Second Arc (His Art of War) – 32. It's Your Fault
After they finished their meal, the servants cleaned up the empty plates and utensils away. Soon, they quickly bowed and came out of the room.
"Shall we start our discussion?" he opened their conversation as his expression turned serious.
King Gervis sighed, trying to calm himself as he had expected the worst. While Chancellor Vello and the finance minister's expression turned tense. Their hearts started beating fast.
"What do you want to talk about?" said King Gervis.
"I want to discuss Asteria's finances with you. But I will ask you a few things first." Frost gave him the financial statements, which he took and flipped it before turning his gaze to the finance minister.
"How long has it been since Asteria fell on the financial crisis?"
"About a year," answered the finance minister.
"Don't you have any reserve funds?"
"It does, but the funds have been used to cover last year's deficit."
'It means it's not just this year that Asteria has a deficit.'
"What are the main causes of this year's income decline? " he asked again.
"That's..." The finance minister looked hesitant to answer him.
"Didn't you attack us economically?" said King Gervis out of blue. His eyes glared at Angel.
He turned his gaze to King Gervis. Unhappy with his words.
"If I say I didn't do it, do you believe me?" he said in a cold voice.
"Hmph! Nonsense!" said King Gervis sarcastically.
He gave them a cynical look while holding back his anger. He wanted to help them find a solution, but the first thing they did was blame him.
"Are you blaming me because my Innocent Wine and Passion tea are better than your Stardust Champagne and Twilight Tea? Or do you want to blame me because my economic city is more successful than yours? And destroying Pearl Gate City for that stupid reason ?!" His annoyance was absorbed in his tone.
"That's right! Didn't you do it to take down Asteria?! "said King Gervis in an escalating tone. He couldn't help himself but blame Angel for everything that had happened in Asteria.
Angel knew that King Gervis never liked him, but he had to be patient in order to save Asteria from this financial problem. He took a deep breath trying to calm himself, he could not let his emotions take over him or this discussion would only end in vain.
"I have examined this financial statement and found some problems in it," he said as he put the report on the table and leaned his back into his chair.
"First of all, there is no new innovation in your product. Stardust champagne and Twilight tea are more than fifty years old, if you don't innovate sooner or later the product will be left by people. Second, you are paying too much attention to long-term agricultural commodities without paying attention to short-term agricultural commodities, your financial flow is stuck in the form of agricultural products that cannot be harvested yet. Besides, you have no choice but to spend a lot of funds to meet people's demands by buying it from other kingdoms. Third, you spend a lot of funds on unimportant things. "
The finance minister frowned in confusion after hearing his words.
"Unimportant?" He was sure he had cut all unnecessary costs, reduced the party budget, even postponed the city wall repairments.
He leaned over his index finger pointing at a large number that was written on the financial statement.
"This is one of them. This weapons budget is too large."
Before the finance minister answered, Chancellor Vello interrupted him. A displeased look on his face.
"Your Majesty, I'm sure you already know. The Asterian troops and knights only use the best weapons. The funds are needed to keep their weapons in the best condition," he said in a displeased tone.
He knew that every year Asteria would renew the weapons of the troops and old weapons would be melted down to make other equipment. Asteria did spend a lot of money to take care of the military, just to show how strong they were as the largest kingdom of the Andromeda Continent. For him, if it was for the soldiers' salary, food and needs that wouldn't be a problem, because he also did the same thing in Euphorion. But for weapons, this sum of funds was too great. Instead of replacing all weapons every year, it was better for maintaining the existing weapons, so Asteria could save a lot of money. Moreover, many of the new weapons ended up in the warehouse. He extended his hand to his side and Frost handed him some list of weapons documents. He flipped the document over and placed it in front of them, showing them the numbers on the list.
"I have also checked your weapon list. Many of them have not been used for years and end up as iron wrecks in warehouses," he countered.
"Iron wrecks ?!" said Chancellor Vello in a displeased tone.
"That's right. Chancellor Vello, I'm telling you. The best weapons are weapons that are used, not weapons stored in warehouses. Even the sharpest sword will turn into a useless blunt sword if stored for too long," he replied.
Chancellor Vello was silent, he knew his words had a point. Although it had become a necessity to prepare new weapons from year to year. Making new weapons cost a lot of funds. In addition, many of these weapons were unused and 'died' in the warehouse.
He pointed to another number in the financial statement document.
"This economic city development funds will also be in vain."
"What do you mean?!" said King Gervis irritably. Allocating the funds for economic city development was his idea.
"Building an economic city takes years, not just one or two months. If you just develop it now, before the city develops, Asteria has already fallen into the economic crisis," he explained.
King Gervis snorted in annoyance, his words did make sense but were there other ways to get Asteria out of the crisis?
"Do you have a better solution than that?" he said in a condescending tone.