Prospective Duchess (3)

The reason Lizzie visited the Blackwood Territory wasn’t specifically to meet me. As mentioned before, she was proposing to establish a Blackwood branch of the August Trading Company in the territory. 

The main reasons were that there wasn’t a proper trading company branch in the East yet, and it was also close to where the Babaracus Tribe lived. 

“I came to speak with Duke Harold-nim, but unfortunately, it seems he’s not here today.” 

“He already left for the Academy three days ago. The new semester starts in March, you know.” 

“Oh, that’s right. He was also Professor Harold-nim. Even though Prince Ethan and Lilith have graduated, is he still continuing his work as a professor?” 

“He said he’d try it for about another year. I’m not sure why, though.” 

I had a suspicion that he might be looking for other work he could do after retirement to pass on the ‘Duke Blackwood’ title to Ethan, but Ethan didn’t seem to have any intention of explaining that much to Lizzie, who was an outsider. 

It goes without saying that just because the head of the family passes on their position, the former head isn’t suddenly kicked out of the territory. It’s just that Harold is somehow preparing to leave on his own. 

There are several possible reasons, but I also suspect the biggest reason might be because of Ethan and me. 

He lost his wife a long time ago, and if he sees Ethan and me being lovey-dovey in the house, he might feel lonely frequently, so I can only cautiously guess that he’s intentionally avoiding the place. 

“I should have moved a little earlier. Still, I handled only the urgent matters and came as quickly as I could.” 

“By the way, why do you want to establish a trading company branch in Blackwood? If you’re going to establish one anyway, wouldn’t it be better to set it up in the Babaracus Territory where your younger brother is staying?” 

“Trade is active there, but we can’t monetize resources, so it won’t work. One of our goals is to circulate cash to other branches, but the people there only do bartering, you know.” 

“Isn’t the Dorkliff Territory nearby too?” 

“Are you saying that because you don’t know the relationship between the people there and the Babaracus Tribe? I’d be lucky if I didn’t get beaten up and kicked out after visiting that family. Honestly, if it weren’t for Karaham, I wouldn’t have even thought about trading with barbarians. It’s just that we ended up living together out of necessity, so we started trading a bit more frequently.” 

Lizzie continued with explanations such as other Eastern territories being too closed off, or being too close to other branches to be meaningful, or how they became ‘Blackwood’ due to their involvement in the recent Academy Assault Incident. 

At first, I thought she had simply come out of personal acquaintance with me, but it turned out she had seriously prepared a vision for establishing a business plan in the Blackwood Territory. 

“Plausible. You’ve certainly prepared many pretexts to establish a branch in our territory, Lady August.” 

“I didn’t come here to make a brazen proposal, like asking for permission just because I’m Lilith’s friend. I’ve brought a proper business negotiation proposal.” 

“If you’ve truly come to discuss business seriously, you can speak to me. After all, for the past two months, I’ve been handling all proposals coming to Blackwood on my father’s behalf.” 

“Is that so? Ah, I suppose. Since he’s taken on a professorship at the Academy, it can’t be helped then.” 

“Alright. Then let’s start with the profit. Our proposal is to allocate 15% of the annual net profit from operating the August Trading Company to the Blackwood Ducal Family. However, for the initial two years, we’ll adjust the percentage slightly to allow us to establish ourselves stably…” 

Saying that, Lizzie took out a business plan from her bag and began to explain it. 

It was an opportunity to make the most of the business and economics knowledge I had learned from Dietmeyer. 

“We will appoint someone from our family as the branch manager, but for the personnel working at the local branch, we’ll prioritize hiring residents of the ducal territory.” 

“I’d like to ask what the standard for prioritization is.” 

“It’s at least 70% of the labor staff, excluding executives. If a resident of the ducal territory leaves the trading company before reaching retirement age, we will ensure that their successor is also hired from among the ducal territory residents. Of course, if there are no applicants at all, we will naturally bring in our own personnel.” 

“Not a bad proposal. Thanks to the recent discovery of new farming methods, there’s a surplus of labor in the Blackwood Territory. So, is that the end of your proposal?” 

“Normally, we would also propose promoting local specialties to other territories, but Blackwood’s specialties are already famous without our promotion, so you probably don’t need that. Instead, how about operating half of the trading company’s security forces in cooperation with Duke Blackwood’s Security Force? While they are employed as trading company security, we would pay the wages of the Security Force soldiers.” 

“…That’s quite an interesting proposal. You’re making this proposal because you can handle it, right?” 

“I can handle it, of course. Surely the next head of the Blackwood Family isn’t already getting cold feet, are they?” 

…Hmm. I gave up trying to understand what they were talking about halfway through, so I’m not sure. 

I vaguely got the feeling that Lizzie was making various concessions to establish a trading company branch in the Blackwood Territory, but I couldn’t quite grasp how significant those concessions were. 

I couldn’t understand why hiring Blackwood’s Security Force as trading company guards was an “interesting proposal,” or why the question of “can you handle it?” suddenly came up. 

“What do you think, Lilith?” 

“…Y-yes?! W-what are you talking about, Ethan?” 

“I’m talking about the proposal for the August Trading Company branch to enter the Blackwood Territory. What do you think?” 

“W-well, wouldn’t it be good to have a large trading company branch since it could increase trade profits with neighboring territories? Beyond just the net profit the August Trading Company is talking about, if it’s a large trading company of that scale, many other merchants not affiliated with the company will also visit. 

If many people come and go from the Blackwood Territory, they’ll spend money or buy goods, so I think it’s a quite reasonable decision for the internal economy of the territory, you see…” 

As I cautiously watched their reactions and spoke the knowledge I had learned from Dietmeyer, Ethan and Lizzie nodded with satisfied smiles. Though I wasn’t entirely sure, I judged that I hadn’t said anything wrong, and so I also cautiously nodded with a smile, just like them. 

“Let’s proceed with a temporary contract for about five years, and if the August Trading Company is still performing its role well at that time, how about extending it? I believe that amount of time is sufficient for the trading company to stabilize and establish full-scale trade.” 

“…Alright. However, since this is a temporary contract, I’ll exclude the clause at the end that states ‘donate trading company goods to the territory development fund upon withdrawal.’ Surely Prince Blackwood wouldn’t stoop to playing games with the contract, but it’s better to clearly specify things so neither of us feels uneasy, isn’t it?” 

“Fine, do as you wish.” 

Whether their relationship was good or bad, Ethan and Lizzie still stamped the contract documents. 

It was a spring day when a large trading company first entered the Blackwood Territory. 

⁎ ⁎ ⁎ 

Spending almost the same day every day in the Blackwood Territory, one surprisingly realizes how quickly time passes. 

Four months had already passed since I began taking Noble Lady lessons to become a Prospective Duchess. 

Compared to when I first started taking lessons, quite a lot had changed. For instance, Head Maid Melissa now only laid her cane on my body about twice a day, and Dietmeyer’s economics lectures had become a little easier to understand than before. 

Things were changing little by little with each passing day, so by the time I noticed the changes, many days had often already passed. 

「The Hero Party has broken through the Demon Army’s 2nd Defense Line. Kyetmajosyegigot, the Hero, announced that he would take a break within the Empire before advancing to the 3rd Defense Line….” 

…They’re really doing well and being active. 

Looking at the news of the Hero Party that occasionally appears in the Imperial Newspaper, it seems they’ve already surpassed the original Hero a long time ago. 

Breaking through the 2nd Defense Line means they’ve already cleared about half of the Demon Realm, so now, if they break through just one more defense line, it’s straight to the Demon King’s Castle. 

The Hero Party probably started their full-scale activities last year, meaning they’ve achieved this level of success in effectively one year and four months. This statement about taking a break before fighting the 3rd Defense Line mentioned here was clearly an intentional move to extend the capture period and control their pace. 

If they advanced too quickly, events that occurred in the original story might not happen, or conversely, they might have to fight unexpected battles. 

‘It probably had a big impact that they killed all the Four Heavenly Kings before entering the Demon Realm.’ 

Although we didn’t participate in the battles willingly, Ethan and I ended up being involved in the subjugation of all the Four Heavenly Kings. 

Moreover, the guys from the Hero Party didn’t even really participate in the Vertus Battle, so it could be said that we killed more of the Four Heavenly Kings than the Hero himself. At this point, I feel like the Imperial Palace should at least bestow an honorary Hero Party title upon us. 

While I’d refuse to spend years going in and out of the Demon Realm fighting endless battles, honestly, the title of ‘honorary Hero Party comrade’ is secretly tempting.