Ch.7878. Trust

Imperial Palace, Prince’s Office.

“To think I can’t even smile at such good news.”

Prince Simon muttered as he reviewed the report submitted by Erick Wellesley.

Killing nearly a thousand beastmen and capturing dozens was already an achievement, but instead of facing retaliation from the Beastman King afterward, they had successfully negotiated a ceasefire. Now, fractures within the Demon Lord’s army were inevitable.

He even managed to extract a ransom in exchange for releasing the hostages.

Yet Prince Simon couldn’t simply rejoice.

It wasn’t that he’d forgotten how to smile. While his stress had certainly increased since the Cordana incident, he wasn’t quite suicidal yet.

His sour expression was due to the nobility.

More specifically, the nobles eyeing the flesh of the Allied Nations were the problem. One of them was sitting before the Prince now, with an excited expression.

“Your Highness, we must pass judgment on the Allied Nations!”

A call to judge the Allied Nations that had been plundered by the demon race.

This came from Count of Burko.

He was the count who had gained notoriety when his second son suddenly transformed into an adventurer, claiming he would make it big by capturing a unicorn.

Unlike his son who chased unicorns, Count of Burko seemed to view the Allied Nations as a land of opportunity.

Simon looked at him with mixed feelings.

“Count of Burko. It’s true the Allied Nations suffered helplessly. But they were places unprepared to respond to the demon invasion.”

“That’s no excuse…! Most countries in the Allied Nations have reportedly complied with the demons’ demands and recognized Cordana as official currency. They’re even minting it now.”

“…It is irritating that they would use that cursed commodity as currency. But I doubt they’re doing it because they want to.”

“Are you saying the Allied Nations surrendered to the Demon Lord’s army and had no choice but to accept it? That might not necessarily be the case.”

What nonsense. Are you suggesting they accepted Cordana because they liked it?

Simon looked at Count of Burko with disbelief.

Regardless, Count of Burko took out a crystal ball and performed a communication spell. He said his contact was in the Allied Nations.

While the Burko family had produced quite a few magicians, making long-distance communication magic unsurprising, the issue was with whom he was communicating.

“Do I just speak into this crystal ball? Ah, yes. …Are you the Imperial Prince? I’m a carpenter from the Kingdom of Cadeira.”

“A carpenter?”

Simon frowned in confusion, but whoever had introduced himself as a carpenter from the Allied Nations continued speaking without concern.

“Please forgive my lack of manners due to my humble status. …But Your Highness, I heard from Count of Burko that the Empire views the Allied Nations as innocent victims who suffered because of the Hero’s schemes?”

“That’s correct.”

“That’s completely untrue.”

“……”

“The power holders in the Allied Nations knew from the beginning that the Hero was the real owner of Ibiza Island, and they even received enormous compensation to keep that fact hidden.”

“Evidence?”

“I am the evidence. I was a carpenter who participated in the construction on Ibiza Island. I designed buildings according to the rough plans the Hero sent, and I even received direct instructions while communicating with him.”

Simon rubbed his brow upon hearing this. He could guess why Count of Burko had arranged this communication with someone claiming to be a carpenter from the Allied Nations.

Meanwhile, the indignant carpenter continued to implicate all the privileged classes of the Allied Nations as Gwon Heejin’s accomplices.

“When Hero Gwon Heejin was captured, the kings of the Allied Nations were busy hiding their collusion with him. When I tried to reveal the truth to the Empire, they threatened my life instead. I’ve been living as a fugitive for months.”

“Your situation is truly pitiful, but let me ask one thing. According to the King of Cadeira, the workers on Ibiza Island are cooperating with the demon race. Are you one of them?”

“The King of Cadeira was the first to cooperate with the demons. He’s slandering innocent workers to hide that fact.”

“……”

“I’ve been trying desperately to inform the Empire of this truth. I finally managed to contact you through a conscientious magician I met. Whew. What a relief…”

The communication ended there.

It was questionable how a fugitive carpenter had managed to contact imperial nobles with a magician’s help.

But Count of Burko’s eyes were already gleaming.

“Your Highness, when you think about it, isn’t it strange…? For such a massive project of turning an entire island into a resort, does it make sense that they didn’t know who the real owner was? Though there’s no clear evidence, the Allied Nations should be considered Gwon Heejin’s accomplices.”

“The Allied Nations consist of 8 or 9 self-proclaimed countries. Are you suggesting they all collaborated with Gwon Heejin?”

“I’m not saying we should attack the Allied Nations. But I believe we shouldn’t treat them as victims when they received and pocketed enormous wealth from the Hero, concealed that fact, and then surrendered to the Demon Lord’s army without putting up proper resistance.”

“……”

“Didn’t the imperial family dismantle two count families for cooperating with Gwon Heejin? Why show mercy to the Allied Nations?”

When confronted like this, there was no way to restrain Count of Burko and other Cordana investors. After all, trade was handled independently by each territory.

“I understand. You may go now.”

“Perhaps you could petition His Majesty on our behalf…”

“I said leave, please.”

Immediately after the meeting, another report came in that painted a bleak future for the Allied Nations.

It reported that a country called “Turias” among the Allied Nations, with virtually zero gold mining capacity, had signed an agreement with the Demon Lord’s army.

“Turias has been exempted from the Demon Lord’s army’s invasion in exchange for maintaining a certain number of Cordana. They’ve essentially become a protectorate.”

Simon laughed hollowly upon hearing this news.

He could clearly imagine how the situation would unfold in the Allied Nations.

It seemed they wouldn’t just be exploited by the Empire but would also fight desperately among themselves. No, they definitely would.

“…I guess we’re even now.”

From a military perspective, the achievement reported by Erick Wellesley was far more significant.

But he couldn’t shake off the unpleasant feeling.

It was because of what Count of Burko had said to another noble after the audience.

“The entire Allied Nations should be considered Gwon Heejin’s accomplices. They’ve been deceiving us all this time.”

“Have you melted down the Cordana we recovered? Since the Allied Nations’ citizens apparently love Cordana so much and worship Gwon Heejin, we should sell it to them at a good price.”

In their perception, the Allied Nations had already transformed into countries that loved Cordana and worshipped Gwon Heejin.

The Allied Nations were already in decline. Many islands had lost their military power entirely. Even the dragon hunters who had been resisting the Tetrad reportedly fought while crying before being completely annihilated. Without anyone’s help.

In the midst of internal strife and exploitation by red-eyed imperial nobles, the entire Allied Nations would be crippled in no time.

What would remain after their downfall would only be intense hatred toward the Empire.

“Your Highness. Perhaps you should seek advice from Lord Wellesley…?”

At the attendant’s suggestion, Simon gave a wry smile.

“If he had an answer, he would have told us already. He probably attacked the beastmen because he thought there was no solution. His Majesty likely thinks the same.”

Simon rejected the attendant’s suggestion.

However, he did have something to ask of Erick Wellesley, who would soon return to the imperial capital.

It was to carefully consider how to spend the ransom he had received from the Demon Castle. If handled poorly, that money could become another source of trouble.

This was a request he could make because he trusted that Erick Wellesley wouldn’t keep it all for himself.

***

The instruction to use the ransom as I saw fit, but carefully, had just come down.

It arrived while I was counting the gold we’d received as ransom with a few of my men.

Honestly, it wasn’t easy to convert it to Lyra. There were gold coins from long-defunct countries (with many impurities) and intricately alloyed ornaments mixed in. Refining them into gold coins or ingots would cost quite a bit.

“These bastards were thinking even while paying gold to the Beastman King.”

But even by the most conservative estimate, it seemed to be worth at least 80 billion.

Considering that some minor baronies spend less than 2 billion a year on operating costs, it was a substantial amount.

…Of course, nowhere near enough to resolve the Cordana crisis.

“Senior. As expected, the imperial family’s trust in you…”

Knight Holan and Katie, who were helping with the menial tasks, added a comment, but I shook my head.

“The imperial family is probably passing it all to me because they know the nobles would immediately reach out if they managed it directly. They can’t demand money from me.”

“Well… I can’t deny that.”

In truth, even the Emperor had no obligation to help finance individual territories.

The Emperor directly ruled only the imperial capital and imperial territories; ownership of individual territories belonged to their lords. They exercised taxation rights, military authority, and even judicial power in their territories.

However, Cordana investors who had run out of money, and nobles who were struggling because of those investors, were desperately looking to the imperial family.

If news about the ransom spread, their eyes would probably go wild. If handled poorly, the side effects could be enormous, so I needed to carefully consider…

Right after I made up my mind, I felt a bit irritated.

‘This situation is really messed up.’

Not to praise myself, but my recent achievement had significantly reduced the Empire’s burden.

It wasn’t an easy accomplishment either. It was achieved after engaging in combat with a thousand beastmen and conducting dangerous one-on-one negotiations with the Beastman King.

Yet immediately afterward, I was faced with concerns about gold.

I couldn’t help feeling that more duties were being imposed on me when I felt I’d already done enough.

‘…No. This is my responsibility since I started it.’

Just hang in there a little longer.

Even now, in undead-infested villages across territories, farmers were probably fighting goblins with pitchforks. I couldn’t just leave things like this.

But lending money recklessly to lords risked them spending it inappropriately. Many would likely see it as investment capital rather than emergency funds.

Fortunately, as I racked my brain, a method came to mind.

It was a way to inject funds without giving it away for free or as a loan, while minimizing the chance of the money being wasted on nonsense.