Varhys' eyebrows wrinkled as he read the report.
"Vivian... And shes?"
"Your 24th sister your highness" Helen immediately answered Varhys' inquiry.
"I see, so she married into the Pendragons huh..." Varhys began to think for a while.
"Should I deny her request for a loan again?"
"Yes, yes. You go and do that. How are the reports on the two armies I assembled?" Varhys changed the topic as the topic regarding the Pendragons were a sensitive issue, and Varhys didn't want it discussed in front of the men he was currently psychologically torturing.
Still, Varhys once again still denied Vivian's loan a second time just to be safe from the Pendragon's influence getting stronger again.
"There are a lot of complaints coming from the Army's higher-ups due to the sudden mobilization, but even with the time constraints and lack of preparation, the Army should be assembled and properly deployable in three weeks time" With a confident voice Helen reiterated as she was proud of her fast work in handling things.
"Good job" Varhys congratulated.
It was a nice yellow and warm afternoon as Vivian sat on the carriage with a sad look on her face. The two men inside the carriage both had somber expressions as they knew the lady watching the sunset had failed her mission, and the two of them could do nothing to help.
"I'm sorry" Benjamin spoke first, pleading for forgiveness as he could do nothing to help Vivian even though he tagged along with the intention to help.
"No, it's not your fault... At least now I know we won't be getting a loan from the Bank..." Vivian said as she remembered the events that happened inside Sevilius' office.
"W-Who is this crazy old man?! W-Why is your butler so scary?" Sevilius asked Vivian in shock as he almost pissed himself from fear of the crazy old man who was silent at first but suddenly burst into righteous fury.
"Old man?!" Benjamin's voice that was already nagging Sevilius on turned even more hostile as he continued: "I am Benjamin Kastark! 30 years Regional Manager of the Bank's Southern Branch. Don't think I don't know what's been happening in this branch, you! The corruption was practically seething everywhere! And now you planned to take advantage of a customer?! The Board will not stand this corruption you hear!?"
"K-Kastark?!" The Iron Hand, Benjamin was the last man Sevilius wanted to see today.
"P-please! I meant no harm!" Sevilius' cowardice was clear as day when he encountered someone ranking higher than him as he only acted bravely in front of those weaker than him. Typical of the common nobleman.
"You ask for forgiveness after blocking this poor woman's request for a loan?!" Benjamin roared.
"N-No it wasn't me! I was only ordered to do it by the Board! I swear! I don't have the power to pass out the loan!" Sevilius cried.
"T-The Board?! W-Who ordered them to-" Benjamin staggered when he heard of the grave news as he was interrupted by Sevilius.
"I don't know!" Sevilius cried out.
"I don't know... My uncle, some other high ranked official, or maybe even The Emperor himself! I don't know!"
"I see..." Benjamin said with a hopeless voice.
"The Board?" Vivian asked Benjamin what was going on.
"The Bank's Board of Directors. They are a group of high-ranking officials who do most of the decision making in the Bank... If they were the ones who decided for this to happen. Then I am afraid we can do nothing to change it... Even they can't change it ones it has been decreed. I am powerless to help you with this one... I'm sorry" Benjamin said with a defeated voice.
"And stay out!" Sevilius pretended to be powerful again once Benjamin and Vivian left the office, ignoring him as they were too tired to waste time on interacting with the fat fool.
Inside the carriage, Vivian asked Benjamin: "Why did the Board target a small loan such as ours? I'm sure it's not that ludicrous of an amount, especially for those running a fief"
"It was probably the Emperor..." Benjamin flatly confessed who he thought the real culprit was.
"My brother?!... Why?!" Vivian grit her teeth, unable to hold her anger as this was the second time that douche who she hasn't even met yet, ruined her life.
Although the first time, which was actioning her off turned out to be a blessing in disguise as she met Duke because of it, preventing this loan basically meant removing her the opportunity for a better future!
And not only that. [He's also killing Duke's dream] Vivian subconsciously thought. She herself hadn't realized it but the thought of Duke not being able to achieve his dream of becoming a Knight irritated her deeply. She watched Duke train hard day after day with bruises and injuries in his fat chubby body just to be a Knight, even though they both knew he didn't have the talent for the sword. Sure there were commoners who with their own talent managed to be Knighted, but this was extremely rare and most of those Knights had rich backers whom they worked for.
Vivian thought that without the money and position to buy his way up the Army, Duke wouldn't be able to become a Knight, even if he worked for a thousand years.
As the negativity seeped within Vivian's mind, any last semblance of hope within Vivian was killed by Benjamin's reply.
"I also don't know" Benjamin replied.
He didn't know what went inside the Emperor's mind, or why the Royal Family was so hard on Maine and the Pendragons... Benjamin, during his youth, grew up in Maine and was a former resident. And so as a Bank official and a certified economist, it baffled Benjamin why the former Emperor made a trade blockade against his home town of Maine costing the Royal Family millions and dooming the residents of his own Empire to starvation and poverty!
And now his son, the new Emperor was even willing to abandon his own sister who was married to the Pendragons, just to deny a petty loan... It was baffling to Benjamin. Without this loan, the Emperor was basically dooming his own half-sister to poverty!
"I also don't know" Benjamin repeated.
Vivian's hatred for her brother strengthened. She already knew of the terrible rumors and evil deed he committed, going so far as to murder one of their brothers!
[Is he relishing the idea of torturing his sister to death? Is he enjoying my misery right now??]
Vivian shuddered at the thought of what the Emperor must've been thinking right now after dooming one of his sister's future...
Meanwhile in the Imperial Palace...
"Kukuku...you're just too handsome!" *Chuuuuuuu* Varhys squealed as he kissed a portrait of William von Bizmach, the same man who requested for reinforcements from Varhys, completely oblivious to the fact that he had just denied and possibly killed a whole Noble Family's future by denying the Pendragon's loan. Varhys thought the Pendragons had at least SOME hidden wealth somewhere so he thought his half-sister Vivian would at least still be somewhat safe. The fact that the Pendragon family might've been completely broke didn't even cross Varhys' mind as his fear of the Pendragons overestimated their strength in his subconscious mind.
"Although your real attitude is simply horrid! If only you were a kind and caring as you are in my dreams!" Varhys squealed once more as he thought of William.
It was one of Varhys' past times to think of beautiful men in his past time and write about them in his novel, although their attitudes were a bit modified and better suited for romance. He didn't do it with intentions of sexual malice, no, he did it to satisfy his desire for dreamy men!
But still... Real life William's attitude was simply unbearable for Varhys as they were friends in real life, and since Varhys needed to pretend to be straight because of his position as First Prince back then, he was always being challenged by William in duels and many "Manly Stuff" which simply annoyed Varhys to hell.
To counter this he wrote of William in his fan-fiction novel with a different attitude than the real William. Surprisingly a lot of women buy into the novel William's attitude! So now there is a large population of women who think the rigid and battle frenzied William was a heart-stealing gentleman!... This greatly confused the poor dense William as he was suddenly being approached by a lot of girls now despite being feared of in the past.
[Kukuku that knucle-head should thank me!] Varhys thought as he wrote more cheesy lines for his novel, not knowing that if William heard of this he would've strangled Varhys to death as his training sessions had been constantly interrupted by girls now...
"Ahhh... Writing time is over. Back to work, I guess" Varhys closed the book he was writing as he went back to official documents.
Writing novels was Varhys' second past time other than helping Cil train.
"I hope Cil comes back early..." Varhys sighed as he missed his dear sister since she went off to some journey to train she told him.
Although Varhys didn't enjoy writing as much as training his sister, Varhys was surprisingly a famous author! As his books were enjoyed by millions of girls across the continent. He hid his real name under a pen name of course... It would greatly shame the Emperor's name to write "books for little girls" as the brash men of upper society called it.
And so like his caring nature or even his own sexuality, Varhys had to hide his like for writing books.
Varhys sacrificed a lot of himself, even his individuality just to keep his position as Emperor. But it was all worth it to Varhys, as long as he could protect Cil.