The two visitors exchanged glances. Zenjirou was prince consort of Capua, and Yngvi was the crown prince of Uppasala. In other words, there was only one person in each of their countries who was ranked higher. In Zenjirou’s case, that was his wife Aura. In Yngvi’s, it was his father, Gustav. Restricting the information to them would definitely make it top secret. And yet, trusting that to a verbal promise seemed rather laissez-faire. It showed how relatively important the promise would be.
“Very well,” Zenjirou answered eventually.
“I shall do so,” Yngvi agreed.
Now that he had their agreement, the representative gave a shallow nod before dispassionately revealing one of his state secrets.
“If all you want from the magic writing is the translation, you don’t need much. However, manifesting further effects requires very specific materials. Magicite is perfect for it. There was once a huge deposit under the ice fields here, but we are starting to see its end. Magic writing is the foundation of Utgard, so a steady supply is the most important thing for us.”
Representative Rök’s words were franker than Zenjirou would have expected of him, with the weight of a country on his back. He had to know what was going on. If this magicite was truly the foundation of the state, why was he revealing that weakness to royalty from other nations?
Zenjirou leaned forward, questioning the representative to try and get a clearer picture. “And that is why you wish to open trade with this other world? Is there no option to search further within this world?”
“We are doing so at the same time, of course. I intend to talk with Yngvi about exactly that later.”
The young prince smiled widely at the conversation turning to him. “So our lands have a deposit of this magicite?” he asked.
“There is a possibility. Frankly, merely searching around will likely be a wasted effort. If the chance exists, though, we wish to investigate in all of the other northernmost states.”
“And outside of those five? The Northern Continent is a big place.”
Yngvi’s question prompted a flattening of the representative’s face as he shook his head. “Any other countries will be difficult. All probable locations have been designated holy ground by the church.”
There was a long pause.
“I see.” Yngvi fell into thought for a while before his lips lifted into a crescent.
“Then what about the Southern Continent?” Zenjirou suggested while mentally noting the prince’s smile as something to report. “Honestly, that seems far easier than trying to get assistance from another world entirely.” Capua was a big country in terms of national power, of course, but it was also a large country, physically. Although they had no real gold mines, they had a fair amount in the way of underground resources like iron and silver, so Zenjirou was rather optimistic they might have some of this magicite. His hopes were immediately dashed, though.
“No. There is none on Randlion—the Southern Continent, that is.”
“Why is that?” Zenjirou asked, taken aback at the absolute surety in the other man’s voice. Unfortunately, no answer was forthcoming.
“If you do not know, I cannot tell you. I cannot tell you why that must remain secret either. Ask nothing else about this. If you must know, find out for yourself. I will not stop that.”
“Very well.” The response made Zenjirou even more curious, but he could tell that any questioning about it would be pointless here.
“Either way, Utgarða is our main chance. What do you say, Zenjirou? Will the Kingdom of Capua—no, the Capuan royal family—be willing to assist us?”
His self-correction was apt. The city-state didn’t want something from the country itself. The only entity that possessed the means to travel to other worlds was the royal family. Although the distinction between monarch, country, and royal family had been much more ambiguous in the past, they were not one and the same.
“I cannot give you an answer from what I have heard so far. I understand what you are asking for, but the information is too vague. What time frame would this span? What payment can we expect or would you offer? I would hear all of that first.”
Representative Rök’s eyes narrowed as Zenjirou moved to begin proper negotiations.
“I cannot give an exact time frame. However, it is not something that cannot wait a century or three. Success in our negotiations with Yngvi would lengthen that time as well.”
In other words, it depended on the amount of time they had before their magicite was depleted. It certainly made sense that they could not give an exact number. If magicite was truly indispensable to Utgard, then their stores of it were effectively the country’s remaining lifespan. Naturally, they wouldn’t reveal that detail to a foreigner.
Either way, Zenjirou could not conceal his relief at the deadline being on the order of centuries. If it had been decades, he would have had to refuse.
There were two spells that Zenjirou knew of within space-time magic that concerned other worlds. The first one was summoning. Naturally, it was one that Aura knew, as it had been used to summon him to this world. The other was the transfer. It was based on the summoning spell and, as the name implied, sent the target to another world. Zenjirou had temporarily returned to Japan after his first summoning, and it had been a revised version of the latter spell that Aura had used to send him back.
The royal family of Capua currently consisted of Zenjirou, Aura, and two babies, which was most certainly not enough to fulfill the representative’s wishes. However, over the course of centuries, that became much less of a concern. Generation after generation, they would have more and more people capable of casting space-time magic, and they could research relevant magic as they went.
With that in mind, Zenjirou questioned him further. “Pardon me, but if travel there becomes possible, will you be able to purchase the magicite? Or would the Jötunn be generous enough to just give it away?”
Strictly speaking, this had nothing to do with Zenjirou or the royal family, but he still wanted to know the answer. If the royal family made contact between the two worlds possible and then Utgard’s envoy was soundly rebuffed, it wasn’t something they would prefer to be involved in. More pragmatically, it would influence the payment.
The representative seemed perfectly happy with the line of questioning, and his tone didn’t change as he answered. “I have no absolute guarantee, but I do not believe it would be an issue. According to our history, they wanted our skills in magic writing. We have been developing those skills over the years and haven’t stopped. I believe we will be able to use them for bargaining.”