City Lord Chapter 72

Annie explained to Lucas just how expensive salt was in this world. Most commoners had to wait for months before they could get a little bit of salt. This was inevitable as no one knew about salt mines and only relied on coastal cities for salt.

There was no such thing as the Solar Evaporation Method in this world. Salt was discovered a long time ago when someone found gray crystals left after boiling seawater in a pot.

Salt prices were especially high in cities in the western lands as they were very far from the ocean. The people here were lucky as there was a waterway that was very near to Sedona City, which lowered the price of the salt by a little. Otherwise, food merchants would raise the price of salt even more.

As of now, 1 kilogram of salt costs at least 60 copper coins. Pretty much no commoner could afford that. Many commoners just poured their money together to buy half a kilogram of salt and divide the salt equally between them.

Beastkins like Mina and Annie had it even worse and pretty much had no chance to eat any salt. The wheat that they ate could pretty much be passed off as water. That was why they were so attracted by the food Lucas gave them.

Nicole soon came back with Ben, who eagerly asked, “Young Master, are there really mines that have salt?”

“Yes.” Lucas said. “Do you know any place where the rocks and clods are salty?”

“Yes. Young Master, I know a place where the rocks are salty.” Ben said, nodding rapidly. “It- it’s just that people who have tried to eat the stones as salt before but all of them died after eating it from poisoning.”

“…” Lucas gave those people a thumbs up mentally. 'I guess they were tired of living.' “Of course it’s toxic. There’s a special method to extract the salt and only by extracting the salt that way will the salt be safe for consumption.”

Turning salt ore into edible salt was a complex process that required a lot of steps. Namely, crushing, dissolving, filtering, and analyzing. Only then rock salt, a type of edible salt, would be obtained.

“I’ll bring a few carts of salt ore back immediately.” Ben shouted as he ran out. His family was also rarely able to eat salt because of how expensive it was. There were many times when he had called Lucas a prodigal because of how much salt Lucas used on a single dish. The fact that the salt was as white as snow made it even harder for him to believe.

Ben had not once doubted whether or not Lucas would actually be able to produce salt, rather, he was thinking about what Lucas couldn’t do.

Lucas thought that it was quite pitiful how expensive salt was in this world. A very strong slave would be sold at twenty copper coins, which is way cheaper than a kilogram of salt.

Slavery existed in this world. Many human traffickers captured vagrants and sold them off as slaves.

As Lucas came back from his thoughts, he saw Mina, Annie, and Nicole staring at him.

“Is there something on my face?” Lucas asked, touching his face.

“Nope.” The three said in unison, blushing. They had such godly synchronization. As for what they were really thinking, only they themselves knew.

“Alright. Let’s go do some preparation work before uncle Ben brings back the salt ores. We should also organize the backyard so we can have a place to enjoy in the winter.” Lucas got up and stretched his arms.

“What do you want to put in the backyard?” Nicole asked curiously. Besides the plants that could somehow keep their green leaves in the winter, there wasn’t anything in there.

“Just go take a look for yourself. Just remember to bring plenty of people that can work.” Lucas said.

The group went to the backyard of the castle, followed by some domestic servants, among them was Mark, the one who helped in making cement and begged Lucas to accept him as a servant.

The backyard of the castle was extremely large- in fact, it was even larger than a soccer field. It included a view of a landscape made of rocks and a stream flowing in from the outside.

Lucas searched for the greenest part of the yard and pointed at it. “Dig over there and keep digging until you see water.”

The servants immediately began to work. They didn’t dare to disobey as their master, Lucas, had ordered them to do so. They would even jump into the river without hesitation if that was his order.

“Young master, why are you digging up such a good part of the yard?” Annie asked, frowning. She was currently thinking about the intentions behind Lucas’s orders, as she knew that Lucas would never do anything meaningless.

“Hot spring.” Lucas said, smiling mysteriously. Well, he was actually only guessing. The reason that tree leaves fall in autumn was because of the change in temperature and climate, which made him think of temperature.

The temperature definitely played a key role to how the backyard was able to stay fully green. Even though it was just a guess, it was still worth a try. If they actually did manage to dig up a hot spring, then their lives would be so much better.

“Hot spring? What’s a hot spring?” Mina asked, dumbfounded. This was the first time she heard the word.

“Water’s coming out.”

“Wow! The water’s hot. Ah! So hot.”

The servants digging the ground suddenly shouted, and Lucas’s eyes lit up. He immediately ran to the place and saw a large pit that was about 2 meters wide. It was slowly filling up with hot water.

“There really is a hot spring!” Lucas exclaimed, unable to hide his joy.

“This is a hot spring? Can you drink the water?” Mina asked, scratching her cheek.

“The springs that you normally see are cold. I didn’t know that there were springs that were hot.” Annie said, amazed.

“You will know what the hot spring is for later and you will love it by then.” Lucas said, shaking his head. It would be difficult for him to explain, so he decided to just create a hot spring bath and just let them see for themselves.

“Craftsman Head Mark, build a house here. I will give you the design paper later. Protect the spring properly.” Lucas said.

“Yes.”