Slavery wasn’t illegal in the Rockwell Kingdom, but there were strict rules about how it was implemented.

Put in the simplest terms, only criminals or captured enemy soldiers could become slaves.

Each slave had to be registered with the Ministry of Law, and after serving whatever sentence they had been given for their crimes, assuming they were still alive and they had not committed any further offences, slaves could earn back their freedom.

One could not sell a family member into slavery, and owing a debt alone was not enough of a reason to force someone into becoming a slave.

Of course, the actual situation was far, far more complicated than that.

Families that couldn’t afford to feed their children in times of famine often ’gave up’ some of them to ’well-meaning individuals’ who would ’employ’ them.

People with very heavy debts often had to sign ’work contracts’ that made them slaves in everything but name.

Then, there was the issue about what rights slaves had, and the status of any children they might have.

Despite all this, it wasn’t inaccurate to say that no innocent citizen of good standing in the Rockwell Kingdom could ’legally’ be taken as a slave.

Lucas was still appalled when he learned about the slavery system in the kingdom, his disgust largely related to his inherited memories, but he also understood that this was a deeply rooted problem that couldn’t be fixed overnight.

"Are the slaves being smuggled into the kingdom, or out of it?" Lucas asked sternly, trying to speak in a calm and compose tone.

"Both," Lester Randolph answered, his brow knitting tightly, "What exactly those slaves are being used for, we still have no clue. All we know is that it’s not just goods and money flowing across our borders illegally, it’s also people."

"I see," Lucas muttered grimly.

"Why haven’t I heard anything about this?" Vanessa asked pointedly, all the casualness having left her demeanor at the mention of human smuggling happening on the border of the kingdom.

"The Royal Council assigned the task of stopping the smuggling specifically to the Swift Current Legion," General Caldwell replied frankly, "The situation has gotten worse over the past few years, but it hasn’t reached a crisis point where a full-scale, nation-wide strategy is required; apparently."

Narrowing her eyes slightly, Vanessa reluctantly nodded and accepted this answer.

Although Oscar hadn’t said so explicitly, Vanessa could tell from the General’s subtly wording and slightly grim tone that noble and inter-army politics was involved in this.

Lucas also picked up on this point, but he didn’t ask for clarification as he knew he wouldn’t get any; instead, he sorted the information he was given and came to a conclusion, "So, the plan you came up with is to increase the number of ships patrolling the Lorren in order to cut off the problem before it crosses our borders?"

"That’s the idea, at least," Count Randolph sighed, shaking his head, "but we’re having some trouble increasing our shipyard capacity."

Pursing his lips, Lucas asked, "Is it a financial, logistical, or manpower issue?"

"All three, actually," General Caldwell admitted somewhat awkwardly.

"All three?" Lucas’ brow twitched, realizing now that the problem was actually much bigger than he anticipated.

Instinctually rubbing his temples, Lucas let out a sigh and decided to tackle things one step at a time, "Would it be right to assume your interest in the Moore Family is because you don’t have enough shipwrights?"

"En," General Caldwell nodded, "We have sufficient interest from unskilled labour in the city, as the jobs at the shipyards tend to pay higher than average wages, but a lot of specialized tasks require people with real experience and knowhow."

"Do you have some kind of school or apprenticeship program to train new craftsmen?" Lucas asked, though he wasn’t feeling very hopeful.

Just as expected, the Count shook his head, "No, most of the skilled shipwrights use a Master-Disciple system to train the next generation."

"Even though this is a military operation?" Lucas face scrunched up, not even bothering to hide his frustration.

"It can’t be helped," Vanessa sighed, patting the boy on the head, "Not only is this method the traditional one, it also ensures that the master shipwrights maintain their position. None of them is willing to share their knowledge freely, and even if one were to do so, the others would move to stop them."

"Haaa..." Lucas let out a sigh. He had run into similar problems when dealing with the craftsmen in Redwood Town, and again in Herald City.

It seemed that even in small towns or crumbling cities, those who earned their living from their specialized skills didn’t like sharing their knowledge with others, fearing competition and loss of profit.

This situation was particularly pronounced in Iron Rock, where Lucas had spent a great deal of time, effort, and money trying to convince some of the blacksmiths there to form a cooperative venture.

Originally, Lucas had wanted to set up something similar to a factory to develop and produce his farming machines, but that had proven to be a futile effort.

Old rivalries, suspicions, and simple greed had prevented the older smiths from cooperating with one another, eventually forcing Lucas to resort to more coercive means to get things done.

Even with the full authority of Count Carlson and Marquess Balfour behind him, though, Lucas had barely managed to get a group of 10 semi-retired blacksmiths in the same room to start jointly researching how to manufacture the seed drill, harvester, and thresher.

Needless to say, encountering the same problem here in Falcon’s Bend brought Lucas nothing but headaches.

"Can you not order the shipwrights to share their techniques?" Lucas grumbled, though he already knew the answer.

"If that were possible, we would already have done so," General Caldwell sighed, "If it was an emergency situation, it might be possible, but it hasn’t reached that point yet."

Pursing his lips, Lucas mulled over the situation for a while before suggesting, "Perhaps we can focus on specialization instead."

"Specialization?" Lester cocked his head to the side, "What do you mean?"

"Find the master shipwright who is best at making keels, and have him and his workshop focus entirely on making those," Lucas explained, "Then find the one best at making masts, and have his or her yard produce those."

"I see," General Caldwell was quick to catch on, "Instead of having each of the shipyards build complete ships, we have them do what they’re best and fastest at, then assemble the ships at a central location."

"That would certainly be more efficient," Count Randolph acknowledged, but then frowned, "However, how do we ensure that each of the individual parts will fit together properly? Who do we assign to actually build the final ships? And how do we fairly split the remuneration once the ships are completed?"

"I’m not familiar with the personnel here, so I can’t help with most of those issues," Lucas shook his head, "But if it’s just about making sure individually manufactured components are compatible with one another, I can provide standardized measurement tools that should solve that problem."

"Interesting..." Count Randolph began stroking his well-trimmed beard, "If we follow your suggestion, we can increase production volume without having to increase the number of skilled craftsmen. Even if the increase is only 10%, it might just be enough to cover our current needs."

"It would also reduce our need to physically expand the docks," Oscar Caldwell commented, "If the current shipyards can be made more efficient, then we may not even need to add more dockyards."

"En, finding space and putting up frames certainly wastes a lot of time and money," Lester Randolph agreed.

"Wait wait wait," Lucas interrupted, "What do you mean ’finding space’ and ’putting up frames’ wastes time and money?"

""Hm?"" Both the Count and General turned to Lucas, wondering what he was talking about.

"Before you build a new ship, you needed to clear a space and put up the frames for it. That requires a lot of digging, setting up scaffolding, compacting wet sand, and clearing hard rock from the bay’s beaches," Oscar replied as if it were perfectly obvious.

"Huh? You mean, you don’t have reusable dry docks?" Lucas gawked, dumbfounded by what he was hearing.

"Reusable dry docks?" Count Randolph chuckled, "How would you even do that? Once you flood the dock, it’s pretty much ruined."

For a time, both sides stared at each other, like they were speaking two different languages, unable to understand why they weren’t able to get their message across.

It was only after a couple minutes of back-and-forth like this that Lucas realized he had a big misunderstanding about the ship-building industry in the Rockwell Kingdom.

Face-palming himself, Lucas added another item to the ever-growing list of things he needed to do.

It would take some time to build a truly reusable dry dock, one with proper equipment like mobile cranes and efficient drainage systems, but for now, he could at least improve the situation in Falcon’s Bend, "Please take me to see the shipyards tomorrow, then I’ll make further recommendations."

"Alright," Lester and Oscar agreed easily.

"That just leaves the financial issues," Lucas muttered, "Did the Royal Council not allocate additional funds to increase the production of ships?"

Upon hearing this question, both the burly Count and skinny General narrowed their eyes towards Lucas, a slight accusatory look appearing on their faces.

Seeing this look, Lucas was confused for a moment before realizing what the problem was, "Ah... en, right, the Council is probably... a bit strapped for cash at the moment."

"Hmph," General Caldwell snorted, "What was the final bill for that outrageous stunt Celestina pulled? 20 million Gold? 30? More?"

Scratching his cheek awkwardly, Lucas averted his eyes as he weakly defended, "It’s not like we wanted to spend that much. Things just kind of worked out like that."