NOVPUBIsabel, standing behind Aiwass, gently tapped on his shoulder and leaned in to whisper in his ear, "Mr. King seems genuinely oblivious... How pitiful."
You really call him the king, huh.
Do you even realize you’re Her Royal Highness?
Aiwass raised an eyebrow but didn’t voice his internal snark.
He just leaned in close to Isabel as well and, in the same hushed tone, whispered in her ear, "What, do you want to show him mercy?"
"He still has a daughter to support... I believe he’s telling the truth. He really does seem regretful, and he doesn’t seem to know what Minister Drost does."
Pity blossomed in Isabel’s heart. Yet, she still retained her rationality.
So she whispered back, "Help me, Aiwass... How can I save him without jeopardizing Avalon’s interests?"
"As you wish, My Princess."
The corners of Aiwass’s lips tilted up slightly as he said softly in profile, "Leave it to me."
—Since Aiwass put it that way, it surely must be right.
Isabel suddenly felt assured, rose to her feet, took two steps back to stand even with Lily, signaling that she was no longer intervening in the matter.
Aiwass turned his head, squinting at the king. Merely a glance from him brought immense pressure.
It’s a good thing that Her Royal Highness aspires to be a compassionate queen.
As a man whose social ties were largely bound with Avalon, Aiwass certainly hoped the future queen – his direct superior – would be a kind and enlightened individual. He didn’t deny this positive growth trajectory.
If Avalon truly needed to make some less merciful moves, if they needed to add a touch of cruelty and callousness... well, that’s what he was there for.
Just hoping there wouldn’t be a cliché development like "Aiwass, I am the queen" or "Isabel, you’ll regret this"...
It was actually very simple to fulfill Isabel’s request.
—Because what "Mr. King" didn’t know was that Avalon was actually in dire need of talent.
Botanists were a remarkably rare profession. Even in Star Antimony, they were seldom seen.
Neither the Royal Law University nor Milton University had a legacy for this profession, seeing as the career change into botany was even more challenging than becoming an Alchemist—the alchemists’ adherence to the principle of Balance leaned more towards "conservation of mass" and "everything has a principle."
On the other hand, the Botanist’s Path of Balance included balancing humanity with nature.
This concept was far more complex than Alchemy.
Under the influence of Master Nobel, Alchemy in Avalon had been developing for nearly twenty years. Yet, even with their utmost efforts, they were still far behind Star Antimony.
One reason was that Avalon hadn’t yet formed a substantial talent pool, and they were primarily relying on older-generation alchemists—who were mostly not Avalonians.
On another note, the development of the Path of Balance and the Path of Beauty required a certain societal atmosphere. People’s research was mutually promotive and competitive. While this inevitably led to industry saturation and a vast waste of talent, the overall speed of development was not low.
—So, since Star Antimony had a talent surplus, then Avalon might as well pick up what they could!
We want the people you don’t need over there!
Although "Mr. King" himself merely regarded botanists as an adjunct career to alchemists—after all, botanists don’t make big money or names, unlike alchemists, who have several complete legacies and promotion paths, and they severely lack combat capability—
But from a national perspective, botanists who are proficient in cultivating various plants, inducing directed mutations in plants, and rapidly bringing about rare plants are far more useful than alchemists of the same level. Alchemists only become useful when they reach high levels, but botanists are useful even at the first Energy Level.
Even a first-level botanist could, by exploiting the fertility of the land, shorten the maturity of crops that would normally take eight to nine months down to within three months while ensuring the quality of the crops; moreover, low-level Botanists could handle pests and continuously optimize crop seeds.
This is why wheat and corn from Star Antimony could be exported in large quantities to Avalon.
Because the imported grains from Star Antimony were of such high quality and low cost, they severely undercut the income of Avalon’s farmers—even with a 30% protective tariff, they were still 30% cheaper than Avalon’s grain prices. 𝖓𝔬𝔳𝔭𝔲𝔟.𝖈𝖔𝔪
Avalon was unlike Star Antimony, which had a class of nobles personally owning land.
All of Avalon’s land was owned by the royal family, used by farmers who paid rent. The pricing of these grains meant that farmers couldn’t afford rent nor sell at competitive prices, leading to a financial crisis in the kingdom. Eventually, Avalon’s arable lands were gradually converted into pastures.
The then Minister of Finance wanted to enact the "Grain Bill."
That is, by mandating grain prices and absolutely prohibiting imports when the market price fell below a certain level.
He hoped by doing so to artificially ensure market grain prices. And this meant that the market price of grains would more than double, along with the increase in the pricing of all agricultural products. Also, the number of workers in factories would drastically decrease.
The then young Queen Sofia pondered long and hard, believing that it would bring severe conflict and instability to Avalon. Thus, she ultimately did not pass the "Grain Bill."
Without hoarding or price-gouging, grains that could at least fetch double the price were sufficient to starve people. And there was still no telling what else might happen. Explore stories on freewebnovel
The result was that Avalon finally developed a dependency on Star Antimony’s crops. Just as the name "Shepherd Bay County" implies, the number of farmers in Avalon, never mind less than the herders, was even fewer than the fishermen. The remaining farmers mainly grew high-value cash crops. Only a few cultivated lands were fully funded by the royal family, operating at a loss to grow warfare reserves of lower quality than what the Star Antimony offered.
—In Aiwass’s view, this indicated that Star Antimony had actually been quite fearful of Avalon back then.
That period was precisely when Star Antimony was attacking the Black Hawk Duchy and Narcissus Duchy in the east. Especially the Narcissus Duchy—it was simply too far from Star Antimony’s homeland.
Back then, Star Antimony didn’t know how the newly ascended Queen Sofia would control Avalon or about her governance plans. Therefore, they resorted to this tactic to prevent Avalon from initiating a war against Star Antimony.
And now, it was about time to extricate from this entanglement.
According to Aiwass’s knowledge, the government in Star Antimony actually kept a very tight watch on botanists—now, it was probably because of the power struggle there, so alchemists were squeezing the living space of botanists.
Because botanists’ income was essentially sheared from alchemists. It could even be said that it was Star Antimony officials who, in order to protect the income and status of botanists, had driven up the prices of alchemy materials.
As Aiwass remembered, this period was roughly when Star Antimony would be in the throes of its internal conflicts.
The alchemists wanted power—and from the standpoint of alchemists, their most ardent demand was naturally to reduce costs.
Although the work that botanists did was neither complex nor highly technical, their income was much higher than that of alchemists of the same low rank.
Low-ranking alchemists were essentially hemorrhaging money—cultivating an alchemist of the third energy level required at least three hundred eighty gold coins in material costs. This was calculated on the assumption that all alchemical attempts succeeded, and if someone was slightly less talented, it was normal for the figure to multiply several times over.
Why should botanists of the first energy level earn dozens or hundreds of gold coins a month, while I have to spend more than ten gold coins a month?
So alchemists held considerable hostility towards these "profiteer" botanists. And those leading alchemists, in order to gain support from the mid and lower-ranking alchemists, had to seek benefits for them—part of these benefits naturally came from botanists, and another part came from across-the-board price increases taking from every layer of society.
If Aiwass hadn’t guessed wrong, the "King" would be selling goods during the promotion ceremony... he might well have been fleeced by the alchemists.
If Aiwass could recruit the "King" and send out a friendly signal...
Then, as the infighting in Star Antimony intensified further, they might actually be able to welcome defectors of higher-ranking botanists.
And the "King", he was also of fairly decent moral fiber. As long as his grievances were addressed, he would be useful.
"If I am not mistaken," Aiwass slowly said, "your family is very likely already under the control of the Star Antimony people."
Hearing this, August turned deadly pale, "Why... why would they...?"
"Because botanists are forbidden from leaving the country. You probably come from an unconventional background, or maybe your previous rank was too low, which is why you didn’t know this."
Aiwass sighed, a look of pity on his face, "The succession of botanists is taken very seriously over at Star Antimony. If everything goes as expected, you might also be the target of an assassination from their side."
Of course, this was a lie. After all, he was just a novice botanist of the first energy level.
Star Antimony was embroiled in intense conflict— even politically correct, they wouldn’t place undue importance on botanists at such a critical juncture. That would only further infuriate the extremely sensitive alchemists.
Or rather, with the alchemists planning to seize power, the leak of botanist inheritance was already an irreversible future. To the increasingly war-hungry Star Antimony, those alchemists representing the most advanced technology, the royal family could only side with them when they clashed with botanists.
This was the conflict between the country of "Star Antimony" and the core group of "Star Antimony’s alchemists."
"Can I still go back..."
"What are you thinking? How do you plan to explain yourself to the people over at Star Antimony?"
Aiwass directly interrupted him, countering, "You’ve willingly exported a large quantity of ’alchemy materials’ to Avalon—even though plant essential oils are not classified as alchemy materials, you don’t think Star Antimony people are unaware that we purchase these things to synthesize alchemical products, do you?
"And I’m not afraid to tell you—the person you sold to was the biggest spy of Star Antimony in Avalon, always responsible for smuggling from there. And just these past few days, we got control of him, interrogated, and executed him. And it happened almost right after your goods arrived and the contract was signed.
"Then you personally followed the smuggling ship to Avalon. And you met me, and you met the future Her Majesty the Queen. But you weren’t punished at all and you returned safely to Star Antimony—I’ll just say no more. Think for yourself, how do you think the people of Star Antimony will view you?
"You don’t really think you can go back, do you?"
The King’s face grew whiter with each word he heard.
He wasn’t stupid. Just somewhat naive.
But to be recognized by the Path of Balance, being brainless was not an option. With a little thought, he realized everything Aiwass said was true.
However, at this moment Aiwass changed his tone, "But you should be thankful to our merciful Princess.
"Seeing as we are fated to meet, Princess Isabel has decided to help you. We will try to send an inspector to Star Antimony to see if we can rescue your family. We will also arrange for someone to protect you."
"...What! I am truly grateful to you, the merciful and noble Princess, and Mr. Moriarty... Please, you must save my family—!"
August suddenly burst out with joy, but he was still somewhat apprehensive, "Then, what can I do for you?"
"You don’t have to do anything. At least not for now."
The corners of Aiwass’s mouth lifted slightly, uttering words that made August sigh in relief, yet feel even more uneasy, "It’s free of charge, Mr. August."
