Chapter 85 Long Tailking Part 2

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"Greetings Lord Lily. My name is Lord Silvane. I believe you already knew that my region mostly dealt with mines and foundries." Lord Silvane introduced himself. Lily nodded at him and gave her greetings.

"Greetings Lord Silvane." Lily also returned the smile. The meeting with central assholes was exhausting, but discussions with regional lords were more than welcome. I had a good feeling with Lord Alistar and Lord Silvainesse. Their names were already on our excellent person lists.

"First of all, I heard you were once infected with the current epidemic, right?"

"Yes."

"I am ashamed to say this, but our region was late about the quarantine. And there were already first-case victims." Silvane said while gritting his teeth. He clenched his fist as he said this. Ahh, he must be the one that took advance of buying the preventive medicine Lord Edelweiss made. My tail bristled in fear as I quickly scanned my surrounding. Lily's ear promptly perked up as she glanced around and tried to take distance from him.

"I am not infected, of course. I have used the medicine. You don't have to worry about anything happening here, Lord Lily. I simply wanted to ask how you deal with it. There were five people currently infected. All Tailfolk." he reported. "At the very least, I wanted to ensure it didn't spread further."

"Shiro? Do something!" Lily asked as her breathing quickened. "Make some instructions for him! Otherwise, there will be a disaster for our kin!"

"Uhh…. wait a minute. If the epidemic has already spread, we can only isolate the infected. Moreover, since elves are technically more resistant to these parasites, they will be the ones that do the cleaning of the quarantine zones. And, I think we should ask surgeons to operate on tailfolk tails to remove the parasites. These parasites shouldn't live long without a host, but I haven't figured out about their eggs." I tried to make all the instructions out of my head, and Lily parrotted me to the letter.

"Elves doing cleaning work?" Silvane winced at the suggestion. However, this is the best way to handle the epidemic from a medical standpoint. It also happened with immunization, where you don't have to immunize everyone to get rid of a plague. By limiting the spreading factor, we could minimize the infection rate, and the epidemic will perish without many casualties.

Lily tried to explain that elves could be considered medical personnel, and thus their stations weren't compromised in the slightest. She also explained that elves could simply cover their ears when cleaning. Though tailfolk could also cover their tails, it was much easier to cover ears than tails. Unlike tails which moved a lot, ears did not make contact with anything except our hands. Thus Lily stated that elves are more resistant to the epidemic than tailfolk.

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"I understand your logic. But it is hard to digest from the elves' standpoint. You understand the politics regarding elves and tailfolk, right?" Lord Silvane asked. Lily silently nodded.

"But your suggestions will be accepted. We have no choice at the moment." Lord Silvane smiled. "Ahh, I also wanted to talk business. I think you solved Lord Silvainesse's business splendidly. Could you also solve mine?"

"What problem ails you, Lord Silvane?"

"Just like Lord Silvainesse, I also had a problem with the decrease in my region's income. Of course, it is not as severe as Lord Silvainesse, but I was wondering if you could also do something about it." Lord Silvane immediately went into the heart of the matter. Huh? Why did their region's income decrease?

"Huh? Why would your income decrease? I don't believe I have done something to cause you such a loss." Lily tilted her head.

"Well, our mines are producing as normal. However, our foundry was currently suffering a deficit of ores since the trade of the dwarves was directed to you."

"I am not clear on the specific, but aren't those ores go back into you when we ship them from Edenthal to Regoia and Hoeth?"

"Only about thirty percent were sent to our foundry. The high council elected to process the ores back at Hoeth and Regoia smithies…."

"Ohh, how terrible that sounded…. isn't it the decision of the high council?"

"Well, yes. The high council decided smelting them at Hoeth or even Regoia instead of my domain would be more profitable. So far, most of our foundry has been filled with ores from our mines, but it could not fulfill our foundry demands." Silvane stated. We were not your magical problem solver. I hoped you would do something about it yourself. But, it is improbable that other foundry will meet a better fate than his since it was next to other dwarven cities…

"Lord Silvane, while our Edenthal Region may have unlocked a new trade route for ores into elven territories, I don't think your foundry will be threatened. Once the epidemic is over, I believe your foundry will be full again with dwarven ores, do they not?" Lily replied.

"Well, you are correct. I guess it was an unnecessary worry." Silvane smiled gleefully. "But That was for the future. What about now? Do I stop the production of elven steel and metal ingots from the foundry?"

"Well, if running the foundry nonstop is a loss, you could simply run in quarter years," Lily replied.

"Ahh, but that would risk angering the high council. The price will become unstable then…." Silvane muttered. Technically, his business was state owned, so he could not simply change the schedule on a whim. Moreover, it ran the risk of their employee feeling unfair and unpaid for the duration the foundry was off.

"This meeting has been delightful. I am glad to attend this meeting with you and lord Silvaninesse. You see, while we purchase supplies from her, maybe the returning carriage could simply deliver the extra ores and iron wares we planned to melt back into ingots in your foundry?" Lily suggested.

"Excellent news Lord Lily. I shall await such deliveries." Lord Silvane smiled, and we left the meeting with a triumphant smile.

I wondered how Jack's report would be.