A bang broke through the mess within the meeting room. Shocked faces from the officials stared through a cloud of smoke at the head of the table, where one of Brym's assistants had fired a pistol out of the open window.
"I appreciate everyone calming down to consider the issue in a calm manner," Brym joked, as the servant put away his pistol again. "Although your support of the crown is a great pliment and similarly appreciated, I would like to speak for the king myself. That is my job, after all. And while Official Qirao's interjection wasn't exactly polite, his question is still a justified one, as Lady Guanca said herself. Everyone should be fully informed about all aspects of the copper crisis before we rush into any decisions."
All this time, Brym had limited himself to a dry explanation of the core reasons for the copper crisis. However, after Qirao had put the blame on Saniya with harsher and harsher words, Brym had found it necessary to react. It was time to point the finger.
"Now then, I'm sure everyone has been wondering what Saniya has been doing with all the copper we have bought from Cashan so far. While I believe this to be a fair question, it would normally be considered top secret information. However, the circumstances are special, so I would rather promise the southern kingdom's security somewhat, and convince everyone of the truth instead. Like this, we will also avoid any more slander in the future."
Brym's gaze focused Qirao as he addressed him. Lord Ogulno's servant only scoffed in return.
"No matter what you may think, Official Qirao, Saniya has not thrown the copper back onto the market. After all, why would we want to cause such a crisis in the first place, or exacerbate it? Instead, the crown needed and still needs the copper to fulfill its obligations as the protector of the southern kingdom. Over the past six months, we have built new, larger caliber cannons from bronze. Since King Corco is responsible for the safety of the kingdom's borders, he needed to field enough cannons against another potential attack from the northerners, as well as against the new threats from foreigners in Port Ulta. As everyone may be able to surmise, we needed massive amounts of copper to build all those cannons."
All at once, the people at the table looked to be in deep thought. No doubt their spies had told them one or two stories about the copper-coated cannons Corco's soldiers had been lugging around the countryside over the past months. Just as Brym had said, they had been placed into the various beacon towers along the Narrow Sea's shore and all the way up to Qarasi castle. Though of course, none of the spies knew that under the thin sheet of copper, the cannons were made from iron.
"But that's not all," Brym continued. "On top of the cannons, the king planned to have all future ship hulls produced in Saniya's new shipyard coated with copper below the water line. According to masters within our laboratories, such a coating would protect the ship from rot, barnacles and corrosion from the salt water. The copper even improves the ship's defense where it counts the most. Such a large undertaking will require even more copper, something the crown is already preparing for with its large copper storage. In fact, if King Corco hadn't stored away so much copper in this very castle, the crisis would be even worse than it is right now. I believe this explanation should clear up any misunderstandings. Unless there are any more plaints or suspicions towards the crown?"
Confronted with Brym's unusual, aggressive gaze, Official Qirao shrank back in his seat, unwilling to reply.
"Good," the former merchant concluded with a clap of his hands. "Now that we have established that the fault for the crisis doesn't lie with Saniya, let's observe the other possible culprits. First off, the moners. I'm not sure how we would punish them even if we wanted to. Apart from practicality, I don't believe punishment can be justified from a moral point of view. In the end, all they did was spend the wealth they already had, something that is perfectly within their rights. Also, a handful of moners would never be able to affect the markets to the degree it has been affected. Such an honor would lie with someone more noble, I believe."
At this point, every last gaze had followed Brym towards Lord Ogulno's. Ready to strike the final blow, Brym's tone turned sharp to match the occasion.
"According to our own conjecture, House Ogulno has aggressively and maliciously expanded its mining operations and thus reduced the copper prices. All of this has been done to ruin House Villca's finances and retain Kapra's monopolistic position in the copper market. That alone wouldn't be too bad an indictment. After all, economic battles between lords are preferable to outright war, and Lord Ogulno may not have known what catastrophic results all the copper in the market would cause. However, as soon as the crown became aware of the falling copper prices, our finance department foresaw the imminent disaster. In response, we sent out missives to every estate within the southern kingdom to prevent or prepare for the fallout. Yet faced with this warning, House Ogulno only increased its output of copper. Even after Lord Ogulno had received several direct missives from his king, with advice that he shall cede his mining operation or risk damage to every treasury within the southern kingdom, Lord Ogulno remained silent. Only now – with representatives from every estate of Sachay demanding answers as a united front – has Lord Ogulno deigned it appropriate to send his own official to explain his irresponsible actions. If we cannot fault House Ogulno, then who can we fault?"
"Outrageous! House Ogulno protests!" Again, the servant jumped up to plain, Apparently, he hadn't learned his lesson from last time, but the other officials were quick to remind him.
"Sit down, little servant boy!" Guachimine shot back. "Have you not made enough of a joke of yourself already!?"
"House Ogulno cannot be held responsible for the entire crisis! Not by itself! This is slander!" Qirao replied. Although the other lords stood up as well, eager to start another war of words, Brym calmed them once more.
"It's fine, I will defend my position," he said with a wave of his hand to reduce tension, before he turned to Ogulno's servant again. "Official Qirao, you may not like it, but if we want to solve this crisis, we need to look at the facts. We have just established that neither the crown nor House Villca can be held responsible for the rising prices. In fact, we were the first to warn the other estates of the brewing trouble. And with the introduction of the new certificate notes, we have shown everyone a path out of it as well. However, even those notes have been banned inside Kapra, as if the lord was trying his damnedest to ruin the southern estates. Does Lord Ogulno plan to rebel, is this the plan? Because if he doesn't, he is making himself awfully suspicious for no reason."
"Official, presumptuous accusations towards a lord of higher status than yourself are not proper conduct either. These actions could also be misconstrued as sowing division," a calm voice from across the table interjected. For the first time in a while, Lady Guanca had spoken up.
"Governess Saqartu, while I respect your words, as does everyone in this room, there seems to be a need to be forceful with House Ogulno," Brym replied, unshaken by the woman's status. "With repeated well-meant messages and offers for meetings, King Corco has tried to make Lord Ogulno aware of the crisis. This could have been handled in a private fashion, with no damage to House Ogulno's reputation. However, since Lord Ogulno has proven stubborn beyond reproach, we had no chance but to employ more forceful methods, as unfortunate as that may be. Beyond direct accusations in front of the entire south, nothing seems to work. Not to forget, to the best of our knowledge, Kapra has caused this mess, and someone needs to be held accountable. Unless House Saqartu wishes to confess and share the blame with House Ogulno, the case seems clear. Or does Official Qirao wish to defend his position again?"
"All House Saqartu asks for is some leniency," Guanca argued before Brym could focus on Qirao again. "After all, we are all estates of Sachay, and all of us need to cooperate if we wish to face the threats around us. There is no reason to be vindictive, even less so with family."
As soon as Lady Guanca had announced her participation in the meeting, her goals had been clear to everyone. After all, as the sister of the current Lord Ogulno, she would always be partial. Still, in the face of an overwhelming amount of facts, and with House Saqartu just as hurt by the copper crisis as every other estate, she seemed to accept that her brother wouldn't get out of the issue unscathed. Thus, she had to settle for the second best oute, much to Brym's glee, who was happy to sell a favor.
"Of course, Governess
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