Chapter 171 - Chapter 171: Chapter 164: Black Mountain Town Strategy (1/2)
Chapter 171: Chapter 164: Black Mountain Town Strategy
The Fischer family took over the residence in Black Mountain Town which had once been occupied by the Spirit Deer and Roarer clans.
The locals all deemed it to be ominous; within just a few years, two powerful families had met their downfall due to the residence—one destroyed and the other fallen into misery—surely there must be some kind of curse.
However, the Fischer family had always been non-superstitious.
In their hearts, they considered themselves proxies of God and looked down with disdain upon the rumors of a curse. Besides, how could we, the Fischers, not know the reasons behind the Garcias’ decline?
The new residence in Black Mountain Town was named Black Mountain Manor, and its architecture was somewhat antique, though much larger than Fischer Manor.
The main residence was a five-level building, with three levels above and two below, forming a concave-shaped structure. It had enough rooms to house four to five hundred people, in addition to two expansive basement levels.
Flanking the main residence of Black Mountain Manor were two shorter, three-story buildings that could also house four to five hundred people, but these were specifically for the servants’ quarters.
Every morning, a legion of servants had to rise before dawn and immediately rush to the main residence to complete most of their tasks before their masters awoke.
Irene had already taken Lilian away, and no one knew where they had gone.
Rishia began to take charge of the daily maintenance of the sacrificial hall, and the young girl was quite eager to do so.
Byrne, Chris, and Darren were holding a new family meeting in the basement. Though it was called a “family meeting,” it was essentially the latter two listening to Byrne talk for half a day.
“Chris, you and Darren stay in Nasir Town. Most of the affairs here no longer require your attention; they have been set in motion and just need to be overseen for normal operations,” Byrne said.
“Darren, you should observe the overall functioning of the family more closely and understand the various trades. Do you understand?” he added.
“I’m going to Black Mountain Town to sort things out there,” Byrne declared.
Black Mountain Town was a famous gambling haven, known across the East Coast Province especially for its horse betting events—even people from other provinces came to gamble. Many criminals and villains frequented the place, and the town’s public order was actually rather precarious.
Furthermore, with Garcia’s influence gone, many smaller powers within the town were still in a state of unease facing the newly arrived lord.
Byrne himself had to go to represent the Fischer family and give the people an explanation.
“Then Theo and I will take people and leave immediately. Chris, if there’s anything, just let Vanessa handle it. Whatever she asks you to solve, you solve,” Byrne said.
“I know you don’t like to think about these boring matters, which I actually consider quite right. After all, thinking too much will affect your progress in becoming stronger, and that is the foundation of the Fischer family!” he continued.
When Byrne said this, he felt a shortage of manpower deep down.
In over twenty years, the Fischer family had expanded too quickly, reaching their influence to all four towns, yet they had far too few reliable hands at present.
With Irene temporarily gone and Byrne headed to Black Mountain Town for a while, he even had to reactivate Vanessa to handle the affairs of Nasir Town.
“It seems the Fischer family needs more reliable hands and vassals,” Byrne thought.
Currently, the only baronial family vassalized to the Fischer family was that of Baron Adrian, and the knight clans loyal to them were only five out of eleven villages, all of which had been taken over from the Spirit Deer clan.
The current number of vassals was actually very few among the larger viscount families, of course, this did not account for “Daybreakers,” the covert ecclesiastical power.
——
Black Mountain Town.
The heads of two knight clans, four major merchants from guilds, the leader of the local Glover Gang, and an elder of the local silver descendants clan, eight figures who were great personages in the eyes of ordinary folk, were exchanging words in the luxurious box at the horse racing track.
The silver descendant elder furrowed his brow and asked, “What kind of man is this Mr. Byrne from the Fischer family that you speak of?”
The head of the tailors’ guild expressed his worries, “It doesn’t matter who this Byrne Fischer is; what’s important is, will he overturn the agreements we had with the Garcia family and ask for the moon?”
An old knight shook his head uncertainly, “He shouldn’t, right? The reputation of the Fischer family is said to be good, and they’re not known for being overly harsh on their subordinates.”
The Spirit Deer family had initially set low cut rates in various industries, to which everyone had grown accustomed; however, when the Garcia family came along, they doubled the rates!
Eventually, someone couldn’t stand it anymore and even considered seeking justice from the church, but they were secretly murdered by Viscount Garcia, along with their entire family.
Since then, every merchant in Black Mountain Town dared to be angry but did not dare to speak out, only able to keep their heads down and live in submission.
The head of the carpenters’ guild sighed and exclaimed, “What if the Fischer family actually raises the rates again? We won’t have any profit margin left! This can’t stand! Is there really nothing we can do?”
The silver descendant elder mockingly said, “What can you do, what can any of us do? The Garcia family has fallen, and do you plan to make an enemy of the powerful Fischer family? Do you want to be murdered in the streets and have your children reduced to selling themselves?”
“Alas…”
Sighs of despair echoed through the room. In truth, a stable environment for making money was more important than anything else, and everyone was well aware of this.