Cring! Cring! Cring! Cring! A man riding a bicycle ringed the bell before passing by a pedestrian on the road near the Ministry of Trade and Finance building. A Neko from the fourth-floor window of the building watched this and smiled. Suddenly, a knock on the door behind her broke her smile as she straightened her posture.
“Come in,” Said the Neko.
A man in his twenties entered the room with a worried look and a letter. “My lady, a message came from the Troca Union. They are increasing whale oil prices by 20%.”
“Hmm, just as I feared, they are unhappy with the bicycle deal and…… THEY WANT WHAT? Those damned extortionists! Send a message to the king at once: I am requesting an emergency senate hearing.” said the Neko, Iliana D’Fleur, Minister of Trade and Finance.
“Yes, my lady.” said the assistant with a poised voice.
Dragons Eden, Year: 610, Valencia, Capital of Xander
The senate chamber is bustling with important people discussing the already known issue. Suddenly the room went silent with the opening of the senate’s doors by the royal guards as the king entered the chamber.
“All rise and due reverence to King Cartwell Xenides, 12th of his line and 68th Sovereign & Protector of the Republic of Xander, comes this day on business of the senate!” The Herald announced the king with professional tact.
The senate members bowed to the king as he walked to his chair and sat down. King Cartwell waved his hands as a gesture of permission by telling everyone to sit down.
The king looked at the senate speaker and said, “Let’s get down to business, shall we?”
The senate speaker announced, “The senate is in session. This emergency hearing has been called forth at the request of the Minister of Trade and Finance. Lady D’Fleur, the chamber is yours.”
“Your Majesty, Lords, and Ladies, as most of you already know, the Troca Union has increased the price of whale oil by 20%, citing reasons for unavailability, but we all know the real reason for this. They are not happy with the recent ‘sell only’ deal for the bicycles we made with them. They want the production methods for the Crown Prince’s invention. In turn, they will decrease the oil price by 20%.”
“Arghhhh..... Those bloodsuckers!” bellowed the Minister of Defence, Drakog Walrath, the Ogre. “Dealing with actual vampires is better than these merchant nobles of Troca Union. Sometimes, I just want to snap their .....Arghhh”
Xander's vulnerability was like many other countries. The absence of whale oil would cast Xander into nocturnal blindness. At night, troops, devoid of the ability to see, would be rendered powerless in defending the country. The repercussions would be widespread – from vampires to rogue Beastmen, even bandits – all would unleash havoc. Crime rates would surge, leaving Xander at the mercy of chaos.
The Troca Union is the combination of powerful merchant families who seek only profit. They don’t care who dies or lives because of their greed. They would make any deal to get more money to increase their power in this world. Surprisingly enough, whale oil is not their most lucrative business. It’s slavery, which was outlawed in Xander by the 65th Xanderian king 80 years ago. But some countries still practice slavery. Not only that, but to satiate their greed, the Troca Union sells its weapons of war, along with the slaves, to regions of conflict and countries waging wars around the known world. Sometimes they even sell to both sides of the warring nations. There are even some rumors that the Troca Union starts wars between countries just to sell their weapons.
Xander has a long-running good-bad relationship with the Troca Union, but it has only been going down the hill for the last couple of years. The main reason is the land grabbing by the Zodian Federation for Xander’s lush green landscape, rainforest, and beautiful mountainous regions, which the Xanderians think is being supported by the Troca Union behind the scenes. And then there are the rising prices for essential by-products. Now they want the new bicycle invention made by the Xanderian Crown Prince. The Troca Union is not satisfied with just selling the bicycles anymore. They want to know how to produce them to make more profits. Especially the tire-making process.
Seven months ago, when the bicycle was made public, the entire country wanted to buy it, and then the merchants of hell heard about this new machine that was making long-distance travel easy. Everyone from high-class nobility to regular workers wanted to ride a bicycle, even adventurers, and why not? It is easy to learn, and they are very cheap, and also because of the ingenious ‘tire,’ the ride is very comfortable. As more days went by, from small to big merchant companies and individual traders, both domestic and foreign, started to show interest, specifically in the tire. They wanted bigger versions of it for their caravans, wagons, and carts to pull more weight and travel faster. And that’s when the Troca Union decided to raise the whale oil price.
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“The realm's defense is not the only thing at stake here. Your Majesty, our other smaller industries would also suffer without the steady import of whale oil, namely the textile industry for making leather and rough cloths.” Lady D’Fleur said with a worried look.
King Cartwell also asked with a worried look, “are there any other countries from whom we might import the oil?”
“No, Your Majesty, no other country has enough whale oil to export in such a large quantity, and then there is the problem of the Merfolk.” Lady D’Fleur answered apologetically.
The Merfolk, in the common tongue: ‘the sea dwellers’ usually don’t care what happens to whales, but most whales live in the deep ocean. So most of the time, whaling is done in Merfolk territory. They used to let whalers do their job until about ten years ago, some idiot whalers, together with their pirate friends, tried to capture some Mermaids to sell as high-priced slaves. That’s when the Merfolk barred entry inside their territory. After that, the only possible way of whaling was to be escorted by a powerful navy. Most countries have a navy, but none are strong enough to both guard whalers and protect their nation from piracy, except for the Troca Union. They employ mercenary vessels to safeguard their whalers. After all, they are the wealthiest nation in the Azalea Continent.
“So what other options do we have then?” one of the senate members asked.
“Sadly, we have no option other than to give them the bicycle production methods.” Lady D’Fleur replied with a sad face. “This new invention of the Crown Prince has brought a lot of gold to the already dwindling Royal Treasury, and it also brought a lot of potential business to our doors which we desperately need, but our hands are tied.”
Creating the bicycle was not that hard. The Royal Smith, Master Duveam Ashstone, and his apprentices, who were all dwarves, helped the Crown Prince to first make the bicycle frame with steel. The steel had a mixture of carbon and chromium to improve its strength, fracture resistance, and corrosion resistance. Master Duveam was impressed seeing Castiel’s knowledge. Creating the small parts was tricky; it took him a bit of trial and error, but he quickly got it; because of his mastery over the Arcane Arts, which include smithing, alchemy, and enchanting. The Royal Smith was again astonished to see how fast the Crown Prince was able to create the parts and with accurate measurements.
Creating the tire took mere moments. All it required was rubber and a bit of silica, both of which are easily found in nature. Creating plastic for the seat was a bit of a headache, as it is derived mainly from crude oil, natural gas, and coal. It took two weeks just to find a big enough petroleum deposit inside Xander for this project. The Crown Prince needed a way to make the plastic without extracting the petroleum and even with the help of Master Duveam, who had over 40 years of smithing experience, and his own modern-day understanding of engineering. It took all the god-given knowledge he had to create an enchanted extractor that could extract and produce enough polymer to make 100 plastic seats in 1 day.
Isn't this what magic is? To be able to bend the laws of physics to your will. The power to do something unnatural with mysterious or supernatural forces.
“For the future of Xander, we must do this!” said another senate member.
While some wanted to surrender to the Troca Union’s demand, other senate members wanted to stand up to them.
“Yes, we must!”
“Our future depends on it!”
“We have to!”
“No, we must stand our ground!”
“We cannot give in to their ridiculous demand!”
“This is EXTORTION!”
A commotion started inside the senate chamber. King Cartwell put his hand up to shut everyone up.
“My friends, I do not see any other way around this. Lady D’Fleur is right. We have no choice here.” King Cartwell said with a dejected voice.
Another commotion starts in the senate chamber.
Suddenly, the senate doors open, and a sixteen-year-old boy wearing royal garb enters the room.
The Herald starts announcing, “His Royal Highness, Castiel Xenides, Crown Prince of Xander, comes this day on business of the senate before king and country!”
Castiel looks at the senate members from left to right and then speaks loudly with confidence in his eyes and voice, “DO NOT WORRY, I HAVE COME WITH A PLAN.”