out there. Wake up properly before we talk about this.”
Baltro thought about it and didn’t insist. He leaned over to crawl into the passenger seat before sitting down.
After looking out the window for a while, Baltro suddenly asked, “Hey, Sarkozy, are you really planning on moving?”
Sarkozy didn’t expect him to ask this question right after waking up. After being surprised, he nodded and confirmed it.
“I’ll take a proper look at how the Stantine Duchy is this time and then decide if I’ll really move. But I’ve heard those people from the village who’ve lived in the Stantine Duchy for a year say that the Stantine Duchy really is good. The weather is good and they’re living comfortable lives. So I think…..I’ll most likely decide to move.”
Baltor knit his brows. He turned to look at Sarkozy’s expression and confirmed that he didn’t seem like he was joking at all.
“This…..Your family has lived in Mexilan Village for over a hundred years, right? You’re really moving? How can you bear to give it up?”
Sarkozy gave an uncaring laugh, “What can’t I bear to give up? Can’t I live anywhere? In the end, I can live a good life there, so naturally I would choose that place. The current Banta City has been ruined by those companies, so if I stay there, there isn’t anything good left for me.”
“It isn’t that bad…..” Baltro refuted, “Although those companies can’t compare to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, at least with those companies there, Banta City can still recover, right?”
“You don’t believe?” Sarkozy gave a cold snort, “Those fellows forcefully chased out the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, is there anything they can’t do? Even discussing this, just in our family, our three kids have all lost their jobs. If they work in Banta City, they can only work for those three companies, but do you know what wages they give? Six gold coins a month! It isn’t even half of what their monthly wages were before!”
Baltro said in a depressed voice, “It isn’t that you can’t live on six gold coins, we could still live before without that much money each month.”
“The past is the past, if you want me to live those days where I couldn’t even fill my stomach, I’m definitely not willing.” Sarkozy said with a cold snort, “Our three kids aren’t willing either, so after discussing it, we’ve decided to move. As long as we work for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, we can earn close to twenty gold coins with any job we get, it’s much better than staying in Banta City.”
“That is true, but Sarkozy, haven’t you thought of a problem?” Baltro then asked, “According to the new rules of the City Lord Manor, moving out of Banta City means giving up on the status of a Banta City citizen. This means that if you move out, it will be hard to come back. I’m worried that…..the kingdom parliament might have the same rules soon. If you move out and you aren’t recognized as a citizen by the kingdom, what will you do?”
“It’s fine if they don’t accept us.” Sarkozy didn’t care at all, it was clear that he had already thought of this problem, “I said it just now, I’ll go wherever I can live a good life. It isn’t related to Banta City or the Lampuri Kingdom.”
“But we are from the Lampuri Kingdom, leaving like this…..are you really willing?”
“Why am I not willing? Now that damn king is ruining everything, not caring about us citizens, why wouldn’t we be willing? For citizens like us, we don’t care about the matters of the country. Anyway, those important people don’t even put us in their eyes.” Sarkozy said with a look of disdain.
Baltro was silent for a bit before he couldn’t help revealing a bitter smile.
Although he felt that Sarkozy’s attitude wasn’t right, he couldn’t find any reason to refute him.
Because Sarkozy’s words were all true.
After the new king Eric took the throne, the Lampuri Kingdom and Banta City had changed.
The glorious and prosperous Banta City had become a toy for the ten companies.
Other than forcing out the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, they pushed aside the other magic machine companies and took over the magic machine industry. Those ten companies were now expanding their hands into other domains, gradually taking markets from the old companies of Banta City.
Although those old companies fought with their backgrounds, they found it harder and harder, gradually showing signs of collapse.
If it was just normal competition, there wouldn’t be any direct relationship to commoners like Sarkozy and Baltor. They might even be able to benefit from the competition between these companies.
But the problem lied in the fact that after those ten companies took over the domains, it deeply affected the lives of the commoners.
For example, just like Sarkozy had just mentioned, those ten companies now controlled the magic machine industry in Banta City, so now they had suddenly lowered the average wage of Banta City. It was something that all the commoners that had been involved in this industry couldn’t accept.
Then when it came to the transport business the two of them were in, when they transported goods from Banta City to Anvilmar City, the fee would be thirty cold coins. Taking away the consumption along the way, there would be at least more than ten gold coins left.
If they ran at least ten trips a month, that would be close to two hundred gold coins a month.
Splitting it evenly, they both received close to a hundred gold coins. Even in the previous Banta City, this was considered a high income.
However, now that those ten companies controlled Banta City’s transport business, they greatly reduced the transport fees. If they transport to Anvilmar City now, they would earn fifteen gold coins per trip, which meant it had been cut in half!
With such low fees, taking away their consumption, they would only earn a few gold coins each trip.
If there was a problem on the way, they might even not break even or lose money.
So after running two of these trips, Sarkozy decided that they wouldn’t take any orders from the ten companies. He went back to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, helping them transport between the Black Rice Wasteland, the Stantine Duchy, and Banta City.
Although these trips were a bit long and he was much more tired compared to before, the fees the Frestech Chamber of Commerce gave were sincere. Their profits were lower compared to before, but it wasn’t much worse.
There were many private transporters in Banta City, so other than a few that couldn’t keep going, the rest of them were all choosing to work with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.,
And because of the suppression of those ten companies, taking most of the transport business in Banta City, the Fersen Carriage Company found it hard to continue and might not even be able to last.
Baltro had bumped into chairman Pompeii when he was in Banta City last time. He had a dark look on his face and he was much slimmer compared to before.
Thinking of the dark look on chairman Pompeii’s face then, Baltro suddenly felt that Sarkozy really made sense.
Since they couldn’t last in Banta City, why would they insist on staying there?
For the important people of the kingdom, they’ve never cared about the lives of commoners.
Since they didn’t care, why should he care about them?
After thinking this through, Baltro seemed like he had seen the light and he became much more refreshed.
After thinking about it, he said to Sarkozy, “Alright, I’ll take a look at the Stantine Duchy as well, I hope that it’s really as good as everyone says it is.”
Seeing Baltro finally change his view, Sarkozy broke out in laughter.
“Relax, that place is definitely better than you can imagine.”
Baltro nodded, as he couldn’t help feeling a bit more hope towards this trip.
