Hilbert returned to his office that day… or rather, the next day, to be precise… only after the date had changed.
He was accompanied by a middle-aged male secretary. This secretary had also served the previous king, but Hilbert personally selected him for his consistently neutral stance towards politics, his dedication to assisting the king, and his deep knowledge of the king’s duties.
“To summarize, their demands are essentially that we hand over all management rights to the Glacelm mines, is that correct?”
“Yes. The specific form of ‘handover’ varies by country, however.”
“I wonder which is worse, selling to the Federation cheaply from state-owned mines, or this,” Hilbert mused, as if organizing his thoughts aloud. The secretary responded accordingly.
Diplomatic and trade negotiations with the Four Great Powers had already begun.
After entertaining the diplomats at the evening party, Hilbert had held a meeting with high-ranking officials to receive reports on the negotiation content and plan future strategies.
As expected, the Four Great Powers were demanding rights to the most valuable mines.
The strategic importance of the Ciel-Terra Kingdom lies in its mineral resources.
While orichalcum and adamantite are certainly valuable, they aren’t valuable enough that the Four Great Powers… especially the Koenig Empire, the Holy Dilletta Kingdom, and the Farraya Republic, which are geographically somewhat distant, would go so far as to promise support to the King’s younger brother to acquire them.
The focus is on ‘Glacelm,’ a rare metal used in certain magic items and high-level golem circuits.
The Jireshatar Federation boasts a powerful golem army, billing themselves as a “fortress of humanity”. They actively fight against monsters and the Demon race, and pose a potential threat to other human nations.
The Federation itself possesses rich Glacelm veins, which they not only use for military purposes but also generate significant profits as exports. However, about 20% of the Glacelm consumed within the Federation was purchased from the neighboring Ciel-Terra Kingdom (at a much lower price than when the Federation exports it elsewhere).
Could they mimic the golem army if they obtained Ciel-Terra’s Glacelm veins?
The great powers, eager to rival the Federation, dreamt of such a possibility.
Therefore, in exchange for becoming Hilbert’s backers when he begged for support, they sought rights to mineral resources, particularly Glacelm.
“The best way to sell high to the Four Great Powers is to make them think there’s a possibility of ‘re-establishing ties with the Federation’,” Hilbert said.
“The domestic situation would explode if you even hinted at that.”
“I know.”
Hilbert swallowed a sigh.
The Federation, by making Ciel-Terra diplomatically and commercially dependent on them, limited the sale of Glacelm to the Federation, allowing them to buy it cheaply. There was no competition in the purchase price.
Simply changing the dependency would be meaningless. It would be ideal if we could play them against each other to drive up the price.
However. Those currently hailing Hilbert are fanatical anti-Federation forces.
A self-destructive radicalization has occurred, and even those who were originally only slightly dissatisfied are now shouting, “Cut off the heads of the Federation people!”
If he doesn’t continue to meet their expectations, the focus of their fervor could turn even towards Hilbert. Re-establishing ties with the Federation is out of the question.
“We’ll just have to have the Four Great Powers fight amongst themselves, like children squabbling over how to divide meat. Let’s hope for a slightly better outcome.
I want to protect the independence of the Glacelm mines no matter what else we have to offer…”
Still, Hilbert thought it would be difficult.
What else could they sell?
Besides mineral resources, Ciel-Terra’s only selling point is its special product, the Snow Rose white rose (for ornamental and compounding purposes).
Hilbert couldn’t help but feel that his understanding had been somewhat naive.
He had thought it was simply a matter of the price at which to sell Glacelm, but the Four Great Powers intended to take root inside Ciel-Terra and devour it completely.
Considering the national interest, he had no choice but to reject their demands, but was that possible? He couldn’t simply renege on the debt he owed to the Four Great Powers.
“At least I want to protect the national treasury revenue and the economic effects on surrounding industries as much as possible. And all I can do is arrange treaties so that they can’t evade taxes.”
Hilbert wore an almost self-deprecating expression.
From now on, the Glacelm ore would be held by foreign powers.
It wasn’t just a matter of whether the final income would be greater (in fact, the income would probably increase somewhat in the short term), but the Ciel-Terra Kingdom’s control over Glacelm would weaken.
Hilbert felt an ominous premonition.
Looking to his side, he saw the secretary standing by like a statue.
“Do you think I’ve sold the country?”
“That is not for me to judge.”
A word that had slipped out inadvertently.
Hilbert almost laughed at the secretary’s serious answer.
This wasn’t something a king should ask his secretary. He must be feeling weak due to fatigue.
“By the way, we have received a request from the Noacurio Kingdom to dispatch a public order maintenance unit.”
“Reject it. Once they’re inside the country, they’ll find some reason to stay for 100 years.”
Hilbert shook his head before even looking at the paper the secretary was about to hand him.
Calling in reinforcements from Noacurio would be effective as a threat to potential opposition forces, but it would bring even more troublesome problems.
“Including the offer to provide weapon forging technology the other day, it’s suspicious. Noacurio still intends to turn Ciel-Terra into a fortress against the Federation.
An army armed with minerals mined from Ciel-Terra would face off against the Federation, and if anything happened, they would trample the White Rose fields.”
The secretary said nothing. He was listening intently to Hilbert’s thoughts.
Ciel-Terra’s land, which was somewhat long from east to west, bordered the Jireshatar Federation on the west and the Noacurio Kingdom on the southeastern end, two of the five great powers.
If they were to let the army of the Noacurio Kingdom into the country now, there was a possibility that both countries would think, “Alright, let’s just go ahead and do it.”
“It may become necessary eventually, but now is a bad time. If we provoke the Federation too much, ‘something unexpected’ could happen.
…Noacurio might even want a war. If Ciel-Terra becomes a battlefield now, the Kanis, Dilletta, and Faraya would all turn against the Federation.”
Ciel-Terra was just a small and medium-sized country with resources. Hilbert knew that well.
It wasn’t just a matter of war. If they were caught up in a conflict between great powers, they would be ground like wheat in a millstone.
If that happened… there would be no point in having staged a coup to become king.
“What are you going to do about the matter of land confiscation?”
“Finalize it as quickly as possible. We have to do this without question while there’s still enthusiasm in the country, or it won’t work. Announce it within this month. We’ll thoroughly crush the seeds of anxiety.”
“Ah, and Marquis Arawen has lodged a strong protest. Regarding the system of having the families of the lords reside in the royal capital.”
“…Well, I guess there would be complaints.”
The lords, who managed their respective territories, also owned at least one mansion in the royal capital. Hilbert had issued a notice that the lords’ families should reside there for the time being.
Gathering the lords’ families in the royal capital as hostages…
He had referred to a technique used by King Tycoon in the Far East, which he had heard about from a wandering minstrel.
The stated reason was to protect the families from the domestic unrest, and the royal palace would provide living assistance funds, but no one, friend or foe, was naive enough to believe the pretense of protecting families.
“Should we leak the Marquis’s protest to the newspapers? Under the table?”
“It seems that adjustments are already being made in that direction.”
“Wonderful. It’s good to be quick on the job.”
“If there’s nothing to hide, there would be no problem in offering your wife and children,” “Isn’t Marquis Arawen, who is protesting this, harboring a rebellion against the royal palace?” …
He could easily imagine the reaction of the citizens who learned of this story.
It was an unreasonable argument, but that’s what passed for normal in Ciel-Terra now. Even if there weren’t that many people who enthusiastically supported Hilbert, there was a lot of passive support, and there were those who were afraid of Hilbert’s momentum and kept their mouths shut… The vortex of enthusiasm was like a torrent, sweeping away those who opposed Hilbert.
“We can do anything now. We have to solidify our footing, even if it’s a bit forceful.”
“Yes.
And regarding the search for the undead…”
At the secretary’s question, Hilbert stopped moving for a moment, like a golem that had malfunctioned.
“…Continue to have the temple investigate.”
“The sabotage state continues, however.”
This time, Hilbert sighed.
Looking at the upper echelons of the temple, they were full of rotten money-grubbers, but the priests and temple knights who worked in the field were mostly kind and simple people who valued the love of God, justice, and salvation after death.
Even as it was, they viewed the coup d’état, “an act of rebellion backed by force,” with disgust, and after the subsequent execution show of the royal family and the ongoing violence in the country (which was only being carried out by radicalized supporters of the current king, with the administration having nothing to do with it), they loathed Hilbert like a viper.
Even if the opponent was the enemy of God, an undead, it seemed that they were not inclined to obey the orders of the state.
“It can’t be helped… Send two or three radical guys from the Knights to take command. I don’t expect immediate results, but we can’t let the temple look down on us. Have them threaten the cheeky monks. We’ll punish and cut off the ones we sent around the time their bad reputation spreads.”
“As you wish.”
Meanwhile, at the same time.
“Waaaaaaah!?”
Iris Lune, who had been suffering from a nightmare in Count Kealy’s castle in the city of Eltaref, jumped up. Immediately afterward, she stripped off the blanket that had been covering her and looked underneath, despairing.
“I knew it…!!”