Chapter 106

Frost remained on the island as a prisoner, and the scribes carried the document Frost had written back to the fleet at sea.

After that, only two ships from the fleet being held offshore were permitted to depart for Roran.

It was to carry the injured, report the course of events to Roran, and conclude the official agreement.

Cole’s two older brothers, including Frost, were under house arrest in one room of Iiria’s mansion.

The ones guarding the door were two beastmen who were Cole’s companions, so if they were in communication with them, there was no chance they would allow an escape.

If anything, I was more worried about whether they might harm the two of them.

Incidentally, Cole was currently in that room, having a discussion between brothers.

We had taken Cole’s weapon away for the time being, but Iiria had said with a serious face that she thought breaking a few of their front teeth would be acceptable.

“One million gold coins, huh.”

Iiria said that in the emptied hall, sprawled out over the long table as if collapsing onto it.

Everyone else had returned to their respective work, and the smell of the light meal Kururu was making drifted in from the corridor.

Kururu, who had something of an athletic-club temperament, seemed to think a short break meant food.

“Even if magic stone exports are increasing……how many years of Yorinobu’s company’s earnings is that?”

“If we are talking only about sales, about two or three years’ worth, perhaps.”

“Huh, only that much?”

Iiria looked surprised, but of course, it was not that simple.

“That is only sales. At present, the company is taking over a lot of various costs that should originally be covered by taxes, so we are barely avoiding a deficit. Of course, there are not one million gold coins in the treasury, so we have to do something about it. Roran’s side probably will not demand that we pay the full amount all at once, but we will need a considerable sum. I suppose we will have no choice but to collect it as taxes.”

“Ugh……I see……taxes……taxes, right……”

Territorial administration required collecting taxes, but perhaps because Iiria’s sensibilities were closer to those of a commoner than a noble, she was not very proactive about it. We had started to recover some, such as customs duties at the harbor, but taxes from various guilds such as the craftsmen, and indirect taxes on market transactions, had not progressed.

The biggest issue was that there was no trustworthy manpower to entrust with tax collection, but the reason the discussion had not been pushed forward actively was also largely due to Iiria’s feelings.

As Kururu had said, if the current Iiria felt like it, there was almost nothing she could not do in this territory.

If she ordered everyone to bring their taxes with no shortage by a certain date, it would probably function that way for a while.

The reason she did not do so was emotional.

“Is it guilt after all?”

When I asked, Iiria’s dog ears moved back and forth alternately.

“Of course……it means doing the same thing as the nobles I hated so much.”

Certainly, even if wasting taxes would be evil, using them for infrastructure construction would eventually benefit the people……but even if that were explained to her, ingrained feelings probably would not change right away.

A lord who did not forget the feelings of commoners might seem like a good thing at first glance, but perhaps those who governed and those who were governed should still be somewhat different kinds of existences.

And one thing not to be forgotten in this discussion was that the one who would be resented for squeezing out taxes would be none other than Iiria.

“Haaah……honestly! Yorinobu, just use one of your flashes of inspiration and make a huge profit quickly!”

And the fluffy, curly-haired lord said that while swaying her tail in displeasure.

“Huh……?”

It was an extremely unreasonable demand, but if I thought about the future, a plan to double the company’s sales was certainly something that should be considered seriously.

After all, this was an island territory that had no choice but to rely on imports, and without gold coins, lives could not be maintained.

Although we had included things like a temporary suspension of tariffs in the peace agreement with Roran, our income was nowhere near enough.

Efforts to reduce food imports first, such as expanding livestock farming on the island and making reservoirs to consider fish farming, had only just begun.

Also, what absolutely must not be forgotten was that this economy relied solely on the magic stone mine.

Resources would run dry someday.

There were not a few nations that relied too much on underground resources, ran sloppy administrations, and went bankrupt as a result.

Dutch disease was famous, and the astonishing example of the Republic of Nauru must not be forgotten either.

Iiria’s demand was indeed unreasonable, but the payment of one million gold coins could also be turned into good pressure to move on to the next stage.

And as for me, it was not as though I had no plans at all.

As I was thinking about various things like that, I heard another large sigh.

“Honestly, I said I was joking!”

“Huh?”

Iiria was sulking with her face pressed against the table.

Her ears and tail were drooping limply too.

“Don’t you become like that too, Yorinobu……”

“Hm, huh? Wh-what do you mean?”

As I panicked, Iiria spoke while still lying face down on the table.

“Earlier too, you suddenly said, ‘As you wish, Iiria-sama’……”

Iiria lifted her face a little and glared at me, then turned away with a huff.

“……”

I was taken aback by her openly displeased state, but gradually, my understanding caught up.

Iiria was behaving like a lord because that was a job only Iiria could do.

And yet the clueless fool who could not read the room had treated Iiria like a “real lord” during the negotiations with Frost.

At that time, Iiria had not wanted to play the leading role in a diplomatic setting.

Rather, because it had all been full of firsts and she had been filled with anxiety, she probably wanted to rely on those around her more.

So when she glanced at me to confirm the negotiation procedure, I pushed her away with “as you wish.”

On top of that, when she jokingly told me to make a huge profit quickly, I took it seriously.

Iiria seemed to have become afraid that while those around her were enshrining her as a lord like this, she might unknowingly turn into the noble she hated so much.

Just like Kururu, who had been bewildered by the power of authority.

I looked at the sulking Iiria, thought for a while, and then said this.

“Then, should I treat you a little more rudely?”

I did not know how to say “frankly” in this language, so I expressed it as “rudely.” Iiria looked at me and spoke with a face as if appraising me.

“Can you? To begin with, Yorinobu, no matter how much time passes, you always use stiff language.”

Kururu got angry about it, but when Gerario and Kengo called her Iiria-chan, Iiria herself did not seem to feel bad about it.

“As for polite speech, it is not only with Iiria-san……”

The only person I spoke casually to was Kengo at best.

If anything, in my previous world, I had once been unable to call someone else’s pet dog “doggy,” called it “dog-san,” and got laughed at.

“Then try calling me without an honorific.”

So that was how she came at me, I thought, shrinking back.

Rather, I had probably never called a girl without an honorific even once in my life.

But if I answered that I could not say it here, it would mean I could not take responsibility for my own words.

And Iiria seemed unexpectedly likely to care about this sort of thing more than Kururu.

Thinking it could not be helped, I said it.

“……I-Iiria?”

Then Iiria moved only one ear with little flicks, looked slightly away, and then looked back at me again.

“Something’s different.”

“Ehh……?”

“Right. Try saying it more commandingly. For example, yes, something like, do your work.”

I felt drained, but I obeyed as I was told.

“I-Iiria, do your work.”

Both of Iiria’s beast ears moved briskly left and right.

“In a lower voice.”

“……”

Exasperated at what I was being made to do, I cleared my throat and lowered my voice.

“Iiria, do your work.”

Then Iiria closed her eyes as though her ears had suddenly been touched and hunched her neck.

And when she slowly opened her eyes, she said this.

“Can you grow a beard just like that too?”

I had just shaved, so I wondered if it could possibly grow that quickly, and what I recalled was Kururu’s story.

Something about Iiria-sama perhaps surprisingly liking Gerario and so on.

I understood.

“Iiria-san, this is about your personal tastes, isn’t it?”

The mischievous lord finally began giggling.

“Please have Gerario-san do it for you.”

“Eh? No way. He doesn’t have that awkwardness. It’s good because someone as overly serious as Yorinobu says it.”

“……”

I understood at least that it was barely not a compliment.

While thinking, Honestly, sheesh, I decided it was fine since her mood seemed to have improved.

After happily wagging her tail, Iiria beckoned to me.

When I brought my face closer, she whispered this into my ear.

“I think Kururu would unexpectedly like it too.”

“……”

When I looked at her with displeased eyes, she gave me a bright smile.

The reason she was playing around with me this much was probably because this had been almost her first proper diplomacy, and she had been more nervous than she looked.

If this much venting was enough, going along with it was a cheap price.

“But about that unreasonable demand earlier, the thing about doubling sales.”

“Hm?”

“The reason I seriously considered it was not only because it was the words of Iiria-san, the lord. There are still far too many things lacking in the territory, and covering them with taxes will probably be almost impossible for a while.”

Iiria looked up at me and became a little serious.

“Even the mine we are relying on, though we found a vein fertile enough for a dragon to appear, has no telling how long it can continue to be mined. If we think about that, we should establish a new business while we still have spare strength and secure our footing.”

When Iiria was told that, she made a face that seemed half-convinced and half-not, then flattened her dog ears and asked while looking up at me.

“But can you really do something like that all of a sudden?”

For all that she usually made selfish demands, when I actually became serious, she became timid, and I thought that was one of Iiria’s cute points.

I was gradually starting to understand why Kururu liked Iiria.

“We can……or rather, there is something I want to try.”

“Something you want to try?”

“Mining abandoned mines.”

Iiria, who stared blankly, tilted her head slightly.

“We hold the secret of synthetic magic stones, so we can effectively use magic for free. We just confirmed a glimpse of its true power earlier too.”

A white mushroom had grown from the sea, and a great fleet had become unusable in an instant.

“If we can freely use magic of that scale for free, even abandoned mines that became unprofitable with ordinary mining methods, or were thought to have had their veins exhausted and were left alone, might be revived by us. For example, by using magic to blow away the parts blocking the vein wholesale, something like that.”

When I stretched out my hand, imitating firing magic, the blank-looking Iiria, for some reason, placed her small hand against mine.

“If we do that, it might even become unnecessary to mine this island’s mine.”

“I see. But how do we search for mines?”

The communication infrastructure was either travelers’ word of mouth or letters at best.

Moreover, in a place where detailed world maps could not be hoped for, information about mines in faraway lands would not be easy to obtain.

“Will Yorinobu and the others……go on a journey to search for them?”

Would it be presumptuous to say that she looked a little lonely?

But there was no need to go on an exploratory journey.

When I pointed overhead, Iiria was drawn into looking that way too.

“There just happen to be people here who know trade in this region well, don’t there?”

In the rooms of the mansion, all three Bax Company brothers were assembled.

That was, if Cole had not killed them out of resentment.

I added this jokingly.

“And moreover, right now, the other party is a prisoner.”

Iiria returned her gaze from the ceiling to me, and her beast ears flapped.

“Certainly……yes, that’s right. Interrogating prisoners is a right recognized during war, after all.”

Iiria said that and began to smile wickedly.

Even if she did not like acting high and mighty, she did like threatening people.

“Then let’s hurry up and fill our stomachs.”

Just then, Kururu came carrying the food, so I helped set the table.

Then she said she was going to get drinks, so when I tried to follow her to the kitchen, Kururu said this as soon as we left the dining room.

“Do not call Iiria-sama without an honorific.”

Apparently, she had heard everything.

Then Kururu said, sounding a little angry,

“Also, I told you that you look better without a beard.”

“……”

After being slightly surprised, I ended up laughing a little.

“I will not grow one.”

Kururu looked at me suspiciously for a while, but those eyes also looked like they were suspecting infidelity.

In the end, Kururu sighed tiredly and began walking.

“Hmph. Come on, we are going to get drinks.”

“Yes, yes.”

When I obediently followed Kururu, Kururu finally removed the crease between her brows.

However, while walking diagonally behind Kururu, I could not help imagining it.

The sight of Kururu blushing as a wild, bearded version of me called her without an honorific and pressed closer to her.

It was obviously unrealistic, but it felt like it might open a new door inside me, so I hurriedly put a lid on that fantasy.