After a few seconds of silence, an idea flashed through Yuri's mind as though a lamp had suddenly been lit inside his head.
"That's it! That's exactly it!"
He shouted the words at the two of them, his excitement plain to see.
"What exactly is 'it'?"
Lieselotte tilted her head in puzzlement.
"My lord, that tells us very little."
Ophelia narrowed her eyes and offered the mild rebuke with a faint trace of exasperation.
"The part about collecting taxes in a different way—and the idea of gathering everything together in one place."
The moment Yuri explained, Ophelia shot back a question.
"And how is that supposed to solve anything?"
"We stop treating raw crops as taxable goods. Instead, the lord's revenue comes from processed goods and restaurant sales. To do that, we gather the produce in one place—and gather the shops selling it in one place too."
At Yuri's explanation, Ophelia and Lieselotte listened intently, though a shadow of doubt had crossed their faces.
"And with the Merchant Gift's extra-dimensional storage, ingredients won't spoil, and I can send them straight to the workshops with instant delivery. So if we gathered all sorts of shops together in a covered arcade, like the passage arcades in Paris, and turned it into a place where people could enjoy all their shopping in one spot, wouldn't it become a landmark of the Reberk Barony?"
As he pictured families and sweethearts strolling from shop to shop with smiles on their faces, Yuri's voice grew more and more animated.
"Imagine a place where you can browse beautiful glasswork, cute soaps, stylish candles—where you can wander around looking at all kinds of things with a girl. It'd make a perfect date spot!"
But Ophelia and Lieselotte only looked faintly troubled.
"First, I would like to hear exactly whom you are imagining yourself dating, my lord."
"Indeed. I really ought to report that to Mother properly."
"I was joking! Please don't tell Celia!"
Faced with their deadly serious reactions, Yuri hurriedly pleaded with them.
"Putting that aside, my lord... I have no idea what that 'passage' business was supposed to be, but are you truly certain it is wise to flaunt your abilities so openly?"
Resting an elbow on the desk, Ophelia gazed at Yuri with narrowed eyes, looking slightly exasperated.
"Well, I-I'll figure something out about that part..."
Yuri stammered his answer, having thought of absolutely no precautions at all.
"Honestly... I understand the idea of centralizing agricultural produce, but there is no chance the guilds would allow workshop goods to be sold in one place."
Lieselotte, too, forced a wry smile.
"It is an interesting idea, but..."
"What? Why not? I thought the whole point was that, because there's nothing like it anywhere else, it could become a tourist attraction for the Reberk Barony..."
Questions piled up in Yuri's mind, and he could not help lamenting to himself, It would be amazing if we could make it work.
There were markets in this world, of course, but as a rule, they were only allowed to sell goods brought in from outside the walls or other trade goods.
Products made in workshops inside the walls, in particular, were subject to strict restrictions on outside sale.
"The goods themselves are certainly attractive, and people would gather. However..."
Lieselotte let her shoulders sink slightly as she spoke, sounding genuinely regretful.
"My lord... the reason no one in the kingdom does such a thing should be obvious, should it not?"
When Ophelia said that in a tone of faint disbelief, Yuri tilted his head.
"Huh? Why?"
At his question, Ophelia sighed and began to explain.
"Because of the guilds. There is the tallow-soap guild, the candle guild, the coopers' guild, the craftsmen's guild... there are all manner of guilds within the domain, but by guild rule, every workshop may sell only from its own storefront."
"Why would they go out of their way to limit themselves like that?"
When Yuri pressed further, Ophelia gave a small shrug and smiled coldly.
"Because it increases guild profits. It may be difficult to call it rational, but from their point of view, it has many advantages."
With that, she sighed and studied Yuri's face with open curiosity.
"Whether you simply do not know common sense, or are not bound by it... I honestly cannot tell whether you are remarkable or not remarkable at all."
At that remark, Yuri scratched his cheek with an index finger, a little embarrassed.
Lieselotte quietly added her own explanation.
"There are many producers within the domain, and the guilds work with the master craftsmen to deliberately limit the amount of goods that reach the market."
"To entrust sales to a third party would do nothing but threaten guild interests. And from the masters' perspective, it would only create needless competition, with no real benefit to them at all."
Ophelia continued the explanation in turn.
Yuri stared at them in surprise, then lifted his head after a moment's thought.
"So they're inflating prices unfairly?"
"Not necessarily. The guilds set maximum prices in consultation with the lord, so even subjects of modest means can still afford the goods."
Ophelia answered with a sigh, though under her breath she added, "They do push those prices up by leaning on the lord, of course..."
"There are maximum prices?"
Yuri looked utterly aghast.
"Then doesn't that mean better-quality goods won't sell?"
Seriously? Does that mean even if I source things through the Cheat Merchant Gift, I could still end up selling at a loss in other territories?
As that thought crossed his mind, Yuri put a hand to his head.
Give me a break...
"Each guild sets a fixed standard of quality for its goods, so there is no need to produce anything above that standard."
Not quite understanding what had shocked Yuri so badly, Lieselotte answered with a slightly puzzled look.
"If you make something too fine, it may be taken to mean that the work of other craftsmen is inferior. In the worst case, you could even be punished for violating guild rules."
"Honestly, it's an unbelievably antiquated way of thinking," Ophelia added with another sigh.
"T-That's ridiculous... Then who's going to make chocolate cornets, or anpan, or curry bread? I want to eat all kinds of delicious things!"
Yuri had gone pale as a sheet. His eyes were wide, one trembling hand pressed to his cheek, his mouth hanging open.
His expression was such a tangle of horror and disbelief that it looked as though his soul were about to leave his body and he might start shouting, "That's impossible!" at any second—
no, in fact, he already had.
Beside him, Lieselotte and Ophelia's faces softened, perhaps as they remembered the breads they had eaten on the road from the royal capital.
"...They truly were delicious, weren't they?"
"Yes... they really were."
They spoke with dreamy, melting expressions.
"...Do you remember that chocolate cornet?"
Lieselotte smiled as she spoke.
"Inside that fluffy bread, the rich chocolate spread over the tongue so luxuriously... I was genuinely astonished that something like that could exist in this world."
At her words, Ophelia slowly closed her eyes as she recalled the sweetness of that memory.
"Yes, and that anpan as well... Inside that moist bread was such a dense, velvety sweetness. It was a color that did not look sweet at all, and yet it felt like some confection from a dream."
Ophelia let out a soft breath, her cheeks faintly flushed.
Though many people disliked bean paste, Ophelia seemed to have taken to it completely, speaking of it as though she were describing a treasure.
"And then there was that curry bread. The outside was crisp, yet inside was that thick yellow filling, so rich and smooth. The meat, vegetables, and spices must have been simmered together for a long time—it had such depth of flavor, and the aroma was exquisite. I should dearly like to taste it again."
As Lieselotte spoke with a wistful expression, Ophelia nodded slowly in agreement.
It had been their first time tasting curry, yet both of them had polished theirs off with astonishing ease.
Chloe, Lily, and Margaret had watched them with unmistakable envy.
Their eyes had sparkled as they kept glancing at one another, and it had almost seemed possible to hear the unspoken question passing between them: what does it taste like...?
"Truly... every one of them was unbelievably delicious. I could hardly decide which to choose."
Seeing the blissful expressions on their faces as they sank into memories of those delicious breads, Lily let out a small sigh.
"I wish I could have tried them..."
At length, Ophelia seemed to make up her mind and spoke.
"If... and I do mean if... a market existed where one could finish all one's shopping in a single place, and if workshops and storefronts could be separated..."
Her amethyst eyes gleamed with expectation.
"Would that mean a true land of dreams could exist—a place surrounded by sweet, delicious confections?"
Sensing that this was his moment and that he could not afford to let it pass, Yuri sprang to his feet, spread his arms wide, and answered with all the fervor in him.
"Of course. A workshop for chocolate cake, a workshop for strawberry cake, a workshop for cookies, a workshop for baumkuchen... a dream kingdom of sweets where the fruits of craftsmen's labor all gather in one place. And right there, with fine tea or coffee in hand, girls could indulge in sweet little moments and sit around chatting about romance."
Listening to him, Ophelia clasped both hands before her chest, a look of bliss spreading across her face as if she could already see the scene before her.
"My lord, we must do it. We absolutely must. I do not care what the guilds or the workshops may have to say!"
As she spoke, Ophelia rose as well, took Yuri's hand, and nodded firmly.
"Yes. But to make this plan a reality, there's one very important thing we need first."
He paused for effect before speaking again, slow and deliberate.