Since I had to change into my armor, I figured I might as well go full out and strapped on my vethrian steal protector that covered from my shoulder down past my wrist. I can’t lie, I might have hated fighting to my near death, but wearing armor again felt good. Especially when it was made for me. There was something about the fit, well, that and knowing I was basically immune to most attacks with it on.
On our way back to the castle I tracked down the homeless slave again and had him follow us to the castle as well after having Finlo give his wife some medicine and having the two of them carry her, so as not to leave her alone.
When we made it back to the castle things went by pretty quickly. Finlo chewed out the reptilian that really didn’t know any better, Lu got jealous that I was in a “real fight,” And I announced that the random former slave guy was now a knight and that the other knights would have to teach him how to fight properly… I had my reasons for this of course, chief among them being that his raw strength made him well suited for it, as well as his loyalty being easy to buy, seeing as how he was once a slave. Needless to say though, the knights of the castle felt as though another sudden storm had passed through, and it was written all over their faces.
All the while my brother remained indifferent to everything as he inspected the castle, although, him being the only one with our father's authority, he did take the time to knight the man… Which I found out was something I couldn’t actually do… After that he just snooped around the outer walls, examining them like a proud bricklayer or something, making it almost feel a bit awkward to approach him.
“What are you doing?” I asked, following him around the outside wall.
“Stone is strong, but it can weather and crack, and become unstable. If that happens then it’s all too easy for someone to blow down the whole wall… Just like the one Lu already brought down…”
“People like her aren’t that common though… Right?”
He smirked back at me, standing up and brushing off his hands. “Did you need something?”
“Since you’re settling business here in our father's stead, I take it you understand the situation the town is in right now?”
“It’s nothing new, but it’s a hassle to even think about it.”
“Ok… But… If this is handled poorly we're going to turn an opportunity into a disaster, not to mention people will die.”
He stood up and walked back over to me. “Opportunity… That’s quite the perspective.” Without so much as looking at me, he moved right past me and pressed against another section of wall, inspecting minor cracks. “To be honest… This was my break from all the meaningless prattling of the governor and other nobles. I’ll have to return soon… Why don’t you come with me, and see if the situation is as simple as you think.”
‘I never said I thought it would be simple… I hate accounting… Even in games, it’s a pain trying to maximize the efficiency of an economy, but it’s always the most important step that everything else is built on…’ I took a deep breath and let out a long groan. ‘Although… At least in games it just takes a few clicks from a mouse and maybe a bit of keyboard wizardry… That would actually be easy…’
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We left, leaving Zu and Finlo behind to watch after my sister. Everything may have seemed fine, but I still wasn’t sure what the deal was. I know I heard the clanking of a knight in heavy armor following me, but they certainly didn’t bother helping me out, and when I got back all five of them seemed right as rain.
There were only two possibilities I could think of. Either one of the knights was a traitor, or there was a bandit with plate armor, suggesting a much larger more organized group. Neither one seemed like a particularly good thing… Then again, my head wasn’t exactly on straight at the time, so it was hard to even trust what I heard.
I told Finlo all of that of course, and honestly, the smile he showed me in return was a bit frightening. “This’ll be fun.” He said. “Haven’t done this kind of work in a while.”
“Don’t… Kill anyone… Ok. Hostages are preferable if you end up in a fight.”
His grin vanished as if it was another personality running back into the shadows. “Of course I know that. Don’t worry.”
“Right…”
With that, I was off. I did have some idea of what to expect but I wasn’t as prepared as I thought for just how mind-numbing it really was… At least the chairs they had were nice… Although, I wouldn’t know… There wasn’t one there for me… And the table was too tall for me to really see anything placed on it from the ground… So I ended up sitting on Airsidh’s lap and found myself being grateful he wasn’t wearing a plate, but soft leather greaves.
For the next three hours, I sat in a room filled with towering old men that had more muscle than brains, each one shouting at each other, and occasionally getting into brawls, in which case the winner was declared right… Because of the chaos, it took me forever to even figure out what was wrong. With Airsidh filling in the gaps though, I eventually managed to piece it all together.
The problem all stemmed from a bad deal my father took when he first became a lord. Essentially speaking, we were required to sell the special wood to lord Elianara for half price, and in exchange, he would send us fabric and leather for half price. The problem was, that while everybody needed clothes, he was the only other person with people in his territory who could actually work with the wood, so our only client aside from foreign nations, at least for the raw material, which we had an abundance of because our production was too low.
The natural move to make would be to transfer to only selling products, rather than the material, or in other words increase production, but the deal applied to those as well… And there were other problems…
At any rate, that deal led to a loss of income, and my father diligently clearing the monsters in the area led to a decrease in adventurers and hunters, further decreasing the income. In a way, adventurers were like tourists, so as long as monsters weren’t causing big problems, having them around was actually good… Economically at least… We took out a loan from the same lord to start a farming operation but most of the nearby land outside our territory is fertile, so we couldn’t sell or trade food. The losses were apparently so numerous that in the end that was where all the treasure I found in the dungeon went…
All That led to an increased tax rate to make up for losses, which led to fewer traveling merchants, and ultimately less farming, which in an ironic twist led to less food… Everything was just in a massive downward spiral, and it was even worse than I thought.
“See… Not so simple, just a big headache.” Airsidh sighed, leaning back in his chair.
“I never said it was simple… But honestly… The solution is easier than I thought it would be. I’ll wrap this up soon and we can move on to more important things. Keigan’s bad management was something I was kind of expecting anyway…”
My brother's smirk came back as he raised an eyebrow. “By all means.” He gestured to the large round table as it rocked and shook, a giant man slamming into it as he lost another fight that had broken out.
‘Geez…’ I stood up but only faced the same problem of barely seeing over the table. ‘This is stupid… They aren’t even that tall, I bet they just made it huge on purpose to make commoners feel smaller…’
I sighed. ‘Well, it probably still looks better than sitting on his lap if I’m trying to sound authoritative and adult-like… Giving a presentation in front of a bunch of scary old men that I don't know… I haven’t felt like this since middle school. It’s a different kind of nervous than walking into a dark cave where you know demons going to attack you, that’s for sure.’
I cleared my throat. ‘I just have to be loud and confident right?’ “OK! Y’ALL SHUT UP AND LISTEN!
“Y’all?” Airsidh repeated quietly, raising his brow again.
By the time they all quieted down and started to stare at me, I was already blushing from embarrassment.