270 The Wine Industry (2/2)
”Oh?”
Amaryll now realized how Knight felt every time she surprised him with a bear hug.
”Where did you disappear to?”
Amber asked while still clinging to her
”I was...busy and it's nice to see you too”
Amaryll patted her on the back as Amber released her after squeezing her one last time.
”I heard about what Noa did and glad to hear that King Don is alright, speaking of where is he? He's fine right?”
Amaryll could see the genuine concern in Amber's face, and though she hated to lie to her friend, she had no choice but to lie.
”He���s fine, he's just secluded himself and cultivating nonstop to breakthrough”
Amber frowned a bit upon hearing Amaryll
”But I heard Adria is already at Heavenly level”
Don was a peak-level Grandmaster while Adria was just a low-level Grandmaster, so Amber had a hard time believing that she broke through to the Heavenly level faster than him.
”He's different Amber, I'm pretty sure that he would be stronger than Ar...Adria when he comes out of his seclusion”
”Hmm, you're right, but I have to ask, how do you people cultivate? If I'm not mistaken, you have two Heavenly level mages now and a few Grandmasters right?”
”Wouldn't you like to know?”
Amaryll giggled to avoid answering her and quickly changed the topic
”Did you have any luck regarding the thing I asked you to find?”
”What do you think?”
She winked at Amaryll and asked as she took out a small pouch from her space ring
”What you gave me, my friend, is the seeds of a rare kind of grapes called the black honey”
Among the herbs and seeds Arrora brought from the house where they met Aathreya in the underground, Kayako identified everything except the pouch of seeds in Amber's hands.
Since Reghys didn't know about those seeds, Amaryll gave it to Amber to help her find their use and origin.
”How did you find it?”
”I didn't, it's my brother who asked his herbology teacher and told me. He also said there's only one place in Star empire where they use black honey grapes to produce wine”
She paused for a moment and continued,
”According to my brother, the wine produced using the black honey grapes is extremely rich in flavor and taste and has huge demand throughout the continent”
She was rubbing her palms together in excitement and barely able to stay still on her chair while she spoke about the wine
”We must build a winery and start to make this wine Amaryll”
”Wow, hold your horses Amber, I'm not an expert but I think making wine is not a simple process, we need a place for vineyard and professionals who have prior experience of making wine, in other words, we have to build a whole wine industry if we want to make a single drop of wine”
Amaryll would have been just as excited as Amber if she didn't spend time managing Everlight after Knight left and learned the difficulties of managing a kingdom and its people.
”Not to mention, we are working on multiple big projects like building houses, roads for citizens before the winter starts, working on the dam, and now we have to deal with the post-war things in Ishikara”
”Don't worry, I have already hired a few experts to help us, we only need the workforce and a place to build a winery. Since the refugees are flooding Sigalla and Emir, it won't be hard to find workers and you can create work for your citizens reducing the unemployment rate of your kingdom, it's like killing two birds with one stone ”
”Hmm, when you put it like that”
Amber's words made sense after Amaryll processed everything in her mind for a few moments. In their treasury, they had enough wealth to fund the whole winemaking process, and if what Amber said about the wine was true, it would be a brilliant investment to build a solid economy in the future.
Besides, Amaryll couldn't waste those precious seeds of black honey grapes after hearing Amber.
”What do you say, Amaryll? Think about the crowd it would pull towards our restaurants if we served a rare and delicious wine. Even the royal families of the other kingdoms would come to our hotel just to take a sip”
”I understand Amber but have you tried it?”
”Of course I would have, but as I said, huge demand. Trust me Amaryll, I tried to buy a bottle and used all my contacts even so, I couldn't get it. Also, if these seeds aren't worth much, my brother's teacher would have offered a hundred thousand medium stones to buy the seeds from him”
”What?!”
Amaryll's mind went black for a second, hearing the insane amount.
”Now you see my point right?”
Amber showed a foxy smile, looking at Amaryll's reaction. She knew that she could convince Amaryll using this point because one would be an utter fool not to recognize the value of such an item after hearing this offer, and her friend Amaryll was not an idiot.