Chapter 96: 96

Are we sitting side by side?

No other lord in the world did that. It was the same with men who married for love and cared for their wife.

Not even aristocrats who had equal status before marriage.

A commoner woman, side by side on a podium with her husband who was of imperial blood…?

Vlad’s gray eyes glanced lightly at the vassals. “Remember this seating arrangement.”

Surprisingly, no one complained. He was so intimidating that no one wanted to risk their life to comment about it.

But Lily wasn’t naive enough to relax easily.

Her first marriage partner was a knight, so she knew well how things worked in male-dominated settings.

She began to evaluate whether she was a woman worthy of a seat next to such a powerful lord.

I must do well.

Swallowing her growing burden down her throat, Lily sat down. “I must have interrupted the report. Please continue what you were saying.”

Vlad thought for a moment.

To continue…

“We were done just in time, so don’t worry. Long greetings can be cumbersome in many ways, so you can skip them if you want.”

Except for Ivan and the chief administrator, the mouths of the vassals were wide open.

They knew that the lord loved his wife, but they didn’t expect him to treat her so kindly like he was a totally different person.

But to Lily, her husband’s familiar attitude, had just relieved her tension a little.

She nodded slightly and looked down at the conference hall. She felt strange again.

The magistrates over the railing, Vlad’s vassals, were more noble than her. She was seated in a place where she was looking down at them all.

It was a position that she had never been in when it came to making eye contact with people. Especially when she was a woman who didn’t deserve a seat like this.

Ironically, that was why the burden and guilt of Lily Isles didn’t matter.

From now until the moment she died, she was to be the Duchess Lily de Winter.

“I went to the glass greenhouse the other day. I saw beautiful flowers growing in Ataka.”

Everyone except Ivan flinched in various ways from the memory of the monsters there.

Like the day after the snow, a clear, air-like clear voice quietly continued, “I kept looking for data in the study even after I came back to the castle. I learned that far more kinds of flowers grow all over Arcadia than in the greenhouse. There’s at least 200 kinds. It’d be nice to see more of them in person, but… that was enough.”

Some of the vassals’ eyes narrowed, and even the scribe stilled his pen.

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Her mouth was shut, but she knew well enough what they wanted to say.

Why do they have to listen to some kind of flower talk here?

If the lord wasn’t holding on with a gaze like a bird of prey, there would be an explosion of complaints.

Fortunately, the lady was very comfortable and was able to carry on with her explanation at her own pace.

It was Lily who realized that this kind of obedience was very convenient at times like this.

“From what I looked at, 87 of the flowers growing on Ataka were metal-tolerant. Among them, 63 species grow together in one place.” Lily glanced slowly throughout the hall. “In conclusion, it means that there are at least three kinds of metal veins running through the rocky mountains that run through the center of Ataka.”

“Metal veins…!” As Hanz jumped up, his chair tumbled over.

He was faster than anyone else in the conference room.

“Did you say three?”

“Red copper ore, tin, and cornerstone. Tin is only a possibility, but cornerstone and red copper ore are certain.”

“Oh my God. If that is true, a red copper ore vein has three times the copper content than the chalcopyrite that is now mined on the plateau borders!”

(t/n : the four names mentioned above are crystallised minerals)

Excited, Hanz shook his hand holding up three fingers.

Lily did not say anything when they drank together.

“How did Madam know about that?

“Because I… discovered the diamond mine that currently belongs to the Isles.”

Vlad’s mouth, tense with concentration, became somewhat relaxed.

The administrators in the background were buzzing like a swarm of bees.

Lily only muttered quietly, “If you mine sulfur and cornerstones in Ataka, you can produce gunpowder on your own. As gunpowder production increases, military power will naturally strengthen.”

As her calm, upright voice continued, the commotion gradually subsided.

“Cadis has a higher percentage of veterans than any other city.  As long as the supply of weapons is enough, I thought that running a mine in Ataka would not be just a simple discussion on the table.”

From that moment on, the conference hall was eerily silent.

“Also, since commerce is not active, it is one of the few ways to attract new jobs to civilians, not just manufacturers.”

“So we should enter Ataka!”

Count Valks’ hoarse voice came from the table. “It is not something a woman can say so lightly.” Thick gray eyebrows frowned deeply. “Forgive my rudeness, Madam. But about the metals. How much do you know about the Ataka?” Valks couldn’t control his emotions and trembled like a broken dam pouring out water. “It’s a place where creatures that don’t die even if they kill each other. Many creatures live there and it’s an incredibly dangerous place.

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