episode_0146

There were many countries on the continent of Sylvania, aside from the Borus Empire where Rupert lived.

Among them were the Kingdom of Sylvania, Adrian’s home country where he was studying abroad at the Imperial Academy, and the desert kingdom of Aramen, each of which was smaller than the Empire.

If combined, it would have a territory and population no less than that of an empire.

And those countries had something in common.

“Borus Empire? Using their stuff is a total traitor!”

“Why are the Empire bastards so arrogant and pretentious, it’s annoying just to look at them?”

“Whenever they split up, that will be the time for revenge…!”

It was precisely this almost conditioned hatred of the empire.

To find the reason, we had to go back into the history of the continent.

Before the old empire was established, the continent of Sylvania was a warring state with dozens of small and medium-sized kingdoms in disarray.

There was a time when the Borus Empire was nothing more than the Borus Kingdom, one of the smaller kingdoms.

However, after Emperor Qin Shi Huang, Alexander Bel, established an empire by conquering other kingdoms through war, the history of the continent repeated itself.

It is a fight between the Borus Empire, which seeks to unite the continent, and other nations that have joined forces to fight against them.

Now, the balance of power has become somewhat tighter, so each side’s territory has been divided.

Until then, it was a time of war, a tug-of-war between the Empire and the Allied Powers.

Some people glorify and reminisce about that period, calling it the Age of Knights, but that was usually the case with empires.

To the people of other countries who were worried that their country would disappear due to the empire’s invasion, the empire was nothing more than a vicious demon.

As time passed and exchanges between the empire and foreign countries began again, for a while the empire’s merchants were unable to even dare to trade with foreign countries.

-Money is good, but you can’t risk your life with it, right?

Because the eyes of other nations were so hostile towards the empire, the empire’s merchants were frequently attacked, and some even lost their lives, making them reluctant to travel.

‘An empire can be self-sufficient within itself.’

Besides, the empire had nothing to regret.

To begin with, nearly half of the continent was imperial territory, so everything they needed could be self-sufficient within the empire, and anything they couldn’t obtain could be traded with the East across the sea.

Rather, what was regrettable were the other countries besides the empire.

Among them were some landlocked countries, while others had only rugged mountainous terrain, deserts, or coastal areas.

In this situation, exchanges with the empire had to be made unconditionally, even without any negative feelings.

-Create a relationship and let the transaction take place there.

In order to interact with the empire, they had no choice but to establish special commercial districts in their own territory to ensure the safety of the empire’s merchants.

“But the empire only accepted raw materials.”

Aramen’s prime minister, Knaksunamun, spoke softly as he watched the imperial merchants busily bargaining over goods in the commercial district.

“Yes. Even if the imperial goods are cheap, the people of Aramen would rather use Aramen’s goods than buy them if they are expensive.”

The commercial district manager who was assisting Knaksoo Namun, who was inspecting the commercial district, spoke proudly.

Even though they had to import from the empire due to a shortage of supplies, their last bit of pride was to never purchase finished products.

“But, our Aramen merchants buy those items as if they were natural.”

“That… That’s it.”

But the manager also had difficulty responding to the questions that followed.

“Limited edition of 100 copies of Somerset Workshop’s latest Rupert Fables!”

Aramen’s merchants gather around him at the shouts of the Imperial Merchant.

“I’ll buy it! I’ll give you 10 gold!”

“I’ll give you 11 gold!”

“Eight! I’ll give you 15 gold!!!”

A scene where merchants who had gathered each had their eyes on 100 copies of and called out the auction price, and in the end, the merchant who called out 15 gold pieces won the auction.

This was because this sight was clearly visible to the eyes of the Knaksunamun and the commercial district manager.

“Those things are so trendy these days… .”

“I’m not trying to blame you.”

Knaksoo Namun knew full well that this was not the manager’s fault.

‘I even bought storybooks for my children.’

People who are obsessed with imperial goods have been going crazy over the imperial books that have been streaming into the commercial district for months.

‘It’s amazing how children are so obsessed with storybooks.’

‘Is there a separate empire in literature? Why not just think of it as a child’s toy?’

‘I don’t think comic books are an imperial thing, but rather a culture.’

Unlike the existing imperial products, the picture books and comic books that came in this time were largely received less negatively by people.

Besides, these clearly had a kind of magic that fascinated people.

‘Iron-Blooded Alchemist has already been completed in the Empire?’

‘Your information is really slow. There are already several new ones out.’

‘I heard that playing card games is popular among the imperial nobility these days.’

Anyone who has read Rupert’s work once is addicted to the next volume, as if they were on some drug.

That’s why the best-selling items in the commercial district these days aren’t food, or railroad, or salt, but the works of Somerset Workshop.

And this phenomenon was not only happening in the Kingdom of Aramen.

bang!

“This idiot… !”

There were many countries that hated the Empire, but if there was one country that hated it the most, it would be the Kingdom of Sylvania.

“I’m sorry.”

“Does this make sense? Trying to screw the Empire ended up helping them instead… .”

Sylvania is the country that borders the Borus Empire and is the most powerful country outside of the Empire, so it fought the Empire the most.

Such was the case with the Sylvania Kingdom’s Prime Minister Kartel, who had been having a hard time controlling his anger recently.

“The prince risked his life for our kingdom and entered the empire!!!”

His heart ached whenever he thought of Adrian, who had been taken hostage to the Imperial Academy.

-Your Majesty, I will bring chaos to the empire. If things go wrong, you must be prepared to abandon me, for I will have to remain at my own discretion.

“Ugh… Prince.”

Adrian, who entered the empire on his own in order to divide the empire that was no different from his enemy.

But recently, the kingdom was overflowing with nobles who were obsessed with the new culture of the empire, which was driving him crazy.

“The pirated copies have only made things worse.”

“Damn, did we get hit by those imperial bastards! Did you really expect this?”

The cartel blamed itself for its rash actions.

A year ago, a new civilization spread rapidly throughout the empire, and Sylvania, a neighboring nation, was also the first among the other nations to be able to experience the new civilization.

‘Children’s books and comic books.’

I remembered the rumor that it was wildly popular among both nobles and commoners in the empire, and that Kartel had personally confirmed it.

And the books Rupert produced were sure to be popular.

Books that featured pictures that had never been seen before in the empire or the continent were easy to look at and even fun.

‘It’s obvious that this will come to our Sylvania at some point!’

When Kartel first saw the children’s books and comics and anticipated their impact, he decided to stop them.

But it wasn’t easy.

‘Even if you block transactions in commercial districts, it’s difficult to eradicate smuggling.’

Because it bordered the Empire, there were quite a few people in the Kingdom of Sylvania who engaged in smuggling in hopes of making a quick fortune.

So when he came to the conclusion that this thing would spread throughout the kingdom no matter how much he banned it, he approached it in a different way.

-Secretly recruit the kingdom’s craftsmen immediately!

If they can’t stop it from unraveling, the cartel plans to stop anything that benefits that hateful empire.

He summoned the kingdom’s artisans and instructed them to mass-produce pirated copies of children’s books and comic books.

His thinking seemed reasonable at first glance.

If the kingdom makes copies in large quantities and sells them at a price close to the cost, either smuggled or imported officially,

Since there was no comparison in terms of price, the imperial goods would be sold for nothing, and the imperial merchants who came to sell them would suffer great losses.

And at first, things seemed to be going as he had expected.

‘There are already many of these in our kingdom?’

‘What? Does that make sense? This time, what we brought was the first batch!’

‘Well, I can’t buy it for that price?’

When I saw the imperial merchants who had brought the goods returning with dumbfounded expressions, it felt like a decade-old congestion had lifted.

But there was something he didn’t expect.

‘Is there a big difference in quality?’

‘What I have is a genuine imperial item, but the quality is different.’

‘Damn, no matter how cheap it is, I can’t afford something this cheap!’

The difference in quality between the replicas produced under his leadership and the genuine articles made at the Somerset workshop was striking.

At first, the cheaper replicas of the Kingdom were naturally popular, but only among the commoners.

In the case of the nobility, they wanted officially imported goods even if they had to pay a high price, and since they thought that this showed the dignity of the upper class, it quickly became a trend.

Of course, even if the craftsmen of the kingdom did their best to replicate it, the original, which had been created with the skills Rupert had accumulated since the beginning and the skills of the dwarf Krun, which were no different from cheat keys, was, so to speak, different from the beginning.

And as it became popular among the aristocracy, the wealthy merchant class began to purchase the original Imperial works, and even the commoners began to follow suit, so Rupert’s works soon became more popular than in other countries.

“All books are the same!”

The cartel couldn’t understand it.

It was hard to believe that the technology of the alternate empire was so advanced that the replicas that the craftsmen of the kingdom had painstakingly made were being ignored as being shoddy.

Instead, his actions came back to bite him as the pirated copies made the real thing even more popular, and the merchants of the Empire became more arrogant and started beating up the merchants of Sylvania.

‘How about we talk about trading again?’

‘Didn’t you say it wasn’t necessary?’

‘Hahaha, let’s forget the past and start anew…’

‘The price went up?’

‘I’ll give you whatever you want, damn it!’

In this way, fairy tales and comic books were spreading across the continent.