Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 4 Hasby and Morsan

People always think about the benefits of habituality before doing things. Few people think about what to do if things don't go as good or as bad as he thinks...

So did Hasby and his father-in-law, the miller. In fact, the mill owner was not a bad idea, and he was kind enough to even say that converting a big red brick house into a premium hotel was a good idea for Hasby to tailor. It's just that they all forget the most important thing, that the social environment and economic foundations determine the success or failure of all business activities.

More than two years after the civil war in the Kingdom of Ovieras, Prince Calgart's armed forces began to prevail. The three counties in the south-west, which are behind them, are the basic battalions of the Prince, providing the Prince with constant supplies of weapons, food, weight and reserves. Under these circumstances, the entire three southwestern counties are heavily tasked with armament production, as is White Deer Town.

Because of the civil war, the depression in the kingdom, and the prince's aversion to the corrupt character of the aristocracy and officials of the territory, he advocated the thrift of putting an end to wasteful practices and all the slogans of fighting for the revival of the kingdom, so that it was simply impossible for the former aristocracy and officials to be treated in a more equal manner in the territory he occupied.

Even those officials who escorted heavy armaments to Bai Lu Town on their way forward preferred to stay in camp tents instead of spending several silver towers to visit the newly opened luxury hotel in Hasby...

So after three days of crowded watching, the Husband spent most of his property remodeling at the Fields Hotel, becoming a doorknob, and the idea of people coming to experience a luxurious aristocratic life, as the miller envisioned, became an empty word. Under these circumstances, Hasby, who has been suffering for four months, has had to dismiss the servants, cooks and waitresses hired, while transforming the hotel into an intermediate hotel and drastically reducing the price to accommodate traders and travellers, thus barely sustaining his life.

Another six months later, the news of Prince Calgart's victory came, and with Prince Sterling IX on the throne, comprehensive social, economic, administrative and military reform of the kingdom, the three southwestern counties slowly recovered from the consumption of war, the number of merchants and travellers through White Deer Town began to increase, and the business of the Fields Hotel finally improved.

At this point, Molly was pregnant, and after the October pregnancy, a healthy little boy was born, and Hasby named his son Morsan, and the Fields family had a successor.

Those were Hasby's happiest years, and he had a good career that could be passed down from generation to generation. He had a gracious wife and a lovely child, a life that the old farmer Hasby had never dreamed of.

When Morsan was four years old, Molly was pregnant again, and Hasby was happy to keep her mouth shut. But it didn't occur to me that Molly was pregnant with twins and had a major bleeding during childbirth, even though Hasby turned to the three temples in town for a painful begging for the blessing of the gods and gave away a great deal of money, but eventually Molly closed her eyes and the child couldn't save her, one corpse and three lives.

This tragedy broke Hasby's entire spirit. Since then, he has been drinking as much as he has. He has been gruesome all day. He no longer cares about the hotel. Even Little Morsan can't take care of him. Whoever persuades him not to listen, he only knows to fill his mouth with alcohol...

Likewise, the grieving miller took Little Morsan back to life with him, and Hasby, who had lost his grip and restraint, became a drunk, and soon after, the business-ridden Fields Hotel closed.

So Mr. Morsan had no respect or affection for his father. When he remembered, his mother disappeared, his father became an alcoholic, drunk all day long, and sometimes drunk madly smashed his family's things into chaos. He kept saying his mother's name in his mouth. This left the impression of fear in the young Morsan's heart. Fortunately, his grandfather, the miller, did not forget him and received him by his side, so he left the terrible big red brick house.

At the age of twelve, thanks to the educational reforms introduced by Sterling IX, civilian children could also attend newly established national public schools. His grandfather then sent him to the county city of Baromyse, where he became a boarding elementary student at the first national public elementary school just established in three southwestern counties.

And Hasby seems to have forgotten he has a son, and he never asks anything about Morsan, and Morsan's eight years of tuition and living in County City were paid for by the old miller for his grandson, which led to growing resentment against Morsan's father.

When Morsan was eighteen years old and preparing for his second grade in the country, his father, Hasby, died from drinking and getting drunk in a ditch, and was drowned by river water less than half a metre deep. Morsan was relieved to hear the news, as if he had removed a burden from his body.

After Hasby died, he left only the old red brick house, nothing else, and even owed the town a dozen silver taller liquor debts, which the old miller paid for his dead son-in-law.

After only three days off, Morsan arrived in White Deer Town to host his father's funeral and burial ceremony with the help of the old miller, and hastily returned to school to continue his studies without seeing the big red brick house.

Two years later, Morsan graduated from the country and was ready to stay in the county to find a job. But the old miller wrote him back.

When Morsan returned to Bai Lu Town, he discovered that the old miller was seriously ill and could not sleep.

The old miller wants to leave everything he has to Morsan, and maybe he thinks Morsan can become a qualified new miller.

The old miller, lying in bed, told Morsan the story of the big red brick house and Hasby getting it, saying how many people in town envied Hasby's good luck at the time.

Morsan asked Grandpa if he hated his father.

The old miller laughed, saying he had never resented Hasby, who became an alcoholic because Molly's death had hit him so hard that he would rather be drunk than face the reality of losing his wife and child. From that point of view, he didn't marry his daughter to the wrong person, and Molly had a husband who loved her very much.

After a while of silence, the old miller went on to say that perhaps Hasby's drowning was a relief to himself and to all those who sympathized with him. All we could do was to silently wish your father and mother a reunion in the heavens of the Moon God, where they would surely be very happy and well...

Two months later, the old miller died. At a time when everyone thought Morsan would take over the old mill, Morsan made an unexpected decision to sell the old mill to others and invest all his money in the alteration and renovation of the big old red brick house.

Morsan didn't want his son to take the fatherhood and reopen the Fields Hotel. The remodel was a radical change for a big red brick house, with no movement in appearance, but a completely different interior.

Morsan opened the far left suite four floors up and down, re-paved a staircase, and then walled the access to the suite and other suites into a separate four-story building as his own bedroom.

The other three suites and attic on the second and third floors of the big red brick house, Morsan simply converted one of the rooms in each suite into a kitchen, and the toilet and toilet were already in place without major changes. He then unplugged the plumbing, connected the tap pipes and decorated each room very neatly and concisely, so that he had six suites and three lofts suitable for his home.

As for the first floor, Morsan asked for the gate to be demolished and the red brick wall replaced with a floor-to-ceiling glass window. Except for the stairway access to the second floor, the rest were converted into two large, one small, three separate commercial shops.

After the renovation was completed, Morsan began to rent his own house and shop in White Deer Town, a move that shook up the whole town, and no one expected Morsan to convert the town's most famous big red brick house into a commercial dual-use apartment.

Twenty-one years after Prince Calgart became Prince Sterling IX, the comprehensive reform of the Kingdom under his auspices had shown results. The kingdom of Ovilas has become a powerful and unnegligible country on the Farea continent, a regional dominion in the eastern part of the continent, after the great triumph of its enemies, the Nasserli kingdom, for thousands of miles and the annexation of the Principality of Berkeley.

Trading within the Kingdom is developed, the people live in peace, handicrafts and mining are very flourishing, a thriving scene. Located at the crossroads of three counties in the southwest, White Deer Town, the frequent business trips and pedestrians also make it very lively.

From the point of view of the fact that Morsan's shops and apartments were immediately looted and rented, Morsan was more savvy than his father and grandfather, and every step of the way was extremely steady and realistic. The conversion of large red brick houses into shops and apartment rentals has not only provided him with a long-term and stable income, guaranteed living expenses and daily expenses, but also avoided the cost and operational difficulties of opening hotels.

Twenty years later, Mr. Morsan was proud to speak of his decision at the time, saying that whether running the old mill or reopening the Fields Hotel, he was nothing more than a small miller in town or a hotel owner, unable to improve his social status. That's why he came up with this method of devoting himself to public office without worries.

Just as people in town envied Morsan for a carefree life, Morsan was looking for an administrative clerk in White Deer Town. As the first graduate of a national public school established in three southwestern counties, Morsan successfully applied for the position, even as a civilian.

The most important of the social reforms of the Kingdom undertaken by Sterling IX was the enactment of the Quadripartite Rights and Interests Act. Artificially, the inhabitants of the kingdom are divided into four classes: nobility, national, civilian and civilian.

Educated people must look farther than uneducated people. After most people in town were satisfied with their civilian status and thanked the King for lifting most of the restrictions on civilian status imposed by labour, Morsan's eyes focused on national identity. He hoped to take advantage of the Eastwind of the Quadri-Class Interests Act to improve his social status as a Kingdom official and gain political rights…