Chapter 45: Papaver Rhoeas

As long as the Fafnir territory wasn’t destroyed, a coalition—even if not of the entire west, at least of the northwest—was an unstoppable and inevitable trend.

Firstly, it involved no military armament, and secondly, it held no other political inclinations. It was merely a commercial community. If people wanted to build infrastructure and deepen trade cooperation, what business was it of anyone else’s?

No person in power would choose this moment to stick their neck out and become the villain despised by all the nobles in the region, essentially paving the way for others.

Having achieved the desired outcome for the matters at hand, Su Na relaxed during the ensuing banquet, chatting and laughing cheerfully with the sons and daughters of the various nobles.

Unlike those scions who, having been stripped of any chance of inheriting a title from birth, mostly gave themselves over to debauchery, hedonism, or idled away their lives comparing food and clothing, these noble youths—trained as the future successors of their families—could at least maintain the grace and upbringing expected of nobility on the surface.

This was the primary reason why Su Na had taken the upper-class route from the very beginning. For this group receiving elite noble education, their fathers had at least provided them with a broadened horizon. They were more capable of accepting new things, and in the future, they would possess sufficient authority to make decisions.

Most importantly, they were far more receptive to new ideas~

While Su Na sat chatting and laughing cheerfully with the noble ladies, Neptune, holding a wine glass, leaned against a pillar more than ten meters away, observing silently. As passing noble ladies caught sight of his handsome profile and melancholy aura, they couldn’t help but blush, their little hearts pounding.

Suddenly, an arm draped over his shoulder, and the newcomer’s tone was flirtatious: “What’s wrong? Can’t seal the deal?”

Seeing his friend Felt’s cheeky grin, Neptune dropped his brooding act and grumbled irritably: “Seal the deal? The look in her eyes when she sees me is cleaner than the look my stepmother gives me. How am I supposed to seal anything?”

Felt threw an arm around his neck and clicked his tongue: “You, you, you. Why do you act like this handsome face is the only thing you have going for you? What about everything else?”

Neptune shot him a sidelong glance and countered: “What else? Money? Strength? Talent? Or literary refinement? Go ahead, tell me.”

Felt actually dropped his arm, looked at Neptune seriously, and began to ponder: “In terms of money, your family is basically relying on hers to eat right now. That truly doesn’t seem comparable; at least, you’ll have a hard time moving her on that front.”

“Strength… if I remember correctly, your father was beaten to tears by Lady Adelaide in the past. You probably wouldn’t fare any better.”

The corner of Neptune’s eye twitched: “Why do you keep bringing up his embarrassments to my face?”

Felt looked entirely innocent: “My father told me this. He said I’ll have to pass it down to my son in the future.”

Neptune: “…”

“Moving on, moving on. Talent is even more hopeless. I’ve never seen a noble lady lacking in that regard. Literary refinement probably won’t work either; she scored perfectly in her academic classes, didn’t she?”

“Oi, so you really can’t beat her in anything… You really are a piece of trash, Young Master Neptune~”

“Heh…” Neptune laughed instead of getting angry. “Fine, fine, I’m trash. Then if you’re so capable, you go up!”

“Sigh, I definitely have to go.”

Felt’s baby face scrunched up in distress: “You know how it is. Whenever my Mother sees a girl like that, she can’t even walk straight. Look, the injuries I got from that violent woman Yulia last time haven’t even fully healed yet.”

“Alright, alright. At worst, you just get rejected once too. Besides, we aren’t exactly the ones who are truly anxious.”

Neptune looked at the warm, golden-orange liquid in his glass and took another sip. The taste was sweet and sour with a unique aroma. After a long moment, he sighed: “I heard those unpresentable second sons have practically trampled the threshold of Baron Kaibuli’s manor to pieces.”

Felt nodded: “That’s completely normal. With the higher-ups doing what they’re doing, no family is having an easy time. Now they are all migrating to the royal capital. If they can latch onto the Fafnir family as in-laws, even the scraps they drop would be enough so they wouldn’t have to worry about the future.”

Without power and without soldiers, what else could they do but chase money? But many noble families had never engaged in commerce before. Although they could live quite well off land rents, their current severe lack of countermeasures made their position extremely awkward, and they were terrified.

Without support, the horrifying sensation of having a guillotine hanging over their heads was too palpable; they constantly felt like pigs being raised for slaughter.

And given the current high-speed development trajectory of the Fafnir family, the Fafnir Merchant Guild extending its tentacles to every corner of the kingdom was only a matter of time. The kingdom couldn’t touch them even if it wanted to; just the massive, stable tax revenue generated by issuing commercial laws practically guaranteed the safety of the Fafnir family.

The number of people wanting to hop on this bandwagon was as vast as the sea.

“So, having recognized the gap, doesn’t that make us stand out even more? No matter what, our statuses are an absolute match.”