CH 416

Mia’s Big Negative Campaign

“Oho ho, if I do say so myself, that went great. I was able to get Shalloak to come to the dinner.”

Mia was shown to a room in the castle to rest after her first meeting with the King of Perujin. Anne, Ludwig, Bel, Rania, and Tatiana were with her. She gave them a happy smile.

Ludwig adjusted his glasses and asked, “What should we do next? We can certainly use veiled threats to get him to keep doing business with the empire, but…”

“Hm, the fact that you said that out loud while Rania was in the room tells me that you’re not really seriously considering it,” Mia said.

“Am I not? I might be trying to do this on purpose. After all, having Princess Rania here could add to the pressure.”

She gave Rania a quick glance. Ludwig’s comment didn’t seem to bother the Perujin princess, which was a good sign. Mia turned around to face him again.

“In that case, let me be clear about one thing: I can’t change what happened in the past, but now that I’m here, I don’t plan to force Perujin to obey us by force.”

In the past, the empire had tried to do this…and failed. When someone was held down with force, the person being held down could easily get back up and fight back once the force was gone. In this case, the opponent would not only strike back when they could, but they would also try to slowly chip away at the empire’s power. They could also borrow enough power from another country to match that of the empire.

That just wouldn’t work. Mia’s little chicken heart couldn’t take knowing that such scary things were going to happen in the future. Therefore…

“Our plan to convince Perujin Agricultural Country is summed up in one word: trust. That’s it.”

Just like Rania sent her message because she trusted Mia when the empire had a problem it couldn’t fix on its own, it wouldn’t help an empire that forced it into submission. Only kingdoms that trust each other would help each other. Then how was she going to earn this trust?

Mia’s plan was very easy to understand. She thought that trust was relative, and all she had to do to hurt her enemy was take away some of his trust. Because of what Tearmoon lords have done in the past in this country, it was probably hard to build trusting relationships. She might have liked Rania and Arshia as people, but it would take a long time for that kind of friendship to spread to a large group.

I swear, all my ancestors have done is cause me trouble. If they hadn’t come up with this whole “let’s hate on the farmers” thing, none of this would be a problem. Ugh, they’re so stupid with their discrimniation!

Both changing people’s attitudes in the empire and earning Perujin’s trust took a lot of time. So, Mia decided to flip the problem on its head. If she couldn’t get the Perujin to trust her more, she could try to get them to trust Shalloak less.

In other words, it was time to start advertising in a bad way. She was going to tell the Perujin king the truth about Shalloak.

The man was attractive because he stuck to the idea that “money is more important than anything else.” Because he was ready to do anything to make money, he seemed like a man with huge potential. People would look at him and think, “Hell, maybe this guy can really do it.”

And that was the mask she was going to rip off with no mercy, revealing him to be a softy. She wanted to show everyone that he was just like everyone else, with the same feelings and lack of experience. By doing this, she would break the Perujin king’s crazy plan to get his revenge by trusting Shalloak.

“Oho ho, I’ll pull the wool over his eyes.” She looked at her ace in the hole. “Tatiana, this is where you come in.”

Tatiana was the only person who knew about the old Shalloak. Mia would be lying if she said she didn’t have at least a couple of doubts about the girl. Tatiana felt like she owed Shalloak something. She probably wouldn’t like it if Mia made him look bad in front of her.

It would be bad if she refused to testify because of that.

Most likely, it was smart to give her one more push. To be safe.

Mia asked, “Remember how I said it would depend on Shalloak and how he acts?”

First, the moving of blame. It had to be shown that this was all his fault from the start, since none of this would have happened if he had just stayed put. Mia was in no way to blame. She only did what she did because she had to.

“We’re also doing this for him.”

Shalloak wouldn’t gain anything by making a long-term enemy of the empire. He had already done something bad to the empire. He might be better off if he doesn’t try to open the wound up more. Mia was trying to ease Tatiana’s mind by making it sound like her help would be good for Shalloak in the long run. To be honest, it was kind of a cheap shot. Then, before her target could get back on their feet and realize she had been sneaky, she gave them the final blow.

“This is why you don’t need to lie. Don’t be shy. Just go give his cheek the best figurative smack you can!”

That was the last thing she did to finish up Operation Mudslinging.”

—

“…Uhm, Princess Mia, how are your feet? I mean the skin.”

“Hm? What are you saying?”

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Mia looked confused when Rania asked her a question.

“Did you step on the wheat? Does anything hurt or itch on your feet?”

“I guess they do, now that you bring it up. I think a little bit of both.”

“I figured…”

Rania got on her knees in front of her and told her to sit down.

“Excuse me,” she said as she took Mia’s shoes off quickly. “You see, Princess Mia, wheat has tiny thorns that hurt and itch when they get into your skin. The wheat we used to cover the path is a special Perujin strain that was made through selective breeding. It doesn’t normally cause any pain, but if we had used a different strain, things would have been very different. If you try something like that again, please be very careful.”

“My! Is that true? It’s no wonder they felt a little sharp…” Mia shuddered when she remembered about the fact that there were mushrooms that burned the skin. “Moons, I’m so sorry Rania that I made you walk over them too.”

“It’s fine; I’m used to it. I’m sorry, too, that I didn’t warn you ahead of time. Even so, you didn’t give me much time.”

“I had no idea. From now on, I’ll be more careful.”

Hearing that she could have hurt herself badly, Mia thought about how hasty she had been and decided to be more careful in the future. While the rest of the room…

“But… you would have done it anyway, right? Even if you were aware.”

“…Huh?”

“Even if you knew it was dangerous, you’d do it if there was no other way to show the farmers you were sincere, right?”

“I-I might? Uh…” Mia was about to say “no,” but a quick look around the room showed her that she was in the very small minority on this point. Everyone else seemed to agree with Rania. So, she changed tack. “Well, I guess I probably would. If I had to, I would do it. Probably.”

She ended up agreeing because she was swayed by the general feeling in the room, only to find out… W-Wait a minute… Does this mean that if I’m in the same position again, I’ll just have to take it and let my feet hurt and itch?

While she tried to deal with this scary thought, Rania looked at her feet carefully and then said, “I think we should treat it a bit.”

Tatiana, who wanted to be a doctor, asked, “Is there some kind of cure for this?” She was quickly interested.

Rania nodded.

“There’s a place called Crolio Pond here in the city. The water there is said to be good for your health. It can stop itching and heal small cuts when you soak in it. People also use it as a sort of natural bath, so this could be a good chance for everyone to wash off the dust and sweat from the trip.”