The study door was knocked, and Genorio pushed it open, carrying a thick document pouch. "Your Highness, a secret intelligence report from the Commercial Alliance, sent by Lord Tagell."
An intelligence report was different from an urgent report. In the
Fatty had also stopped in his tracks. "Something big happened again?" he asked curiously.
Genorio opened the folder, scanned its contents, and reported: "Your Highness, on the fifteenth of September, a rebellion broke out within the Commercial Alliance. Grand Duke Comberlat mobilized the Two-Headed Dragon Chamber of Commerce's legion and carried out a bloody and brutal purge and suppression. Over twenty chambers of commerce were implicated, and seventeen were wiped out entirely. It is said that the instigator was Marquis Kilros, vice president of the Two-Headed Dragon Chamber of Commerce. He contacted a large number of chamber nobles dissatisfied with Grand Duke Comberlat, intending to overthrow his rule and replace him — but the attempt failed.
After the rebellion was crushed, Marquis Kilros vanished without a trace. Grand Duke Comberlat declared him a traitor and posted a bounty of ten thousand gold Fordes on his head. At the same time, Grand Duke Comberlat announced a series of administrative measures: he planned to intensify the development of the Commercial Alliance's territories, decided to gradually reform the noble peerage system by replacing territorial noble titles with honorary titles and annuity payments, and dispatched envoys to the Free Union, the Peterson Kingdom, and five other neighboring nations to reiterate the Commercial Alliance's commitment to peaceful coexistence and the maintenance of peace..."
Lorist was visibly moved. "It seems this rebellion has actually allowed the Commercial Alliance to be reborn from the ashes. Grand Duke Comberlat is truly a remarkable man — these measures mean he's getting serious."
Fatty, however, was more curious about the instigator. "Who is this Marquis Kilros?"
Genorio quickly found Marquis Kilros's file in the folder. "Oh, this Marquis Kilros actually visited our Kingdom before. He was the one who tried to have the Storm Sword Saint kidnap His Majesty and the Kingdom's nobles and bring them to
"Oh, so it's him." Lorist still remembered his impression of that Marquis Kilros.
Fatty was quite puzzled. "How is he still alive? Wasn't he slathered in raw lacquer? He should have died from the poisoning ages ago — how could he possibly still be bouncing around?"
Genorio countered, "Lord Shrade, being covered in raw lacquer shouldn't be lethal. It's not poison — how could he have died from it? There's nothing strange about Marquis Kilros being perfectly alive."
Fatty replied calmly, "You don't understand. I've seen it with my own eyes. When I was young, there was a raw lacquer shop next door to our house. Once, a startled horse bolted into the shop and smashed open a huge barrel of raw lacquer. A shop assistant, the coachman, and the horse itself were all unlucky enough to have their heads and exposed upper bodies coated in the stuff. After they managed to clean off the lacquer, within two days they broke out in violent allergic reactions — every place the raw lacquer had touched festered and blistered, oozing pus and blood continuously. Even the famous senior alchemist the shop owner hired said there was nothing he could do. The shop assistant and the coachman both killed themselves to escape the agony that drilled right into their bones. The horse's neck rotted and it died too — a truly horrifying sight.
The raw lacquer shop went bankrupt as a result. Later I learned that even lacquer workers who applied raw lacquer wore thick protective clothing head to toe, leaving no skin exposed, and they were paid the highest wages. That was why furniture coated with raw lacquer as a base layer could survive for centuries without any worry about insect damage. The strangest thing was that once raw lacquer applied as a primer on furniture had dried, its toxicity and allergenic properties were no longer a concern — you could handle it with bare hands without any problem. That was precisely why people chose raw lacquer as a primer. When I was studying at
Genorio rolled his eyes. "If you never figured anything out, why pretend to be an expert? Marquis Kilros is a noble — even if he suffered an allergic reaction from raw lacquer, he could naturally spend a great deal of money to find the best alchemist for treatment. His situation would be completely different from that shop assistant and coachman of yours. Besides, enough time has passed that perhaps some alchemist has already figured out how to treat raw lacquer poisoning and its allergic effects."
Fatty was rendered speechless by Genorio's retort. Flushed with embarrassment and anger, he grabbed Genorio and ruffled his hair into a mess. "You little brat, you've grown some backbone lately, haven't you? Talking back to me like that — just wait and see how I deal with you..."
Lorist didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Glancing over the documents, he said, "That's enough, you two. Shrade, you're the family's chief knight, and you're old enough to be Genorio's uncle. Be careful or Genorio will hold a grudge. When that little rascal of yours finishes growing up in a couple of years and comes to serve as my attendant, Genorio will make his life miserable..."
Over currant wine, Fatty was in no hurry to leave either. He sidled over and began reading through the intelligence report on the Commercial Alliance's rebellion.
"Your Highness, you should be able to rest easy. This rebellion within the Commercial Alliance was far too bloody and brutal. So many chamber nobles were purged — over ten thousand were killed or hanged. The Commercial Alliance has truly suffered devastating losses this time. Even if they wanted to cause trouble, they wouldn't have the strength for it." Fatty finished reading the entire report in short order.
"You're wrong. I see things differently. I believe the Commercial Alliance deserves even more vigilance now. This rebellion gave Grand Duke Comberlat the perfect excuse to purge his opponents and dissenters. It's safe to assume he's slaughtered nearly every chamber noble who stood against him and destroyed all the redundant chambers. What remains are essentially his allies and supporters.
Next, we'll soon see Grand Duke Comberlat consolidate the strength of all the Commercial Alliance's chambers, carry out unified development and planning across the four provinces, and reform the Alliance's outdated rules and regulations. Within just a few years, the Commercial Alliance will recover most of its strength and once again become a threat to the nations of the south-central region."
"Your Highness, aren't you giving the Commercial Alliance and Grand Duke Comberlat too much credit? You should know that in the south-central and southern regions of the continent, the markets the Commercial Alliance once occupied have already been taken over by our family's territory's goods and products. If the Commercial Alliance wants to revive, it has to compete with our family for those markets to generate revenue.
But here's the problem — can the goods produced by the Commercial Alliance match the quality and competitive pricing of what our family's territory produces? If not, where will they get their revenue? And wasn't it you who said, Your Highness, that wars are won through logistics? Without revenue, how can the Commercial Alliance arm their chamber legions and restore their strength?" Fatty argued, unconvinced.
"You're right that our family's territory's products hold an absolute advantage over the Commercial Alliance. But you've forgotten one crucial point — the Commercial Alliance holds a significant geographical advantage over our family in a certain specialty product." Lorist raised his glass and took a sip of blackcurrant wine. "Think about it — the four provinces the Commercial Alliance currently occupies used to be territories of which countries?"
"The Trinberg Kingdom, the Delia Duchy, and the former Mokbi Duchy..." Fatty blurted out. After the Trinberg Kingdom was conquered and absorbed by the Commercial Alliance, its fifteen prefectures were divided into five provinces: Mawefulin, Jerodanna, Charbuko, Kuwadero, and Riooriga. Now Mawefulin Province belonged to the restored Cabasi Grand Duchy; Jerodanna and Charbuko Provinces, along with Aligomai Province — which had been part of the Delia Duchy — became territories of the newly independent Peterson Kingdom.
The Commercial Alliance's remaining former Trinberg territories were down to Kuwadero and Riooriga Provinces, with a small portion of Kuwadero Province occupied by the Peterson Kingdom to serve as a defensive line against the Commercial Alliance's military. The other two provinces were Toscao Province, formerly belonging to the Delia Duchy, and Fimsilan Province from the former Mokbi Duchy, which bordered the newly restored Mokbi Duchy's Tenerig Province.
"The specialty product you're referring to must be glass..." Fatty quickly grasped what Lorist meant.
"Yes, I'm talking about green glass and oil glass." Lorist nodded. "The glass products our family's territory produces and sells across the south-central continent are mostly refined items — tableware, the glass wine goblets we're holding, various shaped and decorative glassware. These products have high profit margins and are worth trading, which is why they sell everywhere. But nobody buys bulk green glass and oil glass from our family's territory to resell in the south-central continent.
It's simple — for merchants, business that yields no profit or even incurs losses simply won't be done. A piece of green glass is worth only three or four copper coins. Back when our family's territory hadn't yet mastered glassmaking, that fellow
For the Kemmes family chamber, even selling at that price was a struggle, because the profit was razor-thin. Shipping costs, personnel expenses, tolls, and taxes along the way all added up until even the most common, cheapest piece of green glass from Morant City became an expensive luxury ornament. Back then, many Northland lords' castles had wooden boards for windows because they simply couldn't afford to fit all those windows with green glass.
That was the main reason I decided to go to the Trinberg Kingdom and spare no expense to obtain the glass formula and technicians. Now our family's glass workshops have become a major revenue source for our finances, and the green glass and oil glass we produce are sold across most of the Kingdom's provinces. No chamber of commerce is willing to buy green glass and oil glass from the Commercial Alliance anymore, because that trade is no longer profitable.
By the same token, our family's territory's green glass and oil glass can't be sold in the south-central continent either, because the Commercial Alliance can produce them just as well. In some respects, we simply cannot compete with the Commercial Alliance for the green glass and oil glass markets across the south-central nations — even at zero cost with subsidies, we couldn't beat them. The exorbitant shipping and labor costs would render all our efforts futile: the more we sold, the more we'd lose."
The Trinberg Kingdom had accumulated tens of millions of gold Fordes over more than a century by trading green glass and oil glass. The present Commercial Alliance could similarly use green glass and oil glass to rapidly amass wealth. With the fires of war dying down across the south-central continent, every nation would ramp up development and construction to restore former prosperity. Nobles and commoners alike, whoever could afford it, would try to furnish their homes. Green glass and oil glass would become a massive trade.
Peacetime was the era when merchants were most active. It went without saying that the Commercial Alliance's revival was just around the corner. This document stated that Grand Duke Comberlat planned to gradually reform the noble peerage system, replacing territorial noble titles with honorary titles and annuity payments. That had originally been a concept Lorist had planned to present to Ledos — he'd wanted the Free Union to adopt such an honorary noble system to keep it motivated and vibrant. He hadn't expected the Commercial Alliance to implement it first.
Even the salt monopoly couldn't curb the Commercial Alliance's development and revival. Bribery and smuggling could easily reduce that salt monopoly to nothing. The only thing they could count themselves fortunate for was that the Commercial Alliance was confined to its current four provinces. If the Mana Hill Plains and Morant City were still under the Commercial Alliance's control, all they could do now would be to expand their military and prepare for war, waiting three or four years to fight the Commercial Alliance again.
Fatty protested, unwilling to concede: "Your Highness, you're giving the Commercial Alliance far too much credit. If things are really as you say, we should take advantage of the fact that the Commercial Alliance has just put down a rebellion and is internally hollowed out with everyone living in fear — our family should mobilize another great army and launch an attack, completely eliminating this thorn in our side."
Genorio nodded eagerly from the side, thinking Fatty made perfect sense. The kid was far too infatuated with the Norton Family's reputation of having the world's most invincible military.
Lorist laughed despite himself. "And what justification would we use to send troops? We just signed a peace accord and restored peace — why should our family be the one to stick its neck out? Attacking the Commercial Alliance now wouldn't be a good thing at all; it would make us the peace-breakers in the eyes of the south-central nations. Whether it rains or the sun shines is none of our concern. In the end, whoever suffers won't be our family.
For our family, we only need to do two things well. First, support the Free Union and maintain our friendly relationship. Second, ensure that Morant City continues to function normally as the wholesale distribution hub for our family's territory's goods. Beyond that, the life or death of other south-central nations is none of our family's business. We have no need to meddle in their internal affairs — as long as they purchase our products and pay in full, that's all that matters."
Fatty and Genorio both nodded thoughtfully.
Lorist turned to Genorio. "Is there anything else?"
"Yes, Your Highness. Knight Lunmede has returned. And... he's brought his four wives with him, plus he's had five more children..." Genorio replied.
"..."