by E. M. Hardy
Empress Zi Li raised an eyebrow at that. “One moment, Martin Fuller. Are you saying that the League is actually profiting from the Isles of Taiyo, as poor and as stripped of peasants as they are?”
Martin nodded at that. “As far as I know, your highness, the islands aren’t as desolate as they first appear to be. Most of the idiots who charged and got themselves killed were loyal to the old Shogun, Nobumoto. A good number of the survivors who surrendered were just conscripts, following orders under duress. They were all too happy to get back to their lives, to their farms and shops.
“Then you have the widows, who were eager to pick up any and all job opportunities to feed their children. With the aid of the League reorganizing their lives, providing financial aid and reforming the Isles into a republic of sorts, it’s not surprising to see them bounce back so fast.”
“Still,” the Empress said, studying the papers in her hands, “it is quite hard to believe that the Isles are recovering so quickly.” The ministers around her echoed the sentiment even as they perused the papers in front of them—doing their best to mimic the Empress’ attempt to digest the report.
Not that it mattered, for more than half of the men and women here could barely understand the information they held in their hands.
Martin wanted to laugh.
These ministers were nothing more than brats appointed to their positions because they were loyal to the Empress—or at least proven to be no threat. Some did their best given their positions, cramming all they could to do as decent a job as they could. Most, however, were just hangers-on; they only wanted to look like they were doing good enough to stay in the Empress’ good graces.
Case in point: Lu Xin, the Chief Minister of Finances.
The fat, balding man was supposed to be responsible for managing the Empire’s wealth from the top, but he couldn’t even understand the ledgers sent in by League accountants. He was more skilled in dreaming up conspiracies by the Taiyo and Sahaasi than in understanding balance sheets and cash flow statements.
Martin just shook his head as the man continued ranting, pointing out how impossible it was for the Taiyo to get so wealthy in so short a time. He instead focused on the Empress, who squinted as she went over his reports one more time.
She was just as bad as Inagaki Nobumoto, the previous Shogun. Like him, she surrounded herself with incompetent cronies. His short-lived reign plunged his people into chaos when Martin burned the man down into a crispy lump of flesh. Would the same happen to the Ren Empire if he was forced to do the same to her?
After all, she did betray him once before.
Maybe Isin and the other executives in the League of Merchants could find some way to fix this mess before it had a chance to blow up. If things in the Empire got bad enough, he might have to step in and—
“Minister Lu Xin,” the Empress murmured, breaking Martin’s treasonous thoughts.
“Yes, your highness?”
“Turn your attention to page… seventy-two in Martin’s report.”
The Chief Minister of Finances—along with every other minister present in the room—quickly shuffled their sheets around to the indicated page.
“Second paragraph, fourth line. Read it for us,” commanded the Empress.
Suddenly worried, Lu Xin coughed into a balled fist and started sweating as he read the words out loud. “Um… yes. Uh, the traders from Hayashima are selling fresh tuna for eighteen coin-strings per barrel—three hundred and sixty copper coins in all. While tuna is their primary export, they have also begun exporting mackerel and salmon for—”
“Didn’t their tuna cost sixteen strings and…” She brought out another sheet of paper, squinting at something she underlined, “…eight coppers two months ago?”
That little bit surprised Martin. He didn’t think that the Empress cared much about the details from the last report on the Taiyo recovery, much less something as insignificant as the price of tuna.
Oh, wait. Now that Martin remembered, the Empress had been directing her kitchens to make sushi almost daily. Now it made total sense as to why she’d bother finding out how much Hayashima tuna cost.
“Your Highness, I… well, if you feel that the Taiyo are charging too much for their fish, then I will be more than willing to send a strongly-worded message to their ambassador. I am sure that we will be able to force their fishermen to—”
“That’s not the point, Minister Lu Xin. Turn to page ninety-three,” the Empress said as she interrupted her minister. “Paragraph… four, line three.”
The flustered minister obeyed quickly, flipping the sheets to the designated page. “The governor in the province of Lu Shui expects a good harvest of rice, with little to no damage from this year’s typhoons. We can expect to begin exporting rice for four strings and five coppers per dan of rice. The League of Merchants has already placed an order for a hundred dan, the Taiyo Sovereignty an order for three hundred dan, and—”
The Empress cut in once more, shaking her head. “A dan of rice cost three strings and twelve coppers in the last harvest season—and that was before the dikes and canals were completed around the rice paddies. Why is rice more expensive now, with the governor claiming a good harvest?”
Okay, now Martin was starting to get impressed. Maybe the Empress was actually studying the reports instead of just pretending to.
“Your Highness?” asked the man, flustered now. “I assure you that I will get to the bottom of these discrepancies. These farmers, this governor, must be padding the numbers somehow.”
“That’s not it,” Martin said with a sad shake of his walker’s head, no longer able to resist keeping quiet. “Everything in the Empire is just getting more and more expensive.”
Everyone in the room turned to Martin’s walker as he spoke the words, though the Empress just grimaced in disgust as she scowled at Martin’s walker. “What do you mean everything’s getting more expensive?”
“I… have my suspicions.” Martin shrugged and turned to face Head Minister Lu Xin.
“Minister Lu Xin, I’ve been receiving requests for additional shipments of tin and copper ore. I thought these were being used to replenish the Imperial armory or to make trade goods. But now that the prices of goods in the Empire are mysteriously going up, I have to ask: what exactly is all that metal being used for?”
Lu Xin raised a brow at that. “Minting more coins, of course.”
Martin resisted a groan at the man’s clueless admission. “And how long has the Imperial Mint been churning out these coins for?”
“Why, as soon as I learned that you were all but giving away tin and copper for free.”
Martin didn’t bother hiding his groan this time around. No, he groaned as loud as he could while slapping a palm to his walker’s face.
Did the man seriously believe that all the Empire’s financial woes would be solved by simply making more money? The League was already pressuring Martin to ease up on mining gold since their own coins were getting too weak, and here Lu Xin was using all the tin and copper that Martin dug out from the Qleb Sierra for the express purpose of minting more coins.
“Chief Finance Minister Lu Xin,” growled the Empress, glaring daggers at the man she appointed to the position. “Do you have any idea—any idea at all—about what unmitigated minting would do to the value of the Imperial coin?”
Lu Xin flinched at the Empress’ anger, squeezing into himself as the room turned its eyes upon him. Some of the nearby ministers got the problem and stared at him with wide, unbelieving eyes.
Most, however, simply copied the Empress’ anger, constantly shifting their attention back to her so they could match her expression. Martin suspected they had no idea why the Empress was pissed off but were just acting pissed off so that she wouldn’t notice them standing out.
“Your Highness, I… I see the error of my ways now, and will immediately halt the minting of additional coins.”
“You have
not answered our question,” challenged the Empress, not letting up. “Do you know what will happen if you flood the Empire with coin?”
“We… we grow richer?” stuttered the man. “Everyone gets more coin, and they can buy anything they want?”
The Empress curled her lips up in a sneer, slapping her hands down on the table. “Chief Minister Lu Xin! You came to us claiming you were the foremost authority on matters of money, overseeing the vast wealth of the Lu merchant clan.
“We believed you, trusted in the reputation of your family. We ignored the murmurs that you were just an empty-headed scion, one that tricked and wheedled his way to head the family. But this simple, empty-headed answer you have given us shows that we should have listened more closely to those rumors!”
“Does anyone here understand the problem?” The Empress swung her head around to take in the ministers assembled around her, growling her displeasure as she glared at Martin’s walker—at the false eyes painted on its blank face.
“Martin Fuller, do you understand what will happen if the Imperial Mint floods our Empire with coin?”
Martin didn’t hesitate. “Merchants stop selling goods because they expect prices to go up. Buyers are forced to pay more coin to get what they want or need. This, in turn, encourages merchants to hold out even further on their goods, waiting until prices keep going up.
“Everything keeps going that way, and people will no longer trust in the value of Imperial coins because it keeps going down too fast. They will eventually switch over to another currency to buy goods with. Say, League golds or even Sahaasi squares.
“If you ban the use of foreign currency, then they will just go back to bartering… assuming they don’t turn to smugglers in the first place.” Martin shrugged as he ended his explanation. “I’m not an economist so I won’t pretend to understand the finer details, but that’s basically what I think will happen if the Imperial Mint keeps pumping out coins non-stop.”
Now that he thought about it, Martin realized that Imperial currency was indeed losing value so fast that traders all over the Empire were starting to use coins from the League instead. Hell, he even noticed some traders preferring to barter now, exchanging goods for goods.
It was a testament to the riches of the Empire—of its size, connections to the League of Merchants, and the various emirates in the Bashri—that its people still managed to enjoy growth despite the apparent incompetence of the ministers overseeing it.
Empress Zi Li, however, continued glaring at Martin, who ended up wondering what he did wrong this time around.
“Um,” he said stupidly as the Empress continued scrutinizing him from head to toe. “Is… there a problem, your Augustness?”
The Empress huffed before shaking her head in disappointment. “We have many problems, Martin Fuller, and this is just another one of those problems.” She turned to a sweating Lu Xin, who began inching away from the table while Martin distracted the Empress.
“Chief Minister Lu Xin—no, to everyone assembled here. You head the Imperial Ministry of Finance. You are the people responsible for managing the Empire’s wealth, for enriching our coffers and ensuring the riches surging into our lands are well-spent.”
She glared at Lu Xin as she continued speaking, holding him in place with her eyes. “Do your jobs. Learn what you need to learn, enlist who you need to enlist, but do your ancestors-damned jobs. This will be your first and final warning. Now leave our presence and get to work!”
The men and women did as they were told, bowing all the while as they retreated. Martin’s walker was just about to leave the room when the Empress held up a hand.
“Not you, Martin Fuller. You stay right where you are.”
Gulping at the Empress’ tone, Martin turned his walker around and had it stand still. The Empress beckoned for it to take a seat on the table, and Martin obliged.
The Empress sighed then as she slumped in her seat, surprising Martin. The Empress was always one for pomp and pretense, which is why this display caught him unprepared. Now that he studied her more closely, however, Martin noticed the dark rings under the Empress’ eyes and the sallow color of her cheeks. She quickly remembered herself, remembered who sat in front of her, and straightened her spine to recompose herself.
“We are surprised that you were able to get to the heart of the matter so quickly, Martin Fuller.”
“And I’m likewise surprised that you were able to pick up on the issue in the first place,” Martin said, unable to prevent the words from slipping through. The Empress scowled but left it at that, ignoring the implied insult.
“So why didn’t you alert us to the problem as soon as you saw it?” The Empress’ gaze was guarded now, searching and probing. Her question caught Martin off-guard once more. He was used to her raging out loud, throwing accusations and generally being bratty when she didn’t get her way. This strangely subdued response was why he spent a few extra moments carefully mulling over his answer.
“To be honest, I don’t want to overstep my boundaries. I mean, it’s one thing when there’s an emergency going on where lives are at stake, but it’s quite another when dealing with day-to-day matters like these. I really don’t want to step on the toes of the people that you’ve assigned to their posts, not without good reason.”
Martin shrugged his shoulders to emphasize his point. “You are still my liege, you know.”
The Empress chuffed at that—almost a snort, really. “Liege indeed.”
Martin guessed that the Empress wasn’t buying his line about being her vassal. Martin was perfectly willing to get along with the Empress, to lend his support when needed. And yet he couldn’t help feel that Zi Li’s obsession with control was doing more harm than good to the Empire.
Lu Xin and his type weren’t the exceptions; they were the norm. If Zi Li kept these people around, surrounded herself with loyal but incompetent bootlickers, then she’d eventually end up just as bad as Inagaki and his Shogunates.
“Well,” the Empress finally said as she pushed herself off her chair. “Lu Xin had better get his act together. It wouldn’t do for an Imperial wedding to be austere just because nobody wants to accept our coins to finance the event.”
“Eh. I always hated overblown weddings myself. I wanted mine to be simple, save up for the future instead of throwing it all away on one day that you may come to regret later on. At least that’s how I’d… wait. Wedding? What wedding?”
The Empress’ wry grin spoke volumes about her pleasure at catching Martin completely off-guard.
***
The Royal Palace in al-Taheri, the capital of the Ma’an Emirate,
“Suhaib, you sly dog you!”
Martin quickly closed toward the prince with the nearest available construct—a walker standing guard at one of the corners at the grand bazaar set up outside the walls of al-Taheri. Suhaib’s guard escort moved to block the advancing walker, causing Martin to slow down and hold his hands up in surrender.
“Woah! Okay, okay. I’m backing up.”
The prince, however, groaned and waved his guards down. “Please, not you too. I can only take so much needling before I break down and hide in my room for the rest of the week.”
“What, you can’t take some good-natured ribbing? I mean, what did you expect when you popped the question and managed to get the Empress of the Ren Empire herself to say yes?”
Suhaib scowled at that, pursing his lips together. “And that’s the thing, Martin. I wasn’t the one to ask for her hand in marriage—she did!”
“Huh,” Martin said simply, not quite as dumbstruck as Suhaib expected him to be. “She asked first?”
“Yes! And my parents only bothered to tell me now, when they finally ironed everything out with Zi Li! I thought that everyone was busy preparing for Mufeed’s wedding since he’s sweet on one of Emir Ramal’s daughters, but to find out that my parents were actually preparing for my wedding? You would at least expect t
hem to tell me what they were planning!”
Martin just shrugged the shoulders of his walker. “Well then, congratulations! You just saved yourself a whole lot of stress and headache wondering about if she’ll take you or not.”
“No, no, you’re not getting it. I should have been the one to initiate this. I thought she would want to take it slow, to spend a little more time. I… I didn’t expect her to be aggressive enough to take the first step and propose marriage! And to my parents, no less! And she sent the proposal months ago, all without telling me a thing even as we continued exchanging letters!”
“Well, she is the Empress of the Ren,” countered Martin. “She’s used to getting what she wants, when she wants it, how she wants it. I mean, you wouldn’t have been courting her if you didn’t like that about her, right?”
“Yes, but… I should have been the one to ask, you know? Like… like I was too cowardly to push the relationship faster. My father and brothers have been giving me grief for it, and even mother Leyla is berating me for not acting as aggressively in love as a man should!”
“That’s kinda stupid, you know?”
“What?”
“Yeah, definitely stupid,” Martin countered with a nod from his walker. “Look, you and I both know Zi. Is she the type to play the wilting flower, fainting at the slightest trouble and waiting for a knight in shining armor to come save her?”
“A what in shining armor?”
“A knight. You know, a warrior sworn to fight for his liege? Usually loyal and noble and dashing and charming and comes riding on a white horse… you know what, we’re going off-track here.
“The point is, Zi Li is a woman that’s used to getting her way. It’s not entirely unexpected for her to simply go over your head, run straight to your parents, hand them an offer of marriage. And that’s the question, isn’t it? Do you want to marry Zi Li?”