Casper and Vick were strolling through the streets. At first, they conversed for a while.
Their conversations would usually be led by Casper since he always had different questions about that world. The Princess would always be attentive with it, though there were some questions she would be a bit more subjective while answering.
"So, how is it going on your duties? Were you able to accomplish everything?" He asked, trying to go to more intimate subjects. For now, he thought that talking about work would do some good after all.
"It's a struggle as always. And I didn't finish everything, you know this. I never finish. It's a lot of work." Vick was the type of person who would not stop complaining about her troubles and difficulties once she gets an incentive.
Casper was a good talker, but an awesome listener as well.
He had some grasp of the arts of persuasion and charisma, but what was always more useful for him was the art of perception.
Listen to ordinary things, read between the lines, sort out the information, and… Bingo! You have an essential piece of a huge puzzle, in which you had not even needed to make the person say anything directly.
The mind always makes something slip out in some way. Let aside very well-trained people, all the humans were like that.
"… and, then, you know, my dad kept complaining to me, saying that I need to be more responsible, that bastard. Because of it, I needed to attend that judicial thing a lot of times. And you don't have any idea of how boring it is, and always when I need to struggle against a Jarl family in judicial cases I got furious…"
Vick was starting to tell about a chain of events that occurred while accomplishing her duties.
As a Princess, like her dad and mom, Vick held executive, judicial and legislative power. Because of it, there were some issues she had to go through.
Every day, there were a lot of Jarl families complaining about something. The ordinary ones were a lot easier to overcome, but when the stubborn ones arrived on the show…
That was what was happening to Vick, though she noticed that something was out
with those Jarl in specific.
There was somewhere in the Castle called General Court. There, different judicial cases that occurred inside the Castle were solved.
The criminalism inside the Castle was very low, almost inexistent, so the majority of cases were about tax rights, land ownership, and so on.
Casper until the moment did not know exactly why things were like that. He guessed it could be because the army was among them all the time.
Vick, of course, knew very well why the criminalism was so low, but it was something that Casper was not prepared to know.
Anyway, one week ago, because of the King's demands and the Queen's scolds, Vick needed to attend some of the judicial cases in there.
After she got inside the General Court, she took her position as the Supreme Judge. The final decision always would befall her, willing or not. Sometimes, even if the decision was obvious.
The Court was something very similar to a throne room. There was, of course, a throne at the end of a corridor, with a carpet leading to it.
Wooden benches were positioned on the two sides of the corridor, bordering the carpet, but not touching it.
The benches would be occupied by the Advisers.
Some simple cases appeared, and everything was boring, but going smoothly until then. However, all changed when three Jarl with a strange family crest entered the Court.
The Jarls were divided into different families, that could and could not be blood-related. They would have their duties and rights, and a part of the Castle to be their domains as well.
"Our best regards to Your Honor, the princess of District 42, and successor to the position of Queen in a near-future…"
"Thank you very much, Jarl…" Although she said such grateful words, her voice was empty and bothered, her eyes did not change even slightly.
She crossed her legs, supporting her chin in one hand and looking nonchalantly to them.
"Your Honor, we beg you to hear the humble request of two loyal subjects who never, If I may repeat, never, missed with their designated duties."
"I am hearing."
"We ask you, Your Honor, to extend our domains even slightly to the fifteen floor of the Castle." This time, his voice changed a bit.
Vick noticed the sudden change. It was natural for her to read entirely a human's behavior just looking and hearing them. That was why she was such a good leader.
"And why?" Vick narrowed her eyes.
"Ohoho, I knew you would ask Your Honor, I knew!" The second Jarl entered in the argument, excited. "We, the Vjorm family, wearing proudly our crest on our chests, are medicine producers. We have a strong bond with the Second Lab of the Castle, and we commercialize different types of health and disease conveniences that are reliable and of major quality, always with the updated formulas sent to us by the Second Lab.
"That said, we want to expand our domains to double the production and raise our range of action inside the Castle."
While he was doing his very detailed presentation, Vick asked for one of the Advisors for their documents and registers.
The Advisor she called brought it to her, but she found something wrong.
"Hey, I don't remember your face. Are you a new advisor?" She asked.
The woman turned to her with a smile and bowed.
"Yes, I am new here. I had not the opportunity to talk to Your Honor yet, but soon we will be able to make acquaintance."
Vick brushed it off since her father was always firing or executing employees and subjects, bringing new ones later.
Vick read the papers she lent to her, and there was all the information she needed.
"It looks like you already have good portions of territory here. I don't see any financial or commercial need to further expand your business.
"Besides, there are more competitors in the same line of business as you, and they, too, work in loyalty for the King's crown, and it would be unfair with them."
The three men seemed unsatisfied but maintained the composure.
"But, Your Honor, the quality of our products are out of their league completely! We deserve some more benefits than they have. Look to our history, we have a lot accomplished."
"So what? Your pretensions reach the bounds of the monopoly law. You have the following areas of expertise: 10th, 12th, and 14th floor. You probably will try to get a domain on the 16th floor right? Want me to guess why you are skipping an entire floor every time you want to expand?"
Everyone was amazed by the sharpness of the Princess. Even the advisors had their eyes wide open.
The three Jarls seemed on the verge of panic.
"No need to. We know what we do. And it's not illegal, since the trade routes and exports law allows us to trade on our domain floors and, at most, one floor above!" The third one finally manifested.
"Yes, and it is monopolizing if you don't know what it means. And please don't forget to address me properly. Besides, this law also says that every individual who expands their trade routes this way must pay higher taxes as well, but as far as I am seeing on your documents your taxes are not so high for someone who has an area of action so big as yours."
The three of them seemed to paralyze for a moment. Even far away, the Princess could see that they were sweating buckets and their hands were making vicious movements.
"Also…" She continued. "You said that your family has a pharmaceutical business or something of the sort, right?"
"Yes. And, because of our excellence on it, we know that our services will be required anywhere we go!"
"Sure… But not among the Ridire."
The Princess saw their eyes widening for a second.
"Our warriors have their own exclusive services among them. Services of such quality that Jarls of second category like you could not even compare. And you know well this fact, right? So, why would you take action on the 15th floor? It is a floor intended for army personnel only."
"T-they require our services at times and…"
"Liar."
"Huh?"
Vick called another Advisor, and this one gave her a huge list.
"That's the list of your commercial transactions on this month. It seems that you sell nothing for them."
"The demand was not high!"
"Really? Even after the Midwest battle, in which all the survivors were injured?"
The three Jarls looked at her without words. In that battle, the Princess had won for sure.
"You can always come back with new proposals and arguments next time. For now, I refuse."
With their heads lowered, they walked off the General Court.
Just then Vick realized how inclined her body was. It seemed that that argumentation got the best from her.
…
After finish her story, Vick sighed.
"You were surely incredible, Vick. You did something that nobody else could do."
"That's not the most important thing… In the end, I failed, because I couldn't discover something…"
Casper for a moment looked at her as if she was another person. It was a rarity to see Vick being so tough with herself.
"What's it?"
"What they are planning with all of that."
"But, you don't know already? Maybe they are just greedy." Casper had a better guess but would let her do it for him.
"C'mon, Casper, you are smarter than it! They were trying to take whole 8 floors in their commercial range… The 15th floor is a military one… And the 16th…"
"Is where the Laboratories stay."
"Yes. Why greedy people would try to get two commercial dead zones? It doesn't make any sense at all."
"Yes, it doesn't make…" Now, even Casper was dumbfounded. It was really strange.
The two of them arrived in a leisure plaza. There were not so many people there, since it was about ten pm already. However, it was not uncommon to see people walking at midnight on the streets since it was so safe there.
Both stood looking at a statue made of bronze.
Vick walked some more steps further, then stopped.
"Ah, and I forgot to say about a problem that is concerning me since the start of this month. It's being a bother."
"And what's this, exactly?"
Casper approached her, with his hands in the pockets, walking slowly.
"You, Casper." She turned, pointing at him.
"Hmmm… Do you think so?"
"Yes! We had a deal, didn't we? We have a freaking deal, Casper! You just needed to do nothing all day at a random laboratory and go pass for some studies on your body and mind. Just that! But today I discover that they aren't making any progress, and when I see you arriving earlier at your home, you just are proving that they were right! It's all your fault!"
Casper had nothing to say, so he kept quiet for a moment.
"Yeah, I guess it was my fault." He said in a plain tone.
"Say to me, Casper…"
"What?"
"What are you planning?"
Casper gulped and held the sigh that was coming. Now, it was time to see her as an enemy.