Insects, Lumberjacks, and Pirates [Part 3]
“Which means the Royal Family at that time… imported the raw materials for the cure?”
The price for those insects is so terrifying that I don’t even dare to ask… I have to persuade Emma to return the insects after the Prince leaves. George swore in his heart.
“That was how it was. The Imperial citizens at that time had terrible living conditions after the Empire was hit by famine along with a plant hazard. I also heard that it is difficult to grow crops in the northern continent to begin with. In addition, as one misfortune followed another, this disease became widespread when the country was still recovering. The sick people received discriminatory treatment in which only high-ranking people got to drink the valuable medicine, while many other citizens were left to die. To prepare for the situation in which the spread of this disease ever reaches the Kingdom one day, the Royal Family has entrusted the breeding of those insects to a certain Ducal house, but…”
“That Ducal house is the household Robert-sama belongs to…”
“When I confirmed it with House Lance this morning, there was not a single one of those insects…”
“My bad premonition has come true,” sighed the Prince as his face darkened.
“Those insects are a species that does not live inside the barrier. We have to risk lives if we want to collect them. The process of breeding them is also difficult, so we can hardly increase their number. We have obtained them somehow by giving the Empire food aid when it experienced food shortages due to famine and hazard. But the Empire now has become such a powerful and rich country that no matter how much money or food we offer, they will definitely not be willing to give us any insects.”
“Pardon my interruption, but… is it possible… for the Kingdom’s hunters to go outside the barrier to look for those insects?”
George was determined to go get them himself if worst comes to worst.
“No, it was a coincidence that the Empire was able to obtain those insects. They had found the insects when they had led an army outside of the barrier to deal with the plant hazard, and it is not even known whether this species lives in the southern continent.”
“Plant hazard… That is the phenomenon of a plant-type monster’s mass propagation inside the barrier, right?”
“*chuckles* Emma is studying hard, I see. We can directly pull the roots out if it is just one or two trunks of a plant-type monster, but if it has propagated in great numbers, there is no choice but to defeat the parent plant outside the barrier.”
“…Uhh, uhhhh… R-Right… I think I have heard about that somewhere.”
George’s eyes started darting about.
“…Nii-sama, this is the part we were supposed to learn in yesterday’s class, you know? Don’t tell me you’ve been skipping lesson preparation because Mother is not here?”
“…N-No, it’s not like that… I have been pretty busy…”
“Speaking of which, Your Highness, how do you make medicine from those insects? Do you make it into an ointment or oral medicine?”
Emma was quickly drawn to the conversation when her favorite insects were mentioned. She had even forgotten that she had been deliberately avoiding this topic until just a while ago.
“Emma? What would you do after asking that kind of question? Hearing about those insects will make you feel sick again.”
The Prince was surprised when he saw Emma looking at him with sparkling eyes, a look she had never shown him before. For her to be this excited when she had just experienced something terrible yesterday… What exactly is going on?
