Chapter 132 — The Story Hidden From You (3)
The Count sat with Grünent, the Corrections Officer, the Finance Officer, and Baron Grabe.
"A human other than Lady Grünent... That human... is. Is he... a guest of His Majesty?"
Seeing two humans seated in the council room, the Count stammered out her question.
"Mm. He is an advisor to the trading company. He comes from Arteala."
"Ah! The envoy who brought the grain last time!"
The Count lowered her guard at once.
Roan suppressed a laugh inwardly.
This reaction was probably akin to a human's first response upon seeing a demon, minus the terror.
"I heard that you once smuggled goods with Merde and Arteala. Before the war, the volume of that trade alone was enough to make Dos wealthy."
"Yes. That it was."
Having taken her seat at some point, the Count affirmed the Emperor's words.
"Restoring trade with Merde will not be easy for the time being. However, Arteala trades with Perielle and Kihan."
Once Roan finished speaking, Grünent and Baron Grabe added their explanations.
"If we conduct trade through Arteala, there is also no risk of them suffering retaliation from Merde. Merde is currently in a ceasefire with us, and they no longer have a pretext to attack them."
"With luck, you could even secure a good supply of Merde's goods."
Goods changed the relationships between people.
It was not for nothing that North Korea cracked down and forbade its people from watching South Korean media.
Even Korea had clamped down on foreign goods in much older times. Because if foreign culture entered Korea, the regime of the day would be exposed for how closed-off it truly was.
This was a fact I picked up listening to my boss, who had held a high position, recount his old smuggling tales every time he drank.
If demons freely use human goods,
and humans come into contact with exports from the demon nation,
wouldn't the distance between hearts shrink by that much?
"This will not be a bad story for you. The advantages of trading with humans are fairly numerous. In particular, you can receive investment for areas rich in resources where mining has yet to begin."
"Yes... If a little more time passes, I suppose that is true."
To the Count, whose voice was fading as though lost in deep thought, Roan said,
"The opportunity you created for Evirgio, ironically, will be hard-pressed to reach the North White Territory. There is almost no land suitable for farming in the North White Territory, after all. But plenty of other methods exist. I would be pleased if you spoke with these people and formulated a rough trade plan before returning to Dos."
As the Count nodded while listening to the Emperor, Grünent and Baron Grabe, as if they had been waiting, slid documents forward.
A plan to establish a branch of the GDI Trading Company.
A list of goods and resources desired by people in Arteala, Perielle, and Kihan that could be procured or developed in the North White Territory.
A training proposal for demons in the North White Territory who wish to operate trading companies in port cities besides the GDI Trading Company.
And even a scheme to dispatch humans from Basel who are skilled in trade and fishing.
When reports were suddenly stacked before my eyes, I would see spots. But the Count,
perhaps because she was a mage, seemed strong with things written on paper.
Having grasped the contents with a speed that earned the admiration of everyone seated, the Count participated in the meeting with her own earnest dedication.
"I have selected the human goods—especially those we can reliably bring in from Arteala—that the demon folk might find popular."
When Grünent offered the list,
the Count skimmed through the long list in an instant.
"Hm. They are mostly high-priced items, but unfortunately, they are things difficult to mass-produce with us demons' technology!"
"Yes. Especially since Arteala's magic tools are renowned."
"Hmm. And so, is the GDI Trading Company planning to handle all of these?"
To the Count's wary question, Baron Grabe, seated upright, replied.
"Our primary objective is to establish a GDI Trading Company branch in Dos, Count. While our highest priority is returning as much profit as possible to His Majesty, should His Majesty approve, how would you feel about us granting you exclusive handling rights to some of these items in the North White Territory?"
"Naturally, we would pay separately for the use of the port facilities and the taxes, Count."
Baron Grabe, who had initially reacted with disbelief, asking 'How can all profits possibly be returned in the Emperor's name?', seemed by now to have grown familiar with leveraging Roan's name.
"Hmm..."
The Count's expression was not a bad one.
The actual adjustments were, in any case, tasks to be handled by the North White Territory's officials, starting with the Count's secretary.
For the Count, it was enough to simply chart the course the North White Territory should follow in the future.
Though the words were simple,
if a state-run trading company entered the territory, an array of tremendously difficult matters would become entangled: from conflicts with the trading companies already established in the North White Territory, to species-related issues arising from the dispatch of humans, and problems concerning the redistribution of resources.
Since the GDI Trading Company and Shwikviena understood that a decision could not be reached immediately,
today's goal was for Roan to convey the future direction of development he looked forward to in the North White Territory.
"Certainly, the more contact with humans increases, the more Dos's importance will rise, ahat!"
The Count wagged her tail gently, as if proud.
"My children will once again get to shine, after so long!"
"Children...?"
When Grünent tilted her head and asked, Shwikviena smiled and answered in her stead.
"The facilities invented by the Count are the pride of Dos Port."
"Oh, was it you, Count, who personally created those remarkable things?"
Baron Grabe burst out in admiration.
Ah. Right. He must have passed directly through Dos Port when bringing grain from Arteala.
As people appeared who recognized her creations, the Count, who already held high pride in her own magic, squared her shoulders even more.
"I thought it was a breakwater, but it moved across the sea and glided right up to us! Usually, docking a ship in unfamiliar shallow waters takes time, but without any of that, we simply lowered the cargo from the ship's rail, and it loaded and transported the goods to the wharf by itself."
I had heard simple explanations in reports, but a specific first-hand account was new.
Roan, too, was lending an ear to the Baron's words.
"Loading the grain at Arteala took an entire day. No matter how large a dock is, there are only so many berths for a merchant ship of that size. And there are limits to the weight people can carry. Yet there was no such waste of time at all."
"Ufufu, the Baron truly recognizes the value of my invention."
The Count seemed immensely satisfied.
Her tail moved slowly left and right, and a small, rumbling purr could be heard from her throat.
"I would be honored if, during my stay in Dos, you would grant me the opportunity to acquire insight into your other inventions, Count."
"I should at least do that much for someone who will be educating the people of Dos."
The perfectly normal remarks coming from the Count's mouth were astonishing.
However much of a wreck of a personality she might be, she could never have risen to the position of a great lord without playing at least this level of politics.
Baron Grabe would be assisting in establishing a GDI Trading Company branch in Dos and training demons. And after finishing his long business trip, he planned to return to Arteala to commence full-scale trade with us.
"I do find it dissatisfying that the only things we can send out from the territory are resources."
When the Count grumbled, the Corrections Officer spoke soothingly.
"For now, that is the case not only in the North White Territory but here in Basel as well. Even with the same materials, there are products where we produce superior results, and others where humans do better. But we can gradually absorb their techniques, Count."
She had already been working with humans for several months.
Considering the atmosphere within the castle at the very beginning, when humans had been seen only as sex slaves or food, this was indeed a tremendous step forward.
Though initially the focus had been on teaching demon techniques to humans, they were now also passing knowledge to demons who wished to learn skills from humans in certain professions. Fields where physical traits were not the primary factor—like pharmacy, commerce, or accounting skills.
The Corrections Officer had now become tolerant enough to accept skilled humans as teachers for demons.
"So you absolutely must instruct them well, Count. I will also convey this to the North White Territory's chief secretary, but initially, it is not easy to soothe the demons' backlash and get them to accept humans."
"Mm. Understood, Correction Officer!"
Shwikviena still felt dizzy every time she recalled that troll who had defied the Emperor in the past. That troll had been punished with a lifetime of confinement within the castle and was now working alongside humans in the laundry grounds.
Had His Majesty not shown clemency back then,
the sight now seen across Basel—humans working alongside demons, mixing and learning each other's skills—would never have come to pass.
A sight the people of the capital were gradually growing accustomed to. Perhaps the day would come when humans could be glimpsed, little by little, in the other great cities as well.
'Now that I'm used to it, I don't dislike it.'
Humans were dexterous and quick-witted. When such people were enemies, they were a headache; but as colleagues working together, that became a strength.
In the end, the meeting grew so heated that they even connected to the secretary stationed in Dos via magic orb, and after it concluded,
with everyone drained and half-slumped in their chairs, the Count alone looked at the Emperor—still brimming with vitality—and muttered as if exhausted.
"You are remarkable... Your Majesty."
"You ought to exercise as well."
"...I must use that time to read books and conduct research. I am a mage, Your Majesty."
"You need stamina to do that, too."
It was a nagging remark mages commonly heard.
With a fed-up expression, the Count let out a sigh that teetered on the edge of insolence, then smiled as she spoke.
"Honestly, this is the first time since my business with those pirates long ago that I have conversed this much with humans. It wears me out."
"...Wasn't that interrogation, rather than conversation?"
"Eum. I might have wanted it to be a conversation?"
The Count answered with a beaming smile.
Beside her, a flinch from Shwikviena, who knew the substance of those events, could be felt.
"At any rate, to think there are this many humans even within the palace, and that some among them are, moreover, entrusted with work so elevated they come and go from the small council chamber. I had heard there were many humans in the Imperial Palace of Basel, but not to this degree. Ahahat."
"How was it?"
Though Grünent and the Baron were beside him, Roan paid no mind as he asked the Count for her impressions.
Grünent and Baron Grabe were people who worked entangled with demons as much as Diobe did.
They had seen people more ill-mannered, and more dangerous, than the Count.
What they felt was not a sense of threat but curiosity. They were hearing the sentiments of a high-ranking noble, indeed the single highest of the great lords, among the demonkind.
"Hm..."
After picking her words, the Count smiled brightly and answered.
"It was nothing special!"
The Baron's eyes widened, but when he saw that neither Roan's nor Grünent's faces had contorted, he breathed an inward sigh of relief.
As Roan seemed to wait for a slightly more concrete sentiment, the Count added an elaboration.
"The humans I had seen before were either frantic to take my life, ended up as cannon fodder because of it, or died cursing me. That was about it."
Having spoken these dreadful words as casually as anything, the Count observed Grünent and the Baron with her narrow eyes.
It was the very look she wore when regarding a subject that piqued her interest.
"Yet, as I also felt with Helen... when it actually came to working with them, they were not particularly different from us demons! Though of course, the fact that my body has a similar shape to a human might also lend a certain affinity!"
"I am glad that is what you felt, Count."
Grünent smiled brightly.
"Frankly, I cannot vouch for what other demons will think! Lady Grünent. Dos was originally a smuggling port. Though it is more accustomed to humans than other Evirgio cities, it will still be different from this Basel, don't you think?"
"That is precisely why your protection of our trading company is desperately needed, Count. I look forward to working with you."
As she said that, Grünent whispered a sales pitch.
"I will take a bit more care with what I promised to do for you, yes?"
"Oh, if Lady Grünent says so, ahat☆ I must naturally lend my assistance!"
...It sounded like the stock line of a corrupt boss, swayed by something poked at them in the dark, agreeing to do something they really ought not to.
The Count beamed from ear to ear as she envisioned her right to experiment that she would obtain, while in contrast, Roan's face darkened slightly.
"Well then, shall we conclude the meeting with this? How fortuitous. To be able to see a conclusion reached before I depart."
"Huh? Your Majesty, where are you going? My important experiments are not yet complete, you know?"
To the Count's bewildered question, Roan answered in a tone utterly nonchalant, as if he were announcing a stroll to the next town over.
"Mm. I go to Raju tomorrow."