"Then I'll review the agreement as soon as it arrives in the North and send it along. Will that suffice?"
"I could ask for nothing more, Grand Duke!"
"I understand the Marquess Roland's feelings well, but regrettably, it would be best for Daniela to remain in the North. You understand this?"
"That... we know is something we cannot help. Please, my daughter—"
"Do not worry. I will endeavor to make her feel the North is more beautiful than this place."
Just before departing from the Barth family's domain, I exchanged farewells with Marquess Roland.
There had been a purpose to it. The negotiations were for the staff to handle, and I merely needed to review the results — so that much was incidental.
The real reason was to give Daniela time to say her goodbyes.
I stepped back for a moment and yielded the space to her.
I went outside entirely and looked out over the Barth family's domain.
Beyond the windows it was quiet, but something felt hollow. Vitality. There was no vitality.
It could simply be that this place was somewhat remote, like Winter Castle. But even so.
The people lacked any sense of life.
Could that too be attributed to the Crown Prince and various nobles having descended upon the place?
"Leo, what do you think? Your impression."
"It's, it's magnificent."
"Not that. I mean compared to the North. I can see it's magnificent — golden lion statues and all."
"S-still, I don't think what the Foreign Minister said was, was wrong."
"That it looks like a dark world?"
It wasn't wrong. While I had been at the estate, various staff members had come and gone.
Among them were several Owls carrying out my orders.
The objective was clear.
To assess the current state of the South.
House Barth had been a family of considerable influence even within the Imperial household. This family could serve as a fitting example.
"And the soldiers' quality has fallen very, very sharply, my lord."
"Well, it's no wonder — a whole escort couldn't manage to catch one of you."
"The, the strategy itself was flawed, you see."
It was nearly time to prepare.
After Daniela emerged from the room, I naturally offered her my arm.
She placed her hand on it and began walking with careful steps.
I noticed tears — just a few — gathered in her eyes. Reluctance, perhaps.
I decided not to ask. Blood ties felt cruel in this world, yet they were blood ties all the same.
We boarded the carriage and made our way out of the domain.
Daniela slept soundly even through the jolting of the road.
Beside us sat an Owl disguised as a staff member. He reported on the state of the Barth family's domain.
"It was dire, my lord. Many were going hungry. There were only persistent rumors that the areas around the gold veins were more livable."
"If that kind of rumor is circulating at the heart of the domain, something is clearly wrong — I just can't pinpoint exactly what."
"I suspect it may be the very harm that gold has wrought, Grand Duke."
"Something like a resource curse?"
To begin with, there was little means of procuring food near the gold veins.
They had to sell gold to buy food, but the demand was too great for the private sector to manage.
House Barth, monopolizing the wealth, had been negligent in reinvestment. The only places gold flowed were the nobility and the Imperial household.
The entire industry had been swallowed by the gold veins.
Yet the wealth was being extracted by someone, continuously.
There was no water flowing downward.
Only the water at the top kept pooling.
"Then the source of that pooling water would be Marquess Roland."
"It's somewhat more complicated than that."
The taxes paid as the Imperial household 'recognized' House Barth's ownership.
Then the taxes arising from the distribution networks.
And the price attached to gold as a commodity.
The Imperial household controlled all of it. Hence the complexity.
Any family wishing to purchase gold had no choice but to watch the Imperial household's mood, and even exchanging goods incurred taxes.
In practice, it was not a tax — it was a leash.
House Barth was no different from handing over everything it earned from the gold veins directly to the Imperial household.
And so its influence over the Imperial household was inevitably enormous.
The economic structure: paying taxes of that magnitude, offering up gold, and controlling them under the pretext of a betrothed. Now it was plain to see.
What it meant when House Barth worried about the Imperial household's backing.
"It seems we will need to conduct additional investigations into other regions, Grand Duke."
"Leave that to Dorgon. For now, understood. Get some rest yourself."
My thoughts had grown heavy.
With a leash around their necks, serving the Imperial household as their master — the moment that cord snapped, it would all be over.
What was needed was somewhere to consume the gold, or something that could offer more than that.
Gold did not necessarily generate wealth. Especially from the moment the leash was fastened, gold had become poison.
It had grown complicated. Perhaps I shouldn't have bothered speaking with House Barth.
I should have spoken with a different family.
"However, my lord, what is certain is that there is no family better positioned to benefit us than House Barth."
"Why?"
"Because the situation of other families will be more dire than House Barth's."
"That's a confident statement. Very well. Let us proceed on that basis."
A day after departing the domain, the road back to Winter Castle felt somehow even longer.
I sorted through various thoughts and even read alongside Daniela as she read her book.
But home was still the most comfortable place.
Yet returning did not mean I could easily shake off the fatigue of travel.
The staff set to work immediately.
There were clauses to examine more closely, clauses to append — it required constant verification.
The meeting convened on the morning of the day after I returned to Winter Castle.
A full assembly — from the nobles commanding the armies to nearly all the ministers gathered in one place.
Strangely, though, the atmosphere was animated.
There was a buzz of chatter right up until I took my seat, and ordinarily it should have quieted once the meeting began.
"Congratulations, Grand Duke!"
For what?
"We have heard the news that the Grand Duke has at last found a Grand Duchess! What occasion could be more worthy of celebration?"
"Ah, about that—"
Everyone was talking about it.
It was a sense of hope — that the North could at last dream of a new future. Though it wasn't quite at that level. I found it rather overwhelming.
"Don't jump to conclusions just yet. What actually happened was—"
"There were many who said we needed to prepare a formal selection, and it caused quite a bit of controversy, Grand Duke."
Hexon stepped forward first.
I had been about to ask whether anything unusual had occurred in my absence, only to find that the North had apparently been preparing a formal selection while I was away.
While I wasn't even here, no less.
"A formal selection?"
"At the Grand Duke's age, it is already past time to have sired children and prepared to carry on the Wintergard name. And yet you have been living alone all this while."
"I am well aware of your loyalty. But surely it hasn't come to that."
"It very much has, my lord. Should the Grand Duke ever fall..."
A murmur spread through the room.
Many years had passed since I had taken up the seat of Grand Duke of the North.
But I had known there was considerable anxiety within the North about its dependence on a single man's charisma.
Still, I hadn't expected it to have reached this degree.
"My lord! We are people who serve Wintergard and Wintergard alone. Even if someone from another family, or some insignificant commoner from the South, were to come — would the people gathered here pledge their loyalty to them?"
"The words are rather sharp today. All of you. As though something has happened."
I adjusted my posture.
The faster the North developed, the further the growing unease drifted from the direction I had envisioned.
Eating well and living well — that was good. But what could come after that? It was that kind of question. What if, someday—
"We have privately been worried about what would come after the Grand Duke."
"Is that not too early a concern? I am still in fine health. Vigorous, even."
"But Grand Duke, before you took your seat, it was rare for a man of the North to live past forty. Most died in war or starved to death."
That was true. Men of the North had tended to die young on average.
There had been many causes, but war and starvation accounted for most of them.
Though the average age of death had risen considerably by now.
"It is because the Grand Duke is here that we — that the North — stands united as one. But we feared that unity would weaken after the Grand Duke is gone."
"I understand, Hexon. Does everyone here share that sentiment?"
"We believed that if winter came again, we would all perish."
The nobles nodded.
Both the retainers who had long served the Grand Duke of the North and those who had newly become ministers of the North — all of them.
The fear that the dark past of the North might return.
There were no more frightening words for the North than those.
Winter has come again. A kind of warning — and a declaration that the path forward had been lost.
"You need not worry about such things any longer. Each of you need only fulfill your own role. This Grand Duke has let you down. Forgive me. All of you."
"No, my lord—!" "No, my lord—!"
As the voices of the retainers filled the Hall of Winter, I gave a slow nod.
The unity of the North. It had not been something I had intended.
"I have something of great urgency to convey to the Grand Duke!"
The one who leapt to his feet was the designer of House Wintergard — the man responsible for every painting in Winter Castle.
Commonly called the court painter.
"We must establish a new heraldic emblem for the Grand Duchess. How shall we proceed?"
That can wait until later!