Someday Will I Be The Greatest Alchemist?

Chapter 406: Man’s Greed is Boundless

It finally starting to look like the honeymoon I imagined.

Well, Queen Fraal and Ryuka-san visited frequently to drink tea and complain was unexpected though.

The reason Queen Fraal came to Samandour Kingdom was, of course, because of work, unlike us who just came by all willy-nilly.

In the Demon Continent, it was possible to obtain magic stones, monster materials, and other things that were hard to come by. These were sold to Samandour Kingdom at a low price, which is then sold to countries that could process them, or be sold as raw materials at many times its market value.

Even in our continent, we were able to get magic stones and monster parts in the Adventurers Guild, but in the Demon Continent, even Dragon-type monsters were common enemies that appeared in dungeons, so ours can’t beat the the quality of the magic stones and the materials of high ranking monsters from the Demon Continent..

However, the trade of those monster materials and magic stone was decreasing.

And it was related to me too.

Actually, despite its distance to the Demon Continent, trade takes place between the Sanctuary and Accuros.

After all, we have the giant magic battleship, Oceanus. No matter how much of an advantage it has in distance, the difference in capacity and cruising speed between it and a cooking ship is like heaven and earth.

Actually, the matters with the Demon Continent were reported to Margrave Volton. Even Valkyra Kingdom knows that Samandour Kingdom trades with the Demon Continent in small quantities. I was asked if there were things I could do with high quality magic stones and materials, so when I asked Queen Fraal, she said that an increase in trading partners was a warm welcome.

Aside from the magic stones and monster materials from Accuros, we import condiments like pepper, the grains and steel armaments from Valkyra Kingdom, and we export magic devices created from the imported magic stones and monster materials.

Additionally, Valkyra Kingdom’s ally Lomaria Kingdom, and Yggurle Kingdom whose relationship had been improving via the Sanctuary have begun exporting monster materials an magic stones for magic devices, so the amount of trade made with Samandour Kingdom was decreasing.

That’s free competition, so it’s not my fault.

◇

A servant opened the door, and the person who came out of the carriage was the individual who fled from Takumi at the main street of the city yesterday, Earl Sechnal[1] .

「Welcome back, Master.」

「Umu, has anything changed?」

Earl Sechnal asked for updated from the butler. Instead of managing a fief as a vested noble, he not only does business extensively, but also serves as the country’s financial bureaucrat.

「There is a letter from Earl Vautarc.」

「Hm? From Lord Vautarc? It must be another one of his get rich quick schemes. Well, whatever, my family?」

「Mistress left for a tea party.」

「Again, huh……」

Earl Sechnal’s face turned bitter. His wife came from a powerful and influential finance noble family. As they were nobles, there was no love. It was completely a political marriage, but neither of them were dissatisfied. Such is the life of a noble matrimony. Women and from the 3rd son onward born to noble families were merely pawns.

However, Countess Sechnal, much like many of the other noble’s wives, go to balls and tea parties everyday, and so, money is spent on dressing her up and buying her accessories. Earl Sechnal also needed to host parties regularly, so with business not doing well recently, it was a very painful expense.

After scanning the important sales documents in his room, he read the letter from Earl Vautarc. Upon reading the letter, Earl Sechnal handed the butler the letter.

「Fumu, it would seem that Earl Vautarc’s company is also having it hard.」

「Yeah, it was painful that we couldn’t participate in the revival of the former Sydnia.」

「Well, supplies were distributed to both sides during the war, so…… it couldn’t be helped.」

Then Earl Sechnal suddenly changed topics.

「……oh yeah, Lord Vautarc has connections to the Dark Guild, doesn’t he?」

「Yes. Their numbers are few, but I remember there was an organization with a skilled execution squad, but…… what of it?」

Earl Sechnal smiled repulsively at the butler’s question.

「What, I was thinking about the get-rich-scheme that Earl Vautarc proposed.」

「Get-rich-scheme?」

「Yeah, that carriage that even royalty couldn’t have, as well as the Dragon Horse pulling it. Those and I even found a beautiful elf I’ve never seen before.」

「…………」

The butler desperately resisted the urge to sigh. His master wants to obtain something in a shady manner once again. How long would this last? The butler could only imagine his master was heading to his own ruin.

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Footnotes:

1.Count Sechnal / Vautarc = Earl.