Isekai Nonbiri Nouka

The new woodway plan was changed to a new railway project.

The mountain elves were enthusiastic about it but the civil servant girls blocked it intensely.

「We don’t have enough iron.」

「Even if we buy up all the iron on the market, it will never be enough.」

「And even if we did, it would take decades just to build the rails.」

「Scrap that railway and stick to the woodway please.」

「You said it is vulnerable to rain, how about digging an underground tunnel between Village Five and Shashaato City and have it pass through there?」

「This could be done by sheer number of demonpower.」

「If you just want to transport things, wouldn’t big golem carriages be sufficient? That way you wouldn’t even need rails.」

「That’s it! That’s what you should do!」

The mountain elves resisted strongly but failed.

The new railway plan was not approved.

Yeah, too bad.

-0-

However, is iron really that scarce?

I think they mine a good amount of it, right?

Thus, I asked the demon king himself.

「Ehto……」

The demon king doesn’t know what to say.

Is it possible that the amount of iron mined is a kingdom secret?

「No, it’s not……it’s just that, well, iron included, I don’t know the amount of resources that are being mined.」

……

You don’t know what?

「Once they are mined, they will be sold immediately, I think.」

Okay.

「It will be processed at the place it was sold and will then be sold to the market. The kingdom doesn’t care about the quantity of how much resources are mined but the quantity of the processed goods.」

I see.

Are there no mining taxes?

「In general, the mines are either managed by the kingdom or the lords but the kingdom and the lords aren’t the ones who’ll do the mining. The right to mine is sold to a group of people who have the technology to mine and they will mine for us. Since it’s ours, there is no tax.」

Even the mined ore?

「Yes. Well, depending on the contract, all the mined ores belong to the miners. If you put tax on them, it would discourage small-scale mining.」

Small scale mining.

You mean, adventurers or small villages doing their own mining?

Right, if there’s a tax, there will be less mining.

「Open pit mining is already dangerous and tunnel mining is even more dangerous. Also, there is a danger of monsters and demon beasts roaming around the mining ground. I would even be willing to pay for them to mine.」

I see.

By not imposing tax, you are encouraging mining.

「Yeah. Someone needs to do it for us after all.」

However, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be informed on how much is being mined, right?

If you ask the miners or the merchant middlemen, you would have at least an idea on how much is being mined even if it isn’t accurate, right?

「Once we investigate, they’ll suspect we’re preparing to tax them.」

………

Being a politician is tough.

「Yeah」

The demon king went to the cats to be healed.

By the way, Howling Village is said to be a historic mining group that purchased mining rights a long time ago.

Sena, the daughter of the village chief of Howling Village, told me so.

-0-

The demon king doesn’t know the amount of resources being mined but, what about the gold and silver that are being mined?

Is the value of gold or silver low because the country doesn’t issue gold or silver coins?

This world.

The money in circulation was something created a long time ago.

If the economy grows, won’t there be a shortage of money?

I heard that it was the dragons who were working behind the scenes to make adjustments…….

I recognize again that the current situation of money being stored in the village, which has been mentioned to me over and over again, is not good.

Should we release a little more of the gold and silver coins stored in the village?

However, we have already invested in the protection and nurturing of culture and even in educational institutions.

I don’t want to waste money. Should we just buy land rights or water rights or something?

I’d like to refrain from buying something I won’t use though.

Well, let’s not decide on this matter on my own and consult Youko and the civil servant girls.

-0-

The new railway plan in Village Five has been approved.

I thought it would be disapproved but what was disapproved was the plan to connect Village Five to Shashaato City.

The experimental railway connecting the south of Village Five to the northeast remained.

It would be a short distance but if realized, it would be convenient and could even become a landmark in Village Five.

-0-

The Goroun Company and the Dalfon Company worked hard to secure iron, which was the main problem.

The amount of iron for this experimental railroad was just barely enough so it was probably reckless to connect Village Five to Shashaato City with a railway.

And it was supposed to be a woodway first.

Now, the next problem was to make rails for the railway.

Making long, hard, iron rails proved impossible by hand.

The standard length of rail was set at ten meters but there were no forges capable of making such rails.

There were also no furnaces that could melt that much iron in one go.

No one had ever forged something that long.

Even if the rail was halved to five meters, it was said to be impossible.

Even if they decided to build a big workshop exclusive for making rails, we would still need a large amount of iron to make it.

…………

The new railway plan went back to being the newer woodway plan.

Though it will not be a monorail but a regular parallel rail.

The iron we gathered will be used to make bogies.

Understood.

Let’s build warehouses to store the irons.

Five of them.

-0-

The new woodway plan will connect the south and northeast of Village Five but there is no land reserved for it to be built.

Therefore, it was necessary to consider whether to dig out the ground and make an underground woodway or to connect the south and northeast using the periphery of the village where land is more easily secured.

The advantage of the underground path is that if there is nothing underground, it can be connected in a straight line making the distance shorter.

The disadvantage is that the labor required to dig and the need for underground lights.

Also, if the station is also underground, it will be a little inconvenient to get on and off the train.

The advantage of using the periphery is, as I mentioned earlier, that it is easier to secure.

The disadvantage is that the distance of the woodway will be longer and additional security measures will be necessary.

「Village chief, can’t we just lay it in the middle of the main street of the village?」

A civil servant girl, who is inspecting Village Five with me, asks.

Like a tram?

We could lay a woodway in the middle of the road that is currently there but wouldn’t that interfere with horse drawn carriages?

I know that they can just avoid it but……

On the main street of Village Five in front of us is a good number of horse drawn carriages.

「Won’t the horse drawn carriage traffic be lessen if a woodway is built?」

………

Is that so?

「Isn’t that what the woodway for?」

Perhaps it is.

Then, why don’t we make the woodway a double track instead of a single one?

It will be useful after all.

It will take a lot of space but…..

「We’ll select the road.」

……alright.

Pick a road that can be expanded as much as possible.

Also, we need to select a piece of land that will provide shelter for the trams.

Once the selection is done, I will ask Youko to confirm it.

「Understood.」

-0-

I asked Youko to confirm it.

And she permitted it.

Well, the final decision was left to me.

I hope it goes well.

And Youko.

Please don’t predict that the woodway will become a ring road and surround the foot of Village Five.

I, too, have a feeling that will happen.

How many years will it take us to build that?

I’m sure that even this short stretch of woodway will take some time.

-0-

Otherworld Leisurely Farming(Farming?)

-0-

Minister A: Iron quantity survey? That’s important too but….

Minister B: There are materials that can be obtained from monsters and demon beasts so, is there a need to be concerned with iron?