Chapter 51: Live To Sienna Pt.51
Carl gave her a tablecloth with a disapproving look. It was a cloth the size of a bath towel.
“Go over there and face the other direction. Don’t you dare look here!”
Carl turned from her with a sigh of discontent, then she hurriedly slipped out of the dress. Rather than using the expression “took off,” it seemed that “slipped out” was more appropriate in this case.
She took off her corset and iron-rimmed vest until all she had left underneath was her underwear. Sienna wrapped the tablecloth around her body and called Carl.
“You can turn around now.”
Sienna went to the table with an energetic look. There were cookies and cakes on the table that would serve as a tempting treat. She felt hungry when the ones that were weighing her stomach had disappeared. She then took a butter-flavored cookie.
“Are you just going out like that?”
Carl asked with a reddened face.
“Like what?”
She looked at Carl while she was holding on to tablecloth that was drooping down in one hand and a cookie in the other. He dodged Sienna’s gaze in embarrassment.
Sienna looked at her clothes. An embroidered cloth covered her upper body down to her knees.
“Ah!”
She only covered his upper body with a tablecloth because she was busy covering up her chest. Her legs, as well as her thighs, were exposed.
Sienna’s face flushed in embarrassment. The imperial family was a place where women felt shame about showing their feet in front of men, let alone their knees. Of course, she was married to Carl, but it was only on paper. They were not in a relationship where she could go off, showing her bare thighs.
She felt ashamed to death. She began to flutter to cover herself up somehow. She was so embarrassed that she stopped rationalizing her thoughts.
Sienna’s eye saw a bed beyond Carl. Thinking that a quilt that size would cover up her body, Sienna hurried toward the bed.
Carl was at a loss on what to do when he saw her running suddenly towards him. He opened up his arms slightly to catch her as if he was expecting that she would come to him, so she would hug him. Sienna then jumped with a thrust onto the bed as his hands caught her waist.
“Uhhhh…”
Sienna buried her face deep in the bed. The tablecloth, which had been stripped off of her barely sustained in place and rolled around the floor. Sienna’s pale, nude body was lying on the bed. Carl then turned his eyes.
“Ugh! Don’t look at me. Hold on a second!”
She screamed with a thud. Then she crawled with her arms, covered herself with the blanket to the end of her neck, and buried her face in the pillow.
“Uhhhh!”
There was a grotesque groan of embarrassment around. Carl, who witnessed this scene, exclaimed, ‘Huh!’
Sienna, who looked like a scared rabbit, buried her head under a blanket, unable to raise her head. Carl shook his head and began unbuttoning his shirt.
In the still silence, Carl’s exposed figure slowly came into Sienna’s eyes.
“Hey! What are you doing!”
By the time she finished speaking, Carl had already taken off his shirt completely. His well-knit muscles were then exposed. She forgot what she had just been ashamed of and looked over to him with admiring eyes.
Carl shook his head and threw his shirt at Sienna. The white shirt then slipped onto her face.
“What is it?”
“Put it on.”
“Did you take it off for me?”
“It’s better than showing that ugly body.”
“It’s not that bad of a body, but thank you anyway.”
She clenched her shirt buttons in the quilt. After wearing the shirt and tying a tablecloth onto her waist, she leaned out.
Carl sat on the bed. Sienna felt strange. Whether he wanted it or not, it was now his first night with her. Her lungs seemed to be filled with air, and she felt as if her embarrassment had made her itchy. The strange feeling continued as the silence prevailed between them.
Sienna stood up with the tablecloth around her waist. Then she headed towards the table. Carl just watched what she was doing. She picked up a muffin on the table, took a mouthful, and asked Carl.
“Are you not hungry?”
After hearing her question, Carl got up and went to the table.
“This one doesn’t look so sweet.”
Sienna handed Carl a sandwich full of vegetables and ham.
“I’ve come up with a good idea to tie up the funding against Empress Arya. Do you want to hear about it?”
“…”
“Listen and join us if you like it. Well, even if Sir Carl doesn’t join us, we’ll proceed, but…”
“I’ll hear it.”
Sienna then arranged the bread and cookies. First, she lined up three large loaves in the middle of the table. She then poured chocolate, which had been neatly placed on the plate and put the empty plate on top of the boundary. On the left side of the border was a long line of flowers taken out of the vase.
“You know, the Panacio family is now a wealthy and powerful family based on the proceeds from the wheat sales from the huge farmlands in the south.”
Carl nodded and said.
“The Laifsden Empire has a large concentration of land in the south that is structurally capable of farming wheat. The south has a stable funding structure since it does most wheat production.”
“That’s right!”
Before Laifsden became an empire, the southern part of the country differed from Laifsden along the border of the Marl mountains. The southern region was a country called Abecia. Laifsden was a country raised based on trade with other countries instead of having no suitable wheat farming. Abecia was so focused on farming that its national power came from farmers.
Three hundred years ago, when the prince of Abecia and the princess of Laifsden ran away in love, the country’s relationship quickly deteriorated. It eventually led to war. Written in history as an eighty-year-old war, it ended up being a victory for Laifsden while Abecia was destroyed. Laifsden, who expanded its territory through the war, was reborn as an empire.
“I’ve recently learned that there’s an unusual way of doing business with the south. You don’t go straight for a deal in kind, but it’s a deal where you must purchase a ticket before farming.”
Sienna learned many things that she had never known before by helping Kelly with her work. This is also what she learned from her.
“The secret purchase ticket? I’ve heard of it. It’s a way for buyers to get supplies at stable prices at harvest time by paying the price in advance before the wheat is produced.”
It was a way to make deals without significant price changes, even if it was a bad harvest or a good harvest since the contract was established early.
“In the case of Southern aristocrats, many people sign contracts because they can get paid in advance and play with money. However, when the contract expires, you have to spit out the penalty, which is usually double or even three or four times more than the original. What I find unusual is the fact that the time when the contract would reach its completion is when the wheat is brought to a warehouse in the capital.”
“To get buyers to take advantage of the Southern Merchant?”
The Southern Chamber of Commerce was headed by the patriarch of the Panacio family. When the wheat distribution stage was expensive, the Southern aristocrats funded it to control it to the administration stage. Now, with a total monopoly system, wheat distribution in the south was only in charge of southern commerce.
“That’s right. You know it.”
“I already know how southern commerce works. Still, I don’t know how that would hurt them.”
“The Southern business community is a local peculiarity.” She said, pointing to a gap between the loaves of bread.
“This is the only road that connects the capital to the southern city of Sangmu. If these two places are blocked, they won’t be able to keep their contracts with the Southern Merchant. The contract includes the transfer of wheat to the capital.”
“So, you’re going to block these two roads?”
“Many people don’t care because wheat farming has been doing great in the south with the help of the Hegea River. Nevertheless, the ground around the Marl Mountains has been weakened by the absence of rain for over five years. Heavy rain will inevitably cause landslides, causing roads to be lost.”
“Your plan is only possible with heavy rain. It hasn’t rained in five years, and there’s no way it will rain this year.”
“It hasn’t rained in five years, so it will rain this year.”