Ludwig looked at the ceiling, his eyes blurry.
If one looked at him directly, one would instantly understand this expression – it was the expression of having failed an investment but not knowing how!
'The players… there are really none?' he asked as he looked at the panel in front of him.
This was the game panel of [Divine Gate], the game he played in his previous life – there was endless content to explore and even he, a veteran player, was only able to check out a few side quests while following the main story line.
He saw three tabs, [Stats], [Path] and [NPC]. In the game, there was no NPC tab.
Instead, there were several tabs like Friends, Chat, Guild, Missions, Inventory... but now, these were all gone and only an NPC tab was added.
When he reincarnated, he thought he went back in time to the start of the game.
With his knowledge that went up to the Fourth Disaster, including the few trailers and announcements of the Fifth Disaster, he thought for sure that he would become one of the Main NPC's!
These NPC's all had one thing in common – they had key roles in the main story line and had huge influence even beyond the disaster they participated in.
Who wouldn't want to become a huge boss who was written down in history?
With this spirit, Ludwig prepared many things for new players – basic equipment of the three early professions "Warrior", "Mage" and "Ranger" – he would have prepared for the fourth basic profession "Priest", but he didn't dare to overstep his authority with the church.
He also mass-copied introduction books of the world, with many personal teasers of future professions, paths and other interesting things to bait players!
In addition, he also specially rebuilt his own family's Manor outside the capital into a training ground and living space for players, able to accommodate over a thousand players at the same time!
The panel in front of him even had a countdown and number of players, making him believe these players would enter the game without a doubt –
[Players descend in: 00:00:00] – [Number of Players: 0]
It was at the bottom of the NPC tab, but over the past month, not only did the number not change, instead, the text gradually became translucent and seemed to dissipate!
How could he not panic?
Not moving at all, he asked in a low voice "How much gold did we invest into Plan New World?"
A deep voice came from the side – it was an old man in a butler's uniform, he was holding a stack of papers, answering after looking at the big number on the front page "A total of 55.782 gold coins, my Lord."
"How are our remaining finances?"
While the butler was looking through the papers, Ludwig's eyes became a bit darker.
The butler didn't look through them because he needed to, in fact, the butler knew everything and could answer directly.
Instead, the butler who watched his young Lord grow up, gave his Lord some time to calm his nerves.
Ludwig also knew why – in this world, a simple farmer, the lowest earning commoner, usually earned ten silver coins a year. Considering that one meal a day cost around a copper coin, a single farmer could live well if he used all his money on himself.
Ten coins a year, this meant that the money he spent in preparation for the players was the earning of a farmer if he worked for 557.800 years without spending a single coin!
The butler continued when he saw his Lord remaining calm "Our savings have been depleted, and we are still ten thousand gold coins in debt.
Every year, we gain a thousand gold coins from the Grandis Royal Court, five hundred gold coins from the Argentum Holy Church and five hundred gold coins from the Arcane Wizard Tower.
In addition, for the contribution to the Arcane Manifestation Path, the Arcane Wizard Tower pays a thousand gold coins every year to the Talos family.
Our yearly expenses are two thousand five hundred gold coins – one thousand for all matters of the manor, one thousand for the magic laboratory, and five hundred for the Lord to spend…"
Ludwig's brows were knitted tightly. With the flood of memories upon his grandfather's death, he connected everything and knew his family's background.
Three hundred years ago, his grandfather was part of the Arcane Wizard Tower's research on "Arcane Manifestation", having the position of the chief assistant of the researcher.
The goal of the research was to permanently manifest magic through the arcane path's superior control of mana. In the end, the research was successful and the Grandis Empire boomed, in just a few decades, it was able to use this technology in various parts.
Of course, war is the place where most technology ends up, and in this case, this technology was used to develop special cannonballs that contained spells. Once they hit, the respective spells would instantly activate, becoming a huge advancement in the empire's power.
At that time, the emperor wanted to reward the researchers generously, especially the main researcher.
The researcher already had the noble title of Count, with this reward, he was granted a higher title, Marquis.
This advancement was huge, so naturally, the rewards of others were a little less.
Of course no one complained, as the researcher rewarded the assistants in his own way.
Ludwig's grandfather was granted the title Court Viscount – nobles with the suffix "court" don't have any fiefdom, but they work for the court directly, usually have official positions and are paid by the court.
Many viscounts find it difficult to gain an official position, but court nobles can take one at any time – this is because they are treated like the right- and left-hand men of the royal family.
Rather than giving a noble who has his own fiefdom and strength more power, it's better to give power to the weak to make them loyal workers.
"Do we really only have these three incomes?"
"Young lord, these indeed are the whole income.
But while the income is little, our property is superb!
With this residence assigned by the royal family, the magic laboratory in the Arcane Wizard Tower and lastly the manor outside the capital, we do indeed rank among the upper middle class of nobility!"
"What about this? We have a single year to pay back 10.000 gold coins! Do you intend to waste my inheritance and sell these properties just to pay back?!" Ludwig became annoyed.
"No, my lord-"
"Alright, I know you mean well. Bran, it's just, you know how things are…"