[MLV] 51. New Programs (Patreon)

A/N

Hope you enjoy this chapter!

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Alicia tried her best to not fall asleep as the dry discussions between men in dull suits in front of her continued.

Today, she was once again in Volos, attending a diplomatic meeting between the directory and Concordia’s representatives in Vael. Alfred Maher, the Concordian ambassador, was flanked by his diplomatic staff, consisting of interpreters, legal experts, military attaches, and even a pair of corporate representatives. 

Compared to the noble diplomats and officials that manned Concordia’s embassy in Alsatia, with their fancy titles, prestige, and high positions in Concordian society, Alfred’s team was mostly composed of bourgeois technocrats and bureaucrats. It was a sign of how insignificant Concordia viewed Vael, that the highest-ranking man in Concordian society present here for high-level meetings was a mere new noble who bought his way to nobility. There was a risk, therefore, that whatever arrangement they would have would be brittle and unstable if someone higher up in Concordia overruled Alfred’s team.

Of course, this was a bit of an annoying insult, to be treated as an uncivilized nation only worth sending second-rate officials to, but at the same time, she appreciated how much easier it was to work with these professional Concordians.

Today’s agenda between Alfred and Kullervo was broad. They discussed tariffs, documentation, extraterritoriality, trade routes, tax exemptions for Concordian corporations, and other technical matters. Alicia, who spent weeks figuring the details of a treaty that would greatly benefit Vael, already handed the demands that Kullervo would give to Alfred. As a result, she didn’t have much to do during the proceedings.

All that was left now was to stay silent, smile a bit every time someone looked at her, and let things proceed on their own. To their eyes, she must remain as nothing more than the mayor of Orevogorsk and governor of Zimorye. She must maintain the reality they knew, that Kullervo was the leader of the directory and that the True King of Vael wasn’t in front of them.

All in all, everything must appear business as usual for the Concordians.

She was very successful at doing that.

Unfortunately, as usual, the negotiations were called off when Kullervo and Alfred once again struck a wall on the same topic they’ve been stuck on ever since Alicia modified Vael’s position in the negotiations—the question of Concordian tariffs.

Since Alicia’s main goal was to expand Vael’s exports in foreign markets to accumulate capital and thus build her homeland’s productive forces, it was imperative that in exchange for expanded basing rights and extraterritoriality, Concordia would give Vael privileged market access and drop tariffs to the lowest possible rate based on their existing laws.

Concordia itself didn’t have high tariffs in their law code due to their new ruling party’s obsession with free trade and market liberalization, but for some reason, Alfred was asking that the trade deal where Concordia would levy high tariffs on Vaelrin goods, while Vael would have to lower tariffs on Concordian goods.

This was actually a deal that Kullervo was about to sign before Alicia came into the picture. Unlike Alicia, who understood industrial economics, Kullervo was most likely looking at this deal as a boon regardless of how suboptimal it was since Vael would finally have a trade partner. For a country starved of trade for centuries, even a deal like this was something to salivate over.

But for Alicia, this was a trap.

If Concordia maintained high tariffs on Vael, while Vael was forced to remove its tariffs, Vael would become nothing but a market for Concordian businesses to sell to. In the end, Vael would become dependent on foreign manufacturers, and thus, there would be no capital inflow to Vael’s industries to make them grow. Vael’s infant industries would simply fail to grow under such an unfair deal.

She suspected that this policy was being pushed by Concordia’s hardline imperialists who wanted to turn Vael into a fully dependent puppet instead of a useful, actually functioning puppet, and that they were doing this under the table, going contrary to the official position of Concordia’s government that championed free trade.

This, of course, slowed down negotiations. Luckily, this didn’t lead to heated arguments between both sides. The Concordian delegation was level-headed, and while they were a touch too arrogant for their own good, they didn’t seem like people who wanted conflict between the two nations. More importantly, it gave Alicia time to spend with Alfred Maher, the Concordian ambassador.

While she was rather annoyed with his inflated ego and arrogance during their first meeting, Alicia came to understand that Alfred wasn’t a jingoistic man. He was also surprisingly good to talk to, an intellectual in every way, and most of all, a pragmatist. 

By talking to him, Alicia slowly gained fragments of information about Concordia’s leadership back home. Coupled with the strategic use of her admittedly powerful charms, she was slowly building up rapport to make him spill more details about his homeland.

Throughout her interactions with him, she came to understand that Alfred wasn’t one of the hardline imperialists in Concordia. Instead, he seemed to believe in expanding the empire’s wealth and productivity through free trade policies, which made sense, considering his family’s business background. If she could just convince him to listen to his ideals, she would have her preferred trade deal.

After they left the meeting room, she immediately intercepted him for a friendly talk in the hallways.

“Sir Alfred,” Alicia greeted with a smile, surprising the Concordian nobleman, who was walking with his maid, Ling. “I thought we were getting close today. What exactly happened?”

“Well, you see…” Alfred adjusted his collar a bit as he averted her gaze. “There’s still a lot happening between my superiors and colleagues overseas. It might take a while for us to form a consensus on General Kullervo’s new demands.”

Alicia crossed her arms, sighing to herself. Of course, as usual, Alfred wasn’t going to talk about the specifics of what was happening behind the scenes. When they talked about anything at all, he always seemed to prefer avoiding the specific details of the trade deal they were working on, so Alicia found out that the best way to understand Alfred was by talking about his general preferences in philosophy, economics, and politics.

It was through this that she gained the suspicion that Alfred was juggling different interest groups behind the scenes, preventing him from deciding based on his personal policy preferences. He even grumbled about ‘out-of-touch’ nobles and military officers while discussing more general topics at times, so she knew that he was somewhat resentful of the people who wanted him to sign a trade deal that went against his personal convictions.

Naturally, Alicia concluded that the best course of action in a situation such as this was to slowly nudge Alfred to the position held by the interest group that he already personally preferred.

“Forgive me if I’m confused, but don’t your countrymen believe that the wealth of nations comes from free markets and trade?” Alicia mumbled at the side, trying to act like a curious and innocent girl. It seemed to always work at making Alfred drop his guard. “Isn’t our proposal very close to that ideal?”

“In a sense, yes,” Alfred said, still a bit evasive. “There is a considerable body of opinion in Concordia that agrees to the assertion that a more relaxed trade agreement will be in both of our nations’ interests.”

“Concordia really is filled with visionaries, huh?”

Alfred immediately nodded, unknowingly falling for Alicia’s compliment-based trap. “Truly. Best of all, they’re increasing in number rather quickly,” Alfred said with an excited smile. “I myself am rather excited for the coming years.”

“I as well,” Alicia nodded, a pleased smile appearing on her face.

It seemed that given time, the Concordians should eventually acquiesce. After all, I’ve seen corporate representatives this time, Alicia thought. I hope that’s a sign that Concordia’s free trade faction is winning behind the scenes.

“Anyway, I truly must take my leave,” Alfred said to Alicia. “As much as I wish to share tea with you again, I’m afraid it cannot be today.”

“Oh, no worries. I was just curious,” Alicia said. “Have a good day, Sir Alfred.”

“To you too, Lady Alicia. Goodbye.”

And with that, he and his attendant walked ahead of Alicia.

She looked to the glass window on her side, exhaling softly. Progress is still slow. She then curled her fist. But don’t give up. I just need to be persistent.

After this, she went to Kullervo’s office to discuss the aftermath of today’s discussion with him. As usual, both of them concluded that their strategy of simply pressing with their demands while maintaining a conciliatory tone would be maintained. After that, they also began discussing the progress of their preparations for Vael’s economic revival.

Again, there was much work to be done.

First of all, the establishment of the Northwestern Railway Company was still underway. At the moment, the directory was still gathering bureaucrats, managers, and workers who would constitute it. The foundations had to be prepared first before they could even approach the Concordians to ask for investment and support, and of course, the trade deal had to be signed as well.

Second, the food problem was still here. So far, food supply remained at low levels, simply because lands left behind by vampiric lords were still being repurposed. The directory at the moment was focused on picking former serfs and peasants who would own plots of land, and that was harder said than done since the directory needed people on the field who could document people, calculate and divide plots of land, and manage disputes during distribution.

This was ongoing, and many estates were now being worked to restart food production, but this would take time. The silver lining they had was that the directory now had a much better grain stockpile, as Concordian food aid also luckily involved shipments of seed grain, mostly potatoes.

“Recovering from rock-bottom sure is difficult,” Alicia remarked as she sat, holding a piece of paper in her hand. Kullervo was still busily writing and stamping papers behind his desk. 

It sure was a strange sight, a powerful warrior of his stature doing something as monotonous as this.

“You told me that you have news from the Regency Council,” Kullervo said as he continued his work. “What exactly is it?”

“They visited me,” Alicia admitted freely. She was planning to let him know this earlier anyway. “Archduchess Claire Allister and Councillor Anastasia came as a pair to Orevogorsk. They demanded that I join the Regency Council.”

“What did you tell them?”

“I told them that Orevogorsk will remain neutral. Yes, technically, we’ve been absorbed by the directory, but that doesn’t mean my domain is at war with anyone.”

Alicia shook her head.

“I told them that I refuse to be ‘at war’ with my kin,” Alicia said. “And then they left. I must say, they were pretty diplomatic.”

Kullervo laughed.

“Diplomatic, eh? When the regency council talks to us, they scoff and regard us as lesser creatures,” Kullervo curled his fist. “Even when they face resounding defeat, they’ll parley as if they’re victorious. I truly don’t understand where you vampires derive such hubris.”

Alicia looked up at the ceiling, equally bewildered by this behavior.

In a way, she was full of hubris and overconfidence too, wasn’t she?

“It’s hard to tell,” was all Alicia could say. “But, on the bright side, with me as their contact, I think I can have productive dialogue with them. I’m going to search for openings to make them lay down their arms against the directory, so please coordinate with me on this once I need your help.”

“Of course. Anything you wish, Your Grace,” Kullervo said. Then, he frowned. “Though, I must say, I think we’re paying a bit too much just to have the ‘favorable’ trade deal you wish to make.”

“Pay too much?”

“Extraterritoriality, expanded basing agreements…”

“It’s either that, or Concordia won’t see enough benefits to give us a deal that’s closest to a free trade agreement.”

The original trade treaty that was being drafted between Kullervo and Alfred was honestly much more limited. It was mostly just covert arms transfers, an opening of trade but still restricted, and generally, it was simply less open. The modified version she gave to Kullervo was very much a broader one, for both sides.

Not only would Vael get more out of it, mostly in terms of greater Concordian market access, but Concordia was also to gain more access in Vael. They would be able to base more troops here, they would have a right to manage parts of the port in Volos and turn it into a full-fledged naval base, and of course, extraterritoriality.

It was very much, in many ways, an ‘unequal treaty,’ as someone in her original world would put it. But Alicia understood well that at the moment, she didn’t have much leverage to gain free trade access. Vael, for now, would have to sell a little bit more to optimize a trade deal with Concordia.

“We’re playing the long game here,” Alicia reiterated to Kullervo. “One day, we’ll become rich and strong enough to renegotiate things.”

“I can see that,” Kullervo said. “It’s just… Lady Alicia, the responsibility to be vigilant will be yours. You’re the only one who will be able to stop them if they try anything nasty in our homeland.”

“I’m preparing for everything.”

“That’s good to hear.”

As Kullervo went back to his work, Alicia stood up.

“I have to go back to Orevogorsk now,” Alicia said. “I can sense that one of Regency Council’s members is approaching my town. I’m leaving things in your hands for now.”

Back at Orevogorsk, the two representatives of the Regency Council, Claire and Anastasia, returned.

Alicia was initially wary because it was strange for them to suddenly return so quickly, but they explained that Claire just wanted to see more of the town. As usual, she arrived at Alicia’s palace, all respectful and formal, while the dragon Anastasia remained silent and reserved. Naturally, Alicia granted Claire’s request, and instead of assigning someone to show them around, Alicia proposed to do the tour herself.

Orevogorsk itself had grown a lot. The population, which was a few hundred back then, was now above ten thousand. The city’s urban sprawl was rapidly growing, and even the fields outside of Orevogorsk were being rapidly developed. This was where Alicia started her tour. She began by showing Claire and Anastasia the massive tracks of newly developed lands around Orevogorsk.

Many of the trees that once dominated the scenery around Orevogorsk had been harvested, with small farming hamlets that featured either conventional farms or specialized greenhouse farms cropping up in their place. Alicia even showed off the new machinery being produced by Orevogorsk Steel to help the farmers, such as steel ploughs and threshing machines, alongside horse-drawn reaper binders, all of which helped improve the productivity of a land that was hard to farm on. 

The farmers working the land were very healthy and in good spirits too, and whenever they saw Alicia, they would wave, smile, and greet them warmly.

Somehow, even with her disguise on so both Anastasia and Claire wouldn’t figure out that she was the legendary silver-haired vampire Alicia Allister, the people of Orevogorsk easily figured out that Alicia was the Alicia they knew about. Alicia even had a brief tense moment when an old lady praised her ‘new hairstyle.’

Hah, I can’t even hide my identity well anymore… I’m so bad at this.

“I’ve never seen a vampire this adored by her subjects before,” Claire suddenly remarked with a smile as they walked around. “It’s impressive.”

“It’s only natural, given the current peace and prosperity, but I can’t imagine it will always be like this,” Alicia said, trying to remain humble.

They continued the tour, checking grain silos, mills, and other facilities that supported the farmers. Alicia also explained to Claire and Anastasia the current system she had in place. While this land was nominally her domain legally speaking, she already gave up ownership of developed land to the farmers and their cooperatives, while the greenhouse farms themselves that required a lot of investments were owned by the city government.

She told the two of them that Alicia at the moment was subsidizing both of these operations out of the profits earned by her factories, but she hoped that eventually, both the farms owned by the city government and by the farmers would eventually become viable once Orevogorsk integrated with the rest of Vael’s market.

A part of Alicia, however, feared that Claire, being a traditional high noble herself, would be very alarmed with the fact that Alicia was giving land out to peasants. But, to Alicia’s surprise, Claire praised Alicia and called her practices ingenious and said that she would look further into it if she could apply it in the Allister domain and perhaps improve yields that way. Contrary to the way she dressed and carried herself, Claire also proactively approached, appraised, and tested every new farming implement that Alicia showed off.

Sometimes, she’d even ask the farmers and laborers about how exactly they used these new tools, something Alicia found rather endearing.

After that, the trio returned to the city itself. There, Alicia’s pride began to truly show off, as she presented every facility she was building for Orevogorsk. From her glass factories, lumber mills, and furniture factories to the massive complex that was Orevogorsk Steel, Alicia gave both Anastasia and Claire a clear window to the future she was building in her domain.

Claire, as always, was very curious and enthusiastic about this. She always had a lot of questions, asking Alicia how exactly she would be able to bring all of this to her family’s lands and even to the rest of Vael. Naturally, this meant that the two talked a lot throughout the tour, and a part of Alicia was very happy that she was quickly building a decent relationship with someone who was technically her grand-niece.

As for Anastasia, she was very enigmatic, to say the least. She always just stayed behind, watching everything that was going on around her with a very serious look on her face. Alicia even felt self-conscious whenever she felt Anastasia sneaking glances at her.

No way, does she know?

“So, this is our current plan for the expansion of Orevogorsk’s industries.” Maxim, who was at Orevogorsk Steel when Alicia visited, pulled out a massive paper map depicting everything they had in the city. Since Claire had so many questions, Alicia decided to let Maxim join her in explaining things to their guest.

“As you can see here, we have an area here that would be dedicated to building textile mills and cloth factories. We’re also planning to build cement factories, and we’re testing out how we’re going to produce fertilizers here. Once that’s done, we expect to continue expanding Orevogorsk Steel to support Vael’s reconstruction.”

Maxim grinned as he stepped slightly back from the table that showed his blueprint for Orevogorsk. “Lady Alicia’s vision is impressive, is it not?”

“It is…” Claire said with a smile, running her fingers through the map. “Lady Alicia, the more I see about this city you’re building, the more I find myself in awe. I imagine if people in the council saw all of this, they’d be extremely interested in further collaboration.”

“If you can push for them to make peace with the directory, then that would be my natural objective too,” Alicia said. “I can even invite people from the east to come here and learn. Sharing the knowledge and practices we have here is something I’m not at all against, provided we end this bloody conflict between Vaelrin.”

“I’ll see what I can do. To be honest, I’m also rather tired of fighting the Directory. I’m still not interested in working with them, considering who they are, but I suppose… since you did manage to work with them, maybe there’s a compromise somewhere.”

Alicia nodded.

“If need be, you can have negotiations hosted here. As you’ve seen, Orevogorsk is a safe haven for every Vaelrin. This will be a good place to talk.”

“That sounds wonderful. We’ll consider it.”

As hours passed, and Alicia’s tour began involving less relevant places, the two noblewomen from the regency council also visibly began to tire out. Eventually, Claire gave Alicia her thanks and told Alicia that they were going to retire for the night. She naturally offered her help for this, personally securing them the best lodging in the city, before leaving them there.

All in all, the day went pretty well for Alicia, but a part of her was still unsettled.

That dragon, Alicia looked back at the hotel Claire and Anastasia stayed at. She’s really starting to worry me.