My Beloved Princess ~The Boy Called Incompetent Rises with Only a Sword and the Princess's Devotion~

Chapter 125: Survival Strategy

An alleyway set back from the heart of the city.

On the cold, wind-swept cobblestones, a cheap cloth had been spread out, with rows of old ceramic pieces laid across it. It was an antique dealer’s stall.

The shopkeeper’s face was hidden beneath a deeply pulled hood.

What kind of mindset made someone bother setting up shop in a deserted, run-down place like this? Still, it was often these back-alley stalls that held the real hidden gems.

Breathing white into the air, Alice appraised the antiques on display with a serious eye.

Tsukino stood beside her, watching with obvious interest. She kept tilting her head as if she wanted to ask something, but she held her tongue so she wouldn’t interrupt the appraisal.

The murmur of running water reached them, strangely cold to the ears.

After carefully checking the maker’s mark on the underside of one piece and setting the jar in her hands back down, Alice explained,

“Older ceramics can fetch high prices from collectors. Eastern ceramics are especially popular, and there’s demand for them in the west and south. If we find any hidden gems, I’m sure we can sell them to westerners for a good price.”

At the words good price, Tsukino’s face lit up at once. Smiling at her, Alice picked out several items and pointed.

“This one, this one, and this one. Could you take care of them?”

“Yes! Leave it to me!”

Tsukino paid the street merchant, then packed the ceramics they bought into the wooden box she had brought with her. She stuffed cotton into the gaps and closed the lid. Once that was done, the preparations were complete. Then she lightly lifted the heavily laden box.

“Um, are you sure you’re all right?”

“Yes! To a dragonkin, this is like carrying candy floss!”

Over the course of the day, they had gone from stall to stall buying up goods priced below market value.

They had ended up with quite a load.

Each wooden box was about fifty centimetres tall. Tsukino had stacked three of them like tiered food boxes and was carrying them with ease. That was far too much weight for a girl to lift… no, for a human. Seeing a dragonkin heft it all with a smile reminded Alice once again of the difference in ability between their races.

While travelling the world as a merchant, she had often heard rumours that the dragonkin, said to be the strongest of all races, was warlike and cruel.

And yet every dragonkin around Alice had been a good person. Instructor Fūga, who had taken her in. Princess Kuroyō, who had invited her to join them. And the shy boy who always looked out for her one way or another.

That boy had asked her for help.

“Ōka-san is a good person. If possible, I want to save her.”

Once Kishō’s promotion to the Upper House had been decided, he disappeared from the Lower House, and Alice had one less person to talk to.

The only one she could speak casually with was Instructor Fūga, and even she was usually away teaching classes. It wasn’t as though they could spend all their time together.

She cleaned Instructor Fūga’s private room. Washed her clothes. Organised the materials used in class. Worked at the shop at noon, and only in the afternoon did she finally get a moment to breathe.

That one daily break.

In one corner of the shop, after everyone had cleared out, she ate her lunch in silence.

The afternoon classes had begun, and the corridor had fallen completely still. The clamour of the students was gone. Eating in that silence was bland, and just a little lonely.

The boy who had come to see her every day was gone now.

It was then.

“Hey! Want to have lunch together?”

As if to fill that empty space. As if to take over Kishō’s role. A girl with short chestnut hair had called out to her with a lunchbox dangling from one hand by a hemp cord.

She had half-dragged Alice by force all the way to a ramshackle hut.

Inside the cramped, bare little shack with hardly anything in it, Ōka crammed her cheeks full of lunch while unleashing a machine-gun stream of chatter dizzying enough to make one’s head spin.

Was anything troubling her?

Had she got used to life in dragonkin society?

If she had worries, Ōka would listen.

Wouldn’t her afternoon classes be a problem? When Alice asked that in concern, Ōka flashed her white teeth in a grin and laughed. “It’s fine, it’s fine.” That lunch break had ended up so late. She had probably held off on eating because she had already decided she would invite Alice.

According to what Princess Kuroyō had told her, Ōka had also been warm and attentive in the Beast King’s Forest. That had been an interaction with the impostor who had taken over Alice’s body, so unfortunately Alice herself had no memory of it.

Even so, even if that kindness had been directed at an impostor, it had still been kindness directed at the girl named Alice.

“Princess Kuroyō told me there are things only a merchant’s daughter can do. That I should make use of that talent. If my knowledge and experience as a merchant can be of any use, then I want to make full use of them. Ōka-san is a dear friend to me as well.”

The plan was to sell all the goods they had bought in one lot to western merchants.

Alice had gone around selecting only items that would still leave a profit even if sold below market value. Even so, she had confidence in her eyes. She had never once been fooled about the authenticity of an antique, and the sense of market prices she had cultivated through travelling the world meant she never fell behind in a negotiation.

Alice was confident she could turn a definite profit.

In any field, those with exceptional talent carried a certain aura. Right now, Alice bore the dignity of a first-rate professional. Admiring that gallant figure, Tsukino hugged the wooden boxes and gave her an affectionate smile.

“Tsukino’s role is to be Alice-sama’s guard and baggage carrier! Please use me as much as you like!”

The girl, who had a habit of putting herself beneath others, declared that with pride.

But she had that wrong.

In this resale strategy, Tsukino’s role was not mere drudge work. Alice could not have put this plan into action by herself. Part of that was the simple physical fact that she could never manage this much baggage alone, but more fundamentally, only dragonkin were permitted to do business in this land in the first place.

With a few special exceptions, outsiders of other races who came from elsewhere, Alice included, were forbidden from conducting business here. This city was, above all else, a free-trade city built for dragonkin. Protecting dragonkin took precedence over healthy market competition.

That was why the buying and selling had to be carried out by Tsukino’s own hands. All Alice could do was assist. Neither of them could be missing.

“Tsukino-san, you are absolutely indispensable. So please don’t put yourself down. Have confidence. We’re equal partners, you know.”

“That means Tsukino is useful?”

“Yes, very much so. Let’s work together and get through this difficult situation.”

“Understood!”

They left the alley and returned to the centre of the city.

True to her word, carrying baggage seemed no burden at all for Tsukino, and her steps were light. Still, perhaps because the stacked wooden boxes kept obstructing her view, she repeatedly stretched her neck to see what was ahead.

Alice walked a little in front of her, parting the crowd so Tsukino could move more easily.

The main street was full of life. There were people everywhere. And yet, to Alice, it somehow looked distorted. That might have been because of the very nature of Ashitana itself.

Though it called itself a free-trade city, the only ones who could truly trade freely were dragonkin. Even those dragonkin were not permitted to stay in the city for long, and were pressed to leave as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, western merchants came to Ashitana seeking business opportunities. Since dragonkin from all across the country gathered there, it was also a hidden trove where eastern speciality goods came together all at once. Yet the city had no place for them either. The high cost of lodging only made matters worse, and in the end, the circumstances that prevented long stays were much the same as they were for dragonkin. They had no choice but to finish their purchasing quickly and hurry home.

What a terribly busy city it was.

But that was precisely why business opportunities were born there. For merchants who wanted to pull out quickly, all she had to do was offer a bundled lot of goods that would fetch high prices in the west. She would handle the procurement for them so their stay in the city could be shorter. Reducing the time spent sourcing goods was something they wanted as well. If she chose the merchandise well, they would surely leap at the chance. And this was also a tactic only Alice could use, because only she knew the value of such goods in the western countries.

A horse-drawn carriage rushing past skimmed right by Tsukino. It was nearly a collision. The one whose blood ran cold was Alice; Tsukino herself didn’t so much as blink.

“Why are there goods cheaper than market price?”

Perhaps her curiosity was stronger than her fear. Readjusting the three stacked boxes with a little heave, Tsukino asked with innocent curiosity.

Alice gave a wry smile at the girl tilting her head and raised two fingers.

“Let’s see. I can think of two reasons. Either they don’t know the market price, or they want to get rid of the goods quickly. Since staying in Ashitana for a long time is expensive, I think the latter is more common. Though with antiques, the former happens often too.”

Situations like the one Alice and the others were in, where they were being forced to stay in Ashitana, were rare.

Normally, people would want to withdraw as quickly as possible. Depending on the goods they handled, there would even be cases where lodging costs ran higher than sales. If that happened, it only stood to reason that some people would want to unload their stock quickly, even cheaply. In Ashitana especially, where prices were high, that tendency was particularly pronounced.

“In that kind of environment, I really do think I can be of use.”

It would be difficult to keep making a profit through resale forever. Hidden bargains would grow fewer by the day, and there would surely be goods that didn’t sell as well as hoped.

Even so, they had to see it through somehow. If they could stabilise their lives, that much more freedom would open up for Kishō to move. Once he was freed from financial constraints, he would surely pull it off.

“I have my own role to play. The right person in the right place. Just as Princess Kuroyō said.”

“Yes indeed! Tsukino will fulfill Tsukino’s role too!”

Alice and Tsukino looked at each other and smiled.

Now comrades, the two of them headed together for the tavern where merchants gathered.

Leaving behind the lively city centre, they entered somewhat shabbier streets.

Unlike the centre, which had been overflowing with dragonkin, this seemed to be a district for Ashitana’s citizens, and most of the people passing by were human.

Men reeking of alcohol loitered here and there along streets wrapped in a somehow grim atmosphere. They were not vagrants, so it wasn’t rough enough to be called a slum, but it still seemed to be an area with rather poor public order.

Beside Alice, who naturally tensed up, Tsukino suddenly let out a small cry.

“Ah.”

Following her gaze, Alice saw an Upper House schoolgirl together with a woman in a black cloak disappearing into a certain building.

“That’s Yotsuba-sama. Why is she in a place like this?”

Tsukino’s lips trembled as she said it, and Alice sensed something ominous.

The sign on the building read [Shisuikan]. It was a high-class inn with an impressive appearance, despite being out on the edge of town.

There was no way Alice and the others could afford to stay in a place like that with the state of their current funds.

Judging by the figure beneath the cloak, the person with her seemed to be a woman.

From the way she was dressed, a human sorcerer seemed the likeliest possibility.

Was it some kind of business negotiation, or else a secret meeting?

Alice had no way of probing any further than that.