“Giggle!”

“Oh… Oh my!”

Carlus’ hat flew off and the thing he had wanted to hide was revealed in front of everyone’s eyes.

-Oh my… In just one day…

The top part of Carlus’ head was shiny and glossy, as if he was wearing a bowl on his head.

‘Skinhead! The Sun is shining! A nasty, patchy baldness!’

The size of the bald patch was almost the size of Davey’s hand. As if more hair had fallen out while Carlus had kept his hat on, his blond hair floated in the air like electrons flying around.

-Ahahahahahaha!!!!

Perserque laughed so hard that she shook. Davey ignored her and stared at Carlus with a smirk.

Carlus met Davey’s gaze and tried to shout furiously, but only unintelligible animal noises came out of his mouth. Thud!! He was rushed out of the conference room and the doors closed.

Davey stood up from his seat. The nobles, who were dumbfounded by Carlus’ strange actions, returned to their senses. They didn’t know what to do, and King Krianes coughed in discomfort.

“He is still too immature to manage the Heins Territory,” Davey said calmly, then glanced at Duke Bariatta. As the confused nobles all gathered toward him, he continued, “Now, I will speak. Duke Bariatta.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Davey smiled at Duke Bariatta’s composed response. “Since when were you above the king?”

“Your Highness?”

It was highly disrespectful, but Davey’s question was piercing. Instead of Duke Bariatta answering, it was another noble who yelled, “What?!”

“I will ask again, Duke. Is this kingdom yours?”

“Of course not.” Duke Bariatta spoke emotionlessly, but Davey could feel his hostility; in the end, he was a human being with emotions and intentions. “Your Highness, my actions were all for the Rowane Kingdom…”

“Then why are you reiterating the same bullshit as those people?” Davey asked.

“Y—Your Highness! How could you?!”

“What? I just said the same thing that you did, Duke. Also, why wasn’t His Majesty informed about the correspondence regarding a highly important matter of the kingdom? Did you think it wasn’t worth reporting? You really are the king, aren’t you?”

“Your Highness! That is not true!” Duke Bariatta shouted.

“It’s not? I thought it was since you announced it so confidently.”

Duke Bariatta was stunned at Davey’s words. Looking him dead in the eyes, Davey said with a grin, “From what I can tell, I don’t think you understand the situation…. You give them an inch, and they want to take a mile.”

“Your Highness, this is the royal cou…” Duke Bariatta spoke. 

“So, what did you resolve about this matter in this conference? To sell off royalty as per the Holy Empire’s wishes? To take this opportunity and gain sole control over the territory and its business?”

For just a second, Davey saw confusion appear in Duke Bariatta’s eyes. Even if he was royalty, it was extremely dangerous for him to act like this, especially when the Bariatta family had overwhelming power in the kingdom.

Davey remained calm, simply grinning before bowing toward King Krianes. “The main idea is that everything will be solved if we can appease the Holy Empire.”

“So you have a way to settle their request?”

At King Krianes’ mysterious question, Davey chuckled. “The Holy Empire’s inhabitants are people, too. Perhaps the High Priest might be a problem, but that’s about it.”

* * *

The meeting of the royal court fizzled out. Well, that was probably how the nobility felt, but it was quite a valuable time for Davey, who had a lot to benefit from it.

As soon as he got back to the First Prince’s palace, Davey pulled out a communication crystal that had a mana stone attached to it. Then, he contacted a place by entering a number he had prepared in advance. The crystal emitted a faint light before a young priest showed up.

This magic communication device was made by connecting a mana stone to a communication crystal; it wasn’t a difficult system to make, but it was something only the wealthy could enjoy because of how expensive the mana stone was. Appropriate skills were also needed to make things happen. Of course, it wasn’t a problem for Davey, because he was sitting on a big pile of money right now.

‘This is why you need to choose your business item well.’

The territory’s curse, which had been going on for over ten thousand years, had actually become the springboard for success.

[Hup! I have received your call, Prince Davey! I am Archdeacon Belliam, the Treasurer of the Valchas Empire.]

“I apologize for the sudden call, Archdeacon Belliam.”

[Oh, please don’t say that. This was already discussed, right?]

“Haha. So, may I ask what the Pope has decided to do?” Davey asked the young priest in the crystal ball, and the priest chattered and chuckled.

[Yes, I did get a call from the empire, and the Pope is willing to accept your offer. He also said not to worry; this was High Priest Muless’ independent decision and it will never happen again.]

Of course, even if the Valchas Empire was built on sacred land, people still lived there, and they had to run their business as well. Davey had told the Pope one thing: moon grass would not be able to be harvested if anything happened to either the Heins Territory or himself. Someone like the Pope should’ve understood the implications from that comment alone.

[Anyway, I didn’t imagine that the Rowane Kingdom would think to send you to the Valchas Empire. Well, it isn’t a bad offer, but we believe that it would be a loss to us in the long run. Haha!]

The young priest slurred the end of his words and giggled. As he was still young, he was more friendly than serious.

“Then, please keep an eye on it.”

[As you wish. Haha! If the product is supplied to us on time, it is definitely not a bad thing for the Valchas Empire as well. However…]

“Don’t worry about that part. I will set aside a certain amount for the empire’s purchase in the next quarter.”

[Oh! Thank you for going out of your way and doing that! Haha, the Pope said that he would be satisfied if all went well, and he personally asked for you to sell more high-quality leaves in the future.]

“I will cultivate some of the remaining land and harvest some additional leaves to sell to the empire.”

Perhaps this deal was very worldly and materialistic, but Davey didn’t care about that. The Valchas Empire had basically announced that if one wanted special treatment, they would have to bring them something. Even though he had released a certain amount to the market, it was true that Davey hadn’t been completely satisfied with the amount.

‘It’s a dirty deal? I didn’t sell only part of the supply for no reason.’

In fact, Davey didn’t even have to ask; the Valchas Empire would’ve probably judged that it was more beneficial to maintain a continuous supply of moon grass rather than taking him from the Rowane Kingdom.

Of course, they had to know that moon grass could not be harvested without Davey and the Heins Territory. Even if other organizations found out about their deal, they probably could not complain; they would probably try to profit from it by offering something like the Valchas Empire. By then, Davey could slowly expand his business. And if everyone got into deep water all at once, they could not blame each other.

‘Let everyone fall in deep! It’s a business based on everyone pulling each other down.’

“Running a business is easy.”

-Liar.

Davey bitterly smiled at Perserque’s criticism.

“Well, the matter with the Valchas Empire is taken care of.”

The person who had tried to transfer Davey to the Valchas Empire was High Priest Muless. Since he was at the high ranks of the High Senate, his influence was even greater than some small kingdoms. However, Davey had made a deal with the Pope, the commander of the Valchas Empire.

In the end, people lived there as well. And since a political fight was a matter to be dealt with on their own, it wouldn’t be a problem any longer. If the empire were to remain silent because of internal issues, the nobility of the Rowane Kingdom would not be able to touch Davey any longer. It was a pretty good outcome.

Davey quickly ended the call with Archdeacon Belliam, pulled out another crystal ball, and tapped on its mana stone. Just like before, it began shining and showed a man—no, it was two people this time.

[Sob… Sir Bernile… It’s too much…]

[Ahem! You have received the honor of assisting the First Prince’s work by his side! How could you be so lazy… Hup! Your Highness.]

It was Amy, buried in a pile of papers with tears in her eyes, and Royal Attendant Bernile, who was taking care of the state of affairs at the territory in Davey’s place. One was a royal attendant, and the other was Davey’s personal lady-in-waiting who had looked after him for a long time, but the work they were doing was closer to a personal assistant and a proxy than their actual jobs.

“Thank you for your hard work, Royal Attendant Bernile.”

[I’m just doing what I ought to do.]

“And Amy?”

[Y… Your Highness? Is it really you?! Your Highness! Please help me!]

[Hey! I told you: no dinner if you don’t finish the task I assigned to you! Ahem! Your Highness, I apologize for showing this ugly side of me.]

“Haha… Don’t work her too much,” Davey said.

Amy was quite bright for a lady-in-waiting, and so, Davey was investing in her future. ‘This is what a healthy company environment looks like, isn’t it?’

Right now, Amy was still young and naïve, but she was going to become exceptionally capable in a few years.

“Anyway, how is the restoration work going?”

It had just begun raining in the territory, and the ground was starting to come back to life; however, because it had been abandoned and undeveloped for a long time, there were too many problems to just develop it right away. The biggest concern was the lack of skills and time. The foundation had to be stable and strong for any building; if the territory was built on a weak foundation, there was a high chance that it would cause problems in the blueprint that Davey had designed for his future city.

‘I have to do something now, when I have the money. It’ll make things much easier in the future.’

[Sigh… I did inspect it as you said, Your Highness, but…]

“Time is the problem?”

[Yes. To rebuild everything according to the design you left, it is going to take a while.]

The estimated timeframe to rebuild the Heins Territory was about ten to twenty years. This was the time needed to build a strong foundation for the Heins Territory, which hadn’t been developed in a long time and was crumbling, and to fix the water system, and cultivate the farmland. Those things wouldn’t be magically fixed, and not everything could be done with money.

“What about the wizard towers, schools of alchemy, and the merchant companies?”

[They are staying at the temporary lodgings for now, because the materials haven’t arrived yet. But they have all received the permit to build on the land as soon as it arrives. Everything is proceeding accordingly.]

“Okay. They can do what they want, but they can’t violate the rules I have set.”

[Your wish is my command.]

Royal Attendant Bernile, the old gentleman, bowed his head with a satisfied expression.

“And don’t worry about the problems regarding the lack of skills; I’ll return with the best-skilled technicians in the continent. We have to start our second business, don’t we?”

[The best technicians on the continent?]

Royal Attendant Bernile looked puzzled. He was probably wondering what Davey meant.

“Yeah. They’re really stubborn and not willing to do business a lot of the time, but I know a species that will never turn down my offer.”

It was trading diamonds with corn; there was no better business idea than something that was low-risk and high-returns.

Realizing who Davey was referring to when he said, ‘the best technicians of the continent’, Royal Attendant Bernile widened his eyes.