Mage? Magic Engineer!-Chapter 45 - 42: His Majesty the Golden King

His Golden Majesty. Outside the Royal Palace, the phrase might refer to the currency of the highest denomination. Within it, however, it was also a fitting description for the sovereign of the Saint Vallova Kingdom.

Charles XVI had inherited his family’s build—short, stout, and lacking in majesty. But judging from his court and his intricate, predominantly white-and-gold attire, it was easy to see that he was the most illustrious man in the Holy Kingdom.

Right now, he was in his study, chatting idly with the Court Guard Captain while indulging in a personal hobby: tinkering with clocks.

"Your Majesty..." Their previous chat had revolved around amusing anecdotes from Valuva. The Guard Captain, observing that King Charles was in a good mood, hesitantly spoke again. "A few days ago, there was a fire in the city center."

Charles carefully placed an uninstalled balance wheel onto a piece of velvet cloth, his expression turning serious. "Guard Captain, were any of my subjects harmed?"

"I don’t know how to break this to you, Your Majesty. Good heavens! It was... the Lowe Commerce Association building, an enterprise belonging to Your Majesty... I am so sorry. This was my failure." If the Guard Captain’s subordinates had been present, they would have been shocked to see that their superior was even capable of such a sorrowful expression.

"Why are you taking the blame? Isn’t this the responsibility of the commerce association and the Security Team? Is it just because their captain is an old friend of yours?"

"Your Majesty, your words fill me with shame!"

Charles felt a hint of boredom at the Guard Captain’s exaggerated performance. He used to enjoy seeing such over-the-top reactions. "Alright, alright. Investigate the cause of the incident, take stock of the losses, and report back to me..."

"The Lord Bishop requests an audience!" A guard’s announcement rang out from the antechamber.

"Enter." "His Majesty grants an audience!"

Before the call had even finished echoing, the sound of CLACK-CLACK-CLACK rang out on the marble floor. His Majesty the King silently gathered his clock and small tools onto a tray and put it away in his desk drawer.

Here, "the Bishop" referred to one man, and one man only—the man hated by the Guard Captain and most of the Nobility: Dipresy. He entered leaning on a cane, dragging his disabled right leg. With his status and the divine favor he had received, it could have been healed, but for some unknown reason, he stubbornly kept his leg impaired, a fact that also annoyed others.

"Your Majesty, according to preliminary statistics for the year, the grain harvest has decreased!" Though he wore red clerical robes, he was like a bird of ill omen.

The Guard Captain composed his features. "Your Majesty, I will see the task you’ve given me completed." Saying this, he stared straight ahead, striding past the Bishop and out of the King’s study.

Charles knew the Bishop had more to say, and indeed he did. "You should restrain those gentlemen tax farmers. Tell them to retract their greedy fangs and plump lips, and leave a path for Your Majesty’s subjects to survive."

"Count Dipresy, our dear tax farmers are all carefully selected men of high virtue. Besides, the truly greedy ones are those fellows from the banks. At the end of this year, I still have to pay them thirty-seven million Gold Coins."

"Your Majesty, I’m afraid our tax revenue this year will only be eighty million gold... For nearly half of that to go toward merely paying off interest is a disaster for the Kingdom!"

"If I can’t fill the bellies of those vultures with interest, they won’t lend any more money! They’ll even threaten me to repay the principal!" Perhaps the farmers in the outer provinces could not imagine it, but the wealthiest man in the Holy Kingdom was also its most indebted. This, however, was an open secret among the Nobility and the bankers.

The Cardinal spoke for a long time, a much less pleasant conversation than the one with the Guard Captain. Before leaving, the Bishop said worriedly, "Your Majesty, I have no authority to interfere in the Kingdom’s military affairs, but I must remind you that recent intelligence shows the Empire’s armies have been moving with unusual frequency."

"I know, I know. May the God of Light and Order protect us!"

As the most authoritative agent of the Kingdom’s God, the Archbishop offered no response. "I shall take my leave."

The antechamber doors closed, leaving only the ticking of hundreds of clocks in the study. They were large and small, all of them Charles’s own creations. Yet, the one clock he had been trying to fix for over twenty years—the clock of the Holy Kingdom—still refused to run smoothly or on time.

...

Even on a day off, one still had to check in at the research lab in the morning. Rorschach took the opportunity to ask the other two about clothing stores. Prairie Avenue had clothing stores, of course, but the prices there were too inflated, far beyond what Rorschach could afford. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

"Not going! I need to catch up on sleep." Pascal’s refusal was curt and firm.

"Let me see," Paulina said, taking the map Rorschach had gotten from the Magic Guild and making marks on it. "I’ll circle some shops for you. This place has good food... Here are a few clothing stores, and the prices are decent. This commerce association here sells the experimental Alchemy Medicines and other materials we need..."

Rorschach saw one street that was marked more densely than any other. "Du Peng Street?"

"Du Peng Street has a lot of clothing stores, and they’re much better value. The tailors there have noses as keen as a hound’s. As soon as a new style appears in the shops on Prairie Avenue, you can find the same thing on Du Peng Street for less than a third of the price."

’So it’s the knock-off capital of the garment district?’ Rorschach thought, thanking his senior.

"Oh, now that you mention it, I feel like I need to get some winter clothes, too. Pascal, are you sure you’re not coming?"

Pascal had already curled up in the leather armchair closest to the fireplace. Having found a comfortable position, he declared, "Not going!"

"What a shame." Paulina grabbed Rorschach’s arm and slowly shuffled toward the door, saying as she went, "It’s so rare for Master Kano to agree to lend me his carriage. I guess only my junior will get to enjoy the perk..."

"There’s an unbelievable perk like that and you didn’t say so sooner?" Pascal shot out of the... leather armchair as if he’d been jabbed in the rear. "I’m suddenly not sleepy anymore! Wow, it’s so cold. Let’s go, let’s go buy clothes."

Rorschach was immediately released. Paulina grabbed Pascal and, without another word, started dragging him toward the door as if afraid he would change his mind.

Rorschach looked at the marked map and thought, ’I could collect information on the shops, make a map like this, and sell it at the city gates. It would probably be pretty popular with people from out of province, right?’

"Not just people from out of province! Those idle Valuvanan people would buy it too." Pascal, while being dragged along, suddenly perked up. He pulled out a small notebook and started scribbling, muttering to himself:

"We could also collect customer reviews and rate the shops. Once we build a reputation, we can charge the shops money to raise their scores. We can make money from both ends..."

’Pascal has this much experience with running an internet platform? Who’s the Transmigrator here?’ Rorschach was speechless as he put the map away.

When they finally reached the research building’s stables, the three of them discovered that their beloved Master Kano had lent them the carriage, but the driver was also on vacation! And none of them knew how to drive it!

"Should we just hail a rental carriage?" That had been Rorschach’s plan from the start, so it made no difference to him.

"Rental carriages are getting harder and harder to find these days."

"I knew that old... Master Kano wouldn’t let us get off easy! Let’s just forget it..." Pascal turned to go back, but a sudden icy glare made him shiver.

"I’ll go figure something out."

A moment later, Pascal actually led a horse covered in a thick velvet blanket out from the building. Mr. Snow followed behind him, boasting, "A masterpiece from the Alchemy Department! It runs on just a bit of Ether. Tell it a location, and it will take you there. Its intelligence is on par with a Tower Spirit!"

Snow affectionately stroked the Alchemy Department’s masterpiece. "Don’t you go bumping or scratching this baby. Tell me how it feels to use when you get back."