Chapter 53. Another Alliance (3)
We gathered with my secretaries in a living room connected to several guest rooms, almost like a hotel suite.
I spread my mana through the room and checked whether anyone was secretly listening.
“Chloe, it’s safe now. There’s no one nearby.”
“First, I apologize for forming an alliance without receiving your permission.”
Chloe spoke while sweating heavily.
Wasn’t she overreacting?
Did she think I was going to cut off her head?
“That part is fine. But I heard the Fatima royal family was going to give me a title. I suppose that won’t happen anymore. The King of Fatima even called us ‘friends.’”
“Gasp! Forgive me! My life was like a candle in the wind, so I had no choice but...”
Chloe dropped to the floor and prostrated herself.
The sight of her being so frightened of me seemed unfamiliar to Raul and Diego.
“Lady Chloe, you don’t need to bow that deeply.”
“Yes. Lady Chloe, please get up. His Lordship will forgive you.”
Even after hearing them, Chloe did not raise her head.
Even to me, this seemed excessive.
Had something happened that made her this afraid of me?
“Ahem. It’s fine. Sooner or later, we probably would have had a conflict with the Fatima Dynasty over Marcel’s lighthouse anyway. Now get up and explain what happened.”
Chloe carefully stood and spoke in a small voice.
“Six months ago, the King of Berber’s eldest daughter died.”
“So?”
“You will be marrying that dead daughter. Her corpse is currently being preserved.”
“......”
Every one of my marriage partners was like this.
The brides from Catalonia and Veneto had not even been born yet.
I was deliberately delaying the marriage with Ronalp.
And now I had to marry a dead woman.
What the hell is wrong with my fate?!
Of course, for political reasons, I had deliberately avoided creating a real marriage.
Still, this was going too far.
“Chloe. Do you hate me?”
“What? Why would you say that?”
“Never mind. Continue.”
“The Berber royal family presented two conditions. First, you must marry the princess in her current state as a corpse. Second, Marcel must not form an alliance with the Fatima Dynasty. In exchange, Marcel receives two privileges. First, they will grant us a patent for any product that does not currently exist. Second, we receive most-favored treatment in trade.”
Marcel was not a nation, so technically it was simply most-favored treatment.
Anyway.
“When did they make this proposal?”
“Four days after the Alexandrian lighthouse keeper arrived in Marcel.”
“Then the King of Berber definitely had no intention of forming a marriage alliance before that. He probably received a report from his spy saying the Fatima Dynasty had contacted me. After that, he investigated me and suddenly made this decision.”
“I believe so as well. If I may speculate, I think learning that you had been blessed by the God of Abundance was what finally convinced him.”
In that case...
“So they want to marry the ‘Corpse Princess’ to someone blessed by a god. There must be some problem with the preserved corpse, and the royal family believes I can solve it.”
“That is also one of the reasons I wrote for you to come here.”
Why did Chloe always overestimate me?
What if I got cursed by the corpse?
Well, I was immune to curses.
“You did well. Since it has already happened, let’s resolve everything properly and take the benefits.”
Chloe sighed in relief.
Then Diego added,
“We secured the patent for making sugar from cattle-feed beet.”
“Finally.”
The Earth crop most similar to cattle-feed beet in this world was sugar beet.
In English, it was literally called Sugar Beet, and together with sugarcane, it was a major source of sugar.
Of course, sugar beets on modern Earth had been selectively improved and genetically modified to increase sugar production.
However, whether because the cattle-feed beet in this world had been bred as livestock feed or because it was naturally special, it also contained nearly as much sugar as sugarcane.
“There is one condition. The King of Berber wants you to demonstrate it personally. I’m worried he intends to steal the technique.”
There was barely any ‘technique’ to steal.
The process was so simple that anyone could copy it after seeing it once.
But it also seemed too trivial for the king of a country to risk his dignity stealing it.
“He has no reason to steal it right now. The royal family has its pride. Maybe if our relationship deteriorates later.”
“What if he changes the conditions after seeing the demonstration?”
“It doesn’t matter. No matter what conditions he adds, we benefit.”
As long as the basic principle of a ‘patent’ remained, even if control passed to Berber, we would still receive part of the profits.
In fact, if we handed over control, there were ways to earn even more.
“Then why don’t we simply make them handle the production?”
“You mean take advantage of economies of scale?”
My original plan had been to grow and process cattle-feed beet inside Marcel.
Diego was suggesting that, since things had reached this point anyway, we should let the Berber Kingdom use its enormous farmland and labor force for mass production.
Marcel would simply take a share of the profits.
“Yes. Let them handle both the fields and factories.”
“It’s a good idea. But if we want protection from the Northern Continent guilds, we still need at least some fields and a factory in Marcel.”
“Can you persuade them?”
If my guess was correct, there was a way.
“Berber should be extremely interested in sugar. I’m not completely certain, but we each possess something the other lacks.”
Diego changed the subject after my vague answer.
“I see. Then what will you do about the demonstration?”
“I’ll do it myself.”
I had already experimented with producing sugar from cattle-feed beet back in Westfalen.
I could not make pure white refined sugar.
But I could make brown sugar containing molasses, or basic sugar separated from molasses through centrifugation.
Good thing I never revealed the production method in Westfalen. I never expected it to become useful like this.
It was not that I had intentionally hidden it.
Westfalen had simply been so wealthy that there was no real need.
And as an illegitimate son, I had not wanted people accusing me of showing off unnecessarily.
“If you tell us what you need, we’ll prepare everything.”
“I want to return to Marcel quickly, so hurry.”
“Yes, my lord.”
* * *
The next afternoon.
We hurriedly prepared the demonstration for making sugar from cattle-feed beet.
Even the King of Berber came to observe, so I stood in front of a large crowd of guards and attendants holding a kitchen knife.
“This feels awkward. I’ve never chopped ingredients in front of an audience before.”
Martin stood beside me wearing an apron and holding his own kitchen knife.
He complained,
“I’ve done something similar plenty of times, but I was using a longsword instead of a kitchen knife.”
“I’ll give you some vacation when we get home, so cheer up. How was I supposed to know you’d be the best at cutting beets?”
We needed to chop large quantities quickly during the demonstration.
I had tested several people, and Martin had been the fastest.
“Can I use aura while cutting?”
“The moment you activate aura, won’t those Sword Masters over there come running?”
The Royal Knight Order was guarding the King during the demonstration.
There were two Sword Masters among them.
It truly reminded me that this was a military power.
Anyway, after finishing preparations, we started cutting the cattle-feed beet.
Takakakakak.
We continued slicing for quite some time.
An empty mind.
I became one with the kitchen knife.
I became one with the beet.
