His questions were things Elizabeth hadn’t even thought of. Elizabeth also answered his questions in detail while smiling. What she realized in the process was that the Kartran man she was conversing with now knew a great deal and was active in acquiring new knowledge.

Unlike the rumor that the Kartran tribe despised women, he’d been gentlemanly and considerate from the start and had no hesitation asking questions to Elizabeth, a woman.

Elizabeth quite liked this man she’d only just met. If all Kartran people were just like this person, marrying into Kartran might not be frightening.

Then Tan suddenly asked.

“You said this is Phivoigne Palace, right? Who lives in this palace?”

Elizabeth couldn’t help but hesitate a bit. The other party didn’t know who she was. Perhaps that’s why they could converse this pleasantly.

And no matter how courteous the man was, he was still a warrior from a country that hadn’t yet established diplomatic relations. If she revealed she was imperial family, new threats might arise. Ultimately, Elizabeth decided to hide her identity.

“The owner of this palace is Her Highness Third Princess Elizabeth Buffon Jeremiah.”

“Ah! So it was a princess’s palace.”

Tan, the Kartran man who’d been continuing questions, hesitated briefly before asking again.

“Then…… the person conversing with me right now is……?”

“Ah…… I’m someone who works at Phivoigne Palace.”

Elizabeth slightly avoided Tan’s gaze while consoling herself that it wasn’t entirely a lie.

“I…… see. Then by any chance…… could I meet you here again tomorrow?”

“Pardon?”

“I apologize if it was a rude request. It’s just…… the conversation was so enjoyable……”

Elizabeth just blinked her round eyes at the unexpected request while looking at Tan. It wasn’t that she’d never heard men ask to meet before, but that man’s proposal strangely made her heart beat loudly. His gaze didn’t have various calculations or gloomy desires underlying it. Moreover, she too had found conversing with this man very enjoyable.

But she would marry Kartran’s heir, so creating unnecessary scandal would be no good. If by any chance this person was even a close associate of Kartran’s heir, it would become even more troublesome.

“All right.”

However, the answer that popped from her mouth was in a completely different direction from what her head was thinking. Rationally, she knew. That this shouldn’t happen. But a life of only enduring everything was sickening.

Before an unwanted marriage, a final transgression at least…… Elizabeth firmly believed Naren would forgive her too.

Fortunately, the man’s expression also brightened considerably.

“I won’t dare ask your name. What should I call you?”

The other party, who knew this would be a brief meeting anyway, didn’t demand her real name either. That was somehow sad, but Elizabeth answered with a firm smile.

“Call me ‘Lasha.’ And you, sir?”

“Please call me ‘Su.'”

He rose from his seat and carefully approached Elizabeth. If she showed even the slightest fear, he intended to immediately step back. However, Elizabeth also rose from her seat and waited for him to approach her.

Tan lightly grasped her hand in Empire style and kissed the back of her hand. It was a hand so white and smooth he wondered if flour might rub off on his lips.

He felt his heart race before a woman for the first time in his life and stared blankly at her back as she moved away through the purple flower clusters. It was a time as sweet and unbelievable as a hallucination caused by moonlight.

⁕⁕⁕

What shocked everyone at the first talks between Kartran’s delegation and the imperial palace was the story that it was just one single Empire trading company that had shaken them enough for Kartran’s heir to personally lead the delegation.

Both Kartran’s side and the imperial palace side were shocked that the imperial palace didn’t know of that trading company’s existence. And after urgently investigating, they were shocked again to learn that trading company was the Evanhart family’s trading company, and moreover, it wasn’t the family’s first trading company but a trading company under the second son’s personal name that the second son personally commanded. Unexpectedly, Luciel Evanhart became a tremendous issue in noble society.

Anyway, once they learned the Empire was absolutely advantageous due to Luciel’s Shadow Trading Company, the Emperor and noble council regained much composure.

“Our Tribal Chief trusts the Caliburn Empire enough to send me directly, and wishes to establish a mutually beneficial friendly relationship between the Empire and Kartran.”

At Tan’s words, Marquis of Astera, the noble council’s chairman, asked as if showing his guts.

“Well. The Empire has nothing it needs from Kartran. So how can it be ‘mutually’ beneficial?”

However, Tan smiled leisurely as if he’d been waiting for that question.

“I don’t know where to start. Um. First, it doesn’t seem to be known in the Empire yet, but last year a salt mine was discovered in Kartran’s desert.”

“What!”

Only then did the nobles recall that Kartran delegation’s tribute gift had been chunks of rock salt.

“That’s really rock salt from Kartran?”

“Yes. Didn’t I mention? The Shadow Trading Company has now blocked even trade with Müon. Naturally, that rock salt is Kartran-produced. Actually, we don’t know the exact scale of the salt mine either. We’re digging wherever we can, but after extracting salt, we can’t make the wooden supports needed to prevent the mine from collapsing. Because Kartran lacks timber. So development is slow.”

“If the Empire provides timber…… you could lower the price of salt exported to the Empire?”

“Isn’t that obvious?”

“Do neighboring countries know that a salt mine was discovered in Kartran?”

Tan delayed his answer to that question. The Empire nobles were the ones getting anxious. Salt was no different from jewels. And very useful jewels essential to real life.

It was disappointing that such a tremendous jewel mine had been discovered in Kartran of all places, but from the current atmosphere, it seemed they might obtain that precious salt cheaply if done well.

“We didn’t actively publicize it, but before the Shadow Trading Company blocked trade with Müon, we’d sold rock salt to Müon trading companies as a test. They might know.”

“Ahem! Wouldn’t trading with the Caliburn Empire rather than Müon be better for Kartran too?”

“If trust is established between both countries through marriage, naturally we’d give priority over trading with other countries.”

The story seemed to return to square one. Everyone was distracted by the salt mine, but what Kartran’s delegation was ultimately demanding now was to send an imperial or a high noble’s daughter to marry into Kartran. The Empire had pressured Kartran because it didn’t want to grant that request.

“The Empire is producing salt on numerous islands belonging to it. We’ve lived without inconvenience until now even without Kartran’s salt. If salt is all you have……”

“The salt mine is merely the beginning. The Yaluni tribe in the northern desert has also submitted to us, and that tribe’s glasswork is at a tremendous level. The Bayan royal family quite liked it. And we have friendly relations with Tubium. Tubium is the only land the Empire hasn’t yet set foot on, right? If you make peace with us, you’ll be able to exchange with Tubium through us too.”

The conference room fell into silence again.

They’d thought them beggars barely surviving by robbing neighboring countries, but they had far too much more than expected.

Moreover, the abundant sand in the desert was material needed to make sand bricks that Empire commoners mainly used when building houses, and the roots and seeds of desert evening primrose that only bloomed in the desert were treated as precious medicinal ingredients.

If they formally established diplomatic relations and exchanged with Kartran, as Tan said, it would clearly be great profit not only for Kartran but for the Empire too. Ultimately, the first day’s talks ended without deciding anything.

And Tan waited until it was completely dark before secretly heading to Phivoigne Palace garden again. Yesterday he’d wandered for a long while, but today he’d definitely memorized the location.

Like the previous night, purple cornflowers were glowing white under the moonlight. Though of course they weren’t as white as the woman approaching from far away.

“Lady Lasha!”

When he quietly called her name, she’d been looking around and quickly found him. The two sat in the garden gazebo and conversed again about Kartran and the Empire.

“The desert is quite hot, right? Could a person from the Empire go and live there?”

“If you’re asking because of us wanting an imperial bride, I’d like to tell you not to worry. The person coming as a bride won’t have to pass through the desert. She’ll be able to live comfortably in the castle in the capital Rufanya. As long as it’s not the desert, it’s not much hotter than here even during the day.”

“Won’t Kartran people hate a bride from the Empire?”

“Hahaha! That too is needless worry. We don’t merely want short-term exchange. We’re looking long-term. But oppress an imperial bride? We’re not that foolish.”

“Ah, I didn’t mean it that way. I just…… just as we misunderstood seeing only the Kartran tribe’s appearance, I worried Kartran might also have bad thoughts seeing the bride’s appearance. Even looking at Sir Su, your skin is like this……”

“Like toasted bread?”