“Are, are you not going to send me back?”

Siana seemed to want to ensure that first. Ophelia answered, accommodating the woman who didn’t even know the basics of negotiation.

“That depends on how useful your answers are.”

At that, Siana furrowed her brow and bit her lip. She seemed to want to choose safety, but was afraid of possible retaliation for betraying her father.

Looking at the woman who openly displayed her emotions on her face, Ophelia wondered if she could really lie in front of the father she so feared.

But it didn’t matter if her lies were awkward. It wasn’t the daughter who would deceive Gilrod, but the situation he would see.

Just as it was starting to get boring, Siana opened her mouth.

“Yes, he told me to ask you to let Nebel’s servants into the palace.”

And Siana immediately bowed her head low.

After briefly looking down at the daughter’s head, afraid of being punished for doing what her father ordered, Ophelia said,

“Go back to your father’s house.”

“What? But… but…”

“Go and tell him I chased you out. The reason… yes, say that the queen was angered because you did as your father ordered.”

And Ophelia looked straight at the woman’s face filled with despair and confusion as she foretold what would happen.

“Then your father will try to enter the palace to dispute this. He will try to find fault with me in front of my husband and the nobles.”

Of course, if such a thing really happened, Idren would first try to resolve the situation so that no harm would come to her. Ophelia had considered that in her plan as well.

But Idren’s help was only part of the situation. Ophelia continued,

“I will claim that your father’s words are lies meant to insult me. Then your father will bring you along as a witness to refute my words.”

Gilrod would be certain that he would win.

Ophelia knew well about such men’s way of thinking. They believed that once they put a leash on something, it would never escape, and they thought of the whip they wielded harshly as a medal.

And she knew very well how to strangle their necks.

“Then you claim that I never chased you out.”

“…”

“Say that I didn’t send you away from the palace, but that I just let you go home because I felt sorry for the precious only daughter of a noble house suffering from homesickness.”

Gilrod would not be able to refute that.

The assumption that his daughter would betray him probably didn’t exist in his mind.

Poor imagination was nothing if not characteristic of such men. Ophelia whispered to the pale-faced woman,

“Don’t worry about retaliation. Once you say those words in front of people, I’ll immediately take you away.”

You know, don’t you? I can cut off your father’s grasp anytime.

Siana still looked like she didn’t understand what she had just heard, but Ophelia knew the woman would never forget the words she had spoken.

Anika Rohos sat face to face with the king.

Moments of private audience with the king were rare. For some lords, it might happen once or twice in a lifetime.

Yet she had already seen his face twice this year. Anika thought there was something wrong with that. Why did the king keep calling for her separately?

Anika wanted to meet him where many eyes could see. It was natural, considering how her father had come out after entering the hunting grounds alone with the king.

But if she showed this troubled mind outwardly, it wouldn’t end with just her mind being in turmoil.

So Anika drank the tea placed before her, waiting for the king to speak. He seemed to intend to make his exact request to her only today.

Anika’s prediction was not wrong. The king spoke as soon as she put down her teacup.

“The royal family owns vast farmlands in the south, but we can’t bring in what’s harvested there beyond Edegrun. Do you know why?”

It was a reason that any lord who owned even a small piece of grain-producing land in Aglante would know. Anika answered,

“It’s because the treaty the former king made with Nebel guarantees Nebel’s market priority.”

Because of that clause, the southern lords lost the northern market. As a compromise, they sold their harvests to Reden or nearby archipelagos, but with added tariffs and shipping fees, they couldn’t make profits like before. It was a fact she had learned along with history as a child.

The king continued,

“You know well. But some children don’t want to follow the path their father made. I think Nebel’s right should disappear.”

“…”

“But I’m worried that if we attack Nebel right away, its size is too big and it will shake the country’s economy. What I want to uproot is Nebel, not Edegrun and the north.”

And the king added in a calm voice. So shouldn’t we reduce that size first?

“But even the royal family is in a position where we have to pay money to Nebel every month. We have no choice because we can’t bring in grain from anywhere else.”

At this point, Anika thought she knew what the king was going to say. It seemed he was going to ask her to cover some of the royal grain consumption with tribute.

That wasn’t a difficult task. Thinking she had worried for nothing, she was about to let it pass.

“I’ll be frank. Provide enough harvest to replace the consumption of the royal family, including the royalist faction.”

Anika momentarily forgot to manage her expression at the demand that exceeded her imagination.

No matter how vast and fertile the Rohos territory was, paying that much tribute would result in considerable losses.

Seeing her face turn pale, the king added,

“I’m not a swindler, so I won’t just take it. I’ll pay a proper price.”

Well, how about tax exemption?

Despite his tone suggesting she should be more than satisfied with that, the reality wasn’t so positive. She would barely avoid a loss, but there would be practically no money left for her share.

But there was not the slightest change in the king’s expression. The man’s face was full of confidence that she would accept his proposal.

As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t haggle to reduce it somehow, but the king wasn’t a good opponent to bargain with over loyalty.

So it was better to meet the king’s wishes as much as possible. Offending a person in power could have unpredictable consequences.

Anika wanted to enjoy a world without her father for as long as possible, seeing only the positive aspects.

So she mentally listed what the king wanted.

Besides wanting tribute, the king had one more thing he wanted from her.

To support the queen.

Anika knew the reason. The king had Chesa in the capital and Soer at the border, but the foreign-born queen still had no one, so he was trying to fill her forces.

He wouldn’t leave those forces unattended, so he would surely empower them.

After asking her to gather the sins of the southern lords, the king had said upon seeing the results,

“Isn’t it a shame for me alone to know these things you’ve found out so well? I’ll create a place for you in front of others, so speak there.”

In other words, he was telling her to accuse them. The king had an obligation to listen to a lord’s accusation, so he was saying he would use that as a justification to wield his sword.

And naturally, as the other southern lords’ power was reduced, her influence would grow. Anika could bet quite a lot that the king intended this.

In any case, it was already decided that she would suffer material losses immediately. If that was the case, it was better to mention something more than the conditions the king mentioned to earn at least a little gratitude from him – given his personality, she couldn’t expect much.

After organizing her thoughts, Anika spoke.

“How about giving you land instead of the harvest?”

The king raised an eyebrow as if she had said something unexpected.

“I don’t think you understood well. Your territory is of no use to me. I already have land.”

Of course, Anika also knew why the king specifically asked for the harvest to be offered. Even the harvest from the royal family’s land couldn’t be brought into Edegrun until Nebel’s products were consumed.

This was said considering all of that.

“I’m not saying I’ll give it to Your Majesty.”

And Anika said something she didn’t want to say twice in her life.

“I will give it as proof of loyalty sworn to Her Majesty the Queen.”

There was a loophole in the royal family’s law.

Only the harvest from the land owned by the queen could be brought into Edegrun even if Nebel’s products weren’t all sold. It was set to properly sell only those from the southern plains – which the Sigrasal royal family had reclaimed – that were the domain of the previous queen from Brinwell.

After Queen Isdae’s death, that southern land was absorbed into the royal family.

The king, who was still unmarried at the time, legally bound it so that no one but the king could own royal land. It was to end Brinwell’s claim that the land should pass to the young royal grandson who was a blood relative of Queen Isdae.

“I will offer half of the Rohos territory to Her Majesty the Queen. Of course, not forever. After two years, you must write a pledge with the royal seal stating that Her Majesty the Queen will give it back to me.”

In any case, given this situation, wasn’t she supposed to give all the territory’s profits to the king?