Chapter 144

–Third Person POV–

Capital: Goldonia, King’s Room

The private room of Alexandro I, located in the depths of the palace, is normally a place where only the King’s servants and those who have garnered favor from the King can enter .

However, there are two figures in this room right now – one is the King and owner of the room, who is seated comfortably on the sofa and the other is the honorary Knight, Rebecca Blaze, who is kneeling in front of him on the floor dressed in clothes far from being formal wear .

「I see, so there is an iron mine within the domain of the barbarians . 」

「Yes, and furthermore, that meat is from the special monster which appears along the route to that mine . 」

「So that is where the iron and meat originate from? And there is no hidden trade?」

「Affirmative, Lord Hardlett is not evading the law . 」

The King mutters ‘Is that so?’ softly and closes his eyes .

「In the first place, I had doubts whether that guy could pull off something like that . 」

Even so, it couldn’t be helped one would have doubts due to the various goods being circulated in the market so suddenly . In addition, the civil officials are making a fuss about that, so this investigation was necessary to appease them .

The civil officials in the capital are constantly assuming the noble feudal lords are trying to deceive them when it comes to tax, while the feudal lords treat the civil officials as annoying birds and neglect them .

「In any case, it is fine if he isn’t violating any laws . I am rather interested in the mine, do you have any other information about it?」

「It is listed here . 」

Rebecca presents the document with the collected information . Adolph also had a hand in compiling that document so the information is extremely detailed . On the other hand, there is a slight discrepancy in regards to the most important part .

「You seem to be much more capable than the others . Many have gone to the other feudal lords but were unable to obtain much information when they came back and there have even been some who were reduced to corpses . 」

Information officers have the status of honorary noble and were given a certificate of proof from the King, but besides being able to secretly investigate the territory of the feudal lord noble, it is possible to be killed if they are not careful . It can be said they were killed coincidentally by bandits and dumped in a random wasteland and nothing can be done about that . Besides letting them enter the territory without refusal, the feudal lord has no duty to protect them .

「Thank you for your words of praise . 」

Rebecca sweats as she speaks .

She knows that not being turned into a corpse herself is simply due to luck .

「The information officers are still fumbling around, so rather than surveying the site, I want you to take the role of managing the others . By my royal name, you will be granted the rank of honorary Baron . If you mobilize the others efficiently and produce results, you will eventually be granted more honor . 」

Being promoted two steps in rank is unbelievable, but not impossible when it comes to honorary ranks . In this case, the promotion was given to provide the other information officers leadership to ensure smooth sailing rather than as a reward . The limitations of a life peer1, in other words the title of “honorary”, will always be hard to remove .

「Good, then make your preparations immediately . And as usual, present the reports to myself only . It goes without saying for the nobles of the royal court, but don’t say anything to Kenneth or Erich without my permission either . 」

「I will keep that in mind, Your Majesty . 」

「Then you may go . 」

Rebecca walks backward, ensuring she remains facing the King, and leaves the room quietly .

Information is a weapon and it may be shared with the ministers as a form of advice or for discussion, but that decision will ultimately be made by the King . It cannot be leaked out slowly or known by any others the King is not acquainted with . That applies to the ones he trusts the most and has given authority to, Kenneth and Erich, as well .

Kenneth, the Commissioner of Government Affairs and the finance minister are quickly called to the throne . The King shows the two of them the document given to him by Rebecca . The reason why the finance minister was called along with Kenneth, who is of superior rank, is to use their discussion as a reference .

「……so that’s how things stand . An iron mine has been discovered within the territory of Lord Hardlett . It appears the quality of the product is fairly high too . 」

In actuality, a specialist in the field said he has never seen such high quality iron before as he boasted about the quality of the material, but the fact was slightly falsified by the King’s underrepresentation .

「In the midst of such economic struggles, it would be a shame to leave a source of income such as this to the local feudal lord . In addition to trade tax to the capital, there needs to be a special tax for the mine itself……no, the mine itself should be made into national property, don’t you agree?」

The finance minister is mainly thinking of benefits for the country when he said that . That is his job .

「That would be problematic . 」

The one offering the rebuttal is the Commissioner of Government Affairs and the person who represents the civil ministers, Kenneth .

「From what I can see in this report, this mine is deep in the territory of the barbarians with only a single road to the area, not to mention those annoying monsters also appear on that road . There is no benefit in discreetly turning that into national property and carrying the iron ore such long distances . 」

「It is written that a refining facility also exists there, is it not?」

「Even if there is such a facility, it’s not like the product will be transported using magic, plus you also need charcoal to burn and food and water for the workers . Don’t tell me you want to carry all that from the King’s territory to the mine . In addition, I’m sure Lord Hardlett will not agree to cooperate if the mine he struggled to develop was taken away from him . 」

It is possible to force him to cooperate in the name of the King . But if the said person is not motivated to do it, the escorts may slack off and the supplying will be delayed . In practice, it takes profit and desire to encourage people to act, not rules and regulation .

「It is the same with regards to gold, but most importantly, Goldonia has a shortage of iron . In addition to the strengthening of the army, the imports from Magrado has ceased so using only the production within the country would run us dry . 」

The current price of iron in Goldonia has shot up to nearly twice the amount since before the war . On the other hand, the price of iron in Magrado is half of what it was now that it has lost its exporting destination, causing the merchants and feudal lords possessing mines to suffer heavy losses . It seems both nations are using this difference and starting to conduct trade in secret though .

「……as expected, the reinforcement of the army has placed a tremendous load on us financially, so we should temporarily-」「Ahem!」

Kenneth forcibly stops the finance minister from saying anymore of his candid opinion . The reinforcement of the army was something the King himself decided to do and the finance minister would not be forgiven if he were to speak up against him .

「I believe it’s best to leave the mine to Lord Harlett, encourage him to increase production of iron and then apply some form of tax on that . 」

It appears the conclusion reached by both the King and Kenneth has been agreed upon .

「Then let us fix the rate of taxation . After taking the first portion of tax, he will have to increase the production of iron and raise his profits if he wants to the other portions of tax to be forgone . 」

「That will have to be after the war as well . Since he knows that the ceasefire with Magrado is coming to an end, there is no reason to make him angry over just a tiny portion of tax . Tell him just to increase the production of iron for now to help the Kingdom . 」

There is a map of the surrounding area on the report document but is somewhat inaccurate, depicting the mine deeper in the mountain nation territory than it actually is . Moreover, there were reports of the mountain nation ambusing those travelling along the road, but none have been confirmed and are being treated as nothing more than false reports and accidents from training exercises .

Kenneth moves on to the next topic after bowing deeply . The finance minister leaves the room after his duty was completed .

「So is there other information?」

「Umu, the country to the south……what was it called again?」

The King takes a glance at the report document in his hand .

「Right, the Malt Kingdom . Reports have come in saying the country is experiencing political disturbance……but what do you think?」

「You have talked with Lord Hardlett about things like trade and peace in the past, haven’t you?」

「That’s right, it was a country not even worth taking so I told him to do as he pleases . 」

Countries with 1 million in population also exist to the south . But the farming nation of Malt, with no particular special industry, was not an especially valued country .

「I didn’t think Lord Hardlett would get himself caught up in the political disturbance of that country……there is also the incident with Treia in the past as well . 」

「Fumu, the older brother of the young Queen started a rebellion and the Queen and former King seem to have been dethroned . 」

When Kenneth heard that, the wariness in his expression disappeared .

The sibling starts a rebellion to try and steal