Lord of the Sky City

Chapter 19 - 19 - 18: Great Crisis

Chapter 19 – 18: Great Crisis

By the next day, Rocky had someone prepare a room in the City Lord’s Mansion early in the morning to serve as his own study.

Since he had the ability to draw First Level Magic Energy Runes, he naturally planned to devote his time to learning how to make them.

However, it was best to have a separate study for these kinds of activities. Fortunately, the City Lord’s Mansion had numerous rooms available, and it was just a matter of arranging one to be cleared out. Later on, the equipment scavenged from the re

These two matters seemed unrelated but were actually closely connected.

It was well known that the textile industry was the sole industry in Thunderhawk City, and the revenue from exported textiles was the only source of income; the use of this money was even more important as it was meant for buying food.

Thunderhawk City’s own food production was far from enough to feed everyone, and it was necessary to purchase additional food to meet the needs of the residents.

But now, as the price of yarn, a raw material, increased, the profit from exported textiles would decrease, naturally reducing the money available to buy food.

Perhaps some might wonder why not just increase the price of the textiles as well? If both were raised, wouldn’t it solve the problem?

This idea might sound reasonable, but that’s all it was—reasonable sounding; the actual situation was nowhere near that simple.

After all, the reason Thunderhawk City’s textiles were able to sell was because they were cheap!

In the skies, there were not just one but multiple cities producing textiles like Sky City, compared to which Thunderhawk City’s textiles were neither substantial in quantity nor quality. Their only advantage was the lower price, which attracted Chambers of Commerce to purchase in large quantities; but once Rocky raised the textile prices, no Chamber of Commerce would trade with them.

In this matter, Thunderhawk City utterly lacked bargaining power.

So, at the root of it all was the rising price of yarn.

Regarding the price increase of yarn, Aileen had already provided a reason: Canglang City was engaged in a war!

Canglang City, a large Sky City with a population of over one hundred thousand, housed the headquarters of the Azure Commerce Guild, which collaborated with Thunderhawk City.

The reason the Azure Commerce Guild could sell large quantities of yarn was because Canglang City produced a lot of cotton, which enabled the Guild to conduct yarn business.

But now, as Canglang City was at war, this would inevitably lead to a rise in local prices, and the Azure Commerce Guild would certainly seize the opportunity to increase the price of the yarn sold to Thunderhawk City.

And more importantly, Thunderhawk City not only needed to import yarn from the Azure Commerce Guild but also the food necessary for winter.

As the headquarters were located in Canglang City, a large Sky City, the Azure Commerce Guild could access a large amount of food; however, with the start of military conflicts, securing more food would become challenging, and the prices offered by the Azure Commerce Guild would rise as a result.

With the increase in yarn prices and the decline in textile income, not only would the money for food decrease, but the food prices might also surge significantly. Between the two, the pressure on Thunderhawk City was enormous!

Therefore, Aileen had urged Rocky to be prepared, because given Thunderhawk City’s current financial situation, it might be impossible to buy enough food for the winter, and if there was a food shortage, many people in the city would starve to death!

If such a situation truly arose, it would be a real crisis for Thunderhawk City, and as the City Lord, Rocky naturally had to be prepared to face this crisis.

In fact, Aileen had initially thought that Rocky wouldn’t be able to foresee such a far-reaching issue, considering the complexity and the non-obviousness of the connections. People with slow reactions or less capable minds would never think that a problem with yarn could trigger such a massive crisis, but Rocky indeed had thought of it, which was interesting.

Since Rocky now understood the severity of the situation, Aileen was very curious to know how, exactly, this City Lord planned to help Thunderhawk City get through this difficult time.

Yes, how exactly would Thunderhawk City overcome this difficult time? That was a question Rocky was also pondering.

At this moment, Rocky felt both helpless and powerless. The discovery of Mana Runes should have promised him a bright future, but before he had even mastered a single rune, Thunderhawk City was faced with such a big problem, and if not handled carefully, it could lead to serious chaos!

So, how exactly could Thunderhawk City overcome this difficult time? Rocky indeed was thinking hard…