Ch.120Southern Advance

“Hup!”

I gasped violently, like a whale emerging from the ocean.

When I opened my eyes, the familiar ceiling greeted me, and there was no one around.

Of course, there would be guards outside the door, but at least no one was in this bedroom.

“Hmmm…”

Wondering if my body had suffered any damage, I moved around to check my physical condition.

My current state felt like someone who had woken up at 7 AM and was now facing 10 AM.

Not exactly refreshed, but not uncomfortable either.

No, actually, now that I have to start working, I suddenly feel my condition deteriorating.

“…”

Should I just lie down a bit longer?

*SLAM!*

“Eep.”

“Master! You’re awake!”

“Oh… yes.”

While entertaining such impudent thoughts, Michaela entered carrying a basin of warm water.

I made a sound like a son caught by his mother sneaking out of the bedroom to use the bathroom after secretly picking out meat from the kimchi stew in the middle of the night.

“How long have I been asleep?”

“Hmm… exactly 2 months and 9 days.”

“I see…”

I gauged how long I’d been sleeping while feeling Michaela wiping my armpits and the back of my neck with a damp cloth.

“So it’s harvest season now.”

“Yes. All the farmers are busy harvesting their crops.”

Michaela said this as she picked up a razor and began shaving my beard and mustache.

Hmm. As I always notice, Michaela’s hair removal skills(?) are excellent. When I do it myself, there’s always some roughness left, but when Michaela does it, my chin becomes smooth. It’s a bit frustrating, but I didn’t voice this out loud because I was rather enjoying the sensation of her chest occasionally brushing against my arm.

After some rustling, I received a face wash from Michaela, tidied my clothes, and got out of bed.

“Inform my aide that I’m awake. And bring some documents on your way back.”

“Yes, Master.”

I was utterly dismayed that I had to start working now, but this was all for Amurtat. With the population approaching 3 million, I needed to provide the driving force, didn’t I?

I sat down, broke up the hardened ink in the inkwell, threw it in the trash, and refilled it with spare ink from the bottle.

“Ah… this light and cool sensation. It’s been quite a while…”

I murmured, feeling the quill pen in my right hand.

The nib of the pen, which I had changed a few days before falling asleep, still gleamed with enough sharpness to kill a person, but since I wasn’t someone whose name started with ‘j’ and ended with ‘k’, this sharpness would gradually dull on parchment.

*

*SLAM!*

An hour later, while I was processing the tasks Michaela had brought me, my aide arrived with additional work.

“You seem well. I’m glad, Your Majesty.”

“Of course. If I weren’t well, the barrier would have fallen long ago.”

Saying that, the aide loaded the documents I had approved onto a cart and then brought up more documents from below.

“I’ll need these by this evening.”

“…Why don’t you just be the ruler instead?”

“Haha. You jest well.”

Ah, I can’t just dismiss him either.

Anyway, it’s true that work had piled up while I was asleep.

No matter how efficient the bureaucracy, I was the highest authority in Amurtat, reigning above the bureaucratic system, so tasks that only I could handle had gradually accumulated.

In fact, the documents I was now approving were mostly matters that ordinary officials couldn’t easily judge… issues with complex interests that, if handled strictly by regulations, would inevitably cause backlash in some sector.

“Hmm… as expected, 80% are economic issues.”

Just as they say the worst thing to fight over is money, in this world too, matters of capital cannot be easily overlooked.

As the saying goes, a thief who steals a needle will eventually steal a cow. If we overlook something because the damage isn’t significant, we might end up nurturing economic criminals who could shake the entire nation.

Moreover, letting such things slide would be no different from missing opportunities to refine economic legislation.

“As expected, there are many development proposals for the southern region.”

“When people learned Your Majesty was asleep, investment proposals sprouted like mushrooms. We filtered out the absurd ones and those with overly grand visions, but this many still remained.”

“Well, that’s to be expected. The southern swamplands aren’t ideal for human habitation, but there’s no better place for rare plants and animals to grow. Look, every single company or guild proposing investments is a pharmaceutical company.”

“For the past 25 years, exploration of the southern swamps has been steady. However, it was sluggish because it was conducted through narrow corridors where one could set foot. Now that those restrictions have been lifted, adventurers are probably salivating.”

“In other words, even from those sluggish explorations, medicinal ingredients that alchemists and pharmacists are desperate to find have been discovered.”

Saying this, I issued development permits for the southern swamplands to reliable companies based on the information I had.

Since the aide had already thoroughly reviewed and compiled various information before it reached my desk, my only job was to stamp the seal, but that stamping was precisely my role.

“This will make Amurtat more prosperous.”

“Indeed, Your Majesty. People already brew snake wine claiming it’s good for virility; for real medicinal herbs, they’d be willing to offer land deeds.”

“Of course they would.”

In this world too, there are patients with incurable or intractable diseases.

And typically, such patients or their families are wealthy, for a simple reason.

Poor patients have long since died in agony, so only the wealthy can afford to keep alive those suffering from life-consuming diseases by paying expensive house call fees and medicine costs.

Strictly speaking, in this world where almost nothing is impossible, there were no truly incurable diseases, but the fact that they could be cured yet weren’t was what tormented people more.

Money is just money. The number of people who die from disease after subsisting on painkillers instead of expensive treatments because they lack funds is too numerous to even count.

“Cancer… dementia… autoimmune diseases… the power of medicine is truly remarkable, isn’t it? Creating remedies for such diseases from weeds growing by the roadside.”

Actual pharmacists would faint hearing this, but this was merely a generalization.

Ordinary people lacked the knowledge to distinguish medicinal herbs from poisonous ones, and only a few herbs with effects verified through oral tradition were widely used.

Medicine compounded without professional equipment, environmental control, and pharmacological component adjustment was literally a deadly poison, and while people trusted doctors, they gave no trust to pharmacists.

But now, things would change.

“Panacea… elixir of youth… hair growth tonic… imagine selling these. How much money could be made?”

“Even now, people cross continents to obtain a single bottle of medicine. If we could establish a supply line to the central regions where conflicts continue, even simple medicines like disinfectants or hemostatics could yield substantial profits.”

The aide said this while reviewing once more the companies to which I had issued development permits.

Since they had already undergone thorough review, he merely glanced over them before loading the documents onto the cart and continuing.

“If we can standardize the production of medicines and mass-produce them, it would be good to establish a state-run guild for overseas exports.”

“I’m considering that as well. And through Pale Harbor… I want to trade with the eastern part of the continent.”

“Trade is already taking place, but… are you referring to pharmaceuticals?”

“Yes. Among medicines, some deteriorate when temperatures rise, and others lose their efficacy when frozen. Special ships are needed, but since the Magic Tower isn’t fully functional yet…”

“The Tower Master is working hard, but if anyone could master mana in just a few years, everyone would be a magician. It’s still premature.”

“Tsk. That’s unfortunate.”

Transporting medicines over long distances in good condition is very difficult, both on Earth and in this world.

The mere mention of a patient dying because medicine obtained by crossing the continent spoiled on the way is frightening, so medicines produced within Amurtat would, at best, reach their expiration date after traveling to just a few nearby cities.

That’s why facilities like refrigerators are necessary, but as they say, if you don’t have teeth, use your gums—one method is to pour hard-to-make ice to maintain freshness, but if the medicine freezes, it becomes unusable, which is maddening.

So magic is essential, but the problem is that this magic is insanely expensive.

How expensive? If you were to buy as many 5-ton, four-horse carriages with refrigeration functions as possible with the money used to build a seawater desalination facility, you could only afford about 40. Does that help you understand?