In the capital, Lahart, an unexpected wave of restrictions swept through. A temporary ban on all commercial transactions within the city was imposed.
Such bans were only rarely enacted during significant national crises, and the last instance was during the funeral of Emperor Maximilian.
For merchants in the capital, a ban that occurred perhaps just once a year caused quite a stir. With the impossibility of doing business extending their struggles for survival, they were only just beginning to resume trade post-funeral when they found themselves perplexed by this latest decree. They resorted to sending petitions to the palace.
Every hour saw the petitions multiply exponentially. Officially, the person overseeing this matter was Monica, the acting emperor. However, the mastermind behind the planning and execution was Duke Albrecht.
“Please lift the ban!”
When the merchants did not receive any responses from their petitions, they began to gather outside the palace in protest. Monica sought assistance from Karl, who offered a solution.
“As individual commercial transactions are restricted, I temporarily allow all transactions to resume through the palace.”
This meant that sellers could offer their goods to the palace, and buyers could purchase items with cash there. Merchants, initially resistant and questioning the need for such an inconvenient arrangement without reasonable explanation, were intimidated into compliance by the palace guards’ ominous declaration: “This is not a suggestion; it is an order.”
In essence, the royal court had assumed the role of temporary trading intermediary. Merchants who suspected the palace aimed to profit from commissions were thrown into confusion when they instead received reimbursement that included calculated subsidies for their losses.
Why was the royal court acting this way? What benefits could they derive from facilitating trade, even offering extra payments?
As merchants gathered in groups to speculate, they failed to reach a convincing conclusion. Yet, as transaction numbers increased, their discontent melted away. The fear of losing their means of livelihood and incurring losses turned into a realization that the royal intervention actually benefited them.
“Duke, how long will the ban remain in effect?” Monica asked Karl as she reviewed the list of all transactions and revenue from the previous day.
Since the practical executor was Duke Albrecht, Monica summoned Karl every morning to confirm the previous day’s trading details. Karl attended regularly but seemed more distracted by other matters rather than focusing on the specifics.
From the moment the ban was issued, Monica had been very curious about Karl’s true intentions.
As Karl explained that it was to confirm all commercial transactions and their overall scale in the capital while acting as an agent, Monica, who was in charge of the emperor’s affairs, could tell that this was not the whole story.
She had been waiting, thinking he would eventually tell her, but with each passing day, her curiosity grew stronger, prompting her to ask Karl first.
“I think I should keep this a bit more effective, Aunt.”
“Isn’t it time you tell me the real reason?”
“What do you mean?”
Karl’s expression remained calm as he flipped through the papers. Did that face ever show a crack?
Monica diverted her gaze from Karl’s face to the same paper she had given him.
“I mean the real reason for the ban on private commercial transactions.”
Though he was her nephew, she still used formal language, recognizing Karl as the next rightful heir to the throne.
In fact, even if he were not the Crown Prince, Karl was difficult to treat as just a nephew. Monica waited patiently for his answer while keeping her gaze hidden among the documents.
“I told you.”
“You wanted to confirm the entire scale of all commercial transactions happening in the capital? That’s merely a public pretext, isn’t it, Duke?”
She knew about the smokescreen. So tell me the truth. This was the hidden meaning behind Monica’s words. As he turned to the next page, Karl revealed more.
“…It’s to find those who do not engage in transactions openly.”
“Those who do not engage in transactions openly… Are you referring to the black market?”
“Yes.”
Celeste had said she purchased illegal magical stones at the night market beyond Kellever Square before heading to Urentum for her recuperation.
Magical stones without the imperial seal are linked to crime in any form.
Mining and processing them, merely possessing them, and distributing or selling unapproved magical stones are all serious offenses.
Even possessing them is a crime, so why do illegal magical stones continue to be produced and circulated? The process of obtaining the imperial seal is extremely rigorous, and selling stones with the seal drastically reduces profits.
Receiving an imperial seal means royal involvement, which requires a portion of the sales to be unconditionally submitted to the royal family, as well as paying a certain fee to obtain permission.
In essence, personal sales outside the imperial-sanctioned magical stone trade make it hard to turn a profit.
Thus, magical stones became the most popular items traded in the black market.
Monica was not unaware of that. The royal family had already grasped the distribution and sales structure of magic stones in the black market, and they knew very well that transactions were occurring openly.
However, the reason why they hadn’t implemented stringent controls or regulations until now was that there hadn’t been a compelling ‘reason’ to do so.
The profits the royal family gained from the official trade regulations of magic stones were substantial.
Yet, if they were to use force to crack down on the minimal transaction volume that had fled to the black market, it could effectively cut off all livelihoods for the merchants, so they refrained from doing so.
The royal family’s stance was that they couldn’t be a cruel, unscrupulous outlaw who would snatch even a single grain of rice from a child’s nose.
“Are you planning to crack down on the black market? Duke, that’s….”
“I’m not intending to conduct a large-scale crackdown on the black market.”
Even a cornered mouse will bite the cat. Karl intended to overlook the black market’s activities to some extent, as long as it didn’t go too far.
“Then?”
“I’m not trying to block the black market. If all official commercial transactions are attributed to the royal family, the black market will become even more active.”
“…That’s true. Once regulations start, many will try to escape through back doors.”
“Yes. That was intentional.”
“So you’re not cracking down on the black market but rather ensuring that it becomes more active by issuing a ban on commercial transactions? Please explain it in simpler terms, Duke.”
“There’s one particular person among them that I need to find. However, due to a series of recent events, whether he has caught on or not, he’s been cautious, so the black market has gone quiet. I’m waiting for it to open up again.”
The one who sold magic stones to Celeste. That person was responsible for the murder of Duke Schwaben, the attempted murder of Celeste, and the attempted kidnapping of Valerie.
To find that hidden individual, the black market needed to be active once more.
Karl vigorously interrogated those who sold food cursed with dark magic at the Philoua train station in the central-southern region but could not reach those who sold the magic stones.
If he couldn’t uncover the upper echelons by torturing the low-level operatives caught at the tail end, he might need to take the opposite approach and draw out the leaders directly.
Karl quietly placed a stack of documents on the table after scanning the end of the papers.
“If there’s someone you absolutely need to find, which merchant has offended your temper?”
“Yes.”
“Whoever it may be, it sounds like an extremely unlucky person. But are you really willing to go to such lengths just to find one individual? It seems a bit excessive, Duke.”
“Whether that one person matters depends on who he is, Aunt.”
“What did he do wrong?”
Karl lifted his head to meet Monica’s gaze directly. The intensity of their locked eyes was serious. Karl quickly calculated in his mind how much he could reveal to her.
The reason he was cracking down on the black market, going so far as to restrict all public trade in the capital, was that a stone identical to the illegal magic stones sold to Celeste had been discovered in the Duchy of Schwaben.
And there was more…
“That person has killed someone. And was also about to kill another.”
The illegal magic stone was also found in the emperor’s residence. This was in the bedroom where Emperor Maximilian had lived, which had come to an end abruptly at the age of 12, without any known reason.
