Chapter 198 – 198. Negotiation Table (1)
Percussion!
“Keugh!”
As the wooden swords crossed each other and bounced, it was Erin who quickly corrected her stance and moved on to the next move.
Erin’s attack was to put strength into the arm holding the wooden sword that had intentionally bounced off, rotate her entire body around her leg as an axis, and kick it into the opponent’s temple.
‘I know I’ll be hit by the same attack again and again… !’
In the first sparring with Erin, Martan, who bravely took the first step and was humiliated by Erin, sneered.
In the first match, he faced the bitter experience of being defeated in an instant after being careless, but Martan is also a son of a baron noble serving the duke’s family, and a knight who graduated from Aether with high grades.
He raised his other hand to protect his temple, blocking Erin’s kick.
“Nice…”
Even though he thought he had blocked it perfectly, Martan’s body was slightly pushed to the side by the heavy blow combined with his rotational power.
Powering his lower body, forcing her body to stagger, he landed on her feet and kicked one leg off Erin, who was supporting her weight.
“Oh.”
In an instant, Martan smiled in repentance after confirming that Erin’s legs were floating in the air, leaving her defenseless.
‘Energy…’
A smile of repentance at the fact that an opportunity arose by forcibly creating a gap.
She tried to win her victory by striking her side with her wooden sword as she floated into the air, but as she forcibly twisted her waist in the air, she swung her arm around her wooden sword and struck Martan’s wooden sword. Paid
“What… !?”
Martan is quite taken aback that her own attack was blocked by her erin’s skill in the air.
“Oh… Car!”
Landing her steady on the floor, Erin lunged at Martan, raising her body like a spring.
“Nice… !”
Her Erin rush approaching her in an instant, Martan hurriedly backed away from her and tried to adjust her stance again by widening the distance from her, but her Erin charge with her speed added Her speed was faster than that of Martan, who was just stepping back at her.
One of her erin’s organs was pointed at Martan’s neck through her swift thrust, and Martan was forced to admit her defeat, releasing her own sword from her unresponsive hand.
“… Lost.”
This was her second defeat. Martan’s expression frowned, expressing that she was really upset, but Erin didn’t care about his expression and put on a happy expression.
“Win! It’s finally five wins in a row!”
“… Are you so happy that you beat me?”
Intoxicated with victory, she jumps in place and expresses joy with her entire body. It is a teenage girl.
It was a complicated feeling for Martan that the reason Erin was happy was because she had beaten herself.
“Yes? Oh, because Hyun-i said he would give you a present if he and the knights won 5 consecutive victories in Dalian!”
She could tell that she wasn’t particularly happy about defeating herself, but that didn’t mean she was happy with the bitter experience of being defeated twice by a girl this young.
‘Next time, sure…’
Martan set her own first goal to defeat the little girl in front of her, which came about as she signed a knight’s oath to swear allegiance to Armitas.
“Hehe, what kind of present is Hyun-yi trying to give you?”
In order to do that, he had to start by getting to know the other person, concluding that it was almost a ridiculous excuse, and Martan smiled and talked to the excited Erin.
“Erin, do you have any other schedule after this?”
“Yes? No? Not sure…”
“If you don’t mind, we can eat together afterwards…”
“Ruler! All those who lost in Dalian, gather! Carry out the penalty immediately! Hurry and get together because we have to get together quickly and finish and rest!”
“… Shit.”
At the high-pitched voice of the senior engineer, Martan spat out disgust.
As Eunhyeon came to the training ground and trained the knights as an instructor, sparring before the end of training had now become a routine.
In Dalian, the winner gets off work, and the loser gets a penalty of having to complete the distance of 2km by running while wearing an artifact with a weight control function handmade by Eunhyun.
Martan’s expression, having to go through that hellish experience all over again, is rotting in an instant.
“Huh? What did you say?”
Erin, who was too happy to hear Martan’s words properly, put on her puzzled expression.
“… No. Congrats on winning 5 in a row.”
“Lol. Thank you!”
Erin smiled brightly at Martan’s congratulations mixed with goodwill and bowed her head to greet her.
“The knights also worked hard! Then, have a good time at work!”
“Okay! You too, go in and rest!”
Looking at the back of Erin as she walked out of the training ground with her head bowed, the Armitas knights smiled and saw her girl off.
“Yeah. She is a very lively girl.”
“I feel warm when I see that.”
When she and Eunhyeon first came to the training ground, not a single knight looked at Erin with a questioning expression, ‘What the hell are those things doing?’.
When a young girl who was not even a knight, enduring hard training among bloody men, welcomed Erin, who breathed life into the hearts of dying knights, she welcomed it, but never had the heart to reject it.
Even among the new knights of the same age who had just graduated from Erin, there were even those who had a favorable heart for her girl, as if half-bewitched by Erin’s healthy smile.
“Ruler! Let’s hurry up and go to rest!”
With lively voices, the knights moved their bodies to finish another day’s training routine.
◆ ◆ ◆
“You… It was. The person who developed the cure…”
“Long time no see. Miss Cecilia.”
Eunhyeon saw Cecilia facing him and greeted her.
“You are not very surprised. About what I came for.”
“Because I knew you would come.”
Eun-hyeon, who muttered calmly, took the attitude that she was aware of Cecilia’s visit and her business.
In the situation where they met face to face in the drawing room with Alex’s introduction, Eunhyun did not share a word with Alex about the current situation.
That means that even if Eun-hyeon didn’t bother to ask Alex, she knew exactly why Cecilia was visiting the duchy.
Then, Cecilia thought, she should go straight to the point without going back.
“I will tell you straight-forward. Recipe for Manastream treatment. Could you please share?”
“I have already left the judgment on that to Alex. If Alex commands, she will tell Cecilia the recipe for the cure.”
“…”
Eunhyun’s attitude was very determined.
“The condition of the noble children of Pernin, now addicted to drugs… It’s getting worse. If you don’t take the medicine even for a moment…”
While forcibly activating the body’s mana awakening, the vast amount of uncontrolled mana accelerates the disintegration of the body.
Just as when a large amount of water is poured into a glass containing water, the water eventually overflows without enduring the capacity limit, the students’ bodies addicted to drugs were in a state of being destroyed from the inside.
Cecilia bit her lip at the urgent situation of having to take the medicine as soon as possible and prevent the collapse inside her body.
“Miss Cecilia. I think you are misunderstanding. I said I had no intention of disclosing the recipe for the cure made by Eunhyun. I didn’t say I wouldn’t know the sons of nobles addicted to drugs.”
“… What do you mean?”
“We plan to sell it through the official route.”
“Sale… As a cure… Are you thinking of doing business with people’s lives!?”
“Please. I didn’t think so. Eunhyun. Can you elaborate?”
“I will.”
As Alex glanced at Eun-hyeon, Eun-hyeon nodded and pulled out a potion smaller than the palm of his hand from his chest.
“This is the Manastream cure we created this time.”
“That is…”
Certainly, it looked exactly like the potion that some students from the dukedom possessed, so Cecilia faced the fact that Eunhyeon was really the one who created this cure.
“Cecilia-sama also majored in alchemy and pharmacy, so you should know how expensive catalysts and medicines are.”
“… Yes. I know.”
Cecilia didn’t answer right away, but nodded her head.
Especially since she herself had used a large amount of medicinal materials to make her own cure, it was no wonder that the cost was exorbitant.
Unlike Cecilia, who has a public nature of developing a cure with the royal family’s budget, Eun-hyeon and Alex created this cure using the duke’s budget, so even from the duke’s point of view, they didn’t dig the cure to make it. However, taking the method of selling is also a reasonable decision from the perspective of the Duke.
“I intend to trade for one gold coin per vial of this cure.”
“Yes… That’s right.”
Two gold coins, the price of two bottles of medicine, is an expensive amount that is equivalent to a month’s worth of an ordinary soldier.
However, if you consider the cost of the ingredients and the effort of the person who prepared it, it is also a reasonable price in its own right, so you don’t even think it’s too expensive.
Above all, since the people who need to take this medicine are the children of the nobles of the kingdom, it is not too much of a burden for the nobles who have to pay for the medicine to purchase several months’ worth at once.
“Then, when will the sale of the treatment begin? As for me, right now…”
“Oh, that’s a bit of a problem.”
“… Is it a problem?”
“In fact, this is the reason why we are not selling this treatment right now. It has something to do with why Cecilia-sama came down to the dukedom herself.”
Cecilia stared at Alex with a doubtful expression.
“If we unleash this cure on Pernin now, there will surely be another conflict among the nobles.”
“Ah…”
The phenomenon of being addicted to Mana Stream is not a mild symptom that can be cured immediately by taking the treatment developed by Eun-hyeon just once.
As long as you have to take it regularly for a long time and watch the condition slowly improve, you have to see the progress, so the amount of treatment consumed is bound to be that much.
Production is limited, and high-ranking aristocrats who are full of wealth will want a stable quantity of medicines to improve their children’s condition, and it is obvious that they will sweep up the medicines by giving them a higher price or by forcibly taking them.
It leads to the monopoly of the treatment, and eventually, the students who are in danger even right now are not able to take the treatment at the right time, and the situation is further aggravated.
“In order to somehow secure the medicine first, it is already clear from the fact that he sent it to the dukedom with a strong request to Cecilia-sama.”
“Ugh…”
When the exact location of the pain was pointed out, Cecilia frowned and couldn’t find anything to say.
Before being an aristocrat, Cecilia had a desire to save as many drug-addicted patients as possible, and there was no point in agreeing with Eun-hyeon and Alex’s points.
But for Cecilia, it’s a frustrating situation that doesn’t come to mind.
“Then what are you going to do?”
“We will call high-ranking nobles who are in urgent need of a cure here. And I’m going to propose negotiations right away.”
“That… Even if I return to Pernin from now on and persuade them to bring them here, by then it will be too late! I’m not ignorant of your concerns, but I’ll take responsibility and supervise addicted patients so that the cure is properly taken, so trust me here and get the cure…”
“You don’t have to.”
“Yes… ?”
“We have already sent a message to high-ranking nobles who need a cure. Sooner or later, they will be flocking to the Duchy. The more urgent it is, the faster it goes. Nobles who need a cure have no choice but to come here.”
“A scorpion… Whenever… ?”
“Let’s call it a trade secret.”
He ordered the Black Wands, who had already turned into silver hounds, to send a message to the high-ranking nobles of Fernin with the message, ‘I want to negotiate with you with a cure, so if you have any thoughts, come to the dukedom.’
“Perhaps tomorrow, or around sand, all the nobles in need of a cure will arrive at the duchy. And while negotiating with the nobles there, there is something I want to ask of Cecilia.”
“… To me?”
“Yes. If all goes well, I will inform Cecilia of the recipe for this cure.”
“But, this…”
When Cecilia glanced at Eun-hyeon’s gaze, Eun-hyeon smiled and nodded his head, clearly expressing her intentions.
Cecilia, soon solidifying her resolve, nodded her head and looked at Alex with her hard eyes.
“What can I do?”
