But it was not so much apprehension regarding genuine danger, but a nervousness about what was to come.
Though it did not seem to be that they were in any sort of pressing situation, Col still had the rambunctious Myuri by his side, and it was very likely that she was plotting something ridiculous.
Lawrence decided that once this was all squared away, he would ask Eve where the two of them were, and check up on them.
“Anyway, back on topic. The gist of all of this is that we don’t have enough of anything.”
Lawrence nodded, and a thought came to him.
“Could Karlan be counting on these refugees to cut down the Tonneburg Woods?”
Meyer said that Karlan was intent on changing the map, and Eve said that Karlan was intent on making the city bigger. And if all they did was make the container bigger without filling it with anything, all that would produce would be a hollow echo.
They would need more people to keep the city functioning, but people did not grow on trees or in the fields. They were not so easy to gather.
“Exactly. There are some who prefer to be on contiguous land with their homeland instead of separated by sea in the kingdom. But in my view, there are only so many people this city can take.”
“It seems to me there’s plenty of room for expansion, though,” Lawrence said, and then immediately realized how shallow the thought was. “Oh, right… Mouths to feed.”
Everyone needed to work to survive, but a population increase did not necessarily mean the same amount of work would suddenly pop up.
“There’s the road to build, at least for the time being.”
But then one day, there would be no more clearing work.
At last, all the things Meyer told him connected in Lawrence’s head.
“And that’s why they’re going to build new smithies and coal-burning huts in anticipation of that…”
Meyer was indignant that Karlan was selfishly trying to absorb all of what the forest had to offer, but that was not quite what was going on here.
Karlan was putting together a stopgap plan, but one that did actually account for the future.
While some stopgap apprehension was unavoidable, Lawrence could clearly see that they had thought through this, trying to prevent such a big plan from failing under its own size and weight.
“But…will this genuinely work out?”
Even if new industries came about from the cutting of the forest, that still meant they would not be able to feed the livestock, and the wheat fields would go through a poor harvest, and thus the people would starve.
It was dangerous to keep making speculations like this, and history could teach them that the problem of importing people was a difficult one. To accept a great number of people escaping the fires of war out of the mercy of one’s heart—only for that same city to eventually fail—was a story that had repeated itself over and over in times of war. There was good reason why Rahden, who had built a pond for his hatchery to feed his people, had been called a bishop and worshipped.
“I am not a god,” Eve said with divine arrogance. “Trade is always an uncertain gamble. And Karlan has decided to take on a huge gamble. Lord Tonneburg may have agreed reluctantly, but he still agreed because he saw profit in it. And so he’s still at the table.”
And that was when Lawrence finally realized that whether Matthias left the table hinged on what sort of report Lawrence brought back for him.
“Are you being kind to me right now so that I’ll bring back good word to Lord Tonneburg?”
Instead of giving an answer either way, Eve grinned. Perhaps she had told them about Col and Myuri in order to bind their hearts. She knew that since they had left Nyohhira out of worry for their children, then they would not make decisions that would render all their hard work moot.
And yet, Matthias scarcely had any choice left. If anything, Lawrence wanted to praise Karlan for an incredible amount of self-control for not immediately preying upon Matthias’s weaknesses after hearing the whole story. The people of Karlan were genuinely thinking about the development of their city; they were looking at things in the long term and were determined to build a favorable relationship with Tonneburg.
“I know you’re a perfectly capable merchant. That’s why I don’t think you’re going to manipulate this decision.”
That’s a rich thing to say, Lawrence thought, flashing a smile he would never use when running the bathhouse.
“Instead, I’m going to ask you to light a little fire under that wooden ass of his.”
“Regardless of whether he says yes or no?”
Winter was not very far away, and it was likely that a stream of refugees from the continent were already on their way. If their plan to procure lumber fell through now, then they would have to immediately move on to the next step.
Though that is what Lawrence initially thought, Eve shook her head and furrowed her brow.
“If we let this opportunity slip, then even if the lord signs his name on parchment, it’d just end up a useless piece of writing.”
Holo, who was full from her food and was now nursing her drink, pricked up her ears under her hood at the thorny tone of Eve’s words.
“There are people out there who’ve been raring to ruin this entire transaction.”
“There are?”
The first thing Lawrence thought of were the people in the Church that Col and Myuri were currently pressuring. It would not be a particular surprise if the Church old guard dispatched an army to subjugate Tonneburg if they realized they would be siding with Col. Declaring them heretics would be a simple justification.
Though that was his first thought, he realized something strange about that right away.
Matthias had to join Col’s camp precisely to prevent that from happening. If joining Col’s side meant declaring himself a heretic, then Matthias would have to go against his personal beliefs and side with the Church old guard. Just as Eve explained, if an entity was seen as a part of Col’s side once, then they could no longer easily reach out to the conservative side of the Church. It would have to have been a definitive decision to join Col’s side.
And so, if the Church really were the ones ruining things, then the entire situation would only be going around in circles.
That meant the ones meddling with the plan could not be the Church.
Who were they, then?
Lawrence thought, and recalled what the forest-loving ranger said to him.
“A mean-spirited…older brother?”
Eve snorted. “There’s no way Kerube is just sitting to the side and watching this deal happen quietly.”
Trade was the act of taking gold from one another, where there were limited places for gold to go, and Karlan was in the middle of its plans to expand its territory. And what about those whose territory was at risk of being taken?
“Do you know who rules Kerube right now? A pain in my neck,” Eve said and reached up to rub at said neck.
Years ago, when Lawrence and Eve were still young, they had gotten embroiled in such an intense trade battle that they had drawn daggers at each other.
After earning her money, Eve had been strung up and almost died.
Who was the one she had faced at the time?
When she smiled, she looked like a wolf baring its fangs.
In the distance, they could hear a howl going up.