The party soon ended and with a few toast by the host there was little else to talk about, Kotori and her party went home without much issue.
"My stomach!"
Currently Amelie was clutching her belly. She wasn't sick or anything. In fact, she hadn't eaten anything out of the ordinary.
The reason why Amelie was currently in pain right now was simple.
She had eaten too much!
Kotori watched Amelie stuff her face at the party with all sorts of foods.
Kotori herself, also ate quite a bit, but she rarely felt full anymore. In fact, she left the party feeling slightly peckish.
The horrified looks of the servants as they saw Kotori pack away inhuman amounts of food into her stomach was fun to watch at least. Kotori tried to restrain herself or else she was sure she would eat the host out of house and home.
Amelie on the other hand, had no ability that would let her eat such a copious amount of food.
"Shu do you mind watching Amelie?" Kotori asked
Shu nodded.
Kotori had another meeting with Fawk today apparently, she was going to meet the other Eris merchants.
The merchants in the city were split into three factions Faramouth Merchants, Atlean Merchants, and Eris Merchants. The Eris merchants were the weakest faction among the Sea lord.
They only had one representative on the council. The Atlean had three, and Faramouth had four. Although the City of Flare could self-govern if they paid their taxes. They had a majority on the Sea Lord council and thus were de facto controlled by the kingdom.
The Eris Merchants were led by Fawks, he was royalty after all.
Incidentally, they were coming to the in Fawks stayed in. Kotori learned soon after the party that Fawks was the person who owned the inn in the first place. She had wondered why royalty would live in such a dinky place and was told that Fawks like to stay at the inn because it was the safest place for him.
The restaurant in the bottom of the inn was repurposed into a meeting hall and soon people began to file in.
Upon arriving many of them seemed to perform some sort of greeting with Fawks. They would kiss the palm of their hand and then shake hands with Fawks.
Kotori assumed it was some sort of greeting that was exclusive to Eris.
Once the merchant had all arrived Fawks began to start the meeting.
"Ahem! All right, meeting time lads, tell me what issues you have" Soon a flood of voices began to fill the room.
"The spice import tax is too high!"
"My shipments are having trouble getting into port!"
"The girls at the brothels here are too boring!"
[What kind of complaint is that!] Kotori thought upon hearing it.
Fawks began to slowly work through all the merchant complaints. Although he couldn't comply with every complaint many of the merchants seemed quite happy with the way he was dealing with their problems.
[Is Fawks actually competent at something?] Kotori thought. The lackadaisical attitude that Fawks had given her the impression he was lazy and just a rich kid, but Fawks was actually diligently taking each and every merchant's request with utmost care.
"All of the them seemed to put a lot of trust in him." Umi commented.
"It seems so" Layla said.
Kotori and was sitting with Layla and Umi in a corner of the room trying not to draw attention.
The roomed slowly quieted down as Fawks finished up with the Eris Merchants.
"Okay Okay, no more complaints?" Fawks said.
The room was silent all the merchant seemed quite content.
"Normally, we spend the rest of the time chatting, but today's meeting is going to be a little different" Fawks said.
The mood of the merchants in the room seemed to change.
"I've got a plan for you all, but I need your help. How would you all like to win a majority on the Sea Lord council?"
There seemed to be a collective murmur in the room after Fawks statement. Kotori who had better hearing than a normal human was able to pick up snippets of the conversation.
"Is that even possible?"
"He's just going to ask us for money again"
"Did the queen approve this?"
It seemed like most of them were apprehensive and that that the proposal was too good to be true.
"Fear not my country men! For I have received some information from a pretty little bird." Fawks proclaimed gesturing to Kotori.
All the eyes in the room instantly fell on Kotori who was trying to remain inconspicuous.
[Why could he just say it himself!] Kotori thought panicking.
Kotori had a big fear of public speaking. Ever since her days as a famous scientist in her previous life she was deathly scare of going out in public. She couldn't even give a thank you speech.
And now it seemed like in front of all these merchants she was going to be asked to speak in front of the group.
*Gulp*