"If the situation permits it I will indeed establish a branch here."
"Really? That would be great. What's your budget?"
Albion was fidgeting like a nervous little child. The usual practice in this world seemed to be that big merchant guilds used their influence to force weaker or badly situated kingdoms to bear all costs of establishing a branch there.
The kingdom of Glacialis was poor and unable to sustain itself. They would benefit immensely by having a merchant guild that also had a branch in another kingdom. However, since they were poor no such merchant guild would ever come here.
"My overall budget is 100'000 gold coins. However, we will be making renovations ourselves so all I need for now is a plot of land that's in a good location."
"A hundred thousand GOLD coins!"
"Look Albion, the grey merchant guild never cheats their business partners. At most, we'll make some deals more advantageous for us. I'll buy the property at the same price you would ask of a noble."
"Thank you!"
"If you're truly so thankful you could always give us a tax exemption."
"What was that about not cheating us?"
"Lesson one when dealing with merchants only take written contracts at face value. Words are nothing but shadows of our thoughts, briefly there before vanishing forever."
"Why do your words never match your age?"
"Oh, they do. It's my appearance that doesn't match my age. But back to the branch guild. Are there any free buildings you know of that have a good location?"
"For that, I am the wrong person to ask. This is the ladies' forte."
Albion silently stood up and walked to the door of his office. Then, he quickly opened the door towards himself and two figures fell into the office. They were the queen, Eleanor and the princess, Nora. I'd been aware of their presence but had chosen to pretend like I was unaware and let Albion handle it.
"Oh my, looks like we were found out!"
The way she said that half lying on the ground, resting her head on her hand made me want to switch the world's language to Japanese for a moment. Sadly, even for me changing the language spoken in the entire world was a bit much. Also, her Majesty would have my head for it...
"Mother, how can you behave in such a manner in front of our guest? You too sister, why didn't you stop her?"
"Come now, you shouldn't scold your poor mother like that. What will your guest think?"
"Mother! Behave normally!"
"Fine, fine. So, you were coming to the part where he needs a building, right? I have all the relevant documents here."
Somehow the stack of documents she'd brought hadn't been scattered during her fall and was now placed on the coffee table before me.
"Well then, what kind of building were you looking for?"
"Preferably a former merchant guild but anything with a lot of space and a basement works. Additionally, if it's located close to one of the central plazas that would be helpful."
Eleanor started to flip through the pages with great speed and dexterity. The pile of documents that had originally been quite intimidating was reduced to a dozen documents.
"These are all the buildings that fulfill your conditions. Please have look."
"You sorted through them rather quickly."
"I don't get to leave the palace often so I spend my time committing documents to memory. It's a rather entertaining last time during tea parties."
"My condolences."
I picked up the stack of documents and flipped through them. I eliminated most of them and was left with two choices. One had been a minor merchant guild, it was smaller than I liked but the layout was already suitable for us to take into operation immediately. The other was a noble's mansion including the encompassing land. I liked the size but it would take some remodeling before it would be usable.
"I'm interested in these two. But before I can make a decision on the matter I'll have to take a look at them in person."
"It's a little late to do that today and I insist on accompanying you. Let us go tomorrow."
That woman sure was stubborn. On the other hand, she was the queen so having her accompany me would make many things convenient. I nodded in agreement promoting her to smile in a way that made the room light up somehow.
"Now that this matter is out of the way I want to thank you for what you've done for our kingdom."
"I've done nothing that would prompt such gratitude."
"Oh, but you did! Without you, king Leonard would have never swallowed his pride and agreed to give us food in exchange for barely anything."
"A non-aggression pact isn't nothing."
"But the only reason we attacked other kingdoms was to take some of their grain stocks and feed out people. Without the need for that, we have no intention of going to war. All we need to do now is conduct a few raids into the Galli kingdom's territory."
"Don't take the Galli kingdom lightly, they have Silva and his oracle."
"No need to fret, we will only raid the outer edges and retreat immediately. Should they decide to follow us, tisk, we aren't scared to face Silva's oracle in our territory. As long as they are Ice and snow our goddess will protect us."
If I remembered Aurelia's words correctly she had once mentioned that the goddess of the kingdom of Glacialis was called Nix. The capital must have been named after her.
Since Nix was a goddess governing ice and snow her power would be greatest in places where temperatures were low and a lot of ice was present. Silva was a nature god that would be strongest in lush forests. Any fight in the kingdom of Glacialis where vegetation was sparse would clearly favor Nix.
I was more than a little curious about how the Galli kingdom would respond to the raids.