“Of course, I would have pushed ahead with the plan, no matter what was suggested to me,” Matthias said. “But that would make me seem like a fool. And I do not want that. Do you understand?”
Matthias was not the sort to force his subjects into submission. The way he led was offering his people a good reason to follow him. Lawrence’s presence was causing them to quarrel even more. They reasonably wanted to avoid calling off the plan if possible.
That, however, naturally brought Lawrence to one response.
“Would you mind if I gave you my personal views on the matter?” Lawrence asked.
Matthias gave an awkward smile. “We walk shoulder to shoulder. Of course you may.”
“Then forgive me if this assumption is off base, but have your financial issues forced you to accept Karlan’s plan, no matter what the conditions?”
Lawrence was essentially telling him that it was foolish to allow someone else to hold the reins of his territory’s fate, but Matthias did not seem to be enraged by the implication—he only heaved a long, thin sigh.
“My grandfather and father—and myself, I suppose—have spent too much of our energy trying to protect the forest.” Matthias gazed distantly down the forest path, then turned to look at Lawrence. “The Church has long suspected us of heresy.”
“—Ah.” On Lawrence’s map of the situation, a new waterway opened up, changing the entire lay of the land. “I… I see.”
As his eyes scanned the perfectly good forest, one that had gained Holo’s approval, Lawrence hummed.
Matthias needed to be seen cutting the forest down.
He had to show the world that the forest was not holy or inviolable, and that his family was not worshipping the forest itself like heretics might have.
Tired, Matthias’s shoulders dropped.
“The situation surrounding the Church is constantly changing. Both the old guard and the Twilight Cardinal, who’s criticizing the old guard, are working desperately for the sake of their people. And any who do not belong to their specific camps are treated as enemies. Do you understand?”
I do, because the Twilight Cardinal is essentially my son.
For a brief moment, Lawrence pictured himself saying that out loud, then quickly swallowed his words.
“You mean to say that no matter which side you choose, your forest is still a problem.”
“Precisely. If I choose one, then the other will see me as the enemy. And no matter which one I choose, the woods themselves stink of heresy. It is deep and dense, after all.”
A forest like this was not unusual in Nyohhira. Venturing farther north would eventually lead to genuinely thick forests where the lifeblood of Holo’s kind still beat, where no human had ever set foot.
But this part of the world had been under human rule for a very, very long time. It was not unusual to stumble upon fields as far as the eye could see.
A deep, dark forest was much too exceptional.
“Our account books are filled to the brim with red numbers—beggars like me cannot be choosers.”
Lawrence nodded, rearranging the entire situation in his mind.
“Which means that cutting down the forest will not only allow you to make some money by selling lumber, but also show you are not worshipping toads and offering sacrifices to the springs in the deepest parts of your forests like heretics.”
Matthias cackled at the stereotypical depiction of pagans.
“You are correct. Karlan will be able to develop further if they’re able to build a road that cuts through our forest. They could also mediate on our behalf with the more powerful members of the Church—the city trades with distant lands on a near daily basis, you see. By allowing them to extract lumber from the forest and build a road through it, then it will both solve the heresy problem and the debt problem, both of which have plagued us for a long time. I cannot think of this as anything but a God-given opportunity for my sons to inherit a clean slate.”
And that was why Matthias did not heed Meyer or the mayor, no matter how much they warned him of the dangers. And Meyer, who had finally lost his patience, brought along a merchant who might give them an infallible reason Matthias would have to acknowledge, so Matthias himself decided to lay bare all his innermost thoughts.
Wait a minute, Lawrence thought. Matthias can’t possibly be that simple of a ruler.
“You must have a very special reason to tell me all this.”
Matthias was exposing his family’s humiliation to him—a total and complete stranger.
There was no doubt that Matthias had come up with countless options for himself. As they walked through the forest, he turned to Lawrence and said, “I learned of your deeds in Salonia when word reached Karlan. A larger allotment of lumber coming from Salonia naturally means less wood taken from my forest. So you can imagine how worried I was.”
“I…apologize.”
“Ha-ha. Still, when I heard of what you did in Salonia, what intrigued me the most wasn’t actually the lumber.”
“It wasn’t?” Lawrence asked, hesitant.
“I grew doubtful if I should trust in Karlan’s ability to conduct business to begin with.”
Lawrence wordlessly turned to look at Matthias—there was something questionable about that.
“The lumber tariff negotiations in Salonia were actually a part of the plan from Karlan. And that made me reconsider what the true extent of their power was. If a random merchant could show up and foil them so easily, then I wondered if the rest of the plan would come to fruition at all.”
Lawrence understood the apprehension, but it was then that he realized there was something he needed to confirm. It was something that had sat in the corner of his mind ever since he met Meyer.
“Do you mind if I ask you something? Why does Karlan want lumber this badly?”
Matthias dipped his head before answering. “While an offering of lumber would demonstrate that I am not a heretic, Karlan’s true hope is to gain the Church’s goodwill in exchange for the lumber, which everyone is hurting for right now.”
Unlike Tonneburg, Karlan was not under suspicion of heathenry—so why were they just as eager to deal with the Church? Only those who did not understand commerce would ask a question like that. There was no greater trade partner in the world, after all.