Starting Merchant Activities
It had become tradition for visitors from the Gilberta Company to be brought to my hidden room. By this point, Brigitte didn’t even react to it, and Damuel followed us inside with an exhausted look. He should have adjusted by now, in my opinion, but apparently he just couldn’t get over seeing me cling to Lutz.
“Lutz, Lutz, Lutz! I hate thiiis! Being a noble suuucks! My head’s gonna explooode!”
“What the heck happened this time?!”
“What’s normal for nobles isn’t normal for me! And what’s normal for me isn’t normal for anyone! Trying to fit in with everyone is so hard! I don’t even want to think! Aaah! Geez!”
“Lady Rozemyne, you’re starting to sound like Delia,” Gil pointed out with a chuckle. Nobody seemed too worried since me having the energy to blow off steam by yelling meant that it wasn’t too serious. Or so they thought, anyway.
“I actually want to scream as loud as I can, okay? Like... GEEEEEEZ!”
“So... did that make you feel any better?” Lutz asked.
“Mm... Just a bit,” I replied.
Shouting that loud did actually make me feel a little better. I couldn’t scream in the High Bishop’s chambers, and definitely not in my room in the castle; that would tarnish the image of me being a saint that everyone was working so desperately to build. Despite how it might have seemed, I really was working my hardest to act like a cultured noble girl.
After dumping my complaints on Lutz, I let out a heavy sigh and turned to face everyone else from the Gilberta Company. “Anyway, I did super well, so get ready to pile on the compliments. I managed to get Sylvester to agree to let me spread the printing industry at my own pace, and I got Kantna to nullify his contract with Hasse. Ferdinand told me that a new scholar-official has been put in charge of Hasse in Kantna’s place, and he also said we could do whatever we wanted in regard to rumors. Impressive, right?” I asked, puffing out my chest with pride.
Lutz rubbed a hand against my head. “Yeah, real impressive,” he said. “You did good.”
“Good job, Rozemyne. Things should be a lot easier on us now,” Benno added with a nod.
“Indeed. We won’t be able to make paper over the winter, which would have slowed the printing industry’s growth no matter what, so just knowing that the archduke does not have his former sense of urgency is an immense relief,” Mark agreed. “Now we can dedicate our all to this Hasse matter.”
Life as a noble sucked and was full of annoying hang-ups, but trying my hardest despite that had been worth it. Everyone praised me, completely recharging my energy reserves. They gave me the strength to keep carrying on.
“Umm, right—so let’s talk about the rumors. I have no idea how fast merchants around here can spread information, or how much influence they have, so I’ll be seeing how Mark does things and learning from that,” I said.
At that, Mark gave me a smile that was brimming with motivation. It was actually a fairly dark smile, but compared to the one Ferdinand wore when he was plotting something, it might as well have been a goofy grin. “I shall dedicate my all so that you might learn as much as you can,” he said. “Have you decided how we shall drive the rat into a cor— Ahem, rather, have you decided on an ideal end state for this matter?”
Seriously, just how badly did Hasse’s mayor treat Mark and Benno...? I want to know, but at the same time, I really don’t think I do.
“Ultimately, I would like for Hasse and the monastery to coexist in peace. I want to earn points with Ferdinand by reinforcing my saint narrative while forming an opposing faction that wishes to cooperate with me, thereby minimizing casualties. As for the mayor... I believe he’s a lost cause, but since Hasse is a city with a winter mansion, a lot of townsfolk are going to gather there, right? I’m hoping that the innocent townspeople don’t get wrapped up in this and suffer with the others.”
“With the others, you say? Have punishments for those other than the mayor already been decided?” Mark asked. His eyes widened the moment I nodded, and I heard Benno inhale sharply.
“Ferdinand said we can spread the following rumor to make the city’s citizens uneasy: ‘The High Priest has decided not to send any blue priests to Hasse at the next Spring Prayer.’”
“That’ll be rough on the farmers...” Benno said. On a fundamental level, the earth of a duchy contained mana thanks to the archduke’s protection. But it was a layer of mana spread incredibly thin, so more mana needed to be provided to feed all the citizens in a duchy. That was where the blue priests came in; they weren’t proper nobles, but they had mana and could travel across the duchy during Spring Prayer to spread it around.
The mana provided to farming towns was a blessing that had a considerable impact on their harvest. Farmers who worked hard enough could still produce respectable harvests for a year or two without Spring Prayer, but without mana, the earth would gradually go barren and become harder to farm on. After the Sovereignty’s purge, all the young blue priests with modest amounts of mana were called back to noble society, greatly reducing both the quality and quantity of priests and shrine maidens available. As a result, the duchy of Ehrenfest as a whole was lacking in the mana necessary to refill the earth.
Ferdinand predicted that the harvest would be bigger this year than last, largely thanks to the mana I provided. He also said that, next year, there would be a huge difference between the harvest reaped by the Spring Prayer-less Hasse and that of the lands that received my blessings.
“Ferdinand said that he would determine whether Hasse will also be punished at the next Harvest Festival based on their behavior and my methods.”
Benno crossed his arms and frowned, deep in thought. “Rozemyne, you said that you nullified the contract between the scholar and Hasse, but what ultimately happened with the contract between him and the mayor? Did you pay for the orphans?”
“I will soon. Ferdinand and I are planning on going to Hasse the day after tomorrow.”
Mark wrote that down in his diptych, nodding all the while, then looked at Benno with a sharp glint in his eyes. “In that case, Master Benno, how about we spread a rumor that the people of Hasse disrespected priests over the matter of some orphans, and that while the priests are furious, Lady Rozemyne is currently containing their wrath?”
“Sounds good to me. We can also add that they messed up hard enough that they’d all be dead already if not for Rozemyne,” Benno said, stroking his chin while agreeing with Mark. “What’s important is emphasizing the fact that the only reason they haven’t been punished yet is because of Rozemyne’s mercy and compassion.”
Lutz listened to their discussion with an intensely serious expression.
“If we go to Hasse after spreading these rumors, the people we know from the carpentry workshops will come to us to talk,” Mark said. “We can use that opportunity to mention how Lady Rozemyne is weeping over the tragedy and praying that Hasse emerges as unscathed as possible, as well as what would have happened to them if they had done something like that in the city of Ehrenfest. That will split the citizens into two groups: those who quake in fear of nobles and form an opposition to the mayor, and those who side with the mayor and attempt to use his noble connections to weather the imminent storm. They have lived up until now with the former High Bishop accommodating their needs, and if they have a letter confirming this will continue to be the case then they will surely attempt to keep doing so.
“Assuming the rumors spread as planned, you will no doubt be approached by nervous citizens at the Harvest Festival. You should use the opportunity to have your attendants inform them that the High Priest decided not to send priests to Hasse during Spring Prayer, and that, while you are doing your best to console him and the archduke, they are both profoundly angry. That will make the issue a topic of interest within the winter mansion, and much discussion will surely be had.”
I nodded as I listened, writing everything I should do in my diptych so that I would remember. Benno, on the other hand, looked a bit confused.
“Mark, wasn’t the first rumor supposed to be that the people of Hasse attacked a monastery the archduke had built for his daughter? And that, no matter how compassionate the High Bishop is, not even she can quell his wrath entirely?”
“That is not Lady Rozemyne’s job, Master Benno, but ours. When the Harvest Festival ends and we return to Ehrenfest with the priests, that is what we shall tell the farmers,” Mark replied. Had the farmers already known that Hasse was being charged with treason against the archduke, the Harvest Festival would be the least of their worries; the city would fall into a huge panic, and when I attended as the High Bishop, it was likely I would be swarmed by commoners. That wasn’t ideal, nor was it a safe situation.
“It is a show of consideration, allowing them to enjoy the Harvest Festival before their difficulties begin,” Mark said with a smile. “Upon hearing the news, they will wish to rush to the temple for details, only to find that the former High Bishop is gone and the blue priests, along with the merciful Lady Rozemyne, are absent due to the Harvest Festival. With nowhere else to go, they would likely wander around Ehrenfest in search of more information, but find none and come to a screeching halt. After all, those who control information control everything.
“The monastery incident is undoubtedly treason against the archduke; not even you could prevent there from being any consequences, Lady Rozemyne. What conclusion will Hasse come to? Aah, perhaps we should note that the mayor will likely be punished for the incident, so they do not get ahead of themselves and kill him before we get the opportunity to. I can only imagine how his position will change during the winter.”
Once Mark had concluded, his lips curved into a grin. He was making it pretty obvious that his highest priority was getting revenge against the mayor, but that was fine; Ferdinand wanted me to isolate the mayor, and if Mark accomplished that then I didn’t mind him getting some revenge along the way.
“So basically... we spread rumors and then wait?” I asked.
“Yeah. With the monastery closed down for winter, you won’t have any reason to go to Hasse after the Harvest Festival, and we’ll be taking the priests back to Ehrenfest. Not much we can do but wait and see what conclusion they come to, whether a leader pops up to organize the city against the mayor, and so on,” Benno said.
The knowledge that once the Harvest Festival was over I wouldn’t have to deal with Hasse until spring took a huge burden off my shoulders. “Great! I don’t need to think about Hasse until spring, then.”
“Hey, hold it. Think about it a little.”
“But there’s nothing I can do, right? And I’m not one to think about all these complicated social problems, anyway; that’s not what I’m built for. All I want to do is lock myself in a room stacked with books and spend all day reading. I want to be on good terms with Hasse so the printing workshop has an easier time of things, but as long as nobody’s dying, I don’t actually care what happens to Hasse’s mayor and its people.”
I was only using my head so hard here because Ferdinand and everyone else were speaking noble logic that would lead to the entirety of Hasse being crushed, with all the senseless death that entailed.
“It’s a pain, but you’re the one giving us the final instructions. You’ve gotta at least keep an eye on the situation. If you want to play dumb, you’ll be on the same level as Hasse’s mayor.”
“Mm... Okay. From now until the Harvest Festival, I want Lutz and Gil to see how the rumors spread through the city, and how Hasse and the merchants visiting it change over time. I’ll visit frequently via highbeast, and I ask that you both report the circumstances to me each time I return.”
“Sure, but information’s not the only thing you want, yeah?” Lutz asked, shooting a glance my way.
I returned a smile. He had seen right through me.
Why can’t I hide anything from him?
“I want you to buy cow and pig skin before the Harvest Festival and make hide glue in Hasse,” I said. “We still have some left over from last year, but I don’t know how much we’ll need moving forward, so I want to make some more this year just in case. I hope you can occasionally go and check out the situation in Hasse while you’re making the hide glue.”
“That’s what I thought. Sure, that can work.” Lutz and Gil both agreed to my request.
I cared way more about making hide glue for next year than I did about Hasse, which would probably end up just like Mark expected.
“Also, this. Could you deliver this for me?” I asked, handing Lutz a letter addressed to my family. In it, I talked about how life had been for me lately, asked Mom and Tuuli to make a hairpin for my winter debut, and asked Dad to guard Benno as he guided the priests home after the Harvest Festival. I wanted the city guards to protect them on their way back, especially given that they were going to be rushing home after spreading brutal rumors through Hasse.
“Benno, I know that the guards won’t be able to drink beer despite it being the Harvest Festival, but I would at least like them to have some of the fancy food my chefs make. Could I ask you to get the ingredients for me?”
“Alright. I’ll bring some food along with the stuff I plan on selling there. Be sure to cook some for us too, though—not just for the soldiers. Also, you’re paying for the extra wagons we’ll need.”
“...That’s fair. Thank you.”
Two days had passed since Mark was given permission to spread rumors. Lutz told me that all of the major store owners—as well as the guildmaster—now knew that the people of Hasse had disrespected priests over some orphans being taken, and that while the other priests were mad, the new High Bishop was containing their wrath.
Today was the day that Ferdinand and I would be going to Hasse with the contract that Kantna had given us. My attendants Fran and Monika were accompanying us, as well as my guard knights Damuel and Brigitte.
“Well then, we shall see whether those in Hasse understand the position they are in a bit better now,” Ferdinand said.
If they had understood the letter then they’d no doubt be groveling at our feet, but I couldn’t help but wonder if any of them actually knew how to decipher it. I had personally wanted to write the letter using language that a commoner could easily understand, but Fran had said with a cold smile that, as the High Bishop and daughter of the archduke, I needed to follow proper noble traditions to avoid being looked down upon as a weak child. His smile so closely resembled the one that Mark wore whenever Benno was disrespected that I had no choice but to have the letter written with the usual noble euphemisms.
“I hope they read the letter, but they probably wouldn’t have been able to understand it properly unless they had someone used to reading noble euphemisms...” I replied. That said, Hasse was only half a day’s journey from Ehrenfest; the rumors that Mark had spread might have reached them already, assuming the merchants weren’t so afraid of getting wrapped up in matters that they were blasting through Hasse without saying much.
We traveled on highbeast from the monastery to the mayor’s estate. I could see a caravan of merchants traveling with carriages pointing toward us and conversing among themselves. This would no doubt add to the weight of the rumors, since the old High Bishop only ever traveled by carriage, and here we were visiting the mayor using highbeasts only nobles had.
Once Fran, Monika, and Brigitte had stepped out of the Pandabus, I returned it to its feystone form and placed it back in the cage on my hip. It was a pretty speedy process since I was so used to doing it by now.
“Honorable High Bishop and High Priest, we welcome you.”
A man named Richt greeted us at the door. I hadn’t seen him the last time we came, but he was apparently related to the mayor and assisted him with his duties. He was probably like his right-hand man, and I could guess that he did most of the mayor’s actual work; he definitely looked like he’d be better at paperwork than the mayor. At a glance, he looked about as old as Karstedt—in his mid to late thirties—and I got the impression that he was the kind of middle-manager who tried to micro-manage both those above and beneath him.
“What brings you here today?” he asked once he had given us the standard greeting for nobles.
Fran stepped forward to tell him today’s business. “As was written in the letter arranging this meeting, we are here to formally purchase the orphans.”
Richt nodded, but at the same time, he seemed a bit unsettled. It was as though he didn’t quite understand how things had come to this.
“We very much appreciate your consideration, though I must ask whether there is anything we should know about this change of heart.”
“Lady Rozemyne did not realize that Hasse intended to weather the winter using the money earned by selling the orphans until a merchant we favor informed her of such. We intended only to relieve Hasse of the orphans draining its resources, and thought that doing so would lessen the burden on Hasse,” Fran explained.
That was the truth; anyone who had worked as the temple’s orphanage director would know all too well how much it cost to support orphans. I had thought that if they didn’t even have the money to properly feed their orphans, they would have been glad to let us take them into the monastery.
“The merchant kindly informed me that taking orphans already signed to a noble would put Hasse in a very bad spot indeed. My apologies for not noticing sooner; I was raised in the temple and my sheltered innocence can be oh-so troubling at times,” I said, placing a worried hand on my cheek.
Ferdinand shot me a cold glare that seemed to say “In what world are you innocent?” but I ignored him completely.
“Thus, Lady Rozemyne contacted Lord Kantna the scholar and negotiated for the contract to be nullified,” Fran said, showing Kantna’s contract. Richt’s expression softened with relief almost instantly. There was no doubt in my mind that he really had been agonizing over the conflict with nobles that would have arisen from the orphans being taken away.
“Now that the contract has been nullified, I would like to officially buy Nora and the others,” I said. “Will that be acceptable?”
“Of course. Please, follow me.”
Judging by Richt’s tone, the rumors from the merchants hadn’t yet reached Hasse. I couldn’t help but wonder how the flow of information worked here. In the past, I had never left the city and only heard rumors from my family and Lutz, so I wasn’t entirely sure how farming towns got their information.
I was taken to the mayor’s room and offered a seat. They served not tea, but rather fresh juice squeezed from local apfelsige. The pink liquid was poured into a silver cup no doubt used for noble visitors. Both proper technique and high-quality leaves were important for making tasty tea, and I could imagine that Hasse didn’t have the capacity to prepare expensive tea for rare noble visitors.
“Which wine would you prefer?” Richt asked Ferdinand, despite having just given me juice.
Wine at noon? Even though we came here on business?
Ferdinand and I blinked in surprise, which wasn’t the reaction Richt had expected. He faltered a little. Bezewanst and his priests had apparently welcomed wine at any time of the day.
“I desire no wine. I shall drink what the High Bishop is having,” Ferdinand replied. And so he was also poured a glass of fruit juice, served in a similar silver cup.
Fran took the cup, smelled it, examined the color, swished it around, and then drank one mouthful. He swallowed it slowly, before wiping his mouth with a finger and checking to see if anything had happened to the cup.
With the poison testing done, Fran used a cloth to wipe the lip of the cup before presenting the drinks to Ferdinand and me, all while Monika wrote down the steps she had just observed on her diptych. I watched her out of the corner of my eye as I moved to pick up the cup, only to suddenly freeze.
So heavy...!
The silver goblet was stupidly heavy compared to the cups I usually used. I couldn’t pick it up with one hand, and even when I tried using both, my arms trembled like crazy.
I’m going to spill this. I’m going to drop the cup when I try to drink from it.
Fran immediately noticed my problem and extended a hand to assist me—or rather, he picked up the cup over my hand and brought it to my mouth for me. I took a sip, and a refreshing citrus flavor spread through my mouth.
With that done, it was finally time to get to business.
“So, just to make sure I understand this correctly—we are nullifying my contract with Lord Kantna and signing a new one to sell the orphans to the High Priest and Lady Rozemyne, the newly assigned High Bishop?” the mayor asked.
“Indeed.”
After giving the mayor the same explanation he had given Richt, Fran presented Kantna’s contract. The mayor agreed to nullifying it and prepared a new contract for us to officially purchase Nora and the others. As the High Bishop, I signed the contract alongside the mayor. Then, once Fran had paid the money, it was done. I sighed in relief at everything having finished without any major problems.
The mayor was probably equally relieved that his contract with the scholar-official was being nullified and he was still safely earning the money. I saw his shoulders loosen up, but then he gave a nasty grin—one so gross that I felt uncomfortable just looking at it.
“Still, Lord Bezewanst certainly has impressive influence, even after retiring. I would expect nothing less from the uncle of the archduke himself. He truly is a powerful man,” the mayor said in a slimy tone. He had unsurprisingly failed to properly understand the letter, which meant that he still didn’t know Bezewanst was dead. He was even emphasizing the fact that he was the archduke’s uncle.
Sure, he was Sylvester’s uncle, but he was still executed for his crimes, okay?
The mayor didn’t seem to know that I had been assigned to the role of High Bishop due to being the archduke’s daughter, but he was being so smug that I didn’t feel like correcting his misunderstanding.
“I see. I had no idea he was such a respectable man,” I replied, half-listening as the mayor continued to dump praise onto Bezewanst. But could you please shut up already? I feel like my side’s about to freeze up.
Ferdinand was sitting to my right, radiating a frosty aura with a smile on his face. It was pretty terrifying. The mayor didn’t seem to notice that at all, however, and while he was free to dig his own grave and rest his neck on the chopping block, I didn’t want him to do it while I was present.
“This is something of a secret, but I have deep connections with the former High Bishop, and he has done much to accommodate my needs over the years. Him speaking to you was of my request, in fact,” the mayor said proudly. He had apparently misread the letter so badly that he thought his own letter to the temple had been sent to Bezewanst, who then yelled at us and made us come and pay for the orphans.
...Please, don’t say another word! You don’t have long to live as it is; don’t make the rest of your life even shorter! I cried out inside, but my silent words didn’t reach him.
Wearing a satisfied grin, the mayor told us that we would be wise to continue obeying the former High Bishop, since while he was no longer in the temple, he was still the archduke’s uncle.
I was sweating hard for the rest of the meeting, just waiting for Ferdinand to explode, but it ultimately ended without issue. I stood up, relieved that I hadn’t needed to witness a murder up close, and returned to the monastery.
“Now then, Rozemyne—I will very carefully be watching to see what you do with that moronic, incompetent, hopeless, blustering fool of a mayor. His life is of no concern to us. Learn what you can from his miserable failures,” Ferdinand spat. His long string of derogatory adjectives made it more than clear that, if not for the mayor being a learning experience, he would already be dead. Plotting the mayor’s downfall was hard, but it was still better than being drenched in a sudden shower of blood.
Though I feel like the mayor’s just made things a lot harder for me... I really doubt I’ll be able to live up to Ferdinand’s expectations here.
“I will do all that I can to isolate the mayor and secure cooperation between Hasse and the monastery. Mark is already quite enthusiastically spreading rumors and progressing our plans, so I ask you to wait until spring for the results to show.”
As much as I hope Ferdinand calms down by spring, I kind of doubt he will...
We gathered the monastery’s priests together and informed them about the Harvest Festival and our winter plans, including the fact that Lutz and Gil would be coming by to make hide glue. Once that was done, Ferdinand and I returned to Ehrenfest’s temple.
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