Arestia Empire'S World Domination
Chapter 30: Hope

...—Capital of Excelia, Arestia— Empire...

...—28 August 1238—...

"Sit down." With a gentle smile, Ares stretched out his hand, pointing with all five fingers towards the chair in front of him that was separated by just a work desk.

"Mr..." Loic's pretty nervous. He knew that Ares was no longer a high-ranking noble, but someone who was now at the top of the country, very different from the caste of commoners who had nothing like him.

"Sit down, don't worry." From his chair, Ares got up, towards a table on which had a pot with faint contents visible billowing.

"Good..." With a slight nervousness, Loic sat on the chair Ares had pointed out earlier.

Only able to be silent, Loic glanced at Ares who only showed his back to him. I don't know what Ares did, a faint light stirring sound filled the room.

Ares turned around, approaching Loic with both hands each holding a cup plate that had a faint puff visible from the contents of the two cups.

Puk.

"Tea is warm." Ares placed the cup with his base plate right in front of Loic.

"Eh?! Ya—Yang Muli—" Loic was very surprised, did not expect that Ares— a pure noble— would so glorify himself who was just a commoner.

Moreover, Loic is aware that he is very different from his past self, which now has no slightest influence.

"Drink and give your judgment." Ares interrupted Loic, sitting opposite him while displaying a wry smile.

"Ba—baik, Your Grace. Thank you." Thank you." A moment deep down, Loic said nervously and took the warm teacup with both hands.

"Ah, right. If you can't drink it, wait for it to cool. Don't blow it" Ares warned Loic.

"Good..." Slightly clueless as to the reason behind it, Loic decided to obey and remain silent over it.

Slowly, the distance between the lips of the cup and Loic's mouth was getting closer. He stuck out his small tongue and immediately took a sip.

"Eh?" Just one word Loic could say right after gulping it down. Loic's gaze was fixed on Ares who showed a wry smile to him, feeling confused, curious, to amazement.

"How does it feel?" Ares asked, his tone full of curiosity.

"Don't, this is the best tea I've ever tasted..." Loic chimed in in astonishment, his gaze diverted to stare at the green tea before him.

Loic—, who has tasted a lot of tea served by the nobles and the best tea almost in every place he has ever visited—even considered if the tea that was right in front of him was very able to fight advantages of Renacles tea.

Moreover, one very different thing could be felt by Loic's tongue as he took a sip.

Sweet...

But...how can Your Majesty measure up the sugar that even my best servant cannot?

Loic doesn't understand. The sugar served is very different from what the company uses. The sand sugar that Ares uses is very soft; it does not have a large texture like sugar in general; it is sweeter because of its higher content; and it is white that looks very alluring, it was in stark contrast to the sugar used by the Coulent Family Servant Chief.

Loic showed confusion. The gazes of both of his eyes were sidetracked back to Ares, who was still smiling wryly at him.

"Is there anything you want to say?" ask Ares.

"Um.. isn't sugar a very expensive commodity? Why are you serving so much sugar to me that is just an ordinary commoner, Your Majesty?" answer Loic.

"Empensive, huh?" A wry smile was once again etched, Ares picked up a wide cloth that covered several boxes that were on the other side of the two cups on the table.

Loic's attention followed. Both of his eyes were fixed on something he knew behind the cloth, although one of them was foreign to him.

"Sugar?" Right after finishing his words, Loic regained his senses. The sugar in one of the boxes has a very nice texture. Not rough and most importantly, very white.

"Ya—Yang Muli—"

"Hey Loic." Ares's call interrupts Loic's words, "With these three things, you can take revenge on Emperor Renacles, you know?"

"Eh?" Ares' words were very surprising, he turned his eyes to look at the contents of the three boxes carefully.

Loic realized that both of these things are very good quality sugar and salt that even the price can increase many times more than what is on the market, but he did not understand a white sheet that was inside the other box.

"Take the paper, use it as your writing medium." Ares gave a quill pen along with ink from his pocket, placing it right in front of Loic.

"Paper?" Loic asked in surprise, not understanding what Ares was saying.

"Yes, it's called paper. Something that would replace the current writing medium even though its durability was not as strong as parchment." Seeing Loic pick up the ink, Ares displayed a wry smile.

"It's incredible..." Loic's two eyes opened, the tone he showed felt extremely amazed.

I have a very different writing feeling. Unlike parchment which has a very high difficulty in writing because the sheet is so thick, the paper that Loic uses as a writing medium is very easy to use, and the, it does not require extra strength just to scratch the ink on it, although it does not have as good quality as paper in the modern era.

"The price of the paper is only one-twentieth of a piece of parchment" said Ares, staring with judgment at Loic's reaction.

"Eh?" Once again, Loic was dumbfounded, speechless for hearing something that was amazing to him.

Not only is it easier to use, but it also has a lower price.

Unlike the parchment sheet that wrote it does not allow errors due to the price is too expensive, if the noble aides use it, they do not need to worry about expensive replacement costs just because of the problem of errors in writing.

"Ya—Yang Mulia..." Loic asked with great nervousness.

"Yes?" tymphal Ares.

"A—what is the raw material of this paper?" A little difficult because it felt very presumptuous, but the curiosity Loic did not make him undo the sentence.

"Fiber of wood." Again, Loic could only be dumbfounded at the answer Ares made.

The scarcity of parchment is something that often happens. Made from animal skin, the price of a piece of parchment will increase sharply if there is no sheep, cow, buffalo, or other animal skin material that can be harvested.

Loic's mind raced until he realized, whatever he thought would always end up on the thought of the paper can cause great chaos in the market to change the lifestyle of mankind.

"What do you think of my stepbrother?" Ares broke Loic's daydream.

"I—it..." Loic had trouble answering, he knew where the conversation was going to end. Unlike two years ago, now Loic does not have such a value, even the nobles who used to have a close relationship with him no longer ignore it in the least.

It's not that Loic doesn't have feelings for Elsa, Ares' half-sister, during their last meeting, that she understands that Elsa is in love at first sight with him.

"If you wish, I will make you the Governor of the Central Bank who is still under my charge." Ares didn't let Loic refuse.

Since the last few months, Ares often gets a letter of concern for Elsa over the state of Loic, which even several times using the medium of birds. Not only dozens, maybe reaching the number of hundreds if counting from the previous months, very upset Ares and desire to immediately shut his half-brother's mouth by marrying him to Loic after he arrived.

"Ta—but, I'm just a jel— folk"

"Viscount's title in three years. And also, the entire Rueter Region excluding the Free Economic Zone I will give you if you marry Elsa." Again, Ares did not let Loic refuse the offer he made.

Ares understood the inferiority of the commoners to the nobility and knights, which of course Loic also felt.

Tears slowly fell down dripping, increasingly rushing until Loic covered his face with both hands.

"Why...why are you so kind to a commoner like me?" Loic's feelings were chaotic, after being overwritten by such severe torture, much happiness was inflicted on him, as if the world was replying to his past difficulties with abundant kindness.

So I can stuff Elsa's mouth, maybe?

Well, there's no way I'd answer it like that.

"Make her happy." Ares got up, stepped towards the door.

Ares' words did not want the slightest objection Loic.

Huge expectations are placed on him, Loic realises that Ares expects himself to leverage his abundant experience to sell all three products introduced to him just moments ago.

Thank ye... Her Highness...

I promise to make her happy and be the person you can expect.

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