Queen of Revenge - Chapter 37

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 37
* * *
When Lucian learned that a Demon had visited, he flew into a rage.
His way of expressing anger was to seal his lips and refuse to acknowledge her existence.
After enduring two full days of his cold rejection, I finally obtained his forgiveness by agreeing to obey the Military Physician for the time being.
‘Lucian is terrifying when he’s angry. Even more so than Kairon Winterbark.’
To think he could treat a person as though they were invisible.
Marcel, summoned late into the night, kept glancing nervously between the two of us.
The Princess, who appeared unusually dispirited, thrust a document toward him.
“Here—a new contract drawn up with the Demon. I’ve already dissolved the previous agreement that bore your name.”
“…! Thank you, Your Highness.”
Marcel bowed deeply, his eyes glistening with gratitude.
I waved my pen dismissively.
“We’re not finished yet. Second, I’ve secured usage rights to a portion of the Unregistered Territory from the Demon—a valley roughly an hour’s journey north of the Border Guard Post. I needed something that could generate income.”
“Pardon? The Unregistered Territory…? But the Unregistered Territory cannot be incorporated into any nation’s territory under international treaty.”
“I didn’t bring it into Elovis’s domain. I merely obtained usage rights from the Demon—nothing more. I chose an excellent property.”
I reached over and stroked Bara’s head, who sat pressed against my side.
She had spent two entire days combing through the Snow Mountain to select this land.
“But why land specifically…? If you required funds, wouldn’t it have been simpler to accept wealth instead?”
“What good is sudden riches? If questions arise about their origin, the Royal Family would seize everything in an instant.”
A princess exiled to the borderlands engaging in financial schemes would only invite unwanted attention.
So I took land instead.
The richest, most valuable land at that.
“I won’t earn the money directly myself. I’ll make it flow to me naturally. The same applies to gold.”
“Gold?”
Bara held up a word card with a flourish.
[Glitter glitter]
[Tons] [of it]
[!]
“So you’re saying there’s gold in that land…?”
Marcel looked utterly bewildered.
“Then, um, you mean to develop a mine? Forgive my candor, but establishing a single mine requires considerable time and labor. In the beginning, even extracting usable ore will prove difficult, and to do it yourself…?”
“I already told you. I’m not mining the gold myself.”
I instructed Marcel to post a notice in the villages near the Border under Lefebvre’s name.
[Seeking Labor for Gold Mine Drilling in Unregistered Territory]
* * *
Workers for the drilling operation were recruited without difficulty. Jobs offering such wages were rare in the desolate Border Territory.
The drilling process was straightforward: using long pipes, they would bore holes into the land I designated and extract rock samples.
If gold was present in the extracted ore, the likelihood of gold deposits beneath the surface was extremely high.
The land Bara had selected already bore deep fissures on its surface. Drilling underground didn’t take nearly as long as it might have.
Within a week of beginning the drilling operation, results emerged.
The Work Foreman rushed toward me, his face flushed with excitement.
“Gold! It’s gold, though small in quantity, but unmistakably high purity. It’s absolutely worth mining!”
“What did you say?!”
Marcel, who had been attending to The Princess’s tea, nearly dropped the cup.
“Gold? You’re telling me we actually found gold?!”
Gold was the symbol of wealth—an absolute, immovable asset that would not waver in any crisis.
Moreover, Elovis was not a nation abundant in gold mines. A single nugget the size of a fist could fetch hundreds of francs.
It was nothing short of a jackpot.
“Good. You’ve all worked hard.”
I nodded from my seat at the head of the Commander’s Office, as if I had expected this all along.
Documents I had already prepared days ago were fluttering through my hands.
“What are those, Your Highness?”
“These? Mining rights transfer contracts.”
Now that I knew a gold mine existed, I needed people to actually extract it on a larger scale.
Marcel asked in bewilderment.
“Would it be insufficient to use the Border Guard personnel?”
“Turn all your soldiers into miners? It would take months, if not years, to excavate the shafts alone.”
Fortunately, the earth was already fractured with visible crevices, but typically, it took decades from the initial shaft-breaking to the start of actual mining.
“Even if they toiled that hard to extract the gold, it would all flow into the Royal Treasury anyway—something no one would desire.”
“What? Then there are people who would covet such a gold mine?”
“It’s gold, after all. Wouldn’t it be stranger to refuse it?”
I pulled out fresh parchment and began writing.
[Unregistered Territory Gold Mine Mining Rights Auction Schedule]
Beneath it, I inscribed the date one week hence.
“Distribute this to the local nobility and trading companies. The auction participation is limited to the Northern Region only.”
Marcel accepted the documents with lingering doubt.
News of the mining rights auction, announced under the Border Guard’s name, spread throughout the Northern Region like wildfire.
Exactly one week later, Marcel witnessed crowds gathering before the Command Tower like swarms of clouds.
“We wish to participate in the mining rights auction!”
“What time does the auction begin?”
“We’re from the Armel Trading Company. If the mining proves successful, we came to inquire about the distribution of the yield, but who is the person in charge?!”
* * *
“Your Highness, the auction is nearly concluded,” Lucian reported.
When he arrived with the news, I was spending time with Bara.
“How would it feel to become a proprietor, Bara? Like your parents, the Canzail Couple?”
‘Mother and Father are always suffering from deadlines. But Bara is lazy.’
“You don’t need to work, Bara. Just open a branch of the Canzail Trading Company and sell dyes and work uniforms to the Border Guard.”
I wrote on a blank card.
[Canzail Dye Company
[Northern Border Post Commander, Bara]
Bara’s eyes sparkled as she accepted the nameplate and held it in her hands.
‘How wonderful! I’ll do my best!’
Lucian had no choice but to raise his voice.
“Your Highness, the mining rights auction is closing soon. Won’t you take a look?”
“No, I don’t need to.”
Iolet seemed rather uninterested in the auction. For someone who claimed to need money, her response was surprisingly lukewarm.
Lucian recalled the amount a certain nobleman had shouted just before leaving the auction house.
“Even though the mining rights are exceeding 50,000 Francs?”
“Really?”
Only then did Iolet show interest.
“It seems to be quite a lucrative commodity after all.”
“The Border Guard’s annual budget is 10,000 Francs, Your Highness.”
“Five years’ worth of budget earned in one go. Mother will be quite pleased.”
Only then did Lucian understand why Iolet was indifferent to the auction proceeds. After all, that money was not hers.
“The revenue from selling the mining rights belongs to the Border Guard. It goes into Mother’s coffers. It’s hardly worth the risk to pocket it myself, and besides, the sum is too small for that.”
“Well, it is quite a large amount, though….”
Wait. Hadn’t she just called it a pittance?
“Is 50,000 Francs insufficient for you?”
“The amount is substantial enough. But Francs are, after all, merely silver.”
Like any nation on the Continent, Elovis used coins minted from silver as its official currency. Elovis’s coins were called Francs.
Though she had said for convenience’s sake that she needed money, what Iolet ultimately desired was not Francs. It was something higher than Francs.
“Even if I sell the mining rights, all that money must be reported to the Royal Family. It won’t end up in my pocket anyway, so what does it matter? What truly matters is what the gold mine will produce.”
“Ah, gold….”
“Exactly. Who possesses the gold—that’s what matters.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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