Chapter 23: Iron Harbor City

According to calculations by those who analyze the game, the purchasing power of one gold crown coin is roughly equivalent to twenty thousand yuan in modern society.

This meant that Ryan was willing to donate four million yuan.

Mashan was shocked on the spot.

Two hundred gold crown coins—it was not that a noble of the Fahl family's status couldn't afford it, but who would invest such a sum into a charitable cause?

One must know that even the current Empress of the Empire had only donated 600 gold crown coins.

If Ryan were to truly donate 200 gold crown coins, his name would immediately be written below the Empress's, becoming the second name on the donor list for the Amazon movement.

"Ryan, I am very grateful for your kindness," Mashan advised him with good intentions, "but 200 gold crown coins is not a small amount. Perhaps you should ask the Marquis for his opinion first?"

"You misunderstand, Mashan," Ryan said with genuine sincerity. "These 200 gold crown coins have nothing to do with the Fahl family; they are entirely my own personal contribution."

"Even so, this is too much money..."

"Compared to the suffering endured by the Amazonians, no amount of money can wash away the sins of the Imperials," Ryan said righteously. "If this can help more Imperials understand that original sin flows through our blood, then these gold crown coins will have served their purpose."

"Oh, Ryan," Mashan finally began to wipe away tears. "I have never met a good man who can empathize with us like you..."

Mashan’s husband, standing nearby, immediately became anxious and glared at Ryan angrily, only to hear Ryan say:

"Aren't you going to hand your wife a tissue?"

Only then did Mashan’s husband snap out of it and hurriedly wipe his wife’s tears, though he received nothing but a roll of the eyes from Mashan.

Ryan promptly wrote out a check, signed his name, and handed it to Mashan as a donation—with this check, she could withdraw 200 gold crown coins from any Imperial bank from the account under Ryan’s name.

In exchange, Mashan was willing to act as Ryan’s guarantor and recommend him for membership in the "Amazon Memorial Association."

In her words, the association currently had only about a dozen members, all of whom were female nobles willing to make donations; Ryan was the only male among them.

Ryan expressed that he was flattered.

To be honest, small clubs with only a dozen or so members probably existed by the hundreds in the Imperial Capital alone.

However, who could have guessed that years later, it would develop into a behemoth with over 700,000 members?

After bidding farewell to the couple, Ryan went to see Marquis Fahl to take his leave, preparing to set off for Salt Island.

***

Marquis Fahl had been feeling irritable lately.

Because his favorite youngest son, Polo, was doing everything in his power to obstruct him from granting the fief to Ryan.

"What exactly is so good about Salt Island?" the Marquis finally lost his temper and ordered coldly, "Tell me the reason."

Polo felt helpless; knowing he couldn't keep deceiving his father, he could only whisper:

"Father, there may be the remains of the ancient Rose Queen in a sunken ship on the seabed near Salt Island."

"The Rose Queen?" Fahl raised an eyebrow. "How do you know that?"

"Because of a prophecy," Polo replied. "My maternal grandmother was a witch with the power of prophecy, as you know."

Marquis Fahl immediately looked displeased.

Polo was born to the Marquis and his seventh wife; the Marquis still missed her petite yet incredibly voluptuous figure to this day.

Unfortunately, her mother was a deranged woman who not only tried to crudely stop her from marrying him back then, but even after he divorced her, cursed that "abandoning a blameless wife is an act that will be despised by the gods, and the Fahls will eventually die out completely."

So, have the Fahls died out? I had another son last month, haha.

The Marquis was not interested in the mad ravings of that old hag, so he just waved his hand impatiently and said:

"If you want to go looking for some ethereal ancient shipwreck, figure out a way to do it yourself. Granting Salt Island to Ryan is my decision; don't say any more about this."

Polo left feeling dejected.

After walking a few steps, he suddenly realized something:

Did his father’s words imply that while Salt Island must be granted to Ryan, he wouldn't interfere if he were to go to the seabed near Salt Island to salvage the wreck beforehand?

Thinking of this, Polo suddenly saw the light.

The sea area near Salt Island was legally part of the Salt Island fief, which was Ryan’s property.

But it was clearly impossible for Ryan to swim to the bottom of the sea to inspect whether his property had been violated.

If I hired a few people skilled in diving to quietly salvage the items from the wreck and take them away, how would Ryan ever know?

With this thought, Polo could no longer hold back and rushed to the pier to catch a boat.

***

Salt Island is the collective name for the archipelago east of Sea Rock City, consisting of over fifty islands.

The largest is Iron Port Island, which houses the capital of Salt Island, Iron Port City. It is home to the Fahl family's shipbuilding base and docking port, as well as iron mines and boxwood forests that provide raw materials for shipbuilding, along with three or four villages that rely primarily on fishing.

Aside from the main island of Iron Port, there were several scattered fishing villages on the other islands, but their population scale could not compare to Iron Port Island at all.

Ryan, accompanied by Elina and Daya, crossed the strait by boat and arrived at Iron Port City.

Due to the constant exposure to salty, humid sea breezes that caused wood to rot and mold, the defensive walls and buildings of Iron Port City were almost entirely constructed from large blocks of iron ore. Over the years, they had become covered in deep red rust.

The central fortress was no exception; its iron-rich brick walls were covered in large patches of "bloodstains" like moss, which is why it was also known as the "Blood Fortress."

To welcome the new Lord, the various rooms inside the Blood Fortress had been washed with clean water by the servants. However, due to poor ventilation, the air in the entire hall was still damp when Ryan entered.

The servants knelt one after another, begging for mercy, as the temper of the Fahl family was not known to be gentle.

Ryan, however, did not care about the humidity in the castle; after all, anyone living by the sea who demanded dry air likely had something wrong with their head.

He noticed that the servants in the Blood Fortress were almost all over forty or fifty years old, which was considered elderly in this world.

In fact, the overall population of Iron Port City was quite aged. Because mining, logging, and shipbuilding were all heavy manual labor, and the Fahl family didn't pay wages—instead forcing labor as a noble prerogative—the young people who could run away had mostly fled.

Sea Rock City had to forcibly conscript laborers to ship over to the island every year, only for them to disappear completely after a while. After all, there was no barbed wire across the strait between Salt Island and the mainland; if people mixed in with fishing boats or even swam back, what could you do?

Importing more hardworking Lizardmen from abroad was an urgent priority! It had to be arranged as soon as possible!

Of course, compared to bringing in refugees from the Rainforest Peninsula as cheap labor, there was an even more critical matter at hand:

Finding the burial place of the Rose Queen, Bethalia.

Ryan only remembered that the world boss "Undead Rose" was first encountered by players in the sea near Salt Island. But the surrounding sea was so vast, heaven knows exactly where it was located.

He summoned the castle steward and told him to find the best pearl divers in the city.

Pearls were also a specialty product of Iron Port City, requiring divers with large lung capacity and the ability to hold their breath. Because they worked in the nearby shallow waters year-round, these people surely knew where the ancient shipwrecks were.

The steward accepted the order and hurried away, only to come running back a moment later to inform Ryan that the best pearl divers in the city had been hired away by a certain young noble of the Fahl family not long ago.

Ryan was surprised for a moment, then revealed a thoughtful smile.

Oh my, I was worried about not finding the location, and here I have a guide?