The Runaway Maid is Loved by the Archmage - Chapter 213

※ This book contains depictions of coercive/dubcon/noncon acts, violence, and immorality. Reader discretion is advised.

You’re thinking of restoring Castrello.”

Yoseph, who had become the representative of the noble council, had recently occupied an office in a corner of the imperial palace and was handling affairs.

He had a hollow and pale complexion, perhaps from not sleeping properly, but the inside of his eyes sparkled with hope for the future. As if to show that, he slightly raised the corner of his lips and stroked his chin.

“You always say unexpected things, Roina-nim. Castrello, no matter what the Crown Prince did, as someone in a position to run the country, I can’t easily say that we’ll just hand over territory that has already become ours.”

Yoseph put down his pen and faced Roina. After shaking his slightly disheveled hair, he explained to her. He seemed to have been really busy lately. To see that his always neat hair was like that and he didn’t even care.

“However, our empire occupied it in violation of the agreement, and various problems were arising because of that. We were already having a headache. There were also some Castrello kingdom citizens among the revolutionary forces. As you know, they look distinctly different from our imperial citizens, so they couldn’t engage in external activities.”

Roina briefly thought of Ethan. His tanned skin and larger build than the imperial people. Even if they were women, Castrello people boasted a height that exceeded the average male height of the Kailum Empire.

“I see. I thought that would be the case.”

She had read related content in the Magic Tower’s library. It was also included in Yoseph’s class. Roina nodded.

“Yes, you’ll understand since I explained it before. Because that place is mainly sandy desert terrain, they survive in a unique way. Above all, for some unknown reason, bizarre magic stones continue to be produced in the sand. But since that method is Castrello Kingdom’s secret, after capturing them, we couldn’t properly utilize the resources buried there.”

That foolish Crown Prince. Yoseph, who used to nonchalantly mutter words that were blasphemous to royalty, sighed and continued.

“And aside from other things, the Crown Prince ignored the royals who tried to trade that method in exchange for the safety of the kingdom’s citizens, saying he couldn’t reveal it. It turned out that desert monsters that roam through the sand have a habit of swallowing those magic stones, and we found out that we could extract the magic stones from inside those monsters by killing them. So for a while, we felt like we were exploiting the magic stones without any problems.

That’s why Crown Prince Roberto must have been excited and captured them so gleefully. So he must have killed the Castrello royals easily too.”

Roina’s expression hardened as she listened to the story. Ethan had survived and submitted in that kind of environment. Even becoming the Crown Prince’s trophy himself, to protect his family. He had walked a long and arduous path.

“But look at this.”

Yoseph took out a document and placed it neatly in front of Roina. The document contained a table of magic stone production in the Castrello region, and the production was rapidly decreasing recently.

“The desert monsters have disappeared.”

It was one of the many problems left behind by the Crown Prince. There had been no problems for a thousand years when trading with Castrello, but as a result of the exploitative plunder he had caused in recent years, they could no longer obtain magic stones.

“This might not be a problem right now… but in just about three months, it will become a huge problem. Unbeknownst to us, many of the empire’s energy sources rely on magic stones. We had been sourcing about 70% of that from Castrello.”

“That’s why Roberto thought of that place as a gold mine and became blinded by greed.”

Yoseph sighed again.

“If the magic stone supply from Castrello is completely cut off, many things will come to a halt.”

Roina pondered for a moment and then spoke.

“So, if we solve that problem?”

Yoseph smiled briefly at her words. Roina had become much more proactive than before, and she understood his position well and responded intelligently. He had always known she was smart, but she absorbed all knowledge really quickly, like a sponge. Yoseph was secretly proud of such Roina, but he didn’t show it.

He was the acting administrator of the country. Roina was an independent force as the Grand Magician. Their relationship was close to cooperation, but he couldn’t treat her entirely as an individual anymore.