Valkyrie's Shadow

Chapter 7

“I’m back–hm, smells like Albedo.”

“That is hardly an appropriate thing to say, Liane,” Clara said.

“Doesn’t change the fact that it smells like Albedo,” Liane wrinkled her nose. “Do you think she realises it? Actually, why don’t you say anything since you’re all buddy-buddy with her?”

“She came straight from an outing with His Majesty,” Clara replied. “I would rather not burden the Prime Minister with strange worries right after something like that.”

“An outing with His Majesty, huh…”

“Liane!”

“What? I’m just repeating what you’re sayin’. You don’t have to make it all weird. Actually, should we tell our boss about it?”

Clara rose from her desk. Liane strategically repositioned herself closer to the exit.

“Anyways, what did she come around for?”

“She wanted to strategise over this winter’s policy directives,” Clara answered. “I am not sure what happened, but she has taken a far more proactive stance when it comes to many of the issues we have discussed in the past.”

“Did she have anything to say about the Beastman thingy?”

“I handed her the report. I doubt we will hear anything official about it until the Royal Court discusses the matter, but we have Her Excellency’s tacit approval to proceed with our operations. On a related note, have you received any word from our imperial associates?”

“Naw. The girls might’ve delivered our messages by now, but the imperials sure as hell ain’t using the Vampire Post. I wouldn’t expect the first set of couriers for at least a week. We got what we got and that’s all we got.”

What they got was still a lot. They had four barges’ worth of sample fodder to ship to Rol’en’gorek. According to Ilyshn’ish, the Beastmen’s primary source of food was a herd animal called a ‘Nug’, which was supposedly the jungle cousin of the Nuk that populated the Azerlisia Mountains. They couldn’t assume that both animals ate the same stuff, however. Fortunately, they had no shortage of people volunteering various agricultural goods in hopes that they might find a new market for them.

“You’re practically bouncing in place,” Clara told her.

“Can you blame me? This’ll be the biggest deal we’ve made yet.”

That was likely the understatement of the century. If things went the way they wanted, the regional economy would be flipped upside-down. The magnitude of the disruption would shake most major economic players out of their entrenched positions, giving rise to a mountain of vulnerabilities for Liane and her friends to exploit.

“We still have to investigate the market,” Clara said. “Lady Xoc may have been entirely earnest in our discussions, but there was obviously a lot of information that she either decided to leave out or did not think to include. Also, this is as much a political venture as it is an economic one. The crisis in Rol’en’gorek has opened a door that we did not think would exist for a decade or more.”

“Sure, but it’s not us that’ll be doing all of the damage. We’re just innocent Merchants innocently doing innocent Merchant things.”

Liane smiled an innocent smile. The slightest of frowns creased Clara’s annoyingly perfect countenance.

“The Beastmen have Merchants of their own, so I hope you are not entertaining any ridiculous fantasies.”

“But those are the best fantasies!”

Clara rolled her eyes and closed the binders spread out across her desk. She paused to pull a sheet of paper out of one of them.

“If you have so much energy,” she said as she proffered the document, “then take a look at this.”

“Let’s see…eh? This is the last thing we want to be ‘proactive’ about. I thought we already settled on a strategy for this. What gives?”

On the piece of paper was a modest list, but the points on the list were far from modest. They primarily had to do with amendments to legislation and law, particularly in relation to the Duchy’s urban locales.

“They are mostly to do with material realities,” Clara said.

“That may be so,” Liane replied, “but do you realise how much work needs to go into redoing the city’s plumbing to facilitate Frost Giant privies? I thought that’s what the Demihuman Quarter was supposed to be for.”

“It was merely a stopgap measure. The Human population of the Sorcerous Kingdom is less than five per cent of the total these days, so it is not hard to imagine why the Royal Court is pushing for everything on that list.”

“Humans may only make up five per cent of the kingdom’s population, but a hundred per cent of the Human population lives in the Duchy of E-Rantel. Wait, don’t tell me they plan on scattering us all over the place…”

“Not that I have heard. The point is that, practically speaking, the centre of economic and political activity in a country where only a fraction of the population is Human is being reserved for Human habitation. Of course, the Royal Court understands that E-Rantel was originally designed for Human habitation, but the fact of the matter is that this problem is better addressed sooner rather than later.”

“Says the people who held three hundred city planning committee meetings and never got anywhere,” Liane grumbled.

“That is probably why the task is being handed down to the House of Lords,” Clara said.

“And that makes this far from a list of ‘material changes’,” Liane said. “If we’re doing this thing, then the other races have to select representatives to participate. We can’t exactly decide what they want and need on their behalf…well, we could but we’d probably suck at it.”

It wasn’t easy to make a place that suited everyone. Even countries that had centuries to work on the problem still segregated their populations out of necessity. The Royal Court suddenly deciding that it needed to be done didn’t somehow make things any easier. Liane scratched her head as she frowned over the unreasonable points on the list. It wasn’t just Demihuman problems.

“There’s just no way we can do this thingy with the Guilds. Most of the reason why they’ve been playing nice with us is because they’re making money hand over fist.”

“Do you not think that what they are doing is unfair to everyone else?” Clara asked.

“They’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing,” Liane answered. “And everyone else is everyone else. Challenging the regulatory power of the Guilds is an unprecedented amount of overreach by the Royal Court from the perspective of the Guilds. The Crown’s getting its tolls and trade taxes and Guild-related crime is unheard of, so what’s the problem?”

Liane went over to the office balcony and plopped herself into a chair. Clara’s office offered a commanding view of the Katze River Valley, which included Corelyn Harbour. The magically illuminated urban panorama was the subject of much admiration and envy among their imperial guests. Clara didn’t waste the opportunity to suggest that they, too, might see similar developments in their territories if they cooperated with the Sorcerous Kingdom.

“So what’s the play here? I could see a crackdown on the Guilds being a favourable move in the eyes of the nobility, but the bad publicity’s gonna kick our asses further abroad.”

“It is a domestic issue more than anything else,” Clara told her. “The cost of goods and services are being kept artificially high.”

“You didn’t have a problem with this before…”

“I did not know what the Royal Court’s stance on the matter was before. They hardly make any forays into this level of governance.”

“Well, now they have. Someone’s going to cry and I doubt it’ll be Albedo. Actually, it might be you since it seems she’s dumped the problem onto your lap. It’s almost as if she didn’t know that we’re heading out of the country in a few days.”

She pulled a gauge block out of one of her pouches and idly fiddled with it, feeling it transform in her hands as she mentally ordered it to take on different weights and dimensions. It was a classic move by the Royal Court. If they felt that something was beneath them, they tossed it over to the House of Lords. Normally, the Nobles would be thrilled at having some say in the overall governance of the country, but the challenges grew increasingly unorthodox over time.

“They are not demanding a solution immediately,” Clara said. “We are long past the days when the Royal Court operated that way. Lady Albedo said that a memorandum will be sent to the other Nobles, as well.”

“And they’ll be ecstatic about tearing the Guilds apart,” Liane snorted. “Do the Guilds have any say in this?”

Liane already knew the answer to that. The victim rarely, if ever, had a say.

Initially, they had planned to slowly transform the Guilds into something that was more suited to the future realities of the kingdom, which involved having them help reform the education system and gradually putting an end to their cartel operations. This was in line with what the Royal Court wanted and Clara was quite clear in her explanation as to what they were doing, but the fact that the Royal Court was still pushing for change…

Did something happen? Clara mentioned something about Albedo…

“How is this even being ‘proactive’?” Liane said, “It’s not as if we’re half-assing things. We’re already doing as much as we can without disrupting the economy. If we push harder than this, then the Royal Court will complain about the loss in tax revenues.”

“As far as I can tell,” Clara said as she came over to sit down in the chair next to hers, “she is trying to balance the House of Lords.”

“So she’s acting to limit the growth of Lady Shalltear’s influence in the Sorcerous Kingdom?”

“This may have the effect of doing that, but I doubt that our liege’s standing in the Royal Court is Lady Albedo’s primary concern. It is more likely that she is trying to correct perceived inefficiencies, as usual.”

She was pretty sure that the other Nobles would take exception to being referred to as an ‘inefficiency’, but that wasn’t her problem. Getting subjected to some sort of ‘balancing’, however, was.

“Do you know what she’s planning, exactly?” Liane asked.

“To dislodge the Guilds, she’ll have to begin with accelerating the establishment of public education across the duchy,” Clara answered. “We’ve shown significant enough progress in our fiefs that she can push the other Nobles into following suit without coming across as arbitrary.”

The first step towards dislodging the Guilds is to break their monopoly on vocational education. Apprentices who aren’t inducted into the old guild system would be more inclined to desire free enterprise and trade. The industrial growth of the Sorcerous Kingdom and its iron grip on domestic security would provide them with the opportunities that they need to pursue those desires. She and her friends were already spearheading that transition, but the rest of the nobility was still far behind.

“But it’s not as if the other Nobles haven’t been trying to improve education,” Liane said. “The bottleneck is teaching staff. ‘Pushing’ for accelerated reform won’t do anything but make every side frustrated.”

“Who knows what the others might come up with?” Clara said, “The fact that Lady Albedo is doing this means that she is satisfied that the other territories are stable enough to advocate for progress.”

“Well, good luck with that. They may not be a part of Re-Estize anymore, but most of our Nobles are still from the old school.”

The Nobles in the western parts of the Sorcerous Kingdom were pretty thoroughbred. If they wanted something, they leveraged their connections to obtain it. That usually involved dealing with other Nobles or any powerful Merchants that they were affiliated with. Ideally – at least to them – that meant consulting with Clara or herself about how to enact the necessary changes that Albedo wanted, but she and Clara would be out of the country by the end of the week. Florine was still working in the Abelion Wilderness and even if they were brave enough to approach Ludmila, what she was doing out in Warden’s Vale was flat-out incomprehensible to most.

“So are we,” Clara noted, “and so are the Imperial aristocrats we have been dealing with. Change comes for everyone and I am sure that most would like to be on the right side of history.”

“Even if they’ve been forced,” Liane grumbled. “I don’t see why they deserve the attention. Those who can’t adapt should be allowed to fade into obscurity.”

“As a Merchant, I agree,” Clara said. “As a Noble, however…leaving people to fall by the wayside is not good governance. Besides, having a diverse set of interests is healthy. The way things are going right now, the Sorcerous Kingdom will become little more than a group of powerful companies backed by a peerless military.”

“And what’s wrong with that?”

It sounded ideal to her. Trade was by far the most efficient method of conquest and the usual way of resisting overwhelming economic might was through physical violence. Having a military ready to retaliate in gratuitously horrifying ways ensured that any potential foes would always play by a Merchant’s rules. At least if they weren’t stupid. If they were, then there was nothing wrong with a bit of war.

“Practically speaking,” Clara said, “the other Nobles are better suited for dealing with Re-Estize when the time comes. They’ll be half a step ahead of their counterparts by the time Lady Albedo’s plans should come to fruition, putting them in the ideal position to guide their new allies.”

“Feh.”

It wasn’t as if she couldn’t extrapolate the course that the Royal Court was trying to set for the Sorcerous Kingdom. The western territories of the Duchy held over two-thirds of the Human population, which in turn represented the majority of the Sorcerous Kingdom’s potential manufacturing base. Since they had so much trouble finding a market for their raw materials and thus suffered from a meagre trade surplus, the ‘obvious’ answer was to induce a demographic shift to urban industry. The methods refined through that initial transition could then be applied to Re-Estize once they inevitably accepted the new realities of the region.

“Do you think Albedo’ll change her tune after we work out a deal with Rol’en’gorek?”

“What is this about Rol’en’gorek?”

Liane jumped out of her chair and nearly tumbled off of the balcony as Ludmila materialised into existence behind them.

“Son of a–Clara had the right idea about attaching a bell to you.”

Clara rose from her seat and wrapped Ludmila up in a warm hug.

“Welcome back,” Clara said, “how was it?”

“It was interesting,” Ludmila replied. “But that’s a discussion for later. Many discussions. What were you two talking about?”

“An unexpected opportunity fell onto our laps,” Clara said.

“More like on my head,” Liane said. “Someone from Rol’en’gorek fell out of the sky to open trade negotiations.”

Ludmila released Clara, taking a step back to regard the two of them with a frown.

“That seems rather out of character for the Beastmen.”

“You tell me,” Liane shrugged. “Apparently, something weird is happening further east and now they’re trying to figure out how to not die.”

“Your explanation leaves much to be desired,” Ludmila’s frown turned frownier.

“In short,” Clara said, “they have an immediate need for meat to stave off starvation for their people and fodder to save their herds. We are still working out the details and several barges are being prepared to deliver sample goods.”

“Several barges? How large is this tribe?”

“Uh, pretty large,” Liane said. “This Lord is actually trying to negotiate on behalf of the entire Confederation. If her claims are accurate, they can easily outbid most of the region for the stuff that they need. It’s going to be greayeyeyeyey!”

Liane kicked her feet in a panic as Ludmila grabbed her by the collar and held her at arm’s length over the edge of the balcony. The Undead Noble fixed her with a cold glare.

“I just had a very long discussion with Lord Mare and Lady Aura that included how to responsibly manage our economic impact on the region, and then you do this!”

“It’s not our economic impact,” Liane protested. “We’re just delivering goods to where they’re demanded.”

“Tell me that your ‘logistical advances’ have nothing to do with the ability to facilitate this trade.”

Liane clicked her tongue. Ludmila was pretty oblivious when it came to trade and commerce, but she became ridiculously sharp if the topic strayed into logistics and resource management.

“It was the optimal choice,” Clara said. “All things considered, this course will help more people than it harms.”

“And opportunity breeds opportunity,” Liane winked. “Karnassus will be in a spectacular mess by the time we get around to dealing with them.”

With a disgusted snort, Ludmila discarded her with a flick of her wrist. A wall patrol stopped to watch Liane as she ricocheted off of the battlements on the way to the ground. She brushed off her dress after disentangling herself from a row of rose bushes.

If we let her run the show, nothing would ever happen.

Ludmila was fairly aggressive when it came to changing things up in her own fief, but was an otherwise conscientious person. Aggressively conscientious. Liane wouldn’t be surprised if she sat down and conducted in-depth interviews with her enemies before stabbing them.

When Liane returned to the tower office, she carefully poked her head past the doorframe just in case Ludmila was waiting to toss her off again. The tall noblewoman was leaning against the balcony railing with her arms crossed. Her perpetual frown looked especially foreboding as Clara spoke.

“Several outcomes will not be pleasant,” Clara said, “but this is the best we can achieve given the circumstances. There is no way that the Royal Court would ignore a diplomatic windfall of this magnitude.”

“You spoke with them already?” Ludmila asked.

“The Prime Minister came by this evening,” Clara answered. “Speaking of which, there are some matters closer to home that require your attention. It looks like Lady Albedo is satisfied with the progress made in the western territories and will be rolling out several new domestic policy objectives.”

“How will they affect our territories?”

“I doubt that they will at all,” Clara replied. “Ever since last spring, Her Excellency has settled into a strategy of pulling up our kingdom’s baseline instead of focusing on singular achievements. This by far promises the greatest gains for the Sorcerous Kingdom, so I do not see any reason why she would change things at this point. In less than half a decade, we will begin to see the so-called ‘urban migration’ that she is aiming for.”

Ludmila only shook her head in response. Liane snuck back to her seat.

“I don’t get it,” Liane said. “Weren’t you the one that’s been desperate for migrants this entire time?”

“At first, yes,” Ludmila replied, “but things have changed drastically since then. We have more than enough people living in my territories now.”

“Uh, isn’t your population still less than two thousand?”

“There are less than two thousand Humans,” Ludmila said. “Going by the latest count, there are over seventy thousand Demihumans of various races – mostly Goblins.”

“But they’re living out in the wilderness, yeah? Lady Albedo won’t accept that any more than she’ll accept the other Nobles not following her blueprint for urbanisation. She wants that sweet, sweet manufacturing core to improve the Kingdom’s trade prospects.”

Which was something that they sorely needed. Not only had the Sorcerous Kingdom’s magic tripled the yields of its crops, but agricultural land utilisation was optimised and the eastern territories that had constantly been subjected to imperial raids were now fully resettled. Even with the use of Undead labour and leaning on the industrial power of the Dwarves, they were still far from achieving the logistical throughput necessary to keep everything running smoothly. They needed more wagons, warehouses, roads, and ships. Especially more ships.

“That may be so,” Ludmila said, “but both you and the Royal Court already know that my fief does not share the same economic trajectory as the rest of the duchy.”

“Hmph. You just had it easy compared to the rest of us.”

She really did. From the very beginning, she enjoyed the weird special treatment that Lady Shalltear’s vassals received, which made them nearly immune to the Royal Court’s machinations. One might argue that this was because she had taken the initiative far ahead of the rest of the House of Lords and produced various positive results, but that wasn’t enough to explain things. It was almost as if Lady Shalltear’s vassals were treated as a part of a different political system entirely.

This not only manifested in the nearly tangible protection that they enjoyed, but also in the markedly unconventional way in which they were employed. Normally, members of a Noble’s court worked exclusively for that Noble as councillors and advisors, but Lady Shalltear had no qualms about passing them around to her peers. As a result, Clara and Florine spent most of their time doing things for Lady Albedo while Ludmila worked closely with Lord Mare, Lady Aura, and Lord Cocytus. Everyone still did work for the Ministry of Transportation, of course, but they were at a point where they were mostly waiting on a long queue of construction projects to finish while the imperial aristocracy sorted things out on their end.

“It is a good thing that she did,” Clara said. “Who knows where we would be now if she had not acted as our vanguard.”

“We hardly have the luxury to dwell in the past,” Ludmila said. “My contributions were minimal, anyway. Is there anything I should know before I go home?”

“Not staying the night?” Clara asked.

“I have been away for over two weeks,” Ludmila answered, “and I suspect I am about to be dragged off on some diplomatic adventure.”

“You are not wrong,” Clara smiled slightly. “We need you to come with us to Rol’en’gorek.”

“Is that a good idea? There are quite a lot of dead Beastmen because of me. As far as we could tell, the invasion was a concerted effort by their confederation.”

“Aaaactually,” Liane said, “they still don’t know it was us.”

“Did you not say that one of their representatives came here to open negotiations?”

“I did,” Liane replied, “but it also happened while the imperials were over. All of the Undead were comfortably tucked away out of sight when she arrived and then we moved her to the roof because she liked it better up there.”

“And for how long do you intend to maintain this deception?”

Liane made a face.

“It’s not a deception. We just couldn’t figure out a convenient way to broach the topic. You just happen to be a convenient way to broach the topic. Just let us know when you do so we can hide first.”

“I will be sure that you are close at hand when I do,” Ludmila told her. “What did Queen Oriculus have to say about this?”

“She doesn’t have to say anything,” Liane said. “This is between us and Rol’en’gorek.”

“We will be conferring with Her Majesty in Oriculon on the way there,” Clara said. “She seems to favour you, which is another reason why you are coming.”

“…when do we depart?”

“Cargo deliveries from all of our interested parties should finish loading by midnight,” Clara said. “We will be joining the convoy after it arrives at Oriculon.”

“I see. Well, hopefully, nothing too involved will be waiting for me in Warden’s Vale.”

With that, Ludmila turned around and disappeared into the night. Liane peered into the gloom for several moments after she lost sight of her, just in case she reappeared to do something terrifying.

“I’m surprised you didn’t go with her,” Liane said.

“Me? Why?”

“Whaddya mean why? You’re the one sitting there looking all needy.”

Clara frowned, shifting in her seat while smoothing down her skirts.

“I am not.”

“Uh-huh. You also forgot to bring up the Liam thing.”

“Liam is busy working at the moment,” Clara said. “It would be better if he was not being distracted by deadly threats.”