"Have you kept it on you all this time?"
"Yes. It is precious to me, so I never let it leave my side."
"Very well. Zoe."
"Right away. Excuse me."
I handed the draft to Zoe.
Zoe reverently accepted the draft—the imperial decree—and stepped out of the room.
I waited for a short while.
As we waited, I discussed the finer details of the seed business with Cindy, who wore a puzzled expression.
Though clearly curious, Cindy didn't press the matter and simply waited to see what would happen next.
About ten minutes later, there came a knock at the door.
Knock, knock.
The door opened, and Zoe returned, guided in by one of Cindy's subordinates, who behaved with absolute deference.
"Thank you for waiting, Sire."
"Mm. How did it go?"
"Here."
Zoe walked over and offered me a single sheet of paper.
I took it, read through it once, and then held it out to Cindy.
Cindy took it with a baffled look and scanned its contents.
"Th-This is—?!"
Cindy's eyes flew wide in absolute shock.
"It says the Ministry of Finance will deliver the cash directly to your main branch before the day is out."
"Y-Yes... But how...?"
"I used communications to transfer the draft."
"Communications..."
"Normally, a draft's authenticity relies on the physical document itself. But for now, any communication sent from me carries an inherent guarantee of authenticity. No one can forge a communication in my name, because Humbaba would never permit it."
"Ah! So an imperial decree sent via communications serves as its own guarantee of authenticity!"
"Exactly. Going from here to the imperial capital on foot takes over ten days, and a round trip could easily take a month. We did it in ten minutes."
"Incredible! That is amazing, Your Majesty!!"
Overcome with sheer excitement, the way Cindy addressed me slipped right back to 'Your Majesty.'
I let it slide, figuring there was no need to correct her.
"With speed like this, commerce—the very foundation of how all transactions are conducted—will be completely transformed!"
Cindy's excitement only accelerated.
"And there is one more thing."
"Huh? Th-There's more?"
"Right now, communications exist only within the Empire. In other words, communications drafts can only be used domestically."
"That is... rather inconvenient, isn't it?"
Cindy's excitement cooled slightly.
She seemed to take my words as an admission of a flaw in the system.
"No, that is not the case."
"Huh?"
However, when Zoe interjected for the first time today, Cindy looked at her in surprise.
Having cooled down after hearing my comment as though doused in icy water, Cindy's expression shifted once more at Zoe's remark.
"Wh-What do you mean by that?"
Cindy spoke with utmost respect.
Zoe was older, and she was no longer merely a maid; having served as a magistrate, she was now the de facto deputy governor-general of Enlil Province.
As a private merchant, Cindy questioned the minister-level Zoe in a reverent tone.
"A safe, extraordinarily fast draft that only our country can use, while other nations remain stuck relying on traditional human couriers."
"—?!"
Clatter!
Cindy's legs knocked against the sofa, making a sharp noise as she shot to her feet.
Her eyes widened so drastically that, joking aside, I genuinely worried the corners of her eyes might split.
The sheer advantage of communications—transferring both information and the flow of money in an instant—once she was made to realize the immense leverage and dominance it would create, Cindy was left utterly speechless.
"In-Incredible..."
This time, the word slipped out from the very depths of her chest.
Just that one word: "Incredible."
Like before, it was a cry that came straight from the heart.
"For now, it's in trial operation. Cindy, lend me a hand in identifying the minor issues."
"Yes! Please leave it to me!"
Cindy was beyond thrilled.
☆
Inside the carriage on the way back, Zoe, who was riding alongside me, spoke up.
"Um... Master."
"What is it?"
"Could it be, Master, that you have another objective in mind?"
"Oh? What makes you think that?"
I found that amusing.
Wearing an intrigued smile, I asked her in return.
"Well, it's just a feeling... It really is only a hunch, but I began to think that putting the draft system onto communications might carry other benefits... I can't think of anything specific, but it's truly just an intuition."
Zoe spoke with an intensely apologetic expression.
Her face showed how uncomfortable she felt voicing such an unfounded speculation to me, her master and Emperor.
I chuckled softly.
"Mm, well, your intuition is spot-on."
"Th-Then?"
"Mm."
I gave a small nod.
Looking out the carriage's small window at the townscape of Larak, which was being reconstructed at a rapid pace, I continued.
"When you were serving as a magistrate, didn't you ever think that things would be much easier if you knew exactly how much profit the merchants were making?"
"Yes."
Zoe answered without hesitation.
"I constantly felt that way, especially regarding the salt merchants."
"Salt, huh... Of all merchants, they are the ones who cheat the most."
I gave a soft chuckle.
Knowing it was an area I would have to tackle eventually, I went on.
"Throughout history, peasants have always been easy to manage. Whether through a poll tax or a land tax, cheating is relatively difficult either way. But merchants are taxed based on their sales, and since those are just numbers in account books, they can fabricate them however they like."
"Ah... That's why the communications drafts..."
"Right. Naturally, calculations and audits will still be required, but if they use communications drafts through our system, the exact breakdown of their money flow will be laid completely bare."
"In that case, won't they refuse to use it?"
"Even so, that doesn't matter."
I let out another chuckle.
"The benefits of the communications draft are clear. If they don't want to use it, they don't have to. They are merchants, after all; they can simply weigh the immediacy and security against the taxes they have to pay."
"To have thought that far ahead... Incredible."
"All of this is only possible because the Humbaba threads are, in practice, dependent on me personally. Even if they are dissatisfied, there is nothing they can do to replace it, which is why I can take such an aggressive stance."
"...Um, Master."
"What is it?"
"Could it be... that..."
Zoe asked in a hesitant, cautious tone.
"Are you creating something to replace the Humbaba threads?"
"Oh?"
After expressing a bit of admiration, I nodded.
"Yeah."
Zoe's eyes went wide.
☆
Back at the official residence.
I stood facing Zoe in the landscape garden designed by the previous governor-general.
"You can't use magic, right, Zoe?"
"No, I cannot."
"Have you ever had your subordinates use magic?"
"Yes, I have."
"Then this will be quick."
I gestured, and three maids from the official residence, waiting a short distance away, approached.
The three of them carried something resembling a long clothesline pole between them.
At the same time, another maid stepped forward, holding a rod roughly the length of a person's forearm from the elbow to the fingertips.
"What are these?"
"Things I had made using the same material as a magic staff."
"A magic staff..."
Zoe rolled the words over her tongue as she stared at the long pole.
The clothesline-like object was roughly three meters long.
Because it looked nothing like a magic staff, a bewildered expression crossed Zoe's face.
At the same time, she looked at the other rod, which looked comparatively like a normal magic staff.
I picked up the shorter one, the one that looked like a typical magic staff.
"To put it simply, a magic staff is an item that assists in casting magic."
"Yes."
"For most casters, the magic is designed to manifest at the tip of the staff. Through long years of accumulated technique, it has been determined that this is the most efficient method."
Saying that, I used the short magic staff to cast a spell.
A ball of light appeared about a fist's distance away from the tip of the staff.
"Like this."
"Yes."
Zoe nodded firmly.
That was because it was the most common way magic was used and seen.
"Now, when doing the same thing with this one..."
I handed the short staff back to the maid and stepped up to one end of the long pole.
Gripping it in the same manner, I cast a spell.
On the opposite end, three meters away, a ball of light appeared in the exact same fashion.
Focusing my mind just a bit more, I made a white ball of light and a black ball of light appear alternately to demonstrate.
"...Ah!"
Seeing that, Zoe gasped.
She seemed to understand what I was getting at.
"Right. While we haven't found or made anything that can alter its material properties like the Humbaba threads, displaying black and white at a distance through a medium is something we can achieve with existing technology if we apply some ingenuity."
"Incredible... To think such a method existed..."
Zoe was in awe.
Still holding the pole, I made the light balls appear and disappear, causing them to flicker.
I did it in the same rhythm as the black and white signals of the Humbaba threads.
Having memorized the cipher for the Humbaba threads—for the communications—Zoe gasped and began decoding it.
"U-S-E-L-E-S-S—Useless?!"
Zoe whipped her head toward me.
"Wh-Why is that? From the looks of it, there doesn't seem to be any problem at all."
"After demonstrating it, I found that using it in the form of a magic staff causes the required magical power to increase exponentially in proportion to the staff's length."
"Is that so?!"
"Humbaba threads are strung across the major cities of the Empire, but with a magic staff, even a level 50-class grand mage would reach their limit across the span of a single town."
"Within the same town... Then that really is useless..."
"Indeed. Of course, it's not entirely meaningless, but within the same town, you could just send a runner, or better yet, meet directly. It lacks the tremendous value of Humbaba's communications. The greatest strength of the Humbaba threads is that they can be used instantaneously across provincial borders."
"I see..."
"Naturally, I'm having them conduct research in this direction as well, but..."
I chuckled softly.
"Until then, I intend to make full use of this advantage."
"Yes."
"By Shem's generation, something practical will likely be invented."
"For Lord Shem's generation...?"
"Father left me a great fortune."
Letting go of the pole, I waved my hand to dismiss the maids along with the two magic staves.
"The greatest among that fortune are Henry and Oscar."
"B-Both of them?!"
Zoe was shocked, but I was so surprised by her reaction that I put on a blank, puzzled look.
Seeing my expression made Zoe even more flustered.
"Um..."
"People are treasures."
"Ah..."
"When you think of it that way, the greatest fortune Father 'left behind' for me is those two—is that really so surprising?"
"N-No. Well, Lord Henry aside, Lord Oscar is... well..."
Zoe trailed off, hedging her words.
I see, I nodded inwardly.
The imperial family's internal strife—or rather, Oscar hadn't actually taken overt action, so calling it strife wouldn't be accurate; it was more like internal family circumstances.
Having served me ever since my days at the Thirteenth Imperial Prince Mansion, Zoe knew those family circumstances very well.
At one point, Oscar had been dissatisfied with my ascension to the throne following Father's abdication, and he had made various moves behind the scenes.
I had managed to thwart that, and now we functioned smoothly as sovereign and subject without issue.
From an outside perspective, he was an older brother who had his throne snatched away by his younger brother, making them political rivals.
It was only natural to assume there would be lingering resentment or a rift between us.
In fact, Zoe's few hesitant words showed that this was precisely how she perceived it.
That was why she was astonished to hear me describe him as my 'greatest legacy.'
I chuckled softly.
"A treasure is a treasure."
"..."
"Just because it doesn't fit one's personal tastes or can't be kept right at hand doesn't mean its brilliance as a treasure fades. Even if someone dislikes gold and prefers gemstones, that doesn't diminish the value of gold."
After saying that, my expression turned solemn.
"The presence or absence of past grudges does not reduce their value as a treasure."
"Such magnanimity... Incredible..."
Zoe was deeply moved by those words.
"To ensure Father is remembered as a wise ruler, I must at the very least do the same. Ideally, I should surpass him even slightly. I will leave behind 'treasures'—people—for the future, but I figured I would leave other things as well."
"I see!"
Zoe seemed to agree with my words from the bottom of her heart.