Hearing his brother-in-law's answer, Grand Duke Stephen's expression immediately became hard to describe.
If Caesar Manuel, who defeated the Ottoman, calls himself weak and helpless, then what are we Wallachians, who are suppressed by the Ottoman, considered?
Ottoman Turk fodder?
However, the other party's refusal to actively provoke the Ottoman again was within Stephen's expectations, as the Ottoman's strength at this time was undeniably formidable.
So he didn't try to persuade Manuel with various reasons, but shook his head regretfully and then asked, "My dear brother-in-law, you specifically passed through Moldavia this time.
What agreement do you wish to reach with me?"
"Brother-in-law, you know that Bosporus has begun to dominate Black Sea trade during this period, right?"
Facing Stephen II's question, Manuel did not answer directly, but smiled and asked a rhetorical question, "Are you interested in participating and getting a share of it?"
This was indeed a tempting offer, but Grand Duke Stephen was a bit puzzled, "Yes, but Moldavia doesn't have any famous products.
Why do you plan to bring us in?"
"It's not entirely without them.
As far as I know, Moldavia has sea salt fisheries, and the development and potential of crops like beets, cotton, and wheat are also quite good, and there are also shallower iron ore deposits than Panticapaeum…"
"Alright, alright, I understand."
Stephen interrupted Manuel's speech in great surprise, "But is this how Moldavia appears in the eyes of outsiders?
We Wallachians ourselves don't even think these lands are that good."
Don't underestimate yourselves; the lands of Moldavia and neighboring Wallachia are excellent plains and arable land adjacent to the Black Earth region of Eastern Europe.
As long as the local swamps are drained, supporting millions of people is absolutely no problem.
Compared to that, the countless mountainous plots in Bosporus are simply… Manuel sighed, pressing his hand to his forehead, silently lamenting that the disparity between lands is even greater than that between people.
"And putting aside Moldavia's agricultural potential, as a neighbor of Hungary and Poland, brother-in-law, don't you want to see this part of the trade route, led by the Mushat family, grow and prosper to earn a fortune?"
"So, you value our country's geographical location?"
Stephen, who believed he understood the other party's intention, immediately showed an expression of sudden realization, and his long brown-gold hair swayed with his movement.
"It's not wrong to understand it that way…" Since that's what the other party thought, Manuel said no more and simply indulged him.
Thus, the two, representing their respective countries, signed a trade agreement symbolizing friendly exchanges.
However, nearing the end, Stephen II still probed with a hint of reluctance: "Brother-in-law, since you have no intention of uniting against the Ottoman, why did you make this special trip?
Please forgive my speculation, but you certainly didn't come out this time just for a pilgrimage."
"Alas, what can I do?" Manuel only sighed lightly in response, "What can I do?
I can't beat them, and I can't escape.
Only by maintaining good relations with my kin can I sustain my way of life."
"But if you hadn't gone to Trabzon, the Ottoman wouldn't be your neighbor, would they?"
"My brother-in-law," Manuel's eyes became particularly sharp as he spoke of this, "you don't think that if I just stayed quietly in the Black Sea, the Ottoman wouldn't come knocking, do you?"
"No way, the Ottoman Navy can't even compare to Kandar's at its peak.
How could it control the northern Black Sea remotely?"
Stephen seemed quite puzzled by his brother-in-law's statement.
At this point in the conversation, Manuel had no interest in continuing the topic.
After all, how could people now know that if the original historical trajectory had been followed, the Ottoman Sultan's reach could have extended north of the Black Sea in less than fifty years?
After concluding his private discussion with Stephen II, Manuel temporarily put aside these official duties and took his family to a small stone castle on the outskirts of Akerman to attend the banquet his brother-in-law had prepared for him.
Having been informed in advance of the necessity for Manuel to maintain a discreet presence, Stephen specifically set the banquet to be a private, small-scale affair as requested.
Before officially attending, Manuel and his family first accompanied his brother-in-law's family on a hunting excursion for an hour or two in the countryside.
It wasn't until Stephen was thoroughly entertained and Manuel showed slight fatigue that his sister, Ioannina, quietly reminded her husband to prepare to return.
Afterward, as dusk approached, the two families began their banquet in the pre-arranged stone castle.
At this dinner, Manuel, for the first time in a long while, drank until he was slightly tipsy, and he and his long-separated sister recounted embarrassing childhood stories about each other, making Barbara and Stephen, among others, clap their hands and laugh along with the atmosphere.
As for their children, they had already been arranged by servants to go to bed in their rooms early.
However, after being half-dragged, half-carried back to his room by his wife and the Commander of the Guard, he was also severely chastised by his wife for his drunken behavior at the banquet.
Though whether he actually heard anything in his tipsy state is hard to say.
And so, Caesar Manuel's trip to Moldavia concluded.
The next day, upon leaving the Principality of Moldavia, Stephen II departed early for Iași to attend to state affairs, while his wife, Manuel's sister, remained to bid farewell to her in-law.
While waiting for the caravel to set sail, Ioannina looked at her now mature yet spirited younger brother, and her brown eyes, a common feature in the Gavras family, couldn't help but reveal a hint of emotion.
At this moment, Manuel, standing at the bow of the ship, also noticed his sister's expression.
He turned his face, half-curious and half-empathetic, and asked her, "Sister, what's wrong?"
"Nothing," Ioannina smiled, "It's just, by the Holy Mother, when we were little, I thought you only liked to daydream.
You were always buried in books, and you asked Father to establish the Philaka Legion, and you loved to ramble about old stories from Macedonia and the Komnenos Dynasty, and you even said that women would only hinder your speed of success."
"Cough, cough, let's not bring up such things again."
Manuel gave an embarrassed smile, facing his elder sister who had left Tauris before he was 15.
To be honest, looking back now, his childhood self, influenced by physical and physiological factors, really did make quite a few moves that didn't quite fit a transmigrator…
But that was in the past.
Thinking of this, his gaze firmly fixed on Constantinople and Asia Minor to the southwest, his brown pupils filled with solemn determination and confidence.
"However, most of what I planned back then has been accomplished."