The conqueror from a dyi.., p.9
The Conqueror from a Dying Kingdom: Volume 2, page 9
“That’s very charitable.”
“Yes. My original motivation wasn’t to make a profit.” That was a bold-faced lie.
“Very well. I’ll consider it. But unfortunately, I’m unable to give you an immediate response. I’ll have to discuss it with various people.”
“Of course.”
“And I must warn you—if we do offer these patents, they won’t be available to just you.”
“But of course. That wouldn’t be a problem. I’d only like to safeguard the profits generated by my own inventions. As long as I’m one of the people who can enjoy patent protections, I have no objections.”
I’d come up with a lot of ideas in my spare time. Originally, I’d been considering marketing something to make money, but the more I’d dug into it, the more problems I’d thought of, so I’d lost any enthusiasm I had.
In this kingdom, the seven witches had massive amounts of capital to throw around, so they’d simply steal any idea for a groundbreaking new product that made big money. A few knockoffs offered by competitors wouldn’t have been so bad, but these families went beyond that. They wouldn’t hesitate to use their influence to crush my business, claim my share of the market, and hoard all the profit for themselves despite not being the original inventors.
Not only was the scenario possible, it was almost inevitable—there were several known cases of it happening. It meant that no one tried anything new, because their efforts would be wasted. That was the society that I was dealing with.
Perhaps they’d go easy on me because I was the heir to the Ho family, but they certainly wouldn’t hesitate to copy my ideas. A patent system would give me peace of mind. But if she ended up refusing my suggestion, I planned to simply ask for money.
“Is this what you’re going to waste your time on now?” Carol asked, looking at me suspiciously.
What does she mean, waste time?
“There’s nothing wrong with making money. The more, the better,” I told her.
“Did you forget what being a knight is all about?” she asked, sounding like a stubborn old man.
“Knights can’t eat honor, you know. I need money to live.”
The main concern for the majority of knights was earning cash, though many preferred to refer to it as paying their keep. Not a single one of them could live on lofty ideals like faith and dignity alone.
“Ugh... Well, yeah, but...”
“Unlike you, I’m not attending Cultural Academy classes. I’ve got nothing to do with my afternoons. I’ve pretty much run out of classes to take.”
“If you’ve got time, you could practice with a spear,” Carol chided me with an incredibly serious expression.
What an idiot. I practice with my spear every morning. Why would I keep going into the afternoon?
“But I’m not going to be a fighter,” I replied.
Fighters were those who were fond of spears and honed their skills for the battlefield. In the event of a war, they were employed and arranged into mercenary troops, so they were particularly common in and around the Ho family’s territory. During times of peace, they could become combat instructors, teaching others in town how to wield a spear. Or they could find work through organizations established and operated by other fighters. They stopped short of becoming private military contractors, but they often provided security to merchants.
“I know, but...making money is just...”
She still doesn’t like it?
“Carol, don’t you understand the importance of making money?”
Oh, Her Majesty’s speaking up for me.
“Mother...”
“We never have to worry about money ourselves, so the concept of earning our keep seems alien to us, but that’s what most people do. You shouldn’t look down on them for it.”
“I wasn’t looking d-down on anyone...” Carol suddenly looked flustered.
“It’s true that the pursuit of money shouldn’t make a knight-in-training forget their duty, but Yuri is an exceptional student who finished most of his classes early. I don’t think he needs lecturing on this topic.”
It was a sensible, mature sentiment. But as much as I could’ve used a mother’s opinion here, this wasn’t what I had in mind. After all, she was speaking as Carol’s mother, not mine. If Carol were to agree with me, Her Majesty might’ve said something else entirely. I would have to seriously consider talking things over with Rook and Suzuya.
“We mustn’t allow people to do bad things for wealth, but there’s nothing wrong with the desire for money itself. When everyone can make a profit, our kingdom flourishes. I hope you understand everything I’m telling you, Carol.”
Oh jeez, she’s still going. I hadn’t taken her for the type of parent who gives long lectures.
Her Majesty’s sermon continued for a while longer, and Carol grew more and more deflated during it. By the time it ended, she was in tears.
“I...understand...”
Although none of it was my fault, I felt bad for her.
“Cheer up,” I said in an attempt to console her.
“Sh-Shut up!” Carol clenched her teeth and stood up, kicking her chair in rage as she did.
“What? I’m just trying to cheer you up.”
“You know what you’re doing! You’re making fun of me!”
“No, I’m not. All I said was ‘cheer up.’”
“You said it to tease me! You’re the whole reason I got in trouble!”
Ah, that’s what it’s really about. She’s blaming me.
“Come now,” Her Majesty cut in sharply.
“Uh...”
“Don’t point your finger at your friend. It’s unladylike.”
She was pointing at me? I didn’t even notice.
“Uh... I’m sorry.”
“Apologize to Yuri, as well.”
“Uh...” Carol clearly hated that idea.
Her Majesty seemed to take a strict approach to teaching. Making someone with as much pride as Carol apologize in a situation like this felt a little cruel.
“You don’t have to apologize,” I told Carol.
“I think she should,” Her Majesty said.
“We were simply bantering, Your Majesty. It would take the fun out of it if we had to apologize to each other every time.”
“Oh... You really have made a good friend,” she told Carol.
Really?
“I’m not sure I’m worthy of being called that,” I replied.
“Yuri, would you be willing to take her as your bride?”
What...? Did she really just say that?
“Mother...what are you saying? That’s out of the question.”
“For once, we agree on something,” I said.
“If you’re worried about how it might affect our families, you needn’t be—there is past precedent for such unions. You would retain your current surnames, and any daughter you have could become queen, while any son could become the heir to the Ho family. There would be no problem.”
Hold up. This whole thing sounds too real. I can barely keep up, but I’ll just make an excuse for now.
“I don’t think I’m ready to think about marriage,” I said.
“Is that so? Well, do think on it.”
“Mother, I can choose my own husband.”
“Ah, yes, I’d forgotten,” Her Majesty replied.
It sounded like they had some sort of agreement between them—something about Carol being free to choose a man she loves. That would be surprising if it turned out to be true.
We enjoyed tea together for another twenty minutes. After that, Her Majesty had some other business to attend to.
II
Several weeks later, I was once again reading a book in Terolish to kill some time when Carol came to me.
“Yuri, I’ve brought you a letter.”
She handed me an envelope. The letter read, “Your invention has been recognized as Patent No. 1.”
Patent No. 1 was related to papermaking. As you might’ve guessed, I planned to make paper that consisted of plant fibers, rather than the parchment that was currently used. If everything went to plan, I’d make a fortune. Probably.
“Having a side job’s fine, just don’t forget why you’re here,” Carol said. The long lecture she’d gotten a while back didn’t seem to have had much of an effect on her.
“Yeah, I know. My parents will be on my back if I start skipping classes.”
“Well, as long as you understand.”
Carol untied some sort of leather bag from her belt and held it out in front of me. “And your reward.”
My reward...?
I took the sizable pouch, large enough to fill a child’s hand, and looked inside. It was packed full of gold coins, which amounted to a lot of money.
“What’s this for?”
“I just said—it’s your reward.”
“Reward for what? Something besides the sorepox cure?”
“What, have you done so many great things that you deserve a new reward every few weeks?” Carol asked with a smirk.
“Nothing comes to mind.”
“The seven witches complained. They said that the kingdom might be in the Ho family’s debt if your weird patent system doesn’t actually benefit you in the end.”
“I don’t see why they’re worried about that.”
I hadn’t felt like the kingdom owed me anything in the first place. In fact, I’d walked away thinking everything was settled nicely. Now it felt like I was being paid to stay away.
“I tried to tell mother that such a small amount’s worse than nothing.”
“Small? It looks like a lot to me.”
At a glance, I estimated that there were thirty gold coins in the pouch. A single coin was worth a thousand ruga, which made it roughly thirty thousand in total. Converting ruga to Japanese yen wasn’t straightforward, but it was probably around three million yen.
“I don’t know exactly how big of a deal your discovery was, but I’ve never seen anyone get such little compensation after doing something important enough for mother to summon them herself.”
It made sense. They couldn’t let people think the royal family was a bunch of cheapskates, so giving out hefty sums might’ve been normal for them. The royal family sure had an unusual relationship with money.
“But I’m still a kid. Dropping all this money in my lap hardly seems wise.”
“What? What does your age have to do with it?”
This pampered princess has no idea how the world works.
“If you give a kid a large amount of money, you can bet they’ll find some terrible way to waste it—like going to a high-class brothel and throwing handfuls of coins at the girls there.”
“Wh-What?! G-Give it back! I’m not letting you do that!”
Carol had gotten the wrong idea and was trying to snatch the pouch away. I wasn’t about to surrender my fortune so easily, so I hid the pouch behind my back. But that was just a ruse—I actually tossed it onto the floor on the far side of the bed.
“Come on! Give it here!” Carol yelled, completely drowning out the sound of it landing.
Our scuffle soon turned into a wrestling match, with her pressing herself against me in an attempt to grab the pouch.
“Calm down, idiot! I’m not gonna spend it like that!”
I’ve never even masturbated once yet.
“Haah, haah...” she panted. “You’re sure?”
“I’m sure. But why would you care, anyway?”
“Well...I wouldn’t. I just don’t want my roommate falling into depravity.”
“I’m not gonna do anything like that.”
Depravity wasn’t my thing. Despite having a big bank balance in my past life, I’d spent most of it living as a frugal no-lifer. If I’d been the hedonistic type, I would’ve been busy smoking weed, gambling, and going to hostess bars. I didn’t have the best self-control, but I was no big spender.
“Then what will you use it for? Going to save it?”
Sounds like something a grandma would suggest.
“It’ll be an up-front investment,” I reassured her.
“An up-front what?”
“Well... It’s like if someone buys a good spear because they know a war’s coming.”
That wasn’t the same thing at all, but I couldn’t be bothered to explain it to her.
“Oh. That’s a good way to think. If that’s how you’re using it, I’m impressed.”
That seemed to improve her mood considerably. She sounded like someone praising a student for buying a textbook in preparation for an exam.
✧✧✧
I’d gotten myself a patent for paper, but I had to actually make some if I wanted a business.
As my initial capital, I had the thirty thousand ruga I’d just received, plus some savings I’d collected over the course of a few years. In total, I had fifty thousand ruga.
Fifty thousand was a high sum, equivalent to about five million Japanese yen. However, direct comparisons between the two currencies could be misleading. Though food was incredibly cheap in the kingdom, manufactured goods were expensive.
Given our low level of industrialization, manufactured goods were all made in a way that could be used to describe individual, handmade items in Japan. Naturally, that made them expensive. For example, a laundry basket cost about one hundred yen in Japan. That was about one ruga if converted to the local currency. However, the basket-making process here involved wooden strips woven together by hand, so they could fetch as much as fifty ruga in reality. Even a basket made by a peasant farmer with no other work to do during the winter would still be incredibly time consuming, so the price would never be as low as one ruga.
Looking at it another way, it was possible to live very cheaply as long as you gave up all luxuries. Indeed, many people here stayed in the cheapest rooms, ate nothing but dry salted meat along with mixed-grain bread, and did little but sleep when they weren’t working. With a lifestyle like that, someone could live on ten thousand ruga for about a year, even in the royal capital.
A lack of any employment regulations in the city made labor cheap. An employee could hire someone for a salary of just ten thousand ruga, but they might pay thirteen thousand to avoid looking heartless.
Living in the dorm meant I had no living expenses of my own, so it would seem as though fifty thousand ruga would be enough to hire three or four unskilled adult workers for a year. In reality, however, I’d also need to use some of the money to pay the rent on a workshop, as well as some for investing in equipment.
I knew that primitive techniques for making both western paper and Japanese washi involved a papermaking mold. Since I’d never worked in a papermaking factory, however, I only had a basic idea of how to use one, much less how to make one in the first place.
These unknowns made it difficult to guess how long it would take before I had marketable paper, or how much I’d end up spending in the process. Fifty thousand ruga was a large sum, but not enough to give me confidence.
Another problem was, despite all my free time, I was no less busy during my mornings. That meant I couldn’t work day and night on this project. I also had three remaining lecture slots that fell on afternoons, so I’d need someone I could trust operations to while I wasn’t around.
One option was to simply do everything myself. Rather than hiring help, I could use my money to rent a hut by the waterside where I’d work on prototypes when I had time. I could rethink my strategy once I’d found the right production method. It wasn’t a bad idea.
I’d never learned anything about management because I’d never particularly wanted to run my own company. Going solo would at least allow me to build up some experience before I hired anyone. Even a management student wouldn’t find much to complain about with that sort of careful approach.
I was sitting down to lunch in the dining hall and giving the matter some much-needed, careful consideration when Myalo appeared.
“Is there something on your mind?” he asked as he took the seat next to mine.
He didn’t have any food. He must’ve spotted my troubled expression and stopped by for a chat.
“This and that,” I replied.
“Maybe you could talk it over with me.”
He seemed genuinely eager to listen. Myalo was a good person to talk to about this sort of thing. In fact, he might’ve been the best possible person.
“I want to start a business, but I’m not sure whether someone should help me manage it.”
“A business?” Myalo looked surprised.
“I’ve got too much free time—I’ve finished almost all of my afternoon classes.”
“Heh. What a nice problem to have.”
Since we’d only been there five years, most students were still extremely busy with a ton of compulsory classes. He was right that I couldn’t complain, but I still had to do something to make up for my lack of an occupation.
“You’ll have the same problem eventually, Myalo. Three years from now, you’ll be as bored as I am.”
“I’m not so sure. I’ve been struggling so much with practical classes that I may need that extra time to build up my strength.”
Ah, good point.
Myalo wasn’t lying—we’d never once been put in the same training session because we’d been in separate classes ever since our first year.
There was nothing wrong with his reflexes, but he just couldn’t seem to build muscle. He was still as scrawny as ever despite his daily training. It wasn’t such an issue when he practiced with a dagger, but spears required strength that he just didn’t have. Even with a short spear, it wasn’t possible to completely avoid clashing with the opponent. Myalo was always at a disadvantage.
“It’s not going to stop you graduating, is it?” I asked.
It would cause serious problems for knight families if their only son had a lack of aptitude for physical activities and couldn’t graduate.
“No, but I’m sure I’ll be over the age of twenty by the time I do.”
Myalo probably would’ve preferred to graduate as soon as possible. Unfortunately for him, studying hard wasn’t enough in this school.
“Sounds tough. Hmm...”
“But let’s not talk about me. I want to hear more about your problem.”
