At the Incaross' estate in Astoria, two weeks before Lith arrived in the city.
I was sitting in a seat before a round table in the balcony. The first rays of the sun were just peeking from the horizon, and the cold residue left by the night still was gnawing at the atmoshpere.
"I didn't hear any announcements that you were coming back, Sister" a woman's voice sounded, refined and polished, like every tone and stress points have been practiced to a T.
I was sipping my warm coffee in peace, something I hadn't had the chance to do in quite some time. This small moment of sipping tea was a sweet serenity, a rare luxury, a chance to bring myself in this blessed moment of peace. It would've been good if the drink's quality lived up to expectations.
"Haaaa" I sighed in regret. After all these years, I still couldn't find the appeal of coffee . I couldn't help but think that I should've just stuck with green tea .
"You really should respond when someone's talking to you, you know?" the woman spoke out, her voice still as refined and polished as it had ever been
"Morning, Laura . I haven't seen you in quite a while" It was only then that I finally turned to the woman who was probably getting more and more incensed every passing second. Giving her a smile, I said "I didn't expect you to go out of your way looking for me, Laura."
".... ..."
Seeing me act like nothing happened, I've known her long enough to know that she was irritated. Her silence was the only confirmation I needed. She could be wearing the gentlest of smiles or speaking the kindest and sweetest words, but I knew all of them meant less than air. It would take a LOT more than a simple provocation if someone wanted to, at least, glimpse a crack on the thick layer of mask that is her manners and etiquette.
Not that it bothered me though. Seeing her so quiet, I went back to sipping my cup of coffee . I was wondering how much time I had left before seven. So from my pocket, I took out a certain pocket watch and opened it to check the time.
'Still an hour and a half.' still quite some time before my scheduled departure for the city. Without much to do, I looked at the ticking hands of the gold-plated pocket watch. While it wasn't as extravagant as my other possessions, it was quite to my liking.
Twisting the little key-like handle at the back, a melodious tune started playing. The tune was something I've only heard once before, it was the original composition of my student. It sounded very lovely and endearing, just like the person who made it.
"I've heard that you've been playing around lately..." Only then did Laura speak again and the smile that unknowingly crept up my lips disappeared.
"Hm?" I raised my brows at her remark, I was slightly peeved and irritated to find out that she was snooping in on my actions lately. As if noticing my irritation, she sat her butt down directly on the table before looking down at me.
"I heard that you had two girls enrolled into the imperial magic Academy." Laura said while twirling her hair around her fingers "So I decided to look into it, to the girls that got Aerin's attention, of all people."
"While doing so, I found something interesting." Laura seems to have thought that I've taken interest on Luna and Linia , while that was fine. I was also interested in what was it that she found out, "Linia Olarion and Luna Olarion twins , four and a half elven years, 23 by the empire's standards. Luna displayed extreme skills when it comes to magic proficiency and Linia displayed extreme skills in and-to-hand combat and with some weapon , at least according to my reports."
"Sounds pretty standard, that's why the school director didn't make that much of a fuss when heard our recommendations." I said
"You're right about that. But it's her family that interested me" Hearing her words, I narrowed my eyes. This girl was deep in the inner workings of the country and if Lith somehow caught her attention then I'll have to put her in her place.
"Their mother actually fought during the southern conquests a few decades ago and was an officer of the late emperor's imperial guards." Laura said as if she found something amusing before continuing "Before the tragedy of Fort Viota, one of the marshals died, so the emperor verbally promoted one of his officers to replace him and it just so happened to be her."
"Of course, the emperor later died during the siege, so the promotion only remained verbal and wasn't officially stamped. But the empress was very kind to her husband's generals and asked if she wanted the position after the peace treaties had been signed, but she apparently declined and went off to retire in peace."
Well, that was news to me as well. I've seen Lith's mother and it didn't cross my mind that she was kicking it back on her youth.
"So?" I asked the woman how exactly was that important? It doesn't matter what position she had before, the woman was retired and had three kids in some faraway village. I knew she was paranoid but to feel threatened by a housewife was just pathetic.
"I'm just checking if you knew about it beforehand." She shrugged off my question before saying "But it seems like you don't, so there's no problem. I was just wondering if you were trying to stir something up."
"Unlike you, I don't have the time for pointless schemes." I sighed again, but inside I felt relieved that Lith went under her radar. "So is that all?"
"Not really, Reports have told me that some people were able to get their hands on Cacao through foreign markets and are selling it here below the market price." Laura spoke out the main reason she came to talk to me in the first place "The exact details are written in a report in our mansion at the capital. You should know what to do by now"
"I got it, no need to disturb me." I waved her off telling that I already understood, it was just another job of the many I've taken. Instead my precious morning tea time is being interrupted
"Also try to finish it as quickly as possible, we don't want them influencing the market too much now, don't we?" She just couldn't leave me alone, could she? "Oh and another thing."
"What now?" I was already feeling pretty impatient.
"Where'd you get that watch? You've been looking at it for quite some time now." Laura asked and hearing that I smiled boastfully before saying,
"It's a treasure."
Two weeks had passed since then and I am currently reading the written report organized by Laura.
Apparently some merchants have gotten ahold of a sizable amount of Cacao beans through a supply chain from a supply chain from the Principality of Valia down in the south. While the cost of transport was high, since it was passing through two countries, it was just enough to be lower than the current market prices in Elban while still making profits.
It was a problem because currently, the Incaross family holds a monopoly of the Cocoa production within the Empire. As the Astoria Duchy is the southernmost territory of the empire, plus the recent expansion in the south brought upon the last war a few decades ago. We've gained access to a very lucrative market in Elban.
Chocolate was a good product up in the north, because it can be both a common sweet or a luxury treat depending on how you sell it. Cacao can only grow in select areas in our territory thus we own every Cacao plantation inside Loria's borders, because of that every locally produced cocoa powder has to be bought from us. And when it comes to outside sources, since very few people can match the money of Incaross, we also buy the ones from different countries in slightly higher prices making us the most attractive partners when selling Cacao to Loria .
When it comes to selling these, we have to be slightly more subtle about it. We have a lot of dummy companies under different names that sells chocolates with varying prices and quality, all aimed at different markets. Most of them belongs 'in-name' to different people, some to our vassals, some to lower ranking nobles. But make no mistake, all of them belongs to us. Thus the majority of them are meant and sold to the upper-class as luxury products, people living in the inner walls of the city, where we can raise the prices even more.
Of course, we can't talked to every cacao farmer nor can we control them in the world so sometimes a few people manage to get a hold of supply chains from other countries. So we have these people who thinks they've struck gold by realizing how overly priced these products were at here and selling these supposed-to-be expensive products at a cheaper price to the populace, hoping to strike it big.
And that's were my job lies, as the prime intelligencer of the Incaross, it is my job to remove everything that works against the family's interest, to "solve" these kinds of problems. For this one in particular, it was important I finish it as fast as possible.