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Chapter 16
“That is all I can say for now. I hope you will judge me with wise eyes.”
As she spoke, Amber set down her teacup with such calm movements that Heinrich, overcome with shame, could not say anything for a long while.
By the time Amber had emptied her teacup, Heinrich bowed his head deeply.
“My Lady, I am sorry.”
He apologized first, sincerely.
He was ashamed of himself for having prejudices against Amber, and even more ashamed that he had noticed those prejudices yet pretended not to, instead of apologizing right away.
Looking at Heinrich with his head bowed, Amber felt a complex emotion.
Because she had never once thought she would receive such a polite apology from anyone in the Castle of Thales.
*’Is it because I’ve changed? Or because the situation has changed? No… such thoughts are probably meaningless.’*
Instead of delving into her own inner self, Amber decided to focus on the situation unfolding before her.
“I accept your apology.”
At Amber’s words, Heinrich finally raised his head.
“Then are you accepting my proposal as well?”
“For now, I will support you, my Lady.”
“‘For now,’ you say.”
“You must understand that I am not in a position to stake everything.”
Amber nodded. In truth, hearing this much of an answer from Heinrich was already a sufficient success.
“Then let’s discuss in detail where to use my dowry from now on. If we sell all the jewels, we should be able to get at least 5,000,000 star.”
“5,000,000 star…”
Heinrich murmured quietly, as if the amount was too large to feel real.
“That’s calculated at the lowest price. If we find a good merchant, we could get up to 5,500,000 star. But let’s assume it’s 5,000,000 for now.”
“Do you have anything in mind?”
At Heinrich’s question, Amber tapped the table with her finger as she organized her thoughts.
“I’d need to see the accounting ledgers to make an exact decision… but for now, let’s set aside 500,000 star. Half of the remaining money will be used for relief efforts for the fiefdom residents. As for the rest, I’m thinking of using it to replace the knights’ old armor and weapons.”
As expected, the next priority after relief work was reorganizing the knight order.
Amber recalled the knights she had seen at the training ground, wearing old armor and waiting for orders with exhausted expressions.
Whether they followed the Emperor’s commands or not, the knights of the East had to fight constantly. Because of the monster waves.
Moreover, the undefeated knight order led by Calix was the East’s only source of pride and a point of honor. The knight order had played a huge role in the people of the East enduring the droughts and hardships.
“Is there anything else the knight order needs?”
“There is, but for now, replacing the armor and weapons seems the most urgent, as you said, my Lady.”
Heinrich’s expression was bright as he answered. He seemed quite pleased with Amber’s words about taking care of the knight order along with the relief efforts.
“How are the knight order’s weapons procured?”
“We buy iron and commission the village blacksmiths, but most are purchased from neighboring territories.”
“I see. The Duchy of Thales has few skilled craftsmen.”
The Duchy of Thales had a small population relative to its size. There were mines, but no population to mine the iron, so iron itself couldn’t be procured, and as a result, there were very few craftsmen who could make weapons.
“Where are the weapons mainly bought from?”
Amber asked, recalling the names of regions that interacted with Thales one by one in her mind.
“Nasto. We import crops from various places, but when it comes to weapons, that’s the only place we can import from.”
“Nasto?”
At the familiar name, Amber frowned involuntarily.
The County of Nasto, spanning the eastern and southern parts of the Empire, was a wealthy and bustling place.
The land was fertile, producing surplus crops, so the Duchy of Thales imported a certain amount of grain from Nasto every year.
But there was a huge drawback to the grain imported from Nasto. It was too expensive.
The Count of Nasto took exorbitant profits by taking advantage of the East’s difficult situation.
*’They import weapons from a place like that?’*
Of course, Nasto was the only place that had enough weapons to sell to other territories.
But she doubted the Count of Nasto, who played games with grain, would leave weapons alone.
“Do they sell the weapons at a fair price?”
At Amber’s question, Heinrich smiled bitterly.
“The price is the market rate. But the quality of the weapons is not. They deliberately sell us old or defective weapons.”
“So the knights’ weapons being unusually worn wasn’t simply a supply issue.”
Amber sighed.
“But the only way to obtain weapons in this area is through the Count of Nasto. Even when we try to open trade with other territories, even in small amounts, the Count of Nasto interferes from the middle.”
Since the Count of Nasto was the most powerful force in the area, it was natural for other nobles to defer to him.
“So because we need weapons the most, he won’t let us go.”
Even Amber, who had no particular affection for the East, could not suppress her anger toward the Count of Nasto at this point.
“Then shall we change direction to something other than weapons and armor?”
“No, we need to support the knight order first.”
Not only was the knight order the pride of the East, but there was also the upcoming expedition to the Kingdom of Kale to consider. She couldn’t send them to such a harsh place with old weapons.
“What to do…”
Amber looked down at her empty teacup, lost in deep thought.
Heinrich refilled Amber’s teacup with polite, measured movements. Amber drank the warm tea he had poured and closed her eyes.
*’Should I negotiate with the Count of Nasto? No. That snake would never listen. Besides, the East has nothing to offer as leverage in a trade right now.’*
Amber emptied her teacup two more times.
“If the Count of Nasto has no intention of dealing fairly with us, then we have no choice but to find new trading partners.”
She spoke, finally opening her eyes.
“Would such a place exist?”
Heinrich asked hesitantly. Amber sighed and set down her teacup.
“I know a place. I’ll need to send a letter there as well, along with the Freya family.”
Amber asked Heinrich to bring her paper and a pen. Then she wrote a letter right there on the tea table.
“Can you deliver this? Once this letter arrives, the rest will be taken care of on their end.”
“If I dispatch one of the ducal knights, delivering the letter in secret shouldn’t be difficult.”
Heinrich said as he folded the letter.
“We’ll buy grain little by little from other territories. To the Count of Nasto, we’ll say we don’t want to burden him by exceeding the usual amount we receive each year.”
Such an excuse might work once or twice.
“And besides food, make sure to purchase enough firewood, thick clothes, and blankets so that no fiefdom residents freeze to death. The clothes and blankets can be collected again after winter ends and stored in the castle’s warehouse. And if there’s money left over, I’d like to buy some animal fat as well.”
Amber listed what was needed, reviewing the winters of the East from her memory.
At her unhesitating instructions, Heinrich did not answer immediately but remained silent.
“Is there something wrong with my orders?”
When Amber asked with a puzzled look, Heinrich quickly shook his head.
“No, not at all.”
“Then why are you staring blankly like that?”
“Because you, my Lady… are too skilled.”
“Ah.”
This time, Amber closed her mouth, flustered. She carefully observed Heinrich’s expression.
Heinrich was clearly confused.
“I’ve been learning about the East ever since His Majesty commanded the marriage. Since it was the place I would be living, I needed to know in advance, don’t you think?”
“But you were in the West. It must have been difficult to obtain detailed information.”
The methods of surviving winter were similar everywhere, so even if she had picked up information here and there, it was certainly strange that she had so skillfully come up with words to deceive the Count of Nasto.
“The Viscount Riat household runs a large trading company, doesn’t it? In the process, they’ve been able to collect various information that others don’t know.”
“Is that so…”
Heinrich accepted it for now, but his face still held a trace of doubt.
Amber grew anxious.
*’Did my excuse not work? Calix believed it.’*
Seeing Heinrich react differently to the same words, Amber couldn’t help but think of Calix.
He had believed everything Amber said without question or doubt.
Amber felt strange.
*’He’s still young… His depth of experience is different from Heinrich’s.’*
Amber forced the thoughts of Calix to the back of her mind.
“That settles the general direction.”
“Yes, I will first purchase food, clothes, blankets, and animal fat.”
Fortunately, Heinrich did not press further on Amber’s skillfulness. From his perspective, a capable duchess was better than an inexperienced one.
“And there’s one more thing I need to confirm.”
“Speak, my Lady.”
Heinrich was now completely favorable toward Amber.
“There should be a personal allowance allocated to me. I want to use that money to hire maids for myself.”
“I heard you were making Xenia your personal maid, but…”
Heinrich looked puzzled.
“Do you wish to bring maids from outside the castle?”
“No, I plan to choose maids to attend me mainly from among the people Xenia recommends.”
“In that case, you don’t need to use your personal allowance, my Lady. The maids’ salaries come from the castle’s budget.”
“That’s not what I want to give them.”
Amber shook her head.
“I want to give a special gift to those who will work for me.”
Since they were people Xenia recommended, they would all be trustworthy, but favor was something worth buying as much as possible.
*’And I need to let the servants attached to Bella know as well.’*
To let them know that the new lady of the house was far more generous and worth serving than Bella.
Heinrich brought Amber a portion of the personal allowance allocated to her.
“This is all that can be converted to cash immediately.”
“This is plenty.”
Amber smiled brightly and expressed her gratitude to him.
“Then please call Xenia for me. And bring the people she recommends as well. Secretly, of course.”
“Understood.”
Before leaving to call Xenia, Heinrich tidied the tea room himself. Because Bella’s people were everywhere, so he couldn’t just summon servants carelessly.
While Heinrich went to bring Xenia and the maids, Amber waited quietly in the tea room.
Looking out the window, the sun was already setting low.
Perhaps because the evening had passed, even after drinking several cups of tea, she was quickly getting hungry again.
*’What if that person calls me to eat again?’*
But there was no word from Calix. She wondered if he had eaten dinner first without her, but there was no one to ask.
*’It’s a relief. I don’t have to face him and get upset again.’*
Amber forced herself to be reassured.
It was clearly a good thing, yet she couldn’t understand why one corner of her heart felt uncomfortable.
Knock.
Just then, the sound of a knock woke Amber from her thoughts.
