Chapter 554 Arriving at Neverwinter

...

This boat is too much.

Steele leaned against the porthole of the poop, watching the fleet of ships coming and going on the Chishui River.

Since entering the western region, the river has suddenly become busy, and most of the boats are strange stone boats without sails. According to the captain, they call them paddle boats. They rely on steam power to move forward, and their speed is not affected by the wind direction. It sailed much faster than a sailboat, and often ran to the front with a trail of black smoke—as for how the steam pushed the large wooden wheels on both sides of the hull, no one could explain clearly.

But one thing is certain, these are all made by Neverwinter.

Steele estimated in his heart that he could see a paddle steamer almost every half an hour. If all of them were carrying goods, the amount of supplies absorbed by Neverwinter would undoubtedly be an astonishing value. She learned this from a businessman—the bigger a city is, the higher its ability to digest materials is. As long as you stay on its official road for two days, you can roughly judge how prosperous the city is and how many business opportunities it has. . If you are good at communication, you can even analyze the products that are most in demand in the city.

Obviously, this Chishui River is the most important traffic artery in the western region.

And the busyness of the river also meant that the propaganda she saw in the capital might not be the bragging of His Majesty Roland.

In a short period of time, the Western Territory has been integrated into a new city, and the resident population and commercial trade have surpassed the original capital, but such an extraordinary successor to the throne has a reputation of being ignorant, dandy and paranoid...Thinking of these rumors , Steele became more and more curious about Roland Wimbledon himself.

"Miss Conrad, are you looking at the ship again?" The door of the room was pushed open, and a handsome brown-haired man in luxurious clothes walked in, "Do you want to go out to take a breath, is it boring to stay here all the time? "

"No, it's fine here," Steele straightened up and nodded to him, "Thank you for your hospitality."

"Where is it?" he said with a smile, "I am lucky to be able to travel with a beautiful lady like you."

Steele heard too much flattery like this, but she still responded with a happy expression, "Without your help, I'm afraid I'd have to squeeze together with those goods and refugees."

"Of course I can't just sit back and watch this happen," the man sat down across from her. "No jeweler would like to let their jewelry get dusty."

He is the owner of the Yongchun, Victor, a gem merchant from the capital. After the original ship was burned, Steele quickly selected the brig from a group of ships heading to the west. It is not a passenger ship, nor does it accept employment, but belongs to Victor's personal car, but for Pearl of the North, as long as the owner is a man, all of this is not a problem.

She played herself as a northern aristocratic lady who went to the west to find her lost relatives. With a few words, Victor felt pity and invited her to board the Yongchun. Compared with ordinary small sailboats and cargo ships, Yongchun has a comfortable poop cabin, not to mention spacious and bright, and it does not have the rotten smell of wood left by traveling on waterways all year round. The master even prepared two servants for her, and didn't even take a single golden dragon.

Of course, the only price is that Victor will come to the door from time to time to express his generosity and care, but this has long been a habit for Steele, who is proficient in the aristocratic social circle. If the other party is good enough, she will also enjoy the feeling of driving and controlling the other party.

"Although these boats can run without wind, they are too simple after all." Victor poured a cup of black tea for himself, "I once boarded a paddle steamer and observed it carefully. It was not only noisy, but also very trembling. ...good for hauling cargo, but not a good choice for long-distance travel."

"Of course it won't be as comfortable as the Yongchun," Steele said with a chuckle, "but why do I feel like they appeared overnight? There were no such ships in the Western Territory before, right?"

"You're right, they just popped up overnight," Victor curled his lips, "I used to go to Longsong Fortress, where there are such weird things, after only one winter, they are everywhere gone."

Twenty or thirty paddle steamers built in one winter? Steele couldn't help being very surprised. As the heir of the Kant family, she naturally knew what this meant. Just because a big city needs to absorb a large amount of materials, its expansion is also limited by the transportation capacity of materials, and this kind of fast-produced sailless ship is obviously an excellent tool for expanding the transportation capacity-if the energy sources continue to feed food and When the goods arrive in the western region, the expansion speed of Neverwinter may far exceed people's imagination!

As for the noise and tremors? That's not worth mentioning at all.

"By the way, Miss Conrad, don't worry about those unsightly stone boats. I have something more interesting here, which may help you pass the boring time." Victor summoned the maid beside her and whispered in her ear After whispering a few words, the latter nodded, turned and left the room.

"What is it?"

"Things that can match your beauty," he said proudly, "are also my old profession."

The maid quickly returned to the poop and brought a rather exquisite book, Victor spread it out in front of Steele, "Which one do you like?"

On the parchment, there are many patterns of bright spar beautifully drawn. The brushwork is delicate, the color is bright, and even the transparent luster jumps on the paper. It is obvious that the artist who drew the album is very good at this.

"Is this... a gemstone?"

"To be precise, they are rough gemstones." Victor explained carefully, "When I bought them, I determined the price according to the standards in the catalog. Compared with carved and polished jewelry, rough stones have a different flavor... If you If you are interested in which type of rough stone, please tell me. Of course, if you prefer finished products, I can also ask a jeweler to make ornaments for you after returning to the capital."

With no new tricks, Steele flipped through the picture book and handed it back to him, "Thanks, no need."

Victor took the book in surprise, "Are you not interested in these?"

"My relatives are still missing, so I really don't want to choose these luxurious gifts, please forgive me." Steele said in a low voice. If you agree here, you will be entangled by him when you arrive in Neverwinter, which is not conducive to your next actions. Although most women would be overwhelmed by these glittering gadgets, she would rather admire the steam engine that drives the paddle steamer, which has real value than the jewelry that only circulated among the nobles.

...

Not long after Victor left, a series of long beeps suddenly came from the bow of the ship, one after another, thick and low... as if a huge fleet was leaving the port.

Steele looked sideways and saw the beige pier line slowly unfolding in front of her.