Chapter 53

Chapter 53: < Seaweed. >

However, before Kim Kiwoo could execute his next plan,

a tragic incident occurred.

Whoosh!

Kim Kiwoo looked at the blazing fire with a bitter expression.

‘How could he leave so suddenly without a word?’

In the place that was spewing out hot flames, there was the body of the head of education, who had an outstanding mind.

The head of education had finally passed away.

“Your Majesty, thank you so much for coming here. I’m sure my father would be happy too.”

“…Yes. The head of education’s death was truly regrettable. I should have made him resign from his position sooner. It’s my fault.”

“Please don’t say that. How could it be your fault? He just ran out of his allotted lifespan.”

Straight Tree shook his head firmly, but Kim Kiwoo couldn’t get rid of this thought in his head.

Kim Kiwoo had delegated a lot of authority to the heads of departments in order to focus more on the development of civilization.

The problem was that this delayed the retirement of each head.

They had to establish a reorganized system for each department and hand over their duties to their successors.

As a result, the head of education, who had an excellent mind, had to postpone his retirement and deal with more work in his later years.

The head of education’s body, who was old enough, seemed unable to handle that much work.

He lost consciousness suddenly while he was working at the department of education.

And he never opened his eyes again.

In other words, Kim Kiwoo was also involved in the head of education’s death, one way or another.

Seeing this, Kim Kiwoo decided one thing.

‘Let’s not delay the generational change any longer.’

A massive generational change would cause a lot of noise in each department.

The best way would be a sequential generational change, but the result was right in front of him.

Kim Kiwoo held an imperial meeting right after the funeral of the head of education and strongly expressed his will.

“Today, an important person of the Wakan Tanka Empire has left this world.”

None of the heads knew that he was referring to the head of education.

Thanks to that, the atmosphere was very solemn.

“The head of education worked until the moment he died. If he had retired as planned, would he have left this world so vainly? Maybe my decision hastened his death.”

“How can you say that?”

“That’s not true. Please don’t blame yourself.”

Of course, the heads denied it, but Kim Kiwoo’s voice was still firm.

“I don’t want you to follow the footsteps of the head of education. So, except for the head of military and the head of internal affairs, all other heads should hand over their positions to their successors as soon as possible and step down from the front line.”

As Kim Kiwoo’s declaration ended, a heavy silence fell over the meeting room.

***

Kim Kiwoo’s will was carried out this time as well.

The heads who had been holding their positions for a long time started to step down one by one.

Also, the staff who were too old also left their departments around the same time.

For a while, there was confusion in the administrative system of the empire.

Because of that, Kim Kiwoo had no choice but to handle a lot of work during this period.

The new heads were less skilled in handling their work than the previous ones.

But he was still able to make some time in between.

During that time, Kim Kiwoo started preparing for his future plans.

“Your Majesty. The top merchants have all gathered.”

“Let them in.”

“Yes.”

As soon as the steward finished speaking,

Creak.

The door of his office opened and people started to come in one by one.

Kim Kiwoo took his eyes off the documents and looked up.

“Your Majesty, it is an honor to see you!”

“It is an honor!”

“Yes. I’m glad to see you all. Don’t just stand there and sit down.”

At Kim Kiwoo’s order, the top merchants sat down nervously following the steward’s guidance.

Kim Kiwoo looked around at the men in front of him.

The first thing that caught Kim Kiwoo’s eye was the shortest and chubbiest person.

“Are you Quiet Sea from Thunder Top?”

“…!”

Quiet Sea’s eyes widened like saucers.

He didn’t expect that His Majesty would know his name.

But he soon regained his composure and answered Kim Kiwoo’s question.

“Y-yes.”

“Haha. I won’t eat you, so relax.”

“Yes…”

Kim Giwoo continued to exchange greetings with the other top merchants after the ceremony.

They were all merchants who sailed the eastern sea.

He did not invite the merchants from the western sea, such as the Gale merchant group.

The matter that he was going to discuss was related to their territory in the eastern sea.

Even after the greetings, Kim Giwoo chatted with the other top merchants about various topics.

When he thought that the atmosphere had loosened up a bit, he brought up the main point.

“So, how is your business these days?”

Of course, Kim Giwoo knew very well that their situation was not good.

As expected.

The faces of the top merchants turned pale.

‘If only the sugar trade had grown as much as I hoped.’

Unfortunately, it did not.

The merchants of the eastern sea were focusing on the sugar trade.

Of course, the price of sugar in the empire was so high that they could make a lot of money if they could secure enough sugar.

But the problem was that the sugarcane production was not increasing as much as they wanted.

‘The Taino people don’t like to work.’

Of course, the products of the empire were so superior from the perspective of the Taino people that they were steadily increasing their sugarcane production to get them.

But they basically liked to play and eat.

They were not short of food in the first place, and they had a nature of playing folk instruments, dancing, and making ornaments and other arts.

As a result, the sugar production did not increase as much as expected.

On the other hand, the competitors were increasing.

Unless they had a solid position like the Lightning merchant group, they could not succeed much.

Meanwhile, the merchants who settled in the western sea had a completely different situation.

‘They are raking in money with their claws.’

The cause was copper, of course.

As the empire raised the price of copper and bought it in large quantities, the merchants who traded in the western sea, including the Gale merchant group, started to make more money.

This stark contrast led to a relative sense of deprivation.

As a result, many merchants left their base and moved to the western sea.

As expected, the top merchants poured out their grievances.

“I know your troubles very well. That’s why I called you here to solve them.”

“Really?”

“Oh!”

The faces of the top merchants brightened up at once.

Kim Giwoo nodded and went into the main topic.

“You all know about the seaweed in the eastern sea, right?”

“Do you mean those seaweeds that cover the sea?”

“Haha. That’s right.”

“How can we not know them?”

The top merchants nodded as if it was obvious.

They could not possibly not know about the seaweed that was scattered all over the eastern sea without number.

The amount of seaweed that drifted from Sargasso Sea was enormous.

‘The Sargasso Sea is literally a seaweed field.’

The amount was beyond imagination.

The name of Sargasso Sea itself came from Sargassum, which was a name for seaweed.

Sargasso Sea was an area where there was almost no wind.

The Bermuda Triangle, which was known as a symbol of horror, was also located within Sargasso Sea.

Therefore, it was a sea of death that was feared during the Age of Discovery.

There was nothing more terrifying for ships that sailed only by wind than a windless zone at that time.

Kim Giwoo said bluntly.

“I’m glad you all know. I want you to bring me those seaweeds.”

“…What?”

“Those things? Why…”

Naturally, questions arose on their faces.

The sailors of the empire called Sargassum floating garbage on the sea.

It only caused harm and did not help at all.

But for Kim Giwoo, securing seaweed was a very important issue.

“The reason… The reason is because they are needed in the empire. You can think of it as similar to when we first imported bird droppings from Andes.”

“Ah!”

Only then did they somewhat understand.

There was already a good example of importing bird droppings.

No one wondered why they imported bird droppings anymore.

They were very helpful for farming and they also made gunpowder with bird droppings as raw materials.

I understood that he wanted to do something useful with the seaweed again.

“You don’t have to just bring those seaweeds. If you burn them on the islands near the seaweed, and bring the ashes from there, I’ll buy them all at a fair price.”

Kim Ki-woo then offered them a specific price.

The faces of the sea lords brightened up at once.

“We’ll do it!”

“Just tell us what to do. We, the sea lords, are ready to follow your will, Your Majesty.”

“Haha. You sound very reliable.”

From the perspective of the sea lords of the eastern sea, having such a source of income was naturally a welcome thing.

Thanks to that, Kim Ki-woo was able to quickly finish the negotiations with the sea lords.

‘I’ll have a headache later because of sargassum, but it’s not bad for now.’

Kim Ki-woo knew well that sargassum, which came from the Sargasso Sea, was causing trouble for many countries in modern times, including Mexico.

But that was a story for later.

For now, the fact that there were so many seaweeds nearby was a positive thing.

He just had to collect the floating seaweeds, and he could easily supply sodium carbonate, or soda ash, which was what Kim Ki-woo wanted.

Of course, the ash, or soda ash, that was made by burning seaweed was very small compared to the amount of seaweed, but he expected to get enough because there were so many seaweeds.

The soda ash that was made this way was the main ingredient of two products that Kim Ki-woo wanted.

They were none other than soap and glass.

‘The soap berries from the central continent are not enough.’

Once the water supply system was properly established, the water shortage would be somewhat solved.

But Kim Ki-woo didn’t intend to end it with just making water abundant.

He planned to distribute soap widely in the empire and make washing hands a habit.

That alone would greatly reduce the chance of getting sick, and this would increase the average life span of the imperial citizens.

If he could secure enough soda ash, he could make plenty of soap.

There were plenty of bison in the northern continent, and he could get enough animal fat by hunting them.

‘And glass is indispensable for development.’

He needed glass bottles for various chemical experiments.

Not to mention the lenses that were needed for microscopes.

He already had plenty of silica on the beach, and limestone was also being mined in large quantities in the empire.

In other words, the only problem with glass was soda ash.

Even if it wasn’t for soap, he had to burn sargassum seaweed and make soda ash.

< Seaweed. > The end