Enlightened Empire-Chapter 438: Conflict

Once Corco's explanation of his new law was over, Sumaci jumped in immediately, to appreciate her teacher's brilliance.

"And since we allow private arms companies, we also don't stifle innovation, and we can allow more private businesses to thrive, which will increase tax revenue. How clever!" his clever wife finished Corco's thought.

"Right? And I only thought of it just now as well!" He grinned as he clinked glasses with his queen again.

"My teacher always told me that modesty is a virtue," Sumaci shot back.

Corco took a quick sip to stall for his clever comeback. Yet before he could deliver, Fadelio once again cleared his throat and ruined the mood, on purpose.

"We will need to judge the effectiveness of this new law, as well as potential edge cases and possible resistance from the businessmen in the city," Fadelio commented. "I shall send this plan to the relevant departments to have it investigated first."

"Yeah, you do that." Corco waved him away, before he lay down onto the couch again, his drink raised above his head. "Is that all then? I really can't stand it anymore."

Meanwhile, Sumaci sat by his head and began to run her fingers through his hair again, real soothing for the soul. Of course, he could never relax properly with the annoying attendant still on his case.

"No, that would not be all." Fadelio raised his voice, before he sighed and calmed down again. "Not to be rude, but this sloppy attitude really isn't helping either of us get through this quicker."

"It's helping me!" Corco argued back. "What about my mental health?"

Again, Fadelio sighed.

"You look fine to me, Laqhis. Just stop with the drinking at least."

"I don't have a problem with alcohol." Corco's smile widened in anticipation of the cheap punchline. "I just have one without it."

Since the king was clearly a lost cause, the attendant finally turned towards the only other adult in the room.

"Queen Sumaci, please. I do not mean to intrude, but we cannot work like this. Surely you must understand that this is unproductive. We should focus on work, without distractions."

As soon as the words were spoken, the smile faded from Corco's face and he sat back up again. With a deep frown, the king stared at his friend who had just kicked his wife out of the room. Although he had done so with polite words, it still upset Corco. However, before he could say anything, Sumaci showed her aforementioned maturity.

"Right, I shall go change, then," she said. "Please continue the discussions without me."

As she spoke, Sumaci stood up, took the drink from Corco's hand and walked towards the door in the back of the room.

"Of course, Queen Sumaci. If you are interested, I shall write notes on the rest of the conversation and send them to your personal maids."

With his clumsy remedy, Fadelio tried to make up for his earlier insulting words. Again, Sumaci showed no sign of anger.

"Please do. It is my kingdom as well, you know?" was all she said.

"I am inconsolable."

Thus, while Sumaci left the room, Fadelio bowed deeply in her direction. Meanwhile, Corco watched it all in silence, still with that ever-deepening frown on his face. This time, the frown hadn't come from the drink his wife had taken away. This time, things were even more serious.

"Well that was an unnecessary conflict," he finally commented when he realized that Fadelio had turned into a statue. "Are you serious, getting Maci out of the room on some bullshit charges?"

"It could not be avoided, since her presence made work more difficult," he insisted with the stiffness of Corco's stolen drink. When had his friend become so inflexible?

"Then that's a problem with me, not with her." An annoyed Corco rubbed his eyes. A conflict between his friend and his wife was the last thing he could use right now. "Don't butt in where you shouldn't, and don't start some backstabbey politics crap in my court. I get enough of that from others. You were the one who was supposed to stand with me and shield me from this shit."

"It won't happen again," Fadelio said, his head now bowed towards Corco.

"Right," the king simply said. This one-sided back-and-forth was getting them nowhere. Rather than continue to lambaste his friend over his failings, Corco decided to come up with a solution. "By the way, when are you gonna find a girl? Even Atau looks like he's about to settle down... while kicking and screaming, but still."

Finally, Fadelio raised his head, though he showed a miserable smile in the process.

"I'm too busy with my duties."

It was unclear if he was miserable because of his duties or because Atau was dating Fadelio's sister. Though of course, Corco didn't care about the details.

"So am I, and I still got married," he argued. "Go find someone, that's an order. It'll balance you out. And maybe, just maybe, it'll get you off my back for just one evening."

Worked like a charm for Atau, at least, the king added in his head.

"All my work is too important to just drop it for romance," Fadelio tried to argue. "And obviously, I can't take a break so long as you are working as well. Who else will tell the great miracle king off whenever he's wrong?"

"And I appreciate that." This time, Corco was serious. Fadelio's nagging had brought him back into line more than once. However, his friend's rigid attitude only made Corco more worried for his future. "I'm just saying. There's more to life than notes. Or are you unwell down there?"

Faced with Corco's grin, Fadelio awkwardly looked to the side. He hadn't even looked this uncomfortable when Corco had accused him of playing with court politics.

"Brym also doesn't have anyone," the stubborn attendant insisted, as he awkwardly dodged the question of his manhood.

"Brym's, like, ten years younger than you," Corco disarmed the ridiculous excuse with one sentence. "Go find a girl. Or a guy, if you prefer. I don't care. Just find someone to distract you from your duties every once in a while. Put that in your notes. Please."

For a few seconds, Fadelio seemed hesitant, before he finally replied: "I'll see what I can do." Though even then, he didn't write anything down. Still, Corco wasn't in the mood to deal with this issue any further than necessary. For that, he was too eager to get done with his work, and finally spend some quality time with his wife.

"Right," he thus concluded their little private session, before he returned to official business. "Now then, what was so damn secretive that you couldn't even let Maci know about it?"

As he spoke, Corco leaned forward, elbows on his legs and hands clasped. However, Fadelio was looking down onto his notes and didn't even notice the silent pressure emanating from the great miracle king.

"Yes. It's a matter concerning the Verdant Isles," he just said in a dry tone. "I just thought-"

"You thought Maci would get too emotional when it's about her home?" a sarcastic Corco completed Fadelio's sentence. Even so, the attendant remained steadfast in his stubbornness.

"Well, it's a message from those who have killed her father and brother after all. I thought it would be better to keep the queen out of it, at least until we have come to a conclusion and can convince her with some arguments."

"Well, fuck me." Exasperated by Fadelio's fake attitude, Corco threw up his hands and fell back into the couch. "In that case, I guess you shouldn't involve me in any more business with the two northern kingdoms, or the Ancestral Hall, right? You know how emotional I get whenever I deal with my family. The guys who killed my parents, remember?"

"That's different," Fadelio stubbornly insisted, though even he was now stepping from one foot to the other, in a vain attempt to support his weak stance. However, for now, Corco was in no mood to investigate his friend's reasons for the way he had driven Sumaci out of the room. It had been a long day, and there was still work to be done.

"Right," he thus simply repeated. "Let's just get this over with. What do those people want?"

"The Colored Kings have offered us peace," Fadelio simply said.

Now I understand why he didn't want her here.

After all, the conspiracy of the Colored Kings had killed Sumaci's father and brother a bit over a year ago. If Corco was honest, he would have also reacted emotionally if his grandfather Caelestis and Pacha had offered him a hypocritical peace only a year after they had stolen the empire's crown from him. From an objective point of view, he really understood why Fadelio had excluded Sumaci from the discussion. Even so, he still didn't have to like it. As a result, his answer was predictably dry.

"Have they now?" the king just said. Not only was he still unhappy over his wife's treatment, he also wasn't particularly interested in a peace right now. However, Fadelio clearly thought differently.

"What do you mean?" the attendant almost shouted. Finally, he had completely lost his calm facade. "Isn't this a great chance to end the war in the west? Once we pacify the Verdant Isles, we'd finally have peace all around us for a change. At least for a while, we could fully focus on our own internal development. All those armies and ships have been draining our treasury, and much of our time has been wasted on attempts to put out fires beyond our borders. This would finally free us to work on more important things."

As he spoke, Fadelio walked around the room, his passion for peace on full display. However, Corco wasn't swayed.

"Rejected," he simply said. However, the calm response only earned him more agitation from his attendant.

"What, why!?" he screamed back. "Just because of your wife!? You-"

"Stop!" Corco shouted and jumped out of his seat as well. Before the discussion could turn into a full-blown argument, he had to interrupt his friend, who finally stopped moving in response to his king's shout. "Why are you starting unnecessary fights here? And why'd you make this many assumptions over a single word from me? Have I ever acted emotional or selfish when it came to government matters, huh?"

In response to Corco's calm words, Fadelio took a deep breath before he replied: "You have not."

"In that case, please let me explain, will you?"

It appeared as if Corco's calm manner had disarmed the escalating situation somewhat. Finally, Fadelio sat down on a chair across the room. For the first time since he had come in, he wasn't standing like a servant.

"I apologize," Corco's friend finally said after several seconds of silence. This time, he didn't sound hypocritical any longer. Instead, his frown told Corco that his friend was more annoyed with himself than with anyone else.

"You've been doing that a lot today," the king tried to joke. Though when he saw that Fadelio looked even more annoyed at his quip, Corco brushed over his friend's embarrassment and simply moved on to his explanation. "First of all, from Atau's reports it seems like those Colored Kings are as good as done already. Since the Arcavians have retreated from the Verdant Isles, the kings have been on a constant retreat. They've already lost all of their capital cities, and most of the land on their main islands. It's just a matter of time until we take over everything in the west. No matter what they want in return for their surrender, why should we give it to them, when we could just take it all for free?"

"But even weakened, they are still dangerous," Fadelio argued. By now he seemed to have calmed down, and was once more debating based on reason. "They won't attack our fleets, but they'll certainly keep attacking our merchant ships. And while we can take over their capitals, most of their warboats and crews are still on the run. They know the terrain better than anyone, in many cases, even better than Sumaci's people, so it will be almost impossible to completely remove them. As long as they're still entrenched in some hidden coves on one of the hundreds of islands with thousands of bays, the Verduic Sea will remain chaotic."

"So what?" Corto laughed in response to Fadelio's concerns. "The chaos suits us. Sure, we're gonna lose a few merchant ships, but we still have by far the largest military presence in the Verduic Sea. Even more so now that the Arcavians are gone and the central kingdom lost most of its fleet. Which means that so long as there's chaos in the west, we're the only ones with a stable trade route to Chutwa. We can even demand money from foreign merchants for protection, even from merchants from the two northern kingdoms. It's totally legal racketeering, and our related income will be more than enough to cover our military cost in the west."

After Corco's explanation was done, he finally leaned back again. By now, he had also recovered from the earlier bad mood. No matter how mad he got, his long lectures were always the best therapy, even beating out the drinks.

"As you see, I was never emotional when I made my decision, unlike you," the king concluded.

"I need to apologize once more," Fadelio simply said. However, his repeated apologies only made Corco mad again. As soon as his friend had calmed down, his sincerity had gone out the window and his mask had reappeared. Was this sort of thing really inevitable now that they were involved in politics?

"Right," Corco simply said. For a few moments, he weighed whether or not he should simply ignore the incident for now, until he himself was a bit calmer. In the end, however, he still felt obligated to say something, in an attempt to remedy the mess before him. "You know I'll tell everything that's happened here to Maci, right? I mean word for word. And I guarantee you she'll make the same decision as I have, not because of revenge, but because it's the right thing to do. She's not a weak person, nor an emotional one. So whatever problem you have with her, you best work it out somehow. I won't stand for any Game of Thrones type shit in my castle."

Although he wouldn't have understood the last reference, Fadelio's head was still down. Silently, he keep staring at some spot between his feet. Maybe he was reflecting on his actions, Corco thought. However, he couldn't wait until the minister had figured out his private issues, could he? Rather, there was as much of a chance that he was just quietly brooding over there in the corner. Thus, the king was once more forced to move on, with the issue only half resolved.