The two men were eunuchs. Esme could deduce that after only ten minutes of listening to their conversation.
They were eunuchs that worked in high places. One worked as the right hand man to the Minister of Wars son and the other worked in palace harem.
That explained the feeble and spoiled behavior and the preferential taste in alchohol.
These were not battle hardened men like she had guessed.
Whoever had given No face the information about the left prime minister and the minister of war meeting here hadn't been wrong either.
The palace eunuch was under the left prime minister payroll and was at the meeting on his behalf.
The Left Prime minister had some dirt on the Minister of war and had blackmailed him into letting him put his hands on funds for the soliders. But that had happened a couple years back and they were meeting now to brain storm on restoring the money they had stolen.
One of the ways they were restoring the money was by opening the highly qualified palace roles to whoever was willing to pay good money to work in the palace. Not only that they were only offering half the salary to the unqualified hirelings.
The palace workers who bribed their way into working at the palace because of the good pay couldn't report that they were being paid half their salary because then they would be exposed for hiving bribes too. Not only that they couldn't warn others about the scam because they needed a gate pass to go in and out of the palace and the palace Eunuch always made sure they didn't have it.
It was a mess.
The palace eunuch was taking care of the hiring. The minister of Wars eunuch was doing the accounting.
The two eunuchs were fools and two loose at the lips. Everything that Esme had gathered wasn't said but most of it implied. She wondered how the two eunuchs ever survived working with nobles if they were so loose at the lips. She supposed it was the effect of the good wine and the fact that the eunuchs had met each other at a tavern no respectable person or anyone that could understand or decipher the high class grammar they communicated in could possibly be found.
They had good precautions in choosing their meeting place but if it had been her, Esme knew she would still watch her mouth when discussing such important and treasonous deeds.
By the time Esme returned to the front desk, a part to the palace had formed in her mind.
It wasn't hard at all, she had some money she knew the eunuchs would thirst after. The price would be high to buy a position in the palace but it was her best bet.
Another thing bothered her, the urgency with which the Minister of War and Left Prime Minister were restoring looted military funds could only mean one thing.
The royal courts of North Chedii were in talks about launching an attack.
Very probably on Sukech.
Princess Juleka was still in Sukech so Esme wondered how they intended to go about things.
As far as she was informed their were no plans to take Princess Juleka out of Sukech. Perhaps the plot was not against her country?
Esme's head began to pound from much thinking.
A while later she relived her front desk duty to Souse and retired to bed but even as she slept the pounding in her skull continued.
Something still wasn't right.
When morning came, the first thing Esme did was count her fortune. She hardly ever had to consider money, she was paid well every month and her training and mission expenses were covered by her handler.
Now she was alone in a foreign country where any attempt to contact her handler would alert authorities.
If North Chedii was really in talks about deploying their soliders, security every where in the capital would be tightened soon.
Especially in the palace.
She needed to be in and out quick enough.
There was two heavy but small sacks of gold coins, forty pieces in total.
That was a nice enough fortune but she didn't know how much the bribe would cost, she also wanted to leave some money for the tavern and she needed some on hand in case she needed to pay off other people.
The tavern needed to make some money.
Esme found Eris in the kitchen bringing out her pots and pans for the day.
'Good morning, miss Ria', she greeted.
'Good morning, miss Eris', Esme returned.
Eris gigled at the title and Esme smiled at her childlike behavior.
'What are you making for breakfast?'.
Eris smiled, 'I haven't the slightest idea, miss Ria. I'll cook what the morning feels like'.
Esme raised her brows.
'What does the morning feel like?', she asked.
Eris smiled 'the winds haven't quite whispered it to me yet'.
Oh boy.
Eris was a good cook but it was clear no one was checking this fourteen year old whoose role was greatly affecting the finances.
Meksta was no business genius, in her records she had atrributed most of the lack of profit to the state of the tavern but as far as Esme had observed that hadn't stopped certain people. In fact the public bucky riders, miners and construction workers always seemed to be around at evening which was a good thing because they were paid daily wages. It meant that at that time when the walked into the tavern they had fresh pay in their pockets. Esme new how men felt about fresh pay.
'Eris what's the cheapest breakfast you have ever made?'.
Eris's eyebrows furrowed
'I mean what is the most delicious breakfast you can make without using much of the resources in the barn?'.
Eyes sparkled
'Tree root soup'.
'And how do you make that?'
'I gather certain plant roots in the mountains and combine them with flavours then i boil the flavors, roots and leaves in fruit juice. All the ingredients can be picked in the mountains that's why I don't cook it often. Roukan forbids me to go to the mountains by myself'.
Esme nodded
'I see.Tell me more about things you can make from the mountain'.
By the time the other workers came downstairs to eat breakfast and open the tavern for the day Esme had made an entire meal time table for the tavern.
Eris served sweet buns and savoury soup with some clumps of beef.
The last costly meal for breakfast, Esme determined.