After Corco's return to Saniya, the lineup in Rapra Castle's main study room had changed for the first time in years. As always, Fadelio sat to the side behind a mountain of paper, while Corco sat behind his fancy desk. However, this time there was a third participant in the discussions, and it wasn't a mere guest.

After their return to Saniya, the servants had added a couch arrangement opposite of Fadelio's position, where the king's new wife took a seat. Ever since, Sumaci had joined the room as a mostly silent observer. After her and Corco had returned home, they had been forced to wait a few days until they could properly announce their marriage at the banquet. After all, the feast had to be organized and the lords who still weren't living in Saniya had to be informed. They also had to be afforded enough time to prepare gifts and reach the capital.

During those days, Sumaci had begun to join the king's study in an effort to learn governance. Although Corco had wanted her to stay in school and finish her studies first, the young queen had insisted to join in. This way, she would learn in a more practical fashion and would be able to help with the government operations more quickly. In the end, her arguments had convinced her husband and she had been allowed into the king's study during his discussions with his attendant. At first, she had been enthusiastic about the prospect, but by now she had realized the boring reality of government work.

During the days until the beginning of the banquet, Sumaci had watched as Corco had dealt with the fallout of his sudden disappearance. While the king's absence had never gone beyond the stage of rumors, and the city had remained calm during their island vacation, it had still caused his work to pile up beyond reasonable limits.

As a result, he had to sift through a mountain of paperwork on tiny, organizational problems. However, Sumaci hadn't been discouraged despite the drab entertainment on offer. At least this way, she had been able to observe the day-to-day operations of her new husband and became familiar with the work she intended to help him with in the future. The everyday grind also helped ease her in on the regular procedures within the castle.

However, over the past few days she had gotten a hang of the basics and boredom had begun to take over more and more. Thus, she was happy that her husband had managed to catch back up with his work in time for the banquet. This way, they could deal with the fallout from last night's events the very next morning, when most of their guests were still sleeping off their hangovers.

“We have already sent some people to count and distribute all the physical gifts like livestock and mining rights,” Fadelio began to count up their spoils. “That might take a few days longer, but is not something we need to be overly concerned with. I'll update you if there's any problems. For now, most of the monetary gifts from the guests have already been counted up. Some of them were harder to estimate, like the jewelry and artwork, but in general, the total value should be somewhere around 450.000 Sila.”

Sumaci was shocked by the staggering amount of silver their guests had gifted them in a single day. She herself had grown up in a palace in Rasacopa, and she had even participated in some of the lucrative raids along Chutwa's coastline. Even so, this was an amount she could barely imagine, far more than even her father made in a single year. Although she had lived in this place for decades, only now did she truly understand the difference in wealth between Medala and the Verdant Isles.

“That's incredible!” she shouted in excitement. “What do we do with all that money?”

Already, Sumaci was starting to draw up public projects in her head. Wasn't that one theater she had built quite lonely? However, the other two in the room didn't look as enthusiastic as her. While the king looked indifferent even when presented with such wealth, his attendant explained his plight with a bitter face.

“Our wise king usually finds a quick and simple way to spend all our budget, no matter how much we make. I don't expect this amount to last us for long.”

“I don't think we should be too concerned about the money. I'm much more worried about my petty cousin.”

As if to confirm his attendant's words, the king changed topics as soon as they began to talk about the issue of spending. However, his focus on Governor Mayu was understandable. After all, the governor's reaction to their marriage had been extreme, and Saniya's relationship with the biggest estate in the southern kingdom was important for the stability of the entire region.

“Yes, the issue with Mayu needs to be resolved one way or another,” Fadelio admitted.

“Well, this is mostly my fault for being selfish, but we can't dwell on the mistakes either way,” Corco claimed in a dry tone. However, Sumaci had different ideas. She wouldn't let her husband take the blame for thinking about himself for once.

“Shouldn't this be considered my fault instead?” she asked. “I should have been more forceful in my rejection of Governor Mayu earlier. Then, none of this would have happened.”

“You kicked him in his groin, what more could you have done? You're the least at fault in this thing,” Corco claimed. “That blockhead Mayu would have stayed stubborn either way, that's just how he is. Rather, I should have been less impulsive and more diplomatic, plan this out and force him to accept even if he doesn't like it. Since I'm the only one who could have changed something, I'm the one who's at fault.”

Before their fight for responsibility pointlessly escalated, Sumaci gave in.

“Can't we still do that then?” she asked instead. She really didn't like her husband's claims of fault, but if they could resolve the issue quickly, she wouldn't have to feel bad about their overenthusiastic marriage. “Just force Mayu to accept our marriage officially. Saniya is much richer than Puscanacra anyways. Just make a few concessions and let him shut up.”

Yet Corco only shook his head.

“At this point, I don't think this issue will get resolved in an amiable way. Mayu has already made his stance clear at the banquet, in full view of the public. So now he has no way of backing away without looking like an idiot... More of an idiot, I mean. I didn't think he'd be this bold, but here we are. He won't just change his mind again and be seen as weak by the other lords. With his move last night, he maneuvered all of us into a corner, himself included.”

“I don't like it,” Fadelio said, a deep frown on his face. “We can't make enemies of Puscanacra, can we? How will we hold the south together this way?”

“Not like we have much of a choice.” Corco's sigh mirrored the frown of his attendant. “Grandfather is leaving for the capital in a few months. As soon as he does, Mayu will have full control over the Saqartu estate. And as always, he'll use his power to give in to his petty grudges, and we're the first on his list.”

“What about Lady Guanca?” Sumaci asked. “Now that the governess is the elder of the family, she should have some sway in House Saqartu's politics, right?”

“Well, aunt has always had at least some amount of power in their estate, but she'll side with her firstborn on this issue. She usually does so anyways, and our relationship with her is already strained because of the Ogulno bullshit.”

Of course, Sumaci knew what Corco was referring to. After the establishment of the southern kingdom, Lord Ogulno had taken great pains to oppose the southern king at every step for no good reason. As a result, he had become politically isolated, and his wealth and power had been more and more restricted by Saniya.

It was something he truly deserved, and something that was necessary to establish Corco's prestige among the southern lords, but Governess Guanca was Lord Ogulno's sister and surely had other impressions of the conflict. Still, since this woman valued her familial ties so much, Sumaci felt like there was a chance to use such emotions to their advantage.

“Maybe we could give your cousin Atau a bigger, more active role in the court. He is also a born Saqartu, so it should ease relations, right?” she thus suggested. However, Corco was still confused by her idea.

“I'm not sure how that'll help. Wouldn't that just make things worse? I know he's Mayu's brother, but that guy doesn't care about family if they're not useful or subservient to him. I'm his cousin too, and he hates me anyways. He'll only get pissed off if he has to see his brother be successful.”

“No, this isn't meant for Mayu.” Sumaci shook her head. “It's for his mother. After all, Atau is her son as well.”

Sumaci's plan was simple. Since Lady Guanca seemed to care so much about her immediate family, she would be reluctant to see House Saqartu openly opposed to Saniya, at least so long as Atau had a visibly important role within the court. Thus, with her influence in Puscanacra, she could force Mayu to at least stay neutral and not totally oppose them. As soon as Sumaci gave her second hint, both Corco and Fadelio caught on straight away. After all, they were also seasoned politicians.

“That seems like a good idea,” Corco mused, his finger tapping on his upper lip. “We can just increase Atau's profile in the government. That woman cares about both her children, if nothing else. So long as Atau is an important part of the government, we can make sure that Puscanacra will never fully oppose us. At the very least, they're not gonna start conspiring with the Arcavians or my brothers against us.”

“Still, it'll be a good idea to reduce the Puscanacra influence in the kingdom, to guarantee that they can't make trouble in case Mayu changes his mind,” Corco added after some thought. “For now, we should try to become less dependent on them, just in case my cousin suddenly has another meltdown. Wherever we can, we'll rely more on trade and people from the other estates from now on.”

“We could isolate them, increase pressure on the other lords to make sure they only work with us and no longer with them,” Fadelio suggested. However, Corco shook his head.

“No, don't deliberately push them towards political isolation, that'll only make them desperate. We already have enough work on our plate this year, we don't need a fucking civil war on top of it.”

For a moment, the room was quiet as Fadelio took down notes. Once he was finished penning down the king's decisions, he continued with the next item on their agenda.

“When it comes to things we need to handle this year, I believe it's high time we address the upcoming departures. Our contract with the wolf mercenaries is running out towards the end of the year, as do our contracts with the Arcavian craftsmen. After the contracts are done, we will have to pay out a large amount of silver to everyone, and we need to fill the hole they will be leaving in our workforce. Our contracts with the local Saniya craftsmen run for close to a year longer, but that's still near enough that we shouldn't put it off. We need to start preparing for the transition now or we'll run into huge problems later.”

“Well, that's not really an issue, is it?” Corco smiled like a thief. “We just made all that money from the banquet, so paying out our contracts is gonna be easy.”

“And it's gone.” With a defeated expression, Fadelio looked over to Sumaci and shrugged. The queen had to suppress her laughter at her husband's shamelessness. Meanwhile, the husband in question was already moving on.

“As for replacing them, I think that's not a big deal either. We've spent a lot of time and money on our new army. By now, we will do fine without a thousand mercs, won't we?”

“We're still lacking officers,” Fadelio insisted.

“Our guys need to grow up some day,” Corco shrugged with an indifferent expression. “We can't always have our men be commanded by mercenaries, and we've worked hard to grow some staff. Maybe they'll be a bit out of their depth at first if they get promoted so quickly, but it's something they should be able to handle considering our advantage in firepower over... pretty much everyone. Plus, we can maybe naturalize a couple of the Arcavians if they feel like marrying a local.”

“Maybe Dedrick will stay, if you ask him nicely,” Fadelio suggested. However, Corco looked a bit unnatural all of a sudden. Maybe his attendant ignored it or maybe he didn't notice, but Sumaci realized that this wasn't something her husband wanted to talk about. Thus, she wasn't surprised when he changed topics.

“Talking about naturalization, how are our plans in that regard going for the craftsmen?”

“Pretty well.” Fadelio said and looked through some of the papers he already had ready on his desk. It was obvious that he had prepared well for today's meeting. “Around eight in ten have some sort of close connection with at least one of the locals by now. Around forty percent are married to a local woman, or expect to get married soon.”

“So only around one in five is expected to leave? All of those staying, plus their apprentices coming of age... Sounds like this is a non-issue then.”

“Not exactly. Even with their relationships here, even some of the married ones could still choose to leave. Arcavia is their homeland after all, and after the contract runs out, they'll have more than enough money to bring a spouse home with them. While we deliberately hired those who don't have much family back in Arcavia, they're still strangers here, with a strange language, strange culture, and strange religion. Until the contracts start to run their course, it's impossible to say how many will really stay here. We've talked to some and tried to gauge their willingness, but I don't trust the results of an informal interview like that.”

“So for now, we should assume that most of them will leave once the contract runs out,” Corco concluded.

“That would be the safest. Still, things aren't all bad. They've trained their apprentices for years now, so those will be ready to take over and fill the void left behind by their masters in another half year. Same goes for the apprentices in our offices, which will also ease the pressure on our officials and allows us to expand our operations a bit.”

“Finally. I always feel boxed in with how little we can do.” Corco breathed an honest sigh of relief. “Make sure we have a good, honest test for the apprentices to guarantee that they've been trained well. I won't allow anyone to bribe his way through. If the Arcavians have held back on their teaching and taught an army of unpaid interns, they can forget about getting the money from the contract.”

“Already planning for it.” Fadelio grinned, before he put on a more thoughtful expression. “The apprentice tests are high-profile work that'll be known throughout the city quickly, and overseeing them shouldn't be too hard, since all the important work will be done by our craftsmen and officials. We could put Atau in charge of this, get ready to increase his profile in the government early.”

“Solid idea,” Corco said. “This way we can get started on this early. He's not usually one for those kinds of jobs, but I'll talk to him later, to make sure he's on board.”

Just as Corco was closing out their current agenda item, the door to the room flew open. As if he had heard their discussions, a disheveled Atau stormed in and looked around with frantic eyes, before his focus landed on Corco.

“Laqhis, you need to save me!” he shouted. “The crazy spider is trying to eat me!”

“Perfect,” the king said with a frank smile, as if he was unworried about his cousin's strange behavior. “I was just looking for you to help me out with something as well.”