“I am truly delighted that you have all taken the time out of your busy schedules to join us today.”
A soirée hosted by First Princess Elena was being held in one of the Royal Capital’s guest houses.
The invitees included ambassadors from various countries residing in the Kingdom. From within the country, nobles of the Royalist Faction had eagerly added their names to the list.
The surrounding countries also had their own agendas. They scrutinized the Princess, seeking to assess her character and find flaws, considering issues such as tariffs and vested interests after the First Princess ascended to the throne.
Elena, aware of these gazes, regarded them coolly with a smile.
Relations with these neighboring countries should be handled with care. Among the invited foreign dignitaries, the important ones were the Calfaan Empire, a great power; the Ganzal United Kingdom, a trading nation; the Kingdom of Kanhar, to secure connections with the North; and the Fandora Theocracy, the headquarters of the Holy Church.
Of course, friendly relations with the surrounding neighboring countries were important, but due to various actions by the Aristocratic Faction, the disadvantages outweighed the benefits. In particular, the Aristocratic Faction’s import of a large amount of wheat from the Solhorse Kingdom had severely damaged the local agricultural industry.
However, Elena was even more angry with herself.
From the initial stages, without the cooperation of Melrose and Dandole, she had failed to eliminate the Crown Prince and his entourage. She had believed that a peaceful resolution could be achieved through political maneuvering alone. However, by the time she realized how thoughtless her opponents were, it had become difficult to politically remove them.
(…I never thought that those three months spent in the desert would be such a setback.)
The Evil Race’s plan to weaken the Kingdom by eliminating Princess Elena could be said to have been correct. However, Elena was angry that she had forced her important friend back into the shadows because of it.
Thanks to Mikhail’s manipulation of information, the disappearance of Aria, Princess Elena’s close aide, including the rumors of her death, had been accepted without much fuss.
Elena had hinted at the death rumors during her meetings with Elvan and Clara, and although the rumors originated from the Crown Prince’s faction, Aria should now be able to move more freely, as Elena had intended.
(…I will definitely get her back.)
The plan remains unchanged. Within the next few months, before Crown Prince Elvan graduates, she will gather evidence of the Crown Prince’s faction’s and the Saint’s misconduct that the people will accept. She will then summarize the benefits of her becoming queen and convey them to His Majesty the King, urging him to make a decision.
Considering the current situation, Elvan and the Saint cannot yet be eliminated. However, Elena understood that Aria had hidden herself to undermine their power from behind the scenes.
Elena resolved to create a foundation for Aria to return to the stage by the Magic Academy’s graduation party held at the Royal Castle in a few months. With a bright smile, she approached Hiram-sama, who was believed to have come from the Fandora Theocracy to certify the Saint, one of her objectives for the day.
“It is a pleasure to meet you for the first time, Hiram-sama.”
Haerlton Dukedom, located in the western part of the Kingdom of Claydale.
The Duke family boasts an old lineage that existed even before Dandole and Melrose, former duchies, became one with Claydale. However, currently, they only married off a princess to the royal family three generations ago, and their blood connection with the royal family is weak.
Originally, the Duke family should have been protecting the bloodline of the royal family, but the current Duke has little regard for that. They were merely one of the upper-class noble families with a faint presence, hidden behind the two great frontier lords who possessed both wealth and power.
Nevertheless, they took pride in their status as a Duke family, albeit in a twisted and arrogant way. Since the current Duke’s generation, they had been at odds with the royal family, which prioritized domestic demand.
Originally, the Haerlton Duke family existed to protect the Kingdom from the neighboring Solhorse Kingdom. However, the Duke ignored the royal family’s wishes and purchased a large amount of cheap wheat, distributing it within the Kingdom.
The Haerlton Duke’s faction had many territories with wetlands, where wheat did not grow well. Seafood could be caught from the vast lake, but the perishable seafood was only consumed within the territory, and even dried, it did not sell well in other territories.
They could harvest enough crops to prevent the people from starving, but even so, the Duke did not receive sufficient taxes from his vassals. A few years ago, the Duke himself attempted to subjugate a Mystic Beast that appeared along the border, in order to regain his authority. However, the Mystic Beast was repelled by some Adventurers, and his plan failed.
The Duke of Haerlton is also a noble of the Kingdom of Claydale. He does not wish to harm the Kingdom.
The Duke imports wheat from the Solhorse Kingdom to improve relations with the neighboring country, reduce military expenses along the border, and provide the people with sufficient food without having to buy the expensive wheat produced within the territory.
The Duke himself believes that he has done good deeds for his vassals and people. Although the amount of farmland has decreased, he believes that if he redirects the reduced number of soldiers to the development of specialty products, taxes will eventually increase.
Therefore, he came into conflict with the current royal family, which prioritized domestic demand and aimed to increase national power, and the Duke of Haerlton became a major noble in the Aristocratic Faction.
Certainly, the Duke’s policies do not harm anyone, as long as the neighboring country has no ambitions…
Within the Haerlton Dukedom, there was a trading company that had risen to prominence about twenty years ago.
The Herman Company. They dealt in food and daily necessities, and in particular, the wheat imported from the neighboring Solhorse Kingdom was slightly inferior in quality to the wheat brought in from within the territory or other territories, but by selling wheat that was more than 30% cheaper than before, they gained the trust of the people. Over the past twenty years, they had become known as a large trading company with more than eighty stores in over ten territories.
However, even the wheat from the Solhorse Kingdom was not that cheap. Considering expenses such as transportation costs, they should have barely made a profit, if not incurred a loss. So, where did the Herman Company get its profits from?
“Baron, I’m afraid that’s not possible. You were the one who asked us to buy the wheat, weren’t you? We can’t raise the purchase price this year, you know?”
“…B-but, Zel-dono, at this rate, the people will starve. Can’t you do something about it?”
Baron Kelly, a vassal of the Duke of Haerlton, was facing one of the foremen of the Herman Company in the drawing room of his mansion.
Since the Herman Company started selling cheap wheat, no trading company would buy the wheat produced in the Kelly Barony, and he had to lower the price.
The trading company that had been in the barony until then needed to purchase the wheat at 60% of the previous price in order to make a profit, and that trading company had been doing its best due to their long-standing relationship, but as the wheat stopped selling, even the survival of the trading company became difficult, and they withdrew from the barony.
Currently, 60% of the stores handling food in the Kelly Barony are under the umbrella of the Herman Company, and the Baron had no choice but to sell wheat to the Herman Company at a low price.
“Then, Baron, why don’t you reduce wheat production and sell timber like other territories? Our company will provide loans to villages that need initial investment.”
“…Timber is common around here. I don’t know if I can repay the money even if I borrow it…”
“If you give us some leeway in that area, our company will somehow manage it, you know?”
Zel looked back at the sofa behind him, and seeing the guard-like Adventurer who nodded with a mask-like smile, the Baron quietly exhaled.
Before, they could have lived if they didn’t indulge in luxuries. Even now, if they restored food production to its original state and called back the trading companies that had moved elsewhere, they could live the same life as before.
However, as long as the Herman Company, which was invited by the Duke of Haerlton, was present, the wheat would not sell, and the Baron, who could not drive them out, could only nod.
In some farming villages, wheat production was reduced and they switched to forestry, but as Baron Kelly feared, the common timber did not sell easily. In one village, as a result, they were unable to repay the borrowed money and sold the entire village to the Herman Company as serfs.
In the Kingdom of Claydale, slaves without human rights are illegal, but serfs are legal.
However, the Herman Company exploited this loophole in the law, moving entire young families with high productivity to other places to make a profit, while at the same time reducing the Kingdom’s productivity.
Whether it was dangerous coal mine development or brothels, it was legal in the Solhorse Kingdom.
“Are you alright? It’s just a little further to the next town.”
“Yeah.”
A man in his twenties, carrying minimal luggage, was leading his young wife along the night road, relying only on the faint moonlight.
In their village, it had been decided that the entire village would become serfs by the Herman Company that had come to mediate. The villagers, who did not know how to live apart from the village where they were born, had resigned themselves to it. However, the villager happened to overhear the Herman Company’s guards talking about how many young farmers they could take to the Solhorse Kingdom as slaves. Still newly married, he fled that night with his childhood friend wife to protect her.
But–
“This is troublesome. If young ones escape, our reward decreases.”
“What!?”
The man who suddenly appeared in the path was an Adventurer guarding the Herman Company.
As the village man tried to pull his wife back, embracing her shoulder, two more men, seemingly Adventurer companions, appeared from behind.
“W-Why are you chasing us!? We haven’t signed the serf contract yet!”
“Well… I’m not telling you to go back to the village, so we’ll just take you along as you are. Just give up.”
“What…?”
At the Adventurer’s sneering words, the village man pulled out a hatchet used for logging, as if to protect his wife behind him.
The guards were Rank 3 Adventurers from the Solhorse Kingdom, hired from the homeland. Of course, they didn’t intend to lose to peasants, but judging that it would be difficult to capture a cornered peasant, who at least had brute strength, without taking damage, the first Adventurer sighed wearily.
“This is a pain… Fine, then. We’ll just take the woman, so kill the man.”
The men who came from behind laughed uproariously at those words.
“Guh…”
“Darling…”
As the village man groaned and his wife clung to his back, the first Adventurer, looking annoyed, drew the longsword from his back.
“Jeez, can’t you understand the difference in ability? Don’t resist too much, okay? It’ll be a pain if the woman gets hurt.”
“Someone!”
“No one’s coming! Enough already—”
—At that moment, the sound of a “beast” roaring in the distance reached the ears of everyone present.
Not the sound of wolves or Goblins. The first Adventurer frowned at the roar, which suggested a more terrifying carnivore, and one of the Adventurers behind the couple noticed something and turned around. The next moment, a huge black Shadow swept past the two Adventurers from the side as if snatching them away.
“What…”
As the first Adventurer muttered in astonishment at his suddenly vanished companions, that Adventurer also noticed “something” and swung his longsword sideways as if turning around.
There stood a small figure, like a child or a girl, clad in a plain coat.
He didn’t know who it was, but they couldn’t dodge at this timing. The Adventurer, who knew his own abilities better than anyone else, able to unleash a deadly blow instantly without hesitation, had a faint smile on his lips—at the moment—
“What…”
That figure accurately deflected the flat of the blade swung at her neck upwards with her right palm, and grabbed the jaw of the astonished man with her left hand, snapping it sideways.
“—!?”
He couldn’t understand what had been done to him in an instant. It was beyond the scope of his ability to understand.
The Adventurer, realizing that his neck had been snapped without much force, thanks to skill and timing, not just brute strength, collapsed backward, and in his dying moments, looked up at the “Pink-Haired Girl” looking down at him with cold eyes hidden by her hood.
“Don’t make noise at night.”
The man suddenly understood. As a result of overestimating his own strength and making a racket in this forest at night, he had summoned such a terrifying “monster of the night”—
Aria arrived in the west.
But there, there was the Shadow of the neighboring Solhorse Kingdom behind the Aristocratic Faction.
Next time, Solhorse Kingdom
I thought about counting Aria’s kill count when I started writing, but I gave up halfway through.