The envoys from the Falforia Kingdom arrived on schedule, and the diplomatic dealings began after Felix, the second prince of the Ridill Kingdom, greeted the group.
The history behind the Falforia Kingdom goes back to when it was originally two separate countries, the Fal Kingdom and the Foria Kingdom.
In the beginning, they formed an alliance and were called the Allied Nation of Fal and Foria but later years, it had become the current Kingdom Falforia.
The aftermath had caused the descendants of the Kingdom Fal and Kingdom Foria, whether its citizens or its rulers, to compete over with each other, and its internal politics in the kingdom has by no means been stable.
This time, the Falforia Kingdom had sent eight envoys. Supervised by two leading diplomats, Count Barrow and Count Marre, they seemed to be at odds with each other in a four-on-four ratio, if you including their subordinates.
Count Barrow, a descendant of the former Fal Kingdom, had a relatively friendly, or rather respectful attitude toward the Ridill Kingdom, on the other hand, Count Marre, a descendant of the former Foria Kingdom, was reluctant to secure the trade with the Ridill Kingdom.
As the former Folia Kingdom was adjacent to the Empire's territory, they had been in cooperative relations with the Empire since the old times. Perhaps Count Marre was inclined to seek influence from the Empire rather than the Ridill Kingdom.
So, to make this trade successful, I have to get Count Marre's support.
Felix casually observed the envoys of the neighboring countries as he read the diplomatic materials.
The plump Count Barrow has been flattering Felix in a very obvious way since a while ago. He's probably wanted to strengthen the alliance with the Ridill Kingdom.
On the other hand, the slender Count Marre looked dismissive and hardly looked Felix in the face since he arrived here.
However, Felix deliberately turned to Count Marre and smiled at him.
"I have to say that the wines of the Falforia Kingdom are something else. I also tasted the new Perle d'Ande the other day, and it was especially good this year."
Felix brought up the subject of wine instead of wheat which was his main interest and it made Count Marre look at him warily and his narrow eyes narrow even more.
"…indeed, that wine made from the finest grapes was our kingdom's specialty. Or perhaps, you're looking for the bread that goes with it instead of the wine itself, I believe."
As Count Marre said, his goal this time was to see how he could increase the amount of wheat imported from Falforia.
Although Count Barrow was eager to approach the Ridill Kingdom, Count Marre was blatantly opposed to the idea.
"I heard that your kingdom was planning to establish a new garrison of the dragon knights in the Duchy of Rehnberg."
Felix had expected Count Marre would reproach him with this topic, he smiled inwardly.
The eastern region of the Ridill Kingdom is particularly prone to dragon damage. Consequently, dispatching dragon knights from the royal capital would take a long time to arrive, and this had been viewed as a problem for many years.
Thus, establishing a garrison in the southeastern part of the Ridill Kingdom to station the dragon knights… or that should be.
However, the other countries viewed the establishment of the new garrison with a slightly different meaning.
The dragon knights, as the name implies, are an army of knights proficient in fighting dragons, but they do not always fight only against dragons. When war breaks out, they will naturally direct their blades to the opposing countries.
And the Ridill Kingdom was planning to establish a garrison to house the dragon knights in the Duchy of Rehnberg, a territory close to both the Empire and the Falforia Kingdom.
From the side of the Empire and the Falforia Kingdom, this could be seen as a deterrent. Furthermore, Count Marre is a staunch supporter of the Empire. There's no way he could overlook the construction of the garrison.
…Well, considering the current situation, Count Marre's concerns are justified.
The idea behind this garrison project came from Felix's grandfather, Duke Crockford.
And Duke Crockford has his eyes set on the Empire, and a war would break out sooner or later.
…most likely, he's probably planning to use the dragon knight military post as a supply base if he wants to strike the Empire.
Duke Crockford has been trying to strengthen his military power in the eastern part of the country under the guise of preventing dragon damage.
As Count Marre had apparently seen through Duke Crockford's intention, he opened his mouth cautiously, playing with his mustache.
"Indeed, I believe building a new garrison would need a lot of provisions. It's better to have more wheat and wine in stock."
Felix's agreed with his statement, that's why he needed to increase the number of imports from Falforia with this deal.
Moreover, the Duchy of Rehnberg is relatively close to the Falforia Kingdom, which makes it easy to bring imported food to the newly established garrison—in other words, transportation costs can be greatly reduced.
"But is there really a necessity to build a new garrison? Pardon me for saying so, but hasn't your country done enough to deal with dragon damage in the past?"
"Thanks to the cooperation of regional lords, it ended up well. But it had caused more burdens in some territory… and to lessen their burden the establishment of a new garrison has become necessary."
Felix replied promptly, but Count Marre didn't seem to catch the meaning.
As if to follow up on Count Marre's words, Count Barrow, also of the Falforia Kingdom, spoke up in a forward manner.
"Please pardon me for meddling in the affairs of another country, Your Highness Felix. I think Count Marre didn't quite understand the danger of dragon damage. After all his territory is within the former Foria Kingdom… an area that is relatively safe from dragon damage."
"Hmph, disposable mercenaries should be enough to deal with dragon damage."
Felix smiled bitterly inside as he listened to Count Barrow and Count Marais bickering amongst themselves.
The topic that should have focused on the wheat imports had shifted to the garrison and dragon damage.
He had to rethink the situation once again. After that, he needed to figure out a way to persuade Count Marre.
Felix looked sideways at his guards, the Silent Witch standing by the wall, and muttered in his heart.
…I'd like to show off my good points in front of Lady Everett if possible.
＊ ＊ ＊
In the room next to where the diplomatic meeting was taking place, Glenn was sitting around a table with Bartholomew Alexander, the attendant of the Silent Witch, playing cards to pass the time.
They were stationed in an adjoining room, ready to rush to the scene in case of an emergency, while the real reason was they had nothing to do at the moment.
"Here's my completed ‘Water Dragon' cards."
"Aaaah. I lost agaaaaaiiin."
Bartholomew spread his cards out on the table in frustration. Glenn rounded his eyes when he saw the cards in his hand.
"Mr. Bartholomew, you were aiming for the ‘Black Dragon' cards again?"
‘Black Dragon' was the most difficult and the highest score one could get to aim.
Each player takes turns drawing cards from the deck to create a hand of seven cards. To achieve the ‘Black Dragon' cards, one requires three cards of a ‘black wings' card, a ‘black scales' card, a ‘black claws' card, and a ‘golden eyes' card along with three ‘mana' cards. And the probability of getting these cards was like getting a royal straight flush in poker.
"I don't feel like making a bunch of weak dragons. It's better to aim for the biggest one."
"It was meaningless if you can't win the game, you know~ Besides, the water dragon is not a weakling at all."
"It's a weakling, alright. A lower-tier dragon that can't even properly understand communication."
Although there are many types of dragons, they can be roughly divided into lower-tier and higher-tier dragons.
The most common of the lower-tier dragons are wyvern and herbivorous dragons.
The second most common are fire dragons, water dragons, and earth dragons. These three are sometimes classified as mid-tier species in academic circles, but they are basically treated the same as lower-tier species.
And the higher-tier dragons are the red dragon, blue dragon, green dragon, yellow dragon, white dragon, and black dragon—namely, the dragons with colors in their names.
While the scale colors and skeletal frame was similar, its sheer size was two heads bigger and its fighting prowess far exceeded the lower-tier dragons, with the Red Dragons superior to the fire dragons, the Blue Dragons superior to the water dragons, the Green Dragons superior to the wyverns and the Yellow Dragons superior to the earth dragons.
And above all, the higher-tier dragons can understand human language. Even some of them are said to be able to use advanced-level magic.
In particular, the White and Black Dragons are special dragons with no inferior equivalents, and their very existence itself is almost legendary. As a result, they gave the highest scores in the game.
"Now that I think about it, I heard the higher-tier dragons rarely appear in public, but do they all speak human language?"
The higher-tier dragons possess the same or higher intelligence as humans. As such, they seldom appear in public and rarely attack humans.
To Glenn's naive question, Bartholomew answered as he looked at the pattern on the card.
"The higher-tier dragons may understand human language, but they don't have the vocal cords to speak it. So, they speak the same language as the spirits. Though most humans can't understand them."
"Is that so?"
"But if they altered their vocal cords, they could produce a human voice."
He seemed to be an unruly and unmannerly attendant, but he was surprisingly well versed in various fields.
As Glenn was honestly impressed, Bartholomew opened his mouth as he spread out the cards in the deck.
"By the way, Loud Boy."
"I'd prefer if you call me Glenn though."
"What does this ‘cursed' card implies?"
Ignoring Glenn's insistence, Bartholomew drew a card marked ‘cursed' from the deck.
"It doesn't matter what kind of dragon series you had completed, but if you get a ‘curse' card in your hand, your dragon series will become ‘cursed dragon'".
"Do the ‘cursed' series give a high score?"
"If you completed this series, you'll get minus 10 points while the rest players will get minus 20 points."
Regardless of whether it's a lower- or higher-tier dragon, a dragon attached with a ‘cursed' card will be called a cursed dragon. A dragon that spread curses around and its existence itself can be called a disaster.
However, since cursed dragons rarely appeared, their rarity was seen as the same as White Dragon and Black Dragon. Even in history, its appearance can be counted with the fingers in one hand.
"I see. It's a well-made game. All right, let's do another round."
As Bartholomew said this and was collecting up the cards, there was a knock at the door and a servant came in.
It was Peter, an earnest-looking man in his prime.
"Please pardon my intrusion. I would like to request you to accompany our guests in the next room, as they will be going hunting soon."
"Hunting, do they do that around here?"
"Yes, it will be held in the forest nearby within a short distance ride on a horse. I also have prepared horses for you."
At these words, Glenn and Bartholomew looked at each other.
"Hey, Loud Boy, can you ride a horse?"
"I've never ridden a horse before."
‘Handling its meat was,' added the son of butchery in a faint voice, but it made Peter and Bartholomew startled.
And in some areas in the Ridill Kingdom, there are some customs of eating horse meats. They treated its meats like cutlets.
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