Chapter 10

"I can't believe that you're going to be appointed as duchess already," Eloise said fluttering her fan," It's much sooner than I thought it would be."

Arabelle smiled," Even I think it's too soon," she sighed," Everything is happening too fast, it feels like just yesterday that I came here."

Arabelle hadn't stayed in at the Academia that long only around 3 years. At the end of the second year, The late duchess and Michael had passed away. The Duke had agreed to let Them continue studying and try to graduate faster. The Academia always regarded her as a good student and she had a great reputation, hence they were willing to move up the graduation date for her.

Regardless it would require a lot of effort on her behalf. She had to take extra classes, and work her head off in multiple exams and practical tests, even then she had to make sure that she was well connected. After all, it was the entire reason she had come to the Academia.

She had been able to make good connections, the ones that she really tried her best with were the physicians, alchemists and the daughters of merchants and female merchants themselves.

She was especially interested in produce such as potatoes and sweet potatoes as they were suitable to be grown in the duchy's climate.

She ordered around 500 batches of each to be sent to the duchy.

But hat she was most interested in were the white beats, otherwise known to her as sugar beats.

When she saw them, she directly ordered 800 batches to be sent over to the duchy. Sugar was as expensive if not more expensive than gold in the empire and anywhere else, this was a honeypot waiting to be eaten in her eyes.

People in these times only knew of making sugar from sugarcane.

She couldn't wait to get back to the duchy. They should be delivered in around 2 months as transportation was quite the inconvenience.

Speaking of money.

The salt was already being sold as a commodity in her company, The Northern Trade Association. It has been doing phenomenally well and the feedback has been tremendous. This was of course not a surprise to her.

The salt being sold in the empire currently was coarse and had many impurities. Meanwhile, the salt she was selling was not only iodized and rid of impurities, it was also white and snow-like, not to mention much cheaper. Just looking at them made people choose hers over the others.

Over the year, she had purchased several stores in every capital city of every county and 2 stores in the capital.

She marketed the salt as 'Pure northern sea-salt, just like freshly fallen snow'.

The money raked in has steadily been on the rises, making her confident. Victor had also been astonished at the number. The duchy was nowhere near poor, but it wasn't the richest and the money was much more than they earned in a couple of months by supplying timber.

It was more than enough to fund the army for now. The input for the northern duchy had never been much as the people living here had been living here for centuries, and no one migrated here, other than the handful of civilians, there were the soldiers and their family.

There were a lot of slaves in the duchy though, who had been conquered through war, there weren't as many as there were in other regions, but they constituted a large portion of the duchy's population.

This is what Arabelle had used to make Victor understand that it was important to pay attention to them. She had convinced Victor that it was alright to have slave join the army. They would be able to fight for their freedom based on their achievements. High ranking slaves could get official positions or otherwise they had to serve for 10 years. If they performed well or did something for the duchy, they could be freed from slavery.

It would not only make them happy, it would also show their loyalty.

Arabelle knew it was risky, especially in the face of knights, but the northern Duchy didn't have many, mainly because knights were of noble birth and would rather not stay in perilous conditions like how it was in the north.

She also knew that these people were from foreign lands that were conquered. Although she had pity for them, it didn't decrease the risk that some would garner hatred towards the empire. Only this way could she make sure that the other nobles and Victor would think it was alright.

They planned to issue the notice after they inherited the positions in the ceremony.

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Arabelle sat in the carriage filled with girls and watched the scenery go by. They were currently headed towards the Academy.

Sheryl Academia and The Academy had partnered for an exchange program. Although she and Victor wont take part, she decided to tag along with the girls as The Academy was closer to the Duchy and she and Victor would be able to leave from there directly for their ascension ceremony.

She actually had not told Victor about this, Arabelle wanted it to be surprise.

The carriage started to slow down as they entered the gates of the Academy. The Academy were an expanse of tall brick stone buildings and slanting blue roofs. There were gardens all around, but it didn't stop Arabelle from wrinkling her nose, buildings in this time still had that damp stench. Whenever she got to a new place, it still made her a bit nauseous.

Arabelle shook her head and quickly got over it, she'll get used to it soon enough.

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Victor sat on his bench in the classroom with a bored look, the professor had just finished his lecture and they were done for the day.

There was hustle and bustle outside the classroom and several people looked out the large windows," Look! Aren't those the transfer students from the Academia?"

"Wow, they're so pretty!!!" a boy sighed," They're all so graceful, like swans."

"Their uniforms are so nice," a boy next to him agreed," Do you think one of them would be interested in me?"

"You wish!"

"They're just a bunch dandy little girls," a girl with brown hair scoffed folding her arms.

"Yeah! There's nothing to them," her friend agreed.

Elias, who was sitting next to him, went to watch the fun.

Arthur turned to him," It's exciting isn't it?"

Victor looked at him uninterested," I'm married."

He laughed.

Claire, the girl in front of him turned to him," By the way Victor," she said suddenly, why did you never tell us about your fian- I mean your wife?"

Victor didn't bother to respond but said politely," Because nobody asked."

Danielle, next to her also turned around," Really? Do you two get along well?"

Victor nodded and turned away, not seeing the two unbelieving expressions on their faces. Claire had always thought Victor was handsome, he was mysterious and dashing but also a little dangerous, but she also liked the prince charming like aura of Arthur. She considered both of them good friends, or at least acquaintances.

But to her shock, Victor got married under her nose, she wasn't even invited! She never even knew he had been engaged. It made her upset for some reason.

Maybe she wasn't as close to him as she thought.

Danielle her friend, in the other hand, thought wildly. She thought it was because Victor had a crush on her and hence didn't invite her to the wedding.

She always denied it, but couldn't help her imagination also wandering wild. What if it were true?