Duke Windsor stared hard at the two men across from him, his face grim.
"What did you say? The merchants have all left? Why? Where did they go? What are they trying to do?"
Both subordinates swallowed and stole a cautious glance at Duke Windsor before answering hesitantly, "Y-Your Grace, the reason the merchants left... may have something to do with you..."
"With me?" Duke Windsor's brows shot up. "What is that supposed to mean? Are you saying I drove them away?"
The two officials responsible for the Candel Empire's Southern Province finances both gave helpless, bitter smiles.
Recently, merchants had been leaving the Southern Province one after another, moving their guilds' main operations elsewhere in the empire. If anyone traced the cause, it really did lie with the duke standing before them.
The reason was actually quite simple: the duke had issued an order forbidding anything connected to the Xinfei Merchant Guild from entering the Southern Province.
In the latter half of the previous year, His Majesty the Emperor had changed his attitude toward the Xinfei Merchant Guild at the urging of Hastrey, the minister heading the Empire Ministry of Finance. Countless pieces of magic machinery manufactured by the Xinfei Merchant Guild had then entered the Candel Empire from the Stantin Duchy, the Lampari Kingdom, and the various countries of the continent's southwest.
Later, with the emperor's tacit approval, the Candel Empire Navy had privately reached a cooperation agreement with the Xinfei Merchant Guild. Once the two sides opened a maritime trade route together, even greater quantities of goods from the Stantin Duchy poured into the empire through its southern coast.
These goods included not only the various types of magic machinery produced by the Xinfei Merchant Guild and other magic machinery merchant guilds, but also all sorts of