The fire in the fireplace was blazing, dispelling the chill that seeped through the cracks in the doors and windows. On the top of the fireplace hangs a deer's head with huge horns, which are projected on the wall behind it like huge claws in the light of the fire.

Opposite was a long, dark red wooden table filled with parchment rolls and books, mostly executive orders waiting to be signed. Normally, Roland was here on official business - he had grown to love it since he converted the three-story house into an office.

Through the floor-to-ceiling windows behind him, he could see the town stretching out in front of his vision, with endless mountains at the end. It was a desperate mountain range that almost stretched across the continent, separating the Greykeep Kingdom from the Savage Lands to the east and west. The North Slope Mountains are just a branch of the Desperate Mountains.

At the foot of you, you can see the garden enclosed by a wooden fence. The wooden shed for Anna's training has been dismantled, and the brick pool has been turned into a long table for easy setting of cutlery for afternoon tea. When the weather is nice, he also goes down to soak up the sun or take a nap in a custom-made rocking chair.

Although the castle is not large, it is a medium-sized villa with its own garden. In the previous life, if you want to sit on a real stone castle, it is almost a fantasy, and you have to pay for tickets to visit it first. But now, he not only owns the castle, but also a town.

"Your Highness, the recent recruitment of craftsmen and handymen has been quite expensive, and this money has been taken out of your pocket, and I am afraid that it will not last until next spring. Barov clutched a stack of parchment and reported to Roland on his recent financial situation.

Originally, the income and expenditure of the border town were very simple, and one line was the trade of ores and gemstones. This line was monopolized by the Changge Fortress, which exchanged the output of the mines on the northern slope for wheat or bread, with no tax in between, and the fortress sent people to preside over the exchange of resources. In layman's terms, the North Slope Mine is a joint-stock project of the nobles of Changge Fortress. The nobles stationed in the border towns could be seen as overseers sent by the shareholders, and most of their fiefs were east of the fortress, and they came here only temporarily, and the people who came from year to year varied.

In fact, the history of the border town is less than thirty years, and compared to the Changge Fortress, which has been around for nearly two hundred years, it is simply a newborn baby. Originally, Duke Ryan only planned to establish an outpost here to provide an early warning of an invasion of evil beasts. But unexpectedly, the pioneers found rich mineral resources in the North Slope Mountains, so they simply set up a town here and named it a border town. In a sense, it was the North Slope Mine that made the town what made it.

In order to prevent stealing and concealment, the duke did not adopt the suggestion of the nobles to send their own people to mine, but uniformly hired local residents, nearby homeless people, and even criminals to act as miners, and the ore produced was distributed according to the proportion of resources invested by each family. The fort only provides the employee with a year's worth of food and a small commission, which is fixed and does not vary depending on the amount of output from the mine. Most of the more than 2,000 residents in the border town work for the mining area.

On the other hand, there are other industries in the town - such as blacksmiths, taverns, textiles, and so on. The meagre tax revenue of the border towns comes mainly from here, and it is difficult to have much left over throughout the year. The previous lord didn't take this barren place seriously, and since Roland was sent here by the King of the Grey Keep, he simply stayed in the fortress.

Therefore, if Roland wanted to hire someone to repair the city wall, he had to pay for it from his own pocket. If it was the fourth prince before, he would definitely not be willing to say anything, but for Roland, as long as he can gain a firm foothold in the border town, it is worth spending all his property. Anyway, the ore trade in the future will no longer be settled by grain, and this investment will be a drizzle if it is settled in currency.

The only question is whether the Changge Fortress is willing to give up its monopoly and engage in normal trade with the border towns - this is a bit like a tiger's mouth, but the inventory data provided by Barov shows that due to the inefficiency of manual mining and the inconvenience of transportation, the actual value of ore produced by the mine is only a thousand gold dragons per year, which is only a drop in the bucket for the entire revenue of the fortress. The only ones whose interests are damaged are the aristocrats who invest in partnerships.

For the sake of the long-term development of the border towns, this line must be withdrawn. Roland knew in his heart that even if the investment of those people was fully recovered more than ten years ago, they would not let go easily. No matter how small a mosquito is, it is still meat, not to mention this kind of good thing that you can make money by lying down. He is willing to give certain preferential treatment and compensation to previous investors, such as buying at half price. But such a thing as towing a boatload of ore back only in exchange for half a shipload of grain is not allowed to happen again.

While Roland stared at the list and thought, Barov was watching him too.

In the past three months, to be exact, in the last month, some indescribable changes have taken place in the fourth prince. Outsiders may not know, but he follows the prince every day, and this change cannot be hidden from him.

Back in the days of the Grey Castle, he had heard of the notoriety of the fourth prince, Roland Wimbleton. I do my own thing, I act recklessly, and I have no aristocratic demeanor...... Etcetera. In short, big mistakes are not made, small mistakes are constant, and they are far from his two brothers.

When His Majesty had sent him here, he was disappointed, and if it had not been for His Majesty's promise that he would be appointed as the official Chancellor of the Exchequer at the end of the campaign, he would have been willing to give up.

In the first two months of arriving in the border town, the fourth prince behaved in an extremely childish manner as always, offending all the local nobles who could offend. Fortunately, the scale of the town itself is extremely small, and even if all the administrative positions are vacant, he and the dozen or so civil servants he brought with him can fill them.

After that, something was different.

When exactly did the change begin? He thought, probably...... It was from the time he saved the witch.

Barov was not unaware of the possibility of demonic possession, or that the prince himself was manipulated by another hidden witch. But this is very unlikely, if the devil and the witch have such ability, why should they go to the fourth prince? Wouldn't it be better to control His Majesty or the Pope directly? And one thing to dispel his suspicions was that he saw the prince holding the lock of divine punishment.

This thing is the church's killer weapon against witches, and any demonic power will collapse in front of the Divine Punishment Lock, but Roland directly held it. In other words, if he is not the fourth prince, but a demon king who doesn't even need to be afraid of divine power, then is there still a need to expose it. Saving your life comes first.

The prince's style is still self-disciplined and reckless, but the two give him different feelings. No, Barov thought about it, it should be diametrically opposed.

The biggest difference should be purposefulness. He sensed what Roland was planning, and in order to achieve his goal, he had to use some means that were incomprehensible to ordinary people. Just as the other party tried to convince himself why he wanted to save a witch, the plan may be immature and full of holes, but the prince is moving towards the plan, and is convinced of the outcome.

This is the most confusing part, the throne may be born in either of the Roland siblings, but it will definitely not be the fourth prince himself. He himself should be very aware of this kind of thing, talking about development in a small place like a border town? Even the gods can't do it! What kind of crazy plan did Roland conceive, crazy enough to make a town built outside the border defense line develop better than Golden Harvest City, and he had to make himself completely believe that this plan would succeed?

If it were just the delusion of a madman, the walls that Roland had built so vigorously showed that this was not the case. He really planned to stay here, relying on the alchemical product of "cement" to build a wall that was almost impossible to complete in common sense.

Barov's family had alchemists, but he had never heard of such a thing made in an alchemy workshop. Is it confidence or haphazard to build a wall plan on something that no one has ever seen?Extending to Roland's entire plan, how much is the fourth prince still hiding that he doesn't know?He finds himself vaguely interested in the days ahead.