Crali clapped her hands as the atmosphere became heavy.
“No need to be so gloomy. Things are still much better than when the empire had transcendents in its ranks. Plus, that guy has always been scared of my mother. He’ll probably attack the south last, when his strength is at its maximum.”
A few officials nodded, but not everyone was convinced.
“People are inherently unpredictable. We can never know what goes into someone’s mind. We need to prepare for all possibilities.”
“Fine. Let’s talk about it, then.”
For a while, they explored several scenarios, depending on how the empire would move next. They didn’t reach any conclusion, but the debate was started.
“Alright, that’s enough for now. No matter what, they’ll need some time to reorganize and take charge of their new territories. We’ll continue observing their movements and decide our course of action when we know more. Let’s move on to the next topic.”
“It should be my turn now.”
Sniwio, the trading department’s head, voiced.
“Go ahead.”
“Trading is now almost back to normal levels. There’s still a hole due to our losses, but ambitious individuals are quickly filling it… or so I’d like to say. Unfortunately, most opportunities are grabbed by the three great merchant companies. It’s becoming a bit of a headache. They’re close to becoming monopolies, which isn’t good for prices. They’re even trying to recoup their losses during the epidemic by being more aggressive than usual. I think we should do something about them before they grow out of control.”
“Isn’t it our policy to have minimum interference? That’s why they installed their headquarters in Geola in the first place, and one of the reasons why the city grew so well. We only give strong suggestions, like when we advised to hold on to war goods to increase profits during the war, right?”
“Of course, you’re right. However, if we leave them to do whatever they want, prices will get out of control, and our population will suffer. Also, we shouldn’t neglect their influence. They intimidate unaffiliated merchants into either joining them or getting targeted until they have no other choice but to go bankrupt. I’ve also heard that some of their merchants were quite suspicious…”
She glanced at Alrec, the head of the law and security, who noticed it and frowned unhappily.
“Are you insinuating law isn’t applied justly in Geola?”
Instead of being intimidated, Sniwio responded with a ferocious smile.
“What if I am?”
“What did you say? I still remember how you planned to let my son die during the outbreak, you madwoman!”
“What? Are you looking for a fight, you corrupted minister?”
Crali placed two fingers on her forehead, sighing at the usual dispute between the two.
“Ah, stop it! If you want to fight, go fight outside. You can claw each other to death as much as you want as long as it’s far away from me!”
This made all participants wince.
“Miss, you can’t say things like that…”
“That’s a bit much…”
“What? You all agree, right?”
They all shook their heads while sighing, knowing her personality full well. Given the age difference, she wasn’t much different from their daughter or granddaughter. In other words, she had just asked people who weren’t that different from her grandparents to go die in a corner as long as she wasn’t aware. They knew she didn’t mean it, but her way of phrasing things was always a problem. Especially when she wasn’t the last one to start fights when she was upset, far from it.
“Whatever. Think of solutions instead of fighting. This meeting is already long enough as it is.”
At least, everyone agreed on that point. No one wanted to sit here and talk for most of the day, after all. Sniwio glared at Alrec one last time before snorting.
“The most common way to solve this sort of problem is to implement regulations. If we target the three great companies, we can hold back their influence a little.”
“Won’t there be some kind of backlash if we do that?”
“Of course, but what can they do? Just like they have grown powerful, so have we. They can’t ignore us completely.”
“What if they move away from Geola?”
“At this point, frankly, I’d say the losses we would incur would be worth it.”
“Is it that bad?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm… Any other suggestions?”
Another official expressed his opinion.
“We could support individual traders to try counterbalancing the current one-sided situation.”
“Hmm…”
After a couple of seconds in her thoughts, Crali clapped her hands once more, a vicious grin on her lips.
“I just had an amazing idea.”
This made everyone scowl. When she behaved like this, it was certain her idea was anything but decent.
“What if we make him fight against the three great companies? Wouldn’t that trouble him very much? Hehehe.”
“Ah…”
“Sigh…”
They all shook their heads again. And this was just after she said to separate private and work matters. They knew well who she referred to by “him”. In this situation, there was only one candidate: the young trader who helped during the epidemic.
They had initially been wary of the foreigner who suddenly tried to help with the outbreak. Now, though, they were all grateful to him. It was clear that he played a large part in resolving the issue. While they weren’t completely certain of all the details of his deal with the Vejas, it hadn’t escaped them how he had been unofficially generously rewarded for his efforts.
In this room, the only one who didn’t see him positively was Crali. Tila wasn’t someone who was intimidated by her status, and wasn’t as obedient as she wished, pushing her to have mixed feelings about him. The young man wasn’t even daunted by meeting or speaking directly with Angin, which was another point of contention.
For what he did for Geola, none of them wished him bad luck. It was all about soothing and convincing their also young leader on that matter, now.
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