World Development System 294 225. Conclusion of first round of talks with Fredric.

It was Vlad who suggested at this time, "If I may, I think John should wait for Elves to come and propose a stronger alliance as I am certain that Ayananore's Strategist, Mist and Alison have certainly sensed the changes for the next era after the arrival of new weapons as well as other new technology, and hence will soon act based on the orders of Ayananore's Queen Kaylin after she reads the report. I am sure she will personally make a trip to Sky based on the tips of their spies and ministers."

Melanie and Friedreich both nodded as they understood Vlad's thinking.

At this time there was a knock on the door. Vlad spoke after sensing someone coming immediately, "It looks like it is Lyon and is here with some important information if my guess is correct."

Both John and Friedreich nodded as Vlad opened the door for Lyon.

Friedreich spoke with a serious gaze, "Don't tell me if it is an unimportant matter. Speak, you can trust everyone over here."

Lyon nodded as he knew about the importance of this meeting. He came forward and spoke to Friedreich, "Milord, we just got some important information from our spies that Duke Norman's men and his spies are trying to get in contact with Prince Chad and also your brother Draco. I felt that something was suspicious and hence decided to inform you immediately."

Everyone present heard Lyon loud and clear as they understood the importance of this info.

Friedreich smiled and spoke, "It seems that Norman is doing something quite unusual this time. I guess he is already preparing and making his moves. Well, as long as we know of his moves then the situation will still be under control. What are your thoughts, Melanie?"

Melanie thought a bit and spoke, "I guess he is trying to sow internal discord by funding your enemies so that you don't focus much on your borders and hence his borders remain stable for him."

Friedreich nodded as he too had the same thought.

Meanwhile, John furrowed his brows as he had different thinking and spoke, "I think, he might be trying to ally with Prince Chad or Draco with a marriage As he is on thin Ice currently since he has lost a lot of wings in the previous political storm."

Melanie thought and spoke, "That should be impossible, right? Because the Royal family won't overlook him marrying an heir with a demon from Fire-abyss. Wasn't this hate towards Fire-abyss one of the reasons why Lionheart was so hellbent against you."

Friedreich too nodded and thought the same as Melanie.

John smiled and spoke: "I wonder because strategically it would be a very wise choice of him to ally with them so closely as he will gain an edge against me as well as the Royal Family when Fire-abyss successfully develops new counter weapons. Not to mention, he can also give a passage to Fire-abyss in discreet against me as well as against the Royal family in case any prince moves against him. However, it is good that all of his domain is surrounded by my domain i.e Sky, Bluesea duchy and Blackwolf's western domain and the Central domain of Royal Family. His next move most likely will be to closely ally with Blackwolf so as to give passage against me and also not to raise suspicion of Prince Lukavv and Prince Hector. Anyway, this would be a very big and time-consuming scheme in my opinion. Anyway, Lord Duke, I would advise you to be careful of Draco and his cronies. I am advising you this as a Son-in-law so I hope you take this seriously. They may also try assassinations on you to gain power in desperation."

Vlad meanwhile took this hypothetical scenario from John very seriously and noted it down as his instincts were telling him that this move from Norman certainly reeked of danger.

He thought and bit and spoke to Lyon, "Take my Ghost guards, and from on, keep a very close watch on every move of Norman, Prince Chad and Draco. I instinctively feel that something fishy is going on. And also don't speak of this conversation to anyone outside. Not even your most trusted personnel. You only have to divide the spying work so that no one has suspicions and thinks of it as a normal routine checkup on potential threats to our Duchy. Report to me directly in Sky if there is anything suspicious and serious going on. No, report me every movement of these guys and their lackeys." 

Lyon was quite surprised as he deeply nodded immediately while he took Friedreich's permission and headed out to carry out Vlad's mission.

After Lyon headed out, John decided to speak as he wanted to forward his plans, "Lord Duke, I heard from Master and Diana that you focused a lot on farming. And because of Demonic miasma, you faced a lot of problems with 50% wastage in food which can't even be fed to the livestock."

Duke Fredric nodded with agreement and spoke, "Well, it is not a hidden secret, This is one the reasons why we demons mostly attacked and invaded nearby lands whenever there is a shortage of food in our stocks. However, I am also interested to buy those things called fertilizers for the farms as this was one of the main reasons for my visit. You don't need to worry about payment as you can simply export them to our farmers via your company."

John thought as he nodded and spoke as he remembered something, "Okay, We can export the extra Fertilizers that we produce, that won't be a problem. What if we solved your problem of wastage? Previously, I was just having a meeting with one of businessman today and their company had surprisingly one new innovative creation. The company was founded by a Demon and an Elf who used to study at Rose Institute previously. They have created a peculiar pair of gloves that can nullify the effect of Miasma released by demons on the farms. The Longstanding curse of the Gods can hence be nullified. These gloves were made by those pair of entrepreneurs initially because they worried about the plight of Demon farmers in our domain and also to create a level playing field for them."

John continued as he remembered his conversation, "This involved a lot of research in magic as well as biology so even I had to use some of my brain cells to understand it completely. Well, the thing is, after a considerable amount of trials by our agricultural department they too have decided to order the gloves as well as other accessories made by them. We also have a plan to make some machines which can ease the very huge load of work like harvesting, plowing and other things. It is my personal project which will be announced during my crowning ceremony. So what do you think?"

Both Melanie and Friedreich were quite stunned when they heard about this,

Melanie meanwhile thought and muttered, "It seems those children thought from a completely different point of view to improve the farming for demons, quite an innovative way."

Duke Friedreich was quite stunned and excited as he immediately spoke without thinking, "Good, Good, Good. All of our problems of food will be solved if we can control the miasma leakage during farming. quickly bring me those children. I will immediately order 85 million sets of these new protective wear. I am sure this will immediately increase our yields by 50% in the next harvest. Who are the owners of this new company?"

John smiled and spoke, "Well, the company is owned by two people, One Demon and One Elf that recently graduated from Rose Institute and then there is some funding done by Blue Paradise for large scale production of these accessories, They own about 41% of the stake meanwhile some engineers from the institute own about 12% of the stake for making some of the production lines. The company's name is Demonic Agricultural accessories. For your Information, Blue Paradise is owned by Diana and other girls so you will have to talk to her after I grant your men the authority letter to buy those goods."

Friedreich nodded and muttered, "It seems, that girl has really succeeded in something good this time around. It looks like I would really have to pamper that girl this time around. Tell me more about how she came in contact with this company."

Right now, it was Vlad who spoke as he was one always kept his tabs on Diana's affairs, "Milord, her highness initially funded this project after she saw the Self-promoted Projects column of Rose Newspaper and Magazine i.e. Internal Newspaper and Magazine of Rose institute for Merchants who were interested in funding the projects of the students which the Institute wasn't able to fund due to lack of funds and provided a platform for promising students to promote their projects. Her highness only got interested after looking at a column that introduced a project for increasing the Farming productivity of Demons by controlling their demonic miasma and hence she contacted them first initially. And later funded their experiments after a complete assessment of their ideas. Well, Blue Paradise has funded a lot of promising projects for now so it is not all bad. Part of the reason she funded this project was that she remembered your dilemma on food every year and hence the results after enormous funding."

Friedreich nodded as he stood up and spoke, "Let's Finish our talks for now. It is already quite late, I am sure all the ministers from both the sides are waiting. We can continue the rest of our talks in the following days. By the way John, When did your domain started making these new wines? This one is quite good compared to the other new wines that were introduced. I don't think there was anything like this introduced in the market by the newly formed Exotic Sky Wines. Currently, the most famous wines in the continent certainly belong to Exotic Sky Wines but this one is even better."

John smiled as he finally got a chance to speak, "This is a limited-edition wine called Youthful soul, it is strong in flavor as it suits the demons and I created it personally to entertain state guests so as feel my sincerity. So it is not sold anywhere else, As a son-in-law, I will gift you a whole stock of it for a full year that was personally refined under my supervision. Let's go for the banquet, I am sure every one of the ministers is waiting with tense expressions on both of the sides."

Everyone nodded and concluded the meeting and were going to announce the important decisions taken in the meeting.

Immediately, John called Quill and told him of his decisions, "You can announce the decisions that were taken today. We can later discuss this in detail. However, you can give the ministers about the future direction of Sky. Duke Friedreich is of the same opinion so you don't need to worry."

Quill nodded and spoke to John, "Lord, It was just now reported that Minister Joel and Minister Plato along with their team of ministers and businessmen have just now left for Sky from the capital and will reach here at North-frontier city tomorrow as they are traveling the Royal beasts of the Aelius family for faster travel this time around. I was informed of this by Grey as well as their Foreign Minister Luke."

John nodded as he looked at the documents which briefed him of the political upheaval at Aelius. He nodded satisfactorily and spoke, "It seems our spy agencies are still up to date. Good, From now on, We will be keeping an eye on Draco i.e. Diana's uncle. He seems suspicious to me. If possible send the Ghost Red in case he tries to do something suspicious. Tell him that If there is an attack on Lord Duke, then he has to ensure his safety."

Chapter end