Don't Burn Them! Even Witches Have Value!

”This is the second document. Please sign it as well, dear Miss Reinhardt.”

Lynn smiled gently while directly pointing at the signature column on the reversed document.

Just as Elysia put on a bitter face and prepared to continue signing, she suddenly noticed something wrong—

Why was the Reinhardt family’s seal stamped on Party B’s signature column?

Although her father’s seal was in the study, why didn’t the previous document have it?

Realizing something was amiss, she immediately flipped the parchment over.

”Agreement on the Renunciation of the Title Inheritance Rights and Legal Claims of Blackstone Fief?”

She held up the parchment, pointed at the large words on it, and looked at Lynn with a face full of disbelief.

”Miss Reinhardt, your surname is the same as the previous lord’s.

And he also refused to fulfill the obligation of judging witches for five consecutive years.

Even an idiot could see the relationship between you two.”

Lynn straightened his white cravat and slowly continued speaking.

”Although I was appointed to inherit the position of lord of this place.

But from the perspective of the codex, you still have a strong claim to this land.

Even if you’re deemed a witch by the Church, it doesn’t affect this fact.

This is very tricky.

I don’t want someone to suddenly jump out under the banner of ’restoring the Reinhardt family’ to start a property dispute with me later when I’m counting my money.

Even if you yourself don’t have such thoughts, it’s still a troublesome matter.”

Lynn then spread his hands.

”You might think that with the Church around, this kind of situation is impossible, but I must tell you, in this world, anything is possible.

Especially when actual interests are involved.”

He rubbed his right index finger and thumb together, revealing a smile he considered gentle.

”Therefore, Miss Reinhardt, so that our sacred contractual relationship won’t develop cracks over a small problem…

Please trouble yourself to sign this.

After all, I inherited your family’s debts in order to protect you, and I’m currently having a headache trying to figure out how to pay that off.”

Hearing these words, the young woman bit her rosy lower lip, her expression somewhat troubled.

What the other party said was the truth. No matter the process, the result was that Lynn had inherited the punitive debts caused by her.

But, if it was really as he said, then she still had a claim to this land.

Could she really give up her father’s castle, give up this place that held precious memories?

The answer was obvious.

”I’m sorry, Mr. Lynn...

But I... can’t bring myself to give up my father’s territory.

Of course! This doesn’t mean I want to shamelessly snatch it back.

I know I can only rely on your protection now.

Even if it’s just to prevent this land from falling into the hands of those guys, I need you to pay off the debts.

I just…”

Looking at the conflicted Elysia, Lynn sighed exaggeratedly, then he raised his right hand to cover his face—

To be precise, it was to cover the corners of his mouth that he was about to lose control of.

No, he couldn’t laugh yet.

Although everything was going according to plan, if he laughed out loud now, all of his previous efforts would be wasted.

”Then, Miss Reinhardt, let’s switch to another document.”

Lynn still covered his face with his right hand and took out the third piece of parchment with his left—

‘Blackstone Fief Mortgage Agreement’

This document didn’t forcefully require Party B to give up her inheritance rights and claims, but rather temporarily mortgaged the Blackstone Fief to Party A.

If Party B assisted Party A in paying off the debts and generated enough net profit, then Party A would return the legal rights of Blackstone Fief.

This document was his true goal.

When you wanted to open a skylight, if you worried others wouldn’t agree, you would first propose tearing off the roof, and then go back to opening the skylight during negotiations.

Furthermore, this document would give Elysia motivation to produce, giving her a clear goal to strive for, thereby significantly increasing her production efficiency.

Moreover, as long as the Milan Empire still needed the Church to endorse its regime, even if the inheritance rights of Blackstone Fief were returned to Elysia, she wouldn’t be officially recognized.

Not to mention that with a forged death certificate, she wouldn’t even be able to step out of the castle doors and could only rely on him to provide her with protection…

Considering the current reality, how could a behemoth like the Church suddenly lose its influence in the Milan Empire?

Impossible, absolutely impossible!

Lynn’s voice was full of temptation, like a devil enticing a traveler at the edge of an abyss.

”Miss Reinhardt, you wouldn’t want to see the territory your father had protected with his life ultimately be taken away by the Church to pay off the debt just because I can’t afford that sixty-four-fold fine, right?

It doesn’t matter to me, but you wouldn’t want to see the Reinhardt crest turn into the Church’s banner, would you?

So, let’s clarify the legal rights situation, and then work together towards the same goal!”

Lynn’s words were like a heavy hammer, smashing ruthlessly against Elysia’s final psychological defense line.

In the end, she took a deep breath…

And then she signed her name on the third document in elegant cursive handwriting.

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【Favorability: +10 (Lynn is an honest and kind man)】

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From now on, the debt he inherited would also be her debt, and the goal he pursued would also be her goal to strive for.

They would be in the same boat.

Thus, Lynn finally laughed out loud.

”Hehehe...”

So then, as a fire witch, what was Elysia’s first job?

”What do you mean by charcoal burner?”

When Lynn brought the young woman to an abandoned stable which had been converted to a temporary work area by tearing off its roof, she looked at the firewood piled up inside in disbelief.

She didn’t know why, but she felt they looked very familiar...

Wait, wasn’t this the firewood from when she was being judged?!

Lynn told her that her task was to turn them all into charcoal.

He didn’t know if it was because this territory was a cursed land, but Blackstone Fief had a particularly large number of crooked trees.

As such, there was no lack of raw materials for producing charcoal here. They were just missing a means to control the temperature.

Burning charcoal normally required digging an earth kiln or using a carbonization furnace.

But the former was very difficult to do in this place full of black stones and shallow soil, and because the thermal efficiency conversion was too low, ordinary people were better off directly burning firewood.

As for the latter, this world simply didn’t have that level of craftsmanship.

However, this shouldn’t be a difficult task for a witch who knows fire magic.

After all, the principle was just to make the impurities inside the firewood turn into smoke and rise up, leaving behind as much carbon as possible.

Of course, the reason this method hadn’t been popular here before was naturally because it was impossible to get a witch to do hard labor.

Wasn’t it a coincidence? He had one right now.

As long as he dared to make Elysia work desperately day and night, she would inevitably produce a massive amount of charcoal.

And Lynn’s target wasn’t just the local residents of Blackstone Town who didn’t look very rich.

The entire northern border of Milan lacked heat sources, and charcoal without impure smoke that made one choke was an excellent fuel.

In this era where coal was clearly not mined on a large scale, smokeless charcoal was undoubtedly a high-end product.

Even the Frost Kingdom a little further north would be a potential export target.

As for the cost…

Wood was everywhere.

Elysia only needed to be provided with food and lodging.

The only expense was transportation.

But as long as the sales channels were opened, there would be no shortage of merchant caravans coming to purchase when the time came.

Therefore, it could simply be called zero-cost!

So, the prerequisite to start all of this was finding someone who could help him transport the first batch of goods and for Elysia to start production.

After once again informing Elysia of the principles of charcoal production, Lynn left while humming a cheerful tune.

He prepared to go to the town to find the old donkey cart driver who had brought him here to see if he knew of any connections in this area.

And shortly after he left Reinhardt Castle, which was located at the edge of the town…

On his way to the center of the town, he saw a strange fellow squatting on the ground.

The other party was wearing strange clothes, had an exaggerated gray curly wig on his head, and was carrying a huge leather backpack on his back.

He was using a small iron shovel to dig the cold, hard dirt, and then picked out fine, crushed black stones from it before putting them into a bag beside him.

He seemed immersed in this process, constantly muttering excited sentences such as:

”This piece looks pretty good... This one has high purity too... I really should have come here earlier.”

”Yes, it does look pretty good indeed.”

Hearing the slightly approving voice coming from beside him, the man digging the ground raised his head in surprise.

And then he saw a handsome, black-haired young man dressed in fine clothes.

”Hello, passing gentleman, I’m...”

He stood up and was just about to state his identity when he saw the other party stretch out his right hand and slightly crook his fingers.

”I’m not a passing gentleman, but the new lord of this place.

Please pay the digging tax.

Thank you.”

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T/N - Lol, that ending. Though I wonder if black stone can be of use? It sounds like a pretty unusual material to me.

Also, dang, Elysia got exploited as soon as she signed the contract. The MC was really cunning, pulling off those moves on her. I know that these are par for the course for businessmen, but using them against a naive young adult… This is just bullying. 😂