Chatter could be heard from a nearby room. Ryan walked on a fine red carpet which led towards a particular direction. The wooden architecture around him was finely made out of human sweat. Large paintings were pinned against the wall. Ryan walked past as he examined each of these paintings.

He wore a white and black outfit. A black shirt was inside and a white and black overcoat held together by golden threads from the front. On his shoulders, a black fur flowed from the front of the right shoulder to the left. Black pants made out of finely stitched silk. The pants reflected only a small amount of light signifying that even light could not go against the monarch.

Holding Ryan's arms was a woman with white hair and blue eyes. She had extremely sharp features and was walking beside Ryan. She wore a black dress that cascaded to the floor, the velvet material of the dress did not disappoint. The contrasting color of her hair and her dress made her stand out.

Walking past the exquisite paintings, Ryan noted that the Patriarch of the Mines family either was interested in art or liked to give off the impression that he was imaginative and was interested in art.

"Good evening, your majesty. It's a pleasure to see you here."

One of the two knights guarding the door said.

The door seemed to be holding the weight of all the chatter, whispers, gossip, and conspiracies.

The guard pushed the door open with not much effort.

Silence fell onto the room as people looked towards Ryan who had now arrived at the scene. Deep silence. It was so silent that even the crickets in the garden could be heard. They were waiting for Ryan's approval to return to their unproductive discussions.

Ryan walked forward, towards one of the tables. There were 5 cups of liquor which were placed on the table. It was a streamlined glass cup with a circular opening at the top and becoming smaller and smaller as it reached the bottom.

He picked up one of the glasses and raised it in the air.

"This is not a serious meeting, it's time you all enjoy. Cheers!"

The silence disappeared and the usual chatter filled the room. Ryan said that this was not a serious meeting, however, each of these Patriarchs and the children escorting them knew that this was no simple party.

This is not a simple party. All the families, both big and small which are involved with agriculture as their main business are present here. Did the Patriarch of Mines plan for me to form proper relations with these families? What is his intention?

Currently, the biggest families that contribute the most to the economy are the Rihgurd and the Mines family. It seems that the Mines family can be influenced by me, however, the Rihgurd family has minor disagreements.

"Your Majesty, it seems that you are planning on bringing a new policy to the kingdom. Would you mind explaining it to the other nobles?"

A man shouted from the crowd. The crowd had now gone silent since they were now invested in this new subject.

"Can you first introduce yourself? I wouldn't wanna talk to a faceless man."

A man came into vision from the crowd. He was a fat man, with brown hair, ugly. It seemed that his clothes had become a mess. He was under the influence of liquor, this gave him the confidence to speak so boldly against Ryan.

"My name is Rin Rihgurd. I am the son of Richard Rihgurd, the patriarch of the Rihgurd family."

The guy said as he made a bow. He couldn't however handle the weight and nearly slipped. Two nobles standing on either of his sides helped him stand up back on his feet.

"It seems you're quite drunk. You do realize that even though you belong to one of the richest families in the kingdom, all the nobles are equal within the kingdom, right? No disrespect would be tolerated against any other noble or towards me."

Ryan said with a stern expression. The other nobles were quite motivated. They were happy that the richer nobles were not given preferential treatment. All the nobles were equal in the eyes of the king.

"Yes, Your Majesty. I understand. I can handle this much alcohol."

It was visible that he couldn't. The son of the Patriarch was known for his title as a waste. He was a drunkard who lazed around all day and ogled at the women of other noble families. "Waste", "Drunkard", and "Perv." were some of the titles he had achieved over the years.

"Attention everyone, I will not repeat this and will only say this once-"

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Ryan started explaining his new pricing policy. He worded each and everything such that it showed benefit only for the rich and the nobles.

"That is all."

Voice filled the room back again, a mix of both good and bad opinions. Most of the nobles, however, were extremely happy about this. With the implementation of this policy, the smaller noble families could go toe to toe with the richer noble families.

"This is amazing."

"A Minimum Selling Price Policy, amazing."

The atmosphere was filled with praises for Ryan.

Rin however was disappointed. His ego hurt. Both Ryan and Rin were of the same age, however, he had somehow managed to get all the nobles to favor his new policy. He was now jealous of this young man.

"But-"

"But, what?" Ryan interrupted.

"Do you not want to let the other noble families take a part in trade and earn their share of revenue?"

"Do you not want to see our kingdom prosper along with your nobility peers?"

Rin was left speechless. He had turned into a villain. All the nobles had started to see him as a selfish asshole, who just wanted to grab all the market share for himself since his family could apply economies of scale and sell the goods at a cheaper rate.

The only thing he could do was stay silent and withdraw, he knew that whatever he said could be turned against him. Now that horns were placed over his head, whatever he said would be filtered out and make people believe that he was wrong. He resisted his urge to say something and moved to the back silently.

That's one man down.

"Your Majesty, some of my friends have arrived here. Would you mind if I could just have a moment with them?"

Sheaa asked pointing towards the left corner of the room. A group of 5 beautiful ladies stood there all looking towards Sheaa.

"Sure, it is not a problem."

Ryan responded.

Friends huh? Would I ever get the pleasure of calling someone a friend?

"Good evening, your majesty. I hope you're having an amazing evening."

The Patriarch of the Mines family struck up a conversation.

"Interestingly, it seems father and son are quite alike."

Ryan pointed towards the direction where Rin was standing before. He looked around and Rin was nowhere to be seen. Ignoring his absence, Ryan thought it was because he had been humiliated.

"Yeah, the Mines and the Rihgurd families' relationships have deteriorated over the years. The Rihgurd family has become extremely hostile towards us recently. I don't understand where this hate is coming from."

He made a disappointed expression as he looked up. He took a deep breath before speaking again.

"The son is a waste and his first wife died. A broken man."

"It doesn't matter to me what the personal situation of any noble is. All that matters to me is that each of the families uses my lands to its fullest to grow the economy."

The Patriarch was not surprised. It would've been unnatural to assume that a king would be interested to hear the backstory of a noble. To a king, a noble is as close as a friend and as far as an acquaintance. It was a formal relationship.

"It seems that you're interested in art. Is that true?"

The Patriarch's mood lightened, and a small smile crept up his face. This was not a fake smile. Nobles are trained to be reserved, however, feelings slip once in a while. This was one such moment. Ryan knew that the Patriarch was interested in art.

So I know what to gift them, if I want the Patriarch to open up I can just ask him about art.

"What gave i-"

He was interrupted by a loud shout from a distance. Ryan could recognize this voice.

"Sheaa!" Ryan shouted. The nobles started talking loudly making assumptions of what was happening. Ryan quickly rushed towards Sheaa.

"Silence." Ryan ordered. The crowd fell silent. The only thing that could be heard was the ticking of the clock which was mounted atop the wall.

Sheaa could be seen pushing Rin away from her, who seemed to be forcing his way on her.

"Come on, I know you've been watching me for quite a while now."

Rin grabbed her hands and pulled her towards himself.

"You want it too right?"

Rin was now completely drunk. Lost his logical reasoning and was doing whatever his mind conjured up.

Ryan quickly rushed towards him and pushed Rin away. Sheaa quickly grabbed onto Ryan and started sobbing with her head buried in his chest.

"That is enough, Rin Rihgurd. I told you, I would not tolerate disrespect among the nobles."

"Guards, take him to the prison cells."

Ryan ordered.

"Your Majesty, please wait I have something to add on here."

The son of the Patriarch of Mines family said.

"I hope you are not in support of this disgusting pig."

Ryan made an extremely disgusted expression. His nose flared up, eyes dilated. The anger could be seen on his face. It had only been some time with Sheaa, however she was the only one he could trust.

It was all fake however, Ryan just wanted to give an impression to Sheaa that he did trust her. That she was important to him. She was not useless after all. Was it an asshole move? Sure. But a move deserving of a noble? Yes.

"Quite the contrary, Your Majesty. I have been doing some research on the Rihgurd family and it seems that they've been breaking a lot of laws."

He took a huge bunch of paper from his butler who stood next to him.

"He has sexually harassed multiple women of multiple noble families, his father sexually assaulted a woman and this resulted in him being born. His father got the woman pregnant on purpose so she would be forced to stay with him. The Rihgurd family has been selling a lot of their produce off the record and not paying taxes for that. This has resulted in a substantial decrease in treasury revenue. They also have a cruel way of managing their slaves, which is unlike that of other families."

"Are you sure all the data in this is correct? Would you pledge your life over this to be true?" Ryan asked.

"Yes, Your Majesty. Proudly."

"Sebas, send out guards to Richard's castle and bring him to me right this moment."

"Yes, Your Majesty." He said as he hurriedly rushed outside of the hall.

"Today's party is over."

"What's your name again?"

Ryan said looking towards the son of the Patriarch of the Mines family.

"Walf Mines."

"You have done an amazing job collecting all this data for the kingdom. Once verified, I will reward you accordingly."

Ryan said as he started walking towards the door along with Sheaa. He held sheaa close to his shoulders. His hands were around her shoulders while Sheaa kept wiping her face constantly.

The Mines implanted a memory onto the smaller nobles. Nobody goes against the Mines family. If they successfully manage to overthrow the Rihgurd family today, no smaller noble family would try to consolidate too much power and try to go against the Mines after this day.

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