Chapter 82 Tail Battle of Words Part 2
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"We are a lord. We need not be bound by law but by the good of all. I believe that you already know this. Under normal conditions, I should have been paid for the armor I gave you. Opening our granary to help our allies in need was vital in these trying times."
"I see. That is certainly correct. And you judge it to be necessary to burden us as well?" Resse replied. Ahh! This was the chance we had been waiting for. He fucked up on his speech. We should take on the offensive!
"Hmm… I didn't see any trouble or burden in your way. First of all, the food that we sent them was already in an agreeable amount. Second, we did not give away food for free, unlike refugees. They gave us a lot of ores in return which we desperately need."
"That is correct. The iron ores you brought us are a boon to us all." Edelweiss and Alistar nodded.
"I apologize for my bad wording Lord Lily. I merely worried that trading away food recklessly will cause instability to our province." Resse stated his claim.
"I apologize beforehand. I am a new lord and thus did not know the minutiae of politics. Does your previous statement mean that dwarves are not our allies?" Lily smirked at him.
"Well, that was certainly not the case. But we should save ourselves before saving others. That is what I stated."
"Hmm…. Alright. My vote is on Lord Lily regarding dwarves. Although I understand Lord Resse's situation regarding food security and trade stability, we need to be on the good side of the dwarves for now. We need their Golderite and Titan ore, right? And so far, our food supply has met the demand." Alistar gave his judgment. The others also muttered while weighing the pros and cons.
"We also can't afford to send messengers to their king anymore due to the epidemic. I support Lord Lily's decision. It is better that they show up here by themselves and pick what they need on our border instead of sending messengers into the heart of our city." Lord Edelweiss stated.
"Lord Lily, why do you open a free trade to dwarves? Couldn't they simply send letters?it is very troubling that they asked us out of the blue like that." One of the central nobles asked us directly.
"They do have a farm. However, their lands are unstable. Sometimes the harvest is bountiful, and sometimes, the harvest is poor. When their harvest is poor, they bought the deficit from us."
"What poor management. Maybe we should reconsider our alliances with them." The central assholes snickered.
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"This is very important now, Lord Lily. Do you think you could get the required Golderite and Titan ores?" Lord Edelweiss asked clearly.
"Unlikely. As Sarielle had described, Dwarves do not even consider negotiating with us regarding those materials. And with the epidemic, it is hard to get in touch with their king directly."
"Hmm… alright. Lord Lily will be tasked to provide impromptu provisions for the dwarves' food supply. You need to measure how much food they will need in the future." Lord Resse said.
"Yes." Lily nodded.
"Hmm… I wonder how you could do that. It took one month for provisions to arrive from other regions to yours, Lord Lily." Lord Resse smiled as he seemed to finally found our mismanagement. "And if dwarves didn't buy that provisions, we would be wasting that food, Lord Lily. You are trudging on a dangerous deal."
"Lord Resse. That is precisely why we should let the dwarves come here unannounced. It took about a month for their messenger to come here and back. That is much too long. However, if they could come immediately after they knew something was wrong, we could simply hand them a cart of food for them in the meantime. Then, they could come again in a month after the provisions from other regions arrived. I could die if we didn't eat anything for a month. But I could stand eating a quarter meal for a month before a full supper. Don't you guys agree?"
We hinted that we could act as a buffer for the food export. Edenthal could not support the entire food supply for the dwarves, but it could serve as a buffer, so the dwarves didn't starve to death before actual provisions came up. Even though Resse said that supply could cost us a month, it is only from Hoeth. If we bought it directly from Regoia, it would take less than a week. If Regoia could not meet the demand, Reminiscence could travel to Edenthal in two weeks. I hoped this message got across to them.
"Brilliant! It seems I severely underestimate your capability. Well, Ladies and gentlemen. It seems Lord Lily has shamed all of your managing skills. Instead of us teaching her, maybe it was us who should be learning from her." Lord Alistar smiled broadly. Lord Edelweiss also smiled, knowing that our action wasn't in a spur of a moment. She also knew from Sarielle that we intended to open up a vast farming area specifically to meet this demand, so she has been supporting us from the start.
"Anything else you have issues with?"
"Ugh… Food Monopoly is prohibited." One of the central nobles groaned.
"Huh? Are you seriously saying that?" Lord Alistar widened his eye in shock.
"Did you graduate from Lord's curriculum? I advise you to attend law school again." Lord Edelweiss dropped her gentle and polite attitude at once.
"Please forgive the misconduct of our fellow lords here. He is currently out of touch with our government since Northlangard."
"We needed to reevaluate and reeducate all the lords before taking on Northlangard. That statement was obviously a false accusation. If any lord outside was caught doing that, we would be a laughing stock to all the world." Lord Alistar exclaimed.
"So, is there anything else we need to know. I believe we have already checked all of our itineraries for today? Am I right?" Lily asked.
"Yes. That would be all, Lord Lily. I am grateful for your precious time for all of us. I hope we will have a more cordial relationship and forgive all of my central Lord's friends here for such false accusations against you." Resse bowed his head.
The meeting was done. We now have the full support of the elves, and now we shall wait for Jack to return from his missions.