As we got out of the courtyard we walked quite fast with the lady, that was sent by father, leading us to his study room where a renegotiation was said to be held, I still haven’t been briefed on why the Solei brothers came to us.

I racked my brain on the way to find out why they come here, maybe it was about equipment shipment for the miners? Maybe they came to pay homage to him? Heck, maybe he’s renegotiating the tax and income cut from the mines?

He did tell me that he wanted to improve our hold on the realm’s natural resources and any other resources that generate revenue to the crown, he said to father that our realm is too ‘decentralized’ whatever that means.

“Lord Protector, mind briefing me on why they came? Or do I have to guess?” I semi sarcastically asked.

“Ohh yeah… about that! A day ago, me and Miss Marie were reviewing the realm’s financial and resources condition with Sir Geoffroy”

* * *

Me and Miss Marie were sitting and processing the information in the council room, miss Marie face looked quite livid, it’s like she just saw a man kick a poor little animal.

In this case, that man is King Arnulf II and that little animal is this kingdom’s financial and resource condition for the last 500 years. At first, we thought that considering this is a medieval kingdom, the only problem that we have to fix is the lack of centralization, but boy… this shit literally made miss Marie angry as hell.

King Arnulf II was without a doubt a shithead who doesn’t have the right to rule, learning more about him reminded me of a certain king from Bohemia, Wenceslaus IV or Wenceslaus the Idle. Where like Wenceslaus, he neglected everything that has ties with managing the realm and only spends his time on other frivolous activities, sleeping with whores, hunting 24/7, throwing parties and other wastes of time.

Luckily for the realm back in Bohemia, Wenceslaus have a brother who if I am not wrong, dethrone him and usurped his land, where he then fixed and even improved upon it, and his name was Sigismund. But unluckily for us here in Albion, there was no usurper of the throne nor someone with a great talent for statesmanship to replace or at least negate his stupid decisions back in his day.

To this day the kingdom of Albion is still paying that price because he sold a lot of land, ventures, and any other operations that generated money for the crown.

Explaining why miss Marie was livid while observing the ledgers that spanned for 500 years. The crown essentially doesn't have any money to do anything meaningful, everything was only for keeping up with the expenses. But thankfully though there aren’t any domestic or international debts to be paid.

Looking back on the ledger, the crown was really in need of a big steady income, because the plans and reforms I wanted to pass are really, really, really, I mean ridiculously expensive.

On the bright side, the people all over the realm aren’t suffering from any food shortages or high food prices. I was kind of hoping there was a food problem of some kind, so I could make land reforms… I'll still implement these reforms for preventive sake, of course, it’s just... going to be harder to justify land reforms.

I wonder if this world has serfdom? Who am I kidding, there is serfdom for sure. Maybe I'll issue a royal decree for the emancipation of serfs, but first I need to make sure the crown is stable on its own before curtailing any nobles.

“For Christ’s sake! How the hell is this kingdom still afloat?!” Miss Marie’s lividness finally burst out.

“That… is because of the mines Lady Marie…” Sir Geoffroy said with a saddened tone.

“The mines?” I asked curiously.

“Yes… before the reign of our majesty, King Clovis X, his father, King Karl V, made a deal with the Solei brothers. They're a very well-known merchant brothers in Londini, and the deal was that the brothers will manage, supply, and pay the miners at Mount Blanche.”

“Hmm… couldn’t the crown supplied the miners themse-…” I stopped and looked back at the ledgers. “Ohh yeah… you guys don’t even have the money to hire miners, let alone supplying nor paying them.”

“So, what did they ask for? This kind of service is not cheap if I have to guess.” Miss Marie’s anger finally subsides and now asks calmly.

“They asked for a reduction of taxes on their other ventures to 10% including the mining operation in Mount Blanche, they too also want 80% of the revenue that the mines’ generates, because the mines’ revenue was predicted to be approximately 10.000 to 30.000 gold coins, the scraps were large enough to nullify the crown’s expenses. But don’t get it wrong, his late majesty was a shrewd man and managed at least to make the tax reduction to 25% and the revenue percentage for the crown to 35%.”

“Hmm… 10.000 to 30.000 gold coins…” I mumbled. “That amount of gold coins could really help my early plans, or at least a good starting point to accumulate cash to burn. I think we need to renegotiate! Sir Geoffroy write a letter of invitation to the Solei brothers! Tell them it’s about renegotiations on the Mount Blanche mining operation!” I ordered with a stern and resolved tone.

“I’ll do it right away, Lord Protector!” Sir Geoffroy stood up, bowed before me, and went out of the council room.

“Well… you don’t need me anymore on analyzing a decade-old ledgers again, right?” Miss Marie said.

“Yeah, and thank you by the way!” I said in appreciatively.

“Well… if you need me, you can find me with Eleanna and Lady Chloé.” She said and then went outside.

After that I was alone in this room, I dwelled in my thoughts trying to find out how to renegotiate with them.

“If only I had some dirt on them, that renegotiate would be more easier!” I mumbled.

“Lord Protector!” Lady Chloé, out of nowhere suddenly was standing beside me.

“Lady Chloé!!!” I shockingly said.

“Hehe… sorry for startling you there, but I heard something interesting from your mouth!” she said playfully. “Dirt, if I wasn’t wrong?”

“So, you heard me?” I asked.

“No, it wasn’t her, it was me!” a man’s voice from Chloé’s back said.

“Who’s there?” I suspiciously said.

“It is I, Lord Protector!” A Crow suddenly appeared from Chloé’s back and jumped to the desk near me. “The name’s Ceniza! A pleasure to meet you!” he said relaxingly.

Seeing and hearing this animal talk made me go questioning my sanity, I scrubbed my eyes and hope my brain was having a tiny malfunction for a second there, but boii…. He wasn’t gone from my sight.

“Huh… a decade-plus of torture finally caught up to me!” I said sarcastically.

“Wha..? You think I am not real!?” he said angrily.

The bird then spread its wings and flew, he then landed on the floor where suddenly a black mist appeared below him that engulfed him.

I then saw that bird became a man in a matter of seconds after the black mist dispersed, Ceniza he introduces himself again, from a glance he looked very tall but not as tall as Arthur, he has wide eyes which are complemented with a deep brown color, a medium-thick lips, short yet slightly pointy nose, and a medium length hair with a bowl haircut.

Physique wise he is very slim and is not very muscular, weirdly after his transformation into a human, and thankfully too, he is already dressed with proper attire, a black doublet, and a light brown hose.

I stood up from my chair and touched his face trying to confirm if he is real and I proceeded to pinch myself in the cheek after touching him.

“Ouch… well I am not dreaming…” I mumbled quietly.

“Mmm… well… let me introduce you to my familiar, Lord Protector!” Chloé said awkwardly.

“Familiar? Your magical pet?” I genuinely asked.

“HEY!” Ceniza angrily cried.

“Well, sadly no, Lord Protector...” Chloé said in a disappointed tone.

“HEY!!!” Ceniza again cried angrily to both of us.

“Jokes aside, I’ve teleported to you due to ‘dirt on them’ I've heard from you? And it seems I have the very thing that would help you!” she said.

“Considering you’re sort of my spymaster? Or… spymistress perhaps…? No… it’s spymaster of course, yeah considering you are kind of my spymaster then you should have some sort of secret against the Solei brothers!” I said.

“Indeed, you are right, Lord Protector, and I give you a token of my faith and believe in you with this journal!” she said in a humbling manner and presented me the ledger in hand.

“Why thank you!” I replied in gratitude while accepting her ‘gift’. “Well let’s open this puppy up.”

I opened the Journal where the first page had a name written on it, Jacques Solei, the owner of this Journal.

I was Expecting that it would be filled with slanderous things against the crown and/or the royal family, and I was right, the earlier pages were just filled about how they outwitted Karl V for a couple of pages.

But... I wasn’t prepared for the horrors these brothers have done inside and outside the mines.

The first atrocities that I’ve found are that the brothers imported slaves outside the kingdom, King Clovis has taught me some of the laws that have been passed throughout the centuries in this kingdom, and one of them is the illegality of owning and enslaving sentient beings.

The church of Lux has too condemned the act of slavery. People who are caught are to be excommunicated, where the crown too, has a justified reason to imprison the offender too.

But what made it even worse is that the slaves they were importing weren’t just humans, but elves too.

Elves’ social status wise from what I was taught by the king, was equal to that of man too, and putting another sentient being in bondage is another crime in itself. Though the sentient being weirdly was only solely used for the elves, their racism perhaps against another sentient being? Well, I don’t really have the time to dwell on that now.

After the slave part in the journal, I continued to the last part of the journal that was written, which... was just straight up paedophiliac shit! The owner’s journal said that he has a personal slave that he is very fond of, she was a 9-year-old elf girl.

At first, it was a bit tamed, there were no vulgar things to be found in the words that he was describing him until I opened the page where it started with a line, ‘today, I have plucked the flower of that lovely.’ And there it began. The page onwards was just filled with him describing how he ‘plucked’ the 9-year-old elven girl, I read the last line that made me hurled. ‘after tumbling with her a bit, I put my penis inside that small, arousing, and wet mouth of hers’

I stopped there, closed the book as hard as I can and after that, I was left with nausea and disgust after reading that vile description.

“Okay, WHA-… oh they’re gone…” I said to myself, “Fuckers probably already know what was inside this shit!” I angrily mumbled.

This journal could really help me, and I would definitely use it to have an edge on the renegotiation, but…. What would they make of it?

The King? The Prince? The Princess? This crime that this fellow committed, Jacques, is without a doubt a crime against humanity or in this case crime against sentient beings, but if I let them arrest and execute this man, and maybe even the brother too, because he was an accessory to the crime. I would lose two people who definitely knows more about organizing and maintaining a mining operation that they have been maintaining for 50 plus years with their own money.

The King himself said that they did keep their promise of giving the 30% revenue to the crown.

Hmm…… well…. I think I don’t have any other options, The king will certainly want his son and heir to hear these negotiations, for improving him, and he himself would want to see me in action for the first time against others. But I think I can at least for a slightly longer time, keep this secret under the radar from the Princess.

* * *

After hearing that, my feelings were mixed, on the first hand that bastard is a deviant and a criminal against every sentient being in this world and the only just action is to hang him.

But, his statement is right too, we don’t have any loyal nobles or burghers who have the capacity to maintain a mine and we definitely don’t have the money to pay and to compensate those slaves that he brought abroad.

“So, do you understand your highness?” Martyn asked curiously.

“I do! But… are we just going to let them run amok!?” I said with an angry tone.

“No, we aren’t letting them run amok! What we are doing is controlling them and the two of them are more useful with their heads still intact, but I promise you that after the crown is economically stable, I would personally go to both their house and arrest them!” he said with a determined voice.

“Good, good...!” I replied. “Wait… but what of my father’s opinions on this?” As I realized, I then ask worryingly to Martyn.

“I’ve already told him yesterday and boi… he was more reluctant than you at first, but… I managed to convince him otherwise.” He replied.

“That’s my father of course, haha, I salute you for successfully changing his mind!” I congratulated him.

We were finally in front of the meeting room’s door, the thing that only separates us and that bastards inside. Martyn opened the door and we saw father and those bastards sitting on the couch, father was relaxed as usual on meetings like this, while I am trying to calmed myself from doing anything rash to those bastards, and those bastards…

Well one of them is sitting relaxingly too on the couch, that is positioned in front of the couch my father’s sitting in, separated by the oak tea table. On it, I saw one tea porcelain and five cups prepared, two of them aren’t filled, I am guessing that’s mine and Martyn’s cups.

After we showed ourselves when Martyn opened the door, we were welcomed warmly by father and those bastards,

“There they are! Gentlemen! I introduce you to your new liege, my co-ruler, the Lord Protector!”

“Hmm… I thought he was going to be older.” The bastard who was sitting there said with a disappointed tone.

“Now, now, brother, he may be young. But the fact that he is appointed to be his majesty’s co-ruler means that he has proven himself to be a competent leader! Or… he could just be a good silver-tongued fellow!” The other bastard brother that I didn’t notice, was standing near the window while like his brother too, sarcastically said that to Martyn.

“Gentlemen, I assure you I am not a swindler in disguise! Nor that my age will hamper my skills on being a good leader and liege to you people!” Martyn said with full confidence.

“Well Lord Protector, my co-ruler, you invited them here on accounts of renegotiating the percentage of revenues and the taxes percentage of the mining operation in Mount Blanche, so… let’s start the renegotiation then!” Father said.

All of us then seated ourselves on the couch, where Martyn started the renegotiation with haste.

“Gentlemen, my name is Martyn, your liege, and Lord Protector of Albion.” Martyn introduced himself.

“Pleasure to meet you Lord Protector, my name is Jacques Solei, the younger brother.” The younger bastard brother introduced himself.

So, this is the deviant old bastard who has ruined that young Fada girl, one day you’ll rot in enfer for what you did!!!!

“And my name is Jean Solei, the older brother,” the older bastard brother introduced himself.

Ohh… I won’t forget you too you old fart, one day you both will suffer in enfer for your crimes against sentient beings, Lux… I really want to arrest them right here and now!!!!

“Well, we have already acquainted ourselves! Let’s not waste any time with chit-chats and go straight to it!” Martyn said. “I want the revenue income for the crown to be increased to 95% and the tax increased to 75%” He continued with a stern demand.

Both of their faces went shocked after hearing that demand, but that face turned into a combination of lividness and superiority when that bastard, Jacques, talked back at Martyn.

“Huh… I see that his majesty hasn’t told you of our importance!” that bastard Jean retort.

“Yes… Do you know how much money and time we have invested there boy!? The crown didn’t have the money to subsidize us on the mining operation! And we have to scrape by on making the mines work!! We were lucky that the mines yielded more income to nullify our expenses!!!” Jacques said in a slightly angry tone.

“Scrape by? What of those poor slaves you brought abroad!?” Martyn let the cat out of the bag.

“Wha… WHAT IS THIS PREPOSTEROUS CLAIM!?!?!?!” that Jacques bastard yelled at Martyn.

Suddenly after he yelled, Lady Chloé from out of nowhere appeared here near the door that me and Martyn previously come from.

“Gentlemen!” she said then bowed to us all.

“Lady Chloé, why have you come here?” I asked curiously.

“Why, I have come to deliver this!” She then showed me the journal that Martyn had told me about. “And of course, to report my findings on the solei brothers!” she added.

Martyn then stood up and walked to Lady Chloé, grabbing the journal that she brought to him. The brothers after knowing what that journal quickly shrivelled and went cold feet.

“What’s the matter, gentlemen? I thought you were angry at my baseless accusations? Or… is this accusation right all along?” Martyn said with a devilish smirk. “Well, this journal that yesterday I read was and is! A gold mine for me and the crown, let me read some of it for you! ‘Today the slaves have arrived, about 500 plus men, elves, dwarfs, and what not landed here. With them being somewhere near 80% of the work labor, I think they would suffice to make our profit more bountiful’. Then I found some slanders about making a fool and outwitting King Karl V, it’s not really much of a problem for me, but the current king would probably want some answers!" Martyn then took a brief pause preparing to say something that would hit the nail on their coffins. "But do you know what the real gold mine is? Well in this case the rotten thing that I found in this journal is… your young slave, that Fada girl of yours Jacques! I read all about it and it is disgusting that I still found people like you!” Martyn said with a livid tone.

‘“…”’ both kept their silence.

“What’s this with the silent treatment? If this is untrue and this journal is a lie, then SPEAK UP!!!” Martyn retorted.

“I think that’s enough Lord Protector, they are already cornered at this point, except if… Lady Chloé still has more to add?” I joined in.

“Yes, your highness, firstly I have already taken the liberty to rescue and care that young Fada slave girl. And lastly, I have too, taken the liberty to free the slaves from the mines and sent them in care under the Princess, our High-Priestess, but of course, I didn’t tell her where these slaves came from, ensuring that you both won’t be excommunicated right away!” She added.

“Now you both already know that this is NOT a renegotiation, but a demand that you will follow obediently! Except if, you want to be excommunicated by the Church, disavowed of any association by the Merchant’s uild, thrown to Castle Krone’s dungeon where you will rot until your public execution, and of course… for the benefit of the crown, the seizing of assets, ventures, including the mining operation, wealth, and estates you have, where it will be appropriated for the crown!” Martyn where he has calmed himself, threatened them calmly.

““…yes… Lord Protector”” both said while sweating cold.

“Good… from now on both of you are in our mercy! You will give us that 95% income revenue from the mines! Your ventures and operations will pay up to 75% tax from now on! And you will give us 80.000 gold coins by the end of this week!” Martyn ordered them.

““…”” they kept their silence.

“I didn’t hear a ‘yes’ from both of you! Did you NOT UNDERSTAND!?!?!” Martyn, full of fury, yelled at them both.

““Yes… Lord Protector…”” they said reluctantly.