Release that Witch

“Uh, what?” For a moment the ambassador lost his spirit.

“This,” Roland shook the hands with the sticks, before answering Petrov, “The iron fork, for most people it is a luxury, not to mention a silver fork. When you are eating directly with your hand, it is very easy to put dirty things together with the normal food in the belly. Disease enters by the mouth, you know? “

The ambassador didn’t know how to answer, he didn’t understand the meaning of ‘diseases enters by the mouth’, but according to his understanding of the previous sentence, Roland was probably referring to the dirt stuck on food, and it would be easy to get sick when eating it. But when someone tried to diagnose the sickness, no one knew the reason why they died.

“How many sticks do you think you can get by cutting down one oak tree in the forest? These sticks are clean and easy to get. I’m going to promote this in the town.”

The prince sipped his wine and continued, “Of course, now my people don’t get much meat to eat, but I will slowly change that.”

Petrov felt relieved, he now knew how to answer. Routinely, he expressed his support and blessing, but in his heart he did not agree. Let all the people have meat? That would simply be whimsical, even Graycastle could not do this, and this Border Town was in this desolate land.

Chapter 18 Ambassador (Part 2)

The banquet went on.

There was a fairly harmonious atmosphere during the dinner. The 4th prince didn’t talk about ore trade as he found it inconvenient to say anything.

When the prince told the maid to deliver the dessert, Petrov tentatively mentioned the trade.

“Your Highness, according to the previous procedure, today should be the day when you deliver the ore, but I don’t see any ore in the terminal yard.”

Roland put down his small wood sticks and nodded, “Unfortunately, the northern slope mine collapsed a while back, this month my people can only try to resume production. However, the gravel from the collapse has not been cleared yet. According to the schedule, we will be able to start mining again at the beginning of next year.”

The mine collapsed? For a moment, Petrov was stunned, was that a coincidence? However, he quickly realized that the prince did not have the need to lie. Otherwise, if he himself went to the North Slope Mine, everything would be clear, so it was obvious that with a lie Roland would only beat his own face.

“Then… what happened to the ore from before the collapse?“

“That wasn’t much, the amount mined was according to the convention, my people were unable to mine more than the amount set by the convention..” Roland emphasized the words in a practiced manner, “Mr. Ambassador, you should also remember what happened during the Months of the Demons two years ago, right?”

Of course Petrov remembered it, the cold lasted for four months and in Border Town nearly one out of every two people starved to death. The cause of this was municipal Administrative Governor Reynold’s avaricious and insatiable greed. Between the aristocracy there was naturally internal opposition, some nobles even wanted to punish governor Reynold afterwards. But at the end of this incident nothing happened, only because he was the husband of the Duke’s second daughter.

Now when this was mentioned by the prince, Petrov got a bad feeling.

“This time it will be even worse,” Roland sighed, ” with what we could mine before, it was probably only enough for two months of food. I will try to support my people,but I’m afraid they won’t survive the winter, sir. The old ways of trade must be abolished!”

Petrov opened his mouth, but he didn’t know how to refute. He wasn’t a professional diplomat. In face of such a good reason, he really couldn’t point out any problems, so he could only delay the matter for the time being, “Your Highness, I have to express my regret. This time will not be a repeat of the tragedy before, I can afford to loan you a month of food, and when your people are able to resume production next year, they can slowly repay the debt. “

“I already sold the ore to Willow Town, we can slowly repay you with their money.”

“But…”

“There is no ‘but’, however,” Roland immediately interrupted him, “they are willing to buy the ore with gold royals, and at the same time they sell wheat, cheese, bread, honey and more at market price… which we can buy with the royals we got from the former transaction. But,Mr. Ambassador, even if you are willing to lend us a month of food, would the other five factions agree with your decision? As far as I know, it isn’t even easy for Duke Ryan to reach an agreement with the other families.”