Vol. 3 Chapter 52: Merchants of Wisteria (Part 1) (Patreon)

I heard that the Holy Kingdom’s envoy arrived a short moment ago along with the High Bishop, conveyed to me by a maid. When I think of the holy kingdom, I imagined the envoy would be some sort of holy looking person, or an old man. I mean, weren’t high ranking church officials most of the time old? With the requirements and all… Look at the High Bishop!

“So, what’s he like? Was he scary or kind?”

I asked the young-looking maid with a little puffy cheeks. I did not know who she was, but I’m sure she was a daughter of a nobleman somewhere.

Unexpectedly, though, she covered her mouth gently, and a blush colored her white cheeks. She looked down as though lost in wonder, or should I say captivation…?

What the fuck?

Usually, as far as I know, girls act like this whenever they have an encounter with their idols, like a boy that comes from a boy band of handsome guys. Or when they came across an extremely handsome stranger who just glanced at them and fell in love. Was either case applied here?

I was waiting for an answer, but it would seem I already lost her in her own fantasies.

Girl! You’re a noble’s daughter! Stop that!

“Ahem!” I audibly cleared my throat, and that pulled her out into reality.

“Y-Your highness?”

“... The answer to my question…?”

“Ah, oh yes! He,” she smiled. “He is a very attractive man. Younger than I expected. He must be in his twenties. And his eyes…” she sighed out of awe.

Judging from her reaction, he must be more than the word ‘attractive’. At least I had an idea of the person I was to avoid for the time being.

It was a bit of a stress talking to this girl. Have you never been in love? Was she new here? In any case, I was done with her.

“You may go.”

“Y-Yes, princess. Thank you.”

Geez, going lovey dovey in front of me…

When she left the library, I heaved a tired sigh, placing a hand on my forehead. There should be nothing to worry about. In truth, that envoy was more of an annoyance than trouble, he was from an ally nation after all. Well, disregarding the political side.

Just imagine if it was an envoy from an enemy nation. Wew, that would be a cause for depression. Good thing nothing like that happened!

With that matter done, I lifted the book in front of me that was on the table. What? I was lying low as I said. So, I’m staying here in the library where it was safe, I’m not as stubborn as a horror film character, or any movie character really. I knew how to stay put… Hm, that phrase better not bite me in the ass soon.

This was a new book, by the way, just a collection of short stories. Perhaps some may be curious as to what happened to the last book I was reading. Yeah… I stopped at around page one hundred twenty, I think?

Don’t blame me! I just got tired, my head hurts whenever I try to comprehend the sheer number of pages. Besides, I’m intending on reading that again in a few days. I was just curious about this book of short stories. I just thought that I’ll start small when finishing stories, so I’m gonna try shorter ones!

Makes sense, right?

And I should deserve some praise, you know. I have finished three stories! Give me a round of applause! This was an enormous achievement in my pursuit of becoming a bookworm princess! Thank you, thank you!

The stories were also very good! I’m not really picky on stories. Well, I did not know what I truly wanted. Just some stories that need to be read, so I read it. Also, I have been liking hanging out in the library. There’s nothing to worry that I might end up destroying this place again.

Nothing like that’s going to happen. I have better control over myself now.

But the other reason I’m here is because I’m waiting for the result of the work of a bunch of people in the other room. I’m a bit excited really to see what they ended up with. They have been working hard, they deserve some chill times after this. I’m gonna ask my father to give the guys some reward.

That being said, that didn’t mean they were going to be finished in the next hour. We expect them to finish around the afternoon. If we’re lucky, around noon. So I was both waiting and avoiding the passing storm.

And thus, some time passed. Just as noon hit.

The door to one room suddenly slammed open. I promptly averted my eyes away from the page to see Lucious coming my way with a troubled smile.

“It’s done.”

After he said that, I immediately put down the book and rose from my seat. Without a word to say, I went ahead and entered the room, immediately seeing the papers strewn around. But I focused on the wooden boards on the walls.

The other boards had mere scribbles, but at the center had more clear details. Lines drawn.

“Estelia…”

My mother approached me with a concerned expression.

“Mother, explain please.”

“We tallied the amount of delivered goods all around our nation and the overall supply with the passing years.”

She stood on the left side of the board, pointing at the first point of the chart.

“The first month, three years ago. Food supply was more than the average that our nation would need. However, in the next few months, we begin to notice a slight dip, just small enough that we wouldn’t even notice.”

Of course, with that small decrease, we would just conclude it wouldn’t be a problem at all.

Then she continued. “But months came in and they slowly fell and fell. It rose a little a few times, but never back to the level we originally had. And this continued on for months.”

Now that it was drawn, the more one would notice the decrease of supply in our storage, and in our reserves. I was growing more concerned at how many rations we were losing, and the decrease was more steady and subtle than I thought.

“And now here we are in the present.” My mother stood on the right side of the board. “F-For now, this is tolerable, but if this goes on.”

Her finger continued to go down further than the present time. And it stopped.

“We’ll hit the red line.” I muttered.

“We’ll have a shortage in… in a year.”

I lowered my gaze. It was sooner than expected.

A year? Come on a year?! There’s no way we’re gonna be that ready! No way I’m gonna be that ready! Shit.

“How did this go unnoticed? How come the decrease of our production and logistics was never discovered?”

“The production of crops didn’t have major troubles.” Lucious said.

“What?”

He approached one of the boards.

“This is the report of the production of food. They’re balanced. No issues.”

Indeed, the line for the most part was going straight for three years.

“Then, where did all the food go? Were they not being delivered?”

“Actually, they were.” He answered. “They left the farms. But some never arrived at their destination.”

“What happened to them?”

“There were reports of robbery of the convoy. In fact, records of robbery on the roads have gradually risen over the last three years.”

“So what? They’re using bandits?”

“Exactly.”

What the fuck? They’re mere fucking bandits, how the hell did they manage to rob that many supply convoys?

“Aren’t the transports supposed to be protected?”

“Yes, but in the end they were still robbed.”

“And the merchants didn’t even bother increasing their security?”

“...”

There was no answer.

And thus I asked another question. “And our authorities, was anything done?”

“There were reports made.” My mother answered. “Some were taken care of, but it would seem it was never enough.”

“And our side never noticed this increase in bandit activities?”

“We… We likely marked it as the usual bandit robbery. And so, we thought little about it.”

Okay…

Mother then continued. “But, I don’t think that is all. The merchants definitely hid most of all the incidents.”

I sighed then went for a chair, sitting down tiredly.

One year… We have one year before they attack. The empire.

… We may not win the outright war, but we may be able to win in other parts. To survive.

“Estel?” My mother suddenly grasped my hand. “Are you alright?”

I raised my gaze to look her in the eyes. “Yes. This… we can manage.” I pulled away from her grasp and stood up. “I want to know more about the actions of the merchants. Anything suspicious, write me a report.”

I walked away, towards the door. But as I did so, my mother called out to me. “E-Estelia.” Her voice almost sounded like she was about to cry.

I stopped and swallowed hard before turning towards her. “I need to think, Mother.”

After giving her a soft smile, I left the room.