“Bro! I’m comin’ in!”
The guards opened Lance’s door for me, revealing a dark room; the curtains were drawn over the windows. I passed the maids and marched straight to his bed.
Lance was still asleep under his covers. My brother was a deep sleeper, and since my voice was so familiar, he didn’t stir at the sound. He lay there motionless, staring up at the ceiling like he was dead. I strode to his windows and yanked his curtains open.
The sun had hardly crested the horizon, but the light made him cry out like it burned him. He covered his face with his sturdy arms to shield himself.
“Weren’t you the one telling me we’ve gotta finish up work before we head to Freesia today?” I urged him. “We’re gonna miss Anemone’s ship at this rate! C’mon, I’ll help!”
Lance groaned. “Oh, yeah…” He rubbed his temples and sighed. “Cedric… You’re already dressed? When did you wake up?”
I grunted an answer, and he finally clambered out of bed with a yawn. I took a seat in front of his desk while the maids helped him dress, looking over his pile of half-finished paperwork.
“I just happened to wake up early this morning,” I said. “Figured it was a sign to get out of bed.”
I’d woken up feeling sluggish, like I’d thrashed through nightmares all night. In all likelihood, I hadn’t slept well because I was anxious about today. Lance asked if I’d fallen asleep at my desk again, but I denied it. I wouldn’t have done anything to risk oversleeping on such an important day. I’d hopped out of bed before sunrise, changed on my own, then hurried over here.
I flipped through his paperwork, scanning every page. The documents pertained to export restrictions on gold, indicating that our country’s gold and gems would rise in value as exports decreased. It was good news. We had plenty of resources, but if we distributed them recklessly, someone was bound to take advantage of us. There was no point supplying other countries with more than the trickle we already sent Freesia.
“Hey, Bro, are the research materials you need to finish this stuff around here somewhere?” I asked, nodding toward the books and documents sitting at the side of his desk.
Lance had mentioned needing to get through everything on that desk today. Fargus had compiled information about the countries we planned to trade with and the conditions of those deals. There were only a hundred pages about our current trade partners, but the actual books were incredibly thick. I quickly set the papers aside and picked up the tome that looked like it would take the longest.
Hmm? I leafed through the book at random, glanced at a few pages, then inspected the cover. The title and all the rest were familiar. I knew it.
Unpleasant memories reared their heads, but I stuffed them down and laid eyes on Bro’s paperwork instead. Resting my elbows on his desk, I held my head in my hands. “I’ve read all these books before,” I told him, my voice coming out a bit deeper than usual. “Just ask me if there’s anything you want to know.”
“Is something wrong?” he asked.
My eyes lingered on the array of research materials before me. “I read these fourteen years ago. I’m glad it’s gonna help you, but I’m still pissed.”
I would never feel a lick of gratitude toward those people, but at least something they’d forced on me was useful. Knowing Bertrand, I doubted he’d cared about anything but making me memorize the thickest books he had.
Lance smiled at me in understanding. “The fact that you can say that proves how much you’ve grown.” He was right; the old me would have bottled up my pain and refused to speak of it.
I swiftly returned to skimming the texts, flipping page after page. The documents outlined even more new information about foreign countries. Anemone came up along the way, and with it, an incredible list of products for import. That list alone took up two pages.
“Anemone’s amazing, aren’t they?” I said. “They’ve increased their imports, exports, and clients so much in just two years. We already import from them, but we’re going to start exporting gold and gems to them too, right?”
“Yeah. Chinensis has their own conditions, so they can’t export gems to Anemone directly, but Yohan said he’ll let them go through us instead.”
Chinensis’s religion forbade slavery, a condition that prevented them from trading directly with Anemone for now. But that didn’t mean they weren’t grateful for Anemone’s help during the defensive war. Yohan had come up with a system wherein Chinensis would sell their gems to us so we could resell them to Anemone.
“Slavery will probably be outright abolished in Anemone before long,” my brother said.
I believed it. Once that was official, Anemone and Chinensis could trade under even better conditions.
Lance closed his eyes, his smile one of relief. “The Chinensian people think highly of both Yohan and Prince Leon. If they didn’t, we couldn’t travel on Anemone’s ship today, could we?”
A trade vessel from Anemone would be arriving soon. Prince Leon himself had offered to take us to his kingdom once he finished his business here. It took ten days to reach Freesia from Hanazuo by carriage, but if we departed from Anemone instead, we’d cut our travel time in half. We were incredibly grateful for His Highness’s offer. Most of all…
“I’m looking forward to our voyage with Prince Leon,” I said. “It’ll be my first time on a ship.”