After eating breakfast and playing with the baby for a bit, Ian headed toward the brewery.
The five permanent village chiefs of the Sibia River Archipelago had already been holding a meeting there. When they saw Ian arrive, all five of them looked extremely excited.
Ian immediately understood... these five guys probably never thought he would actually come, or at least not today.
They were simply trying with a just-in-case attitude, and seeing that made Ian speechless. Since he was already here, he might as well take a look.
But actually, there wasn't anything major going on.
It was basically about development matters of the Sibia River Archipelago, such as opening new plantations, expanding the scale of the brewery, or even whether they could adjust the product pricing, worried that selling it like this would ruin their brand.
Ian was confused. Why were they suddenly talking about adjusting the product price?
They have already built up the brand. Lowering the price themselves would ruin their own brand!
After listening to Village Chief Martin's explanation, Ian finally understood what was going on.
Originally, Sibia Green Grape Wine only had one tier. Later, due to raw material reasons, it was divided into a premium wine and an affordable wine, covering both civilians and the upper class.
However, for some mid-level people... For example, Marine officers ranked from Lieutenant to Captain, an elite mid-tier; they couldn't drink premium wine every day, but the cheap wine was too low-end and couldn't reflect their status.
Some time ago, Captain Enchi brought his fleet here, seemingly because he heard Ian had become a father and personally came to congratulate him.
However, Ian happened to not be on the island at that time, so Village Chief Martin received him instead. They even held a banquet especially to welcome Captain Enchi's fleet.
At the banquet, Captain Enchi and those Lieutenant-level officers complained that the premium wine was too expensive.
With their salary, they couldn't drink it every day!
They asked Village Chief Martin whether he could lower the price or give them a discount.
Although they were likely just joking around, Village Chief Martin and the others remembered it, so they specially asked Ian about it upon his return.
But lowering the price... Lower the price, my ass!
For Captain Enchi, he didn't need to worry about wine at all. The wine delivered to him every year was already enough for him to drink.
Most likely, his colleagues drank all his wine when they came over. That guy was just showing off!
Think about it, if the price were lowered, would those colleagues still come to him to drink? So, they shouldn't lower it; they should increase the price instead.
As for the mid-tier market... They did need to consider it. They might as well create a mid-tier product line, mainly targeted toward mid-level elites.
What? How to make a mid-tier wine?
How else? Anything works!
If nothing else, they could mix premium and affordable wines together, slap on a classy name, and call it done.
They could even brew a new wine.
To be honest, at this point, the taste of Sibia Green Grape Wine was no longer important.
Those so-called heroes on the sea only drink by gulping; how could they savor the taste carefully?
As long as it tasted like wine and had a bit of its own character, that was enough.
What mattered to powerful figures was status, the kind of status shown when both the Hero of the Marines and the Marine Headquarters' Chief Instructor say it tastes good.
After solving the issues regarding the brewery, the next matter was the construction on the Sibia River Archipelago.
During his absence, the archipelago had changed quite a lot. Not only had the population increased, but the roads were smoother, and many previously planned facilities were now completed, such as everyone's new houses.
However, because Ian hadn't returned, no one had moved into the new houses yet.
Also, that shabby metal-sheet tavern by the docks had been rebuilt.
Yesterday Robin told him it was apparently built very luxuriously.
It could be said that during his absence, the Sibia River Archipelago developed very well.
As for moving into the new houses, Ian didn't really care about that.
Although the archipelago was developing well and had shed its status as a poor island thanks to him, its geographical location was bad.
Not only was it within the jurisdiction of Marines 315th Branch, but it was also close to the Calm Belt.
Once the World Government discovered anything, the Marine Headquarters could send fleets directly into the Sibia River Archipelago through the Calm Belt.
By the time they noticed, it would probably be too late.
Therefore, if he didn't want to leave the West Blue and become a pirate, in his mind, the Sibia River Archipelago wasn't suitable as a base of operations.
If the World Government really launched a Buster Call, the villagers would have to relocate.
Otherwise, the warship's cannons wouldn't care whether they had researched history or not; if they associated with the Devil Child, they would all die.
Of course, he had already found a secret base. After the Capone Mafia Family was wiped out, Grado obtained most of their territory, so finding a suitable island to use as a base was easy.
This time, most of the profits from Skypiea were invested in building the new base.
So he didn't put much importance on construction at the Sibia River Archipelago.
After listening to a bit more, he left the matter to Village Chief Martin.
After leaving the brewery, he headed toward the plaza.
At this moment, the plaza had already been sealed off by Zephyr's fleet.
Various machines and documents seemed to have already arrived, and nothing more was being delivered through the sky.
After thinking for a moment, Ian had people find a hidden place to store everything temporarily.
When Kuma returned, they would move them somewhere else.
He didn't know what Wolf was thinking.
If Wolf refused to come, he would need to find another suitable scientist.
So for now, these things were unused. Oh, no, materials related to weapons... maybe the weapons workshop could use them.
Even if they couldn't fully understand the research, any progress or improvement would make the materials worthwhile.
The weapons workshop's technology was too outdated anyway; it's time to upgrade it.