Far East Maritime Province Special Tourism Zone Development Project (5) ****
Mikhail was tumbling about meaninglessly on the long sofa in his office.
The sun was nice, and the wind was cool.
It was the perfect weather for a nap, one that made him feel drowsy.
Knock, knock!
"Come in."
As he answered, sounding annoyed, the door opened and two women entered.
It seemed as if they had made an appointment, arriving at the exact same time.
Laura and Josefina.
An air colder and more tense than on the day of the groundbreaking ceremony flowed between the two of them.
Mikhail, finding it too bothersome to even sit up, gestured with his hand while still lying down.
"So, have you found a solution?"
"Of course, Your Highness."
The first to speak was Laura.
A relaxed smile of a victor was on her face.
"It is a very simple, legal, and above all, efficient method."
"Hoho?"
"It is to temporarily hire all the laborers needed for the construction as 'servants' of the grand duke's residence."
"Servants?"
Mikhail asked back.
"That is correct. The royalty of the empire can hire servants without any restriction on their number or duration. It is not a legal problem no matter how many you hire."
Laura continued confidently.
"We will have the servants hired in that manner work at the construction site. Whether a servant does housework, tends the garden, or digs the ground under the master's orders. That is entirely up to the master's discretion."
"Wow."
An exclamation of admiration burst from Mikhail's mouth.
'This is a complete manpower dispatch company. Is it different from a guild or a manpower office? Well, it must be.'
He sat up without realizing it.
"I never would have thought of that. To think there was such an easy way."
"Looking through past legal precedents, there was a similar case. So there is even less of a problem."
Laura's voice was overflowing with confidence.
She glanced at Josefina, who was standing next to her, with a triumphant look.
Mikhail, enjoying the subtle atmosphere, turned his gaze to Josefina.
"How about it, Miss Jughashvili. What do you think?"
"…."
Josefina kept her mouth shut for a moment.
It was obvious that she did not like it, but she soon nodded her head.
"It is not, illegal."
Her voice was still dry.
"As Guildmaster Laura said, the hiring of servants by royalty is close to extraterritoriality. It is a loophole, but it is not outside the bounds of the law."
"Right? Then isn't that settled?"
"However."
Josefina continued.
"The prince who used this method was punished."
"What?"
This time, Mikhail's eyes widened.
"Who, and why?"
"It is the case of His Highness Grand Duke Pavel, who was the younger brother of the Emperor before last, His Majesty Ivan."
Josefina began to explain without hesitation, as if reading from a textbook.
"At that time, His Majesty the Emperor made frugality a virtue and forbade the extravagance of the nobles. Among them, of course, large-scale hunts were included, but His Highness Prince Pavel was famous for his love of hunting."
"So?"
"So His Highness Prince Pavel hired all the beaters and laborers needed for the hunt as short-term 'attendants and servants'. And then he received permission, saying he was going for a very 'modest' walk."
"Puheub!"
Mikhail ended up bursting into laughter.
"My great-granduncle was quite a sharp one."
"He was legally innocent, but in the end, he was punished with 15 days of confinement."
"House arrest, huh."
Mikhail stopped laughing and smiled a very meaningful smile.
"I've already been exiled from the capital and am living here in this Far East Maritime Province."
"That is correct."
Josefina answered.
"Your Highness is already under a 'punishment' two steps heavier than 'house arrest', so it is considered that there will be no problem. It is too light a crime to discuss disinheritance or execution."
"Keuu, perfect! Isn't it perfect!"
Mikhail slapped the sofa and roared with laughter.
He felt genuinely cheerful for the first time in a long while.
After laughing for a good while, he wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes and looked at the two women.
"Wow, you both are excellent. I praise you."
He asked with a satisfied expression.
"So, whose idea was this?"
As soon as that question was asked.
"It was me."
"I proposed it first."
Two voices burst out at the exact same time.
"…?"
The smile on Mikhail's face completely vanished.
Laura was the first to snap.
"Didn't I find this method first and propose it, Miss Jughashvili?"
"It is true that the Guildmaster found the method. But it was I who gave that method legal stability and proved its feasibility through past precedents."
Josefina retorted, not losing ground.
"An idea without risk analysis is nothing more than a simple delusion."
"Is digging through old records while sitting at a desk what you call 'proof'? Finding the solution is the real work."
"The solution you found last time was, at best, a bribe, was it not?"
"What did you say?"
"I merely stated a fact."
'Wow. They're both strong-willed because they're villainesses.'
Mikhail stared blankly at the scene.
The memory of a terrible university group project from his Kim Jae-han days seemed to unfold vividly before his eyes.
The sunbae who tried to take all the credit for the presentation when he did all the research, the classmate who just put his name on it and disappeared, and himself, struggling to get a good grade amidst it all.
"Um."
Mikhail opened his mouth cautiously.
"Let's not fight."
""Who said we were fighting!""
This time too, the two people's voices overlapped perfectly.
The two glared at each other, then promptly turned their heads away at the same time.
"…"
Mikhail let out a deep sigh.
"Whatever."
He waved his hand as if it were a bother.
"You both did well. Both of you. Very excellent."
It was a half-hearted compliment, without a single gram of soul in it.
An attitude like patting the head of a pet dog that had performed a trick well.
"You praise us too highly, Your Highness."
Laura answered reflexively, with a perfect business smile.
But inside, she was seething.
'This good-for-nothing, he really treats people like dogs. He never gives a proper compliment unless he's genuinely having fun.'
But…
It was strange.
It was clearly an insulting compliment, but for some reason, she didn't feel bad.
Rather, a strange sensation, as if a corner of her heart was being tickled.
That fact annoyed Laura to no end.
"Thank you, Your Highness."
Josefina just silently bowed her head.
No emotion was revealed on her face.
As if the sincerity of the compliment didn't matter.
That was why Laura disliked her even more.
"Right, then. You can go now. I'm going back to sleep."
Mikhail really did lie down on the sofa again, curling his body up as if to pull a blanket over himself.
The two women left the office without a word.
Kkiiik—
The heavy door closed, and silence returned to the hallway once again.
The two women turned and walked away without even a goodbye.
***
Far East Maritime Province, Special Tourism Zone Development, Sector 1.
Kung! Kung! Jjaeng!
Thousands of laborers moved without rest under the blazing sun.
Every time a sledgehammer struck a rock and a shovel dug into the red earth, hazy dust rose like a cloud.
"Heoijja! Heoijja!"
The shouts bursting out from here and there mixed with the yells of the supervisors, making the entire vast site squirm like a single living creature.
"Wow, what a spectacle."
Mikhail, sitting on a horse on a hill a little distance away, looked down at the scene indifferently.
His face was extremely calm, as if watching a fire on the other side of a river.
"Boris."
"Yes, Your Highness."
"Those guys working over there, they're being fed properly, right?"
"Of course. Three times a day, they are provided with a hearty stew with meat and bread. The ingredients, of course, are supplied by the Valeriano Merchant Guild and are of very high quality."
"Good. Hungry men can't work."
It was when Mikhail was yawning and stretching.
Tadadadak!
From far away, the sound of urgent horse hooves was heard.
The one galloping towards the hill, kicking up dust, was Laura.
Unlike her usual impeccable appearance, her hair was disheveled by the wind, and there was dirt on her cheek.
"Your Highness!"
She dismounted as if jumping off her horse, panting for breath.
"Laura? What's wrong? To come running in such a hurry."
Mikhail asked, sounding annoyed.
"We're in big trouble!"
Laura shouted, with no time for formalities.
"The merchant guilds we had contracts with for the stone supply have all, unilaterally, terminated their contracts."
"What?"
"That's not all."
Laura bit her lip as if resentful.
"All the merchant guilds have colluded and proposed a price more than three times the original contract amount. They say if we don't accept, they won't sell a single stone. So I came to report before I started negotiations..."
For a moment, all expression vanished from Mikhail's face.
He didn't say anything for a moment.
And then he slowly opened his mouth.
"Is that so?"
His eyes were not smiling.
Only the corners of his mouth were turned up.
"How dare they?"
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