Sabaku darake no Sekai de , Ossan ga Denshimane de Musou suru

Welcome back. You're very welcome.　

As we have been spending a lot of money on various things lately, and selling more white sugar, honey, liquor, and luxuries to the Garcia Chamber of Commerce than before, we flew to Mr. Tarrant's mansion and he greeted us graciously.

'Lord Cato, Grand Chief of the 'Confederacy of the Southwest Tribes,'

Did he get it?

A merchant who is not well-informed cannot survive in the world of the living, horse-driven business world. The mass migration and collectivization of the desert elves, and the resurgence of the Far South Sea at some point in time, has been accomplished by a mysterious figure who is the Great Katoo Chief. He is able to communicate with the Spirit of the Sea. Such an amazing person, only you, the 'transformer', can do it.

Has the Kingdom of Burt found out yet?

'Not yet. Our Garcia Chamber of Commerce is one of the ten largest merchant associations in this world, so we're very quick to get information. We won't lose to the merchants who control the Central Sea's 'Water City'. However, they don't have time to look elsewhere at the moment as they are dealing with the disappearance of all the sand beasts from the Central Sea and the seawater is gradually diminishing.

Suddenly, all the creatures had disappeared from the Central Sea.

He didn't think it was because the spirits had fallen out of love with him, and they were busy investigating the cause and taking measures.

Water City is governed by merchants. If we're not careful, we'll be able to get our hands on them quickly, especially the Bart Kingdom and others. The aristocrats secretly look down on merchants who are low-born and high-handed.

They despise merchants at heart, whether they contribute to the economic activities of the territory or obtain luxury goods from foreign countries and other sources.

The human heart is a complicated thing.

'I hear that the port town of Lissu in the Kingdom of Baat is also in turmoil because of the absence of sea creatures and sand beasts that are offered and sold to the great nobles and royalty.

The sand beasts and ordinary fish and shellfish that live in the sea have all disappeared, so the economic value of 'Lissus' has dropped dramatically?

But the reason for that.........

I can't tell you that.

"Isn't the value of both Lissu and Water City more valuable as a trading transit point and port than the fishing industry?

However, the disappearance of precious marine life and sand animals is a serious matter. Thirty percent of their sales are suddenly gone. The fishermen are in danger of losing their jobs.

As a result of the sea spirit making a statue of him in armor on his own, saying he was embarrassed because he was a dobus, and being worshipped as such, Urilynn was always in armor, and had to endure the heavy and hot conditions for over five hundred years.

That would be a no-brainer to get away with.

The twin peaks that had become the guardians of the Far South Sea with Marilyn had returned to their former cool robes, and now they were not heavy and not hot, and they were overjoyed to be guarding the Far South Sea.

I can't even tell this truth to Mr. Tarrant.

'Maybe that's why our sales of brown sugar and spirits have gone up, though.

As a result of the disappearance of the sea sand beast (fish and shellfish) from circulation, the money that used to be spent on it goes to something else.

It happens all the time.

'White sugar and honey for the aristocrats and the rich. The common people are sometimes excited and brown sugar. Cheap spirits are also very popular. In the royal capital, taxes on liquor have gone up again, so breweries buy it and sell it with flavor and aroma. The traditional liquor is bought by the nobles. The aristocrats say that mixed drinks are suitable for lowly common people.

Brown sugar and white sugar.

Cheap A-type shochu and properly brewed sake.

Have you been able to live with the aristocrats and the common people?

But it's convenient since they can siphon money from both sides.

''Hasn't that Your Majesty noticed the weakening of the nobles?

''Noblemen's fiefdoms and interests are a kind of independent country and extraterritoriality. It's a very good idea to have a good idea of what's in your wallet. But there are many nobles who have no idea what's in their wallets.

With such a financial situation, it would be impossible to provide a good army of lords and ladies.

And His Majesty is not aware of it.

"The power of the royal family is very weak. Many kings have blown themselves up trying to do something about it.

Lalabelle had an indescribable expression on her face as she realized her brother's stupidity and the way his ideals were difficult to achieve.

As a politician, a centralized state with strong royal power would be ideal, but the environment of the world of the Great Desert makes it difficult to do so, and although I don't want to make fun of my brother, who still tries to somehow realize it, the way he does it is too disappointing, so I still make fun of him as well.

It must be a complicated feeling.

'Maybe Lalabelle-sama could do it,'

That's bullshit, Lord Tarrant. I am a warrior. I'm not fit to stand on top.

'You want someone who knows how to use Lalabelle.

That's just like you, Mister Taro.

I'm just a decoration.

Somehow a former businessman is somehow a great chieftain, etc.

It's better to do it like a hired president, so he doesn't get crushed by the pressure.

'Speaking of which, Mr. Tarrant. Is Shipland's armaments increasing?''

'Things are going reasonably well. However, due to the nature of this town, it's difficult to increase the number of permanent soldiers. We're increasing the temporary draft quota for hunters. We've increased our budget.

Tarrant-san answered Mew's question.

''So in case of an emergency, you're going to conscript the best hunters and reward them according to their merit?

''Isn't that not coherent?''

'Hunters are most powerful individually and in small groups. Since they can't be gathered and trained regularly, they're stronger than a poorly organized group and commanded. Besides, the lack of cohesion is the same for the Bart Kingdom Army and the Lords Army...''

It's better just to have a national army that is directly formed by the Bart Kingdom.

It's not even close to the Lords Army in terms of numbers, and that Lords Army is also weakened because we and Shipland are extracting money from the nobles.

It's amazing how many lords and lords armies you can't know how many you have until you actually gather them.

Since the nobles live at a distance across the desert, not only do the lords' armies not cooperate with each other, but at worst, they may even fight each other.

And in case of an emergency, they'll just shoot at the Royal Army. They won't be helping the lords' army anyway.

They are not trained to fight together and they do not want to take casualties from the lords' armies.

The lords' armies will collect peasants and other men who are also hunters in peacetime, if there are not enough of them.

If sailors are conscripted because they travel by sand drifters, then the nobles will be in trouble because they will have less earning capacity to pay taxes if they die.

It would be natural for them to conclude that they had no choice but to send out troops, but not to fight seriously.

Otherwise, they would not be able to contribute to production and distribution for long periods of time.

From a financial point of view, war is nothing more than a suicide mission.

As far as the Royal Army is concerned, it's an organization that attracts a certain number of useless aristocrats and their children who are crushed by the grain, and it's an organization that helps the unemployed.

That reminds me.

Major Thunder was such a good officer, but he was fired because he was letting in the children of a stupid nobleman with connections.

Though he himself quit the army, leading his excellent men to quit because he thought hunters made more money.

''It's a terrible state of affairs.

But they're more numerous than we are. We can't be too careful.

No matter how much Shipland, it's impossible to get more troops in place than the Kingdom of Bart, so can we be on our guard?

''We can draft hunters, too.

King's Landing has a thick layer of hunters.

Since they could operate for long periods of time in the scorching desert and could take down sand beasts that ordinary people couldn't defeat, the dimensions of gathering them together would create an excellent army.

''Then it's a little less dangerous.

Is it less dangerous?

"Have you heard of the Great Chief Katoo?　In King's Landing, they've tightened the taxation of hunters again.

'What?　Did you raise your taxes?

Even back then, they took half of it with them?

'Eek!　Would you get less of a share if you hunted a sand beast?

No wonder Frau was surprised.

Because in her home oasis, though poor, taxes were quite low.

'They went up from fifty percent to seventy percent,'

That's going to make all the good hunters run.

Yeah, they are, in fact. A lot of them are here in Shipland. From a hunter's point of view, it's more profitable to be based here in Shipland.

''Master Lalabelle, isn't it difficult to make these awesome hunters a force to be reckoned with?

I don't think so.

Larabell answered shortly to Frau's question.

We need strong hunters to strengthen our army, and by the way, the strong hunters are fleeing to Shipland because of the high taxes.

It's not the end of the world, or rather, if you stand up for that one, you can't stand up for this one.

The new king's future may be very difficult.

''However, we must not let our guard down after all. The measures to weaken the Burt Kingdom are going well, combined with the anomaly in the Central Sea, but there are many countries that are benefiting from being in contact with that sea. Everywhere is hit hard, so we can also see that the power of the Baat Kingdom hasn't fallen that much in relative terms. Besides, if we push them too hard, they'll 'bite a cornered cat'.

So it's hard to prevent a war.

You don't want to overdo it and become desperate, but if you leave it unattended, you'll plot the wrong thing.

Even though he's Lalabelle's brother, he's a helpless man.

'I understand the situation. I will continue to bring the items to you regularly.

'Please. Also, it seems that the countries have a sense of urgency about the current situation in the Central Sea, and they're going to hold a meeting, including the water city. I doubt very much whether the conference will solve anything.

No way, I can't go tell you that it's because you guys have been patronized by the sea spirits, and it's not safe to tell Mr. Tarrant the truth at this point.

We received the money for the goods with a nonchalant look on our face and returned to Gori-san town.