Philip got up from his seat where he had been sitting for hours inside the library. At first he wasn't able to find out where the books were, but Lyson took a pity on him & told him where everything was.
So he sat down & started reading about the history, finances & current situation of the empire.
And here is what he learned.
Like Lyson already told, this empire was divided into 4 states, each controlled by a powerful family, which provided something unique to this country helping it grow & prosper. You already know the names, so it would be pointless to tell everything once again.
Ok, so because Lexuis were in charge of security, they had to maintain a massive army for security, which was fairly useless due to the peace time which empire was going through. There were no major wars & the minor problems didn't require an army of that caliber.
For now, they were maintaining 10,000 active personnel deployed throughout the region & the best thing was all of them were getting paid for doing literally nothing.
Now let's move on to the topic of how this empire worked. For holding that much army Lexius needed vast resources & their region was insufficient in providing all that. So they started buying food from you know who, the Carlston, who sold food to them at outrageous rates. Also, they were allowed to use buy now pay later policy, which served its intended role by giving the Lexius's enormous debts & Carlstons huge profits.
And after repeatedly failing to meet payments in due time, another deal was signed where Lexius lost a portion of their land for the amount of accumulated debt. Fairly speaking, nothing was going well.
Now let's get to another point, where they were providing salary to the soldiers for just standing & for that they needed money, a lot of money. And how do you think money can be earned? Yes, by selling your natural resources to someone else for a bare minimum price cause you don't have a choice.
As the lands which Lexius ruled were filled with various natural resources, the most greedy & the richest family in the empire, the Arlets suggested that they should to sign some not so profitable deals with them & they just agreed.
So in return for the natural resources only found in Lexius's state, Arlets provided them gold, silver & other things to pay the salary. It was a good deal on the surface, but inside it wasn't. They were taking far too much in return for far too less.
Still, they did nothing, cause there were no potential buyers other than Arlet's who could provide enough money.
So the ludicrous system continued for generation & Lexius' situation worsened to the point of no return, still they kept the ever so useless army.
Then the question, how the civil war was brewing if everything was going as usual. Even if they kept losing money, if people were happy, then what's more to ask?
And the answer was people were not happy but were not protesting because of the Duke's massive army, which could crush anything & everything within days.
But just a month ago both the Arlets & Carlston did something which pushed the duchy to the very end of the straw. Carlston increased the prices even further, calling that they needed more money for labour cost, transportation & many other things & seeing that Arlets did the same by lowering the amount of money they were providing for the sources.
This time the duke protested, but nothing was done. So tension between each of them was growing slowly & then suddenly 7 days ago Arlets cutoff one of their many deals from the east region, telling that the transportation cost was getting too high, which was a complete lie. Due to years of digging, there was nothing left for them to get there, so the most effective way was just to cut the deal.
Now let's talk about how that affected the civil war situation. People were paying taxes to the state from their income, which was a tiny amount, but after the deal cancellation, the duchy was forced to raise the amount which the masses didn't take lightly.
Thousands of common people marched into the capital city of Elanor, protesting the taxation & the duchy lowered the amount for calming the situation. Tax price were decreased but not to the previous one.
It was a temporary solution, but it was working for now. Still, another tremendous problem was lurking around the corner. And that was the Carlstons who were showing signs of hostility towards the deals. According to the inside information, they were also planning to break some part of the dealing, which definitely push the Lexius into total chaos.
Without food or money, to pay the army, there was no guarantee that army would stay loyal to the duchy without disbanding itself & fight against the ruler. They were all calm because they were receiving salary doing nothing & if that stopped, then no one could stop the civil war. It would be inevitable.
"So that's the complete story, huh?"
"Yeah & what did you expect? Some fairytale story with you featuring as Ruppenzel. Wait, that could work. We can make that, you can be the heroine & I can be the hero. Dude, that's a marvellous idea."
"Lyson, stop daydreaming." shouted Philip. After completing the books, Lyson briefed him on all the recent events, as it was not in the records.
"If what you said is all true, then this state really is in danger, but why no one is doing anything? It's common sense to solve the matter. Does the duke do not know about what's going on?"
"He knows." replied Lyson with a sigh.
"Then why? Why no one is doing anything?"
"Cause they can't do anything. People need someone to tell them to do something. Tell them what's really going on? Until then, they will just sit around doing nothing. Also, it's not an easy feat to pull. Fixing an entire state which house hundreds of thousand of people is difficult & you know that don't you?"
"Yes." Philip knew it was difficult & not anyone could do that. Still, he couldn't just sit around doing nothing. He had to fix it or his life would be seriously fucked for sure.
"So what's the plan?"
"You want me to do something?"
"Yes."
"And that is..."
Ting!
The translucent screen appeared before Philip, showing the info.
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Task 1 - Devise plan to save the duchy from the incoming crisis.
Task 2 - Convince the Duke to act upon your plan.
Points - 100
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The translucent screen appeared before Philip, showing the info & he facepalmed himself.
"You realise that it's been only 3 days since I came here, right? At least let me enjoy some of the privilege of being a duke's son."
"Sure, but remember the time you waste here sleeping & enjoying will shorten the time you have until your life gets ruined & believe me, that won't be good."
"You..."
"We have no time & another thing you have to go meet your wife soon enough."
"What?"
"I will tell about that later. There is the paper & pen. So go do your thing."
"You want me to come up with a plan to save this state?"
"Yes."
"What the fuck, man? I am not some legendary planner or politician..."
"I know that & I know you can do it. Like I said before, think for yourself. Bye."
Philip looked at the disappearing screen with an expressionless face. As his being a duke's son was not enough now, he had to devise a plan to save this state or duchy from what a civil war. And who was responsible for it? The whole management.
All these people were idiots & now he had to solve this mess. So wasting no time, Philip picked the paper lying on his bed & stared started writing important information by utilising which he could convince the duke to solve the impending doom.
"Just what the fuck am I doing?"