The moment she saw the closing sentence at the end, Artesia’s eyes widened greatly.
She immediately searched for paper and pen, copying down the published statement.
[Celcis] is the name of a shrub that grows only in certain areas of the northern regions where the four seasons are distinct.
In that region exists a legend called [Celcis Flowers].
A small northern country that existed in the distant, now-dead past.
The small country used Celcis flowers as their crest, but when a knight captain, instigated by another country and driven by personal greed, betrayed them, leading to the king’s execution and the country’s destruction, the knight captain, regretting his betrayal, hanged himself from a Celcis tree.
That’s why Celcis flowers were given the flower language of [betrayal].
However, in Eisenhud, the flower language of [betrayal] held a different meaning.
Since there are about a dozen types of flowers with [betrayal] as their flower language, Eisenhud used them as [keys] for cipher decoding, applying decoding methods corresponding to flower types to text to reveal the true content to be conveyed.
When applying the decoding method corresponding to [Celcis] to that copied statement—
[August 15th, 14:03, loses consciousness. At that time, in the back alley of Achimenes]
As a date and time emerged, Artesia put her hand to her chin and pondered.
“Next month’s date… losing consciousness means—”
As she considered the meaning of the emerged text and took a step forward—
“——Ah”
Her foot caught on a newspaper, and she slipped vigorously.
She landed hard on her bottom, and the pile of newspapers she had stacked collapsed and scattered around.
“Oh, honestly… I had organized them nicely for easy reading later……”
As Artesia pursed her lips, she reached out to gather the scattered newspapers.
“——Eh?”
However, the newspaper Artesia picked up fell to the floor again.
Just now, she was certain she had grasped the newspaper with her right hand.
She even felt the sensation of moving her right hand properly.
That’s why Artesia looked at her right hand again and applied strength.
But—that right hand didn’t move, remaining frozen as if time had stopped.
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Two weeks after Falsen and the others officially became territorial residents.
“——Well then, let’s begin the report meeting.”
After looking over the people gathered there, Kurtz announced the start of the meeting.
“Lord Trakia, please provide the official response regarding Falsen and the others’ immigration.”
“The response from the Dragon Soaring Nation Starkblut was [In exchange for granting permission for immigration, the immigrants’ nationality will be revoked, and henceforth they will be treated the same as the Demi-Humans of the Green Forest Nation Sylvayu].”
“Meaning they won’t be treated as fellow dragon-people.”
“I tried negotiating that the measures were too harsh, but they responded that it was unavoidable given the grudge against Eisenhud.”
“……We don’t mind at all. What we must protect now is no longer country or land, and those who couldn’t accept the immigration chose to return to their homeland. Rather, we’re grateful for the time and effort spent on our behalf.”
“I’m the one who should be thanking you. Just obtaining the two facts that Felmund has territorial residents and that there were immigrants from Demi-Humans is more than enough.”
Trakia nods with satisfaction, his wrinkles deepening.
The fact that demi-human immigrants came to Felmund, a land despised by Demi-Humans, has immeasurable great value.
The support and treatment provided to the residents of Vechta Village was widely reported along with the success of the mining venture, reaching not only the empire and northern regions but Demi-Humans in various places.
This created the possibility that those who had lost their place due to various circumstances like Falsen and others, or Demi-Humans who found communal living difficult due to friction with their homeland or surroundings, would aim for Felmund.
There would likely be some with ulterior motives among them, but with Trakia’s experience of living a long life and seeing many people, he could discern them without problem.
By gradually increasing territorial residents this way and eventually creating an environment where people attract people, the territorial resident problem would be resolved, making it easier to invite the races Kurtz envisions to the territory.
“Next, please report from Feiyu.”
“I don’t have any promising results… While I processed nationality and such for Vechta Village residents without delay, there were zero immigrants from the elf side that we recruited in parallel, and the royal side warned me not to interfere excessively regarding that.”
“That’s sufficient. Elves, being long-lived compared to other races, still harbor strong resentment toward Eisenhud, so I understand both the immigrants’ feelings and the royal side’s concerns. While we could have quickly assembled forces if there were volunteers, I wasn’t hoping for that much.”
Elves excel in [group combat] among Demi-Humans.
Instead of being inferior in physical abilities compared to other races, they were a race that early adopted strategic group hunting and weapon use, allowing them to build their current position without being inferior to beast-people and dragon-people with strong physical abilities.
If they could incorporate that tactical awareness and group combat knowledge, strengthening military power could be resolved quickly, but that was just considering a slight possibility, not a genuine expectation.
What was important was the action of [recruiting territorial residents].
“So, were you able to make contact with the target person?”
“Yes, I could. I also delivered the message Lucia asked me to convey.”
“So they’re probably heading to the imperial capital now? Since we’ll be forcing an inconvenient life on them for a while, I’ll probably get complaints later.”
Perhaps imagining that scene, Lucia scratches her cheek with a wry smile.
The assassination group known as 《Faceless》, famous in the underworld.
While Lucia alone handled the execution of assassinations and espionage, there were also a small number of [collaborators] to facilitate smooth activities, including some to whom Lucia herself had taught espionage techniques.
Those [collaborators] were the people Lucia was willing to risk her life to protect, and she used the method of [recruiting territorial residents] so that others wouldn’t catch wind of her contacting them.
However, Feiyu frowns slightly with worry.
“But… that child is really reliable, right?”
“Huh? Was there some problem?”
“No… how should I put it, that child looked more adorable than I expected?”
“Ah, well, since that child is someone I taught techniques to, I think there’s no problem.”
“Well… if Lucia says so, then there’s probably no problem.”
While Feiyu was forcibly convincing herself, Edel solemnly raised her hand.
“Kurtz, it’s not a report, but I have a question about mineral buying and selling.”
“Please, I’ll take your question.”
“I’m concerned about restricting the types and export quantities of mined minerals. It’s fine that minerals used for Mercator’s railway plan get priority purchase, but I think there’s no need to hold off on other raw stones considering storage space and costs.”
“So you’re saying we should sell the unprocessed raw stones.”
“Yes. Felmund is currently focusing on gold refining, and processing mined raw stones into gems takes both effort and time. Since we don’t have the manpower to spare for that, it would be better to make our name known as a raw stone production site for easier future transactions.”
The dragon people of Vechta Village who became subjects number about one hundred, with most of them engaged in mining operations and support work. The situation is such that all the refining work of the mined minerals is left entirely to personnel dispatched from Mercator, thereby establishing the business structure.
Even after paying labor costs and repaying the 300 million gald borrowed from Edel in advance, profits are more than sufficient. However, if they were to also undertake the processing of raw gemstones, it would require even more labor costs and time than refining.
Moreover, gemstones are more difficult to profit from compared to ores.
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