T/N: Sorry for the lateness in posting the chapter, the chapter ended up being a lot longer than expected (I’m posting this chapter at about 2 AM my time.)
There had been two times in his life when Elric had met someone who was fundamentally different from him as a human being.
The first was his father, Hoven Portman, and the second was his best friend, Elvus Grayman.
His father was a cold-blooded man who would sacrifice all other things for the sake of practicality.
On the other hand, Elvus Grayman was a zealot who would sacrifice himself for his beliefs.
He had always felt a sense of alienation and admiration whenever he faced them.
And Elric had felt these emotions once again today.
-“I cannot allow any insults directed towards me to harm my territory. Especially as I am the one who leads it.”
Tyria Wyvern had become the third.
She was a woman who embodied half the cold-blooded noble that he knew by his father’s example, and half the beliefs his friend had loved, and so she was so familiar to him, yet all the more incomprehensible.She was a woman who made him realize on a visceral level that he could never be like her.
And, for that, Elric admired her.
She was so noble, so unlike him, who had rolled in the mud all his life, that he chased after her like a light at the end of a cave.
To use an old-fashioned metaphor: she was like a piece of artwork made of glass.
There was no better metaphor for something so beautiful, yet so fragile that one couldn’t help but worry if it would ever crack, or if it would be eroded away by the winds of time.
Krrrrrrrrrrkkkkk–
As he pondered, he absentmindedly scratched his desk with the dull knife.
Elric felt her words echoing over and over again in his mind, as he stared blankly at the grooves in his desk.
The more he thought about it, the stronger the emotions he felt.
He wanted to help.
It could be called sympathy for her, who had endured what lay beneath that emotion all alone, or it could have been disgust at himself, who had made it that way for her.
Whatever it was, the core of it was that Elric had begun to feel that a different emotion had begun to stir within him, something different from all the emotions he had ever felt before.
And in the midst of it all, Elric thought simply.
Rather than trying to figure out the cause of the emotions, he thought of ways to resolve them.
The first thing that came to his mind was, ‘How can I help?’
Elric was not a big-picture type of guy.
He only knew how to crush what was in front of him so thoroughly that it would never rise again.
Since he could never be like her, it was obvious what he had to do.
This time, just like in the previous incident with the Wyvern Household, he would resort to the lesser of the two evils.
“Lord Polo, may I come in?”
“Meow!” [1]
Thud!
There was a loud commotion from inside the room assigned to the man in question.
The door opened shortly thereafter.
“C-C-Come in…!”
Elric knew the reason for Polo’s trembling voice.
He opened the door to find a burly man sitting on a chair.
One look at him and one would know that he was terrified.
“I came to talk to you.”
Saying so, Elric closed the door behind him.
“Or, since we are old acquaintances, shall we exchange greetings first?”
He was sure he had been recognized by him for one reason.
For he had been the only one to notice Elric sitting in the dining room, and the only times he had spoken up were always timed just as Elric was about to turn the place upside down in anger.
He had shown a clear disposition of being afraid of knowing what would have happened afterwards if he hadn’t intervened, so how could he not know?
Following character, Polo shook his head frantically.
And then,
Thump!
He dropped down to his knees.
“I am sorry for what happened that day! Today’s events were a coincidence! I did not know you were here, nor did I have any intention of making you uncomfortable! Uhm, it was just an accident…!”
“Shhh.”
Elric placed an index finger on Polo’s lips, as he choked back his next few words.
“Let us spare each other the fuss.”
Tap, tap.
Elric leaned on his cane and hobbled over to where Polo had been sitting just moments before and sat down in his seat.
Polo, who had been kneeling on the ground, looked up at Elric.
This was a calculated move.
Intimidation came from the level of one’s eyes relative to the others’ after all.
It was an unpleasant thing for Polo to be so frightened, but Elric intended to capitalize on his learned terror and use it to his advantage.
Polo lowered his head, trembling like an aspen tree in the harsh winds of the north.
His fears had come true.
The gaze looking down on him was sharp and his voice was the same, reminding Polo of the banquet five years ago.
“I did not ask for you to sit with me here because I have a personal grudge against you. Frankly speaking, the incident that day was partly my fault due to my own incompetence.”
“That, that’s….”
“Of course, I have no intention of apologizing, for I see no reason in forgiving you for making a fool out of me.”
Polo stiffened.
However, his following words were a pleasant surprise.
“So let’s put aside our personal grudges and focus on the present, so that today’s events can benefit us both.”
Polo’s head slowly lifted.
Elric’s face remained impassive as he continued to speak.
“I am not a patient man, as you know, and I do not take well to insults directed at me. I also do not take well to insults directed at those who are related to me. Such is the case today.”
“Yes, yes….”
“The behavior of Armin’s quartermaster was not very pleasing to the eye. But it is difficult for me to step forward myself. If I reveal my identity, it will disrupt the tranquility of this land, won’t it?”
It was true.
The Sword Demon Kasha was truly worthy of his name as one of the Seven Continental Powerhouses.
After all, “Kasha” was a name that could change the course of the current state of war in the West.
He was a de facto strategic weapon whose mere presence prevented the destruction of nations and shifted the balance of power on the battlefield.
But what if his presence here became known?
There would be those who wanted to recruit him, and there would be those who held grudges against him.
The former would be high-handed; the latter vicious.
Those who wanted to recruit him would use their political position to pressure him and the town of Wiven.
Those seeking revenge would rush in to harm him and his possessions, disregarding their own lives.
And the Kasha that Polo knew was not a man who would tolerate such things.
The moment Kasha’s name was revealed, this place was bound to become a sea of blood.
It was safe to go as far as to say that the wheat that would be grown next year would be nourished by blood instead of water.
“I don’t want to be disturbed during my resting period. I want to live quietly, and you’re making that harder.”
It was clear that he hadn’t really left the battlefield. From the way he was using his cane in this moment, it was clear that he was only resting due to his injuries.
“So let’s do this.”
Elric leaned forward.
As the distance between them narrowed, Polo shrank even further back.
Looking up slowly, Polo saw that Elric’s wry smile was reflected in his own eyes.
“I need you to help me, but not for free, of course. We’ll make a legitimate trade.”
He held out his hand.
“You’re here to buy wheat, are you not? I will offer you a fair price. So do listen to my request.”
Polo’s body trembled slightly.
The conversation that followed turned out to be not a bad offer for him.
There was a reception room in the Portman Mansion for receiving external guests.
To Elric, It was the only lavishly decorated room in the manor, and to Tyria, it was the only room in the mansion that had a modicum of aristocratic dignity.
Five people sat there today:
The Portmans and the three supply officers from the West.
“Then, let us get down to business.”
Tyria said.
“The amount of wheat for sale is as previously stated. This year’s harvest was particularly abundant, but we do have one condition that we require you to meet before buying the wheat. Can you purchase the wheat in bulk?”
For Tyria, the most efficient option to maximize profit was to sell the wheat in bulk.
The distribution process for selling the wheat separately and to different places was quite cumbersome.
Although the world had developed to some extent, wagons were still needed to transport the wheat from the rural village of Wiven to the West.
This meant that they would need to hire a company, which meant that they would be required to pay a significant amount of capital for distribution.
That was the exponential increase in capital required for distribution if they were to sell it separately to different locations.
“We are not a very wealthy territory, so please understand that we have to do it like this.”
After speaking in a way that wouldn’t offend any of the people present, Tyria gauged the reactions of the supply officials.
‘Disha is out.’
She could already see the distress showing on their face.
They must have already incurred significant expenses in the previous territories.
There was no need to look into it further.
Even if she tried to push for a deal on that end, the process of the deal would only be hindered by countless obstacles.
Next was Armin.
“You’re being too pessimistic.”
A sly smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.
Tyria sighed inwardly.
His leering gaze was unpleasant and his lazy tone irritated her.
He was the type that didn’t appear often in her meetings with officials from the west.
How unlucky.
Tyria buried her emotions even deeper inside her.
‘Remember, he is a man I will never see again.’
There was no reason for her to react to his gaze.
Right now, she had to focus on making a deal.
Moreover, if she showed any change in her emotions after telling Elric to endure, it would just become an embarrassing situation for both of them.
The distance between them was closing.
Tyria didn’t want to widen the gap that had shrunk so far.
In the end, she just looked away.
‘As for the Empire…’
She wasn’t really sure.
He had looked uncomfortable ever since he had first appeared, and now he appeared even more so.
But, there was a difference.
Whereas he had been restless at first, now, he seemed to be waiting for something.
What was he after?
She thought to herself.
“…I’d like to purchase everything in bulk, but I have a condition I would like to add.”
The Empire’s Supply Officer, Polo, raised his hand.
“You must let the Empire handle the distribution funds directly.”
“You can’t!”
Thud!
Armin’s supply officer slammed his fist down on his armrest.
The Empire’s supply officer chuckled.
“Is there a problem? We’re willing to pay the full price.”
“There is! If you do something like that, the price of wheat…!”
What was going on?
Tyria felt bewildered.
The Empire’s terms were just ridiculous, and they left her speechless.
They were in a war, after all.
From the outset, even if securing military supplies was crucial, the amount of funds needed to power the war machine was astronomical.
Under such circumstances, the decision to finance the distribution of supplies from Wiven in the East to the Empire in the West could not possibly be a decision made by a single supply officer.
However, it was difficult to call it out as a lie because the Empire’s supply officer looked very confident.
‘Did they think of making that condition from the beginning?’
‘No. I only made the decision this morning to sell the entire bulk of the wheat to a wholesale buyer.’
There was no way the news could have possibly reached the Imperial Command in that amount of time.
There just wasn’t enough information.
If it was a lie only meant to defeat their competitors, then there would definitely be problems that the Empire would face with future transactions.
If this was true, then it was also a problem.
To spend that much money for nothing more than wheat was a mistake that even a novice administrator would not make.
It was enough to make her think that they had an agenda in Wiven other than just buying wheat.
‘What the hell….’
If there was a scheme working in the background, what was it?
She took a moment to contemplate everything.
“Then we should sell it all to the Empire. Isn’t that right, my lady?”
Said Elric with a sly smile.
The atmosphere around them suddenly became tense.
[1. My sleep deprived brain couldn’t come up with a onomatopoeic word to save my life.]
PR: Dazed
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