Chapter 18 Sugar

"We aren't strong enough."

"We have a standing army, don't we?"

"That's not enough, not nearly enough."

Upon hearing Hercule's words, Carolina tilted her head in wonder. In her opinion, the Lemurian military was plenty strong.

"Do you even know what the countries neighboring us are like, Carolina?"

"Of course I know! What kind of idiot does Your Majesty think I am?"

Carolina proceeded to describe the neighboring countries.

First was the Lemurian Empire's arc-enemy, the Kingdom of Fars. Also known as the Farsi Empire. Fars was a great power with national strength rivalling that of the Lemurian Empire.

They followed a polytheistic religion called the Faith of Sacred Fire, with its supreme deity being Abura Dazur—the god of justice, law and fire. Lemuria and Fars both thought of each other as the land of devils, so there were always strife between the two countries. Currently they were in ceasefire, though.

This was because Hercule's father, Hadrianus III, were defeated many times by the Farsi King, Sasan VIII, and was forced to pay a huge sum to for peace. This tribute payment brought the Lemurian treasury to a knee.

Fars was not the only enemy of Lemuria—laying to the northwest was the nation of the nomadic Bulgaroni people, the Kingdom of Bulgaron.

(※Bulgaron itself claims to be an empire, but that isn't acknowledged by any other country, Lemuria included. So hereafter it will be referred to as the Kingdom of Bulgaron)

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Since this nomadic tribe came from the far east, their skin color and face shape were quite distinct from the peoples around here. They looked mongoloid, so to speak.

The Kingdom of Bulgaron was quite powerful, they had invaded Lemuria many times before and even put Nova Lemuria to siege thrice. The Empire also paid a tribute to gain peace with this nation.

To the west were various countries that shared the same Messianic faith—but they adhered to a different creed. Their current relations with the Empire were calm, but… it could fall apart at any time.

In short, the Empire was in a wonderful situation called being surrounded by enemies on (almost) all sides.

"Paying tribute is not a bad temporary measure, but… our enemies practically hold the power to dictate our life and death, and that is really, really bad. We have to make sufficient military preparations, the sooner the better."

"How much military force will be needed, then?"

"A hundred thousand infantry, at the very least."

"A-A hundred thousand…"

Currently, the Lemurian Army was 40,000 men strong, comprising of approximately 20,000 infantry, 10,000 archers, and 10,000 cavalry. Another 80,000 infantry were required, but a certain number of archers and cavalrymen was also needed to support that force.

"Ideally, I want as much as 150,000 infantry, 50,000 cavalry, and 20-30,000 archers."

"…That's three times what we have currently. Is it even possible?"

"Well, not right now."

It wasn't absolutely impossible, strictly speaking. But Hercule would have to raise a lot of taxes to maintain such a huge force. If he did that, the Empire would go under in no time and fall apart from the inside.

"If I manage to double the national revenue, I will be able to raise that many troops…"

"That's a tall order, too. And even if the revenue is somehow doubled, will it be enough to raise over 150,000 troops?"

"It should be enough, if my calculations are correct."

He might have resort to some tricks, though.

"Can't we just hire mercenaries? It's cheaper if we only hire them when needed."

"I'm not really fond of mercenaries."

Mercenaries were the kind of troops that would plunder as they please and run off the moment your war turned south. Hercule wanted to avoid using mercenaries unless he had no other options.

"Let's aim to double the tax revenue for the time being."

"…Your Majesty can do that?"

"It's worth trying."

The production of coffee and bone porcelain were becoming full-blown industries. In another ten years, they would no doubt become the Lemurian Empire's leading industries. But that still was not enough.

Industrial goods aren't a bad idea, but…

As expected, the best way to acquire foreign currencies is…

"Growing sugar is the best way, after all."

"Sugar?"

Carolina tiled her head.

Placed in front of Hercule were two kinds of white powder—but not the stuff that made you feel good when inhaled. Licking it might feel pleasant, but still… it wasn't some sort of suspicious powder.

It were just plain old sugar. Two different kinds of it.

"Give it a taste, Carolina."

"Is this… sugar? Well then…"

Carolina scooped a bit of sugar on the right with her hand then gave it a lick. Un, sweet.

"It's sugar, alright."

"How about the left?"

Tilting her head in puzzlement, Carolina tasted the sugar on the left. Un, sweet.

"It's sugar, alright."

"Do you feel any difference?"

"Hm… the left kind doesn't taste as good. The flavor is off somehow."

"Exactly."

The sugar on the right came from abroad, or in other words, imported from the Orient. It was produced from sugarcane. On the other hand, the sugar on the left…

"It was made from beets commonly used as animal feed."

"Eh? Those beets?"

The beet that Carolina knew of was a plant whose leaves and roots were fed to cows and horses. It was not used to make sugar as far as she was aware of.

"I half expected it to be a failure, actually."

In this world, sugar was considered a type of spice. Honey and fruits had only a certain degree of sweetness, so sugar was highly valued and sold at exorbitant prices. Lemuria imported its sugar through Fars, so capital was flowing out of the country while the enemy nation was enriched.

That being said, Hercule couldn't afford to put an embargo on sugar imports. Therefore he decided to grow his own sugar. Hercule had a rather sweet tooth, so part of it was to satisfy his personal cravings as well.

So, how could he go about growing sugar?

In Japan, there are generally two kinds of sugar available on the market: cane sugar and beet sugar. The inhabitants of this world hadn't found a method to extract sugar from beets yet, so most sugar here was cane sugar.

And yet, beet plants were cultivated very commonly in the Empire.

Sugarcane wasn't grown in the Empire, but Hercule could pay merchants a lot of gold to bring him sugarcane and slaves specialized in growing it if he so desired. The climate in the southern part of the Empire was tropical, so sugarcane could be planted there.

Sugar beet was easy to grow, but he wasn't sure how to turn it into refined sugar. Even if he could, who knew what it would taste like?

On the other hand, Hercule knew how to refine sugarcane and make it taste right, but it would take quite a while to go into mass production.

Hercule was troubled. But he soon made his decision.

Let's just do both.

And so Hercule decided to research the method to refine sugarbeets, and obtain sugarcane at the same time.

In the end, both plans bore fruits.

Hercule knew roughly how to extract sugar from beets, so he managed to make refined sugar after many trials and errors. As for sugarcane, some were brought to Lemuria along with Kunala.

"That's amazing! This means we can eat sugar everyday from now on, right?!"

"…Why not just buy imported sugar if you want to eat it everyday?"

Hercule thought that wasn't relevant to whether the Empire could produce its own sugar or not.

"Our Galeanos House can't afford that, you know."

(You're gonna be my wife anyway, I will buy it for you if you just ask…)

Hercule didn't say that out loud, though. "I will let you have sugar everyday" was about the worst marriage proposal one could make.

"But can sugar really double our revenue?"

"It won't be enough, of course."

Even after all the tax reforms, Hercule could only raise the state income by one-and-a-half times. Sugar was nowhere near enough to increase it twofold.

"Recovering lost territories and restoring infrastructure in ravaged regions. Taking it slow is important, too."

He must do what was expected of him, and do it properly. But that was easier said than done. This tiny bit of sugar would not strengthen Lemuria's standing right away. It would take at least ten years for the sugar production to go into orbit.

"Right now, the only people aware of the method of making sugar from beets are me and the artisans whom I have cooperated with to do experiments. I'm also the only person in possession of sugarcanes. I intend to monopolize them both."

When they become possible to mass produce, he would lift the monopoly and make profit from sugar tax instead.

"Okay, enough complicated talk. Wanna try a shortcake?"

"Shortcake? What is it?"

"It's a sweet treat."

"Sweet… Gladly!!"

The time they spent together afterwards was even sweeter than sugar.