City Stroll (3)
Having secured a stable supply of the strategic resource known as cocoa, I was in a very good mood as I strolled through the market.
Along the way, a minister asked me with a troubled look whether it was really okay to decide trade goods this casually, so I showed him the letter of delegation I had received from my Big Brother.
This letter was one that granted me a certain degree of diplomatic authority, mainly instructing me to look for goods that could be purchased from the Land of Tranquility.
Incidentally, it did not grant authority over prices or tariffs; it was only provisional decision-making power. Once the items to be purchased were decided, the responsible diplomats would be dispatched to negotiate tariffs, prices, and so on. When I explained that, he seemed satisfied.
As for why I even had something like this, well, Arland currently had a severe trade surplus.
That was good for Arland, but it also meant we were effectively extracting wealth from our allied nations through trade. Incidentally, we were also smuggling the Elixir of Life into the center of the continent under royal initiative and extracting wealth there, but since that was enemy wealth, there was no problem at all.
However, extracting wealth from allied nations was a problem. My Big Brother had no intention of turning allies into economic vassal states. If he did that, it was obvious that the exploited allies would become parasites gnawing from within.
That was why allied nations were being asked to look for goods they could export to Arland. For example, underground resources. I consumed those in enormous quantities, so they were sold to Arland steadily. Ostland, for instance, was selling enough that they had reopened iron mines that had previously been shut down due to low yield.
Even so, Arland’s trade surplus, on the side that controlled the magic-tool industry,remained unshakable. This was because I absolutely refused to hand over the core components of magic tools, even to allied nations. Those were crystallizations of the most critical technologies that could not be given away lightly. At the very least, until Arland seized hegemony over the continent and made it unassailable, I had no intention of letting them go. After that, even if they leaked out, force would solve everything.
For that reason, the Kingdom of Arland still needed further imports from allied nations.
So why give me this kind of authority?
Honestly, I didn’t understand it either.
To begin with, I wasn’t an economist. I did have experience in my previous life of intentionally causing financial panics through stocks and raking in obscene profits, but the economy of this world was outside my expertise.
But you see, my Big Brother said, “Alice goes straight to the profitable deals herself,” and handed me this letter. Why, indeed.
“Come to think of it, you’ve never really been short on money, have you? Including your previous life.”
“Well, yeah. Besides selling inventions, I also threatened governments and siphoned off slush funds.”
“… You even did that?”
Takuto looked utterly exasperated. By the way, if I recreate a conversation from my previous life, it went something like this.
Iris: “I made next-generation semiconductors. Want them? They’re about thirty percent better than current ones, and roughly twenty percent cheaper.
If you get these, Japan can reclaim hegemony over the semiconductor industry.”
Prime Minister: “What’s your objective?”
Iris: “Of course I’ll take money. But lately public security agents have been sniffing around me, you know? You understand what I’m saying, right?”
Prime Minister: “Then stop insider trading! And stop assassinating public security agents using foreign intelligence agencies!”
Iris: “I see. Then I’ll sell them to the neighboring country.”
Prime Minister: “Fine, damn it! I’ll make them back off, okay?!”
Iris: “Good. As long as you understand.”
There were others, too.
Iris: “I made AI for unmanned combat drones. Want it?”
President: “Hand it over.”
Iris: “I hear you’re making stupid moves like freezing my personal assets. Should I just donate this to the Eastern Bloc for free?”
President: “… Try something that stupid and see what happens. Do you know what you’re doing?”
Iris: “Oh? Looks like I have evidence of the Secretary of State embezzling funds, evidence of the Secretary of Defense leaking military information to the East, and evidence of the Vice President’s corruption. If all of this goes public at once, your administration is finished.”
President: “Damn it!”
Iris: “Then I’ll be waiting for the transfer.
Once the money comes through, I’ll dispose of this batch of evidence just like last time. I keep my promises as well as Britain does. See you.”
“More or less, Japan and the US were my wallets.”
“You were way more evil than I thought! Also, how did you not get assassinated?”
“If you assassinate me, Momoniku II retaliation program activates and repeatedly triggers global economic depressions. Major powers’ economies would be blown apart, so they couldn’t touch me… Well, that’s why unidentified people from all sorts of places kept trying to sneak into my mansion.”
Momoniku II wasn’t tied to a specific computer; it was made as software for that very reason. Even if they destroyed the mansion’s servers, it would escape through the internet, turning PCs around the world into Momoniku II’s servers. Destroying the mansion servers had no value. Of course, it was also prepared to function even if the local network around the mansion was cut.
Momoniku II, I wonder what it’s doing now. My inheritance was dispersed under multiple names and across multiple countries, so it probably wasn’t frozen. Or rather, thanks to Momoniku II, it was probably impossible to even track.
There was a high chance Momoniku II was still managing and increasing it. I couldn’t imagine it handing my assets over to anyone else. It was probably growing them for fun.
Thinking about that, I happened to pass by a metal shop. It was probably a wholesale dealer selling metals to blacksmiths and the like. I glanced at the prices.
“About iron being one-third the price compared to Arland.”
“That’s only because prices in Arland have skyrocketed too much. Without subsidies, it would be one-tenth,” Alicia said flatly, like a Noh mask. I felt a slightly reproachful gaze.
“Don’t you think that’s too expensive?”
At first, I only touched surplus domestic metals.
Trade with domestic and allied nations, and government-approved smuggling into the central continent, were almost always tied up with vested interests.
If I interfered there, someone would lose out, and that could become a distant cause of shaking the kingdom’s unity. After all, the ones who would lose were people in the ruling class. They had considerable influence.
But my prediction was wrong. Those vested-interest metals flowed to me with surprisingly little complaint. No, too much flowed. Domestic metal prices skyrocketed at a breakneck pace, as if breaking through the heavens. It was like wartime Japan. Please, stop selling even cooking pots.
The ones who panicked were my Big Brother and the government. Because I had said I’d make do with surplus domestic metals, they hadn’t taken proper countermeasures. Even my Big Brother hadn’t expected metals to flow to me while ignoring vested interests.
No, it should have been obvious if you thought about it. I was currently building a fleet. I was producing tanks, aircraft, combat golems, and mana-loids under a wartime production regime.
When demand exceeds supply, prices rise. In other words, selling to me was several times more profitable than selling to other countries. Of course they’d sell to me. No wonder nobles with mines were all smiles whenever I passed by.
But excessive price hikes in metal would come back as a burden on the populace. Metal products necessary for daily life would also rise in price accordingly. Ten times was too much. Riots would happen.
That was why my Big Brother began price controls, with the state providing subsidies.
Even so, prices were still about triple, but apparently that wasn’t a problem since the kingdom was currently in an economic boom. Jobs and wages were increasing, and unemployment kept dropping. There was such a labor shortage that recruiters from merchant guilds and workshops were roaming the country like the undead, searching for the unemployed.
Adventurers were also making money. The reason was that monsters in Arland were stronger than those in other countries to begin with. Even goblins, Arland’s goblins were as strong as orcs in other nations. The magic stones they dropped were correspondingly large.
Until now, because of weight limits, adventurers would hunt monsters and only bring back the parts that sold for the highest price. But items they had previously discarded due to weight could also be sold, even if they were low-value. And I had developed industrial magic-tool production technology.
They obtained storage bags, magic tools that had been extremely rare and had almost never reached adventurers before.
As a result, even if the number of monsters they defeated stayed the same, they could bring back more valuable items. They could also bring back more rare plants and minerals.
Now, even low-rank adventurers in Arland considered storage bags basic equipment.
On top of that, since storage bags could hold more, they could use multiple bags and go on expeditions farther than ever before.
Arland’s adventurers were currently in a boom like a gold rush. Monsters were decreasing, too, win-win.
And adventurers with money naturally wanted better equipment, which drove metal prices up even more.
“… I want it.”
“I’m very sorry, but—”
“I know.”
The minister bowed apologetically. I knew. We couldn’t buy iron from the Land of Tranquility.
The Land of Tranquility only produced enough iron to meet domestic demand. If they exported it, they wouldn’t have enough for their own use, so iron exports were refused from the start.
I want more metal. If I ordered the Empire to hand over ninety percent of its annual output, would they bring it?
No. That would just get me scolded by my Big Brother. Thinking that, I reluctantly turned my gaze back to the iron, and then noticed a strangely familiar ore placed at the edge of the shop. The price was practically a throwaway. Too cheap.
“T-This is…!”
At my words, the shopkeeper made an “ahh” expression.
“We believe it to be an ore, but we don’t know how to process it.”
“You still haven’t given up on it?”
“Minister, it’s definitely an ore! If we could just figure out how to process it, it would surely gain value!”
“You’ve been saying that for twenty years. It’s time to give up.”
This was a large, established shop. The minister and the shopkeeper were apparently childhood friends.
And processing this ore was nearly impossible in the Land of Tranquility.
Because this was…
“It’s Bauxite.”
“You know it?! Then you also know how to process it?!”
“… I do, but it’s impossible in this country.”
On Earth, in 1782, the French scientist A. L. Lavoisier proposed that alum (today’s alumina) was likely a metal oxide, naming it alumine. Later, the British electrochemist H. Davy attempted to separate alum using electrochemical methods, confirmed the existence of metallic aluminum, and named it alumium.
Yes, aluminum was a relatively new metal.
That was because extracting aluminum from bauxite was extremely difficult, to the point that it was once mocked as “silver born from mud.”
However, it was an extremely important industrial metal, and one I was desperately searching for.
Incidentally, a small amount was produced in Arland as well, but I had bought it all using my full authority (it had no value in Arland anyway, so no one objected).
The Kingdom of Arland was extremely rich in mineral resources, but this one bauxite was hardly found at all. Judging by output, only unprofitable mines existed.
Still, since it was the only bauxite mine discovered, it was being operated at full capacity.
This lack of output was the main reason aircraft production was sluggish.
“Processing requires electricity.”
“Electricity… you mean lightning? We do have hand-cranked generators.”
From the explanation, they were at the level of something Gennai might have made. Impressive, but they were apparently built by a past otherworlder and left gathering dust in a warehouse corner. According to the minister, they were already unusable.
“The principle is the same, but human power won’t cut it.”
The only ones in this world with generators sufficient for practical use were me (the nuclear plant in the Treasury had gone online a few days ago) and Arland’s Technology Development Bureau (they had somehow built practical models on their own from my papers, thermal and hydro).
Extracting aluminum from bauxite required enormous amounts of electricity, so only Arland could make practical use of it.
Of course, it could be extracted with the alchemical spell Extraction, but metals that were difficult to refine, like bauxite, were difficult even with magic. It was possible, but would it be profitable?
Arland’s Magicians at the Technology Development Bureau were all MAD-level geniuses and had grown skilled, but even if they worked at full capacity, they’d manage about 300 kilograms per day. And they were researchers, once the extraction method was established, they’d get bored and move on. They weren’t suited for repetitive labor.
Alchemy wasn’t flourishing in the Land of Tranquility (it was underdeveloped everywhere), so it would be difficult. The sensible choice was to sell it to me. When I said that, the shopkeeper looked slightly frustrated and glanced at the minister. The minister was whispering with his aides.
“How much would you need?”
“All you have. And I’ll buy as much as you can supply.”
“I can’t answer immediately, but we’ll discuss it positively.”
All right, victory! Time to go bomb the Empire.
That said, my request to bomb the Empire was rejected thanks to my Big Brother’s interference.
Still, I obtained a large-scale import deal exactly as my Big Brother had planned.
If they sold what I had found, the Land of Tranquility would prosper even more than now. We hadn’t reached a full agreement yet, but it was unlikely that all deals would be rejected. The Land of Tranquility was very eager to trade with Arland.
The smiling Foreign Minister even lent us a private beach in the Land of Tranquility.
“Takuto, when you think of the sea in the tropics, what comes to mind?”
“Swimming, I guess?”
Three days after finishing our market stroll, we were standing on a sandy beach. It was a perpetual summer island, with all monsters exterminated, and we, Arland’s group, were standing on a private beach reserved for nobles and royalty of the Land of Tranquility.
The knights, meanwhile, were wearing boomerang-type swimsuits and showing off their full muscles… It feels like the temperature rises by five degrees just from that, so please stop.
“… Isn’t that basically underwear?”
Alicia was wearing a bold blue bikini (I forced her into it despite her protests). Her chest also seemed a bit bigger. Could it be that my maids were rebelling against me?
If she were truly my retainer, she should show restraint and keep her chest modest. But since I understood this was what I’d look like in a few years, I was generous. I would tolerate this level of disrespect.
“Then could you please stop squeezing my chest?”
“My grip strength is nine kilos. If it gets any bigger, I could crush it.”
“Princess… maybe you should exercise a little. Also, that level won’t crush it.”
Damn it. Training your chest is unfair. That’s supposed to be just fat.
“By the way, Takuto’s answer was wrong. The correct answer is retrieving gold bars sunk on the seabed with a submersible.”
“Eh…?”
I had one submersible brought out from the Treasury. Several large rock golems carried it from a massive gate down to the sea.
“This submersible I made is a manned submersible that can dive to depths of ten thousand meters, and it carries four torpedo tubes.”
“That’s a submarine! Why does it have torpedoes?!”
“Unfortunately, the seas of this world are full of threats. There might be an angry Madame in the deep sea.”
In my view, Madame could probably endure the deep sea with ease.
Because if I could endure it using magic, then it was impossible that Madame couldn’t. According to the per-minute emails from my Big Brother, Madame was furious that I hadn’t returned yet even though I’d finished my schedule in the Land of Tranquility, apparently because she wanted to skip reeducation. Threatening me into returning was dirty, Big Brother. I almost wet myself.
I couldn’t use a teleportation device for personal reasons, so she might be coming overland, walking along the seabed to capture me. If it were me, I’d just fly with flight magic, though.
And there were aquatic monsters too.
The sunken ship we were going after was outside the island. This island lay on a gold transport route, and a transport ship had sunk a short while ago due to a monster attack. The gold bars were mine.
“How much did they load?”
“Mufuu. They’re giving me forty percent.”
The Land of Tranquility had no way to recover gold bars from a sunken ship. But the gold was too valuable to abandon. Especially since gold prices had skyrocketed there due to the sinking.
This was the result of the Foreign Minister, who until recently had worn a genial smile, negotiating with various parties while sweating bullets after my devilish whisper.
Incidentally, the samurai would board armed flying ships to hunt krakens in nearby waters, showing off Arland’s military power.
The Land of Tranquility had successfully repelled invasions from the Empire on its own, so while not exactly arrogant, it tended to slightly underestimate Arland’s military strength (they had already revised that view during the Yamata no Orochi battle). We would show them just how superior our flying ships were, making the power gap clear so they wouldn’t make any anti-Arland moves.
“Now then, let’s go. Gather, spirits of water, Spirit Queen’s Command.”
At my words, water spirits began to gather around. There were only enough to count on both hands. The Land of Tranquility really had very few spirits. I’d thought there would be more water spirits in the sea, but it was far fewer than expected.
—Wow, it’s the Queen!—
—Queen, what do you need?—
“There should be a sunken ship nearby. Guide us.”
—Sure!—
—Leave it to us!—
We boarded the submersible and began our voyage into the sea. Incidentally, the knights couldn’t board, so they waited on the beach. They were striking poses, so they probably weren’t bored.
“Um… why was I made to wear a swimsuit too?”
Alicia sat in her seat with an unconvinced expression. It suits you, so it’s fine. And after we’re done, we’ll go swimming. In about three days, though!
What do you think about this chapter?
