Sword and Spice

The next day.

Kang De met the knight at the appointed place.

Cleveland bowed with impeccable precision. "Good day, Mr. Kang De."

Kang De was unused to such fancy noble etiquette and merely nodded. "Good morning."

The knight frowned slightly.

As Goth's star knight, his every move was regarded as the ideal model of noble conduct. To borrow a line from classical Chinese, "Learned scholars converse and laugh with me; no unlettered commoners cross my threshold." Those he associated with were either renowned knights or well-bred nobles. Together, they talked and laughed, carried themselves gracefully, spoke with refinement, and observed every rule of etiquette. Their every gesture was a pleasure to behold.

So he felt a little awkward now.

As he understood it, when two people met and exchanged greetings, they were supposed to be graceful and composed. Even if Kang De did not know the continent's etiquette, surely he should at least observe the customs of Cathay? Didn't Cathayans usually bow with clasped hands? At the very least, couldn't he clasp his hands? Just a nod?

Even if I let the nod pass, I greeted you first, and you returned the greeting. Now it's your turn to speak. Comment on the weather or exchange pleasantries-at least say something!

Kang De felt very awkward too.

Should I say "how are you"? "Fine, thank you, and you"?

An awkward silence fell.

Kang De waited a moment, then finally broke the silence, deciding to greet him according to his own people's customs.

"...Have you eaten?"

The knight's handsome face contorted slightly, and he nodded with difficulty. "I... I have. The sailors pulled a lot of oysters from the sea, and there was also dried meat and bread aboard..."

Damn it, when we ask if you've eaten, we're just being polite. You don't have to answer in such detail!

Or is that how you people from another world do things?

Kang De wore an awkward but polite smile. "Sea... seafood's good. I fried a big lobster for breakfast this morning and sprinkled on some minced garlic, ginger, thyme, bay leaves, chili flakes, black pepper..."

Sprinkled on what!?

Are you showing off, you Easterner!?

The knight only understood half the names of those seasonings, but he could tell exactly what they were: spices, every one of them extraordinarily valuable.

In this day and age, the elves monopolized ninety percent of the continent's spice trade with their unparalleled agricultural techniques, steadily drawing wealth from across the entire continent. And that was only one of their most profitable trades.

Vast quantities of gold and silver sustained the Dusk Moon Dynasty's extravagant and decadent lifestyle while funding and expanding the elves' massive military. Their ever-growing military might protected and expanded their trade territory, allowing them to project greater force over greater distances, forming a virtuous cycle.

Goth was at war with the elves over grievances both new and old, but one reason had been left out of the declaration-of-war memorandum. More important than any of those grievances, it was that Goth's ambitious grand duke had secretly organized a fleet to try to reopen the maritime Silk Road, importing cheaper spices, silk, and other important goods from distant Cathay to break the damned pointy-ears' trade monopoly.

To the elves, this went beyond every historical grievance and territorial dispute. It was practically a fucking blood feud, like the murder of their own mothers.

So they dug through old records to concoct a whole slew of claims, then went to war.

This showed just how profitable the elves' spice trade was, and how completely the human nations were at others' mercy when it came to that trade.

The elves possessed advanced productive capabilities and produced more spices than anyone in the world. They also had an invincible fleet that sailed every sea and the peerless Dragonfang Army. Any human merchant guild that dared compete with them for market share was either driven out of business by goods dumped at rock-bottom prices or sent to the bottom of the sea by elf pirates who preferred to remain anonymous.

Whenever money was involved, every race could display depravity and shamelessness beyond imagination. Humans and elves were as bad as each other.

In such an economic environment, spices might not have been worth their weight in gold, but they certainly were not cheap. So, in the knight's eyes, Kang De using at least seven or eight spices just to fry one lousy, inexpensive lobster was definitely a display of wealth. Even a small handful of each of those spices would have been enough to buy a dozen or more arm-thick lobsters in Goth's capital, where prices were highest.

More importantly...

Where had he gotten spices on this island? Where did his food, clothing, and other necessities come from? Could Cathayan ships be coming here? Then why had he stayed here all this time? Was he an exiled prince of Cathay?

Seeing the knight fall silent, Kang De was puzzled too.

Are you keeping quiet because you're jealous I have lobster to eat?

I don't have much of that stuff in stock either. Only a few Western restaurants had any, and each one cost at least four or five hundred yuan. I only had one today to celebrate awakening my superpower yesterday.

Kang De felt he might have shown off a bit too much and hurt the tender feelings of a native of another world, so he hurriedly changed the subject. "Anyway... how did you sleep last night?"

The knight also came back to his senses from his endless train of thought.

"As a warrior, having a bed beneath me and a roof over my head makes for the most comfortable night's sleep."

He hesitated, then said, "It's just that there are quite a few mosquitoes and other insects on the island. We don't mind, but Her Highness is of noble birth, so it's a little..."

"There are mosquitoes on the island?"

Kang De was startled at first, then realization dawned.

Yes, there were mosquitoes.

When he had first crossed over, they had given him a terrible headache too. He had wrapped himself up from head to toe, hung three layers of mosquito netting, and kept mosquito coils, Liushen floral water, medicated oil, and insect repellent on hand. They had plagued him every day until he could hardly stand it. Later, after he met the magical animals, he never had that problem again.

Those animals did not have a single louse on them. When they walked through the grass, all sorts of insects hiding there would scatter like mad, not daring to come within ten meters. After spending a long time with them, Kang De had developed a similar constitution. Now, even if he walked through the densest jungle in a tank top and beach shorts, he would come out unscathed, with no snake, bug, mosquito, or ant daring to approach him.

So from then on, Kang De had thought these magical animals were extraordinary. Perhaps they were ancient divine beasts whose supernatural powers had been suppressed, or something like that.

Their ability to drive insects and beasts away could also be explained scientifically. Like tigers on Earth, whose urine alone could scare many animals so badly that they lost control of their bowels or could not even move, it was probably that kind of scent.

Huh, wait.

At that thought, something occurred to Kang De.

Now that he had awakened the great enchanting art of extracting elements, he had another way of looking at things.

For example, if he extracted elements from A Xing and the others' urine, could he...

Ugh.

That's too perverted.

Even I wouldn't know how to bring up something like that.

He quickly shook off the strange thought and said, "The insects... I didn't give that enough thought. I have some mosquito nets, as well as medicine to drive insects away and treat bites. I'll send you some later."

The knight said, "You only need to provide them for Her Highness... Well, if possible, there are also a few ladies aboard: Her Highness's head maid and several maids. Providing them for the ladies will be enough. We're very grateful, and we'll pay for them."

Her Highness the princess came first, while a knight had his own pride and honor and could not accept gifts without cause.

Money?

Kang De did not refuse.

It was a good chance to learn about this other world's monetary system and the like.

He did not care about the value of the currency itself. Within the neighborhood and its surroundings alone, there were three banks, with not only large reserves of currency but even gold. Yet none of it meant anything.

He was no longer interested in money. Like Master Ma, he had become a man above vulgar tastes.

The knight gestured, and the squire accompanying him stepped forward, holding a box.

Kang De's fire axe and stun baton, which he had left behind yesterday, lay on top of it.

"These are the weapons you left behind. We're returning them to their owner."

The knight said, "We found the gifts you brought at the scene and took the liberty of accepting them. As a gift in return and an apology for yesterday's misunderstanding, we've prepared a modest present. We hope you'll accept it."

Kang De had brought some wine, candy, and the like, but had dropped them at the scene during the fight. The sailors found them and turned them in. After discussing it that evening, the princess and the others decided that returning the gifts would be somewhat rude and would embarrass Kang De, as though they were refusing to let yesterday's incident go...

The best response was to keep the gifts and prepare a present worth several times as much to send over the next day.

Fortunately, the Penguin did not lack gifts. The princess was traveling to the imperial capital on a mission to lobby, so she naturally needed money to smooth the way. The ship carried some valuables, while the rest were transported to the capital by various means through the merchant guild under the Taidariel Family's name, for Her Highness to use.

Kang De was very interested.

He put the fire axe and stun baton away on his person and took the box. "May I open it and have a look?"

The knight smiled. "Just as we will soon be sharing the fine wine and candy you brought, the items in the box have belonged to you since last night."

That was pleasant to hear.

Kang De smiled. "Thank you."

He took the box. It felt heavy in his hands, but that was nothing to him now.

Kang De held the box in one hand and opened it.

Light shone from within.

Kang De narrowed his eyes and examined the contents carefully.

The knight watched his expression, and a trace of disappointment flashed in his eyes.

Her Highness the princess had personally chosen the gifts for Kang De.

According to Goth's court historians, Cathayan seagoing ships had first arrived in Goth several hundred years ago, bringing greetings from the Eastern emperor.

Their gifts included a magnificent ding, top-grade silk that blades could hardly damage, a wooden martial-arts automaton that moved on its own, a flying sword that could strike from a hundred paces, a long zither made of jade, and so on.

There was also a copy of the "Classic of the Great Dao," transcribed by the emperor himself.

The grand duke of Goth at the time had responded with lavish gifts of his own: a vial of holy dragon blood, a cloak of invisibility, an inheritance crystal inscribed with Griffin Swordsmanship, the Blade of Apollo burning with undying solar flames, and so on and so forth.

Although the gifts the princess had brought this time could not compare to those the Duchy of Goethe had given in return back then, they were of exactly the same kinds-enchanted weapons, potions, magical robes, magic crystals...

If Kang De held a high position in Cathay, he would surely recognize the goodwill embodied in these things.

Unfortunately, he did not.

He merely reached out and picked up the enchanted shortsword, his gaze intent.

It was as though he had discovered something that interested him greatly-elements, crimson elements entwined in the pattern of a soaring flame.

$$$$$$$$$$

PS1: Europeans in the past were truly crazy about spices. After Rome's downfall, prices climbed higher with each passing day. For a time, top-grade spices really were worth their weight in gold. I have no idea why they were so obsessed with them; several explanations don't make sense...

PS2: It's time to introduce these people from another world to Wang Shouyi.