"To build a ship. A ship that is bigger and more powerful than destroyers." the Vice-Admiral replied.

Now Althea was interested.

"Oh? Do you have a plan in place?" Tenebre asked, his tone scornful.

The Vice-Admiral's eyes narrowed in irritation at Tenebre's tone, clearly not liking how flippant he was about the Vice-Admiral’s plans.

"Lord Tenebre is the leader of the Diery merchant navy." Althea clarified. Even though Tenebre was being a bit rude, he seemed to know something that she did not. That was to be expected, his base of the operation was the sea, making him much more familiar with the Garron family.

"No, but we have ideas. The money is to research the ship." the Vice Admiral replied.

Althea frowned. So they didn't actually have a plan in place? Just ideas? Hmm, but research did take money. And tended to start with ideas.

"Is it because the Serolian Duchy is making their own ship?" Tenebre asked. "The merchants talk, Vice Admiral. And so do your servants. The Garron family has spent a lot of money on this ship of yours, but you don't know what to do. The power system isn't working. That massive ship of yours keeps sinking. And you haven't even started to figure out the weaponry."

The Vice Admiral looked embarrassed as Tenebre scoffed. "The Serolian Duchy is keeping how their ship works a secret, but the fact it exists is spreading like wildfire. The Duke is taunting you, forcing you to take on an unreasonable debt again so that you can compete with him. And you are falling right into his trap"

The Vice Admiral sighed. "I know, Lord Tenebre. But what would you have me do? The sea is where the family's foundation lies. If we lose that…then we have failed our ancestors." Althea felt like the Vice Admiral was staring at her. "Just like how the Diery family can't lose their monopoly on agriculture, we can't lose our navy."

Althea sighed. The Vice Admiral wasn't wrong, the Garron family could not afford to lose their navy. That was what kept their status.

But if they went ahead like this, they would end up losing the navy to someone else either way. The Duke would just wait till the debt was more than the value of the navy, and then petition for the family's assets to be liquidated to pay the debt.

"Do you have a plan to repay this debt?" Althea asked. The Vice Admiral's face told her the answer.

"Not quite, we will pay it little by little." the Vice Admiral said.

"Pay eleven million gold little by little?" Althea asked. "How much gold does the Garron family make in a year that you have the confidence in doing so?"

The Empress sighed, the frustrated kind of sigh that told Althea that she wouldn’t like the answer.

"That is the thing, Countess, they don't. The Garron family does not make enough to sustain their current navy, let alone the new advancements they want to make. The finances have been consistently in the red for the last ten years."

Tenebre scoffed, not saying anything, but making his opinion clear.

"How about this, I will send over an advisor to check your records and see if there is any way for you to repay the debt. If you can, then perhaps I can invest the money." she said. "But I request that you don't borrow anymore in this time period."

"Duke Zerolian isn't in the position to give any gold to begin with. The herb business drying up and the increased price of food has tightened his purse." the Empress said. "I think a proper check would do them good. Now, if you will excuse me, the Zun royals are finally leaving."

The Empress turned her head a little to the left. "The Princess is quite furious that you won't let her go through your territory, Countess. I would expect some hostile action from her side once she manages to return."

"Tell her I haven't blocked her passage, just won't ensure her safety. If she wanted to take a shortcut so bad, she shouldn't have killed people's families." Althea replied flippantly. If the Princess wanted to get a VIP treatment after attacking the county several times, then she could go somewhere else. The Diery county would not entertain her.

The orb cut off, and she turned towards her advisors.

"So, do we still think allying with them is a good idea?" Tenebre asked.

"Do we have a choice?" Nester replied. "If we don't help them, they will end up in Duke Zerolian's hands, and I presume we don't want that."

Tenebre made some disagreeable sounds, but did not say anything in protest.

"So, who should we send to the family then." Jassinda asked. "Tenebre?"

"Oh no, I have my hands full with the new navy and the Elves. Do you know how many ships are coming in? And then there is the trade issue, the Reh Duchy has a lot of problems with non-humans trading in their territory. " Tenebre said.

Althea perked up. "The Reh Duchy has problems? Hmm, how nice. I will have to speak to Duke Reh about that. The ports might be in their territory, but we own them. If they have that much of an issue, they can buy them from us. How much would they cost now?"

"The price three centuries ago was five million gold. Counting in inflation and the growth we have facilitated, somewhere between thirty and fifty million would be fair." Tenebre said, looking thoughtful.

Althea looked at him. "Do you have some thoughts, Lord Tenebre? A plan perhaps?"

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Well, Countess, it occurs to me that now that we are allied with the Leria Duchy and have the Eastern Isles to serve as ports, the Reh ports are not quite needed anymore." Tenebre said.

"I will need to ask the Prime Minister how he feels about more ports in his land, but I doubt he will refuse. If you are correct, then we can perhaps get a little working change." Althea smiled.

The Diery family did not lack the money, but that did not mean they would reject someone giving them money. The family could just shift operations to the Eastern isles, which they would have to do anyway.

In fact, the Reh port's positions were not favorable anymore, the Zerolian Duchy was between them and Reh, and she would have to be careful sending goods through. The Duke might try to sabotage any shipments The Leria Duchy was easier to reach, just the Bern march and the royal lands stood in between it and the Diery county.

As for Verest, he wanted more growth to begin with. The ports would bring wealth and opportunity to the newly established half-Elf colony, not to mention the opportunity to communicate with their new neighbors.

But that would still take months to do. A city could be built in a week, but ports took longer, mainly because they were defensive structures. The procurement and enchantment of suitable materials was troublesome at best.

"Try to get the Reh Duke to come to me with complaints, don't be too unreasonable, but make sure they can't let us have the ports anymore." she said.

"I will make sure of it, your grace." Tenebre smiled.

"Hello?" Jassinda interrupted. "I think we forgot my question. The person going to the Garron family?"

"Do you want to do it?" Nester asked.

"Oh heck no, there are only two months til the harvest, and if we are trying to reach the whole continent this time, I don't have time for any distractions." she said.

"How about we start slow? Just the Elara Empire and any nation you feel will respect our right to trade. At this time, we need reliable allies, money is secondary." Althea said.

Jassinda nodded. "There is a problem with that, your grace. The county's influence outside the Empire is limited, and so is our ability to collect information. I recommend we get one if we're going to be expanding.

The county is currently still weak, we need more people. And on that note, we also require a few Master stage mages to represent us in other Empires. The ships must have someone powerful leading them, or we will not be taken seriously.”

Althea felt a headache coming. "Master stage…may be difficult. The Elves are the only ones we have."

"Trusting the half-Elves so much may not be wise. If they start disobeying us in some far off kingdom, then we may not even know about it until it is too late." Tenebre chimed in.

"Perhaps it would be best to delay the expansion till next year. The Elara Empire can be done this year, but expanding fully will need resources, personnel and information we simply do not have." Nester suggested.

"Yes, that would be wise." Althea said. "And on that note, I think you will be the one going to the Garron family, Nester."

Tenebre laughed. "Well, that is just fine. I think those oldies will love you, old man."

Nester frowned. "I will do my best, your grace."

The discussion, of course, did not stop there. There was the how, and the when and the what of things to be discussed still. The intelligence agency wouldn't build itself. And frankly, she had barely any idea what she should do. But she had to have some sort of plan for the future.

Hmm, in what direction should the county grow? The first stop would be to encourage trade with the county itself, the fur and the crops were good stuff, but the problem was that they were readily available across the Empire.

And the county was out of the way for most merchants. If they could trade with the Zun Empire through the mountain pass, then trade would flourish, but that was unlikely to happen.

The next, and something that she could see actually happening, was attracting sects and nobles to the county. The county dearly needed more powerful people, but that came with its own danger.

Althea was too weak to handle them if they decided to rebel. The Steward was there, but she still had to be careful. If there were too many outsiders, then the natives of the county would end up oppressed.

Hmm, could she set up some kind of not-really-citizenship, citizenship for non-humans? The half-Elves had been a great help, and they seemed unlikely to rebel, at least for now. The county and the Eastern isles already had a reputation for being friendly to non-humans. The natives were already getting used to seeing them.

Perhaps that could work. The county had a lot of benefits too, perhaps only Scandinavian countries back on Earth could give similar conditions.

The county ensured housing, food and employment. After all, they were easy enough to give. The low population and high wealth ensured it. But that was enough reminiscing, she had a half-Elf to call.

The Steward, who had entered the room sometime after the three heads left, started the call, looking like he had opinions. Althea had a feeling she would hear them soon enough.

"Prime Minister Verest." she greeted as the image appeared.

"I greet her grace, the Countess guarding Diery." Verest said, titling his body a little to show that he was not alone. A few other half-Elves were also in the room.

"I would like to introduce Jeras, our Minister of Defense and Melinda, our Minister of Commerce." Verest said. Althea hadn't seen the two half-Elves before. So they were either new arrivals, or had kept a low profile when they were in the county. The fact that they were ministers also said something about their power.

"What is it that you need from us, Countess?" Jeras asked.

Hmm, slightly more off-putting than Verest. And he did not greet her.

"I wanted to ask your opinion on shifting the Diery family's trade operations to the Eastern isles." she asked.

Melinda's eyes widened as Jeras' narrowed.

"I thought the land was to be ours, your grace." he asked.

"And it is. That is why I am calling you, Mr. Jeras." she replied.

"Will the port administration be granted to us, your grace? What about protection?" Melinda asked, looking much, much more eager than Jeras. The other half-Elf looked at her in irritation, while Verest just watched without speaking.

Althea had a feeling she had just met half-Elf politics.

"The protection will almost certainly be granted to you, but I hope to move the current administration in Reh duchy to the Eastern Isles. But I suspect that there will be a huge hiring spree either way, we are opening trade with the continent as a whole through the Elara Empire." Althea said.

"That means that the Eastern Isles will become a major trade hub, and the point where the Diery merchant fleet leaves the waters of the Solerian Empire to the Elara Empire."

Jerus just looked suspicious as Melinda began scribbling on a piece of paper that had appeared in her hand.

Oh, this was going to be interesting.

"So there will be humans moving in." Jerus noted. "And who will control the ports, Countess?"

"The Prime Minister of the Eastern Isles." Althea replied. "At least administratively. The military navy will be under the command of the Admiral of the Eastern Isles, and the merchant navy will be under the Diery Merchant Authority."

If there was one skill that had grown much stronger over the past month, it was her ability to make up names and make decisions at the drop of a hat.

Jerus opened his mouth to speak more, but Verest interrupted. "I think we need to discuss this among us before we reply, Countess."

"Take as long as you need." Althea said, sagging into her chair as the call ended. Well, this had been a very long day.