Michael

Michael was sitting at the breakfast table with Solon and Eydis, enjoying the work of the palace chefs. Kiran was a great cook there was little doubt about that and Michael had eaten a lot of different things in the last months, but the chefs of the palace were just on another level, it might also be the better ingredients, Michael had no clue.

He had just finished roughly telling his retainers about the previous evening when Sir Zeke entered the room.

“Lord Rowan, Princess Miranne Merland is here to see you,” the knight said with a small bow that made a metallic sound.

“Oh. Send her in please,” Michael said surprised, and looked over to the door where the black-haired girl entered a moment later. She was wearing a simple dress and had her hair open, but everything was overshadowed by her broad grin.

“Good morning,” she said enthusiastically and hopped toward them.

“What has you in such a good spirit,” Michael asked suspiciously but Mira ignored him and came to a halt in front of Solon. She placed her fist against the palm of her other hand and bowed toward him, “Good morning, Master Solon.”

The dwarf mirrored her movement with his hands and replied, “Good morning, Lady Mira.”

Michael watched everything with a raised eyebrow and looked over to Eydis who smirked at his annoyed expression.

“Could someone please tell me what this is all about,” Michael asked but was promptly ignored again.

“Why don’t you join us for breakfast,” Solon said and Eydis pulled the vacant chair back with one hand.

“I would love to,” she said and hopped around the table.

“Hello? Could you please stop ignoring me,” Michael pleaded with not just a little bit of annoyance in his voice.

“Alright, alright,” Mira relented with a chuckle while plopping down on her chair. “When I was in Reen, Master Solon told me about a tribe of river people that value respect for their elders and teachers above all else. I thought it was cool, so I do some of their things now.”

Michael was still suspicious, this was not something she had to hide from him, on the other hand, she was still doing it in front of him so she couldn’t have been too concerned about him asking.

“Ah yeah, I remember those, interesting but very traditionalist as far as I remember the story,” Michael said and looked to Solon who nodded in agreement.

“Well, I like them,” Mira pouted and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

Michael simply smirked and changed the subject, “So what brings you to us this early in the morning, Mira.”

“Oh, nothing really,” she tried to feign ignorance with little success, “I just heard that you would be stuck in meetings for today, so I wanted to come visit and see if the offer of training is still open for some time later.”

Her eyes virtually sparkled with hope as she stared at his and for a moment, he just wanted to agree but he stopped himself.

“I can’t say if I have time today. As you said I will be stuck in meetings and very important ones at that. I will come to find you once I have some time, but I can’t promise anything,” he said and smiled at her happy reaction, it was nice to be around her because she wasn’t as scarred as Michael himself or Zen and just a happy child.

They talked a bit more before Michael had to excuse himself for his meeting with the king.

- Some time later -

Michael was clad in his best tunic, his hair freshly cut, and a fine cape running over his back, this was not a friendly chat with the king, this was an official meeting with people higher than him in the hierarchy and he had to dress appropriately.

When he arrived in the council chamber it was already populated by a couple of people. Duke Wallsten was already present; less finely dressed than Michael, the man had a reputation as being not a man for luxuries. Theodore’s father Count Gretten was also already seated and in a light conversation with the old duke, it was of little surprise that the man was present, he was the steward of the kingdom after all.

Next to Count Gretten sat another man, he was short and slightly round but not overly so. His clothes were putting everyone currently present to shame and each of his fingers was adorned by rings of differing designs and gems embedded into them. The crowning piece of his collection was a large ruby that hung around his neck in a golden casing, even from his position at the entrance Michael could feel a potent vibration from the artifact.

The last two people present were the Archpriest who sat quietly in his chair, gazing at Michael as he entered, and the priest he was listening to whispering into his ear. Michael froze when he saw the priest and his eyes met those of Father Albion. His surprise blunted his anger, but the priest wasn’t surprised at all, his eyes were virtually on fire as he stared at Michael with hatred.

After his surprise had passed, Michael stepped forward to the table and greeted all the high-ranking persons present. He found out that the man he didn’t know was the Master of Trade Radiel Barca, he was a jovial man with a loud voice and a gregarious laugh.

Once the greetings had finished, Michael turned to Father Albion and said with a cold tone, “It has been a while, Father Albion.”

The man didn’t answer and stared at Michael without any other reaction.

“Lord Rowan,” Archpriest Patheros said in a calm and collected manner. “I do not mean to be impolite, but I ask that you refrain from addressing Father Albion directly. I have heard about the ... conflict between the two of you and would like to prevent any sort of disturbance that would disrespect King Zenial’s halls.”

Michael smiled at the man and nodded in agreement but under his polite mask, he knew exactly what the cleric was doing. He was trying to unbalance Michael by having Father Albion present and lay the groundwork for forcing an angry outburst from him, additionally, Father Albion had probably been instructed to keep quiet to not legitimize any outburst from Michael. It seemed that he would have to deal with a lot of underhanded tactics in the meetings to come but that wasn’t surprising.

The next person to enter was Duke Pattro Greeich, Lord of the Duchy of Wyrt and the king’s mentor.

“Ah, Duke Wallsten, Count Rowan, it is a pleasure to see you again. It is a shame that I couldn’t attend the dinner yesterday, but I wish to invite you two to dinner myself while you stay here,” Duke Greeich said in his friendly way and Michael easily agreed. His father had always said that Duke Greeich was a good man and also mentioned that he was his strongest ally while he was staying in the capital.

It didn’t take long after this for Zen to arrive in the company of Duke Wulfen and Commander Gavin Strom. They took their places at the table without many words and Duke Wulfen opened the meeting.

“Greetings, we have gathered here to discuss how the operations conducted by Count Michael Rowan are going to be passed over into royal administration,” Duke Wulfen started but was quickly interrupted by Duke Wallsten in a short pause.

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“Dear Leopold, I would like to interject for a moment,” Duke Wallsten said which caused the other duke to frown. “I would like to reopen the discussion if this repossession should even take place before we spend our energy on hashing out how to do it.”

“What is your reasoning for this suggestion, Duke Wallsten,” Duke Wulfen replied much more formally and without any hint of disapproval.

“The decision has been made without consulting the people that are to be affected by it and those that have the most knowledge about the area. This is why I firmly believe that we can give further insights that could sway the opinion of the here gathered council.”

Duke Wulfen stayed silent while seemingly pondering about that opinion and then turned toward the king, “I second Duke Wallsten’s request. It is only proper that they are allowed to voice their opinions, there might be an advantage there for the kingdom that we did not think of.”

Michael was surprised that ‘young’ duke had agreed so quickly but considering that there was next to no chance that Zen would decline Duke Wallsten’s request, it was sensible for Duke Wulfen to appear open-minded even if he didn’t actually agree.

“I agree,” Zen said and tapped his finger quietly on the table. “It was never my intention to just take the mountains without an explanation even if it may seem so. I agree that I probably could have gone about this in a slower way and invited you for talks first, but time is not our ally and I still hope that you will see the merit in the decisions I have made.”

Michael flinched a little bit at that, he could tell that Zen hadn’t been pressured into taking the mountains but firmly believed it was necessary and advantageous for the kingdom. This would make the whole thing much harder for him.

“First of all, I will explain our reasoning for this decision, after that you may contribute whatever, you find important to this discussion,” Duke Wulfen said calmly with a glance at Michael and Duke Wallsten.

“The kingdom is not doing badly but we aren’t swimming in funds either, with the pressure of the latest events the tension between us and our neighbors is high. The Perios Kingdom is still weighing if they should continue their alliance with us, the Firn Kingdom is always watching and waiting for an opportunity to beat us down, and the barbarians to the south-west and the beastmen to the east have already started doing probing raids against us. We need to show strength right now and getting a massive influx of money and resources would signal us becoming stronger and not weaker.”

The explanation wasn’t without merit, of course, Michael tried to find holes in the logic but for now, everything was sound.

“Our plan is to use those funds and resources to invest in the strengthening of our military might to discourage our neighbors from doing anything foolish and show our allies that we are still worth the effort. The military is not supposed to be the only benefactor of the influx of funding though, His Majesty has decided to also put a focus on improving the infrastructure of the kingdom. Roads, river ports, and guard posts should increase the mobility of our forces and also our economic capabilities. These improvements will be made in all of the kingdom, so the Duchy of Praanen will also receive funds for development, you have found these riches after all.” The duke finished his short explanation and promptly sat down.

The chamber was silent while Michael mulled over what he had heard, it was not as bad as he had feared, at least they had thought of a somewhat sensible plan. Michael wasn’t happy anyway, even if their plan made some sense, it still wasn’t the best use of the mountains in his opinion. Sure, they needed to strengthen their military to thwart any invasion before it happened, but Michael feared that they were planning to divert most of the funds there.

The initiative to improve infrastructure was similarly a reasonable one but just from Duke Wulfen’s comment that the duchy would receive funds for this he knew exactly how little would reach those projects after going through many hands. Half of the wealth of the mountains would vanish before it reached any place where it was needed, and Zen was too optimistic if he thought that it wouldn’t.

The silence dragged on while the council watched Michael and Duke Wallsten with sharp eyes. The old duke spoke up first.

“There has been put some thought into this endeavor already as expected,” he said slowly, “While much of what you have said makes sense in the long term, I can’t help but see a striking flaw in it, the time frame in combination with the scale. What you are proposing will help the kingdom very little in the next decade, the mines are not there yet, and Lord Rowan has just started mapping and probing the ground. The little silver he had dug up might be a good amount of money for his county, but it is just a drop in a bucket for a whole kingdom.”

“If your plan truly is to disperse the money over the whole kingdom then the effect will be nonexistent until the mines have been thoroughly established and that will take years. While that might be the case with dispersing the quite limited resources that can be excavated right now, it wouldn’t be as minor when focusing these resources on a smaller stretch of land, like a county or two. I propose to leave the mines in Lord Rowan’s possession so that he can use these resources to develop his lands. House Rowan is known for their high-quality soldiers and knights so expanding them would increase the military power of the country and developing the underdeveloped lands in the south can raise the prosperity of the country for less investment than an already exploited land, which will also increase the taxes that will reach the royal treasury.”

Zen frowned and looked like he was considering the duke’s words, Duke Greeich nodded in agreement, but the rest of the present council members didn’t seem very convinced.

“Your view is too pessimistic, milord. The news of the kingdom having access to these kinds of resources will be enough to make our neighbors hesitate and the kingdom will be able to use this hesitation to invest in quickly establishing these mines,” Count Gretten said while shaking his head.

“How much money do you have to burn,” Michael asked amused which brought him a nasty look from the count. “I don’t think that your plan to invest in the military and infrastructure will be realized anytime soon if you try to force the development of the mountains in a short period of time.”

The steward flinched and replied, “And how do you propose that you can utilize those resources if the kingdom can’t?”

“Because I am not in a rush to siphon huge amounts of money from the mountains. As Duke Wallsten has already stated two counties can use a low amount of money to much greater effect than a kingdom. We will expand the mines slowly and steadily, but it will still have a huge effect on our economic strength,” Michael replied confidently.

“That sounds like a waste of the potential,” Duke Wulfen noted. “I don’t mean any disrespect, but I am doubtful that a small county or two have the means to efficiently exploit the full potential of what can be found there.”

“We do have the proficiency required through the dwarven artisans we have invited, and I already have a plan in mind for how to gather the required workforce for the mining project. While we might not be able to muster as high of an investment as the crown could, we are much more efficient with every coin due to the close proximity. If the crown takes over the mountains, they would have long supply lines and would have to bring in workers from far away which would increase the cost of every single mine. I am convinced that we will be able to exploit the great natural resources much more efficiently than a royal project could,” Michael replied to which the duke frowned.

“That is very much debatable which we will get to later but now that you mention the great natural resources we don’t even exactly know what is in the mountains. I believe that it might be necessary to send a royal envoy into the Ereic Mountains to ascertain the true scale of what we are even discussing and put these talks on hold until they return,” Duke Wulfen suggested.

It was clear what the duke’s plan was, he was trying to drag this out to increase the financial burden on Michael and bring House Rowan to its knees through the accumulating interest of the loans. At the same time, he would decrease their ability to expand the mining project later which would decrease Michael’s credibility when he said ‘they could use the mines better’.

“Of course, we won’t stay in the way of this,” Duke Wallsten replied, “We should also continue the exploitation while the envoy investigates to make it easier to judge. The profit should go to House Rowan for that period of time in my opinion as they are the ones doing the work.”

“Naturally, House Rowan does the work so they should not have to sit on the cost,” Zen agreed but seemed very content to just listen to the discussion without contributing anything more for now.

Duke Wallsten had quickly turned their disadvantage on its head with this suggestion, dragging it out while Michael was allowed to sell what they mine would bring time on their side. At least that is what the duke intended, he didn’t know about the blacksteel, no one here did. Michael had chosen to keep it a secret because it would make their position way harder if people knew that there was magical ore in the mountains, and he wasn’t confident that the duke would agree to keep it secret. Michael was sure though that the information hadn’t spread as the only people who knew were some of the dwarves and Michael’s inner ring.

While he was confident that no noble who would be part of a royal envoy would recognize magical ore, he couldn’t be too sure that they wouldn’t send a knowledgeable smith or miner who had experience with these kinds of materials. It all depended on the fact if they actually wanted to do a thorough survey or if they just intended to waste time. Michael didn’t want to risk it either way, but it would be suspicious to oppose the idea now.

Duke Wulfen knew that this way of doing things would be contra-productive to his effort and gave Count Gretten a glance at which the man spoke up.

“It would take a very long time, Duke Wallsten and Lord Michael have traveled here for these talks; I do not think we need to waste this much time. I for one trust in the estimates that Lord Michael has provided,” the steward said, and Michael could see the amusement on Zen’s face, he clearly wasn’t blind to all the maneuvering happening here. No one was, Duke Wulfen was testing the waters with this half-hearted attempt to get them into trouble.

“How about you give us a rough estimate of what amount of money we expect to gain from the mountains,” the young monarch said.