He sent Manager Gaigen out for the sake of a proper discussion.
"Your Highness, if you visit our department store at any time I shall attend you personally......!"
After Manager Gaigen, who displayed deep regret to the very last, disappeared.
Before beginning the real negotiation with Proprietor Reijo, he sank briefly into thought.
'It's certain now that the Ring of the Guide doesn't respond to the royal bloodline.'
When it had responded to Winter he had wondered, and that sliver of a possibility had put him in a rather bad mood.
The ring responding because of royal blood faintly mixed into the bloodline of Marquis Remiconin, that traitor for the ages?
Since today had revealed that wasn't it, he felt relieved if anything.
Except the question itself was not resolved but deepened.
'To find out why the ring responded, the best thing is to make the farm mine and pick it apart all over. I have to buy it without incident and act well enough that Proprietor Reijo has nothing to be suspicious about.'
Hnng, using my head is the one thing I loathe.
......Ah.
He glanced at Winter.
The back-alley gambler who had recited branding and business administration and other things unheard and unseen as a strategy and then bewitched two businessmen.
"Reijo. You go take a trip to the lavatory as well."
"Pardon?"
"Should your business ever fail, do not enlist. Off you go."
Proprietor Reijo edging out and closing the door with regret.
Judging by his attitude, he wasn't slow on the uptake; he simply hadn't wanted to leave the room.
"Your Highness, are you truly going to purchase the Teraguard farm? That is much the same as paying money to buy garbage. I am opposed."
The reason Reijo hadn't wanted to leave. He'd probably predicted Winter would say something like this.
That aside, judging by how his speech had turned rough, the farm purchase really must be an enormous loss.
"Even so, there's no helping it. It's the same reason I decided to keep you at my side."
"Pardon......?"
Whoops. Put that way, had it sounded like keeping him at his side was the same as paying money to buy garbage?
Well, it wasn't a lie.
"The Teraguard farm, I've come to want it badly. Consider it this prince's capricious command and purchase the farm from Reijo cleanly and without any problem, without leaving him room even to suspect. Understood?"
Seeing Winter let out a sigh raised the corner of his mouth a little.
"If you conclude the deal well I'll let the matter of the five million Luon you pocketed be as though it never happened. Does that motivate you a little?"
"Put that way it motivates me rather a lot."
While Winter pulled himself together and worked his brain, Reijo returned.
"Ahem, Your Highness."
"You've returned at just the right time. Finish the discussion with this prince's aide."
He picked up a glass as though uninterested and looked over the display cabinet on the wall.
Reijo smacking his lips regretfully. Because unlike the prince, who was plainly not merely easy but a sucker as a trading partner, Winter's tongue was formidable.
"Proprietor Reijo. You may call me Aide Flowering. Let me start with the conclusion. His Highness dislikes tiresome processes, so if you name your desired figure we shall pay the whole of it without haggling."
Maybe he's a sucker just the same?
That was the thought that flitted through Reijo's mind.
"In that case, how about twelve million Luon?"
Zion's entire fortune at present was a little under five million Luon.
Being a figure well over double that, he had no ability to pay.
It didn't seem likely that Winter had failed to anticipate this situation.
'What is this bastard thinking?'
Ah, whatever, he'll handle it well. He'd entrusted it, so he ought to trust him and stop paying attention.
If the outcome was bad he'd just make the man go earn money to settle his own karma.
'Teraguard. Was there something connected to the royal house in Teraguard?'
He turned over his memories of living in the royal palace as a child and the stories his father and mother had told him.
Nothing came to mind at all.
"And that is my secret to reducing labor costs. Through lobbying, I have the convicts, whose numbers swelled because of Zion Bliese, serve their penal labor on my farms. They say slavery was abolished long ago, but in practice I can work them like slaves. Hahaha!"
In the middle of deducing about the ring, his ears pricked up.
Because a name had come through that could not fail to prick them.
"Hold on. Say that again. Zion Bliese, what?"
Reijo, his eyes going round, explained his labor-cost-reduction secret again.
Summarized, it went like this.
"That bastard Zion Bliese is a being the subversives of Deber revere. Because he is the crown prince and at the same time the head of the liberation forces."
And that Zion Bliese had fallen into a trap and been captured by the Empire about a year ago.
It goes without saying, but after the fact of his capture was proclaimed, a large-scale mood of resistance formed in Deber.
"Stupid creatures. The sight of them defending a criminal. This is why Deber must be brought into modern enlightenment as soon as possible. I hear there is a bastard writing subversive manifestos who was recently put on the wanted list as well. A laughable business."
The Police Bureau under the Governor-General's Office treated every Deberian who came out to demonstrate as a subversive and a reactionary and detained them.
All of them became convicts and were sentenced to the heavy penalties of death or imprisonment.
"And here is where I step in. After having them sentenced to penal labor, I designate our farms as the site where the penal labor is served."
That is the secret to the birth of Deberian penal-labor slaves who cannot even flee because guilt by association holds their families hostage.
"I see. So the result of oppression became a sweet fruit."
"Oppression...? You say?"
Proprietor Reijo looking bewildered.
Then again, to him, a member of the privileged class and an Imperial, it would be perceived as legitimate maintenance of public order.
But the Empire's conduct was unmistakably 'oppression.'
'And oppression that arose because of me.'
Zion Bliese had a duty to save them.
"I cannot very well stand idle over this. It is a matter that arose because of this prince, so it seems I ought to help set it right. And fulfill my duty as a member of the Imperial house while I am at it."
"Did you say it is a matter that arose because of Your Highness?"
"Zion Bliese was captured while trying to assassinate this prince, after all."
My loyal retainers, my people.
I'll have to hand down Zion Bliese-style penal labor to the pitiable Deberians.
"They defend a bastard who dared try to kill this prince? Reijo, hand over every one of the convicts. I shall pay the price. Only by getting the whole lot into my grasp and exploiting them for all eternity will my anger be soothed."
Acting out a cruel smile, he continued.
"How much did you say the farm was?"
Winter quickly cut in.
"Ten million five hundred thousand Luon."
Wait, how did this kid knock off a full one and a half million Luon after declaring with his own mouth that he wouldn't haggle?
If he'd given him more time he'd have saved several million more.
"Your Highness, that is the value of the farm alone. If you take all the slaves, no, the convicts, my losses will be severe due to the increase in labor costs. Though this Reijo is a subject of the Empire who would offer up anything for Your Highness, my identity is that of a businessman, so I beg your understanding......"
Watching Proprietor Reijo prattle on, he said flatly.
"Never mind, I'll pay the full twelve million."
The longer things dragged on with negotiations and whatnot, the longer the Deberians' suffering.
Even paying generously above the agreed figure, he wanted the transfer done fast.
"I have to scheme about how to torment the convict bastards, so off you go, Reijo."
"Your Highness. The thing is......!"
"Silence! Do you presume to defend those who follow a bastard who dared try to kill this prince!"
Defend? Absolutely not. He had been about to protest that if all the convicts were taken away, reducing labor costs would become impossible.
But.
Reijo immediately changed his mind after his eyes met the prince's.
'So a person's eyes can turn that cold. The Empire's worst piece of trash indeed......'
At some point gooseflesh had risen over Reijo's entire body.
The prince being of a violent and vicious temperament, it was obvious that trying to dissuade him would send sparks flying his way.
So it seemed he had to think of a certain degree of loss as sponsorship and accept it.
***
As a result of further negotiation between Reijo and Winter, it was decided that the payment would be made in a single lump sum about one month later, on a date Reijo designated.
It was a condition set for a fast and clean conclusion.
......By now it was also a condition that made him a little worried about the aftermath.
'Hnng. How am I going to come up with twelve million Luon?'
Clatter. Clatter.
'However I think about it there's no hole for money to come out of. For Winter to go get it... seven million Luon would be too big a sum.'
If it truly came to nothing he could simply stick out his belly. Still, considering a prince's face, paying the whole sum at once in a grand gesture made for a prettier picture where possible.
Seriously, what should he do?
Clatter. Clatter.
- This stop is Teraguard Central Station. Teraguard Central Station.
At the announcement he rose. He made his way out along the narrow corridor and then turned around.
He could see an iron-armored serpent a full several hundred meters long.
A magitech train. One of the products of the new age.
It was also the protagonist of the revolution called mass transport.
'From here it's another two days' travel to the farm, was it.'
He pulled his hood down low and moved his steps. Pitch-black hair swayed at the corners of his eyes.
Zion was currently disguising his appearance with magic.
The reason was one: to go to the farm alone and search for why the Ring of the Guide had responded.
"Quere Stellam Orbita. Rise up and rush forth. Conceal and hide."
He used magic away from people's eyes.
A body turned translucent. Movement that had to be called flight.
Even though he was of the Riobelt bloodline rather than the Bliese bloodline, Zion was recovering his magical standing quickly.
Thanks to unexpected coincidences piling one upon another, such as the Ring of the Guide granting its efficacy.
'Even so, fully recovering will take several years at minimum.'
Flying through the sky and hitching rides on passing automobiles or carriages whenever his mana ran out for a day.
He arrived at the farm located in Teraguard's outskirts.
[Teraguard Farm]
An old signboard. Awfully lazy naming, he thought.
There were probably at least dozens of farms with the same name.
"Now then. Shall I have a look."
The reason the ring had responded. Since he couldn't even pin down whether it was a person or an object, finding it in a single visit would be impossible.
He intended to come by from time to time whenever he had a chance.
Today, as a taster, he'd spend only about two days...... hm?
'...A scene!'
The same phenomenon as when the ring, responding to Winter, had shown him Marquis Remiconin.
A strange scene surfaced before his eyes and vanished in an instant.
As though deleted because he was not yet permitted it.
Even so he had not missed the most important part.
「....... ....... ......vein....... .......」
It had been far too brief an instant, but he had unmistakably heard someone's voice, however curtly.
The shadowed face of a middle-aged man. Lips intoning a single sentence.
"......vein? Surely not?"
His chest grew hot.
Fragments of mana, black and translucent, fluttered like a crow's feathers.
Fwooosh!
"Quere Stellam Orbita."
He concealed the field of vision. It was to hide the movement of the earth's sand as it responded to royal mana.
For a moment the Guide's sensing vibrated once more.
'Our Deber... has been famous since ancient times for having a great deal of gold.'
It wasn't terrain with many ore veins as such, yet strangely it had an abnormal abundance of gold veins alone.
This was also the foundation of Deber coming to be called a nation of magic.
Because gold was a representative magical catalyst.
Anyway, in the past Deber used to leave gold mines undeveloped even after discovering them, in order to regulate the extraction volume.
And to prevent secret mining, the information was held strictly by members of the royal house alone.
'Which is why the royal house had to fight to keep the information from being taken by the Empire.'
Even after the occupation the Empire maintained the Deber royal house for a time.
A reprieve for the sake of establishing plausible grounds and at the same time seizing the royal house's hidden legacy.
Perhaps one fragment of it was buried here.
He opened his eyes wide and stretched out a hand.
His own mana was insufficient. So he needed the help of an external object.
"Quere Stellam Orbita. Come, Stem of the North Star."
Along the connection engraved by the efficacy on that day in the Imperial treasury, mana linked through.
Shwaaaaaaah!
A flow of enormous scale. But there was no fear of being detected.
The efficacy the miracle had bestowed, the blank attribute.
Because Zion's mana is detected by nothing at all.
Crow's feathers gathered and interfered with space.
He could not yet produce power enough to twist space himself, but it was sufficient to send a signal to the sacred object on the far side of space.
A familiar sensation.
The Stem of the North Star, the magic staff usable only by Deber's kings, was gripped in Zion's hand.
"As the rightful heir Zion Bliese commands, O earth."
The concealment barrier the royal house had set up long ago was released.
Kudeuk, kudeuk, the ground began to contort.
"Rise up and reveal."
Soil is not a liquid, so it cannot form waves.
And yet the earth was surging like waves.
It was churning in order to spit something out.
'That is.'
Before long a single object revealed itself.
Bright, dazzlingly so.
A lump of stone gripped in his hand, yet something far too precious to be called by the word stone.
It was a gold ore, shining resplendently all over in golden light.
"...Gold. There really was gold."
Teraguard is located to the south of Seiel.
Meaning it is far, and by a long way, from the northern regions where the gold veins are concentrated.
Which is why it could be kept safe without being discovered.
Because it was wasteland from which nothing had ever been extracted, there hadn't been a single madman willing to spend a fortune on gold-vein prospecting.
'Even I didn't know. Not anticipating it is only normal.'
"So this means Reijo lived his whole life with a gold vein under his feet without ever knowing."
It was as he burst into cheerful laughter.
The wavelength of mana began to crackle and respond to something.
"Hm?"
At the same time a voice came through. A scene surfaced before his eyes.
「Arist. I pray this letter reaches you. That it be delivered to my son, who escaped with you.」
"Father."
A dim, dark office. A face he missed.
His father was stroking a ring, sunk in contemplation.
The late King Exon XIII.
「Zion, my son. I am sorry. Forgive me, a father without virtue and an incompetent king. The burden I place upon your shoulders is truly heavy.」
Agony settling onto the face he missed.
The height of incompetence. A puppet king. A man who, while treated as such, had done his utmost to protect the royal house's legacy.
Most of it had been taken, but the legacy he had protected to the very end flowed from his father's mouth.
A gold vein that not even he, a direct-line royal, had known of, and that remained preserved to this day thanks to the secret being kept thoroughly.
「It must reach him, without fail.」
His father was stroking the Ring of the Guide worn on his finger.
「The third largest gold vein in all of Deber lies in Teraguard.」
The strength left Zion's hand.
The gold ore slipped from his grasp and dropped to the ground.
「Zion. My son. I pray this earnestly.」
「May my desperate struggle become your strength.」