“How exactly did you ran into my three sons?” Emperor asked, “It seems too much of a coincidence.”

Nick already knew this question was coming and didn’t intend to hide anything, “In fact, it was a coincidence. After we arrived in Falun, we looked for the biggest tavern to gather some information. Bartender pointed at them to be ‘most resourceful people in the capital after his imperial majesty’. At that point I didn’t catch the subtle nuance in his words and only after we came here I guessed their identities.”

“So the story about the bartender setting you up was true?” Emperor was slightly surprised.

“Mhm. We learned about your love for ale in other towns, therefore we started to order jugs of water to pretend to drink it to not stand out too much. Unfortunately, yesterday that guy took it too personally. Even the silver we gave him didn’t please him enough.” Nick said, “But the people are people and sometimes do stupid things. We are all fine now, aren’t we?”

“Alright, one last question before we can start our meal. What is your body’s condition that you can’t drink alcohol?” Emperor asked with serious expression.

This was another question Nick knew that was coming and honestly replied, “I have a very healthy and very strong body, therefore I can’t drink alcohol.”

This time the only one whose expression didn’t change was YunYun and to not cause any misunderstandings, Nick continued, “You see, if I drank alcohol it would not only impede my reaction and obstruct my physical development, it would cloud my judgment as well. In addition it destroys brain cells, damages ones liver and in the long run ruins male’s intimate performance as well. I’m not letting my body to go through any of that and I have never tasted and don’t intend to taste even a drop of alcohol.”

Silence filled the hall. Even though most present knew what he meant, Nick made sound wrong something that most people in the world enjoyed. And when he said the ‘intimate’ part with a straight face, it even made all the females blush.

“Bam!” Suddenly Maja grabbed a spoon from the table and smacked on Oliver’s head, “You see?! That is how a man should think! If you want to become a good emperor and have many more offsprings, stop going to taverns!”

“Hahaha!” Emperor’s laugh instantly eased the tension in the hall, “Alright! It has happened only once and it was already more than ten years ago when the three of my sons were defeated in a duel one after another by one man. Today it happened again and, although the fights were completely different, the result was still the same. This is a cause for celebration and will serve as a lesson to them and everyone else to never stop their growth! Now, bring in the food!”

Nick didn’t notice the shadow of sadness flashing across everyone’s faces and turned his attention to the food that was brought in. For him cooking was kind of his hobby and he did look forward to taste the things that were served to the emperor.

For the next half an hour everyone was too busy to talk and, with the exception of few casual questions and answers, they mostly enjoyed the local delicacies. Nick’s guess was that this feast was already planned earlier, except they added a couple of chairs for him and YunYun. He had his experience around the kitchen and knew it was simply impossible to prepare multiple roasted deer, pigs and fish even for the imperial cook.

After the meal the atmosphere became more lively and the three wives seemed to have forgiven their husbands. All of them had even rosier cheeks and carelessly enjoyed few cups of alcohol completely forgetting everything Nick earlier said. Some traditions were simply rooted too deep.

“… so Nick tried to persuade us that this way we can have more daylight inside while keeping premises even warmer. Can you believe it, father?” Oscar retold the concept Nick suggested earlier regarding the larger windows and the whole hall shook their heads in disbelief.

YunYun, who mostly sat without saying anything, couldn’t take it and her hot Li family blood finally showed, “It might be your pride or may be a simple shortsightedness, thus you can’t understand. But if I were you, I would’ve listened to what Nick said or at least tested and then judge. You guys don’t even know how many new inventions he had made in the Sun kingdom and how has that strengthened their military strength and made the country more prosperous.”

They were doubting HER man, the one SHE chose and was so proud of! This was borderline a personal insult.

The hall fell silent again and, while most didn’t know how to react, a hint of amusement was in the eyes of the empress. Emperor, of course, understood YunYun’s reaction. Despite the distance, during his rule he had dealings with the Lethe kingdom and its queen, YunYun’s grandmother at that time. She was even much more hot headed back in the day.

Nick also didn’t say anything. Of course, he knew very well that up until now the only things he had invented were all regarding the Qi practice and even then they were less inventions than further development of existing techniques. All the things YunYun had in mind when she spoke were not really his ideas, but unfortunately there was no way he could explain it.

“Alright! In that case tell us how to increase Northern empire’s prosperity as well!” Otto said.

“Sure, why not? Nick shrugged and asked Otto, “What are the main sources of income of your empire?”

“Well. We mostly hunt.” The youngest didn’t really understand the question. Even though he was very strong, he was not the crown prince material.

“No, I don’t ask what is the main income of your people. I’m asking – what is the main source of income of your empire? For empire to become more prosperous it needs to maintain the in-flaw of the money from the other countries – it needs to export things!”

Seeing the confused faces around him, Nick, once again tried to dumb down the simple economic principle, “You see, the trade within your country doesn’t matter because the amount of money doesn’t change. One sells, the other buys, but everything happens within the same pocket, therefore the total amount will never increase.”

He looked around and stood up so it would be easier to demonstrate, “Imagine all of us in this hall – let’s call it country. The total wealth of our country is the total amount of money that we all have on us. To increase the amount we have to get money from outside – the other countries. For example – the country called ‘hallway’.”

Nick went to the door and called over a confused guard.

“The honorable guard here is the citizen of country ‘hallway’ and I, for example, will sell him this sword.” Nick grabbed the guard’s sword and stuffed a silver coin in his hand, then theatrically presented the sword back and grabbed the silver coin, “You see, our country just sold one of its products, the sword, and earned one silver coin. That way we, all together, now are more prosperous than before.”

“But didn’t you just give him that coin?” Astrid, Otto’s wife asked only to get immediately shushed by her husband. Even if he was not the brightest, he understood what Nick meant.

Nick ignored the question and continued, “And now, imagine, instead of a simple iron sword we sold something much more expensive, like exquisite northern red wood furniture with authentic carvings.” Nick pointed at the table, then went to the wall and pointed at it, “Imagine if we taught a few of our citizens how to make simple heating and lighting formations and put them on beautifully made wooden plates with carvings like you have on your furniture. Not only those plates would become exquisite and practical part of every aristocratic household in Sun kingdom, they would cost much more than a simple iron sword. And that is just some random example that I thought of just now. You are the experts and can think of what your country has to offer.”

Wives were still confused, sons fiddled with their beards while thinking, but empress looked with a loving eyes at her husband who was deep in thoughts.

“That won’t work.” Maja shook her head, “Rune formation masters are too rare and too hard to groom.”

“You are almost correct, but not completely.” Nick disagreed, “You don’t need to groom expert formation masters. Indeed, that is too hard and too expensive. But, although my forte is more alchemy than rune formations, I know very well that to create a simple lighting formation you don’t need an expert. A more or less talented person can learn how to do that in a few months.”

Nick scratched his head, then got another idea, “Alright, let’s leave the advanced technology export to the side and speak about something everyone knows – the weaponry. No country will ever have enough weapons, especially one like the Sun and Nola kingdoms who have constant conflict with their southern neighbors. Unlike them, you have limitless source of iron and other metals at your doorstep. Of course, it is impossible to sell simple iron swords or armor for a good price with the transportation costs that you would have from here. But what about a high quality steel?”

Nick walked over to one of the armor stands at the far end of the hall, “Look at this beautiful armor! Of course, you can’t produce something like that en masse, but it shows the quality of the steel you have. For example this axe.”

He stretched his hands to grab the weapon, but stopped and asked, “Is it ok if I touch things here?”

Oscar grinned and cheekily said, “You can try.”

Nick nodded and took the large axe. Indeed it was extremely heavy. No wonder the hot head was hoping Nick would make fool of himself and, may be drop it on his own foot.

“So, you see, the people in Sun and Nola kingdoms don’t use such heavy weapons. But even if we ignore the wooden handle, you can make at least three good swords from this.” He looked at the audience and everyone, other than YunYun, had expressions of disbelief and deep shock.

‘It’s not that heavy! And the subject is not a rocket science!’ Nick thought to himself.

“Thus making quality swords from material like this and selling to your neighbors is definitely a good business.” He put the axe back, fixed the armor stand and went back to his seat. But the expressions where still the same. Since the moment he started the weapon subject no one had uttered a singe word. It shouldn’t be that shocking!

“Alright! Which one of you was it?” Emperor suddenly shouted in deep anger.

Nick and YunYun looked at each other. It seemed that something was missing or replaced at the armor stand and one of his sons had taken it.

“Bam!” Klara smacked Oscar’s head with he spoon just like Mara did earlier to her husband, “I bet it was you! You always peak at their breasts when we walk around the city! You damned pervert!”

What? Now it was time for Nick and YunYun to become shocked. What exactly was going on?

“We will clear that later!” Emperor was becoming more and more furious, “Now! Nick! Tell me why have you come to my castle?”

His angry voice reverberated though the hall.

“Can anyone explain what is going on? What exactly did I say that made everyone so angry?” Nick asked. He had a bad premonition, but just couldn’t understand why.

“Said?” Emperor shook his head, “Earlier you said that you respect my intelligence, so don’t insult me now! Somehow you found out that one of my sons is your father, then you came to Falun and pretended to meet them by chance. Afterwards you to my home to prove your origins by bypassing the formation that can be done only by one who has imperial blood! What exactly are your objectives? Everyone knows you are one of the Maxwell’s men!”

Nick finally realized where the misunderstanding came from but it was already too late. Earlier he was thrilled he got to see his mother’s family, but now deeply regretted he came.