Steel Empire
The Unimaginable Wealth

As dawn broke over the fertile valley, Berengar once again awoke to begin his daily practice. Just because he is now a healthy young man doesn't mean he shouldn't take care of his health. He began his routine with a series of push-ups, situps, squats, and pull-ups. The training equipment he had specially ordered had arrived long ago and was stored firmly in the corner of his large stone room. Thus, he can achieve most of his goals without leaving the comfort and security of his personal space. Currently, only her daily running was done outside her bedroom. It was a truly efficient use of time and space.

After Berengar finished his daily practice, the first action he took was a morning bath; the young master refused to spend the day in his own sweat. Although now, everyone in the castle was already aware of his bathing habits. It can be said that for thirty minutes before breakfast, the bathroom is reserved for Berengar.

The young master was very excited about taking a bath today. As you can see, almost a month ago, after Berengar convinced the family to start bathing regularly, he realized the need for a smoother bathing area. Thus, he managed to convince his father to start a big project. Over the past month or so, continuous construction has taken place in the corner of the Castle, where a private bath was built within the castle walls. Today is the first day after it is finished.

As Berengar entered the new bathroom, he noticed that there were three separate rooms for the large room. The first area is the dressing room, where residents will dress and undress. The second room is the toilet, if one needs to use it during bath time; the third area is the actual room where the bath takes place. A large circular stone bath was installed in the center of the room and heated to nearly 100 degrees Fahrenheit. It's not just a bath; it's practically a hot tub. Berengar spent a good fifteen minutes relieving his stress in a large bathtub where he could swim before finally getting out. Afterwards, she dries herself with a towel and goes to the dressing room, where she dresses properly. Only after she was fully dressed did she decide to get her hair done as she wished.

After confirming her appearance in the mirror, she left the newly designed bathhouse and headed for the dining room, where she met her family and fiance for breakfast. As she snacked on her favorite breakfast sandwich, she looked towards Adela, who had a joyful smile on her face; it seemed that she had fallen in love with the food in this little Barony. When she saw Berengar's gaze, she covered her mouth with a napkin as her cheeks flushed red. Although before he could speak, Berengar had turned his attention to his parents.

"Dad, Mom, I have to say that the new bath was very nice; it was really a decent investment."

When Sieghard heard the word investment, he almost had a heart attack, the bath cost him a fortune; how could he recover from such an expensive luxury. He could not believe he was letting his son convince him to buy it. It took some time for the family to recover from the amount they spent on commission. Or so he thought, The old baron was completely unaware of how much steel he had collected in the past twenty-four hours. Practically all the iron ore that had been stockpiled in the Barony was converted into steel bars overnight. Berengar only planned to sell a few tons. The rest will be used as the basis for his industrial vision.

When Berengar saw the painful expression his father made, he was quite worried.

"Dad, you look sick. Are you all right?"

After recovering, Sieghard glared at his son; he swore he would never forgive the boy for the financial loss he took to commission the object.

"I'm fine; it's just that the shower you enjoyed so much this morning cost us a lot of money to wake up. I don't know how we'll recover"

Berengar did not even pay attention to his father's words. At first, he simply bit off a piece of his breakfast sausage indifferently. Only after he realized what his father had said did he start laughing. That only caused Sieghard's angry gaze to become even more intense; the man's face was practically boiling with rage.

"Is poverty a laughingstock to you, Berengar?"

Adela did not hear the conversation; she was too busy enjoying her meal. However, what Berengar said next immediately caught his attention.

"Oh, Dad, if you knew how many pure steel bars there are in our warehouse right now, you would never say such a thing. At this point, we have enough wealth to buy the County!"

Although Berengar's claim may be a little exaggerated, it's not a lie at all. They have significant wealth in terms of raw steel. There are currently two men trying to marry into the von Kufstein family and put their future son-in-law in the seat of power explicitly because they are aware of how much iron ore is available in the region.

Damn, Adela's father was willing to sacrifice his daughter's happiness and marry her to a lazy, petty, and sickly scavenger to get a claim on the resource. If the two Counts knew that Berengar had turned the current Barony iron ore stock into pure steel bars overnight, they would be tempted to attack the Barony and seize the wealth for themselves.

Sieghard's jaw practically fell to the floor when he heard this news. He did not follow the industrial and agricultural efforts of his son too carefully. According to him, Berengar's claims were too wild to believe. However, he had experts who confirmed there would be no disadvantage in adopting various ideas. So he decided to bet and see if something was going to happen. If what Berengar said was true, then there were tens of tons of steel in his warehouse currently waiting to be sold or processed. The old baron could hardly believe his ears.

Adela was just as shocked; she knew her father wanted Kufstein's iron mine. He was well aware of his father's intention to use him to get Berengar, his son and heir, to hand him over to his family when he became a Baron, but now his fiancee claims he has turned a warehouse full of iron ore into steel bars overnight. ... He's as untrustworthy as Sieghard. If this was true, he would have to write a letter to his father and convince him to change his plans in the future.

Berengar could not stop laughing. Did his father really think that he would force him to spend the family's life savings in a private bath with no plans to recover their losses? What they would gain from selling a small portion of steel would be enough to fill their coffers and invest in the mining industry. The remaining steel will be used to start a new era of industry.

After all, steel was an important component of his plan for irrigation throughout the Barony. Not to mention innovations in other agricultural fields such as steel plows, combined harvesting machines, grain lifters, etc. These were all inventions that he had planned to make in time, but they required a large amount of steel to be applied on a scale throughout Nature.

The young master predicted that the Barony fields would be filled with an early form of mechanical farming in a year or two. That would allow for far fewer farmers, and in turn, create more merchants that would be used to fuel the fledgling industry. For now, the focus is on making steel pipes for irrigation. As long as he had a system of four fields, irrigation, and phosphate fertilizers used in every farm, this year's harvest must have been huge.

Sieghard could hardly believe what he was hearing; he decided not to have breakfast and immediately asked Ludwig the details. He had to look at the pile of steel with his own eyes to believe it.

"I'm sorry, my beloved family, but I seem to have some serious business to take care of. See you at dinner."

After which, the Baron left the dining room and rushed to the warehouse, storing the iron ore. Sieghard would spend the rest of the day having Ludwig guide him through the process and explain Berengar's ideas on how best to use large amounts of steel.

As Sieghard leaves the dining room, Adela recovers from her shock and decides to ask Berengar a question that is crucial to her family's plans.

"Heard... What exactly do you want to do with so much steel?"

Berengar smiled at the young girl sitting next to him and patted her head affectionately. He knows why his father proposed their marriage, and he will not give the key to his family's success.

“First, I intend to sell some bars, and use the profits to fill our coffers, and invest in the mining industry to increase industrial productivity. As for the remaining steel afterwards, I intend to use it to implement a world-wide irrigation system to improve the efficiency of our agricultural production.”

The young woman had no idea what irrigation was or how it affected agriculture, but it seemed that Berengar's ambitions were purely domestic. He had no desire to build a large army and conquer other regions. He just wanted to increase profits and crops. After listening to the Count's ambition to be Duke of Austria all her life, she was greatly relieved that her future husband was not a power-hungry madman like her father.

Instead, all Berengar wanted was to improve the quality of life and economic productivity of the people he would one day lead. He had never met a single noble who was satisfied with his fate in life; everyone he had met, including the men in his family, everyone wants more than they have right now. Berengar was different; he was fine with being a lowly Baron, as long as his Barony was the most advanced territory in the world and could defend their sovereignty.

He knew now it was best to convince his father to abandon the idea of taking over the mineral rights in the region, as Berengar would use the resources for much better use than his father. He needed to convince his father to negotiate with Berengar, and Sieghard for that matter, at a reasonable price for the steel they had produced. After all, his father would not be satisfied without the iron or steel needed to equip his troops.

Although the matter was very important, she felt like spending the rest of the afternoon with Berengar, whose schedule was open because her father took Ludwig's time. Therefore, the two of them were strolling through the city and talking to ordinary people. The second time, Adela is much more socialized with the villagers, who begin to recognize her as their future Baroness. It wasn't until dinner when the two returned from their second date and entered the castle gate.

Although Berengar was eager to get his design to Ludwig and introduce irrigation as soon as possible, he felt as if a day or two of rest was needed occasionally. After all, he never thought his time with Adela was so much fun. Adela also appreciates the time she spent with Berengar. She felt as if she was dreaming, for the past two days it has been so peaceful and full of joy—something she has not experienced under her father's tyrannical yoke. After eating with her future in-laws, she retired to a new bathhouse, where she finally understood Berengar's habit of bathing twice a day. As the day's accumulation dissipated from her perfect complexion, she sat in the bath thinking about her recent date with Berengar.

It wasn't until half an hour later when she came out of the bathroom and saw Berengar in the entrance doorway. Even though she was fully dressed in her nightgown, her hair was left untouched and still wet, and for some reason, this made her very embarrassed. So he fled back to the room he currently occupied, avoiding Berengar's gaze the entire time. It was only after the door locked safely behind him that he calmed down and realized that he still needed to write a letter to his father.

He spent the rest of his time writing letters. What was originally planned to be a request to buy steel at a reasonable price turns into a letter from a young girl telling him about her crush. Only the very last part of the letter was similar to his original intention. It was as if he hurriedly added it after he wrote everything in his mind about Berengar. Shortly after it was completed, he handed it over to one of his knights and ordered him to send the letter to his father as soon as possible. Once his task was done, he returned to his bedroom, where he fell asleep with a satisfied smile on his face.

Berengar, on the other hand, had spent the rest of his time bathing and drawing up blueprints for some of his farm designs. Although it will take quite some time before it can be fully implemented, it is best to have the design designed as soon as possible. His only regret about this day was that he failed to send his envious designs to Ludwig. It doesn't matter, because he can always do it tomorrow. At least Adela was happy. After finishing his work for the day, Berengar turned off his oil lamp and crawled to the bed, where he rested comfortably on his fur mattress for the rest of the night. Tomorrow is an important day in his plan for the advancement of agriculture.