" gathering those people was quite a while ago. If that matter was more important than reaching an agreent with you, I wouldn't be here right now."
Viscount Roster's expression was very calm, like he really didn't care much about this.
"But I heard most of the people heading to Roster territory are high-level church officials, plus so very powerful magicians."
The Gray Fort Emperor took a sip of tea, looking at Viscount Roster with a smile, as if waiting for his answer.
"We have a plan that needs these people."
Viscount Roster thought for a mont. Instead of directly stating his plan, he asked:
"I think being able to observe Roster territory's situation with shadows, you should also roughly know the human lifespan on this continent, right? And the mortality rates for each age group."
"What do you an?" The Gray Fort Emperor was stunned.
"Exactly what it sounds like."
Viscount Roster said sowhat helplessly, "Nobles—of course, I'm talking about those big nobles with money—they can generally live to about 100 years old."
"If they've learned magic or knight breathing techniques, then they can often live to around 150."
"But regular people can generally only live to 30 to 40. A 50-year-old regular person is already extrely rare."
"This doesn't include slaves."
Hearing Viscount Roster's words, the Gray Fort Emperor fell into thought.
He'd never paid attention to this stuff before.
But with this reminder, seed like it really was true.
Plus regular people in their thirties generally looked about the sa as nobles in their sixties or seventies.
"This still isn't the scariest part."
Viscount Roster sighed. "You know how high infant mortality is? Over one-fifth of the population dies before their first month."
"Another fifth dies before age four. One-tenth die between ages 4 and 9, and another tenth die before adulthood—I an, by your Gray Fort Empire's standards, 16 years old."
The Gray Fort Emperor was completely stunned.
Half the population just died like that?
Half of regular people didn't even live to adulthood!?
This far exceeded his imagination.
"Why does this happen? I've been cracking down hard on infanticide and child abandonnt traditions. Haven't there been any results?"
The Gray Fort Emperor felt his breathing quicken.
"Of course there've been results. Through your reforms and crackdowns, at least one-tenth of people survived. The original numbers were way scarier than this."
Viscount Roster didn't continue explaining but went on, "Of the remaining people, about half will die before age 25, and of those left, more than half will die before 30."
"Being able to live to 30 to 40 is actually rare among these regular people—at most about one-tenth of the population."
Watching the Gray Fort Emperor whose breathing seed to be getting rapid, Viscount Roster didn't keep him in suspense and continued:
"The reasons for this are many—war, hunger, cold, heavy labor... too many reasons. But with Magic Conductor industrialization reforms, most problems will be solved."
"For example, hunger. We have tons of grain and have driven down food prices."
"For example, cold. Before long, textiles will beco the most prosperous industry in this world. Countless people will be tied to it. Of course, clothes will also beco sothing regular people can afford."
"But there's still one important problem."
"Health!" The Gray Fort Emperor already understood what Viscount Roster ant. "Those adults' deaths might be from all kinds of reasons."
"But those children, especially infants, the biggest cause of death is probably disease!"
"Nobles can find various churches when they're sick, can find doctors, can use druid potions, even invite magicians to heal them. But regular people can't, or rather, don't have those conditions."
"This is why you gathered those people in Roster territory?"
"Yes, gathering them is to solve this problem." Viscount Roster nodded.
"But human power is ultimately limited. Even if all these people are willing to join your plan, willing to help anyone unconditionally, even if they never rest, they still can't treat very many people."
The Gray Fort Emperor recalled the Church of Technology's biggest goal. They needed lots of people. Doing sothing like this was totally normal.
But normal was normal—whether it could actually be done was another question.
This whole thing sounded kinda unreliable no matter how you heard it.
"I never thought about making them give unconditionally, much less naively thought that with them going all out, they could treat everyone."
Viscount Roster chuckled. "Just wait and see. This might be a long process, might take several years to achieve."
"But there'll definitely be very good results."
"Nothing else—getting your Gray Fort population up to 180 million is definitely no problem."
"Even without this, just the increase in grain production alone, plus the current Magic Conductor reforms, would be enough to push the population to 180 million. At most ten years." The Gray Fort Emperor was unconcerned.
"Then it becos 210 million or 220 million?" Viscount Roster was pretty optimistic about this.
"Then I'll look forward to your project's success." The Gray Fort Emperor nodded and didn't continue the topic.
He thought it was absurd.
But the Church of Technology had already accomplished countless absurd things.
No matter how unbelievable this was, since Viscount Roster said it, it was possible to achieve.
After saying goodbye to the Gray Fort Emperor, Viscount Roster arranged to et up with the Dragon of Despair Nidhogg and returned to Roster territory.
This plan also needed the dragons' full support. The Dragon of Despair Nidhogg was also a protagonist in this eting. Otherwise it wouldn't be like a mount making a special trip.
"You sure this'll have that big an impact?"
On the way to Roster territory, the Dragon of Despair Nidhogg finally couldn't help asking.
"Of course." Viscount Roster was very confident. "But why are you worried about this? Isn't your main role just providing funding, then sitting back and collecting interest?"
"Plus this funding doesn't even require you to actually provide gold. Doesn't even need to leave the bank. Basically completes the operation within the bank."
"The bigger the impact, the bigger the potential, the longer this business lasts. If you want to invest such large funds to give these people low-interest loans, naturally I need to care about the impact and see how long it can last."
The Dragon of Despair Nidhogg said, "Plus, if I don't choose so good businesses, I feel like sooner or later those long-lived species will bleed dry."
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