Balout was hating me.

Instead of enjoying tea and small cakes in the jade garden with the girls, we were cooped in the military wing: the granite hall, in the northern part of the castle.

Lord Iroto entrusted us to one of his drinking buddies: general Suji. An old veteran who was missing his left eye. Rather than hiding it under an eyepatch, he was instead exposing the empty orbit with pride: it was proof that he was battle-tempered and had survived an encounter with a deadly monster. He wasn't wearing any flashy armour, just the simple blue and red tunic of the military and his scar for sole medal.

The old lord considered his one-eyed friend trustworthy enough and he was tasked to watch over us as we perused through ledgers and ledgers of military expenses. The general knew what we were looking for but it was hard to tell how he felt about it.

His weathered face was unwelcoming and not once did he smile at us. I don't know if his wariness was due to his belief that the army was comprised only of honest officers or just because he felt weirded out at the idea that a pair of kids were going to check the work of an armada of quartermasters, or maybe because Lord Iroto told him I was a Shinpilo's blessed one.

We had a small stony room with a tiny desk to share and a wary intendant for sole assistance. The woman was not hiding her displeasure. Having small kids here to check her numbers was debasing for her. Luckily for us, general Suji was in the next room so the grumpy intendant couldn't voice her discontentment or refuse to provide the documents we needed.

Instead, she buried us under the sheer amount of information. She was hoping this would be enough to scare a bunch of children, not everyone was cut out for accounting work.

I decided on a simple method. We would first focus on one item for one expedition and follow the expense of that troop during the last year.

Quite logically, I chose food expenses. It was the most important in volume, so the easiest to cheat on. I chose a patrol at random, the ninth corp of the fourth army, and what was left for Balout and me was to track all the food expenses of the last year for this patrol.

It took us a day just to get familiar with the ledgers and the classification, or rather the lack of any.

On the following days, we tracked down every food expense made by this patrol and then converted it into Arabian numerals to keep track of the records. Balout was also trying to keep track with the traditional numbers on his side but soon enough he had to give up, we were using too much paper this way.

We also noted when, how long, and where were the expeditions off to.

I also took the casualties into consideration. The death rate wasn't that high usually but there was one terrible patrol in last year's fall where about a third of the group was wiped out by an aerial assault at night.

Being in the army wasn't an easy job. They were hiring a lot of commoners who had a bit of Chi to fill the ranks of footsoldiers. The wages were interesting but the risks were great.

At a moment's notice, a simple patrol in the forest could turn into a nightmare. If the blades leading the patrol weren't powerful enough, an encounter with a large pack of monsters could mean a complete wipe-out.

Once we collected all expenses, I checked with the general to see if they fell in line with what a normal expedition would cost. Things looked normal to him.

Only then did we calculate what it should have costed, comparing the price of food at the time and the amount needed in regard to the number of soldiers.

And there it was: an 8% inconsistency. And it wasn't fees related to management or the share of the dealers and intermediaries. It was a flat 8% overpricing that didn't get turned to actual food for the expedition.

I asked Balout to stay silent about this and for another week we checked the expense of the same patrol on other supplies: armours, weapons, firewood, linens, etc... There was again a discrepancy with the firewood but not with the armours and others. Those were easier numbers to track down, less often used expenses and for higher sums, the controls should be stricter on these expenses and harder to cheat on. Small items purchased in bulk were an easier target. A small difference in base price was hard to notice but would snowball with time and volume of purchase.

Balout was cursing at me for keeping him here longer rather than enjoying the gardens with the girls, spending our afternoons with the princess or just reading books while lazily laying in the grass. Instead, we had the old accountant for sole company, no windows or greenery and food was composed of rough salty crackers that smelled like onions.

This was quite the tiring job. We still had to take care of morning reading class for the latest batch of students and only then would I spend the day with Balout in the military ward, lining up piles and piles of financial receipts and bills.

I never liked doing the accounts. I somehow always felt afraid of missing a line and was losing a lot of time, backtracking and double-checking every line. I was constantly juggling from hexadecimal to decimal too. Balout was trustworthy with using both systems but I felt more confident transposing all my numbers in decimal system. I was slowly getting familiar using the abacus as a substitute for a calculator. I must admit it also made my conversions between both system easier. Just that I wasn't imagining myself carrying one of those around me at all time.

Balout was leaving before evening. His parents were quite rigid about him having to come back home but mine were more lax. I was granted back the servant's room in the jade quarters.

This meant I could work longer and stay the evening to compile more ledgers. It also meant I was able to enjoy a meal at the palace. The old lord was providing us with better food than what I would have back home and it was relieving a bit of the pressure on my family. First spring harvests would only arrive in a few weeks.

Gelcaria somehow got permission from the princess to also stay some nights. She would join the entourage of the princess for the evening or come help me. She wasn't as good with numbers as Balout but just the company, having someone to help tidy up the piles of scrolls, fetch some tea, or double check on my numbers was welcomed.

Truth is, I believe the girl wasn't looking forward to sleep alone at her place. Even when we slept side by side, be it at the palace or my place, we were both tormented by nightmares; so I can't imagine what she was going through when alone at her place.

I was getting accustomed to waking up in the middle of the night after seeing either Yoli's dismantled body or the mugger's blood all over my hands. This doesn't mean I was fine waking up drenched in cold sweat, just that I was slowly getting used to the discomfort. At least the palace was warmer than my place so it was easier to get back to sleep and the soft sheets were helping too.

* * * * *

We had to spend a whole month with Balout to check on the other patrols' expenses. He was now beyond hating me.

I had to buy him cakes on my salary to bribe him and keep him helping me. I couldn't afford to lose him now. The best pastries in town were really not something I should afford, even with my now better salary but I also knew his belly was his soft spot. I splurged on the blood money the young Duarch gave me. Balout was literally eating through my savings.

I limited the scope of our probing to one patrol per army. I didn't want to spend the rest of my life in our tiny stony room being an accountant. Had I wanted this career, I would have stayed at Ms Tarina's workshop.

The results were more or less the same. 5 to 15% embezzlement on food expenses. The worse leakage of money was in the second army, where food was 15% overpriced and even the gear like armours and weapons were subject to a small embezzlement.

It took us two full months to skim through the dusty paper trail to pin down a few problematic expenses. And we were only brushing at the tip of the iceberg.

I had the old lord and general Suji gather together to expose the results of our investigation. This took place late in an afternoon of late spring in the jade garden of lord Iroto.

It might be late in the day but the old man was sober and there was no alcohol on the low table.

The garden was more beautiful than ever, the cherry trees were budding, the bushes were sporting some large camelia-looking bright orange flowers and there were some kind of early tulips blooming all around ranging from bright yellow to deep red.

I took a moment to think that I had never seen a gardener take care of the place but had no time to dig deeper into this mystery.

Balout and I had brought the evidences we needed, the general gave us permission to bring some ledgers under his supervision.

“There is a problem in the finances,” I started without beating around the flowery bushes. “Just from what we've investigated, at least hexhexes of silver were embezzled.” This was a massive amount of large irons coins.

Even I was stunned by the total amount and Balout was just unable to conceive what one could buy with so much money. This was thousands of iron coins, enough to buy a small estate every year or field another army.

“How much!?” Blurted the general while choking on his tea.

The old lord was looking more intently than ever at me with his deep green eyes, “This is no matter for uncertainty, did you double-check what you are claiming?” He probed.

The one-eyed general was also staring at us intently with his remaining eye, still trying to digest the sum we were talking about. He was also maybe slightly afraid his neck might be at play.

I sighed “We did. Balout double-checked my numbers and we even verified the amounts with the general.” The old general had answered our questions about the expenditures but never did we reveal the amount of the discrepancies to him.

“Old friend, I swear I have nothing to do with this. I just can't believe someone is stealing so much from you.” was panicking the general.

The old lord laughed and patted the general's back. “I know dumb geezer, you are too much of a fool to even imagine trying to swindle me.” He smiled at his old drinking buddy, waiting for his remaining eye to light up when he finally understood how he was belittled.

The general hissed, “Tsssk, old kirin. Even a beheaded toja could fool an old drunkard,” he retorted, happy that his friend wasn't holding him guilty and relieved that his head would stay on his shoulders a bit longer.

I had to put them back on track: “There is no big theft here but just the addition of many small abuses. There are some armies where this is more prevalent than others, though. The second army is having a major bleed-out here.”

I then exposed what our investigation found out: where the money was flowing out, at which rate, and who would be benefiting the most out of it.

For the most part, it seemed that the army suppliers were the ones making a win here but I was no fool. I knew that there must have been some officers that were closing their eyes and receiving their share of the cake. I was even suspecting some higher-ups and even blades to dabble in the scheme, I can't have been the only one to ever find out.

It didn't seem like there was an overarching master plot either but rather a lot of greedy intermediaries trying to grab a few more coins whenever they could. Tamayoku was both the protector of merchants and thieves after all, each were a bit of both.

This was a huge problem nonetheless. It meant the loss of a lot of money, which in turn wasn't used to field more troops and secure the Shieldom. More importantly, it also meant that many officers and officials that were supposed to check the ledgers were either doing a poor job at it or abusing the Shieldlord.

I was able to read the mood well enough to decide that this wasn't the right moment to push further for Arabian numerals. My demonstration was done and in time we will talk about it again. Then I could try to slowly steer them away from the hexadecimal system. Just like with the alphabet, I would bring them to adopt my system.

We were dismissed as the two elders had to discuss their further plans in secret.