Herald of Steel

Listening to Alexander’s explanation, Lady Parthia was slowly beginning to see the advantages of using the deposited money for herself.

Sure there were risks, but with the way Alexander proposed they do it, suddenly the risks did not seem that significant, it was quite small compared to the rewards.

And the ever keen eyed Pasha noticed this- that the lady was finally slowly coming over to him. So he quickly pressed his advantage, producing a cunning glint in his eyes while grinning,

“In fact my lady, if you are a bit clever about it, this will not just benefit the two parties! It can even benefit us- the nobility! Because who says only the people and businesses can borrow from the bank? Are we not people too, hehe?”

“We can use this money to build roads, temples, mausoleums. We can use it to trade with other powers. We can use it to give wages and salaries to our civil servants, making up for any fall in taxes.. such as during famines. We can even use this money to build armies and go to war!”

It was those last two sentences that truly sent shockwaves trembling through Lady Parthia’s spine.. for obvious reasons.

And they entered a far greater resonance when Alexander cleverly added further honeyed temptation,

“Imagine if you had access to such a capital. Imagine if you could access all the wealth in your shrines and temples. Imagine if you were no longer bound by your ancestors’ oath to never touch the wealth stored in their homes.”

“How easy it would have been to tide over the various financial disasters? You would not have even had to take this money regularly! Only in emergencies.”

“Can you deny one of the reasons why you lost to me is because you were too strict in understanding your ancestors’ teaching? Surely they would not have minded ‘lending’ you some of their money in your time of desperation… at a time when you were fighting to protect them. What would have been the problem as long as you promised to pay them back?”

“…..” Alexander clearly noticed Lady Parthia’s eyes go from anger to understanding to a sort of muddy confusion, as the word struck at the most critical points of the lady’s heart.

It had been especially effective as Alexander had been very tactful in his words… he did not in any way claim Lady Parthia’s beliefs or her ancestors’ teachings were wrong.

He only said she might have misunderstood them.

This gave the Tibian queen no chance to flare up in anger at the blasphemous words.

In fact, she also quickly found her next question- ‘Is it not sinful to take from the homes of the gods without their permission,’ being solved even before it could form.

Given what he just said, Lady Parthia did not believe the man could not easily find a convenient excuse for this commonly held belief.

‘No, no, we are not taking the money. We are simply borrowing it for a time. Every coin is still under Her protection. We are even returning more than we take as compensation. Mother Gaia will surely reward me instead.’ The clever Tibian queen was able to find a reasonable explanation herself within seconds.

“…*Sigh*, you brat…” Hence, as if finally coming to an understanding of just how terrifying an opponent she was facing, the weakened queen let out this involuntary sigh of defeat.

She had already claimed that Alexander had the smoothest tongue she knew of, but the quality of it still astounded her. If before she at least could compare him with a few other clever men in court, now it appeared as if Alexander was on a very different league of its own.

And this confirmation seemed to finally douch much of the fire of resistance in her heart.

Initially, the proud queen had been full of spirit when Alexander called her out over her lack of financial knowledge, taking it as a very personal attack.

But she had lost in that front very handily.

And now she was once again shown the answer to a problem she spent decades on and off struggling with. Especially the fact that was this ‘bank’ could be used as a personal piggybank to tide over difficulties seemed to the final nail in the coffin for her.

It was too convenient.

Thus being dealt two such massive blows back to back at last shattered her fghting zeal.

Resigning herself to her ultimate defeat, the elder queen decided it would be far more honorable to surrender than make an ugly last stand with no hope of winning.

Turning to face Alexander with cool, deep eyes, she hence regally nodded in a low, calm voice,

“It seems you have thought about it all Lord Pasha. Mmmm… if is as you say, then there is indeed very little of risk us losing the client’s money.”

“We just need to be a bit careful over who we give money to so that not too many of such debts turn bad. As long as we can guarantee a certain amount of profit… we will be able to ensure a healthy cash reserve.”

“I imagine both depositors and lenders will be constantly putting their money monthly or semi annually?”

As Lady Parthia turned to Alexander, the man’s lips half twitched.

Because she had answered most of what he was going to say regarding the topic of ‘bank run’.

Once again it showed that Lady Parthia had great experience with money.

She might not be able to come up with brand new methods of generating it, but if given a few clues and shown the rough way, she could work the details herself.

There was even proof, as she added the clause ‘semi annually’ to her question.

This pertained to peasants and farmers whose jobs were seasonal and so made most of the money only during the harvest time.

The very complete query hence forced Alexander to give perhaps the weakest nod in his life, like he was a student answering his teacher’s questions.

“Good! With a constant flow of money… we should be able to tide through most regular times.” Thus Lady Parthia at last finished with an imperious nod, seemingly fully on board with the plan.

And as the aristocratic lady regally crossed her long, beautiful legs one over the other, Alexander could not help but consider switching his choice of the Bank’s Governor from Lady Nanazin to Lady Parthia.

The latter was certainly showing herself to be far more competent and experienced.

Of course this was only a brief flash as such a move would have been politically disastrous.

Although Lady Nanazin did not show it, she was already very insecure about her greatly diminished status with Alexander, especially as did not seem to even wish to take her ever as a concubine openly.

Her outburst in the carriage was a direct product of that.

So when Alexander promised this powerful position… the fact that even someone as experienced as her momentary lost her voice went to show just how precious of a great present this was.

Alexander did not dare take it back. He did not dare imagine the fallout if he took it back.

Besides, on second thought, even if Alexander were to change his mind, he did not think he would give the job to Lady Parthia.

He thought this former royal already plenty powerful- her eldest son ran half of Tibias, her youngest son had a seat in parliament, and most precious of all, she herself had a seat in his inner council and thus his ear.

Giving her control of a large part of his finances on top of this… it seemed too much.

Thus relegating the mature lady to more of a advisory position, Alexander switched his attention to the obediently listening Lady Nanazin, and posed in an interviewing tone,

“I wonder what Your Highness thinks about all this? What if one day the unthinkable happens? What if one day the bank runs out of money? How will you placate the angry depositors?”

The curly haired queen instantly bolted up at the query, realizing she was being tested.

Frowning her sharp brows, she took a bit of time to compose herself, before replying in a crisp, clear voice,

“First of all, I would try to avoid such a thing from happening in the first place. I plan to only give loans to safe ventures such as farming or local businesses. Nothing risky like funding raids to capture slaves from surrounding lands or long distant trade. Those end up as disasters more often than not.”

The Adhanian queen declared in a voice that clearly showed experience.

Then continued with a little squint of her eyes, Discover more stories at My Virtual Library Empire

“But if it were to truly somehow happen… I would first and foremost try to find out why so many of our debts failed.”

“If it was something like a drought or flood or was… I would try to ask for more time from the depositor. And if the debtors still cannot give money after the grace period, I might simply reduce the payout money by claiming it was an act of god.”

“But if it was due to simply a string of bad luck… if the investment did not pan out as we though.. mmm, perhaps we can use the taxes too make up the difference.”

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