Enlightened Empire

Chapter 469: Business Proposal

Although it took Inti quite some time to return from the Old Well, she was still upset by the time she reached her temporary stay in Challwala, a courtyard attached to a local Wonders of the World shop. Thus preoccupied with her own anger, she barely noticed an excited looking Brym sitting bent over some documents as she stomped into the main building's hall. Instead, she just charged past him and plonked herself down onto a chair in the corner.

To her surprise, Brym stopped to look up from whatever work he thought was oh so exciting. In truth, she hadn't expected him to react at all.

Usually when he gets excited, it's about money. And usually when it's about money, he forgets everything else around him, she thought. This time however, her traveling companion surprised her.

"Lady Inti, is everything all right?" Brym asked, as he put the papers in his hand onto a stack.

"Of course," Inti lied, while trying to sound as calm as possible. "What could possibly be wrong with me?"

For a second, Brym just stared at her with one eyebrow raised, before he remarked: "You look upset. You never look upset."

Although Brym had a strange way of showing his concern, it still proved their familiarity. Still, Inti really didn't want to talk about her mother's paranoia, or about the engagement she had lined up with the rapist, not even to her traveling companion.

"It really is nothing," she thus insisted again. To prove she was fine, she stood up — a bit too quickly — fixed her clothes — a bit too sloppily — and came over to Brym's table.

"Rather, Master Brym, what are you doing that has you so enthusiastic?" she asked, in an attempt to divert the merchant's attention. Predictably, he forgot all about her concerns as soon as he was asked about something he was passionate about. That 'something' was usually money, of course, as was the case this time.

"Ah, I'm counting up the bonds we've sold since the last meeting," Brym said as his previous agitation returned. At the same time, he once again picked up the stack of papers he had just put aside. With swift, but precise hands, he put down the papers again and picked up a single document covered in numbers and lines, most likely a table to count up his earnings. "It's turning out to be quite a staggering number, and it surely will only get to be more in the future."

As always, Brym's single-minded focus on money felt like an endearing quirk to Inti, rather than the severe character flaw it was. To her, it felt as if nothing in the world could phase him, so long as he had two coppers to rub together. It was an enviable trait for someone who was struggling so much over her past actions, and over the future course of her life.

"It's great that the sales went so well, but aren't you upset about the talks with Amautu at all?" she probed. Her intentions weren't malicious, but she just couldn't quite accept that Brym had shrugged off the mess in Challwala so easily.

"Why would I be upset?" he replied to her surprise, showing a calm smile as he once again began picking up bonds and adding up his earnings.

"As far as I know, the northern lords barely managed to get any of their demands heard," Inti explained. "This was a golden opportunity to weaken King Amautu's power, wasn't it? And now he has weaseled his way out of it."

"Well, from the very start, it's not like weakening the king's power was part of my plan." Brym shrugged, and twirled his feather quill between his fingers in between additions. "In the end, I'm just the finance minister. My job is to make money, not to destabilize enemy countries on my own authority. And money I've made." He tapped on the staggeringly large figure which stood in for the total value of Sila Brym had sold in bonds, at least the amount he had counted up so far. "Based on these numbers, we'll probably end up making even more money in the north than we've made in the central kingdom."

In truth, this wasn't too surprising. With a more aggressive and less traditional king, the northern lords would be more eager for foreign support than those from the center. Still, it felt nice that it had come all at once like this, and it must have felt doubly nice for a money-grubber like Brym.

"But still, wouldn't it have been more perfect if we could have also helped weaken one of King Corco's competitors?" Inti probed again. After all, their failure to properly control the situation had bothered her all this time. As far as she was concerned, their visit to Challwala had precariously stopped short of total failure. Why was Brym so unaffected, especially when he could have helped out his 'big bro' by weakening their enemy? However, Brym's answer surprised her.

"I'm not so sure about that." He shook his head and put down his papers again. Inti knew what that smug look of his meant. He was clearly getting ready for a lecture.

"What happens when Amautu falls?" the smug merchant asked.

"The northern kingdom's Scholarly Court is weakened, the northern lords will side with the south, and then King Corco can take over?" Inti tried. After all, she had thought that this had been their ultimate plan as soon as Brym had begun to call together the northern lords for a meeting. Yet once again, the smug Brym just shook his smug head in a smug manner.

"No, even if we had succeeded, big brother could never have taken advantage of a weak Amautu," he said. "Saniya is too far away, geographically, for direct intervention. And even if that wasn't the case, right now, the southern kingdom doesn't have enough personnel to administer the north in the first place. So there's only three possible outcomes if we weaken Amautu to the point of collapse: One, the scholars take over and turn the north into another Chutwa puppet, which would be worse than Amautu's control. Two, the central kingdom swallows them, which would strengthen them greatly, and would obviously be catastrophic for us. Three, no one takes over, and the north sinks into an endless civil war. Although that version wouldn't directly strengthen our enemies, it's not a great outcome either. Apart from the loss of human life — which Big Bro wouldn't appreciate — it would also impact our business. We mostly deal in luxuries after all, and you don't need luxuries in a war."

"So in the end, it's just about business again," Inti replied, after some baffled silence. After all that monologuing, it all just boiled down to money again for Brym.

"It always is, as you are very well aware, Lady Inti," the finance minister said, as if she really knew what he was talking about. "As is, Amautu hasn't achieved half as much as he thinks he did. All he really did with his little weakling act was restore the status quo from before he sent out his scholars to take over the estates. Now the north is back to an uneasy peace between all parties. Sooner or later, one of the parties will get strong or desperate enough, and then a violent civil war will break out anyways. That's because the fundamental problem of the north — a power struggle between the lords, the king, the scholars, and the commoners — has not been resolved this time. Though until that outbreak, we probably have years left, which gives us plenty of time to get into position and take advantage of such chaos. Though for that too, we'll need enough money, as always."

Although he acted as if he only cared about money, Inti was shocked with how detailed Brym's plan for the north was. While she had been eager to change things immediately, he had been planning years in advance.

"Your thoughts on the subject are much more thorough than my own," she had to admit, another defeat in a day of defeats, another blow to her psyche. She had changed topics to take her mind off her issues, and had only added another one in the process.

"I had a good teacher after all," Brym bragged about his big brother, as usual. Though when he saw Inti slump in her chair without any motivation, he soon lost his smug expression.

"Say, Lady. Now that this mess is over with, I think it's time for us to move on," he suddenly said.

"I thought you were done for a while after this major sale," a confused and dejected Inti replied. After all, most of the northern lords had come here to Challwala, and all of them had bought some bonds to buy themselves support from the southern kingdom since the meeting. However, Brym soon corrected her assumptions.

"Oh no, there's still eastern Medala left to visit, probably the easiest, and most enjoyable part of the journey. You wouldn't want to miss out on the best part, would you?" he asked with a wink. "So please get ready, we'll get going soon."

"Who said I was going with you?" Inti asked, as defiant as she was baffled.

"You don't have to come along, of course," Brym conceded, before he gave her an encouraging smile. "But based on your look, I just thought you could use an extended vacation."

"It looks that bad, does it?" Inti sighed. Over years of spy and diplomatic work, she had become an expert at hiding her inner thoughts, yet a short journey of a few months had changed her so thoroughly that she had become an open book. Only now did she realize just how much her time with Brym had changed her.

"No, lady looks immaculate, as always," Brym offered her a hollow compliment. "I am simply an excellent judge of character... and I could use the support of course, as always."

His shameless self-compliment made Inti laugh, for the first time since they had arrived in the dreary city which was Challwala. Now that she thought about it, she was always in her best mood whenever Brym was around. Although she really had never considered him a potential husband, she realized that he wasn't a bad option after her mother had repeatedly misunderstood her.

Although he was no mighty warrior, he was still a man of importance, drive and ambition. At the same time, he would frequently humor her selfish desires, and would support her whenever she needed the help the most, just how he had suddenly invited her to travel more to cheer her up. Best of all, he wasn't the kind of man who would stand in the way of her own goals, and would let her be herself.

If I'm going to marry someone, it may as well be him, she concluded.

Before she had time to regret her impulsive thought, she blurted out: "Hey, let's get married."

"Excuse me?" Brym was taken aback at her sudden assault, but now it was too late to back down. Would she embarrass herself by saying she didn't really mean it? Impossible! Thus, she could only charge ahead.

"Think about it," she argued, mostly to save face. "You already told me that you wanted to continue the family name to honor your late father, right? Well, I have also been looking for a partner, because otherwise my mother will marry me off to some random bastard. So why not just get married to each other? We're of suitable status, and we've been getting along well for months now. This way, both of us would be getting exactly what we need. It's not a bad deal, is it?"

The more she thought, the more Inti talked herself into the intrusive thought. Even so, her potential partner still didn't consider her proposal a serious offer yet.

"That is certainly an idea worth exploring," he deferred her proposal until an indeterminate time, a joking smile on her face. However, Inti, now strangely determined, knew a way of dragging Brym along with her reckless idea. After all, the only thing the merchant loved more than money was to haggle.

"Then let's explore it," she said, not giving her future husband time to think.

"What do you mean?" he asked, seemingly intrigued by the idea.

"Let's explore the idea of our marriage, to see if we're suitable," she argued, and continued before he could reject. "I could accept that at least one of our children can be named 'Fastgrade' to continue your family line, but I want our first-born son to be named Atoc di Pluritac, after my father."

By this point, she had completely skipped the step of whether to get married, and moved on to their future children. Instead, their future marriage would be decided entirely by whether or not they would be able to come to an agreement.

Even so, Brym showed no confusion, or rejection, like any normal man would have done. Instead, when faced with an offered deal, he immediately went into merchant mode, and made a counter offer.

"No, it's fine to name him Atoc, but the first-born should carry the Fastgrade family name, son or daughter. All other children can carry the Pluritac name, if that's a point you're insistent on."

"Deal," Inti immediately agreed, and added: "I want four children, like my mother."

"Two, at most."

"Three."

"Fine," Brym admitted, "but no dirty tricks. No adoptions, no counting twins as one child, or other such nonsense."

"Of course not. But," Inti added, "the children need to be raised in accordance with the Pacha faith."

"I have no problem with that, though they certainly would also need proper education, based on the curriculum designed by big brother."

"Of course."

By now, Brym seemed to be getting into this 'game' as well, and asked about the next potential point of contention by himself.

"Where would we live?"

"I want a big manor in a quiet part of a large city, I don't care where exactly," Inti spoke out her excessive wishes, wishes for the future she had sometimes imagined in the past.

"Saniya," Brym insisted. "My work is there."

"Saniya is fine." After all, Saniya was quickly approaching Arguna in terms of size and importance. After she had considered their future hometown for a second, she added with a sly grin: "But you need to come with me to lord our relationship over Mellana once a week."

She couldn't wait to watch her sister's sour face when she compared her unemployed guard husband to her own minister of finance. However, Brym clearly wasn't so enthusiastic about Inti's sibling rivalry.

"Once a year at most," he haggled, down to a number which wasn't nearly enough for Inti. What good was a husband if she could only show him off once a year?

"Once a month," she tried again.

"Every other month is my best offer," Brym insisted. "I'm a busy man."

Better than I thought.

"Fine," she took the chance before her husband could regret it, and then added: "But I pick the manor."

"I'm fine with that. But I will retain veto power," he insisted.

"Deal."

"What about your work in Arguna?" Brym asked. Maybe for him, this would be the deal breaker of what he may still have considered a game. However, Inti had long readied an answer for this issue.

"I was planning to take on a different role in Saniya, training up new ghost warriors," she explained the future she had come up with an hour ago. To her surprise, Brym didn't ask any further questions about her half-baked plans at all.

"That's no obstacle then," he just dryly remarked. With how fast his brain was running, maybe he had already figured out the details. "Anything else?" he added.

"I want to get married on the Lovers' Islands," Inti said the first thing to come to her mind. "Would that not be quite symbolic, to end our journey where we started it?"

"You mean the islands filled with pirates," Brym remarked.

"The pirates were your men, right? Can you organize something?"

"Sure, that seems possible," Brym admitted, after a few seconds of hesitation. "Since we'll travel through the eastern estates first, we have some time left until then anyways. I can set up something by then."

"Anything else, any other concerns?" Inti finally asked again. By now, her head had begun to cool down, and she was starting to get nervous. For Brym, it was the last chance to bail out of the deal and treat it like a joke. After all, she didn't want to just push him into a relationship forcefully, and she herself also wasn't quite so sure about her reckless idea anymore. However, to her surprise, Brym shook his head, and smiled gently.

"Not from me."

Inti didn't know at which point of the conversation Brym had gone from joking to serious, but she could feel that he was as committed as her by now, maybe more so.

"So we have a deal then?" she tried to confirm one final time. However, Brym's smile only softened further as he stood up from his seat and reached his hand across the table.

"I believe we do. I wish us a happy cooperation."

As Inti stared at the outstretched hand, she hesitated for a second, too nervous to continue. However, when she looked at Brym's eyes, and his encouraging nod, she finally left behind her worries and reached out to her future husband.

To seal their deal, the two shook hands across the table, like real men. After their bizarre conversation, these two people — who had always been so controlled in their daily lives — suddenly and spontaneously had gotten engaged, in a manner so bizarre that it would surely never be repeated in the history of Medala.