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“Oh, Margrave Baumeister-dono. Congratulations on your rise in peerage.”
“Philine-sama, you look lovely today.”
“Indeed, after all, she’s the daughter of the Margrave Breithilde house, the major power in the southern territories of the Kingdom.”
“If their child succeeds the Margrave Baumeister House, the relationship between both families will become even deeper.”
“……”
It’s not like I got any particular benefits out of this, but I still held a celebration party at my mansion in Baulburg for becoming a Margrave. Many nobles, their family members, chief retainers, and prominent merchants like Arterio participated in it. They all congratulated Philine and me.
Given that I was busy and didn’t have any motivation to do this from the start, I left the preparations to Roderich, but since some of the participants were saying disturbing stuff, the atmosphere was somewhat tense. I don’t know what their relationship is with Margrave Breithilde, but they stirred up the venue by talking about the bonds between the two families deepening if Philine becomes the first wife, despite Elise being at my side as well.
Elise smiled sweetly, pretending not to mind all of this, but the priest, who had come as representative of Cardinal Hohenheim, was donning a deadpan face while standing a bit away from us.
“(Why must I listen to the snide remarks of fellow nobles after paying a lot of money for this party…?)”
It’s not my taste to experience stuff like that…
“The Margrave Baumeister House will likely become the biggest high-ranking noble family in another ten years.”
“No, our family was just founded recently. We still have a long way to go when compared to the dignitaries of longstanding Margrave families.”
This time, another noble started to stir up things from a different direction. He’s probably trying to make Margrave Breithilde and the other high-ranking nobles break off with me for being a youngster who’s getting carried away too much.
I can’t help wondering about the purpose of doing something like that, but thinking back now, the higher-ups in my trading company on Earth were pointlessly sabotaging each other as well. It’s completely unproductive, but it’s impossible to stop it, so I can only think that this must be an integral part of humans.
In the first place, we don’t even possess enough of a population to be counted as a genuine Margrave House. My rank as Margrave is below that of the three big Margraves who spearhead the regions in the Kingdom. Otherwise, it’d be weird for me to be Magrave Breithilde’s vassal.
Given our status as a rising family, I’m more than happy to be ranked as the lowest among the Margraves. I think it’d have been even better if they had created something like the High Earl rank, which had been assigned to Duke Mizuho in the past, but apparently, such precedents didn’t exist in the Helmut Kingdom.
The power of the central government being strong also means that the bureaucrats possess a lot of power, but they probably couldn’t create a new peerage rank all of a sudden. Then again, government officials generally don’t act proactively if there’s no precedent. But, because it’d be tough for our family without the assistance of the Margrave Breithilde House, this solution actually suits me too.
“Margrave Baumeister-dono, you are the hero of modern times.”
“Indeed, it seems like His Majesty regards you highly as well. To an extent that would make anyone jealous.”
“Actually, my daughter is going to turn fifteen years old this year.”
“My younger sister is fourteen.”
All the parties prepared by Roderich are a success, but every last one of them is desperate, trying to curry favors with me through flattery. Since I obtained Akitsushima Island as new territory, they probably want to have a slice of the pie, too.
Also, I don’t need your daughters and sisters.
“I acquired a new territory, but the work on it only starts now.”
There’s still no profit from it that I can share. All of it will stay with us. If not for me, who possesses huge savings, the development budget and sundry expenses would likely bankrupt any normal noble. And since the Kingdom is aware of that as well, they pushed the island on me.
The Kingdom is fixated on advancing into the east, a region no one has explored thus far, and the south, beyond Akitsushima Island.
The Lingaia, which returned from the demon country, is scheduled to head out on an eastern expedition next.
“Philine, you did well. Good job out there.”
It’s not like we did it to avoid those annoying nobles, but Philine and I went around the venue, greeting the guests. Since there are many attendees, Elise and my other wives also headed out to cover groups of people.
Elise not going around at my side naturally was done to give Philine publicity. After all, it’s common knowledge at this point that Elise is my first wife.
Making the daughter of Margrave Breithilde marry me, despite her being a bastard, has the aim of showing off my deep connection with Margrave Breithilde to the nobles. Even if we deduct the fact that Margrave Breithilde looks at Philine, who has dolled up for this occasion, very leniently as a doting father, she carried out the greetings steadily and without any flaws. Although not yet of age, she was pretty reliable and level-headed.
She also has some courage, so I can totally understand why Doushi has taken a liking to her.
Meanwhile, Margrave Breithilde was deeply moved by his daughter’s growth. Next to him, his wife was appalled, though.
“Dear, Philine will be fine.”
“She might be alright, but worrying about her is an expression of my fatherly love.”
And he’s a bigger worrywart than anyone else. Margrave Breithilde’s anxious looks also stabbed me. He was probably trying to tell me to back Philine up properly.
But, as far as I could tell, Philine didn’t need any help from me.
“Father, how did I do?”
“Leaving aside Margrave Baumeister, you were flawless, Philine,” praised Margrave Breithilde after we finished making the rounds.
I wonder whether it’s worthy of such exaggerated praise, but this guy is incredibly soft on his daughter. In contrast to that, he seems not to give a damn about me.
After all, he didn’t say anything about my performance. However, I don’t mind since I don’t really want to be praised by Margrave Breithilde either.
“Margrave Baumeister, since this is such a great opportunity, could Philine stay in this mansion until she becomes an adult…”
“Out of the question! Philine must stay in Breitburg until she becomes an adult!”
And once again, Margrave Breithilde’s wife tried to suggest that Philine would stay at our mansion in Baulburg, just to have this thwarted by Margrave Breithilde speaking against it. He can’t change the fact that I will marry Philine, but he wants his daughter to live with him for as long as possible.
“Dear, her becoming accustomed to life in the Baumeister family would be…”
“No! Not until she becomes an adult! She still has a lot left to study, too!”
As usual, Margrave Breithilde refused to let go of his daughter, using strong words.
“Margrave Baumeister is also busy with the management of his new territory, so we shouldn’t trouble him any more with extra work. It will be fine as long as Philine visits Baulburg regularly. Yes, that will be for the best,” Margrave Breithilde declared in an unusually decisive and assertive tone.
Does he hate to part with his daughter so much…?
“The number of airship flights between Breitburg and Baulburg has increased as well, so she can come here anytime. It’s also okay for Margrave Baumeister to pick her up with Teleport.”
Despite being my fiancée, Philine is still a minor. As such, Margrave Breithilde’s proposal is easier on me as well. But even if not, there’s still Lulu and Fujiko, and there’s also the cases of Ryouko, Yuki, and Yui.
I thought the same during the civil war in the Empire, but it’s really difficult to rule over a land that’s inhabited by a different race. If they were to start a rebellion, we’d get punished by the Kingdom.
The number of my wives is already set in stone, and if Akitsushima Island calms down due to the marriages, Roderich will be relieved, too.
Because of that, I’d like to postpone dealing with Philine for a bit longer, if possible.
The other nobles? I don’t care! Don’t push any more girls on me!
“How is the ruling of Akitsushima Island actually going?”
“At present, everything is proceeding well, I’d say.”
Since they’re basically Mizuho people──though it’d be bad not to call them Akitsushima people since the islanders would get angry if you call them Mizuho people──they have been cautious for militaristic reasons, but it seemed to have been a great idea to show them my magic.
There were almost no casualties during the conquest, and the few that got injured or killed simply had ignored the rules of battle. The development of the island is advancing under the lead of the Margrave Baumeister House, and once the population grows, it will also become possible for them to migrate to other places. We’re forcing the hot-blooded folks to earn money in monster domains. All that’s left now is to stabilize our family’s rule until I die.
“That’s great to hear. At any rate, the negotiations between the Kingdom and the demons are completely stuck.”
With the Empire having joined as well, there are various influential people and groups with various interests among the three parties. You can say it’s only natural that a solution will take time.
“Recently, it looks like they’re trying to use excavated items for technological development.”
“They built a device to prevent theft.”
“I want that by all means.”
In reality, that alone won’t be sufficient. We have been buying various magic tools for cheap from the demon queen’s company. We managed to obtain a large number of magic tools, which are regarded as trash in the demon country, in this way, allowing us to use them in the development of the Baumeister territory, including Akitsushima Island.
The purchase itself is illegal, or rather, very dodgy in regard to the law, but if we didn’t do this, I wouldn’t be able to handle all of the territory myself since it’s simply too big. If we don’t automate it through magic tools, the development won’t proceed. Of course, one could say we should buy the necessary tools at the Kingdom’s magic tool guild, but magic railroad cars, magic farm machinery, and magic desalination facilities didn’t exist in the Kingdom because of the lack of technological level of the magic tool guild.
Moreover, because the production output of other magic tools that actually exist in the Kingdom is low as well, the prices are abnormally high. Even then, it’d be all well if only we could procure the tools, but the shortage of stock meant that you had to reserve and wait for them.
Usually, this situation is so bad that anyone would consider importing magic tools from elsewhere, but the magic tool guild will definitely go out of business if highly efficient, moderately priced magic tools are imported from the demon country.
Our magic tool guild has linked up with the Empire’s magic tool guild, lobbying for a ban on magic tool imports. Given that the chief executive of the magic tool guild passed away in this situation, things became unnecessarily more complicated and confusing.
If the negotiations are concluded because of this death, the people would suspect that the Kingdom had signed an unfavorable treaty after being tricked.
“Having said that, it’s not like the situation has changed in any way. The Kingdom is plunging ahead with its development. Meanwhile, the recent civil war has strengthened the power of the central government in the Empire. This is allowing the Emperor to push the development of magic tools while also using it as a means of post-war recovery.”
This might be another reason why the negotiations aren’t going anywhere. Moreover, because of the recent change in governments in the demon country, no experienced politicians are taking part in the negotiations on their side.
“There is no need to fret.”
“I think so as well.”
Like this, the party came to an end without a hitch. Once again, it hit me that I had become a Margrave, but as expected, it didn’t change anything about my everyday life.
“Milord, today’s schedule is full. After all, you have managed to become a Margrave. It’s a peerage equal in rank to a Marquis. Milord’s responsibilities are going to become bigger. I shall work even harder than before to match this heavy responsibility.”
“……”
“(Wend, didn’t your treatment actually became worse after you were assigned as Margrave?)”
“(I have been feeling something like that as well…)”
Erw’s merciless remark stabbed my delicate heart. Roderich is the sort of person who sees his work as his purpose in life, but I’m not like that. Maybe it’d have been better if I hadn’t become a Margrave?
Still, seeing how I couldn’t have declined it anyway, it’s pointless to think about such hypothetical scenarios. Thus, I started my public works with magic.
＊ ＊ ＊
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“Huh? Your Majesty, do you have school today?”
“Yep. Today is the anniversary of the school’s establishment.”
“You sure have a lot of vacations. I’m envious…”
“The time for a demon student at school is long. The curriculum is kept very lax. Lyra has been calling it the Adverse Effect of a Pressure-free Education System.”
“I see…(humans and demons sure come up with the same terminology…)”
A lot of heavy machinery, farm tractors, and railroad cars were busily moving around on Akitsushima Island. The ones operating them were young employees of the demon queen’s company and islanders, as well as my retainers who were currently learning the ropes from the employees.
As expected, the benefits of automation are enormous. The development work here is carried out much more efficiently than on the mainland, where we are using all the magic tools excavated from ancient ruins.
“After all, half of the graduates will be unemployed after going through this long educational period. It might actually be a rather problematic system.”
“Ugh!”
“President, we’re working right now!”
“We’re going to get married soon as well.”
Mall and his friends reacted to the term ‘unemployed’. They have been teaching young islanders how to handle the heavy machinery. They have been acting as if it doesn’t matter to them, but it looks like they actually minded being unemployed for an extended period of time.
Anyway, these guys are genuinely excellent, given that they’ve quickly reached a point where they can teach others to operate the machines. Regardless of Arnest’s usual behavior, he does hate idiots, so Mall’s group wouldn’t have been able to join the seminar if they didn’t have some brains.
“We have been hiring many of the young employees at my company. After teaching them for a short time, we’re putting them to use as magic tool operators, repair crews, and trainers.”
The magic tools used by them have been entirely procured by Lyra-san. Many of them are trash that they repaired and items that were sold to her dirt cheap because they’re old models. Since they are usually easy to use, they have been very popular over here.
“I have various questions about this…”
“I’ll answer whatever I can answer myself.”
“Okay, so why do you have so many magic tools leftover?”
“Simply put, we’re overproducing them.”
All the magic tools moving over here have been dubbed “old models.” And yet you can still use them perfectly fine. Quite a few were inferior in performance to the magic tools from underground ruins, but usually, there was no problem using them. At least, magic tools are definitely faster than using standard tools like pickaxes.
Besides, they’re items we can’t build on the Lingaia Continent right now.
“If you maintain a magic tool properly, it can keep going for several hundred, or even several thousand years, depending on the type.”
“This is nice, I think.”
“Yes.”
A spell called Preservation exists. If you remove the core from magic tools, they are easier to build than the industrial goods and electrical appliances of modern Japan, so you can learn maintenance and repairs quickly if you get a bit of training.
If the core part is broken, it’s busted, but even then, the demon country achieved it through increased productivity and tighter quality control.
“Magic tools that are hard to break…new products which are being produced one after the other. Every year, several new items are presented, but I cannot erase the question of how the current items differ from last year’s competition. I won’t claim that the performance hasn’t improved, but to be honest, the difference is quite small. If the number of demons buying new magic tools decreases, the company will have to lay off people and eventually shut down itself. Of course, the government is troubled by that, so they prohibited the use of older magic tools.”
Officially, they claim they’re doing it because magic tools are dangerous beyond their service lifetime.
In reality, they enforced a replacement of magic tools by law and tried to prevent an increase in unemployment or the collapse of the company itself.
“They keep the economy running by having the people buy magic tools frequently.”
Because of that, a tremendous amount of magic tools becomes garbage, and it takes a large sum to dispose of them while keeping environmental protection in mind.
“The illegal dumping of garbage has turned into a social problem. Even when we pick up the garbage, we won’t earn any complaints; rather, we’ll get thanks. Volunteers at our company are cleaning up trash every day.”
At a glance, they’re doing public service for free, but the demon queen’s company repairs the old tools and sells them to us for a profit.
“Also, we have started to collect waste for free as well.”
This seems to be Lyra-san’s idea. They pick up magic tools, which have exceeded their lifetime, from normal citizens to dispose of them for a small fee. Then they repair those as well, before selling them to us.
“However, Layla mentioned it as well, but it seems like the number of rivals has recently been growing.”
“Eh!? Really?”
So we aren’t the only ones handling things like this. Considering it calmly, it makes a lot of sense, but I was still surprised by this. Still, it’s only logical for people with some wit and the ability to get things done to start this sort of business in the demon country.
“Especially since the Empire got involved. According to rumors, the imperial government has founded dummy companies, using those to do trade with garbage dealers in our country.”
This is something Peter would definitely pull off. While officially getting worn out from fighting with the magic tool guild, he’s buying up secondhand magic tools to use them for development purposes. If he feels like it, he can also lend them out to other nobles, which allows the imperial government to become even more powerful.
“They sure are lucky that the magic tool guild isn’t getting angry.”
“It’s the same for you as well, isn’t it, Margrave Baumeister?”
At first, I only used the magic tools I bought from the demon country on Akitsushima Island, but since we have been lacking magic tools on the mainland, we used some tricks to use those demon magic tools there as well.
Sooner or later, the magic tool guild will probably catch wind of this, but even if they complain about it, I intend to insist that we’re just buying trash from the demons and magic tools that we cannot obtain at the Kingdom’s magic tool guild.
Even Roderich is going along with this bullish position of arguing that they shouldn’t complain if they can’t provide magic tools with the same functions in the first place.
Because we have been burdened with Akitsushima Island in a situation where the development of the Baumeister mainland hasn’t even finished yet, it’s only natural that we lack manpower. Hence, it’s of utmost importance for us to automate as much as possible. Seeing how the magic tool guild cannot provide what we need, we have no choice but to import the tools from elsewhere.
“The Kingdom’s government was the last to pick up on this, but they apparently made their move now as well. It seems like a merchant is gathering oversized garbage as their representative.”
No one is explicitly talking about it, but everyone is thinking the same. Given that the negotiations aren’t going well, thanks to the magic tool guild’s pressure, we have no option but to obtain the demons’ magic tools unofficially.
“It’s illegal, though.”
To be precise, the Helmut Kingdom and Sacred Urquhart Empire have extremely loose laws. Even someone like me can easily find loopholes.
Because there had been just one foreign country thus far, I’d be punished if I selfishly traded with the Empire’s government or nobles, but trading with the demons, who didn’t enter the quotation so far, wasn’t against the law.
The trade negotiations were blocked by the magic tool guilds of both countries, so you couldn’t call it illegal if someone bought magic tools from the demons on their own accord. The magic tool guilds might protest against this, but it’s not like it violates the laws of both countries.
However, I have been buying magic tools at the magic tool guild as long as they had what I was looking for. I was doing that in preparation for the guild’s protests. Though it doesn’t look like it’s been found out yet, seeing how no one has told me.
“I don’t know about the official negotiations, but the number of demons dealing with humans behind the scenes will likely keep growing.”
I have been using my Teleport to meet with the demon queen and Mall’s group, who put the goods into their magic bag. The other merchants can’t use that method, but all of the demons are outstanding magicians. They can put the goods in a magic bag and transfer them all the way to the Lingaia Continent.
Any demon wanting to make a profit should be doing at least that much, the demon queen explained.
“It was a good thing that Lyra and I got to know Margrave Baumeister. Otherwise, Mall and his friends would be forced to fly with magic.”
“Eh? Us?”
“Please let us use a ship at least!”
“No, since it’s likely going to sink, that would be a bit too much…”
As might be expected, even Mall’s group wasn’t intent on traveling to both countries by ship, risking an accident and getting stranded. They learned from their own experience, since we rescued them when they were stranded at sea on a self-built raft.
But these days, they shouldn’t do anything like that, given that they’re going to get married.
“I heard some people even bought old magic airships. Individuals and small companies are likely scheming to do trade with the Lingaia Continent.”
The number of demons and humans moving on their own accord was increasing. I made my move first, then the Kingdom and Empire, and now even nobles of both countries, who are quick on the uptake, are making their moves. Because of that, some people, who were trying to achieve success, were eagerly collecting all the junk.
“Can they buy boats?”
“Wooden boats are cheap, after all.”
Currently, the defense forces seem to rely mainly on metallic magic airships in the demon country. It takes a lot of money and effort to maintain the old wooden airships, and because their magic tools have reached the end of their service lives, it’s impossible to operate them, leading to many ships being abandoned, the demon queen explained.
“Do you want them, Margrave Baumeister?”
“I’ll gladly take all you can get.”
Magic airships are hard to come by over here, so I obviously want as many of them as I can get.
“Well, we’re talking about Lyra here, so I think she’s already gathering them, but I’ll tell her just in case.”
After checking the state of Mall’s group and the dispatched young instructors, the demon queen returned to her farm village with my Teleport.
＊
And then, one week later, several hundred medium and small magic airships were lined up on a great field in the Baumeister Margraviate’s mainland.
“What an amazing amount…”
“This is just a part of the total. Our company has secured ten times as much.”
“It’s because of Lyra’s excellence.”
“I see…”
Because of today’s big sale, Lyra-san showed up as well.
“The only regrettable thing about this is that quite a few of the large airships were snatched away by other traders. Even so, I managed to obtain a certain number of them…”
“I won’t buy any large airships. I can introduce you to customers, though.”
The demon queen looked at me, clearly not understanding why I didn’t want to buy the large airships.
“Only the Kingdom’s government is allowed to own large magic airships. The ones who likely snatched the other large airships…”
“Dummy company set up by the Kingdom and Empire, huh…?”
Roderich answered in my stead.
According to the information he gathered, Peter and the Kingdom’s crown prince have been buying special magic tools and such from the demons.
Even though they’re using dummy companies as countermeasures against the magic tool guilds, it’s an open secret at this point, so it won’t be weird for the guilds to complain about this anytime soon.
Since the magic tool guild has been quarreling ever since the guildmaster’s death, that might not be happening anytime soon, though.
“The law forbidding nobles to possess large airships has been around for a long time now, so I cannot afford to break it. I will buy the small and medium airships. But, quite a few of them seem to be rather dangerous to use…”
Many of the ships have deteriorated significantly because they were treated as oversized garbage. Around half of the ships here looked like they’d break apart if you tried to fly with them.
“They’ve been accordingly cheap in return.”
“Well, okay. That’s fair.”
The old airships of the demon country are made of wood and use a design similar to that of the airships on Lingaia. They were likely treated as trash because they’re outdated, but it should be fairly possible for human craftsmen to fix their hulls.
We’re going to build several repair workshops and airship hangars in the margraviate, and then we’ll put the ships in service after repairing and training sailors.
It’s been judged difficult to completely eradicate the serpents on the southern route, which also includes Akitsushima Island. As such, it has become necessary to increase the number of airships. We can also use them to travel and transport goods within our vast territory. And on top of that, they can be used for trade, and people traffic with other noble territories. No matter how many airships there are, it won’t be an issue to put them to work.
“I will try contacting a person who is buying the large airships.”
I took out my MHCD and contacted the crown prince.
『Ooohh! How nice to hear from you, my friend Wendelin!』
“Why is he deliberately stressing the part of him being your friend, Margrave Baumeister?”
Demon Queen, please don’t point that out.
『So, are you going to invite me to some event? I can open up my schedule for you at any time!』
“So desperate…”
Demon Queen, any more…and I’ll start crying because it’s so pathetic (even if the crown prince cannot hear her).
“Actually, there’s something I’d like to discuss with you…”
I brought up the story about the large, magic airships with the crown prince. Thereupon, his tone became very serious.
『The people, whom I asked, reported that they were able to secure quite a few of them, but for Peter-dono to have also moved in addition to you, Wendelin, was unexpected』
As far as the Kingdom was concerned, they had known for a long time that I was making deals with the demons in secret. I’d have been punished if I had procured weapons or dangerous drugs, but when it came to magic tools, which our country doesn’t possess, they’ve been doing the same. It’s a fact that I moved first, but nowadays others are in on this as well. There would be no point in blaming me for this.
“The merchant we asked didn’t know about the law that nobles aren’t allowed to possess large magic airships. Thus, I wanted to introduce her to Your Highness.”
The Margrave Baumeister House has no intention to go against the law. I had to make sure that the crown prince fully understood this part.
『I’ll buy all of them. Regardless of their state. We must get a lead on Peter-dono in this matter. I got scolded by Father about it』
Because they can be used for transport and travel, both countries have been tenacious about securing large airships. It’s something like a competition over the number of battleships by the countries on Earth in the past.
Until just recently, the Kingdom had an overwhelming advantage in this area, but the Empire has caught up by buying old airships from the demons. Nothing less of the guy who won the struggle for the throne in the civil war. Peter’s decision-making speed is astonishing.
Still, for him to move behind the scenes despite them looking troubled by the messy state of the negotiations…
His Majesty and the crown prince cannot fall behind.
“I don’t need an agency fee either.”
『That is very welcome』
Since I’d hate being blamed for having started to trade with the demons before anyone else, I should get the crown prince indebted to me here.
Having such thoughts…does that mean I’ve improved? Or did I go out for wool here, just to come back shorn? It’s hard to tell.
『Let us talk about the details later then』
“I understand.”
After ending the call with the crown prince, I told Lyra-san that he wants to buy the large airships.
“Thank you.”
No, no, it’s enough if I get her to feel indebted to me with this.
“Given that no official trade agreement between the two governments exists, this can be counted as a sort of smuggling. It’s not illegal, but the government won’t back you if things go wrong. The number of humans entering that market will probably increase from now on, but at the same time, swindlers will pop up as well.”
Some people might already have been scammed. It’s not just the humans who deceive others. Swindlers also exist among the demons. Of course, once the trade of weapons, illegal drugs, and slaves starts, the governments of both countries won’t be able to stay silent any longer. Freedom necessitates self-discipline.
“You are quite special in this regard, Margrave Baumeister-dono. I hope His Highness is the same,” Lyra-san said while smiling coolly.
If the monarchy had continued in the demon country, she might have been its prime minister. She’s demonstrating her excellence in the management of their company. But, it looks like she’s deeply worried about being unable to find herself a good man.
At first, Mall and his friends tried to make a pass at her, but once they realized they had no chance, they set their sights on young female demons working at the company. Since they can marry them now, they might actually be quite skilled at communication.
“Lyra.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. Is there anything worrying you?”
“Is our company going to dwindle, seeing how we just trade in second-hand magic tools?”
She has a point. If all the old magic tools are gone, they won’t have much of a choice but to gather magic tools that stop being used every year and sell those. If the number of merchants entering this market increases, it’s possible that Lyra-san will be unable to secure the purchases.
“Accordingly, there’s something I wish to buy from the Baumeister Margraviate.”
“Is there anything among our goods you could sell in the demon country?”
I can only think of metals and food. But it’d be best to wait for the official trade agreement to deal with these.
“Of course there is. The monster domains in my country are all on one island, so the variety of monster types is low. Even if we buy their raw materials, you can hardly make anything out of them.”
For example, the demon clothes use processed fibers and fur produced on large-scale farms. There also exist clothes made from monster materials, but they are expensive and rare.
“The labor costs in our country are higher than in human countries. It’s expensive to deliberately make clothes out of materials obtained through hunting. Since they’re luxury items on top of being high-class, the number of people capable of buying them is low.”
“Won’t that be the same with the monster materials we can get over here?”
“No. You have an extremely large number of monsters that don’t exist in the demon country. If it’s accessories and clothes made out of those, it should meet a demand among a fixed number of rich people.”
“What about the processing techniques?”
“The demon country has become proficient at technology that produces large amounts of clothes with a certain level of quality, but the sewing techniques of professional tailors aren’t that different from those in the human countries. The labor costs in the Kingdom are low, so it will be possible to lower the price a bit and have people from the middle class also buy the products.”
“In this case… It’s going to be that man, huh…?”
“You sure have a lot of acquaintances, Margrave Baumeister-sama.”
Thinking of a person who could be entrusted with that new project, I immediately contacted him.
＊ ＊ ＊
“Heeeeey, how have you guys been doing?”
“……”
“Huh? Ron-chan, you’re here as well? You don’t really have that much interest in fashion, do you? Your fashion sense during our time as newcomer adventurers was so bad that I had to buy things for you to wear. How nostalgic.”
“I was very grateful to you back then…”
That person, although it might be inconvenient for Doushi, was no one other than Candy-san. Be it fashion design, sewing, business, or sales, this man can handle all of it. He should fit Lyra-san’s criteria pretty neatly.
As far as Doushi is concerned, he probably isn’t overly happy with this choice of personnel because Candy-san knows all his past weaknesses and blunders, but…it looks like fixing Doushi’s fashion sense proved to be difficult even for Candy-san.
“Let’s produce a small amount first, and if it’s popular, we can add people. I have the necessary connections.”
Despite his odd appearance for the Kingdom’s standards, Candy-san is acquainted with a lot of people, so he’d order the production of clothes for us.
“Hey, what kind of fashion do demons like?”
“This here is the fashion magazine with the most popular clothes in our country.”
“For you guys to have something like that…the demon country sure is convenient.”
Candy-san flipped through the magazine while looking very interested.
“But, it’s not that different from human fashion. Though it seems like a lot of your clothes are leaning more towards being functional…”
I think the demons’ fashion resembles that of modern Japan. Every year a fashionable color is designated and there exist smaller, seasonal fads. But, there are unexpectedly many people who don’t spend much time on their fashion. Quite a few also wear casual wear or fake jumpsuits like Lumi. Those are regarded as work clothes that are common among working people. Troublesome folks have been misappropriating them as plain clothes. Of course, office workers wear suits, but many also wear them during their days off, albeit without neckties.
“Even though they work in offices, many of them earn a meager salary. I have previously worked in an office as well. The pay was rather bad.”
Lyra-san explained the fashion situation in the demon country.
“Because of that, many people buy cheap clothes. Those are clothes mass-produced by big corporations. The high-class brands are catered towards wealthy people and those who see fashion as a hobby.”
“That’s why we’re going to make clothes with materials you can’t get in the demon country at the same level of quality and sell them at a slightly lower price than the high-class brands. We also have the advantage of tailoring them by hand. People who have settled for having one set of high-quality clothes thus far might be able to buy two or three sets with the same amount of money.”
“It’s going to be second-hand, but we can also provide sewing machines for cheap.”
“Hmm, the magic tool guild will make a fuss about that, so we should refrain from using those for now.”
Actually, sewing machines exist on the Lingaia Continent as well. Their performance is poor, but they’re much faster than sewing by hand. Candy-san himself possesses several of those machines. He told the magic tool guild that he wants a lot more, but he was apparently turned down because their production can’t keep up with the demand.
“They’re trying to block the import from the demon country, despite being unable to sell it themselves…what a truly detestable bunch of people.”
It sounds as though Candy-san doesn’t like the magic tool guild all that much.
“It’s because they’d all become unemployed if magic tools from the demon country were to regularly enter the Kingdom’s market.”
“You have a point there.”
Price, efficiency, and failure rate; there are a few aspects where Lingaia’s magic tools can win against the demon country’s magic tools. At this point, the only thing holding everything back is the magic tool guild’s political power.
“Right now they’re at a dead end, though. After all, their guildmaster, who held a lot of political clout, died the other day.”
“I went to the funeral service, but are they still fighting over the succession to his post?”
“Yep. It seems like a quite stupid thing to do at a time like this, doesn’t it?”
With this ongoing struggle over the succession, they shouldn’t be able to negotiate anything, but since they aren’t that stupid either, they have been continuing to apply pressure on the Kingdom’s government to not import magic tools from the demons.
As a side effect of their internal problems, the production rate has dropped. This shutdown of the magic tool guild is becoming a problem, even for the capital.
“We’re just importing junk, though.”
“It seems like they’re adopting vehicles called Magic Four-Wheelers, which can move without horses, for the army. Those have been imported from the demon country, haven’t they?”
Not only our family, but other nobles and the governments of both countries are actually importing magic tools. All of them are decommissioned vehicles or vehicles planned to soon be decommissioned in the demon country, but it’s inevitable because the magic tool guilds can’t make these.
“Margrave Baumeister-sama, I heard you sold a considerable number of items, which have been excavated from ancient ruins, to the magic tool guild.”
“You sure have good ears, Candy-san.”
“I’m a former adventurer, after all.”
Heavy machinery and vehicles were included as well. They probably bought them from me as research material so they’d be able to make those themselves, but I haven’t heard anything about them having succeeded in building a prototype yet. It’s probably impossible to predict when they might reach such a point.
“That’s why. They’ll be troubled if people tell them to make things themselves if they’re unhappy about the import, so they’ve been tacitly tolerating the import of magic tools they can’t build themselves.”
The highly prideful top brass of the magic tool guild likely can’t admit that they can’t build something.
The same applies to the Empire magic tool guild as well. They should have obtained many of the items Duke Nürnberg excavated during the Civil War, but they haven’t been able to reproduce them thus far. This is the reason why they’re strongly opposing the import of magic tools from the demon country, together with the Kingdom’s magic tool guild.
“You can’t fill your stomach with pride.”
“I agree with Candy-san’s opinion on this.”
Lyra-san doesn’t seem to have any issues with Candy-san, who’s a girl at heart. Maybe it’s not that unusual in the demon country? They might be recognizing the right of such people over there, just like they do in modern Japan.
“If it’s luxury items, it’s better to produce them in small batches. It bears no meaning to mass-produce them.”
“It is a pleasure to see that our thinking aligns.”
Lyra-san appears to consider Candy-san a good trading partner.
“I’ll leave my store in the capital to the daughter of my acquaintance and make the clothes at the tailor workshop in Baulburg.”
＊
Candy-san and I decided to build a workshop for order-made clothes, with each of us funding half of the costs. We gathered craftsmen who seemed capable of making goods that would sell in the demon country and added more workshops. This didn’t include just clothes, but also handicrafts, art pieces, accessories, and more.
The scale was small, and the production capacity was low, but those weren’t products destined to compete with mass-produced items in the first place.
I think it’s going to be more than plenty with this much.
＊
“Selling those items in the demon country falls into our sphere of action. Given that they will very likely sell since they’re unusual and rare, we will keep searching for other products we can exploit in the same way.”
Just like this, small-scale foreign trade was added to the company of the demon queen and Lyra-san. Keeping the scale small was a measure to prevent the government from taking action against them.
“As we have been doing so far, we will keep collecting magic tools as well. There are many magic tools which have been discarded as it was too much of a hassle for their owners to take them to rubbish dumps, so as long as we sell those after repairing and cleaning them…hehehe…”
“You’re going to make quite a profit, eh?”
Candy-san remained calm, even after watching Lyra-san smiling in an eerie manner.
“The scale of the company with His Majesty at the top keeps growing bigger, and we’re also saving up money. Being able to have a positive outlook for the future is a good thing.”
Their methods are somewhat fishy, but I’m using them as well, and if you apply extreme logic here, you could argue that they’re simply selling junk. Besides, there are many demons who are planning to do the same as Lyra-san, and there are also many humans who desire to do business with them.
This nice opportunity to make a profit will disappear once the governments conclude a trade agreement, so it’s necessary for me to move quickly as Margrave Baumeister. Lyra-san probably also believes that it’s a good chance to gather personnel and assets for the demon queen.
“Once the goods are finished, I will come here to purchase them.”
“We will keep making them. Should I try to call out to other acquaintances?”
Thus, Candy-san became the manager of the tailoring workshop and the other workshops that produced items for the demon country’s market in Baulburg.
I wonder how the relationship with the demons is going to develop from now on? There are many parts we don’t know yet, but even though the top remains still, those at the bottom adopt countermeasures and take byways.
＊ ＊ ＊
“Ron-chan, you should wear different clothes every once in a while. You’re already past forty, aren’t you? I think a calm outfit like this would suit you as well. I’m sure your wives would fall in love with you again.”
“You have my gratitude…”
“Oh my, this does look nice.”
Once the contracts were all signed, Candy-san recommended calm clothes like those worn by adult men to Doushi and forced him to try them on. Maybe they were new products, or maybe Candy-san prepared them for Doushi. Either way…usually Doushi wouldn’t comply with trying on clothes, but Candy-san might be someone akin to a natural enemy for him. He meekly tried on the clothes like a lamb.
“If you had gone on that date with the dancer Sasha-san while wearing such fashionable clothes, she wouldn’t have dumped you back when you were eighteen years old.”
“Telling that story in front of everyone…”
“Also, there was that poster girl from the coffee shop in the southern district. I met her there the other day. She has four children nowadays. Time sure flies. You went to that place every day, despite it being so far away.”
“Please give me a break…”
It looks like Candy-san has a lot of dirt on Doushi. I think I’ll have him tell me some of it in the near future.
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Translation Notes:
