(ノ｀△′)ノ?▎:?' ∵:.

A desk was slammed up, and all the fine stationery and other things on the table were scattered around the office.

"Where did his food come from?!"

Conradin roared in his office.

Several people standing in the office shivered with their heads down, and they didn't dare to make a sound even if their feet were pressed by the heavy desk.

A rage-filled Conradin kicked the chair away, and the wooden chair of the Elven Craft was smashed into the wall by him.

"How is that possible?"

"How is that possible?!"

Conradin walked around his office like a headless fly, and since February, he had sent envoys in Greentown to check whether the Elven Court would help Charles cash in the food vouchers.

Until yesterday, the official reply of the Elven Court was that they would not provide any food assistance to Charles.

However, just today, Conradin, who was waiting for Charles to come to the door, waited for the latest news from the Northlands: the Harvest Temple announced that it had begun to redeem enough food vouchers for the Maccaden family.

The previous movements of the Harvest Temple were very hidden, and no one knew who the grain carried by the grain convoy going north belonged to.

The sudden news completely disrupted Conradin's plans, and the things he thought would be used as bargaining chips suddenly lost the ability to bargain with Charles.

It took a while for Conradin to calm down.

At this point, he had no good way, he couldn't go to the church and burn the food, then it was better to wipe his neck.

Conradin waved his hand to his men in the office and said, "Go to the north with the pick-up voucher and bring all the food back, at least without losing money." ”

The floods in the south have washed away a lot of farmland and displaced a large number of farmers, making food production in the south a new low, and the disaster is not as easy as in the north.

As long as he has these grains in hand, Conradin estimates that he can make up for the deficit after being collectively pitted by the nobles of the Northlands after selling them.

Some of Conradin's men limped away, and he looked at the mess, then found a clean place to sit cross-legged.

He was recalling all the information, thinking about what was missing.

Charles's food can't appear out of thin air, but he has estimated the grain production of various countries in the southern region, but even with the addition of the elven royal court, he can't conjure up so much surplus food to support Charles.

Just as Conradin was puzzled, his teacher, assistant, and uncle, Manfred, walked in with a serious face.

After the last time the lottery was played, Manfred advised Conradin not to engage in this kind of trick again, and as a result, the stubborn Conradin had a little unpleasant trouble with him.

Later, when Afu came to visit, Manfred thought that he should receive him politely, or at least let himself go and negotiate with Afu, but Conradin finally sent only a random attendant to send Afu away.

Manfred, who now walked into the office, frowned when he saw the mess on the ground.

Conradin, who sat on the ground without looking up, said to Manfred, "Is there anything wrong?"

Manfred said: "There's an update from the Northland. ”

Conradin was shocked, and a bad premonition suddenly enveloped him, and he asked, "Good news or bad news?"

"On the same day, the five Northland countries enacted a new tax policy, imposing tariffs on all grain shipped abroad at 10 times the retail price," Manfred said. ”

Conradin, who was sitting on the ground, was stunned for a moment, and the next moment he felt his hands and feet cold and shivering, and the cold sweat on his body kept pouring out.

After a few minutes, he muttered, "Trap...... It's a trap from the start......"

Manfred sighed in his heart, Charles's approach was still traceable, and this beginning could not be regarded as a trap.

For hundreds of years, the McCaden family has been living their own life by the maple forest, helping the orcs from the north during the disaster year, and it was not until the family suffered a few years ago that they began to take the stage.

Such a non-offensive family, you say that he is going to set a trap and murder you, a prince who is far away from him, who would believe it.

In the beginning, the McCaden family's grain voucher business was reasonable, it was a normal business speculation, and everyone was doing business in harmony, after all, the orcs in the north were stable and everyone could live comfortably.

But when Conradin entered the market, the nature of the matter changed.

If Conradin just did business by the rules, the Northland nobles wouldn't say anything. But as soon as he came up as a southern nobleman, he made it clear that he wanted Charles to smash the field, so the nobles of the North couldn't help but think about it.

Manfred reckoned that it was from this time that the nobles of the Northlands began to conspire to turn this matter into a trap for Conradin.

And Conradin only focused on Charles at first, and as a result, he ignored the connections between the nobles of the Northlands - if he had considered from the beginning that the king of the Rarek Kingdom in the Five Kingdoms of the Northland was pursuing Charles's sister, Duke Redkin was Charles's grandfather, and the five princesses of the Bischberg Kingdom had an ambiguous relationship with Charles in theory, Charles had been playing with a group of royal nobles in the Kingdom of Biberach since he was a child, and the queen of the Kingdom of Philingen was Charles's mother's best friend- Then he probably won't choose to go against Charles in Northland.

When it is profitable to cheat people, there is a hint from above, and the nobles below immediately actively cooperate.

Previously, Ah Fu's visit was to give this matter a chance to finally settle peacefully, but Conradin turned this opportunity away.

Faced with the current situation, Manfred figured out the cause and effect after a few spins in his mind.

Out of his duty as a teacher, he stood there and told Conradin, who was sitting on the ground with his head bowed decadently.

After listening to the teacher's analysis, Kang Ladin said: "The matter has come to this point, then stop the loss in time, and sell all the grain in the northland, we will not lose according to the current price of grain." ”

Manfred sighed and said, "I'll take a trip north and try to get the money back as soon as possible." ”

Conradin nodded.

However, it turns out that Conradin and Manfred underestimated the greed of the Northland nobility.

And what happened next is beyond Charles' control, and he won't control it.

Now the grain belonging to Conradin cannot be transported back to the south, which is equivalent to a fat pig from the south being locked in a pigsty in the north, and the nobles of the north are surrounding the pigsty to discuss how to eat the pig.

A big hand that neither Conradin nor Manfred had expected moved, and after the five Northland countries introduced a bill to temporarily increase the export tariff on grain on the same day, the nobles and merchants all received a message, and then their faces showed a kind smile at the same time.

Towards the end of February, Manfred travels to Mason City on a dragon flight and finds Lord Bard.

He considered that the handicraft industry in Mason City was developed and there was a large food shortage, so he used this place as a breakthrough to sell the grain he had.

When Manfred said what he meant, Bard quoted his purchase price.

Looking at the smiling and kind Bard, Manfred felt as if he had been struck by ice magic, and the blood in his body seemed to solidify.

Bard leaned back on the sofa and said to Manfred lightly: "This price is very good, it is already five percent higher than the same period last year." ”

"That's why we're really short of food here, so I'm paying a high price. ”

Looking at Manfred, whose lips opened slightly a few times but couldn't speak, Bard continued to say in an indifferent tone: "You can go to other places and ask where the price in my country is higher than mine, and I will eat the coffee table in front of me." ”

"This can't be!" Manfred jumped, "I investigated the price of food before I came, and the price of food in the city is at least six times higher than it was last year!"

Manfred had to jump to his feet, and the cost of the grain vouchers that Conradin had purchased averaged out that the cost of his grain was at least three to four times the price of grain at the same time last year.

Although the large amount of grain sent by Charles caused the price of grain to fall slightly, it was still controlled by the nobles and merchants at five times the price of the same period last year.

"Don't be impatient, don't be impatient. The smile on Bud's face was still so kind, "Everyone is kind and rich." ”

Manfred left in a rage, arranging for the grain to be stored in the warehouse in Mason City and guarded it, and then set off to sell it elsewhere.

After that, he spent half a month running around the Northland, and found that the price offered by Bard was indeed the highest price.

Manfred was helpless, knowing that he had fallen into a web woven by the nobles of the Northlands.

Spring is approaching, but there hasn't been a single snow or rain in the Northland this year, and perhaps this year will be another year of great drought.

Against this backdrop, the price of grain in the market soared again, but the nobles and merchants who bought Conradin's grain still insisted on the initial price.

At this time, a rumor began to circulate among the people, a profit-hungry and morally corrupt southern royal family was holding a large amount of grain and did not want to sell it, he wanted to see us northerners starve to death.

When Manfred realizes that something is wrong, several of their grain warehouses are attacked by "hungry civilians" and the grain in the warehouses is looted.

In the end, Conradin made a reluctant, and sold the grain to the civilians at a much lower price than the market.

As a result, there was a serious stampede among the civilians who came to buy food, and the city guards everywhere immediately cordoned off the scene, forbade Conradin's people to sell food without permission until the safety of his customers was guaranteed, and "protected" all his grain depots.

Things got to this point where Conradin had to surrender and throw in the towel.