When we returned to Zenobia port, the first person to greet us was Julia.

'Lord Ike, I was praying for your safety.

　And then she hugs me unobtrusively.

　The sailors are mischievous and her breasts are so close together that it's indescribable.

　Sati is looking at me with a smile on her face, more than usual, and I can't help but feel uncomfortable.

　I pull her away from me.

A lady before her wedding is not supposed to do that in public.

　And I caution her.

　She says, "Yes! And he obeyed with a quick smile.

Well, I think I'd like to do it in the middle of nowhere.

　He let out a gruff statement.

''...........''

　In a way, I was terrified by the statement, which was more rigid than a pirate, but we climbed into the carriage that Yulia rode in.

　We were going to the mansion of Eltria, the ally of Zenobia.
　The reason she hadn't come to the port, was because she was "busy with work".
　Apparently, she is still forced to have an up-to-the-minute schedule.

　But she seems to be taking the time to meet with me and be at the negotiating table.
　He's also said that he's made all of his time available in the afternoon.
　That's how indebted he is to me for the defeat of Carussa.
　I was going to use that favor as a bargaining chip to get him to sign a treaty with the Demon King's Army as advantageously as possible.


　When I went to the office of Etria's mansion in Zenobia, Etria gave me a hug as soon as she opened her mouth.

''Oh, my son-in-law,''
　And--.

　It seems to be so happy to hear the report of the extermination of the Carossa, but I never dreamed that I would be hugged suddenly.

　The woman named Eltria is Yulia's mother.
　She must be a reasonably old woman, but she's quite attractive.
　And perhaps because she wears perfume, she smells very good.
　I guess it's called the charm of a mature woman.
　She's an attractive woman in a different way than Julia.

　However, I never dreamed that I would receive an embrace from two attractive women at about the same time on the same day.

　And from a mother and daughter.

　I couldn't help but notice the difference in the feel of their breasts, but since I'm a gentleman, I asked them to leave Eltria and decided to get down to business.

'As promised, I've got the red-bearded Carussa.

　She regained her calm merchant's expression.

Yeah, I see.

　I said.

'I didn't expect you to bring it to me alive, though.

I'm sorry. My grandfather taught me not to kill anyone unnecessarily.

'Don't apologize. We'll take care of them.

...is it still a gibbet?

'No,' said Eltria, shaking her head.

'I don't like the idea of staining the groom and bride's entrance with pirate blood. I'd say ten years in prison for my boys and life for Carossa.

　I said jokingly.

'--Mr. Hans said the same thing.

　I chuckled, and she smiled in response.

''As far as I'm concerned, though, it wasn't meant to be a joke. Well, we'll talk about that later.
It's not a joke, but I'll talk about the treaty that is agreed upon between the 'Demon King's Army' and the 'Trade Federation'.

..........

　I'm silent.

　I've been able to lash out like Cephiro before, but it looks like I can finally get to the point.

　Eltria, the leader of the Trade Federation, declares in a clear tone of voice: ''We are providing food to the Demon King's army.

''We are willing to provide food to the Demon King's army,''

Are you sure?

Yes, merchants lie, but they keep their word. Make a treaty and it will be fulfilled.

That could be taken as a statement by the head of a trade association, right?

Yeah.

　She replied shortly, and then added.

''Of course there are opposing views within the trade union. But wouldn't it be better to make friends with the Demon King's army now, even if it's a long time ago?　Some people said that.

'Did you have that opinion?'

What do you expect?

Yeah, well,

That's a slap in the face to the merchants. A merchant is a cunning and hardy creature. Naturally, they bet on the one with the best chance of winning.

''But the opponent is the Demon King's army. Aren't you afraid of the demon race?

''I'd be lying if I said I wasn't afraid. But fear doesn't mean that the Demon King's army will be defeated or that the cities of the Trade Federation will be enriched. Besides, all sorts of information will come in from your ruling city, Ivalice.

Is that from my town?

''Yeah, that's right. The ruler of this city is different from the previous Demon Race. No, the current Demon King is something completely different from the previous Demon King. The bottom line is that he's going to be a business partner, and it's becoming famous among merchants.

　It is true that many merchants come and go in the city of Ivalice.
　They pay the merchants a decent price and also guarantee their safety within the territory.

　I was aware that this is why merchants are gathering from all over the world, but the rumor seems to have spread to the ears of the leaders of the Trade Federation as well.

I'm not sure I'll be able to find the right one.

That's exactly what they think," he said. The point is that they are divided in two," he said. There are those who believe that the Demon King's Army is terrible, and that they want to support the League of Kings and defeat the Demon King's Army, and there are also those who believe that they want to secure their position after the war through sarcasm now.

"...Which one was Mr. Eltria, by the way?

Me?　I thought the Demon King's Army would win. I knew from the beginning that the general of the Demon King's army this time was different from the others.

　Then he continues to smile merrily.

'And since I met my son-in-law, that has changed for the better.

　When she says that, she holds out her arm.
　In other words, she would sign a trade treaty with the Demon King's army.
　Thus, I succeeded in concluding the first trade treaty between a person and a demon race.




　For the next few hours, the two of us discussed the contents of the treaty.

　The first thing that came up on the agenda was not what to 'trade', but how to conduct trade.

　As I said before, there are some executives within the Trade Federation side who are afraid of the Demon King's Army, and in the first place, we can't trade with them openly for political reasons.

''If we do such a thing, it might cause resentment from the Confederation of Lords and give them an excuse to attack us.

　That was Eltria's defense.
　I think it's obvious.
　There's a similar story in a previous life.
　It's called the Crusaders (Crusaders).

　They sent troops into the neighboring countries many times to conquer the infidels, but they also invaded and plundered the same Christian cities because they didn't fund the conquest of the infidels.

　This is not to say that the people of this world would not do the same thing.

　No, on the contrary, the Lords Alliance would surely attack the Trade Federation if they were found to be dealing with the Demon King's Army.

　The rich grain fields and spice trade concessions in the south would look very tempting.

　To give the League of Kings an excuse here would be the worst possible choice for the Trade Federation.

''Therefore, we can only do business in secret and will continue to do business with the Lords Alliance. I want you to understand that.

Yes, of course I know that.

　In short, Etria has declared that she will continue to provide food aid to the Lords Alliance as before.

　Of course, as the brigade commander of the Demon King's Army, I would like to ask her to stop, but I understood her position, and if the situation as mentioned above happens, we will be in trouble too.
　There's a risk that we won't be able to get food from the south at all.　

　Besides, Eltria, Julia, Hans, and the various people I've met in this city, and I didn't want them to get caught up in the war.

''I'm sorry. I'm sorry for acting like I'm weighing both sides.

No, I'd appreciate it if you could do business with me in secret.

　That was true.
　With this, the Demon King's army's concern about the immediate food shortage could be resolved.

　For the time being, the conclusion they came to was to have the merchants secretly divert foodstuffs under the guise of a private transaction.

　It is tempting to use ships to make a big deal, but if it is revealed that the ships of the Trade Federation have entered the port of a city under the control of the Demon King's army, it would be a big problem.

　We should have made a careful arrangement here.

　After about an hour or so of the two of them coming up with ideas, the rest of the day was spent mentioning 'trade goods'.
　The Trade Federation would be provided with grains and spices in that season, but what should the Demon King's Army provide?

　I asked her.

　She immediately replied.
"Weapons.
　I said.

'I've heard. I hear that your city is now home to the Dwarf King, Lord Günther.

'--Mr. Eltria is really quick to hear.

The city of Ivalice is one of the hottest cities in the world. It's changing from an agricultural city to an industrial city. And I hear you've developed some kind of freaky weapon. We want it.

..........

　He may be referring to the flamethrower, but I'm not sure of the answer.
　The flamethrower's power quickly became known throughout the continent after the recent Arsenum rescue.

　There was no need to keep it a secret now, but so far the production of flintlocks has not been able to keep up with the production of flintlocks.

　They have their hands full deploying them to their own brigade and haven't finished distributing them to other brigades either.
　It would be too early to make such a thing a commercial item.

　But they want weapons.
　You can't just say no to them.
　It's not a compromise, but I ask.

''Come to think of it, it seems that sorcerers are a must in naval warfare in this area.
''Exactly. It's become standard practice for them to magically slam rocks into each other during long-distance battles.

　I thought of this the other day at the Battle of Carossa, and I thought of it when we started farming in Ivalice, but because of the poorly developed magic in this world, the technology is less than medieval in some parts of the previous world.

　They still don't even manufacture gunpowder, let alone guns, or even cannons.
　That's why the profession of a magician is so popular, though.
　Anyway, I decided to make a suggestion to Eltria: "What if you were to board a merchant ship?

'What if I told you that I could halve the number of sorcerers I have on my merchant ship?

Thank goodness for that. It costs me the wages of dozens of sailors to hire a top-notch magician. We could cut down on our transportation costs considerably.

'Then I'll provide you with a weapon that can cut the stone-crushing sorcerer in half.

　Eltria frowned as she said this.

'Do you really have such a weapon?'
Yes, sir. It's called a cannon.

　I thought about it after watching the stone-crushing battle the other day.
　'If only we had a cannon,' he said, 'we could cut down on the sorcerers.

'A cannon?　That's a weapon I've never heard of. What kind of weapon is it?　

"A large iron cylinder is filled with large iron bullets. We blow them out with gunpowder and crush the enemy.

A bigger version of that thing called "Ju" or something.
You're welcome to think about it.

　It's hard to mass produce a flintlock gun. In fact, even in the prehistoric world, cannons were commercialized before guns.

　In fact, even in the prehistoric world, cannons were commercialized before guns, because they were easier to construct and easier to manufacture.
　It is more difficult to miniaturize them today and in the past.

　A cannon could be mass-produced by human artisans.
　We can turn it into an export product.
　I suggested this, but this proposal pleased Ertria more than I had expected.

It's as good as you can do, my son-in-law. You understand what they want and provide it to them. You will be a first-class merchant as well.

　After saying that, he hugs me again.

　I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to find a way to get my hands on it.

　I'm glad to say that the secret treaty between the Demon King's Army and the Trade Federation is now settled.

It's a good thing that you're able to get your hands on some of these things.

Is it to be done?

Yeah.

　Eritrea assured her, "It's an engagement announcement party for my daughter," she gave a person's bad smile, "That's my daughter's engagement announcement party.

''Are you sure you're going to do it?''

　Eltria smiled like my boss, Cephiro.

'If we don't do it, we won't make a treaty - that's a big lie, well, we can't make the treaty public, but I'd like to at least have a party to celebrate it,'

　I said.

　I see, then, that this man was willing to make a treaty with me from the beginning.
　Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to prepare a party in advance.

　No, it's possible that he could have really prepared an engagement party for his daughter.

　I can't even begin to fathom that part.

　After many years of coming and going on the battlefield, I've learned to understand the thoughts of the enemy, but there is still a part of me that doesn't understand the thoughts of women.

　I will probably never understand them for the rest of my life, but I decided to attend the 'treaty signing' party anyway.

　That would be the minimum civility for someone who came as an emissary of the Demon King's army.
　With that in mind, I was urged by Eltria to put on my formal attire.