Not a Servant of the South, but King of the North
At my declaration, Mother let out a heavy sigh, as though the words had summoned the North's grim reality — a people held by the throat in the South's grain hostage game.
"It's easy enough to say that... but do you actually have a realistic way to solve the food problem?"
Her sunken voice carried years of worry, and beneath it, a quiet thread of hope.
I answered in a voice that was calm, but unyielding.
"We'll import grain from the Western Continent."
Mother shook her head with a hollow laugh.
"The Western Continent... Caelus, do you have any idea how far that is? It takes half a year by land alone. Bringing grain from a place that distant wouldn't just cost a fortune — it would all rot to nothing before it even arrived."
"It's only far because you'd have to go the long way around by land."
Even as her words brimmed with concern, I answered with easy composure, and she looked at me with a questioning gaze.
I met her eyes squarely.
"We'll use the sea."
"The sea? You know as well as I do that the western waters are too violent to navigate."
"The reason navigation has been impossible until now is simply that no one knew a safe sea route existed. ...Which is why we must pioneer a new sea route."
A new sea route.
At those words, Mother froze, unable to conceal her shock.
Near the original story's ending, Elysia pioneers a new sea route to the Western Continent and monopolizes its spices, treasures, and exotic luxuries, amassing enormous wealth.
Such luxury trade would certainly help the family's finances — but what mattered more to me now was the Western Continent's food. It was a land so abundant it was called a paradise, and in that plenty it held enough grain to feed not only the North, but the entire Empire, and still have stores to spare.
Mother's pupils trembled with shock. She barely recovered her composure, and asked in a still-unbelieving, trembling voice.
"A new sea route... Are you certain, Caelus? Are you truly saying there's a safe passage through those savage waters?"
At her desperate question, I drew from my pocket the ancient relic I had recovered from the dungeon — the Lunar Orbit Mirror — and set it quietly on the table.
"This is...!"
It was a magi-tool she had never seen in her life, but as a daughter of the Berlien Marquisate — a house steeped in magi-engineering for generations — she seemed to recognize the Lunar Orbit Mirror's extraordinary value at a glance.
"That's right. It's a Lunar Orbit Mirror, forged with ancient magi-technology and recovered from a northern dungeon. It captures the flow and distortion of space to calculate safe routes. It predicts weather anomalies — gales, storms — and it can pinpoint ley line currents and dimensional rifts with precision."
Mother froze in astonishment at the relic's capabilities, which exceeded anything she could have expected. Then, in a trembling voice, she pointed out the practical reality.
"Even if this relic can find a safe route... the Grand Ducal House has no sailing ships capable of crossing the open ocean. And that doesn't eliminate the sea's own risks — the marine monsters, among other things."
"I'm aware. That's precisely why I wanted to speak with you alone."
I looked her straight in the eye and spoke in a low voice.
"We join hands with the Berlien Marquisate and borrow their finest magi-vessels. They'll be reluctant to hand over their ships, wary of the risk — so we offer this Lunar Orbit Mirror as collateral."
If the Lunar Orbit Mirror fell into the Marquisate's hands, they would analyze the ancient magi-technology from every angle and apply it to their magi-weapons. That, too, would work in our favor.
As the meaning of my proposal sank in, a violent ripple passed through Mother's clear gray eyes.
"My own brother... your uncle would recognize this relic's true worth immediately."
Mother fell silent for a moment, calculating in her mind the shockwaves this enormous gamble would send through the entire Empire.
This was not merely about escaping the South's grain hostage game. It meant seizing a massive stake that would shake the Empire's political and economic landscape to its foundations.
I met her gaze again and laid out the concrete plan.
"Once we've led the fleet out, confirmed the route is safe, and returned, we demand an imperial charter from the Court — in exchange for shouldering, on the Empire's behalf, the burden of suppressing marine monsters and maintaining the sea route. We demand twenty years of exclusive trading rights with the Western Continent."
Looking at Mother, I added:
"Even after subtracting the share we'd owe the Imperial Court and the heavy taxes, it would still be a deal that puts enormous wealth in our hands."
Mother was briefly speechless at my thorough calculations, then fired off a sharp question.
"Then why aren't you trying to monopolize this enormous opportunity? Why split it with the Berlien Marquisate?"
"Needing to use the western ports is part of it, but more than that..."
In a voice gone cold and still, I revealed my true purpose.
"In exchange for sharing the exclusive trading rights with the Marquisate, we demand they supply the Grand Ducal House, in full force, with magi-weapons designed specifically against monster waves. Because a monster wave far larger than the one two years ago could strike."
The instant the words two years ago and monster wave left my mouth, Mother's face went deathly pale.
She had grasped that this went beyond the pursuit of economic interest — that it was my cold resolve to prepare for a coming, catastrophic disaster.
As if remembering that day, grief welled in her eyes, and she spoke in a voice thick with sorrow.
"...The North's land is heartless. It always demands a cruel price. It takes my children's lives as payment, then offers up mana stones and ancient treasures from its bosom to be turned into gold. And now... it forces that same brutal bargain upon you as well."
Even at her words, heavy with desolate regret, I answered with resolve.
"I was prepared for this from the moment I took the heir's seat. Rather than watch tragedy repeat itself, I'll be the one to draw my sword first."
I met her gaze evenly and continued.
"The enemy doesn't lurk only in the North's bitter cold. With what this land has given us in payment... it's time we closed our fist around the South's throat."
At my words, a predatory light — the light of a northern hunter — entered Mother's eyes as well.
"Once grain from the Western Continent starts flooding into the Empire, the only blade the South ever wielded will be reduced to a lump of worthless scrap."
At that, Mother burst into laughter she couldn't hold back, as if the situation were deliciously satisfying.
"Ha, haha... There's a saying, isn't there? Northern mana stones, southern grain, western magi-tools, eastern herbs. The moment they lose food as a weapon, the southern nobles will be wandering around with empty coffers, reduced to begging. They'll have to take up as jesters, or crawl in as some other house's concubines, won't they?"
Mother wore a smile steeped in a pleasure she hadn't shown in a long time.
"The Imperial Court has been starving for a powerful counterweight to break the South's momentum, so they'll welcome this, if anything. While the monster waves laid waste to the North, the West, and the northern reaches of the East, the South alone never took a single blow — they monopolized the granaries and grew far too fat."
She laughed a few more times in satisfaction, then composed her expression and looked at me with a firm gaze.
"Very well. But before we persuade the head of House Berlien — your uncle — the first priority is to persuade your father and move in secret. We'll need the Grand Duke's administrative authority behind us if we're to keep everything perfectly hidden. I'll go back and make certain your father is convinced."
Then she ran her hand over the Lunar Orbit Mirror and added:
"I'll see to it that we not only open the new sea route, but bring in the magi-weapons you want without a hitch. There's no more certain means of holding back the tide of monsters."
At Mother's declaration, I quietly bowed my head.
"Thank you, Mother."
She left one last charge, her voice low and grave.
"Caelus, in a game this dangerous, a single mistake can mean death... Never forget that the South and the Grand Ducal House's enemies are desperate to take your head."
When I nodded deeply, she came quietly toward me and once more gently cupped my cheeks in both hands.
Mother looked at me with wet eyes full of tenderness, and whispered.
I quietly patted Elysia's back as she clung to me, weeping. It wasn't that I felt no pity for her, so brutally cast aside by Caelus.
But when I thought about it, that bastard had always despised and dismissed Elysia to an extreme. The one year, three years ago, when he'd suddenly treated her kindly — that had been the strange part.
Back then I'd been sick with worry that he might actually steal Elysia away. Now the situation was tilting overwhelmingly in my favor.
Xenon was on the verge of losing the Grand Ducal House's patronage after getting his tail caught, and Theodore was holed up in his dormitory, babbling nonsense from the shock of getting beaten by Caelus in the training hall.
I'd never imagined that I, a mere merchant guild master's son, would outstrip those high-status bastards. To think the chance to monopolize the young lady of House Florence — a core southern family — would fall into my lap this easily.
And yet, even as everything was going this well, a cold, unaccountable anxiety kept prodding at something deep in my chest.
Just what was making me this uneasy?
"You'll be all right. Everything is going to be fine, Lady Florence."
I forced the ominous premonition down as I said it, repeating the words like a man hypnotizing himself.