Chapter 99
Chapter 99
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 99
Chapter Title: Fortune from the Hunt
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“The Giant Mantis’s wings number twelve.”
The Giant Mantis’s wings were tougher than steel, making them incredibly valuable when crafted into armor.
“The troll bones should come out to roughly three hundred kilograms in total.”
Depending on how they were processed, mixing about five hundred grams of troll bone into a sword would produce a rare famous blade with great effect not only against the same species of trolls but also against monsters with exceptional regenerative abilities.
“The byproducts like the tendons, hearts, livers, and so on from each monster are enormous too.”
All of it was money. Money.
Even Stelmann, who normally had a terrible sense of money to the point of bankrupting any mercenary band, was thrilled.
Whether sold raw or handed over to the Iron Mountain dwarves to be made into weapons or various goods, the massive volume of monster byproducts—already worth a fortune—lay documented in the report before Sion’s eyes.
‘If I sell all this, I might recover about thirty percent of the funds I gave to the kids in Sionia.’
Sion, who had experience trading monster byproducts during his mercenary days, chuckled inwardly as he roughly calculated the market prices.
Even selling raw, it would fetch at least half the amount handed to Yonas. But if processed into weapons or goods?
‘At minimum three times, at maximum ten times the profit.’
Revenge was always fresh and thrilling. That’s why everyone fell into its temptation and couldn’t escape.
Of course, nine times out of ten, they ended up like Count Pamell.
“Tell them when you send the byproducts to Sionia: even if there’s profit, invest it all into expanding workshops, forges, and warehouses for the time being.”
“Understood.”
He had originally planned to add it to the dukedom’s finances, but hearing from the Yazan folk had changed his mind.
Even the Yazan, renowned for their intelligence networks, hadn’t grasped the changes currently unfolding.
They only knew that monsters had increased a bit here and there.
The rest of the regions were obvious.
Excluding Sion Dukedom, the other territories and kingdoms would be completely unprepared.
But when the lords and monarchs realized the situation was gravely serious, what would they do first?
They’d gather knights and soldiers, hire mercenaries, and bolster their forces.
Mercenaries aside, where would weapons and armor for knights and soldiers fall from the sky?
Moreover, the enemies weren’t the ragtag forces of minor territories—all equally pathetic and uniform—but monsters.
Lords didn’t hire well-equipped mercenaries for monster subjugations for no reason.
But with multiple places simultaneously erupting in monster chaos—not just one or two—where would mercenaries be easy to come by?
In the end, they’d have to recruit or conscript within their territories and arm them.
Naturally, sending out hastily assembled scrubs would lead to a crushing defeat, forcing them to realize.
Ah, the troops are crappy anyway, but crappy gear on top of that really screws us.
And right at that moment.
- There’s a unit in Sion Dukedom specialized in monster hunting, and they’re damn good at it!
- And they use gear made from processed monster byproducts, and it’s supposed to be amazing!
What if word like that spread?
Orders would flood in, sales would explode.
At least out of curiosity, they’d want to try it once.
What? No one’s dumb enough to buy on rumors alone?
They needed to know that even now, somewhere in South Korea, germanium bracelets, jade mats, and negative ion hair dryers were selling.
Moreover, Sion Dukedom-produced gear wasn’t some pseudoscience scam. By then, pioneering customers would have posted reviews.
‘No wonder I signed the first contract with the Yazan side.’
Sure, it was a bit of a hard sell, but there were reasons.
As masters of trade, the Yazan were top-tier in this world at spreading rumors and information quickly.
Plus, there would be customers unable to visit Sion Dukedom directly—who would sell to them? Naturally, the Yazan.
Thus, the Yazan would serve as both the first reviewers and middlemen resellers.
With thousands upon thousands of weapons and armor guaranteed to sell and distribution channels secured, production needed ramping up now.
“Handle transporting it to Sionia yourself, with a few of the guys you usually manage. Take a few days to rest while you’re there if you want.”
“I’ll rest later. I’ll be back soon.”
“Do as you like.”
“Yes, sir.”
Stelmann left with light steps.
“You seem in a good mood, Grandfather.”
Piot, organizing the report, smiled faintly as he spoke.
“Feels good.”
“Yonas will be thrilled too. Same for the regents at the Triple-Headed Eagle Castle.”
“They should be. This could bring a massive shift to the dukedom’s people.”
“Uh… Just making a lot of money does that? Are you planning to distribute it to the residents?”
It was true the monsters were largely cleared, making things far safer than before, but was that enough for grand terms like “massive shift”?
Or was he planning to scatter all the profits from monster byproducts to the dukedom residents?
Sion smirked at Piot, whose thoughts were obvious.
“As if. The profits from this hunt… well, they’re a kind of seed money.”
“Seed money… you mean?”
“Yeah.”
Sion lit a cigarette—one of the Iron Mountain dwarves’ specialties—and opened the window to exhale smoke.
He turned to Piot and extended the cigarette pinched between his fingers.
“You know how much profit this brings to the dukedom, right?”
“Yes. I’ve heard it’s a considerable sum.”
“Then, from start to finish—making and selling these cigarettes—how many dukedom residents do you think are involved, excluding the dwarves?”
“W-well?”
“Less than a hundred.”
“Wow… So it generates that much revenue with so few people? Incredible.”
Sion gave a wry smile to Piot, who was genuinely impressed.
“Yeah, most think like you. Few people, big money—sounds amazing.”
“Uh… Then it’s not?”
“Nope.”
“……?”
Sion stubbed out the half-smoked cigarette and spoke.
“Do you know the dukedom’s grain production is saturated?”
“Yes, I heard from Yonas.”
Even just Logos Territory—his hometown ruled by his father—struggled yearly with food shortages, yet Sion Dukedom had so much surplus they built massive silos and sold abroad.
He’d been so envious when he first heard.
“When grain overflows, prices drop. But our dukedom’s food prices stay steady every year. Why?”
“Uh… No idea.”
“We buy it up at fixed prices to keep them steady. The duke’s house takes the loss, not the farmers.”
“What?”
“100,000? Maybe over 150,000 now. Anyway, more than half the dukedom’s population works in agriculture. What do you think happens if grain prices suddenly crash?”
“…Ah!”
“Yeah. They’re ruined. Not all, but over half their households would wobble. And if farmers wobble, other trades suffer too. The whole dukedom shakes.”
“Y-yeah.”
Piot felt breathless just thinking about it.
But what did that have to do with cigarettes?
Was he telling rice or wheat farmers to grow tobacco instead?
“100 versus 100,000. The former brings massive profit to the dukedom’s coffers and our house, but the latter demands yearly spending. We can’t tell the latter to do the former’s job. Farming’s vital.”
“…….”
“But the latter’s too many. The annual spending to prop prices is bad enough, but the real issue is the dukedom could shake entirely.
Not to put it harshly, but even if tobacco farming failed for a year or two, the dukedom and our house wouldn’t wobble. The farmers? One bad year spells disaster.”
“Yes. Makes sense.”
“So I plan to reduce the number of those 100,000—or more—farmers.”
“You mean… Ahh!”
Sion smiled in satisfaction.
As expected, this great-grandson was sharp.
“Yeah. Monster hunting isn’t just about culling numbers and profiting from byproducts. It’s a business that can fundamentally transform our Sion body politic—a true revolution.”
If levels, stats, and messages were visible, it meant the era when Der Kios spoke of—when ‘users’ would come to this world—was imminent.
Whether in one year, three, maybe five—no way it’d exceed ten.
In any case, during that time, this world would enter an era of explosive monster growth.
And Sion Dukedom had already created ‘hunting grounds’ beyond what other territories or kingdoms could imagine.
Plus, they’d preempted the entire industry: production, processing, and distribution of monster byproducts.
Sion had no intention of stopping at mere money-making.
Local governors, mayors, county heads, and district reps didn’t go red-eyed chasing new businesses or factories for nothing.
Just one or two factories employing hundreds could sustain five, maybe ten times that population.
He was certain: monster hunting and byproduct business would become this world’s ‘cutting-edge industry.’
Guaranteed high profits, and the perfect new venture to escape the distorted structure where over half the population slaved in farming and ranching!
“We’ll start with gear and luxury goods for the few wealthy. But demand will surge fast—obviously—and we’ll need steady manpower to supply it.
I want our dukedom’s farmers to jump into this industry. No—they will.”
By the tens of thousands.
Those tens of thousands of ‘industrial pioneers’ would produce monster byproduct goods to sell across Obla Kingdom and the myriad territories and nations ringing the inner sea.
“Give it a few years. Mark my words: everyone in the world will use at least one or two products with monster byproducts, whatever it is. Who makes and sells them first?”
“W-we do, right? We’re starting first?”
“Exactly. Whatever it is, we’ll be first, with the best quality.”
“……!!! ”
Piot’s eyes widened, his body trembling.
But Piot didn’t know.
His great-grandfather—this world’s sole ‘user’—had one more thing he hadn’t said.
‘If everyone else uses them, would the users coming to this world not?’
This was a business launched with even the confirmed future customers in mind.
(To be continued in the next installment)
