Creating the Trade Route
"I'm sorry, Landor."
Inside the dazzling carriage heading down to Elond Barony, Karia sniffled and apologized to me over and over.
"If only I had spoken up more... if I had been more assertive, we could still be in the capital right now."
"It's all right, Your Highness. Coming to Elond Barony was entirely my own choice."
At my words, the princess looked at me with a puzzled expression.
"I intend to build a tunnel there. A tunnel that will pierce through the Raco Mountains and connect the western and eastern continents. With that, we will create a trade route and make the empire prosperous."
"Ah... so that's what it was. Elond. That's wonderful."
The squinty-eyed man who, before my possession, would have worn a wicked grin while plotting schemes had suddenly changed his tune and declared he would make the empire prosperous. Yet Karia, the princess, seemed to detect nothing strange about it.
Just how strong had the gaslighting and brainwashing become?
No matter what I did, she would surely smile and agree without question. She felt like an easy-to-handle subordinate, yet at the same time I felt a fresh pang of pity for the past that had turned Karia this dependent.
"Just watch. I will create a world where everyone smiles. For myself. And for you."
It was little more than a tearful, desperate performance meant to escape the horrific ending of being quartered in the square, but Karia seemed to take it as something deeply romantic.
"Landor... I love you. I love you, Landor."
Overcome with emotion, she pressed a passionate kiss against me with tears in her eyes.
And unfortunately, she did not stop there.
"Your Highness, wait! Just a moment!"
My pleas went unheard.
Fortunately, the luxurious royal carriage had enough cushioning to withstand the beastly lovemaking of the two without letting anyone outside guess what was happening inside.
During the two weeks it took to reach Elond Barony, I was taken at least twenty times and had to step out of the carriage in a near-zombie state.
One word was enough to describe Elond Barony.
Ruins.
Bleak, skeletal buildings that looked as though no one had lived in them for decades still stood, proving that people had once been here. It made sense. What reason would anyone have to gather in a place like this?
Behind it rose the terrifyingly tall and rugged peaks of the Raco Mountains, wrapped in blizzards and howling with sharp winds.
It was as if they were threatening to kill anyone who dared enter.
A place with no benefits, only mountains of danger. That was the true nature of Elond Barony.
"We have arrived."
The generals of the Iron Blood Coalition reported respectfully, though their expressions were clearly uncomfortable.
It was understandable. They had just returned victorious from war and thought they might finally rest in the capital, only to be sent straight to a place not much different from the northern Limnakal Plains where they had fought, now tasked with battling monsters again. Who would be happy about that?
Most of the soldiers did not voice their complaints out of loyalty to Karia, but their faces were deeply furrowed.
The only ones who looked pleased were the northern nomads, whose exotic appearances clearly set them apart from the other imperial soldiers.
"Snow! Cold! The cries of reindeer and the roars of monsters! Hahaha! It reminds me of my destroyed homeland!"
Some even shed tears and kissed the ground.
These were the northern nomads who had lived peacefully on the Limnakal Plains, herding sheep and reindeer, until monsters suddenly multiplied and took most of their homeland.
Unable to live in their ruined home, they had joined the Iron Blood Coalition during its monster subjugation campaign in exchange for the right to live in the empire.
They had fought on the front lines for two years, achieved great merits, and received imperial citizenship. Even now they remained in the Iron Blood Coalition, captivated by Karia's powerful leadership and martial prowess.
In the original story, they would meet a tragic end, slaughtering the most citizens during the ugly war that broke out in the capital before perishing gloriously.
And now, of all people, they would become the key figures in the construction of the Raco Mountains tunnel.
On the first day after arrival, after selecting the sturdiest remaining buildings to set up temporary lodgings, I immediately summoned the leader of the northern nomads.
"I am Tamir Khan. You called for me."
The tall man, standing at 180 centimeters with sharp eyes, looked straight at me as he spoke. He did not view me favorably. His loyalty was directed solely at Karia.
His gaze was rude, but I had no intention of blaming him for it.
Northern nomads. While the eastern continent was famous for magic and the western for sorcery, the northern nomads were the world's greatest spirit mages, second only to the elves who secluded themselves in the World Tree Forest.
They specialized in a field slightly different from magic. And the ones the Iron Blood Coalition commanded were the very best who had survived two years of brutal bloodshed.
"Would you take a look at this map?"
I took out the detailed map of the Raco Mountains, one of the many items the emperor had prepared for me, and held it out to Tamir Khan. I had already marked several locations on the map that countless adventurers had completed at the cost of their lives.
"I've marked nine spots. I'll be direct. Can you dig tunnels through these places?"
The nine locations were the most feasible places to open tunnels even within the rugged Raco Mountains. Some were areas of red soil that had frozen solid but would be easy to dig once thawed, while others required only clearing a few rocks to create a passage.
Tamir Khan looked at the map, then placed his hand on the ground and quietly closed his eyes. It was an abrupt action, but I simply let him do it.
Tamir Khan was known as the greatest earth spirit mage in history.
Having the earth spirit observe the marked locations on the map was nothing to him.
A moment later, he opened his eyes.
"Remarkable. All nine spots are indeed places that can be dug through relatively easily. How did you know their locations?"
How did I know?
They were the very passages the western continent had dug when it began invading the eastern continent.
Not long after Landor completely made Karia his own, the emperor would fall.
An ugly war was about to break out, but a tragic incident delayed it. An army from the western continent invaded through tunnels dug in the Raco Mountains. Sultan Saladin of the western continent, mad with conquest, used those passages to swiftly occupy most of the western regions of the Ailam Empire.
Prince Adran, the protagonist of the original story known as the Prince of Gold, requested that the Iron Blood Coalition, the empire's strongest force, suppress the invasion. But with the emperor already fallen, Landor judged there was no need to do the empire any favors and refused. In the end, Adran and Duke Pelling had no choice but to gather their own forces and march to save the empire.
They won the war, but both Duke Pelling and Prince Adran's factions suffered heavy losses and were weakened. Then, when another war broke out on top of an already difficult life, the common people could endure no more and rebelled. That rebellion grew until it became the ugly war.
'Those nine tunnels Sultan Saladin dug for the invasion of the eastern continent. If I simply connect them, a passage linking the western and eastern continents will be complete.'
Because the novel had described these locations in considerable detail, I had been able to locate and mark all nine spots on the detailed map of the Raco Mountains without difficulty.
"Can you build tunnels and roads there?"
"It's easy."
Tamir Khan answered with a confident smile, as if it were nothing. I knew very well that he was not exaggerating. The construction ability of spirit mages was on an entirely different level.
During the ugly war, when Prince Adran cleverly destroyed part of a castle wall, these were the beings who had immediately gathered earth to build a new wall in less than an hour.
'Now, let's think. There are three reasons why building tunnels through the Raco Mountains is difficult. Transporting large equipment to this treacherous region is hard, the bitter cold, and the rampaging monsters.'
But if spirit mages handled the work, those three disadvantages would effectively disappear.
They could simply command spirits to reshape the terrain, so heavy machinery was unnecessary.
The cold? These people came from the Limnakal Plains in the north, which boasted even harsher cold than here. Monsters? With the firepower of the Iron Blood Coalition present, they could annihilate every monster in the Raco Mountains three times over. With them, opening the passages would require little effort.
"Good. Then go and build tunnels at those nine locations. How long will it take?"
"If we hadn't known these nine spots, it would have taken nearly half a year just to find feasible locations. But since we already know where they are, the work is far too easy. Three months will be more than enough."
"Make the tunnels wide enough for ten carriages to pass through at once."
Tamir Khan blinked at my words.
"Of course, we can do that if you wish. But why do we need such a large passage?"
At that, I smiled and suddenly stood up.
Karia, who had been inside the temporary lodgings, along with her generals and Tamir Khan, all turned their attention to my dramatic action.
"If the western and eastern continents want to trade, they have no choice but to use sea routes, and that journey takes a month by ship. During that month, the goods rot from the sea's terrible moisture. Anyone with even a little education knows this fact."
"Is that so?"
The empire's generals and Karia, all nobles who had received education, nodded at my words, but Tamir Khan, who had lived on the Limnakal Plains, could not even read. He nodded with a curious expression.
"Yes. The goods spoil. The western continent produces all sorts of spices, silk, perfumes, and other rare specialties that the eastern continent lacks. Yet less than ten percent of those goods can be transported by sea. Most of the products from the western continent cannot withstand the sea's moisture and rot aboard the ships."
"I see."
I showed him the detailed map of the Raco Mountains.
I traced the nine tunnels I had marked, connecting them in a line.
"If my calculations are correct, this trade route will be about thirteen kilometers long in total. By carriage, it would take between thirty minutes and an hour to travel. A sea route that takes a month versus a trade route that can be crossed in as little as thirty minutes. Moreover, because this route lies in the cold highlands, there is no moisture, so the goods won't spoil. Which route do you think merchants will choose?"
"...Wait. Then?"
Only now understanding my words, Tamir Khan's eyes widened. I nodded with a smile.
Then, looking at everyone, I summed up the goal of Project Number One to prevent my quartering and revive the empire in a single sentence.
"Once we open this trade route, most of the western continent's goods will be sold to the east through it. The profits generated in the process will be beyond imagination."