Chapter 10 - 10 Summoned by Margrave Sowell
Steve was in the manor's kitchen, making soba using buckwheat flour harvested with the help of the household's women. It was what one would call ni-hachi soba, using wheat flour as a binder.
The ratio of buckwheat flour to wheat flour was measured using [Measurement] magic, making it the most accurate ratio in the world. This was the soba he had kneaded.
Furthermore, this was Steve's first time making soba; he was merely using secondhand knowledge passed down from his soba-loving parents.
"The noodles are finished with this."
Using a rolling pin and a noodle-cutting knife that he had Nick make with a lathe, he checked their quality. This was so they could be put up for sale along with the buckwheat.
"It's quite a lot of work, isn't it?"
That was Abigail's opinion. Indeed, making soba is a laborious task. And because it is so profound, it is just right for people who have retired from their jobs to try and master.
However, there was a problem with this soba.
There was no soba-tsuyu.
Steve had gone to the Royal Capital and managed to procure fish sauce and sake and sugar to substitute for mirin, along with a green onion-like vegetable that could serve as a condiment. Since there was no katsuobushi (T/N: dried bonito flakes), he was about to experiment with wild boar, mushrooms, and dried river fish for the dashi. Fortunately, salt was the one thing he had in abundance.
Just as he was about to start, a sudden visitor arrived at the manor. Brian came to fetch Steve, telling him to join them. The visitor was a messenger from Margrave Sowell, and since it concerned Steve as well, his presence was mandatory.
Steve had just put the mirin-like sweetened sake into a Steve-made iron pot over the fire. It was a shame, but after briefly explaining how to make the noodle dipping sauce, Steve left the kitchen.
When he entered the drawing room, a messenger from Margrave Sowell was waiting. The messenger was an official representative of Margrave Sowell and, in this setting, held the same status as the Margrave. Brian and Steve knelt and bowed their heads.
"I shall convey the business from Margrave Sowell. You are to come to Sowell Land immediately."
"I understand. We shall prepare to depart for Sowell Land at once."
Brian replied accordingly.
The business was a summons from Margrave Sowell. When asked for the reason for the summons, the messenger replied that they did not know.
The means of transportation was the carriage the messenger had arrived in. Since permission to pass through to Sowell Land had already been obtained from the other lords, they were told to prepare and depart immediately.
In the end, Steve departed without getting to check the taste of the soba. If it were Sowell Land, he had visited it for the ceremony to confirm his magical talent, and he could have moved there in an instant with [Teleportation] magic, but Brian judged it better to keep that hidden for now, so they traveled by carriage with the messenger.
At the inn town on the first day, once they entered the inn and parted from the messenger, Steve immediately teleported back to the manor. He then asked the women for their impressions of the soba. If anything, he had hoped to try some himself if there was any left, but that wish went unfulfilled; all the soba had been stored away in the women's stomachs.
"It tastes better if the dipping sauce has a strong flavor," was Abigail's impression. Apparently, her favorite was a tonkotsu-style broth made using wild boar, with as much salt as possible thrown in.
"It might be even better if we look for herbs that suit the broth," Christina said, suggesting that the dipping sauce made from fish sauce and faux-mirin with condiments could be improved further.
"I wonder if shiso or sanshou (T/N: Japanese pepper) would be good..."
"It would be nice if we could use my family's chefs."
"That's true. But since this lack of fulfillment might set a chef's soul on fire, maybe it would be good to give this recipe to Emmanuel and have him sell it?"
Christina's proposal was attractive. If they could use the chefs of House Macintosh, something far better than what Steve could devise would surely be created. However, he didn't know how the profit distribution would work in that case. If possible, he wanted to develop it independently.
"As long as I can eat it cold from the refrigerator in the summer and warm from a pot in the winter, that's fine with me."
Sherry's comment made him realize that the demand for refrigerators was likely to grow. In the hot summer when appetites wane, there would be a demand for cold noodles. If that happened, the demand for refrigerators would rise along with it.
"I want to eat more, so knead some noodles before you go back," the women pestered him, and in the end, Steve ended up kneading noodles once more. Note that he himself couldn't eat them this time either. Since it would be troublesome if the messenger found out he had left the inn for too long, he decided to return immediately after kneading the noodles. Since this was a trial, only a small amount of buckwheat had been harvested, and there was only a tiny amount of buckwheat flour ground by the mortar. It seemed his first soba was destined to be devoured by the women.
The journey toward Sowell Land continued the next day. However, there were no particular problems. No fool would mess with a carriage bearing the crest of House Sowell, so no trouble occurred.
Thus, they arrived safely at Margrave Sowell's castle in Sowell Land in one week. They were shown into a room decorated with luxurious furnishings. There was a high-quality sofa, and sitting there was a woman around thirty years old with long, lustrous black-emerald hair. It was Aurora Tess Sowell, the only daughter of Margrave Sowell. Besides her, ten retainers were stationed in the room as guards.
Margrave Sowell was bedridden, and Aurora was acting as his proxy with full authority. Furthermore, she was married and had children. Her husband, who had married into the family, was not just a figurehead; he was in a position to command the regional army, keeping a watchful eye on neighboring countries and domestic affairs from a military standpoint.
Having heard it was a summons from Margrave Sowell, they knew it was Aurora who had called them.
"Welcome, Lord Archibalt."
"I have come as summoned. It is an honor to meet Your Excellency."
"That's enough stiff greetings. Please, have a seat."
Once Brian and Steve sat down as told, tea was served with perfect timing. Aurora took a sip first, and after confirming that, Brian and Steve also drank their tea.
Setting down her teacup, Aurora got to the main point.
"The reason I had you come was to confirm the rumors in the Royal Capital. I heard your son defeated the Royal Guard Knights Order Grandmaster. And that, his skill being recognized, he assisted in His Majesty's plan, leading to the purging of many nobles connected to the Kingdom of Forest's agents. Is this true?"
"It is a fact that he defeated the Royal Guard Knights Order Grandmaster, but it is a mistake to say he assisted in His Majesty's plan. The truth is that he was used without being told anything."
"I see. Then, is it not the case that House Archibalt's debt was paid off and you welcomed a fiancée from House Macintosh because of a reward received from His Majesty?"
Aurora glared at Steve. Receiving that gaze, Steve's impression was that she seemed like a capable career woman from a trading company. He thought of a woman from his previous life who would come to his company and, despite not knowing anything about processing, had terrifyingly accurate cost calculations and would make sharp points about the ambiguous parts of their estimates.
Aurora possessed a powerful information network both inside and outside the country, and she had grasped information regarding the disturbance that occurred in the Royal Capital. She had summoned Brian and Steve to confirm its veracity.
"It was not a reward. First, regarding the money, this was a nuisance fee paid to us by Baron Hadley. Furthermore, the daughter of House Macintosh took a liking to my son after being saved by him, and the engagement came about as a result of a duel over her with Baron Hadley's son."
Aurora turned a suspicious eye toward Brian's answer.
"You say it was a nuisance fee, but I heard Baron Hadley was detained at the site of the duel. I heard he was not in a position to prepare such a large sum of money."
"Yes. To be precise, Baron Hadley promised payment before he was detained, and my son sold the right to receive that payment to His Majesty. We do not have the capability to collect it ourselves, after all."
"A ten-year-old child thought of that? Unbelievable. Oh yes, speaking of unbelievable, it's also hard to believe that same child defeated the Royal Guard Knights Order Grandmaster. I'd like you to tell me how you managed to win."
Aurora wanted to grasp Steve's capabilities. A talent capable of defeating the Royal Guard Knights Order Grandmaster was in the Western faction, and that person had formed an engagement with House Macintosh, which led the Northern faction. There was a possibility he would be headhunted to the North in the future.
Considering the loss if he were headhunted, she wanted to know the cost-effectiveness in order to calculate the expenses for keeping Steve in the West somehow.
Brian also truly wanted to keep Steve's magic a secret, but if he did that to Aurora, the leader of the Western faction, there was no telling what kind of retaliation might be taken. Therefore, he decided to speak honestly. Though, not from his own mouth, but from Steve's.
Prompted by Brian, Steve explained his magic to Aurora.
"Among my magic, there is one that allows me to acquire the tasks of my opponent. With that, I acquired the movements of the Royal Guard Knights Order Grandmaster. And that magic allows me to repeat tasks without making mistakes. As a result, I fought on equal terms until the Grandmaster grew tired and made a mistake, and I claimed victory when the opponent slipped up."
"Hmm. I would certainly like to see if that's true."
Aurora's request was equivalent to an order, and Steve, knowing that, nodded his head.
"Then, I shall show you here."
As Steve said that, he teleported from the sofa to right in front of one of the retainers. Then, he lightly touched his index finger to the man's flank.
0.5 seconds later, the retainers realized Steve had teleported, took positions to surround him, and drew their swords. Once Steve confirmed the encirclement, he teleported back onto the sofa.
"How was that, Your Excellency? Have you believed me now?"
Steve directed a smile at Aurora. Aurora was also smiling, but her lips were twitching. From Aurora's perspective, it was as if Steve had told her, 'I can kill you at any time.' After all, he could move faster than her guarding retainers could react. No matter how many guards she prepared, she couldn't say she was safe.
"That's wonderful. So those are the movements of the Royal Guard Knights Order Grandmaster."
"Yes."
In reality, he was using [Teleportation] magic, so they weren't the Grandmaster's movements. However, if it was the Grandmaster whose peerless strength was known throughout the country, it wasn't unreasonable to believe he could perform such blindingly fast movements.
"I understand the rumors are true. Even so, to think you've become engaged to the daughter of House Macintosh. Being a big shot of the Northern faction, I'm sure there will be people who say various things about House Archibalt."
Aurora changed the subject. It was about Steve and Christina's engagement. Although neutral, the heir of House Archibalt, whose territory was geographically in the Western faction, would normally get engaged to a daughter of a noble house from the Western faction. That was to increase blood relations in the Western region and solidify their position. In a noble society where marriage for love almost never happened, it was a matter of course.
However, if he obtained a fiancée from the Northern nobility here, concerns would be held that he might be aiming for a transfer of territory to the North. Also, there were concerns that the Northern faction might use House Archibalt as a foothold to advance into the West. Aurora was giving them a warning about that.
"I don't think there's anything to be gained by disparaging our house, which is a frontier family that could be blown away by a single breath, though."
Steve said so, but Aurora did not back down.
"With the sales of Reversi and refrigerators, and the source of high-quality steel also being the Archibalt territory, the perception of being 'blown away by a breath' is a mistake. There's no telling what kind of harassment might occur."
Aurora had already grasped the things being sold through Emmanuel. 'What kind of harassment' was, of course, an indirect threat that she herself would do it.
"To prove that we have no duplicity, what would you do if I said there was a policy to develop the West?"
Here, Steve proposed a compromise to Aurora. He was essentially saying, 'I'll give you profits, so please keep quiet.'
"Oh, that sounds nice. If we have that, the others will surely be convinced as well. Can you tell me the details?"
"Yes. Actually, I'm thinking of establishing a commodity futures exchange to create a system to prepare for fluctuations in commodity prices."
"Commodity futures? I've never heard of that."
"Futures refer to the prices of future goods, such as copper or wheat. It's a system to reserve these. Producers can reserve a selling price according to the harvest time, and wholesalers can decide the purchase price in advance. That way, even if there are bumper crops, poor harvests, or bad weather, the buying and selling prices will remain stable."
"If that's the case, they can just decide it between the producer and the merchant. It doesn't seem like there's any profit for us here."
"That's where we create a system of an exchange and brokers. People who want to buy or sell goods can do so through a broker without having to go directly to the other party. Also, you can make the brokerage a licensing system where Your Excellency issues the licenses, collects annual fees, and taxes the commissions. Furthermore, since the actual goods will be transported here on the delivery date, the movement of people will also increase. As a result, commerce will also grow."
Aurora considered Steve's proposal. Her frank impression was that it wasn't bad.
In Japan, there were rice futures markets during the Edo period. One could conduct futures trading even without modern computers.
And as she thought about it, a question suddenly arose.
"While having such an idea, why didn't you think of doing it yourself?"
"With the personnel our house can prepare, it would be difficult to manage such trading. Furthermore, if goods and people are to gather, it's not something our territory could possibly handle. In that case, it was better to give the idea to Your Excellency, who can make it a reality. However, if I could receive a small idea fee, I would like you to make merchants closely associated with our house into brokers."
The reason Steve didn't open the exchange himself was simply a lack of human resources. It was due to the problem of not having personnel who could read, write, and calculate, and thus being unable to manage complex futures commercial transactions. Aurora was certainly convinced by that. Regarding the proposal to open a commodity futures exchange, which didn't exist in the Kingdom of Cascade or even across the continent, she decided to stop putting pressure on House Archibalt any further.
"I understand that House Archibalt has no duplicity. If anyone should say such a thing in the future, our house shall take responsibility and deal with it."
When the meeting ended and Aurora offered to prepare a carriage again for their return to their territory, Steve declined the offer. Since his [Teleportation] magic had been exposed, he judged there was no need to hide it. However, this was a bit of a rash move, as Aurora had misunderstood it to be high-speed movement over short distances.
Then, into the room from which the two from House Archibalt had vanished, she called her husband, Leo Tess Sowell, and also kept Harry, the head retainer who had been with her as a guard, in the room.
"How were the rumors about House Archibalt?"
Her husband, Leo, asked Aurora.
"The rumors are real. And he himself is someone beyond the rumors. Harry, what do you think we should do to stop that boy?"
"Milady, if you intend to stop that, you would need to prepare a massive number of national troops and mages. At the very least, if we clashed with only our house's military strength, defeat would be inevitable."
Harry had served the House of Margrave Sowell since Aurora was small, and even now he called her 'Milady'. His loyalty was second to none, and it was said he would not betray Aurora even if the heavens and earth were turned upside down.
"Whoa, he's someone Harry would go that far to describe?"
Leo looked at his wife in surprise.
"Yes. However, even if they won, they have no administrative ability, so they probably won't do anything so pointless. He's a very calculating opponent. Even though the commodity futures exchange is a system I've heard of for the first time, he was able to explain it properly. And yet, he doesn't try to do it himself. All the risks were thrown to us. And yet, he intends to use the exchange. Well, being able to calculate means, conversely, that we can negotiate, so it helps. If someone with that kind of power couldn't even calculate, they'd be no different from a natural disaster."
"Knowing that, did Marquess Macintosh send his daughter in?"
"No, that seems to be different. The daughter is head over heels for the boy. If it were a small noble house, we could forcibly dissolve the engagement and wedge our own child in, but if we did that against Marquess Macintosh, there's no telling how much damage we would take as well. For now, I've decided to seek a path of mutual prosperity."
Aurora gritted her teeth regretfully. It was an intense regret that she hadn't taken Steve in first. After all, the discovery of his magical talent happened during the ceremony here in Sowell Land. If she had scouted him then, it wouldn't have come to this.
Because the person who conducted the ceremony reported him as merely being a ruler or scale for measurement, she had believed it. Aurora glared resentfully at the church visible from the window.