Iver's Daughter Buys a Fine Steed

Standing behind Iver, Isabel gently patted Iver's shoulder and whispered in Iver ear, "The King seems to really not know... He's so pitiful."

You really call him King?

Do you even know that you are Princess?

Iver raised an eyebrow, but didn't voice his inner complaints.

He leaned close to Isabel's ear and whispered in her ear, "What, you want to pardon him?"

"He still has a daughter to support... I feel that's true. He's genuinely regretful and doesn't even know what Minister Drost does."

Isabel felt pity. But she also retained her rationality.

So she pressed on again. "Help me, Iver... how can I save him without jeopardizing Avalon's interests?"

"As you wish, Your Highness."

Iver's lips curled up slightly as he turned his head and whispered, "Leave it to me."

—Since Iver has said so, then he must be right.

Isabel immediately felt reassured, stood up and took two steps back to be level with Lily, indicating that she would no longer interfere in the matter.

Iver turned around and squinted at the King. That single glance alone brought him immense pressure.

It is a good thing that Princess Highness aspires to be a benevolent Queen.

As someone whose social connections were essentially tied to Avalon, Iver naturally hoped that the future Queen, his superior, would be a kind and benevolent person. Iver wouldn't deny this positive growth trend.

If Avalon really needs some less merciful measures, needs to add a little ruthlessness, thick skin and black heart... then there's still him.

I just hope there won't be any familiar plot developments like "Iver, I am the Queen" or "Isabel, you will regret this"...

Fulfilling Isabel's request is actually quite simple.

—Because Mr. "King" was unaware of one thing: Avalon was actually in dire need of talent.

Botanists are a rather rare profession. They are seldom seen even in the world of Xingti.

Neither Royal Law University nor Milton University has a lineage for this profession. This is because transitioning to this profession is actually more difficult than becoming an alchemist—the alchemist's sense of balance is more about "conservation of matter" and "the principle that everything has its own principle."

The Equilibrium Path botanists must follow includes the balance between humans and nature.

This is much more difficult to understand than alchemy.

Under the influence of Master Nobel, alchemy developed in Avalon for nearly twenty years. But even with its best efforts, it was still far from reaching the level of Star Antimony.

One reason is that Avalon has not yet developed a sufficient talent pool, and currently it mainly relies on the older generation of alchemists—and these older alchemists are basically not from Avalon.

On the other hand, the development of paths like the Equilibrium Path and the Path of Beauty requires a supportive social environment. Researchers actually promote and compete with each other. Although this inevitably leads to infighting within the industry and a significant waste of talent, the overall pace of development will not be slow.

—Since there's an overflow of talent in Star Antimony, why doesn't Avalon hurry up and pick up some of it? People you don't want over there, we want over here! Although the "King" himself only regards botanists as an auxiliary profession to alchemists... after all, botanists can't make a lot of money or become famous, unlike alchemists who have several complete inheritance and promotion paths, and they even seriously lack combat power.

However, from a national perspective, botanists who excel at cultivating different plants, inducing targeted mutations in plants, and rapidly creating various rare plants are far more useful than low-level alchemists of the same rank. Alchemists only become useful at a high level, but botanists are useful even at the First Level.

Even First Level botanist can reduce the maturity of crops from several acres to less than three months by compressing soil fertility, while ensuring crop quality; moreover, lower-level botanists can also deal with pests and diseases and continuously optimize crop seeds.

This is why Xingti can continuously export large quantities of wheat and corn to Avalon.

Because the imported grain from Xingti was of such high quality and low price, it severely squeezed the income of Avalon farmers—even with the 30% protective tariff, it was still 30% cheaper than grain in Avalon.

Unlike Star Antimony, Avalon does not have a noble class with individually owned land.

All the land in Avalon belonged to the royal family and was used by farmers who paid rent. However, the price of grain made it impossible to pay the rent or sell the produce at a good price, leading to a financial crisis for the kingdom. Ultimately, Avalon's arable land was gradually converted into pasture.

The Minister of Finance at the time wanted to implement the Grain Act.

This means that by forcibly setting grain prices, imports are absolutely prohibited when grain prices fall below the set price.

He hoped to use this method to forcibly guarantee the price of grain circulating in the market. This meant that the price of grain in the market would more than double, and the prices of all agricultural products would rise along with it. Furthermore, the number of workers in factories would be significantly reduced.

The then-young Queen Sophia thought long and hard, concluding that it would bring intense conflict and instability to Avalon. Therefore, she ultimately did not pass the Grain Act.

Even without hoarding food or price gouging, this could at least double the price of grain. That's enough to cause starvation. And it's uncertain what other things might happen then.

As a result, Avalon eventually became dependent on Star Antimony for its crops. Just as its name "Mubay County" suggests, Avalon had far fewer farmers than herders, and even fewer fishermen. The remaining farmers primarily cultivated high-value cash crops. Only a few plots of farmland were fully funded by the royal family, used at a loss to grow war-preserving grain of even lower quality than the grain sold by the Stibnite Person.

—According to Iver, the star antimony was actually quite afraid of Avalon back then.

That was a crucial period for Xingti's eastward attack on the Black Eagle Principality and the Narcissus Principality. Especially the Narcissus Principality —it was far, far away from Xingti's homeland.

Back then, Star Antimony was unaware of the extent of Queen Sophia's control over Avalon, nor of her governing plans. Therefore, they employed this strategy to prevent Avalon from initiating a war against Star Antimony.

Now, it's almost time to get out of this mess.

According to Iver's understanding, the government on Star Antimony actually keeps a close eye on botanists—currently, probably because of the power struggle taking place there, alchemists are squeezing out the living space of botanists.

Because botanists' income is basically entirely taken from alchemists. It could even be said that the Star Antimony government raised the prices of Alchemy Material to protect the income and status of botanists.

According to Iver's memory, this was around the time of the internal strife on Star Antimony.

The alchemists wanted to seize power—and from their perspective, their strongest desire was naturally to reduce costs.

Although the work done by botanists is not complicated and does not require much technical skill, their income is much higher than that of lower-level alchemists of the same rank.

Low-level alchemists basically just throw money around – training a Third Level alchemist requires at least 380 gold coins in materials. This is calculated based on the assumption that all alchemy attempts are successful, but if someone's talent is slightly lacking, this number can easily increase several times over.

We're both at the First Level, so why should you earn tens or hundreds of gold coins a month while I have to spend only a dozen or so?

Therefore, alchemists were quite hostile towards botanists, these "profiteers." In order to win the support of the middle and Bottom Layer alchemists, the top alchemists had to seek profits for them—part of which naturally came from botanists, and the other part came from raising prices across all levels.

If Iver isn't mistaken, the "King" will be selling goods during the Promotion Ritual... which will likely mean he'll be slaughtered by the alchemists.

If Iver could recruit the "King" and send a friendly signal...

If the internal strife on Xingti's side intensifies further, they might accept the defection of higher-level botanists.

Furthermore, the "King" himself is a fairly decent person in terms of morality. As long as his inner turmoil can be resolved, he is a capable person.

"If I'm not mistaken," Iver said slowly, "Your family members have very likely been taken control of by the Stibnite Person."

Upon hearing this, Augustus turned deathly pale. "W-why...?"

"Because botanists are prohibited from going abroad. You probably came from an unorthodox background, or your previous level was too low, which is why you don't know about this."

Iver sighed, a look of pity on his face. "The legacy of botanists is closely guarded by Star Antimony. If nothing unexpected happens, you may also be assassinated by Star Antimony."

Of course, this is a lie. After all, he was just a novice botanist at the First Level.

The fighting on the Star Antimony side is fierce, and even for the sake of political correctness, they won't pay too much attention to botanists at this juncture. Otherwise, it will only further anger the exceptionally sensitive alchemists.

Or rather, with the alchemists plotting to seize power, the leak of the botanists' legacy was an irreversible future. For Star Antimony, whose desire for war was now increasingly intense, the royal family could only side with the alchemists when they clashed with the botanists—those alchemists representing the most advanced technology.

This is the conflict between the nation of "Star Antimony" and its core group, the "Alchemists of Star Antimony".

"Then... then I can still go back..."

"What are you thinking about? What do you want to say to the people on Xingti's side?"

Iver interrupted him, retorting, "You actively exported a large quantity of ' Alchemy Material ' to Avalon —although Plant Essential Oil aren't classified as Alchemy Material, you don't think the Stibnite Person don't understand that we're buying these things to synthesize alchemical products, do you? I'm not afraid to tell you—the person you sold these goods to was Star Antimony's biggest spy in Avalon, responsible for smuggling them from Star Antimony. And just these past few days, he was apprehended, interrogated, and executed by us. And almost exactly before your goods arrived, after the contract was signed."

"Then you personally followed the smuggling ship to Avalon. And you met me, met Her Majesty the Queen. But you were not punished at all, and returned to Star Antimony unscathed—I won't say anything else. Think about it yourself, how do you think the Stibnite Person will view you?"

"You don't really think you can go back, do you?"

The more the King listened, the paler he became.

He's not stupid. He's just a little naive.

But to be recognized by the Equilibrium Path, one needs to be intelligent. After a moment's thought, he realized that what Iver said was true.

However, Iver then changed the subject. "But you should thank our kind Princess."

"Since we're destined to meet, Her Highness Isabel intends to help you. We'll try to send inspectors to Star Antimony to see if we can rescue your family. We'll also send people to protect you."

"... What! Thank you so much, Your Highness, the kind and noble Princess, and Mr. Moriarty... Please, you must rescue my family—!"

Augustus overjoyed, but also somewhat uneasy. "Then, what can I do for you?"

"You don't need to do anything. At least not for now."

Iver's lips curled up slightly as he uttered words that relieved Augustus but also made him more uneasy. "It's free, Mr. Augustus."

Update complete!