CH 259

What the Kingdom Has and Imperial Japan Doesn’t [Part 4]

The Head Church of the Kingdom’s church was in the Empire, and it had a considerable influence on the Kingdom people… especially those who lived around the Royal Capital. Since childhood, the Church had instilled in them the idea that the Empire was a mighty country.

This was a very foreign feeling to the three siblings, who were born and raised in Palace, a place with churches themselves being nonexistent.

The Church deemed monsters unclean and abhorred them, hence its unwillingness to establish its branches in territories located on the border of the barrier.

In the Kingdom, the ones most in need of the Church’s help were the borderland citizens who were tormented by the appearance of monsters, but they received no alms whatsoever from the Church. And in territories where churches could not be built, the feudal lords’ households must fulfill that role instead.

Basically, the frontier had always gotten the short end of the stick.

“…Did all the nobles just swallow everything meekly?”

A heavy loss wasn’t really the right word for their situation.

“Under such circumstances, if there were any houses who didn’t buy cotton and lose money… of course they wouldn’t find it pleasant, would they?”

“…? Nobles who didn’t buy cotton… are… Ah, it’s us, huh…”

Because the Stuart family all went on a study trip to Imperial Japan, they didn’t buy any cotton. They probably still wouldn’t have bought it even if they hadn’t gone to Imperial Japan, though.

“And the Rothschild Company too. The company is well-known for its strict quality control, so it must have seen through the inferior products. But…”

Now that Emma thought about it, Joshua had the slum children learn how to process hemp. Which meant she could assume that Joshua had already judged that hemp was better than the Empire’s coarse cotton before the social season started.

“Neither Joshua nor Joshua’s dad has ever made a wrong judgment in that area, so the Empire must have offered quite an inferior product, it seems? For people in business to be like that… I really don’t know what to say about them.”

For Emma, who had lived in the ‘manufacturing superpower’ Japan, this kind of problem or treatment from a seller was unbelievable. It was as if the merchant didn’t take pride in their products.

Emma couldn’t help but think that deepening the relations with Imperial Japan would definitely be much better for the Kingdom than befriending a country as questionable as the Empire. How wonderful would it be if, in the future, the Kingdom became a country where rice was sold in every store, and miso and soy sauce would be in stock all year long in every household?

“The cotton’s quality is too substandard for the nobles’ own use. Even if they wanted to sell it wholesale to commoners, they couldn’t sell it cheaply because the cost was high. The commoners would rather buy cheap hemp than expensive coarse cotton. Then to cover the profit and loss for the cotton… they could only raise the tax in their territory, putting a burden on the commoners’ lives…”

“…It’s a vicious cycle, I see… In the end, those who will become feudal lords have to study hard. Right, Nii-sama?”

“Arghhh… why did the topic return to this again!”

George was caught off guard by this unexpected boomerang.

“Studies are important, but you should really be careful and take care of yourself, okay? Nobles do not have much self-control. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to think they will find someone to be the outlet for their frustrations and lash out indiscriminately.”

Upon hearing the last part, the three siblings went, “Ah,” and thought, ‘Similar to… “poverty dulls the wit”, yeah?

It’s like when many families couldn’t even afford rice cakes during New Year because the breadwinner’s bonus got cut, there’s just this one classmate who took a break from school on his/her parents’ day off and went on a trip to Hawaii. It’s basically the same feeling, huh?’

“Nee-sama, please… be as quiet as possible at the academy.”

“Emma, you… just somehow behave yourself at the academy, ‘kay?”

William and George glanced at Emma with resigned looks for some reason.

“Why is it me?! As I always say, I’m not the one causing trouble, okay? It’s trouble that just comes to me on its own, and very actively at that!”

Here came Emma’s usual phrase, but there was not even once when trouble didn’t happen after she said this.

Every time Emma made this promise, the brothers had already prepared themselves to be dragged into yet another mess.

♠♠♠

Author’s words:

It’s been so long since Rose-sama’s last appearance.

Edward was in the middle of sword practice.

Upon receiving news that the Stuarts had returned, he scrambled to Rose’s palace, still in his clinking armor, but Emma and the brothers had already left. How unfortunate.

(The family arrived at the Port of Simmons late at night, so it seemed that the news reached the Royal Castle late, even later than the family’s audience with the King.)