Chapter 56 The Princess’s Audacious Proposal of Trade and Treachery
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
Once the makeshift farming area was sorted and done, I got right down to preparing dinner. I was warming up the meat sauce—the stuff I’d re-bagged—in a hot water bath while the pasta was being salted and boiled. I also sliced some meat into bite-sized chunks and started frying them up in the pan.
”Once the kitchen was built, cooking got easier all at once! I swear!” I marveled, giving the meat a little shake.
I felt a strange nostalgia for the days of skewering meat on a stick and roasting it over a bonfire. When I thought about it now, how must that fire-roasted meat have looked to Cleonora, who was raised as royalty?
We still had only the bare minimum of cooking tools. I knew there was a potential to build some luxurious kitchen someday, but for now, that was just a dream. Still, making a quick meal for three people was perfectly manageable with what we had.
”Oh, right, I almost forgot. If you teach the recipe to Aion-san¹ and the others, they can follow it exactly, you know.”
”They can, truly?” Liliarette inquired, raising an eyebrow.
”Absolutely! They are maids, after all,” I confirmed.
It seemed that outsourcing tasks to the Aion-san crew was entirely possible, which was incredibly useful.
”Well, adjusting seasonings precisely is still tough for them, so if you want to make anything complicated, you have to do it yourself,” I admitted with a shrug.
”We cannot make anything *that* elaborate with the ingredients we currently possess,” Liliarette countered, ever the pragmatist.
But if the carrots and other vegetables started growing well, I wanted to try making curry or beef stew next. Those dishes were easy—you just needed the roux, threw in some ingredients, and let it all simmer. Being able to make a large batch at once was a huge bonus, too.
”Next time I head back to Japan, I need to stock up on that roux…”
”It would have been better if I could have brought perishables, though,” Cleonora mused, leaning back on her chair.
We had run tests on the limits of the Treasury skill and discovered that fresh food was tricky. It would likely spoil, and quickly. How good was the preservation function of the Treasury, anyway? I’d tried testing it once with ice. When I took it out later, the ice was just a puddle of water. That meant the meat sauce, for example, needed to be used up sooner rather than later. The dried pasta, thankfully, kept for a long time.
”Alright, dinner is done!” I announced, plating the last of the food.
Once night fell, Eme-chan also returned to the domain. She had apparently slain a Demon Monster, and the Aion-san automatons were already heading out for corpse collection.
We set the food on the table, and dinner began.
”It is exquisite…!” Cleonora gasped, her eyes wide.
”Pasta exists in your world as well, then?” Liliarette wondered, her tone highly inquisitive.
”Huh… it exists here, too?” I asked, genuinely surprised.
Apparently, pasta *did* exist here. But it had likely been a long time since either of them had eaten it. The two of them were eating it combined with the meat sauce, and they looked incredibly happy.
”I also fried up some meat. The meat on this plate here is seasoned with salt and pepper, but the meat on this other plate has no flavoring at all, so please try it with the yakiniku sauce,” I instructed.
”Let us see…” Liliarette murmured, taking a piece.
”This is…” Cleonora began.
”…! It is truly delicious!” Liliarette exclaimed, nodding with approval.
It seemed they usually ate their steak with salt in this world. I had tossed the meat in the pan and sprinkled on the salt and pepper. This method let the salt and pepper mix with the melted fat from the heat, making it easier for the seasoning to coat the meat evenly. Really, it would have been even better to stir-fry some vegetables with it, but that was a luxury for the future.
Having finished a proper, human meal for the first time in a while, and feeling completely satisfied, Liliarette turned her gaze upon me.
”Shimizu-san. I have been doing some considerable thinking on my own, you see…” she declared with a serious set to her jaw.
Oh, right. She had said she had something she wanted to think about. When I had seen inside the house earlier, Liliarette had already been busy writing things down with paper and a ballpoint pen. I hadn’t known what she was writing, though.
”Sugar, salt and pepper, and penlights. How much of these items do you believe you can procure?” she pressed, her green eyes piercing.
”Huh?”
It depended on the specific item, but they weren’t particularly expensive. Sugar was maybe 300 yen for one kilogram. It was difficult to explain because I didn’t know the unit of weight used here.
”Filling up a whole warehouse would be tough, but I could probably get enough sugar and salt and pepper that one person couldn’t use it all in a month,” I mused. “The penlights, though, I couldn’t stockpile as many of those as the sugar.”
The penlights I bought cost more than one kilogram of sugar each. It was irrelevant, but why do stores that claim to sell everything for a hundred yen usually sell things that cost several hundred yen?
”I see… and what about chocolate? After trying a few pieces, I realized that this confectionery can be melted and reformed into a different shape. Am I not correct?” she inquired, a sly smile gracing her lips.
”You certainly can do that. And I can procure a decent amount of chocolate, too.” I purchased it at the 100-yen store. In any case, being able to procure these things was contingent upon me earning money back in Japan.
”I see… then this might just work…” she breathed out, her voice filled with sudden hope.
”Work… what are you talking about?” I asked, completely lost.
”A business venture. Sugar, beyond a shadow of a doubt, will intensely interest the merchants of every nation. The method for producing white sugar is only known in the Holy Capital Ragnarond, after all,” she stated, her tone utterly assured.
Oh, right. She had mentioned that only a few countries could make it.
”Sister. How much did you explain about the surrounding nations?” Liliarette asked Cleonora, turning her head.
”Aside from the Emmeld Kingdom, I haven’t gone into much detail. Just the positional information, really: the Empire is north of the forest, the Kingdom is west, and the Republic is south, I think?” Cleonora answered, a little uncertain.
”…Then, Shimizu-san. I propose that we go to the Republic and sell this sugar,” Liliarette stated, looking directly at me.
To the south of the forest was the Shytal Grand Republic. Liliarette then explained more about the Republic to me.
In that country, citizens could elect their own representatives and send them to the political arena. Kings and nobles existed, but commoners could also be involved in politics. The most distinguishing feature was that the elected representatives of the citizens, the Councilors, wielded more power than even some nobles. The King apparently could not afford to treat these Councilors poorly just because they were commoners.
”Huh… I honestly thought it was only feudal societies around here. Besides, can a commoner really wield that much influence?” I wondered aloud, surprised.
”One might think that commoners are treated equally because the citizens elect their representatives. However, the reality is vastly different,” Liliarette sighed, a hint of bitterness in her voice.
Every single Councilor, without exception, was a super-rich merchant. They used their wealth to manipulate the system and secure their seats as Councilors. It wasn’t about fair debate or voting; it was completely unlike the democracy I had imagined.
”So the Republic is a country run by nobles and a handful of merchants?” I summed up.
”Precisely. Even the nobles find it difficult to stand against the merchants who possess more gold and power than they do,” Liliarette affirmed.
The land where the Republic now stood had originally been where many small nations fought amongst themselves. But the merchants within each of these countries had joined forces, controlling the flow of goods, and even causing some territories to dry up completely. Through a series of complicated events, the nobles had been forced to include the merchants in the framework that became the Republic. Due to the very history of how the state was formed, some merchants still held enormous influence.
”I shall spare you the finer details of the history, but suffice it to say, the merchants in that nation—especially the families that produce Councilors—are not to be underestimated. The merchants of that country, in particular, are said to have a rather fierce temperament…” Liliarette warned.
When I thought of merchants, I usually pictured someone smiling nicely at customers to make a profit. But Liliarette’s image of the Republic’s merchants didn’t seem to be that kind of person at all.
”However, they are certainly perceptive regarding profit. They are newcomers among the great powers, but that gives them momentum. The merchants of that country will buy the sugar at a high price.”
”Why is the Empire a poor choice, then?” Cleonora interjected, her concern palpable.
At her sister’s question, Liliarette offered a hesitant expression.
”It is not that it is entirely impossible, *desuwa*. But if an unnamed commoner wishes to deal in such expensive goods in the Empire, the target would be the nobles. A commoner with no track record cannot simply sell things directly to a noble. You would need to conduct business with a merchant already dealing with a noble house… and without an introduction, they likely wouldn’t even entertain the notion.”
I understood her point. And there was no guarantee that a merchant would sell something brought in by a man they didn’t know from Adam to a noble.
”But the merchants of the Republic will listen to anyone if they understand that money can be made. Furthermore, Shimizu-san, your face clearly marks you as being from a foreign land. The Republic has various races, but in the Kingdom and the Empire, you might stand out in a rather negative way.”
Ah… I understood that, too. There was a clear difference between my face and the faces of the two princesses. It was probably the equivalent of an Asian person wandering around an English-speaking country in this world’s Kingdom or Empire—an obvious discrepancy.
”And this is my strongest argument for recommending the Republic: I have a connection to one of the merchant families that produces a Councilor. I have a known contact who might agree to hear us out with my letter of introduction,” Liliarette confessed, her eyes glimmering.
”What?” I breathed out, startled.
”Lilia…! You don’t mean the merchant who desired your leg to be crippled in such a manner, do you!?” Cleonora demanded, her voice suddenly sharp with fury.
I remembered that their sister, Viorga, had Liliarette’s leg ruined because a Republic Councilor had requested it.
Cleonora’s voice was loud, but Liliarette simply shook her head.
”No, Sister. This is a different merchant.”
—
Summary:
Dinner is served, a modern feast of pasta and seasoned meat, but the domestic tranquility is shattered when Princess Liliarette unveils a daring, high-stakes trade proposal. She intends to sell the incredibly rare white sugar, which only a Holy City can produce, to the powerful, ruthless merchants of the Shytal Grand Republic. This isn’t just about money; it’s about leveraging her political history and connections with the Republic’s merchant-Councilors, hinting at a past trauma that still haunts her and Cleonora. It’s a calculated move to seize power, but Shimizu needs a lot of capital in Japan for this to work. The plot thickens as the political game begins.
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Character Insight:
Liliarette’s political acumen and cold pragmatism shine through here. She’s not just a victim; she’s a strategist, using her own trauma and knowledge of the system to carve out a path to power. Shimizu, despite his immense power, remains the naive everyman, easily overwhelmed by the cutthroat nature of this world’s high-stakes commerce. Cleonora’s immediate anger shows how deeply protective she is of her sister.
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Behind the Scene:
The ‘Treasury’ skill’s limitations are a crucial plot device, ensuring that Shimizu cannot simply flood the market with unlimited modern goods, which adds tension and difficulty to his resource management. The Republic is not a true democracy but an oligarchy run by hyper-wealthy, aggressive merchants, making it a dangerous but profitable target for trade. The next chapter will shift from planning to a more intimate scene between the main characters.
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T/L:
¹ Aion-san: san is a respectful Japanese honorific, roughly equivalent to ‘Mr./Ms./Mrs.’ and is used by Shimizu for the automatons, treating them with a degree of politeness despite their nature. ↩
Notes:
• Cleonora – The second princess. Have a yellow blonde hair. Usually styled as hairbun. D-cup.
• Aion – The maid golem. She has chestnut-brown hair and and a well-featured, but utterly expressionless, face. Looks like Karakuri from certain series.
• Liliarette – The other Princess, who sacrificed her ability to walk and her sorcery talent to save her sister, Cleonora. She is imprisoned in the East Tower and is being used as a political and monetary pawn by Viorga. C-cup, true golden hair, waist-length hair, the fringe was a slightly blunt, hair on her left side was braided to the chest.
• Mond – The grizzled, mature Commander of the First Knight Order. He has a thick, streaked beard and a powerful, armored build. He is utterly loyal to the Emmeld royal family, specifically the Princess Viorga, and handles the practical military matters of the court. Looks like Doranbolt from certain series.
• Gin – A friend of Kiraurumi who craves excitement and is secretly a ‘lolita enthusiast’ complexed about her own tall stature. She sees the world-saving mission as a ‘plane ride over a river’ of boredom.
• Viorga – The First Princess of the Emmeld Kingdom. She is a beautiful, young woman with long golden hair and sharp blue eyes, always dressed in an elaborate crimson and gold royal gown. She is utterly ruthless, viewing all people—including the summoned Heroes and her own family—as disposable assets in her political games. Looks like Aileen Lauren from certain series.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
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