Chapter 270: Enclosure |
[It’s been a while since we met in Nambonan City.]
[It’s been a long time, Viscount Galliana.]
After putting an end to my pleasant chat with Count Nongite, I went to the Galliana family.
After greeting them casually, the conversation quickly shifts to small talk without starting a conversation battle. This man is a healing-type guy.
Princess Tochi who was next to Viscount Galliana, smiling fearlessly.
[My father told me that you have officially married Princess Tochi. Congratulations.]
[Yes, I’m very happy. This is also thanks to Wilk-dono’s efforts. Hahaha.]
I have been crushing the Spierzeig army using Operation Fang and Operation Jaw. It seems that the Galliana family took this matter very seriously. It is said that not only Galliana’s blood relatives but also Galliana knights voiced their support for the policy of emphasizing Quordenze. This is a big change considering that their focus has been on Adellahan for a long time.
And at this moment, Viscount Galliana made the decision to make Tochi as his legal wife.
Until now, she was not a legal wife. Officially, she is just the next Head of the Galliana family. It can be said that she left room for an excuse to be substituted in order to show an attitude of Adellahan rather than Quordenze in an emergency. To be honest, it was less than the size of a cat’s forehead, but the people of Galliana probably couldn’t give up.
Despite this, Tochi’s decision to be his legal wife seems to have been accepted without any confusion. The result of Operation Jaw had such an impact that it blew away the defensiveness of these genuine Galliana family members.
By the way, Viscount Galliana was already bringing Tochi around with him even though they were not married, but there is no particular problem with this.
Even if she were to become pregnant, he could just say, [I don’t really know, but it seems that Princess Tochi was pregnant with a child. It’s strange. I don’t know much about it, but when she gave birth to it, it turned out to be a Highlord. It’s strange. But, since Princess Tochi’s child is a Highlord, in that case, there’s no problem with the lineage even if her child becomes the heir, right? That’s a good thing], which is the idiotic logic that he uses. It is obvious to everyone that it is Viscount Galliana’s seed, but no one digs deeper into that. It’s an open secret.
When you unravel the genealogy of noble families, it’s not strange that children appear out of nowhere from time to time. The circumstances may vary, such as bringing a child from a collateral relative, using a Blessed Child, or having s*x in a way that would affect the pride of a noble woman. None of the noble families would publish the exact number of their Highlords, so we don’t know what happened, and since it’s related to matters of reproduction, those around them won’t say anything.
In any case, Milord Galliana was able to infiltrate the Galliana family both figuratively and literally.
[…Wilk-dono, I would like you to continue to maintain close ties with my family…]
Surprisingly, Tochi was leaning towards Viscount Galliana with a neutral expression on her face. I don’t think this performance was meant to highlight the intimacy of the couple. Somehow it just looked like it was being made to look natural.
[Of course. That’s what my Quordenze wants as well.]
Tochi has this strange sexiness in her. And she has a fairly pretty face. As was the case in the Royal Capital, she was probably being loved both in and outside the bedroom.
In any case, from this old man’s point of view, Tochi shouldn’t be very trustworthy. As expected, her family won’t be killing him because of me, but the possibility of being assassinated is not zero.
Despite this, it’s too manly of him to be hugging her day and night. Isn’t his vigorous breeding spirit one of the highest class in the breeding industry?
While we were having a chat that included a lot of things like wanting to get along not only with other Lords but with the Galliana family, Viscount Galliana interrupted with a smile on his face.
[By the way, how is the food procurement going?]
It was a story about the behind-the-scenes of Operation Jaw.
Since I pretended to be the Voistra Liberation Army, I didn’t want to arouse resentment from the people of Spierzeig territory by excessively procuring supplies from the locals. I have given instructions to the reinforcement troops entering the Voistra Plains from the inland to bring more food supply. If there’s any left over, I don’t mind giving it away to local residents for free, so I told them to send it anyway. Even if I were to withdraw, I would have been able to stir up the local residents’ dissatisfaction with the Spierzeig family and increase the number of insiders.
After the fall of Othelloria, in order to suppress the chaos, I asked my father to send me food at random. If the war comes to an end, military spending will rise somewhat. I asked them to use the money to procure food until the work to annex the territory begins.
[Yes, the Nambonan people worked hard.]
The Nambonan merchant was the first to respond to this request.
The Quordenze family said they would pay for it, so the more they buy, the more they can make money. In order not to miss this commercial opportunity, they gathered food from all over the country and brought it to the Voistra Plains.
As a result, the amount of food that was delivered was so great that I was shocked to see how much food was collected in such a short period of time.
[It seems so. They are moving around energetically.]
Viscount Galliana has many eyes and ears in the commoner world. The accuracy of the spider’s information network is high. It would have been easy to sense that the Nambonan merchants had begun to move to secure food.
[Thanks to this, Weldburg City, which became a transit point, is overflowing with sacks of wheat that were brought in.]
[That’s interesting. Was it Wilk-dono’s idea?]
[Well, yes it is.]
It’s not like the people of Spierzeig are suffering from hunger, but the objective fact that there is “surplus food” is a source of reassurance. At the very least, they must have felt that there was a low possibility that their life savings would be stolen by the Quordenze army.
When I explained my aim, Viscount Galliana nodded several times with interest.
[I think it’s typical of Wilk-dono to wish for the peace of the people of the territory. It would be a relief if there was food available in a visible way. A quick way to win over the hearts of the people who were confused by the sudden war. I guess that’s a good thing. But, along with that, the price of wheat seems to have skyrocketed.]
The Quordenze territory has a vast granary, and its production is one of the highest on the continent. Naturally, if we are reluctant to sell our wheat while buying it all together, the market price will rise.
By the way, I have also told the Spierzeig family not to disrupt the territory, not to starve the people, and not to export food before the ceasefire. In terms of timing, Operation Jaw is carried out from summer to autumn, which coincides with the wheat harvest season in the Voistra Plains. In other words, almost none of the new wheat harvested this year has gone outside the territory. That’s why it was obvious for the price of wheat to rise.
[That’s because many people have already moved.]
I learned from Ramon’s letter that Viscount Galliana immediately took advantage of Quordenze’s movements and used his merchants to buy up food all over the continent. This is what it means to be opportunistic. I’m not solely responsible for the rising prices.
[Additionally, I hear that crop yields are poor in some areas this year. I think that is also having a big impact.]
[I guess so. I’m sure we expected a certain amount of poor harvest in the south in advance. But, we never expected prices to rise this much at this time of year.]
It had been predicted for a long time, but it seems that crops have failed in the southern parts of the continent. Under such circumstances, Nambonan merchants and Galliana merchants competed to buy wheat from the east and west of the continent, so the market must have been in great trouble.
[If food cannot reach the south, the Free Cities will be in an unprecedented predicament, and the battle between the nobles will definitely intensify… What do you think, Wilk-dono?]
I think it’s good to be born in Quordenze territory. Regardless of whether you are the ruling class or a citizen, there’s very little possibility of starting a fight over a search for food.
There is no point in saying such a frank impression.
The point being questioned is that the Quordenze family is indirectly cornering the Free Cities. Paradoxically, the Quordenze family now has a very strong initiative in terms of food control.
If you think about it, it makes sense. Considering that the Spierzeig family is now under the influence of the Quordenze family, it is as if we control two of the continent’s leading granary areas, the Lydia Plains and the Voistra Plains.
I see. I understand what Viscount Galliana wanted to say.
[…..I realized now that the economic power of the central continent was far greater than I had imagined.]
In short, it can be said that I had unknowingly launched a new type of attack on the Free Cities Group called economic sanctions. It’s a funny story.
There were officials from the Nongite family around who were listening, so I couldn’t say anything too disturbing, but it seems that what I was trying to say was conveyed to Viscount Galliana. He was laughing happily.
[I’m sure the Zeldomitra family will be happy with this opportunity.]
This old man is probably suggesting that we should take advantage of this accidental situation, and that we should sell our favor. Something like: “The Quordenze family imposed a ban on food exports to aid the Zeldomitra family”.
The Zeldomitra family has been trying to invade the independent noble houses of the Free Cities whenever they have a chance. If the targets of the attack were to crush each other, they would welcome it with open arms. I’m sure they’ll be grateful for the support of the Quordenze family.
It would be great if the impact of the food shortage was greater than expected and the Zeldomitra family made a serious effort to expand south. If we’re going to wage a war of aggression, we’ll probably want to avoid any trouble in the realm of the Kingdom, and we’ll probably want to keep our relationship on good terms. That’s how safe Quordenze will be.
There are concerns that Zeldomitra will grow to a gigantic size, but it will take a long time for them to heal even if they annex more lands, which have been worn out by war and turned into a ragtag land. Quordenze, which devoured the flavorful Voistra Plains, will recover much faster.
When approaching a big project such as annexing Spierzeig territory, we want to eliminate risks as much as possible. If we have the opportunity to make one of the five Great Noble families of the Kingdom our ally, we should take advantage of it.
[As stated in the preamble to the peace treaty, I would like to put the welfare of the people of my territory first. And in order to make that happen, I think it is important that no one starves. Now that there are concerns about famine in the south, securing food cannot be neglected.]
Based on this logic, the Spierzeig family can also be prohibited from exporting food outside their territory. It will be difficult to keep it going for a long time, but I think we will be able to put pressure on them without any problem this year or next year right after their defeat.
[I think it’s a truly admirable idea. I’m sure the Marquis will support that idea.]
By “Marquis”, he’s probably referring to Marquis Zeldomitra, not my father.
The ban on food exports outside the territory is a result of the principles of the peace treaty. In other words, welcoming the embargo on Free Cities can be said to be the same as supporting peace between the Quordenze and Spierzeig families. It was a very strong move.
[If you would like to hear from me, my Galliana will spare no effort in helping you.]
The Galliana family can resell the food they have and make a profit, but at Quordenze’s request, they can participate in the embargo. He is a shrewd old man.
[Did you tell my father about this?]
[Nothing yet. It’s just something I came up with here, so Wilk-dono can bring it up to him about it.]
The reason he dared to speak here was probably to show the Nongite family the relationship between the Quordenze family and the Galliana family. He showed enough skill to be invited to the signing ceremony.
Also, maybe there was a part of him that thought I would be able to understand it faster. This is because it is a little tricky for nobles to utilize merchants or use commoners as a cause.
However, what we are actually doing is simply using the Free City Alliance as bait to ensure the safety of the Quordenze family. If I explain it properly, my father will understand right away.
[Very well. I’ll let him know.]
I thought Viscount Galliana’s proposal was worth considering. I feel a little sorry for the Free Cities who will suffer for our own interests.
However, the suffering continues for a long time because small noble families are constantly fighting small-scale wars. I think it would be happier for the people of the territory if such nobles perished, and in the long run, fewer lives would be lost. It is unavoidable to abandon humanity.
Alternatively, we might be criticized by the noble families in the south regarding the embargo, but that would be completely wrong. What’s bad is a feudal lord who can’t even protect their own people.
There was a saying in Japan of sending salt to the enemy, but the Free Cities were neither friends nor enemies of the Quordenze family. In other words, there is no need to send salt.
Okay, there should be no problem.