Chapter 60 - Guest

"Richard, who is the Lindholm family? Do you know them?"

It has been two days since Lucina and I came back home. Right now, I'm reading all of the paperwork on top of the table. One of the papers attracted my attention. It was a letter from the Lindholm family's lord saying that they will visit Sea Dragon City.

"Lindholm… Oh! They are the family from the Holy Light Empire. They have a rank of Viscount that governs the northern side of the empire."

"I see… Why do you think they want to come here?"

"I think they want to buy our iron, my lord."

"Iron?"

"Yes. Like the previous 'merchants' that came here on behalf of the Duke family, they came here to buy our iron."

"Do you know why?"

"I hear a rumor that there will be a civil war in the Holy Light Empire. A succession war. The war that will decide who will be the emperor. I hear the empire is already moving their soldiers around ready to go to war."

"I see. How many factions get involved in this war?"

"There are three factions in this war. The First Prince faction with the backing of Duke Andechs. The Second Prince with the backing of Duke Frederick and lastly the Third Prince with the backing of lower noble like Count and Viscount."

"Then which faction does Lindholm side with?"

"I think they are with the First Prince faction. I don't know for sure, but I'm pretty certain they are with the First Prince faction."

"What do you think will happen if I reject their request to buy our iron?"

"I don't think they can do anything, my lord. However, by doing so, you will have an enemy in the shape of the Lindholm family. However, with the distance of our location, I don't think it matters as they cannot do anything to us without passing a long journey across the land or the sea."

That is true. The Holy Light Kingdom border is a month away from the Sea Dragon Point if we use the land route. If we use the sea, then it needs four-month of a long journey as you need to sail from the Eastern continent. They cannot sail directly to the north because the boat graveyard is on the way.

If they take the sea route, they need to think about the scurvy or, as the people in this world call it, the Sea Devil Illness. The longer they are on the sea, the bigger the chances they get scurvy.

There is also an increasing number of pirates in the eastern continental sea. So if they want to go to the north via the sea, they need to go through a long journey, Scurvy, and Pirate.

If they decide to use the land route, they need to go through a long list of nobles to fight. However, I don't count on the southern noble to fight the foreign soldier to defend the northern noble.

"So what do you suggest, Richard? Should I let them buy our iron? If we do this, the other nobles from the Holy Light Empire will see us supporting the First Prince Faction."

".... My suggestion is that you should sell some of our iron to them but sell it at a high price."

"Oh?"

"Yes. In the western continent, the only kingdom that did not wage war against each other is the Vulux Kingdom. The Holy Light Empire have their succession war, and the most southern kingdoms are currently doing a great war called the Unification War."

"Unification War?"

"Yes. Someone named Maximillian is doing a campaign to unify the most southern region of the Western Continent. However, I don't know from which family he comes from as I don't have any shadow placed there."

Western Continent is divided into three regions. Raktuz, the northern region of the western continent. Xarient, the center region of the western continent, and Lazlo, the continent's southern region.

All three regions have equal size, more or less.

Raktuz is a region ruled by the Vulux kingdom. Vulux kingdom is still called a kingdom because they did not rule all of the Raktuz region lands. A big chunk of the land in the Raktuz kingdom is a winter wasteland that the kingdom cannot use.

With the large chunk of land that the Vulux kingdom cannot use, the Vulux kingdom cannot elevate its rank into an empire.

Xarient is the region where the Holy Light Empire ruled. In the beginning, this region is filled with many kingdoms that wage war against each other. However, a few hundred years ago, the Holy Light Empire founder successfully united all the kingdoms into one banner.

On the other hand, Lazlo did not have a ruler because many kingdoms did not want to give up their power to the other. There are fifteen or so kingdoms in the Lazlo region that rule over each location of the region.

"I will take your advice, Richard. We will sell our iron at a higher price than the other. Thank you for your suggestion, Richard."

"It is my pŀėȧsurė, my lord."

I still have time to think about what to do with them anyway as they need at least a few weeks to arrive.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Princess, what an honor to meet you today."

I smile politely at the noble son and daughter coming to my birthday party. It has been a few months since the last disaster happened—the war between Count Lionheart and Marquis Blackbriar.

They are in debt to the Frederick family because they are the ones paying tribute to the Lionheart family after the Blackbriar family lost the war. Not many people know about this. The only reason why I know about this is that my Grandmother, the Queen Dowager, has an eye in every corner of the kingdom except the north.

While I know that the first disaster that is the Blackbriar family is an inevitable disaster, I will try to prevent the second disaster!

The second disaster is Famine. A great famine will happen a year from now. My father, the king, will declare war against the Holy Light Empire when one of the factions approaches my father and asks him to help them fight against the other faction.

My father agreed with the request and declared war against the other faction. However, while fighting the Holy Light Empire, there is massive crop failure across the kingdom. With the news of crop failure, the Vulux kingdom decides to take away their soldier from the front line.

Vulux sent their diplomat and successfully secured peace with the Holy Light Empire. However, while the Vulux kingdom successfully secured peace with the Holi Light Empire, they still have a great famine problem.

The famine lasted for years, and this famine is one of the reasons for the fall of the Vulux Kingdom. With the Vulux kingdom's bad relationship with the Holy Light Empire, they cannot secure a cheap source of food.

With their fortune decreasing at a fast speed, the kingdom becomes desperate. Without gold, the kingdom cannot pay for their soldier, and without their job, the soldier decides to become a bandit.

Vulux kingdom becomes a lawless kingdom full of bandits, pirates, and corrupt nobles. Speaking of noble, the noble of Vulux kingdom become a slaver when the famine strikes the kingdom. They sell their slaves to the eastern kingdom for food or gold.

I don't want to become a princess to a lawless kingdom, dammit! However, my father and my brother did not hear my advice and only spoke.

"Make the land into farmland? Why do you say something like that, dear daughter? We are the Vulux Kingdom! The goddess blesses our land, and our people are warriors. Farming is the job for the peasant. We don't need to taint our status as a royal family by converting our land into farmland. Let the Baron family do that. It was their job, after all."

He keeps saying that even when I beg him to do it. In the end, I cannot do anything. Sometimes I really hate being born a woman. As of right now, I don't have enough power to change my fate without depending on other people.

However, the people I can depend on did not believe me thinking that I'm still a child who did not know anything! Arrggghhhh!!!!

"Princess, please socialize with the other noble. I don't want you to be scolded by Queen Dowager once again."

I stand up from my sofa and walk toward the other noble with my patented polite smile with a sigh.