Living Up to the Treacherous Minister's Name
"It’s open!!!!!!"
A soldier from the Iron Blood Coalition burst through the tent flap, shouting at the top of his lungs.
Everyone inside, who had been buried in paperwork, shot to their feet at once.
"O-open? Really?"
"Yes! It’s open!! Look at this!!!!"
The soldier thrust a handful of lush green grass from the western continent toward us.
For a moment everyone stared in stunned silence.
Then, as if on cue, the entire tent erupted in cheers.
Karia threw her arms around me and screamed with joy.
I hugged her back, laughing until my sides hurt.
"What do we do now, Lord Landor?"
"Karl Hansen!! Bring Karl Hansen here!! Tell him the trade route is open!!"
"Understood!!!"
Karl arrived the very next day, moving faster than any bullet.
He had burned through teleport stations that cost over a hundred gold each, one after another.
For a merchant, news that the land route connecting the western and eastern continents was finally complete was simply too tempting to resist.
"Is it… really true? You actually opened it?"
The skeptical look he used to give me was gone.
All he wanted now was to see it with his own eyes.
Smiling, I loaded him into a carriage and took him along the trade route we had carved through three months of brutal labor.
Even as the cold northern winds howled and monster cries echoed through the valleys, Karl Hansen never once wiped the greedy, manic grin from his face.
When we finally crested the last ridge and the green plains of the western continent spread out before us, Karl leapt from the carriage.
He let out a scream that sounded more like a war cry and began dancing wildly.
A balding, oily-skinned middle-aged man flailing about was hardly a pretty sight, yet no one dared complain.
"You’re insane!! You’re actually insane!!!! You really did it!! This is possible!! How on earth did you manage it?!"
I didn’t tell him I had already known exactly where to dig.
Instead I simply clapped him on the shoulder.
"Does that really matter?"
"No!! The fact that it’s open is what matters!! Wahahaha!! A land trade route!!"
I dragged the still-cheering merchant back to the Elrond barony.
"We’ll need interpreters. And merchants who know the western continent well.
To secure trading rights there, we have to meet Sultan Saladin, the man who rules it."
"I know plenty of merchants who travel between the continents by sea. I’ll summon them immediately."
"We also need to connect roads from the Elrond territory to every corner of the continent.
It would be best if we linked up with major trade cities…"
"Connecting to Portu Commercial City would be ideal. My guild already controls it tightly.
Geographically, most of the empire’s goods pass through there. If we link Elrond to Portu by road…"
Karl Hansen’s face lit up with an almost indecent expression of delight.
I gave him his orders.
"I’ll handle the road between Portu and Elrond, the trade agreement with the western continent, and securing monopoly rights through the emperor.
In the meantime, you expand the Portu commercial district at least tenfold. The floating population passing through will increase by roughly that much."
"Kuhahaha!! As you command!!!! I’ll buy up every scrap of land around Portu and start building at once!!"
While he laughed heartily, I asked a few questions.
"Portu sits in the middle of a plain, doesn’t it?"
"Yes. That’s why traffic moves so easily."
"And the weather?"
"Mild all year round. Winters are chilly but never snowy, and summers aren’t as brutal as the rest of the empire. People call it temperate."
"I see."
Ideas began spinning in my head.
Soon I offered one.
"Could you gather every circus troupe, theater company, and singer in the empire?"
"Pardon? Why them?"
"Just do it. Bring only the very best and concentrate them in the Portu commercial district."
"Circuses, theaters, singers… those are commoners, aren’t they?"
In this medieval society with its rigid class system, they certainly were.
But I didn’t see them as mere commoners.
I was a modern man who understood exactly how powerful the entertainment industry could be.
"Stop arguing and gather them. I’ll make you all filthy rich."
"Then I’ll gather them. Yes, sir."
Perhaps because he had already seen me turn the impossible into reality once, Karl obeyed without further protest.
Just like Karl, ten merchants specializing in western-continent trade arrived at the Elrond barony the very next day, their faces flushed with excitement.
"The western continent is currently monopolized by the Karamba Empire alone.
The Eternal Monarch, Sultan Saladin, has unified most of the fragmented nations into a single empire. Therefore, any trade must receive his personal approval."
After speaking, the merchants let out heavy sighs.
"But Lord Landor, I must warn you in advance—obtaining trading rights from the Sultan will be extremely difficult. He is a man overflowing with greed and ambition."
"It’s possible he’ll recognize the value of the route and try to seize it by force."
"I know."
I answered calmly.
More than anyone, I understood Saladin’s lust for conquest; the original novel had described it in detail multiple times.
He was willing to spend an enormous fortune, three years, and two hundred thousand lives just to carve a path through the Raco Mountains for the sake of invading the east.
Still, I wasn’t particularly worried.
I already knew exactly how to handle him.
"We can provide interpretation and explain western customs, but that is all we can do. We cannot offer anything beyond that."
"Do you have a way to persuade the Sultan?"
"Persuade?"
I laughed.
"Do you really think the Eternal Monarch, the Conqueror Saladin, is the kind of man who can be persuaded?"
The merchants who knew the western continent fell silent at once.
They knew I was right.
Saladin was the living embodiment of ambition and conquest.
"Then what do we do…?"
One merchant asked cautiously.
I nodded.
"You’re correct."
When the merchants looked puzzled by my sudden agreement, I continued.
"The moment he hears the Raco Mountain trade route exists, he won’t think about trade—he’ll think about war. He’ll come to seize the route."
I confirmed the merchant’s words in a flat tone.
Their eyes widened.
"Then what do we do?"
Seeing their fear, I burst out laughing.
"Rephrasing your question, you’re asking whether the Iron Blood Coalition can deter Saladin from starting a war."
"Exactly. The Iron Blood Coalition is strong, but is it strong enough to stop Saladin’s ambition?"
"No. Of course not. He’ll probably think a war is worth attempting."
Just as the merchants began sinking back into dread, I added,
"So we’ll add some seasoning."
"Seasoning?"
"I’ll bring the Wyvern Knights and Karia’s guardian dragon to the Elrond barony. Once he sees that, even Sultan Saladin won’t easily consider starting a war."
The merchants’ eyes grew even wider.
"I-is that possible?!"
The Wyvern Knights existed solely to protect the capital and the imperial family.
In the original story they remained neutral until the very end of the ugly war, only acknowledging Adran as emperor at the final moment.
With a single breath they could incinerate thousands, turning the tide of battle.
After losing all her troops, Karia summoned her guardian dragon from beneath the capital to protect me in one last stand.
Both the entire Wyvern Knight order and Karia riding her dragon would perish together, leaving the capital in chaos.
In that ruined square, Adran would finally capture me…
"Anyway!! If they’re attached to the Iron Blood Coalition, even Saladin won’t dare start a war.
Not when a legion that can rain fire from the sky and burn cities is sitting right there."
"Will His Majesty… allow it?"
The Wyvern Knights and the guardian dragon were the emperor’s ultimate asymmetric force.
Handing them over meant surrendering the capital’s very survival to me.
No sane emperor would ever agree.
"He’ll agree."
I was certain.
The current emperor was, as the rumors said, a foolish ruler completely infatuated with me—the treacherous minister.
And just as expected—
"Ohhh!!! My minister!! You opened the trade route!! Then! Then! If Saladin attacks it will be troublesome. I’ll hand over the Wyvern Knights. The guardian dragon as well."
The emperor granted my request with a single word.
"Your Majesty!!! Please reconsider!!!!"
Duke Pelling’s voice rang through the audience chamber, his face deathly pale.
He had rushed to the capital in a single day via teleport stations and carriages, just as Karl had, only to watch the emperor approve my request without a second thought.
"Your Majesty!! Please reconsider!!"
The duke feared the Wyvern Knights might one day burn his own territory, but the true protagonist of the original novel—Prince Adran, the Prince of Gold—spoke out of genuine concern for the empire.
"The Wyvern Knights are the capital’s final line of defense!! Entrusting them to any single faction is highly improper!!!"
"Is Landor some random faction? He is a loyal subject, Adran."
"He could misuse the Wyvern Knights for his own ends, Your Majesty!!!"
"Adran! Landor is not that kind of man!! He would never do such a thing!!"
The emperor shouted stubbornly, his face showing not a trace of wisdom.
It was painfully clear how deeply he had fallen under my silver tongue.
"Did he not pioneer the trade route connecting west and east?!
This is necessary to maintain it. How could that be considered private use?! It is a decision for the entire empire."
"Father!!!!"
Prince Adran finally used the word “father.”
"If Lord Landor receives the wyverns, we will have no means to stop him. The empire will become a sea of fire!!!!!"
His desperate plea fell on deaf ears.
The foolish emperor, utterly captivated by his treacherous minister, refused to listen.
"Enough!!! I will tolerate no further disrespect!! The Wyvern Knights will be transferred to the Iron Blood Coalition as Lord Landor requests!! The guardian dragon as well! Only Karia, the Dragon Incarnation, can command it. She will become Lord Landor’s greatest strength. This matter is already decided!!! Do not speak against it!!"
At those words, Adran knelt with a look of utter defeat.
Then he began to laugh and cry at the same time.
"It’s over. The empire is finished. The Wyvern Knights have fallen into that treacherous minister’s hands!! Do you even realize what he might do with them, Father!!!!"
His cry was so heartrending that I quietly swallowed the words I had been about to say.
I had been planning to use the wyverns for deliveries.