Fredrinn Firecrown: The Weakest Villain

With the Blackcrow Household out of the picture, the energy stone mine now fully belonged to the Firecrown Household. Roland also increased the volume of the mining operations since the Firecrown Household would require a lot of money for their expansion.

This energy stone mine was one of the main sources of income for the Firecrown Supreme Household. To ensure the quality of work, the family even invested in a new building for the miners and guards. A new leisure facility was also built just for them. Not just that, their wages also increased and they even received new equipment to replace the old ones.

Furthermore, they even received free housing and their children were also provided with allowance for their education and martial training.

With these amazing benefits, the lives of the miners and the guards significantly improved.

At this moment, Fredrinn and the others finally arrived at the new residential building. They alighted from the carriage and inspected the building in front of them.

"Is this the residential building of the workers?" Margaret turned her gaze to Darius.

The latter was Roland's right-hand man so he knew a lot of things that were happening in the household.

Darius nodded. "Yes, madam. We expedited the construction of this building after we received funding from the royal family. The new leisure facility is on the third floor. Lord Fredrinn made the designs of the indoor game equipment."

Hearing this, Fredrinn recalled that he had indeed given them some ideas back then. He taught them the designs and rules of billiards. He also taught them about other leisure games like basketball and volleyball.

There were no such games in the Great Vemune Continent so when he introduced those fresh ideas to them, everyone was thrilled. Fredrinn could still remember the excited faces of the workers when they first tried billiards. Thinking about that, he couldn't help but smile.

"I heard that it was your idea to improve the living conditions of the workers. Good job." Margaret was proud of her son.

Behind the residential building were the stables where normal horses were kept. The mining site was quite far from the estate so they needed to have some horses for their transportation.

After inspecting the new facilities, the group headed straight to the energy stone mine.

When they arrived, Roland immediately came to see them.

"What took you guys so long?" Roland hugged and affectionately held his wife's hand.

It was then that he noticed an unfamiliar girl beside Fredrinn. She was wearing a fitting dress that showed off her curves.

Seeing this woman holding his son's arm so intimately, Roland raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"Son, you should introduce Daphne to your father." Margaret chuckled when she saw her husband's inquisitive expression.

"Father, this is Daphne. She is my woman." He felt a bit embarrassed when he said that.

"Daphne, this is my father. You should greet him."

"Greetings, patriarch." Daphne obediently greeted Roland.

"There's no need to be formal." Roland gave his son a sneaky thumbs-up as if he approved Daphne.

To this, Fredrinn could only smile while shaking his head.

"Let's talk about family matters later. You should tell us why you told us to come here first." Margaret said.

"Oh, right!"

"It would be better if you guys follow me. I'll show you something good." Roland smiled mysteriously.

Seeing him acting like that, the group curiously followed him.

Roland brought them to one of the storage rooms where all raw energy stones were stored.

"Two days ago, one of our miners found something at the lowest level of the mine. Do you know what he found?" After saying this, Roland opened the storage room, revealing a large quantity of green raw ores.

"That's…" Fredrinn was stunned when he saw the ores.

"Do you recognize it, son?" Roland chuckled.

"How could I not recognize it? Those are Magic aquanite!" Fredrinn approached the nearest pile of raw materials and grabbed a handful.

Smelting this ore would produce a metal called magic aquanite. It was a very rare material like the orichalcum. It was a durable piece of metal that could withstand the violent Qi of high-level martial practitioners. Most equipment used by Void Tempering powerhouses was also made from this material. Because of its rarity and high demand, magic aquanite was even more valuable than orichalcum.

"It seemed like you have studied a lot." Roland looked pleased.

Fredrinn ignored his father's teasing look and asked. "Father, have you inspected how much magic aquanite we can mine down there?"

Roland nodded. "Of course! That was the first thing I had our people do when they informed me about it. We still haven't done any detailed inspections, but there should be enough for us to make full gear for our ten thousand soldiers. Their horses' armors included."

"What?! That much?" Usually, magic aquanite could only be found in small amounts so he was shocked by Roland's words.

"The stock here is just the first batch. There's still more down there." Roland chuckled.

"Look at you acting so smug." Margaret lightly prodded her husband's waist with her elbow.

"Father, have you sealed off the area?"

Hearing this, Roland's face suddenly turned serious as he nodded his head. "I had our soldiers barricade the area around the mining site. I also signed an agreement with our workers to keep them silent."

"That won't be enough." Fredrinn shook his head.

Once news that magic aquanite was found in the mining site, it would attract unwanted attention. Although they had been promoted to a supreme household, there was no guarantee that no one would come to attack them. After all, magic aquanite was no ordinary material. Even the royal family shouldn't have large amounts of it in stock.

"What should we do then?" Roland also knew this. That's the reason why he called them here. He wanted to get Fredrinn's opinion.

Fredrinn rubbed his chin. They had three Void Tempering powerhouses including Daphne, but their ten thousand-man army was still not ready for battle.

"For now, we should only place our most trusted martial practitioners here. As for the new soldiers, don't let them get closer to this place. There might be spies from other households among them." Fredrinn didn't have the time to inspect each of the newly hired soldiers so he guessed that some spies might have gotten in. 'I need to deal with them before they discover the magic aquanite.'