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“Let’s welcome the first wave of brave merchants who have travelled through the war-driven lands to make sure we won’t be lacking food, weapons and other necessities!”

Sitting beside Venna on a special, elevated platform, Saulus shook his head while quietly releasing a sigh of relief.

For the love of firstborns… I know I forced this job on him, but can’t he like… Hurry up? Muttering under his breath, Saulus already saw plenty of ways to indirectly punish one of his officers. Even though it was his first time publicly addressing the crowd, he was given explicit orders to keep it simple. Yet, from what the messengers reported, the caravan had already been waiting for a while at the gates, waiting for that damned idiot to stop blathering on.

“Everyone! Look towards the gates! Our friends and saviors are here!”

Only after enjoying the sound of his voice for a prolonged period of time, did the selected officer bother to conclude his lengthy speech. What was even worse, this tense and joyous moment had already turned bland, with everyone in the crowd nearly yawning openly, if not for being in the presence of the queen herself.

“Next time, let me pick someone for the job.”

Sitting right next to Saulus, just a single seat away from the queen, Bloy leaned towards the general whispering. Even though the two of them were quite at odds before, the opportunity of this civil war had forced them to put the past behind them and focus on the future.

“Guilty as charged. I will leave that to you from now on.”

Whispering the reply, Saulus pretended not to notice the bolts of lighting that Venna was casting at them from her eyes. While her face was perfectly calm and focused, a small wrinkle atop her forehead hinted at how bored she was in reality.

“Look! They are here!”

“Everyone, cheer for them!”

The sounds produced by the crowd quickly escalated with the appearance of a lengthy line of carriages pouring into the city. While a trading hub like Mengia didn’t suffer much from the scarcity of resources that any war would bring, even its citizens knew how bad the situation was outside of the city walls. For them, those carriages brought with them opportunity and hope.

An opportunity to once again start making money like in the good, old times. With Retesian conquests putting the entire province at the borderlands of the Patriarch’s domain, the flourishing markets that were the trademark of this area turned obsolete. But now, with the main, northern trading road fully in Saulus’ hands, people at Mengia could finally sell their wares for their actual price rather than what the Patriarch forced them to sell it for.

And there was hope. Hope that the refugees would stop swarming the city once its markets prospered again. And hope that all the reforms that Saulus implemented to kickstart the local economy would be maintained along with the regime of the generous general.

“Little do they know… This trade route will suck the life out of this place. It will be pretty hard to compete with those merchants with how we need to focus on the war right now…”

Putting on his iconic, ironic smile as he looked towards the crowd, Bloy couldn’t stop the bitterness from flowing out of his mouth. Thinking objectively, his words formed good advice on what to look out for, for the queen. The only reason Saulus couldn’t really be thankful for this advice was due to how Bloy was one of the masterminds behind the entire scheme in the first place.

“Huh? Wait, Saulus… Didn’t you tell him?”

Acting all surprised and joining the little talk between her generals, Venna looked at the two former rivals from the corner of her eye.

“Ah, right. Bloy, you took over the entire east so you might have missed the main plan for the south… But we are not expecting to endure any heavy fighting for now. Not before some pieces are moved into their respective places. Not yet.”

Smiling, Saulus was silent, denying any explanation to his former rival. As petty as it was, seeing Bloy’s face turn slightly annoyed when he realized Saulus’ play was the greatest reward that he could have hoped for.

“Okay, but what does that have to do with the merchants? I know the terms of the help from our neighbors. They would never let go of the opportunity for tax-free passage for their merchants.”

There was no need to even bring out the map. Even though Venna wasn’t as fluent in geography as the two generals, she was perfectly aware of the position of where her household found itself on the map.

Located right on top of the major part of the ancient road, it was the only proper connection between two of their friendly neighbors. Ever since the Burn kingdom lost its autonomy, this trade route was cut by the Retesian patriarch’s edicts, instantly cutting away a major portion of income for all three of the regions.

And now, with the trade route once again opening up, there was no doubt that their helpful neighbors would ask for some slight favors regarding the taxes that they would otherwise be expected to pay.

With ancient tradition stating that the amount of tax a merchant would pay by using the road depending on the length of the tract that a given household held, it would normally be the major source of income for the reemerging Burn household. That is, if those taxes wouldn’t be abolished due to the deal that both parties signed even before the first batch of subsidies arrived!

“Now, let’s all experience a word and a blessing from our benevolent Queen!”

With the caravan already approaching the royal stage, Venna had no other choice but to remove herself from the conversation. After all, they could talk about it at any point in the future and right now she had an important duty to fulfill.

“Citizens of Mengia! I am your queen, Venna of the Burn bloodline. It is a pleasure and a great honor to be a guest in this magnificent city.”

Starting her speech, Venna immersed herself in reciting the words that Saulus had forced her to memorize over the last two nights. Rather than going with the flow like that incompetent soldier from before, the Queen’s performance had to be perfect.

“I humbly request for you to start preparing the local parties for a great hunt. Even if we can get provisions from our neighbors, it can’t hurt to have a stockpile of our own. I think it will also serve as a great boost to the morale of our soldiers if they could see some meat in their porridge.”

Leaning just enough to the side to make his words hearable to his former rival, Saulus glanced at the face of the leader of the Pleiades.

“That makes sense. We both know how awful it tastes… Thinking about this, I heard you refused to eat anything better than what you ordered your soldiers to be served. Was that a factor you took into account while preparing this plan?”

Curving just the corners of his lips in that slight, ironic smile of his, Bloy shook his head just a few short moments later, as if wishing to take back his words.

“I’m sorry for that nudge. But it just made me recall an interesting story I heard back in the east.”

Turning silent with the obvious intention of making Saulus inquire for more details, Bloy turned his face back towards Venna. The fact that his eyes stopped for a moment just below the line of her waist didn’t escape Saulus attention, putting him even more on edge than he already was.

“Okay, you can stop keeping me tense now. What did this story tell?”

With a tone signalling that he was conceding, Saulus moved his eyes back to the crowd cheering every word from Venna.

“Apparently, one of the big nobles from the old regime surrendered… But for some reason, instead of losing his head, he lost all his wealth and status. The rumors say he is hiding in plain sight, in one of the villages right between Mengia and the frontline. You might want to check it out when you head south.”