Otherworld Nation Founding Chronicles

First, we headed for the harbor.

“Our country, Lezzad, is mainly a base for transporting salt from the Adernia Peninsula and produce like wheat and olives harvested from Lezzadian farms to the Cretian mainland. All these products are gathered in Claris, two-thirds of which would then be exported to the Persis Empire. Recently, however, we have also been profiting from paper aside from salt.”

The MP explains for us with a smile.

You can clearly see he is currying favor with me through every important point.

Now that I thought about it, diplomatic policies of countries with monarchies change on the whim of their kings so you need to pay quite close attention.

Conversely, if you flatter them then you should be able to create a favorable relationship.

“Are the ships that anchor in this harbor all from Claris?”

“……No, ships from the city-states participating in the Western Alliance with Claris often use this harbor. Ships from Alto and Therbae also stop by occasionally; although the cause of their resupply is getting shipwrecked. Others, like Persis ships and Povenian ships, although rare, also stop by.”

I see, they’re not in bad relations to the extent that they’d disrupt commerce, huh.

They also seem to be exporting a considerable amount of goods to the Persis Empire such as salt and agricultural produce, after all.

Economic connection is quite the strong force.

Suddenly, a group of naked men catches my eye. All of them have shackles in their legs – slaves.

“Where were those slaves procured from?”

“Those are….probably from Gallia. Even Gallia has colonies, after all.”

There are slaves here and there when I looked around.

While the Rosyth Kingdom has a not insignificant number of slaves, they’re not in a percentage this high. Our country is primarily a nation of landed farmers, after all.

Lezzad shouldn’t have any mines so perhaps these men are probably made to work the fields or row the galleys.

Racially speaking, a lot of them are whites.

While the image of a slave being black is strong, I don’t see much black slaves. There are black merchants though.

“By the way, we want to purchase several ships but..”

“Ships, you say? This might sound rude but……the Rosyth Kingdom doesn’t have any seas, yes?”

Yes, we don’t have any seas. However, seas aren’t the only places those things can be used in.

“We’ll be using them in the rivers. Our country has a lot of rivers after all. Although I do understand that I’m out of my depth regarding the difference between using ships in the rivers and in the seas but…..is there none? As expected, even Lezzad…”

After I said such provocatively, the MP responds positively with a slightly serious tone.

“We have some, you know. We also use some of them in our home country for water transport, after all. How many do you need?”

“Let’s see……For the meantime, we’ll take about fifty. We’ll put them up for trials. By the way, we also want to hire shipwrights. They’re for when we’ll need repairs.”

At my request, the MP promised that they’d be recruiting on my behalf.

For the meantime, human resources secured.

“Next would be…you want to see the farms, yes?”

“Yes. I’ll be in your care.”

Ains is observing this new king that he had known for so long.

He seems to be listening attentively to the MP’s explanation.

Ains holds favorable sentiments towards this youth by the name of Almis.

Not only has this lad returned his loans, he had returned it with 25 years’ worth of interest.

He couldn’t help but be astonished at this youth.

He had thought that this lad, from the very beginning, had been interested in Cretian culture.

A lot of influential Adernians prefer Cretian culture.

Negatively speaking, simply and sincerely, from the point of view of people who had grown up under Adernian culture that reeks of destitution, the luxuriously and gorgeously delicate Cretian culture is an extremely attractive proposition.

Thus, Ains had laid in wait after preparing various goods such as carvings, pictures, and jewelry.

But guess what, this youth had ignored all those things; He’s currently looking at things like ships, farms, and roads with great interest.

This came at a great surprise to Ains.

Ains doesn’t like agriculture very much.

This is something that applies to any country in the west but, in Claris and Lezzad, there are two factions – the Coasts Party and the Plains Party which stresses the importance of trade and agriculture respectively. Naturally speaking, Ains is in the Coasts Party.

From the point of view of Ains who is from the Coasts Party, it’s a mystery why Almis would want to study about agriculture that much.

Furthermore, Almis had told him that he wants to hire Cretians in that line of work.

Well, Lezzadians aren’t particularly prohibited from migrating so there won’t be any problems if Lezzadian artisans had willfully left for the Rosyth Kingdom.

It would have been better ((Almis had wanted)) tradeable things such as important military secrets like ironware since he couldn’t sell things like roads and farms.

“This is foaming fruit for baths, yes?”

Almis asks with an interested voice so Ains rushes over to him.

“This is a Salpo fruit.”

“Salpo?”

Almis asks again.

“You use this for washing the body. It’s famed even among Cretians to make the hair and skin smooth and silky. Does it pique your interest?”

“Yes. I most certainly want some of these. Or rather, I want the trees and some specialist managers, the whole package.”

Almis draws closer to Ains as if taking a bait.

Ains was a little troubled at Almis’ enthusiasm. To think he’d want Salpo to this extent.

“Uhm….how about we negotiate about it? There are several people who have built specialist farms for Salpo after all. If you asked such people to migrate to your country in exchange for land and such as compensation then……”

“Certainly, please introduce them to me.”

Almis strongly grabs Ains’ hands.

“Oh yeah, while you’re at it, won’t you give me some of that sponge?”

“Sponges, yes? Understood. We’ll prepare some for you as souvenirs.”

They’re expensive items but if it means you’d be buying the favor of a country’s king, then it’s a very cheap expense.

“What a splendid number of books.”

“Thank you very much for your complement. This library has 30,000 volumes in collection. It’s the largest in the Adernia peninsula.”

I look around the library.

It would seem the books are made chiefly from papyrus. I can’t find anything made with our country’s paper. Well, reproducing them would take time after all.

“By the way, where is the world’s largest library located?”

“……If I can recall correctly, the collection of the Imperial Library in the Persis city Jamshid which has 250,000 volumes is the largest in the world. The largest in Cretia would be the Claris National Library with 100,000 volumes.”

If I recall correctly, the Library of Alexandria had around 700,000 volumes, huh.

If you think about it, the Persis library has quite the scale.

“I also want a library like this in our country. By the way……if we are to reproduce the books here, how much would one book take?”

“Is this about personnel expenses?”

From what I’ve heard, there doesn’t seem to be any concept of copyright.

Books are something written to propagate one’s thoughts. As such, having their books reproduced is actually very well received by authors.

The expenses will comprise of paper and personnel costs. Well, this would certainly be expensive, huh.

“Yeah. Once the country settles down, we’ll be requesting this. Would that be fine?”

“Yes, I’m always at your service.”

The MP answers with a smile.

“Now then, shall we head for the temple next? Oi, Tetra, let’s go.”

“N……you go on ahead. I’ll meet up with you later.”

Tetra got hooked on a book. I guess it can’t be helped.

“Then let’s leave her alone and go on ahead.”

“Would that be fine?”

“The day will end if we wait for her, you know?”

I reply in jest.

Julia is enthusiastically appreciating the temple while having an intense conversation with the chief priest.

Unfortunately, I don’t have that much interest in religion.

Therefore, I’m bored with nothing to do.

“How is religion organized in Cretia?”

“Our country is systematizing religion. We’re separating it as much as possible from politics. Claris’ primary god is the god of commerce and gold, so our priests are also working hard in order to make money. Well, it’s a business by the name of donations, yes?”

Oh, really?…..from the point of view of these guys from Claris, donations are business, huh.

Are they going to be fine with corruption?

Rather, they’re quite determined, huh.

Polytheism is quite loose from time to time but, from what I’ve heard, in Claris, rather than loose, it seemed to be quite muddled.

As I talk with Ains, Julia comes back.

Behind her, several priests are carrying golden statues.

“Hey, Almis. If we donated ten gold coins, they told me they’d share (bunrei) their gods with us.”

“These glittering statues are the gods, huh. Well, I guess 10 gold coins would be fine.”

I don’t think we’ll become well off with these golden statues but, I guess it’s just her way of thinking.

Compared to the stupidly huge Buddha statue that Emperor Shoumu got made, this price is extremely reasonable. [TLN1]

That said, bunrei sure is cheap, huh. However, these are quite the things. As expected of religion.

When push comes to shove, I guess making something that looks authentic with wood should be fine.

Cheers for Idolatry! Banzai!

“What’s up with the strange goldies?”

Tetra mutters.

Rather, when the hell did you get here?

“I just got here a while ago. Look, they said they’d give me this.”

Tetra shows a bundle of papyrus in her hand.

I wonder if she started an argument again? Or maybe they just couldn’t stand an unyielding Tetra any longer…

“Please don’t get to too far from me, okay?”

“I’m fine. I’m not a kid.”

Ains lets out a sigh at my reply.

Our shopping, under the pretext of inspecting the marketplace, got approved under the condition of being supervised and guarded by several MPs.

They went with my wish to conceal our social status.

“That said, the roads sure are wide, huh.”

“Well, unless roads were this wide, carriages wouldn’t be able to pass through.”

The road is divided into the carriageway and the footpaths. I’m walking on the footpath.

Several carriages can pass through the carriageway. The footpaths, on the otherhand, even have drainage. It seems to have been constructed so as rain water would not accumulate. Alright, should we also headhunt some road officials?

“That said, you sure have a lot of things here huh…..This is?”

I discover a green orb that looks familiar.

This is a…..

“It’s a melon, sir.”

“You even have melons here, huh. I’ll have some raised in our country too.”

I love sweet melon after all.

“Melons aren’t sweet you know? Well, compared to cucumbers, they do have a slight sweet taste.”

Is that so?

However, no matter how you look at it, melons and watermelons are vegetable-like, right?

They’re from the same Gourd family so it wouldn’t be strange if their common ancestors had the same taste.

However, if we selectively breed them we should be able to achieve musk melons.

I want to get these musk melons be cultivated before I die. I wonder if it’s not overdoing it?

We find a precious metal store on the way.

It’s a sensible shop. There are battle slaves inside as well as what appears to be slaves holding weapons and standing at attention.

They have quite the scary faces as well as amazing physiques.

Just their presence is enough of an anti-crime measure.

“Well, since we’re already here, we might as well get something. Tetra, Julia, do the two of you have anything you’d like to get?”

The two have a golden ring in their ring fingers.

These, rather than engangement rings, have stronger meanings as signs of their adult womanhood or their being a married woman.

Furthermore, the rings also act as signature seals.

In short, I should say that they’re more of an evidence that they’ve become family.

By the way, there are two rings in my ring finger. Just by looking at it you can see that I’m quite a bastard, huh.

At any rate, this means that I haven’t gotten them things befitting of what we call in Japan as Engagement and Marriage Rings.

It’s not like they had asked for one. The Adernians also did not have that kind of custom.

However, since we’re here, we might as well indulge. My present social status can even afford to buy one hundred or even two hundred rings.

“Then, I’ll take this one.”

Tetra takes a hair ornament with a ruby.

“Hmm, a hair ornament huh…..it stands out so it’s quite good, yes? Then, I’ll be taking this.”

Julia takes another hair ornament but this time fitted with an emerald.

“Is that so? Then we’ll have these two…..while we’re at it, we’ll also be having these.”

I take two pairs of pearl earrings and hand them over to the store employee together with the hair ornaments.

Meanwhile, I ask Ron and Gram whom I had taken with us as guards.

“You guys, aren’t you going to buy something? Like for Soyon and for Lulu?”

The two shake their heads at my question.

“We’ve already ordered for our weddings. They’re custom made.”

“Besides, Roswald will get mad at us.”

Right, you can say that it would be pitiful for Roswald, who was left behind to house-sit, for the two to buy something without him.

Oh yeah, now that they’ve mentioned it, when will they be having the marriage ceremonies?

“Since things have settled down, we’re thinking of doing it soon.”

Ron answers.

“I see. Make sure to properly invite me okay?”

I have to do something about wedding presents.

Should I also order in secret? Something custom made…

Dinner has ended, and we have taken our baths.

Around the time the day is about to end.

I, Julia, Tetra, Yal, Bartolo, Ron, and Gram assembled into the room.

“Now then, shall we finalize the policies for the diplomatic negotiations for tomorrow?”