“Ugh, I feel sick…”
Fabio Dunou le Vedett formerly known as Fabio Denoueix. He was drooping his head down in a port town in the Belbe Kingdom. He was leaning against a pillar on the pier, dazed by the difficult orders he had received from Carmine.
… Most of his negative thoughts came from seasickness though.
(I can’t… just meet Princess Rosalia and ask her about intercontinental trade without her finding out my purpose. How do I even meet a Princess in the first place?)
Naturally, he might be able to enter the palace as an envoy of Carmine of Count Vedett, but it was impossible for him to meet the Princess in person without any official documents.
(The spies probably have some information.)
Still, he couldn’t leave empty-handed. Fabion shuddered as he recalled his adoptive father’s spartan education over the past few months.
But the order to sneak into the palace was extremely difficult. His adoptive father had given him this order, but he still hadn’t mastered the skills to achieve it.
… He had a friend who had already mastered this skill, but from Fabio’s perspective, he was a fanaticist, so he was an exception.
(His Majesty wants information on intercontinental trade and the ‘Golden Fleece’. He probably believes that King Belbe knows something about this since he ordered me to ask Princess Rosalia about it… Unlike His Majesty, that man is just a good King.)Feeling a little better and after having collected his thoughts, Fabio stood up and began to walk.
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Fabio pledged his allegiance to Carmine after an encounter that he considered close to his black history.
He called it his black history because he wasn’t satisfied with the meeting. It was an opportunity to sell himself, but Fabio couldn’t remain calm in a situation where his life was on the line and was too busy defending his own pride.
Fabio had been forced to swear his allegiance to Carmine, but he wasn’t dissatisfied with that. His family had already been crushed. He was bound to be crushed again even if he made a name for himself. He originally thought that the best option would be to join an inferior camp and put himself in a high-risk, high-return situation.
He was also fortunate that Carmine, his master, was better than he expected. Although Fabio had only spoken to Carmine a few times, he was able to conjecture Carmine’s personality and abilities to some extent based on his words, actions and orders. That was an ability he had acquired during his long days of hiding.
(His Majesty is a good person because he views people based on a merit system. I guess I should have been happy that my initial value was high, and I could serve as his vassal… but I have to adapt myself in times like this.)
The 13-year-old boy calmly assessed his master.
(Actually, it makes sense that he would entrust this mission to us.)
There are many excellent spies under Count Palatine Vedett, and if this was simply a matter of ‘checking out the situation’, then they alone are enough to handle it.
But in a friendly nation like this where you need to contact someone who knows the situation to a certain extent… i.e an aristocrat, then a spy won’t do.
Since spies are those who work behind the scenes, and being people who work in the shadows, spies can make others distrust someone just ‘by being there’ even if they don’t do anything. One required social status if they wanted to get in contact with an aristocrat. Most spies are commoners, so in a sense, this mission didn’t suit them.
A person who could work in public was needed for situations like this. Of course, there are ‘palace servants’ who can move out in the open. They have nothing to do with spies and don’t have the skills of a spy, so people won’t be wary of them.
But there was a big shortage of manpower. Fabio and his crew were asked to help because of this shortage.
Fabio was adopted by Count Palatine Vedett and has enough status to act as a ‘proxy’ for him. What’s more, he was also the current head of the L’Mitedeau House.
When Fabio became the sole survivor of the L’Mitedeau House, many people who served the family left. Some moved to town, and some became servants of other families, but there were still a few who remained loyal to him and followed him. It was thanks to them that he was able to survive to this age.
Carmine also obtained the remaining retainers of the L’Mitedeau House on the condition that he revived the L’Mitedeau House. They were servants of Count Palatine Vedett on paper, so they had also come with Fabio to the Belbe Kingdom. They should be gathering information at the port.
(For the time being, everything will depend on the information that everyone gathers…)
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Everyone met up at the inn and examined the information they had gathered. They carefully put their thoughts together so as not to be misled by lies.
“I see, no wonder His Majesty is feeling threatened… This is tougher than I thought…”
According to the information that was gathered at the port, not a single Golden Fleece ship had stopped by the port in the past few months, and no ships were bound for the Theanabe Union either. This was believable considering the Belbe Kingdom’s geological position. They could have headed directly for Theanabe Union instead of stopping at the port in Belbe Kingdom.
But none of the sailors knew about the Golden Fleece.
This was clearly weird. It was possible that the Golden Fleece Association had stopped by the port under the guise of another trading company.
So… they checked the arrival and departure records of suspicious ships… i.e large, state-of-the-art ships that can carry goods from one continent to another, and found out…
“The ships go to Kalnaan, Licaria, Dowlaught, Pumbunshbark and the Great Tavren island nations… They’re all scattered throughout the nations to the south and east of the Empire, but I can’t tell where they’re coming from…”
Fabion was convinced. They were definitely trading with the western continent.
One of the surviving retainers spoke.
“The sailors said that they might be coming from the northern continent…”
The northern continent was an extremely cold continent. This continent, with its harsh environment, is still inhabited by many large magic beasts, and dragons, who are extinct in the eastern continent and reign supreme in the northern continent’s ecosystem. The fur, fangs and scales of these magic beasts are rare in the eastern continent and are traded at high prices. The people who settle in the northern continent in search of these rare materials are called ‘Adventurers’.
“I heard that food sells for a high price in the northern continent since food is scarce there. If they are really trading with the northern continent, then they would have brought food with them on their ships, but there were no records of such a ship leaving from the Belbe Kingdom. The fact that the merchants aren’t taking profitable actions means that…”
They are making more profitable deals.
“There were no other records that would suggest trade with the western continent, so that means they have a monopoly there…?”
The sailors at the port were interested in the north, so they didn’t know that the western continent would bring them great fortune.
(We won’t be able to find much information as long as they cover their tracks… We’ll gather a large range of information and present it to His Majesty…)
Fabio believed that the Emperor must be able to see things he can’t since the Emperor is younger than him.
“So, what else can you tell me about the ‘Golden Fleece’?”
“I have something to report. I found some food in the market that I’ve never seen before. They were quite expensive, and I believe they may have been imported.”
One of Fabion’s retainers, an adventurer, reported. He used to be active in the northern continent as an adventurer, so if he didn’t know what those foods were, then it was most likely imported from the west.
“We should buy some of them. Father gave me quite a lot of money for this trip. I don’t mind if it’s a bit expensive. I’ll leave it to you.”
“Yes!”
Then, a woman dressed as a maid raised her hand.
“I have something to report as well. A large fleet of ships is scheduled to stop at the port this week. The ships are from the Hismaphe Kingdom, so I don’t believe they have anything to do with the Golden Fleece Association… but they may know something about the Golden Fleece Association.”
“I see. I’d like to get in touch with them… Please prepare some gifts for me. I’ll get in touch with them as an envoy of Count Palatine Vedett. Anything else?”
“There is a faction of revolutionists who believe that the ‘holy land’ in the western continent should be reclaimed…”
“A map of the northern continent is available at…”
“Apparently the palace in the Belbe Kingdom is…”
The retainers struggled to get as much accurate information as they could.
They continued to work without taking a break all for the revival of the L’Mitedeau house, all to clear the false high treason.
Incidentally, Fabio decided that there was no need to contact the Princess, and she strongly protested when she found out, but that was another story.