Capítulo 52: A Productive Day Pt.2

Michael Magna. Month 10, Day 15, Year A.F 652. The city of Rosalia, Kingdom of Rosalia.

The door creaks as I exit my office, Madelaine looks at me with a smile and I smile back. She continues to take a bite of her bread as she gestures to the seat beside her.

It seems she has recovered from our conversation earlier. Even with that awkward conversation, I was more than happy to spend my time with her.

"Eat up," She says to me before taking a bite. Her cute features, joined by her elegant way of eating, is certainly a beauty to behold

My stomach grumbles forcing me to looks to the table for food. Only to notice it filled with soup, bread and meat,

"This looks quite delicious," I inadvertently say, as i feel my mouth salivate at the delicious dishes.

I take a bowl to my hand, feeling its warmth of, I asked, "You made this?"

She shakes her head in disappointment, "Unfortunately no,"

She points outside, "I had it cooked at one of my restaurants and merely had them deliver it here."

Ah yes, I remember her telling me her business ventures which involves buying up failing restaurants and revamping the quality, allowing it to make a profit.

I nod as I inspect it before taking a sip, "Hmm, it's quite delicious," The taste of beef, spread through my mouth, leaving a delicious taste. I take a bite of the bread as the two food join together in my mouth.

She smiles at me, "I'm quite glad you liked it, this one came from my best restaurant."

Her words make me stop in thought, my recent review of reports come to mind, "Most of your ventures are related to food? Correct?"

She looks at my frown and squints her eyes in suspicion, probably feeling a sinking feeling from my less than happy expression.

I smile at her before I spoke, hoping to relieve her before I say something she would probably be offended by, "I would advise you to start selling them."

She looks at me in shock, "Excuse me?"

Irritation crawls up her expression, seeing as I just asked her to sell her hard work and sell away her most prized possessions.

With my arms raised, I try to placate her, hoping my reason to be enough, "The documents you gave me has indicated that Grand Duke Arthen shall be making his move in the near future."

Her irritation slowly fades as she raises an eyebrow in curiosity, now open to such an idea, "And how does that relate to my businesses?"

"It does not, it relates to what happens after."

The words ring at her head as she glares at me, suspicious of my involvement.

"What do you mean?"

Her expression demanding explanation makes me sigh. I look around, gesturing for her to do what was practically tradition at this point.

Understanding my expression, she taps her finger on the table. With her action, the ring in her finger lights up, with runes engulfing the room.

Once it finished she looks to me, "Now, what is it?" Her voice was laced with a mixture of irritation and curiosity.

"I have plans, that will be enacted once the King dies."

She gestures for me to continue as her glare almost burns a hole through me.

"And what plan is that?"

I try to smile to calm any violent expression she might get, "An artificial famine."

She was rendered speechless as my words sink in, her expression turns deep, before she spoke with no emotion, "An artificial famine? Why? what exactly would you gain from it?"

Seeing her constrained expression, I hurriedly raised my arm, hoping to placate her great distaste of my future actions. Perhaps from something they call conscience, which I most definitely have.

I swallow dryly as I fidget, before speaking plainly, "Look hear me out, it's not like I plan on letting them starve. All I want is that the Seekers be the only one to have a constant supply of wheat and grain, during a time of great strife and famine."

Hearing my word her expression softens a bit, making me sigh in relief as I continued explaining, "From that, we can gain legitimacy to be the only power to care for the people, and along with the civil war raging through Rosalia, we will be the only one to have access to domestic sources of grains."

She raises an eyebrow to this, with confusion marring her expression, "Why exactly would we be the only one?"

I grin at her confusion, a bit proud of myself that she never noticed it, even with her constant involvement in my plans, proving to myself that I could at least hide my intentions towards my enemies.

"How much is cotton these days?" I asked her with a smile.

She looks at me in confusion before replying, "ten silver per bundle."

"Then how much is a bundle of wheat?"

She widens her eyes in realization, "a silver coin per bundle."

"It has been increasing hasn't it?"

I tap my finger on the table, "But in comparison cotton has gotten more and more expensive. Right?"

She was then engulfed in thought, as various events went through her, She then starts muttering to herself, "Almost every noble in Rosalia has been planting cotton. Due to its continuous artificial inflation of price, it is merely turning more expensive."

I continue their thoughts as she looks to me, "Rosalia is starting to become dependent on wheat imports and that results in the wheat prices increasing,"

She then looks up from her thoughts, "But can't they just import more from the Iridian Principalities?"

I raise an eyebrow at her as I cross my arms, "You mean the Principalities where I have bought contracts of wheat for the next five years? With any contract breaking resulting to an exorbitant amount of gold."

She rolls her eyes at me, perhaps annoyed with the smugness radiating off of me, ignoring this though, I continued, "Yeah, I don't think they will."

She then points out something, "How about Arasel, I'm sure they have spare grains."

"Spare grains for half a year," I shake my head, "I don't think they will, seeing as even they are affected by the increasing price of grain."

"After all haven't we been building up textile industries, to supply the demand from Golden Wear."

She taps her finger to the table in thought, "That," She looks down as she ruminates on some more, trying to find a hole in what I would call my perfect plan.

"What about Grand Duke Arthen. Doesn't he have access to the granaries of Eriva."

I point to her in a smile, "That's a good point, I actually found out that he'll be making a move soon from the accounts of him stocking up in grain and supplies."

She looks down in contemplation once more and I hold my bowl, noticing the soup getting cold. I take a spoonful to drink as my ring lights up, warming the bowl, enjoying its warmth with meat and bread.

While I eat, I watch her, A cute thinking expression appearing on her face, only for her to look up when an idea pops up, "Can't you do something about that? I mean if you have this much hold over information, I'm sure you can do something about it."

The savoury taste lingers before I spoke once more, "I do have a plan for such, but I cannot act on it until he starts acting on his plans."

She looks to her bowl as well, noticing the lack of warmth, "I see, he probably won't make a move if he weren't prepared with the grain he needs."

Her ring lights up as she takes a spoonful as well, She then spoke before drinking a spoonful, "But how are you gonna do that? I mean you're gonna have to hire an operative willing to wait that long."

"I see your point, we can't just send someone. That'll be a bit too risky for my taste, since a lot can go wrong." I said to her as I took a bite of my bread, the taste really is good.

"Then sending someone you cant trust to do it right will just tip them off," She says to me as she takes a slice of meat.

That's true, I don't really have any capable operative that could sneakily do this for me. I never tried finding one.

I tap my chin in thought until an idea pops to mind. I guess that if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself.

After thinking, I speak out my thought, "That's true, so we need to coordinate the time just right. The room for error should be minimized."

My mouth contorts into a grin, noticing this, she sighs to herself, "Please don't tell me you're about to do what I think you're about to do."

I grin, her face filled with irritation wasn't one that fills another with confidence, but something that I find great amusement from. Madelaine only groans to her hand, weary of the trouble ahead.

"Yup, I'll have to start preparing."

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