She sat still. There was, as usual, much to think about.

  Above everything else, her purpose was to think. For all people like the mayor spoke of having more work than hours in the day, she could only offer them a small smile, not a problem she had.

  It was quite simple, really. Her first priority was always to reduce work down to core principles that she could then delegate. Ohat was done, regardless of how vast the work was, her involvement was limited to setting the guidelines, choosing suitable didates, and reviewis.

  Of course, for particurly rge works, it may well have been that she hired someone whose work was to do those tasks—such as the mayor.

  Unfortunately, he disliked to follow her example; he was very much the type to be uneasy if he cked work to do. She had long guessed that to be a mark left behind by his childhood in the Church.

  Regardless, his approach to work was not an issue for her. After all, she did not care who made the reports, only that they were accurate. If there were problems with the work reflected in the reports, she could then adjust. It would then be on someone else to implement the adjustment to her specifications.

  Thus, her work sisted of reading and, perhaps, some writing. Both were tasks she could perform with acrity and further delegate for less critical works.

  So she had ample time to devote to her purpose. She sidered how to better anise her work, allowing her eveer time to think. She sidered her overarg goals, how her current pns tributed to them, and what new pns could be begun in the current enviro, both inside and outside her fief. She read books from aimes and sidered plications those ies of war, society, and philosophy might have in these current times.

  If nothing else, she truly was devoted to her purpose.

  “My Lady, the guest has arrived.”

  She opened her eyes. “Very well,” she said, her hauring to the side. “Do invite Sir Ludwig to join us.”

  “Of course, My Lady,” her butler said, giving a deep bow.

  Soon thereafter, her knight entered first from the side-room, followed shortly by a plump, older man from the room’s mairahis man had a perpetual scowl that his attempt at smiling only softened, brow wrinkled, yet clothes fine and smoothed, tailored so well as if to funt his weight.

  “Lady Augstadt, it is my honour to be io your residence. Why, wheter arrived, I had to think some sdrel sought to py a trie!” He paused there to chortle. “I had the wax seal ly cut out and now it rests in the pce of honour upon my mantelpiece.”

  After a polite chuckle, she gestured at the chair opposite her at the small dining table. “Master Ricker, while it is a noble gesture, I fear that sir may require use of his firepce this ing winter.”

  He froze, his smile tightening up, then broke into another chortle, this one soundiier. “Ah, it is of course only a manner of speaking.”

  “Of course,” she said, her small smile polite, then she gestured the other one present. “May I introduce sir to Sir Ludwig.”

  Although her knight had been an impressive man before, the ret years had not left him idle. His height was now better matched by his muscle, a touch of wildo his beard, with a peppering of grey too, and a worldlio his tanned skin and early wrinkles.

  She found it rather amusing: his wife had spoken like a besotted maiden at their st meeting.

  Ricker, oher hand, looked rather less infatuated by her knight’s appearance. “Ah, a pleasure to make sir’s acquaintance.”

  Her knight, following orders, merely gave an ine of his head in aowledgement.

  “If sir would five him, that he may not speak freely when w,” she said.

  “Yes, yes, of course,” Ricker said, head bobbing. Still, he took a st g her knight before tring his gaze upon her. “So, My Lady, the letter spoke of… business?”

  Her hands came together, fingers entwined. “Master Ricker. How is the guild doing these days?” she asked.

  “How is it doing? Well, as well as ever,” he said, ending with a chuckle.

  She gave a smile, the melt away until not even a polite smile remained. A long sed passed in stillness before she broke apart her hands and made three sharp taps upoable with her nail.

  Instantly, the side-door opened and a maid with a trolley strode in, followed by a trail of other maids. Within seds, a dozen trays were put out and the covers removed, ptes and cutlery ly presented, and even the firepce was lit. While she remained sat, a pair of maids carefully removed her coat and pced her napkin.

  “Please, help yourself,” she said, gesturing at the spread. “It is an informal affair today, so let us not stand on ceremony.”

  His narrowed eyes lingered on her a moment lohen his gaze slid over to the table, taking in the sight. “Ah, if My Lady insists.”

  It did not take long for his pte to be crowded with food, such that he had taken to bang some pieces on top, while she simply arranged a few vegetables with a side of soup and bread. Her knight did not even have a pte, his hands as still as he was in his seat.

  After giving her guest some time to experiehe delicacies, she dabbed at her mouth, then spoke. “Master Ricker, allow me to be frank.”

  He paused in his feast and took a moment to dab at his mouth too. “Pray do, My Lady, I am but a simple man,” he said lightly, followed by another chortle.

  “It is like this. The Nelli family are an important source of revenue, dutifully paying the tariffs and obeying the ws. In the few years I have personally hahese matters, there has been but a few acts with breaking monopolies or quotas and, each time, they have gracefully paid the fines.”

  His gaze flickered between her and the food still on his pte. “Ihey are a most reputable family,” he said.

  A smile coloured her lips which held his attention. “I am not an unreasonable ruler, so I shall always at least listen if someone has something important to request. The Nelli family have a rather rational request. As merts, they care about money and I do not fault them that. It is a rather risky business as, if they should fail, what skills have they to fall upon? I agiheir delicate hands would handle sewing or spinning,” she said, ending with a ugh, her hand over her mouth.

  He chuckled. “Ah, yes, I suppose it is like that.”

  “So their request,” she said, her tone losing the lightness it had a moment prior. “I suppose to put it suctly, they wish to know if the monopoly on cloth is iable.”

  All the humour left him in an instant. “My Lady, that is—”

  She held up a hand and, in case that was not enough, her knight cleared his throat. Ricker swallowed the rest of his words.

  “Pray do not think so poorly of me. They care about money and so it is natural for them to think everyone else does,” she said, pausing there to smile. “However, I am fair and so I shall sider things. Master Ricker, I ask again, how is business?”

  Hesitant, he couldn’t meet her gaze. “Ah, it is, well, good. Our members lead simple lives, but need not worry for food. Our ers are happy. I think we ot ask for more than that,” he said.

  “Why not?”

  Her question hung in the air, stifling, until he finally met her gaze and found there was no polite smile there. “Pardon, My Lady?”

  “Why the guild not ask for more than that?”

  His throat tight, he struggled to swallow. “I am afraid My Lady’s question… while I uand it, I ot think of how to a,” he said, almost a whisper.

  “The Nelli family, as I said, are rational in their request. They wish to make money, so they wish to move goods which they may sell at a profit. Abroad, they may purchase fine cloth with fn dyes, which could be sold on at a much higher price as the purchaser would be the well-to-do with plenty of money for beauty.

  “Master Ricker, do you follow that logic?”

  He picked at his cuffs as if ening them. “Ah, I do follow it, but… the logierts is a different thing. It doesn’t matter to them that, if they bring those rare fabrics here, then the price will go down for everyone, and the price here is what’s fair for our members and our ers.”

  She listened, nodding along. “Let us put that issue aside for the moment. I asked if you followed that logic as it pertains to how the Nelli family have bee such a successful family. That is, they seek to make more money.”

  Pausing there, she reached out and picked up a gss of wihen brought it to her lips for a sip.

  “Master Ricker, do you ever sider how the guild could make more money?”

  A chill ran down his back. “My Lady, the well-being of my members is always my top sideration. Money… is merely one aspect,” he said, ending with atempt at a smile.

  Her haly swirled her gss, theook another sip. “With all due respect, sir, money is everything to those of on birth.”

  She pced the gss down, her fiips trailing up the gss to the rim.

  “rice would sir put on the charter?” she asked.

  Froze there without so much as breathing food few seds, only to then splutter back to life. “M-My Lady, I could not—”

  “You could. Does sir fet the Grand Bazaar?” she asked, her expression cold.

  “How could I fet it?” he asked.

  With a nonce about it, she tipped over her gss and the red wine spilled, meandering across the table, around the various ptters, seeping into the pure-white silk.

  “Sir should know that the wealth I and is both immense and real. If I wish to purchase the charter, I shall. In such a case, rather than feign modesty, sir should vince me that it is a worthy purchase such that I would be willing to pay a higher price for it.”

  With a zio the movement, she turned her head to look straight at him and put on a lopsided smile.

  “Does sir uand?”

  Instinctively, he bowed his head, his hands csped on his p. “Yes, My Lady.”

  She let out a chuckle, deeper than her usual voice, with a touch ho it. “I am gd sir is a petent listehose, I find, are the kind of people I like to keep around.”

  His breath came out shakily, hands g. Yet, when he looked up, he found her knight staring at him.

  “Sir, I shall be frank. The Nelli family are willing to provide a substantial amount of moo rex the guild’s monopoly. To put it into text, it is equivalent to a decade of yuild’s dues. On top of that, they would still be subject to tariffs, so I would further profit from the expansion of their business.”

  He gnced back at her knight, swallowing the obje that came to his lips. However, with a moment to pose himself, he said, “My Lady, these merts—they only have their own is in mind. If they offer you that much, it is only because they know they shall make more back. That is more mohey are taking away from our city.”

  “Sir has a keen mind for business,” she said with a warmer smile; however, it soon faded. “Keen is not the same as correct, though.”

  “My Lady?”

  She held her hands out in an opeure. “Does sir think that, if the amount of cloth on sale is doubled, that prices will halve?”

  “Well, if we are speaking loosely, then perhaps even worse than half. There is only so much cloth people would buy and, ohey have done so, the merts would have to lower their prices until even beggars could afford to buy the surplus,” he said, his voice slow and careful.

  “Sir is gravely mistaken. Loosely speaking, prices would settle around two-thirds or three-quarters of the inal price. Given that there is twice as much to sell, that results in at least ara half of the inal revenue,” she said, ation in her voice.

  For a moment, he stared at her with a lot to say and little ce, her knight still at the edge of his vision. “My Lady, I do not know what the Nelli family has told you, but I assure you that I have had a long career in the making and selling of cloth.”

  “Sir, if you think I would believe the Nelli family without verifying the truth, then I am insulted,” she said, her pyful to odds with her cold expression. “What I speak of is the simple truth I have ascertained in managing Gr. The price of cloth is rather resilient, especially higher-quality goods. It is very much the case that people would like to have more clothes and a lower prices more purchases.”

  “Th-that may be, but my members would starve if the price fell by even a tenth,” he said, not daring to directly disagree.

  Her finger slid across the table, idly drawing a shape with what wine lingered. “Thehem starve.”

  “M-My Lady?” he asked, barely a whisper.

  “Oh, sir thinks it would be my fault? Pray do not dare to utter such treasonous words. I am more than capable of managing a busihat does not rely on tariffs and monopolies to succeed,” she said, a humour to her tone.

  He did not ugh.

  “This is my proposition: the guild doubles produ and I lift the monopolies. If the price settles as I predict, then the guild would make at least as much revenue as it currently does, while the Nelli family would still pay tariffs,” she said.

  “Double? My Lady, there is simply not enough hours in the day!”

  She lifted up her wine gss. A little left in it, she brought it to her lips and sipped those st few drops. “Sir, if I may ask, does the guild use spinning wheels?”

  His mouth thinned. “Ah, for cheaper cloth, yes, we do use yarn made by spinning wheels. For everything else, the yarn is simply not good enough.”

  “Not good enough…. Then, has sir attempted to make it good enough?” she asked.

  He stilled. “Pardon, My Lady?”

  “The guild surely has some spare funds that it could put towards hiring a capable man to experiment with produg a spinning wheel that makes better yarn,” she said.

  Silence followed and she did not further wait for an answer.

  “If sir thinks he is uhen there is o fret. I am, after all, a reasonable ruler. The Nelli family promised me money, yet I am not like them who obsesses over it,” she said, her tone growing disied as she raised her gss, a maid ing to half-fill it once more.

  He seemed to defte in his seat, letting out a sigh.

  “I am curious of ohing, though,” she said, pausing for a sip of wine. “How is it that the Nelli family may make a profit on cloth they have to carry over a mountain? One would think such a venture may only be profitable when it is goods that only be made in one pce. Veian gss, for example.”

  Her words did not nd lightly.

  “Master Ricker, rice would you put on the charter?”

  His hands trembled uhe table.

  After a sed, she stood up. “Well, I believe we have discussed this enough,” she said and turo the side. “When Master Ricker has finished, please do ensure he leaves with the dots.”

  “Yes, My Lady,” her butler said, bowing deeply, a hand over his heart.

  Ricker’s mouth opened, yet no sound came out. So it was that silence apanied her exit, her knight’s footsteps trailing behind, as she went through the side-door, a maid opening it for her and closing it after him.

  Ohey were another room over, she came to a stop.

  “The poor thing, he looked on the verge of a heart attack,” her knight said lightly.

  “As, oime is already more than enough. I would hate to gain a… reputation,” she said, settling into a fortable seat.

  He stood for a little longer, but joined her when a few maids entered with food. Although not as vish of a spread, he had no pints, his pte soon covered.

  “I do wonder if such a dispy was entirely necessary,” he idly said.

  A smile tugged at her lips. “Necessary, no. I may do as I wish with my nd as guaranteed by the King. However, that I may do so does not mean I should.”

  Her haured along as she spoke, but it felt empty until, in her pause, a maid brought her a steaming cup of tea.

  “Sir saw how vish his life is, did sir not? He is a man who has grown fat off the work of others. Not tent to simply be a guildmaster, he has expanded into ndl with ten-odd houses, which he requires members of the guild to rent at unfair rates. I am sure that, if given access to the guild’s ats, mreed would bee readily apparent.”

  Ludwig listened, yet what she said did not ence his appetite. A small mercy that his time with her little army had instilled an ability to eat regardless of circumstances. “Did I misuand My Lady’s pns? I thought you inteo purchase the guild and keep him as guildmaster,” he said.

  “It is not good to meddle,” she said, voice softer. “I am already expeg a level of displeasure from the uilds over this, so I would leave the guild as is. If I am to repce him with someone more suitable, it would o e from ihe guild, preferably apanied by some kind of disobedience.

  “My role in this is simply to provide the capital needed for the guild to expand. However, I do not trust him with charity. The situation with the Nelli family simply gives me the best leverage.”

  After finishing the food in his mouth, he nodded. “I do not bme My Lady.”

  The er of her mouth rose, an amusement in her eyes.