Chapter 22
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Translator: volt
Chapter: 22
Chapter Title: Craze
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Everyone in the banquet hall was frozen in shock at the current uproar.
It was like children tasting sugar for the first time—the queen and her most noble subjects were frantically scooping grapes into their hands, eyes nearly rolling back in ecstasy.
Swallowing sounds and murmurs of bewilderment grew louder from all around. The audience's curiosity and tension mounted.
"...We presented one bunch to Her Majesty the Queen as a gift, but there's one more bunch remaining here."
Walter Raleigh was not the kind of man to miss an opportunity like this.
The banquet hall had become the perfect sales floor.
Raleigh picked up the grape box and circled the hall, captivating everyone's gaze.
"Regrettably, we only have two bunches on hand right now, so for the remaining one, I'll have to detach them one by one and distribute..."
"W-Well, might I perhaps have a taste?"
"Ah! Of course, Baron! Come right over!"
With that, a bold young noble stepped forward slowly to Sir Raleigh and plucked off a single grape.
"So... transparent."
"It's huge and firm at the same time. Yet it won't be bothersome to eat."
"Pardon? What do you mean by that?"
"Just try it. You'll see."
"..."
The baron swallowed hard and took a small bite of the grape. His eyes widened briefly, then narrowed.
"D-Delicious..."
"And?"
"...Huh?"
The baron's eyes scanned the cross-section of the grape. Something essential was missing—something that should have been there.
He licked the remnants in his mouth with his tongue, searching for it.
Still nothing.
"S-Seeds... no... seeds..."
"What did you say? No seeds?"
"Is it a hothouse grape? Or..."
"No! This grape wasn't grown in a greenhouse! It's perfectly healthy, naturally cultivated."
Sir Raleigh raised the bunch high to quiet the murmurs rippling through the crowd.
"The wise foreigners who grow these delicious grapes have developed a way to make them seedless!
I haven't figured out if this variety naturally lacks seeds or if they use some special technique, but one thing is certain!"
The crowd buzzed.
People rushed forward eagerly to inspect the seedless grapes up close.
They split the grapes Raleigh handed them in half, rolled them in their mouths to verify—and sure enough, no seeds.
There were no seeds.
"Th-This isn't a product of nature! This is... this is the Lord's...!"
Thud.
Some fainted dead away, others screamed.
Some shed tears over the ecstatic flavor of the Shine Muscat, while others pulled out notebooks on the spot to scribble poetry.
"Behold, Your Majesty! Virginia is home to such wise neighbors, delectable fruits, precious treasures, and all manner of precious metals!
All of this is thanks to Your Majesty the Queen granting me the right to establish a colony in America, and thanks to the Lord who placed Your Majesty on England's throne! Hallelujah!"
"Hallelujah!"
"Hallelujah!"
Before long, the crowd—half-mad with excitement and fervor—fell completely under Raleigh's spell.
The Earl of Essex's thin voice was drowned out by the cheers.
Even those who usually despised Raleigh joined in the jubilation, all eyes turning expectantly to the queen.
The counterattack against Spain after the great victory at Gravelines had ended in defeat.
Now, with England's Grand Fleet in tatters and the war with Spain at a stalemate, the colony they'd thought a failure had been revived, bringing immense treasure.
It all felt like the Lord's blessing upon England amid its trials.
Everyone gathered here awaited the queen's reaction. Their eyes brimmed with anticipation.
"Your Majesty, how does this fruit taste?!"
As one unlucky noble who hadn't tasted it shouted, Elizabeth—recently regaining her senses—fixed her refocused gaze on Sir Raleigh and spoke.
"...A taste of heaven."
"..."
"They said it was fruit cultivated by angels? It was as if some selfless angel had plucked a handful from paradise and freely shared it with mortals on earth."
Substitute Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries for the angel, and it was roughly accurate. They could enjoy this fruit thanks to those people's benevolence and lax oversight.
Mr. Tatsu Hatoyama, the agriculture minister of the time, was surely smiling down from heaven on them all.
"Your Majesty."
The queen rose abruptly after finishing her words and asked Sir Raleigh.
"Sir?"
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"You said the name of this metal was aluminum. This beast pelt seems to be fox fur.
So, what is the name of this fruit?"
At her words, Sir Raleigh's lips curved into a smile. Smiling, he said.
"Shine... Muscat."
Shine Muscat.
Those two words rocked England.
"Oh, and one more thing.
Our colonists, alongside a powerful local ally, repelled the Spanish fleet. They've captured a galleon and are using it to defend the area."
"...!"
Raleigh's follow-up words as well.
Treasure...
And victory...!
In an instant, all of England erupted in festival cheers.
...
...
...
A few days had passed since that shocking Epiphany banquet.
"Huuuuh..."
Alone in her bedroom for the first time in ages, the queen clutched and released a ring gleaming with mysterious white light. The sturdy yet lightweight band now held her body heat, faintly steaming.
What is this thing?
Rumors swirled around this "it".
A cheap lump of metal whose value Raleigh had manipulated?
A white gold from the New World no one had ever seen before?
Orichalcum, said to have been used by the people of Atlantis in Plato's tales?
The first rumor was obviously spread by the Earl of Essex, Robert Devereux, and his father-in-law, Secretary of State Francis Walsingham. They wanted to devour Raleigh whole.
But so many had witnessed Raleigh's "gifts," and the queen herself was immensely pleased with them, so few believed it.
The believers were only Raleigh's political enemies, desperate to block his future fortunes.
The second rumor was one Raleigh himself was spreading. He flitted among London's influential merchants and nobles, displaying masterful showmanship.
Those who believed this were typically money-minded folk—specifically, those eyeing the wealth the new colony would bring.
They would all become Raleigh's investors and patrons.
The final rumor... was the most outlandish and romantic. It enchanted fools who stamped their feet and lost sleep over the vast empire and new civilization possibly lying across the Atlantic.
And the queen herself had spread that rumor.
Why?
"So... light."
Because she quite liked this "aluminum" ring.
She wanted it to become fashionable.
She wanted it to become a new form of wealth.
She wanted the value of the "aluminum" Raleigh had offered her to skyrocket.
She wanted any aluminum in the New World to outshine Spain's gold and silver. She wanted it to refill the coffers depleted by last year's naval defeat, even a little.
With such tangled thoughts, Elizabeth Tudor endlessly toyed with the eerie glow of the aluminum.
And.
Pop.
"Oh... oh...!"
She wanted to eat more of those grapes.
The New World had more of them...!
She crunched through the firm yet soft skin encasing the grape in one bite.
"Ohhh...!"
And savored supreme pleasure.
Not just from the taste.
The eternal deficits unfixable even by trade with Spain (=piracy).
And now, a new luxury good had appeared.
...A new luxury good from which immense taxes could be reaped!
She felt the same thrill as when she'd resolved to go to war with Spain.
An opportunity.
She could see money beyond those transparent grapes. New revenue to offset the court's massive expenditures.
And royal authority. Her image, trampling all nobles alike with the New World's wealth, standing tall.
A mere hundred-odd people couldn't have unearthed all that treasure. Surely a mighty local emperor capable of repelling Spain alongside them had helped.
A vast, wealthy foreign empire—even Spain, which had subjugated the Inca and Aztecs, couldn't conquer it.
Ally with them for even more wealth and power...!
Elizabeth glanced at the mirror.
The reflection was smiling unwittingly. A familiar smile.
The smile she'd flashed at the mirror when her half-sister and mortal enemy, Queen Mary, married the King of Spain and sowed the seeds of her downfall.
When she'd finally died and Elizabeth inherited the throne.
When she'd bathed in the blood of countless Catholics and seized a whole kingdom atop it.
An ambitious smile.
"They say he brought a mysterious metal."
"Rumor has it it's the legendary orichalcum."
"Harder than iron but far lighter, shines like silver without tarnishing like gold..."
"And that name—it's so mysterious... what they call it..."
Aluminum.
"Her Majesty the Queen appeared draped in the furs Sir Raleigh presented!"
"Good heavens, fox pelt prices are skyrocketing in London right alongside it..."
"Even the supply from Scotland can't keep up with demand!"
All manner of furs.
"Have you seen the jewels Sir Raleigh brought from the New World? Processed in ways no one's ever seen!"
"That many corals and pearls... did they ransack the ocean floor?"
"Foreigners with more delicate hands than us Europeans... Trade with them, and we'd make a killing, right?"
"Sir Raleigh hit the jackpot."
All manner of jewels.
Every "spoils" Walter Raleigh had brought were shaking London—no, all of England.
Everyone who met Raleigh begged him to share some of the goods from the "Virginia Colony." Even his oldest enemies subtly wheedled for the new luxuries.
A new fad was being born.
John White's illustrations of the New World were printed as engravings and sold like hotcakes. Words from Thomas Harriot's Algonquin dictionary became fashionable greetings or magical incantations in high society.
Tattoo patterns etched by Croatoan and Roanoke colonists appeared as embroidery on clothes, and above all...
"Your Majesty, no matter how hard those New World savages try, they can't surpass our Sussex grapes..."
"They've surpassed them by miles. Walt? How many bunches of yours remain?"
"My esteemed Queen, five more bunches remain."
Shine Muscat.
Aside from the queen and her inner circle, only a handful had tasted it, and even fewer had gotten close enough to inspect it—a fruit shrouded in mystery.
"This fruit was cultivated directly by the noble 'local ally' revered by the savages, making it exceedingly precious and sweet.
Moreover, it promotes smooth digestion and has remarkable benefits for heart health!"
Raleigh fleshed out the fragmentary info John White had awkwardly provided about the "local ally," plus Nemo's relayed "benefits of Shine Muscat."
As a result, Shine Muscat became "the fruit of the gods that guarantees longevity" and "grapes whose heavenly flavor lead one to the Garden of Eden," the talk of everywhere.
And...
"...A taste of heaven? Well, not wrong."
Queen Elizabeth's single remark sealed it all.
Moreover, she still wore her ruby-inlaid aluminum ring and dazzling aluminum earrings.
New World fox furs draped her shoulders, wolf pelts from the New World carpeted the floor, and corals from the New World adorned the court everywhere.
The queen was personally promoting the colonial venture.
All these signs fueled the craze for "imitations."
England's foxes were nearly extinct from overhunting, grapes were impossible to find unsold, and prices for platinum and silver—vaguely similar to aluminum—soared to the heavens.
Yet all those substitutes fell far short of quenching England's thirst.
They all shouted.
"Sir Raleigh! Please! Send more fleets to the colony!"
"Walter, just one aluminum ornament—one! I'll trade it for ten times its weight in gold!"
And Sir Raleigh...
"...Loans?"
"Approved."
"Excellent!"
"If you don't repay this, you'll have to sell your earldom and everything?"
"If you don't spend it now, you'll regret it for life?"
...Was drawing in souls themselves.
Any ordinary person would focus on fetching the accumulated goods from the new colony by now. After such a windfall, cashing out sensibly is normal human psychology.
But Sir Raleigh was different.
He was a man with a beast's heart.
The kind who wormed into England's power core on the queen's favor alone, with nothing else—then prayed not to get caught sleeping with her lady-in-waiting.
When his held coins rose tenfold, he'd mortgage his own organs to pour in more investment, waiting for a hundredfold.
That was Sir Raleigh.
That boldness was his charm, and that charm had elevated him from ruined gentry to the queen's favorite.
Walter Raleigh immediately began buying up every milk cow across England. Some 237 head in total.
Once he'd gathered enough livestock for a large ranch, Raleigh pressed ahead without hesitation.
The "Virginia Trading Company" was established, and under its name, new ships were commissioned.
Several cargo ships capable of carrying hundreds of livestock and goods were newly purchased and built.
And once the cargo ships were ready, Raleigh wasted no more time.
"Thomas! Thomas Harriot! What did I tell you? I said it would work!"
"...Y-Yeah, it actually worked."
"Hurry up and go. Aren't these the livestock our Governor John White needs to pioneer the new colony?!"
He crossed the Atlantic at once.
Meanwhile, the Virginia Trading Company he'd left behind saw hundreds, thousands of able-bodied men flooding in to apply for settlement rights.
But almost none actually received approval.
Only technicians with families; everyone else was rejected.
It was the condition Raleigh had agreed with White.
...And what White had been ordered by Nemo to enforce.
Raleigh never suspected he was being moved by that "noble local ally."