The Billionaire Lord
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Leo turns residents into daily gold, buys dragonkin Talia, and forges iron from dead mines. Edwin storms in—but the three-month, 10,000-population gamble decides everything.
Modern engineer Leo wakes in the body of a magicless noble exiled to a barren frontier. The ultimate lord system gives him one gold coin per resident per day. The territory has just over six hundred residents, an empty granary, no tax revenue, and people ready to leave. If the population does not reach ten thousand in three months, he loses the land and is forced into a marriage he does not want.
Leo abolishes taxes for three years, promises food and paid work, and starts rebuilding roads, walls, and homes. Residents stop leaving. He buys food in bulk and then buys Talia, a dragonkin girl and his personal guard, for four hundred gold. She has seventh-tier combat ability and a massive appetite. He feeds her meat instead of bread.
The "magicless waste" mines turn out to hold anthracite, hematite, sulfur, and saltpeter. Leo builds a furnace and produces molten iron without a high-ranking fire mage. The iron can reinforce walls, repair houses, and forge tools, armor, and weapons. Gunpowder and cannons become a matter of time.
Edwin, second young master of House Aure and Leo's scheming half brother, arrives with House Aerys heavy cavalry and demands the treasure he believes Leo found. Edwin threatens to send hundreds of starving refugees gathered at Stone Slope into the territory. Leo's response is the turn: "Bring every one of those refugees here right now."
The refugees come for food, but Leo offers work instead. A contract promises food, housing, and wages paid at the end of each day. They sign on. The population passes one thousand, then seven thousand. The system's daily gold rises from six hundred to one thousand twenty-five and later more than seven thousand.
With money and workers, Leo pushes heavy industry. The simple structures rise, but precision manufacturing is beyond his blacksmiths. A suggestion about the dwarves points Leo north. There is a dwarven tribe renowned for forging, born craftsmen who make the empire's finest magitech clocks.
Leo prepares a carriage with plenty of gold and heads for Blackstone Valley. The steel empire is still only beginning.
