Frankenstein and the few other wealthy nobles standing there were the ones who owned massively fertile lands. These exact guys were the ones who basically supplied all the raw vegetables and grains to everyone in the area through trade.
And Frankenstein was the main one who did most of the supplying stuff because he had the most amount of fertile farming land collectively when compared to everyone else in the location. In this particular region, basically, the sheer amount of agricultural land that he held was in fact slightly higher than everyone else combined.
Of course, only if Adrian ignored the amount of Land that Vaneria had but that territory wasn’t under her name anymore so it didn’t matter anyway.
Frankenstein just silently stared at Adrian as he immediately thought up of everything that this offer actually meant.
Currently, the daily meal for everyone in the army was just a pretty simple, disgusting gruel. It mostly used cheap grains and a little bit of salt and dirty water. And he basically just used some of the vegetables that were about to spoil from his warehouses just to keep the hungry soldiers from rioting.
But if Adrian was going to mass cook for everyone daily, and he was offering to pay for the raw ingredients himself with Oresfall’s gold?
This only meant one thing.
And that was pure profits.
And Frankenstein was absolutely not going to let a golden mine like this easily go to someone else. And the other greedy nobles had the exact same similar thoughts running through their heads.
Frankenstein, of course, was the very first one to speak out. He immediately smiled warmly at Adrian, while hypocritically ignoring everything that happened in the past between them.
"Well! I have zero objections to this! I can sell you all of the raw ingredients that you want at standard market price if you truly wish to cook for everyone."
Adrian just looked at him.
"Well. That is..."
And exactly at that moment, another noble quickly came up and he took a single, confident step forward to interrupt.
"I can easily sell you all the stuff you need for an eighty percent market price! Anything you want, Baron!"
Adrian smiled smoothly as he quickly glanced at Frankenstein’s twitching face before he went back to the new noble.
This man looked pretty handsome. Like, he looked above average for a noble. He had great, toned muscles and he naturally had this sort of righteous, knight like aura to him. He also was well-built, totally unlike Frankenstein who looked like he had been completely ignoring his training for more than a decade.
Adrian looked at him.
"You must be..." he paused, waiting for an introduction.
The guy bowed slightly. "Viscount Balan, my lord."
Adrian nodded and smiled warmly.
"Yes, Viscount Balan. I’ve actually heard a few things about you. You are very generous...I didn’t expect that kind offer."
Balan had this sort of slight, proud blush on his face, but he eagerly took the compliment. He accepted it, and he nodded.
"Thank you, my lord."
And he immediately paused and he just thought to himself internally.
’Wait. Why did I just naturally call him my lord? He is just a Baron. But... no. This man has terrifying potential and based on everything that I’ve heard, he has already beaten up Frankenstein who is right beside me and is a Count... in a duel. So it is better to respectfully bow my head in front of him right now before he becomes too big. This way he definitely won’t forget me and I can hug his thigh to secure my family’s future.’
Adrian also easily noticed this slip of the tongue, and so did the other nobles, and they just quickly glanced at Balan. Some did their own calculations in their minds, wondering why he was acting so subservient, and some already came to a conclusion on what this man was thinking.
And Adrian also had a similar thought, but he honestly didn’t care. If there is someone who is eagerly giving something to him for cheap, then he’s obviously going to gladly accept it.
But of course, there is always someone else who offers for even lower.
The rat-faced man immediately offered too. He put his hand around Balan’s shoulder, pushed him aside slightly, and he smirked.
"Baron Adrian! Why don’t you just buy it all from me instead? I’ll do a crisp seventy percent!"
And this rat-faced man immediately, just with that seventy percent offer, kind of inadvertently started a massive bidding auction. The other nobles instantly started offering even lower prices to secure the gold.
The reason was pretty simple. Vegetables spoiled and gold didin’t.
But of course, it wasn’t in massive ten percent drops anymore. It was more like one percent, two percent petty drops.
And at the very end of the whole thing, Frankenstein, who did not want to be beat by the other lesser nobles, stepped forward and offered an insanely huge discount.
"Fifty percent! I will sell you everything you need at fifty percent market value!"
And before anyone else could offer less, Adrian quickly pointed a finger directly at Frankenstein.
"Deal."
He grinned. And then he looked at the other disappointed nobles.
"I don’t expect you to offer me for lower than this. But I would happily accept it if you all sell your stock to me for fifty percent too."
Everyone immediately nodded, eager to get a piece of the pie.
Adrian chuckled inwardly as he kept his eyes strictly on Frankenstein.
’I’m gonna absolutely love this trade,’ he thought.
He glanced around at everyone and clapped his hands together.
"Now that we officially have our verbal deal, I hope you don’t go back on it."
He crossed his arms.
"But coming to the main topic. How exactly are you going to give me all of the ingredients that I want? Your territories are pretty far away from this camp."
The nobles looked at each other and shrugged.
"Well," Frankenstein said, "if you tell us the exact numbers right now, we can immediately send our fast riders to get the ingredients moving. We do currently have some stock sitting in the camp’s storage, which is just a temporarily constructed wooden warehouse. But I doubt that it is going to be enough for what you have planned."