Imperial Crown

"Sir, the reports from Cuman and Fili have also been sent."

In the morning, Fiona opened the door of Lei's library and placed a stack of documents on the desk.

At this moment, the desk was already occupied by various documents, and Raven did not raise his head: "It's just the right time. The left part is the part I have sorted out. You can divide the half of the ones on the right for me to take a look at."

"Yes, Lord Baron." Fiona sat down and began to help Raven sort out the data.

These are the revenue and expenditure reports of various industries and the collection of taxes from various places since the start of the competitive competition. They have been preliminary reviewed and compiled, and the main thing to do here is to consolidate them.

The two were busy from morning to noon, and it was almost lunch time before they finally sorted out all the data.

Raven stretched out and said generously: "What do you want to eat? Just order whatever you want, I'll treat you!"

The data during this period is really gratifying.

In the second half of the competition, as the momentum grew stronger and the excitement gradually increased, although the number of games decreased, the amount of bets increased.

In the first two months, a total of more than 90,000 gold coins were withdrawn. In the last two months, this figure increased again, reaching 130,000 gold coins.

As for wine, the most mainstream drink of this era, its sales exceeded Raven's expectations.

According to statistics, in the past four months, more than 38,700 bottles of Angel Tears have been consumed in Raven's territory alone.

If it were not for production capacity constraints, this figure would be even higher.

You know, in previous years, Eagle Town only produced more than 10,000 bottles of Angel Tears a year.

Anticipating that the competitive competition would lead to a surge in demand for Angel Tears, Raven expanded the production scale in advance and doubled the manpower.

But even so, on the 13th day after the start of the competition, the inventory of more than 3,000 bottles in Eagle Town was still sold out.

In order to ensure supply, Raven had to temporarily recover a batch of Angel Tears that was originally intended to be sold externally, and expanded production capacity again. Now the riverside workshop has completely become the production base of Angel Tears.

It can produce more than 300 bottles every day. Once produced, it will be put into the market immediately, but the supply still exceeds the demand.

Raven had to adopt a rationing system - giving each industry a different quota, while supplies last.

In a short period of time, production capacity cannot be expanded.

In fact, the biggest limitation is not the wine itself, but its packaging.

The reason why it can be sold at a high price of 2.88 gold coins is not only the taste itself, but also the packaging described by Raven and designed by Denise. At least in the Nord province, it is fashionable, noble and elegant.

But in this era, no matter how smart Raven is, it is impossible to design an automatic production line from scratch. Every piece of packaging is woven by female textile workers.

A skilled female worker can weave 5-8 packages per day. Originally, the 10 female workers in the factory were fully competent, but the new demand requires more than 300 packages per day, and the demand has increased almost six times.

To this end, Raven built a separate factory for them and began to expand the number of people, increasing the number to nearly 100. Only in this way could the packaging crisis be solved.

Lei Wen thought about improving efficiency through the division of labor and cooperation in the assembly line, but the problem is that embroidery work is not about screwing, it has technical content.

Moreover, women in this era are basically illiterate. It is really difficult for them to understand the division of labor and cooperate skillfully.

Raven tried for two days, but only got a bunch of unusable garbage, so he had to change back to the previous format of each being responsible.

The hot sales of Angel's Tears are the epitome of the surge in consumption in Raven's territory during this period. Basically every industry has been expanding crazily in these four months.

For example, the Paradise Hall temporarily added a floor and opened its doors three months after the start of the competition, but it was still packed to capacity; the number of employees in the Crystal Palace increased several times, and most of them were foreign girls; Wallace University Due to the expansion of the take-out business, the hotel even had to build a kitchen specifically for cooking take-out.

Even so, it still could not fully meet the needs of nobles and businessmen, so that various copycat brands sprung up in the territory like bamboo shoots after a rain.

There is the Crystal Palace in Eagle Town, a Crystal Club pops up in Goldshire, and there is Crystal Love in Snow Maple Town. They can’t learn from the Wallace Hotel, but they can still do it with Pride of the Lion, so there is Taverns like Tiger King's Pride, Leopard King's Pride, and Elvis' Pride.

At first glance they appear to be in the same series, but in fact they are not next to each other at all.

Raven's attitude was to turn a blind eye, as long as he didn't go too far and cause any vicious incidents.

After all, imitation is the beginning of innovation, which is also part of driving the economy.

"The final data is out." Fiona said seriously: "After deducting various costs, the direct income is 177,352 gold coins; and the tax revenue in the second quarter is 22,576 gold coins."

In previous years, the second quarter was the peak consumption season, and the tax revenue was about 5,000-7,000 gold coins. This time, the amount was about three times.

And with these, the number of Raven's small treasury has expanded again, reaching 770,000 gold coins in one fell swoop, which is just a few steps away from 1 million!

However, Fiona no longer has the same vision as she did two or three years ago. Although she is quite happy, she is not blinded: "After all, grand events like competitive conferences are not the norm, and the amount of consumption in the future will probably usher in a big change." The wheel plummeted.”

"The industries that have expanded due to this will probably be affected to a considerable extent. When the number of unemployed people surges... I'm afraid there will be chaos."

This is indeed an extremely realistic consideration.

Raven nodded approvingly: "Then what are you going to do?"

Fiona had obviously thought about this issue. As soon as Raven asked the question, she immediately said: "We can make the competitive competition an annual event. In this way, with expectations for next year, each merchant will have a reason to support people."

"Well, it's a way, but there is a problem." Raven analyzed: "This conference can be so successful not only because of the Sky Eagle platform, but also because it is high enough and has enough gimmicks. It can be regarded as the first in Nord province in hundreds of years." Unfortunately, the two major earl families and the marquis of the royal capital all participated."

"If this year has just ended and is held again next year, I am afraid that not only will the scale be far less than this time, and the effect you want will not be achieved, but the value of the competition itself will also be diluted."

Fiona nodded slowly, accepted Raven's statement, bit her lip and asked, "Then what do you mean..."

Raven did not answer directly, but asked instead: "How is the progress of the batch of things I asked the forging factory to produce before?"

"The production has basically been completed." Fiona said.

"Tell Petty to put it on the Skyhawk platform and also put it in our stores." Raven said confidently: "This is enough to maintain the popularity for at least two more months."

"Then...what about two months from now?" Fiona asked.

"You'll know then."

Fiona didn't understand what Raven meant, but the master's decisions were never wrong, so she immediately followed the instructions and released the batch of products Raven mentioned.

It is a statue of a character about 7 inches tall, which is about 18 centimeters. They are all popular players in the arena, such as Gul'dan, Akori, Eric, Savannah, etc. The base is engraved with respective achievements.

The selling price of each statue varies depending on the material.

The iron one costs 2.99 gold coins; the silver one costs 8.99 gold coins; the gold one costs 29.99 gold coins.

There is also a noble foggy and heavy iron commemorative model, which is available in limited quantities and costs 299 gold coins each.

Of course, it is not pure metal casting, it is basically wood wrapped with thin metal.

In Fiona's opinion, this kind of price is no different from robbing money.

But she didn't expect that these little figures would be so popular as soon as they were put on the market, especially the silver statues, which had the most exaggerated sales, with more than 200 copies sold on the first day.

And some people expressed on the Tianying platform that they hope to customize their own portraits.

Raven soon issued a new statement, stating that it would accept customization of personal portraits, but would not accept customization of products already on sale.

What happened next left Fiona, a witness from the beginning, stunned.

Many nobles who had left returned to the Eagle Territory in order to cast their own statues; some others who stayed here were entrusted by other close nobles to purchase them on their behalf.

Many people buy portraits in sets, and the most popular one is the set of the top 16 in this competition.

Some nobles and wealthy businessmen even spent the same amount of money as the portrait itself to buy the right to jump in line!

In this regard, Raven acted calmly. Although the scene was hot, it was not too unexpected.

In his view, this is a simple mathematical problem.

The influence of this competitive competition is huge, radiating to the province of Nord and its surroundings. There are no less than 100,000 people who are concerned about this and have a certain spending power; and among these 100,000 people, it does not need too many, even 1/ 10 is a deep enthusiast and 1/100 is a fanatic, both of which are enough to support a huge market.

In addition to portraits, Raven also launched other player-related products, such as the same type of rapier used by Gul'dan and the same type of wave-blade giant sword used by Akori.

The material is ordinary fine steel, and there is no enchantment. Only the appearance is restored one to one, but the price is three times that of weapons of the same quality.

Through the promotion of the Sky Eagle platform and the enthusiasm of the spectators, although the liveliness of Eagle Town has declined, it is still within an acceptable range.

Even around these products, a secondary or even tertiary scalper market has been born. Some rare categories, such as figures with movable joints and armor that can be disassembled, are priced at 3 times or even 5 times the original price!

Every early morning, long queues would form before the stores selling peripheral products for these competitive events opened.

At the beginning, the residents of Eagle Town will still find it novel, but as time goes by, they will get used to it and continue to carry out their daily lives step by step.

As time slowly passes from September to October, the weather becomes cooler, the dew on the grass becomes colder in the morning, and the leaves of the willow trees along the road gradually begin to turn yellow.

In the early morning of this morning, Hoyaz stepped through the morning fog, passed through Goldsmith Town, and returned to Eagle Town.

"These guys really have no time to spare." Hoyaz glanced at the servants of various noble families queuing up on the street and muttered.

But when he saw the silver Simon portrait placed in the glass of the counter, a trace of desire flashed in his eyes.

That was Simon's heroic posture during the competition, with his feet slightly spread apart and a sword stance in a plow position, as if he was about to pierce the sword into the enemy's throat.

So handsome!

He rubbed the money bag at his waist, swallowed again, and finally sighed and walked away with some annoyance.

He returned to the orphanage and climbed over the back wall. As soon as he returned to the dormitory, two people surrounded him.

"What happened? Did you find out?" Lennon asked anxiously.

"He looked like he had been gone for most of the night. Why are you in such a hurry?" Banks rolled his eyes at him and poured a glass of water to Hojaz.

After three glasses of water, Hojaz finally took a breath: "I found out."

Lennon and Banks squeezed to Hojaz's side almost at the same time: "What did they say?"

Banks was tall and thin, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, and had a bit of a black-bellied temperament; Lennon was tall and strong, worthy of the nickname "Rhino".

Once, Hojaz was blackmailed by Banks for money. It was only after Raven's instructions that he found Lennon and played a tiger-eating-wolf trick to get back the silver coins left to him by his mother.

After that, the three "thorns" were assigned to the same dormitory.

As the saying goes, there is no friendship without fighting. The hatred between adolescent children does not last long. After two years of training and living together, their relationship has become quite harmonious. It is not an exaggeration to say that they are wearing the same pants. Hoyaz sighed: "If it is made of first-level black iron ore, it will cost at least 500 gold coins."

"How much? 500?" Lennon's voice suddenly rose: "Why is it so expensive?"

"An Eagle Feather Sword made of second-level material misty heavy iron is less than 900 gold coins!"

Hoyaz spread his hands and said: "I asked the same question, but Bowell told me that the swords sold outside are not made of pure misty heavy iron, but mixed with a lot of other things; and ours is a special customization, so we have to pay extra."

Lennon looked at Banks: "Hey, don't you always say that you are a descendant of the nobility? What do you think?"

"I am a descendant of the nobility, not a descendant of the blacksmith. What do you think about this?" Banks pushed his gold-rimmed glasses: "... But since Bowell said it, it should be correct in nine out of ten cases."

"How much money do you have?"

"I still have 61 gold coins and 52 silver coins here." Hoyaz immediately took out the purse hidden under the bed.

"I have 55 gold coins and 27 silver coins here." Lennon also took out his purse: "Banks, you said last time that you saved 70 coins. The three of us together only have a little over 150 gold coins."

"Actually, I still have a little left here..." Banks frowned, moved an oil painting on the wall, and moved out a small box: "There are still 84 gold coins here."

"Where did you get this?" Lennon's eyes widened.

Without waiting for Banks to answer, Hoyaz said: "During the finals, Banks bet with his own money."

"How do you know?" Banks was also stunned.

"I was also going to bet at that time, but when I saw you, I stopped." Hoyaz said: "After all, it was quite risky. I'm leaving a bottom line for our plan."

Banks smiled: "Boy, did you get it after being instructed by your father? This nickname of 'two-headed snake' is not in vain!"

Although the extra money is a small surprise, even with this, it is still more than half short!

"Otherwise, we can settle for the next best thing and order a sword mixed with star iron? That thing should be cheaper, right?" Lennon suggested: "And father, he shouldn't care how much the gift we give is worth."

"No."

"No!"

Hoyaz and Banks denied it almost at the same time. The two looked at each other, and Banks spoke first: "It's true that father won't care, but nobles are all about face. A sword made of first-level materials is already the bottom line. If it is a cheap one mixed with star iron, how can he raise his head in front of other nobles?"

"What should we do?" Lennon was a little anxious: "This won't work, that won't work, can we tie up Bowell?"

"I have a way." Hoyaz licked his lips.

The other two came over: "What way?"

"Raise money!" Hoyaz pounded his palm: "This gift is for father, raise money with other classmates, you can definitely raise it."

Banks' eyes lit up.

In this competition, because Banks's vision is relatively accurate, many orphans have placed several rounds of bets with Banks with a trial mentality, and they should have some money in their hands.

But the problem is, how can we make them willing to pay money and how can we make people believe that this is not a means for them to take advantage of the opportunity to make money?

Hoyaz also thought of this problem and has prepared a response: "Show them the design drawings - and, didn't a businessman come to sell things like "classmate yearbooks" some time ago? He should not have left yet. Let's buy two and write the names of the donors. When the time comes, one will be given to the father along with the gift, and one will be kept."

"This is a good idea!" Lennon clapped his hands: "Let's rank according to the amount of donations. The three of us must be at the front, and the father can see it at a glance!"

Banks thought about it and knew that Lennon had thought wrong: "That's not the case. The amount cannot be written on the donation list."

Lennon looked puzzled.

Banks continued to explain: "Other people definitely don't have as much money as the three of us. If the amount is specified, many people may not donate directly - after all, there are so many donors. If father doesn't see their names, won't we get all the benefits?"

"But this is our plan after all!" Lennon looked dissatisfied: "Why should we be treated the same as them."

"Don't worry." Hoyaz smiled: "What if you don't remember the amount? We are the ones who raise funds. If we write our three names at the front, who can change it?"

Lennon scratched his ear and said after a long time: "You two are still bad!"

Although he said so, Lennon was also the most motivated. He went out to find the businessman directly. In just one hour, he ran back with two thick cowhide cover books.

Hoyaz and Banks first wrote the names of the three people on two books respectively, and then split up to start fundraising.

Banks was born in an aristocratic family, had the best eloquence, and his gold-plated gold-rimmed glasses were very attractive. He was responsible for fundraising on the girls' side; Hoyaz looked harmless and had no history of bullying others, so he was responsible for the boys' side.

Things went quite smoothly. In just 5 days, almost all orphans participated in the donation. Some donated 1 or 2 gold coins, and some donated dozens of silver coins. More than 200 orphans donated a total of 297.63 gold coins. Together with the ones they had, they had 568.58 gold coins!

"Great!" Lennon almost jumped up excitedly: "Now, in addition to the sword, we can also match a good scabbard!"

That night, the three of them worked together to be safe and sent a deposit of 250 gold coins to Bowell.

The delivery will be completed in 20 days at most. When the news spread, all the orphans began to look forward to it.

The process was not so smooth. Bowell occasionally ordered the gray dwarves of the same tribe to come and complain, saying that the deposit was used up and asked them to pay a little in advance. At first, several people gave 30 gold coins.

When they came for the second time, Hoyaz and Banks were skeptical, but under Lennon's opinion, they still gave 20 gold coins.

By the third time, even Lennon felt something was wrong and refused to pay again.

As expected, on the day of delivery, Bowell's eyes widened and he refused to admit that he had received the first two 50 gold coins. The three had to pay the balance of 250 gold coins.

Fortunately, the customized long sword was delivered on time. Hojaz took the sword back and showed it to the orphans. They all said it was worth the money.

At noon that day, Hojaz, Banks and Lennon came to Eagle Castle with the sword.

At this time, Raven had just returned from the barracks and was chatting with Volaf. When he saw the three people coming, he was curious: "What's wrong? Something happened in the orphanage?"

The three looked at each other and knelt on one knee. Hojaz held a long box and said loudly: "Father, this is our gift for you!"

Volaf stepped forward to take the long box and handed it to Raven.

The three orphans looked at Raven nervously and raised his hand to open the box.

Raven glanced over and raised his eyebrows.

This is a sword about 4 feet long. It buzzes when it is unsheathed. It is obviously carefully crafted.

The sword body is black and its shape is the classic noble sword. It is thin and elegant, and slightly thicker than a rapier.

Three words are engraved on the hilt:

"Fatherly Sword"

Under the hilt, on the blade, there is a line of words that are carved and filled with gold paint:

"Dedicated to our dear father."

Raven smiled, and Volaf said beside him: "Baron, the seeds you planted have finally grown into fruits."

"Yes." Raven sheathed the sword and hung it on his belt: "This black iron ore sword is not cheap. Where did you get so much money?"

"We earned it by betting at the competition!" Hoyaz picked up a notebook: "And it's not just the three of us. This is a gift from all of us orphans to you!"

The notebook was passed to Raven by Volaf. When he opened it, familiar names were listed.

Only when he turned to the total amount, Raven was slightly startled, and Volaf next to him shouted out: "568 gold coins!?"

"It didn't cost that much, a total of 550 gold coins." Hojaz told the truth.

Raven glanced at Volaf: "I received your kindness, but don't buy such expensive gifts again in the future."

"Have you eaten?"

"I have eaten!" Banks said.

"No!" Almost at the same time, Lennon spoke.

Raven couldn't help laughing, and said: "Then eat with me."

The lunch was very rich, but the three teenagers were not thinking about the meal - it was so exciting to be able to eat with their father!

While eating, Raven would also ask them about their daily lives. Although Hojaz and Banks looked at him, Lennon still told a lot of jokes that orphans usually told in private, but Raven didn't care much and just laughed it off.

After all, when he was in the orphanage, he was much dirtier than these children in his words and deeds.

After finishing the meal, the three young men left Eagle Castle.

Lennon was in high spirits, and even hopped as he walked. But when he looked back, Hojaz looked calm, and Banks frowned.

"What happened to you two? Did you have a stomachache?" Lennon said.

Shaking his head, Banks recalled Volav's expression and reaction, and gritted his teeth:

"...We were tricked by Bowell!"