Chapter 428: Deliberate Loss

"It looks like Strasbourg won’t be able to function properly for a while."

"The situation must be serious. Did you bring Gens’s nephew back safely?"

"He was reluctant to leave at first, but with mercenaries running wild right on his doorstep, how long could he have held out? There are plenty of refugees streaming out of Strasbourg right now. How did it ever come to this?"

Wenzenberg was genuinely grieved by Strasbourg’s decline. He came from Euz, but he had put down roots in Strasbourg and built up his trading company there, so he was attached to the place.

And in the end, the city had been dragged into the politics around it, and innocent people were the ones paying for it. All of it over the claim to a single city. If it were me, I’d let it go and put everything into developing my own territory instead.

"Oh, and my daughter is getting married. If you hadn’t saved my family back then, my lord, I never would have had the luxury of welcoming a noble son-in-law. You have my sincere thanks."

"Well, that’s worth celebrating."

During the Euz-Épinay war, I’d been given the crown prince’s order to rescue refugees, and I had ranged all over Euz pulling them out from under raiding parties. One of those groups had been Wenzenberg’s family.

That chance meeting had turned into a connection that had lasted ever since.

"Sounds like some provincial noble decided you were a rope worth holding onto."

"That’s true enough, but it works in my favor too. He’s marrying in as a live-in son-in-law, but noble blood is noble blood, so it lays the groundwork for our family to rise to the nobility in a later generation. And all of it thanks to you, my lord."

Wenzenberg’s was a merchant house that did business with the Streit family, so the noble house saw it as an attractive match. Thanks to that, his daughter, who happened to be a friend of Angela’s, was marrying the second son of a provincial noble house in Euz.

Whether the marriage would be a happy one was anyone’s guess, but his family’s standing had risen, so setting aside the business with Strasbourg, Wenzenberg couldn’t keep the smile off his face.

"If you want to establish yourself in Vintenheim, talk to Leonardo or Sir Beort first and settle on a site for your headquarters. Vintenheim is in the middle of redevelopment right now, and you’re the head of a trading company, so they’ll give you special consideration."

"Thank you. Though the port facilities have grown quite a bit since I was last here. Do you intend to turn Vintenheim into an entirely different city, my lord? Just how much money have you invested..."

"Curious? About 1,250 gold coins."

"Hurk?! Th-th-that’s a staggering sum!"

Wenzenberg looked like the breath had been knocked out of him. It was a figure most merchants couldn’t even dream of, so his shock was understandable. I sipped my rose tea and took my time enjoying his reaction.

"Startled by that much? The great Wenzenberg of Strasbourg has less nerve than I thought."

"W-wouldn’t anyone be startled by a figure like that? I knew you were wealthy, my lord, but I never imagined you were rich enough to pour that kind of money into developing a city."

The reward I’d received for acquiring the Harmony trait had made me one of the wealthiest men in Beren, but there were still plenty of hidden fortunes out there. I wasn’t about to put on airs in front of the real heavyweights. By their standards, I still wasn’t a rich noble.

For Wenzenberg, though, it was all the motivation he needed to set up shop in Vintenheim. With that kind of money going into the redevelopment, staying away would have been foolish.

Whatever small suspicion he’d had that I was only testing the waters and would eventually pull out of Vintenheim was gone for good.

"I’m very much looking forward to Vintenheim’s future."

"Not just Vintenheim. I intend to invest evenly across every holding in Rosenheim. Just as Vintenheim has become the center of trade and weapons production, I’m planning a distinctive industry for each village."

"Ah, of course! Nothing could make me happier than taking part in your grand design, my lord. In that case, would you permit me to get a head start and set up branches in each village?"

Wenzenberg seemed to be planning to build out a commercial network in advance. If every holding in Rosenheim developed evenly, that network would bring him enormous profits.

But I couldn’t let him have it for free.

"Moltheim needs trade caravans too. If you’re willing to take that on, I’ll consider it."

"Pardon? M-Moltheim? Isn’t that disputed territory?"

Baschurten had built the little settlement to encroach on Rosenheim’s territory, but at present it was held by Ferke, the Schlieffen mercenary company, and the survivors from Leben and Ladwig.

I’d received word from Ferke a while back that they had taken it without trouble. He couldn’t read or write, so he’d sent a messenger instead of a letter, and when I sent the man back, I had him carry a warning to Ferke, over and over, not to slack off on his reading lessons.

At any rate, a fair amount of time had passed since we occupied Moltheim, and Baschurten hadn’t so much as filed a protest. They were so quiet I had to wonder whether they’d simply given up on the place. As a result, rebuilding the village was moving along steadily.

Since Feuzen was relatively close, I’d instructed Wentner, my estate manager, to send support to Moltheim. The Feuzen carpenters were probably singing at the top of their lungs over another round of work.

"Barter or coin, I don’t care which. Go to Moltheim and sell them supplies cheap. You’ll take a loss for a time, but I intend to develop Moltheim into a border fortress."

"In that case, the loss is worth bearing. I’ll build trust with the people of Moltheim."

In the short term, I was forcing a loss on him, but in the long run it would come back to him as an enormous profit. People remember whoever helped them when they were down, and Moltheim would welcome Wenzenberg with open arms.

There were more than enough merchants who ignored that simple truth and chased short-term gains. Wenzenberg wasn’t one of them. He took the long view, and he accepted my offer.

If he did well by Moltheim’s reconstruction, I planned to let him have first claim on every village.

"I like merchants and nobles who know how to make a deal, the way you do."

"And I’m honored to be your trading partner, my lord."

"So never let that attitude change."

"I-I’ll keep that firmly in mind."

Wenzenberg answered gravely. He’d been dealing with me long enough to know exactly what I meant: that I tolerated a great deal up to a certain line, and that anyone who crossed it was cut down without mercy.

When February came around, I returned to Rosenheim.

Strasbourg was still in chaos, but word of the mercenary company that had wandered into Rosenheim’s domain and been smashed to pieces spread far and wide, and after that not a single troublemaker came near our borders.

It was carnival season, so Rosenheim was burning through meat and drink at a frightening pace. The way I saw it, they had forty days of Lenten abstinence coming, so the plan seemed to be to eat themselves sick beforehand.

Supplies were scarcer than usual because of the civil war, though, so I made a point of sending out meat butchered in Feuzen and wild aurochs meat to every part of Rosenheim in my name as their lord.

My people lived on oatmeal most of the year, and if they were going to enjoy one of their few indulgences, I could at least help. Thanks to that, I was being called the great lord who provided the holy meat.

"Oh, your belly’s really showing now."

"That’s because Wolf kept the territory safe, so our child could grow in peace."

"Ha ha ha, makes a man feel his hard work paid off."

"Which is exactly why you must never overdo it."

At twenty weeks, Hilda’s belly had grown noticeably. Even with me away, she had bravely protected our child. Quite a contrast to the early months, when she’d fearlessly ridden Schatten all over the place.

Basking in Hilda’s warmth was what healed me, today as always. If the operator took a whim and offered me the chance to return to my original world this very moment, I would stay without a second’s hesitation.

That’s how precious a wife Hilda had become to me. I couldn’t do without her.