23. I Became the Finance Director of a Kingdom on the Brink of Civil War
23. I Became the Finance Director of a Kingdom on the Brink of Civil War
I'd succeeded in persuading the Chairwoman. Whether you could actually call it persuasion was debatable, but in any case.
The result was that I'd gotten permission, so good was good.
Of course, I had no intention of using the name Adam Caines on this trip. Naturally, I went under an alias—not as the Finance Director, but as a salt merchant accompanying Beatrice to the Delphia Kingdom.
Though I did borrow the name of a certain red horse of heaven along the way.
'Screw spreading communism; let's just sell salt.'
In a world where a single high-rank individual could easily slaughter dozens or hundreds of lower ranks, I had my doubts whether communism was even possible in the first place.
At any rate, I had no designs on turning the Delphia Kingdom red or embarking on any expansionist ventures.
Still, since I'd taken the name Karl Marx, if I had to call anything communism, there was exactly one thing.
'The redistribution of wealth.'
I'll give you salt; you give me gold coins. That's redistribution, when you get down to it.
I watched General Karthea with a leisurely air as he studied the document listing my total salt inventory, his brow furrowed in thought.
'If he actually buys the whole lot, that's fine by me too.'
He probably wouldn't be able to. Even I could see the quantity was substantial.
Admittedly, the sack Susanne had lugged over in my stead—since I'm a measly 1st Rank—didn't look like much, but that thing was an artifact. One of several the Chairwoman had shoved into my hands and ordered me to take with me, no questions asked.
Spatial artifacts like this were indispensable for any merchant guild, but the one the Chairwoman had given me was a cut above even by those standards.
If you asked where she'd gotten it when she'd supposedly sold off all her artifacts—
'The dwarves are gods, and they are invincible.'
She'd summoned Tir, the acting mayor of the dwarven city, told him to hand it over, and he'd handed it right over.
It wasn't a gift, strictly speaking—more of a loan—but the fact that it was a no-cost loan said everything about the dwarves' perception of the Chairwoman as an overwhelming force.
She'd walked away with a whole assortment of artifacts besides. And I still had the "hidden card" she'd given me back when I first became Finance Director.
I'd crammed every last grain of salt I'd painstakingly produced into that sack artifact. Now that was what I called creative economics.
"...Well, that's a larger volume than I expected."
"A rock salt mine was recently brought back into operation. I've brought stock from that location."
"I see. With a quantity this large, and the quality having undergone Church purification... I'm afraid purchasing the entire lot is beyond me. You'll only accept gold coins, I take it?"
"As you say, I deal strictly in gold coin—no precious metals, no valuables, no artwork. I trust I don't need to explain why."
"Of course not."
It was true that precious metals, artwork, and the like were high-value relative to their bulk. The problem was that this was a country on the brink of civil war, and I was a merchant with no reputation to speak of.
High-value goods like jewels and art attracted forgeries in direct proportion to their value. Appraising them properly required an expert, and beyond that, you had to know exactly how much they were really worth.
If I were acting as Finance Director, I could have the faculty verify things in short order, but right now I was alone. Being the Fourth Princess and a high-Rank mage didn't automatically make you a skilled appraiser.
So the simplest and least stressful course was to take payment in Imperial gold coins. With a spatial artifact at my disposal, bulk wasn't much of a concern anyway.
For that matter, merchants generally preferred gold coin over illiquid, high-value goods, unless there were exceptional circumstances.
General Karthea nodded at this commonsense explanation, considered for a moment, then spread his fingers.
"I'll take twenty percent."
"That alone amounts to a considerable sum."
"I have enough gold coin for that much, so don't fret. I need it immediately, so let's conclude the transaction without delay."
He must have stashed away more gold than I'd figured. Plundering the countryside wouldn't have yielded much coin—the nobles would've fled with all of it.
In any case, as long as the money came in, that was all that mattered. Without further ado, I accepted the gold and transferred the salt into a separate sack for him.
During the handover, Karthea's eyes glinted at the sight of the sack artifact.
"That sack is a rather remarkable artifact. Not the sort of thing an ordinary salt merchant would be carrying around—especially not a 1st Rank."
"I've simply been fortunate."
"...Right. I'm sure you have."
One look at Karthea's face told me he'd have knocked me over the head and made off with the goods if I hadn't shown up with Beatrice. He reined in his avarice. He seemed to have caught on that I was deliberately concealing my identity.
An ordinary salt merchant, a 1st Rank at that, traveling alone was suspicious enough—and then toting a high-grade artifact on top of it?
I was fairly certain he'd concluded that my story about happening to meet Beatrice and joining her was a lie. But even so, well.
Whether he figured it out or not, I just had to sell my salt, renegotiate the bribery arrangements when I met Crown Prince Zeke, and then bring Beatrice back with me later.
If she were still the old Building Destroyer, I might've left her behind. But now she was a VIP client who delivered bribes on the regular. And I had a nagging feeling I'd regret it if I left her.
After wrapping up the clean deal, I stepped into the newly constructed barracks where Beatrice and Susanne were waiting.
"Your Highness, I've returned."
"You've worked hard. The soundproofing is done, so you can speak casually."
"How could I? Right now, I am not the Finance Director; I am merely a salt merchant."
"...You really are something."
Look behind me. See the look in Susanne's eyes?
She's giving me a glare that says, "Just try getting casual, and you'll be sorry." She even clicked her tongue at me just now.
When it was just the two of us, it was one thing, but now if I didn't mind my manners properly, I was liable to get an arm broken by a high-Rank maid.
'I have a pretty good guess why she's like that.'
She'd hauled that disgustingly heavy sack artifact here in my place, after all.
There was going to be plenty more heavy lifting in the days ahead, so keeping Susanne in a decent mood was the least I could do.
"...At any rate, Finance Director, I truly am grateful."
"Pardon?"
"You broke your promise to my brother, you persuaded the Chairwoman... You made it possible for me to come back. I'm deeply thankful."
"I'm turning a profit of my own in the bargain, so it's quite all right. That said, since I am a 1st Rank, I will be entrusting my protection to Your Highness."
"Don't worry! I'll protect you no matter what!"
Beatrice thumped her chest with conviction and nodded firmly. There was a fair bit of bounce with that thump—didn't that hurt?
A 1st Rank asking a 6th Rank for protection was the most natural thing in the world, so even Susanne didn't shoot me any dirty looks over it.
More importantly, maybe I'd work on the ledger.
'Salt sales are proceeding smoothly.'
I'd originally planned to sell the entire stock to Crown Prince Zeke if possible, but I'd never expected a border general like this to snap up twenty percent. A very welcome miscalculation.
A separate sack of gold, incidentally, also had to be carried by Susanne. I mean, I hadn't sold all the salt yet, so I couldn't very well shove gold coins into the same sack, could I?
...Now that I thought about it, was that why she kept glaring at me? Still, a frail 1st Rank like me couldn't exactly lug around sacks of salt or gold.
I decided to just brazen it out. If she had a problem, she could take it up with Beatrice.
'I left an illusion of myself back at the academy, so that should hold for a while.'
It was fortunate that the illusion artifact I'd commissioned from Equipment No. 2 had been finished faster than expected. I'd wondered if they were always produced that quickly, but thanks to the Chairwoman dropping by regularly to apply pressure—asking when it would be done—Equipment No. 2 had rushed to complete it, even at the cost of a grade demotion.
The trade-off in quality meant it wouldn't last terribly long, but I could just have another one made.
Since the illusion was good enough to evade even an Archbishop's notice, it would be effective for concealing my absence while keeping pressure on Milia and Equipment No. 1.
I'd asked the Chairwoman before leaving to take advantage of the illusion and spread some fake-lover rumors, but...
'She wouldn't actually kiss the illusion, right?'
I trusted her. Yeah. I really did. The Chairwoman had already shown me plenty of things, but surely she wasn't so far gone as to... I trusted her.
Truth be told, there wasn't much to write in the ledger that would take long, so I'd rather have used this time to produce more salt, but...
'...It's not working. Well, after that stunt I pulled, no wonder.'
No matter how hard I tried, no salt would form. To be precise, I'd used a bit of a workaround.
Since I was heading to sell salt in a country in the middle of a civil war, the more I had, the better, so I'd forced out a large quantity with the Chairwoman's help.
The plan itself had been sound: the Chairwoman infused my heart with ki, and I used that ki to generate salt.
But I'd produced a bit too much, apparently, and now no more salt would come out.
'It wasn't so much a loss of ability, she said—more like an advance payment, wasn't it?'
The fragment of the Holy Relic was still inside my heart. Rus and the Chairwoman had both confirmed that, so it was certain.
I seemed to recall her saying I'd need enough time to offset the salt I'd produced through that shortcut before I could make any more.
What is this, some kind of game? ...Well, I did end up inside a game, admittedly.
As a minor side effect, she'd also mentioned I wouldn't be able to use mana at all for a while, but since I was 1st Rank, I couldn't use it to begin with. Damn it all.
"Hm? Finance Director? Where are you going?"
"I'm stepping out for a brief stroll nearby. Would it be acceptable for Lady Susanne to accompany me?"
"Of course. Susanne? Escort the Finance Director properly."
"Understood."
Wasn't it awkward, being alone with Susanne right now? Not really?
We wouldn't exchange a single word with each other anyway, and I really did just mean to take a light walk around, so it was fine.
Awkwardness was something you stopped feeling when you were the one in the position of power.
"...A sudden stroll, is it?"
Oh, she spoke.
Well then, fine.
"Yes. A genuine stroll."
"..............."
If we were just going back to silence, why'd she ask?
Was it really a stroll? Of course not. I wasn't crazy enough to take a casual walk around a military encampment.
There was actually a separate matter to attend to while I was on my way to the Delphia Kingdom.
'Cardinal Leti mentioned that heretics were moving through the Delphia Kingdom.'
That "personal favor" I'd wrung out of Cardinal Leti back during the Kirke incident—I'd asked her to look into the Delphia Kingdom's civil war, and she'd delivered an excellent report.
Among the many pieces of information, the one that stood out was the intelligence on the heretics. Heretics who promised to grant wishes, no less.
Hearing that, it was obvious.
'The Wish Order.'
The Dark Sword was in Rus's hands now, and they'd lost their Holy Knights Commander in that academy-attack WWE. It was only natural that the Order, badly reeling, would set its sights on the Delphia Kingdom. A country on the verge of civil war, chaotic and ripe for infiltration and proselytizing.
To the Church, they were heretics, of course—and to the Delphia Kingdom, they were a malignant tumor. But to me, they made excellent collaborators.
I'd already made myself known to General Karthea, so I could move around the encampment freely. With any luck, I'd be able to pick up a lead right here...
"Hey, you sure this is how you do it?"
"I'm tellin' you it is! ...Probably."
"Quit your shit. One wrong move and the whole thing goes up, you know that? We don't got much supply of this stuff!"
"I know, so just hold still. You think I've ever used this before? This is military-grade—nasty stuff!"
What was that?
Soldiers sneaking around doing something was one thing, but something about this looked familiar.
...Huh?
"Huh?"
"Master... Marx?"
Huhhh...?
*
'...He's late.'
Alone in the barracks, inspecting an artifact, Beatrice lifted her head.
It had been an hour since the Finance Director and Susanne had stepped out for their stroll. If they were circling the entire encampment, maybe—but for a simple walk, it was taking far too long.
'I never thought it was just a stroll, of course.'
If it were something time-consuming, he would have given her a heads-up beforehand. The fact that he hadn't suggested he'd thought he could handle it quickly and return.
And yet an hour had passed, which struck her as odd.
'Aside from General Karthea, there's no one in this camp who could subdue Susanne without a sound. And General Karthea has been in his own barracks the whole time.'
She was tracking Karthea's position through a detection spell she'd left in the general's quarters. If it wasn't him, then no one here could overpower Susanne in an instant, and if someone had attacked, there should have been a commotion.
What in the world was going on? After a moment's deliberation, Beatrice stepped outside.
'Could he and Susanne be... what am I even thinking.'
Beatrice scoffed at herself for briefly falling into a strange delusion, then—still in a state of mana exhaustion—drew on the artifact's mana to cast a detection spell.
Using such magic openly in a military camp would normally risk discovery, but finding the Finance Director took priority right now.
A faintly agitated Beatrice located a familiar 1st Rank presence and hurried toward it.
"The efficient method is to tear the leaf along the vein like this to extract the juice. Properly, you'd refine it after that, but just soaking what's left of the leaf and then burning it will do."
"Whoaa...!!"
"The effect is way stronger this way!"
"To think a salt merchant would be so knowledgeable about our kingdom's tobacco..."
"I've had occasion to use it extensively."
"...This isn't civilian-grade; it's a military stimulant."
"Extensive occasion."
".........?"
Uhm.
Finance Director?