"Well that was something"
Lakyus spoke as she sat down and watched the figures of the two nobles enter the castle, she then turned to Arthur and looked at him with a bit of worry, she was keenly aware that nobles do not take things lying down and they'll retaliate for the disrespect he displayed.
"It certainly was something, but moving on. We–"
"How can we be moving on? Even if Arthur is your knight, he can't get away with disrespecting the nobles like that"
Lakyus interrupted Renner, and the princess could not help but roll her eyes in a bit of annoyance.
"Lakyus this is quite alright. This actually plays well into my plans. What Arthur did was prove to the nobles that they cannot control me and establish that I am a threat. Combine that with my meeting with your father. My political power is rising and thus means my voice in the noble court will be louder, this means we are one step closer abolishing slavery"
Renner explained, of course she did not plan for her abrupt meeting with the nobles today nor did she expect Arthur to do as he did; however , it was easy for her to see how this would benefit her in the long run.
Although she does hope no assassination attempts come her way, once Barbro realises she might be a threat to his claim to the throne, he might hire assassins to eliminate her.
"that makes sense, I suppose, and now that you mention it, you did try to have slavery abolished a few months ago"
Lakyus responded, as stated before Renner never actually intended to have slavery abolished, she simply wished to test her power in the noble court, once her power and influence grow big enough she plans to test it once again, plus since she plans to be queen, the favour she has on the peasants will be much more important now.
"Now then, let us move on from that, this meeting is to discuss what to do with Eight fingers, for the moment I cannot think of a way to get rid of Eight without great backlash so do you have any ideas?"
Renner asked, of course that was untrue, she had a good idea what to do with Eight fingers however since she's working with someone like Lakyus who's very moral and upstanding, Renner needs to be careful with how she says things.
"I don't see why we need to discuss this, Eight fingers is a dangerous organisation that needs to be eliminated, the people of the kingdom will never know peace If we don't and kingdom will never prosperity with such a parasitic organisation within its borders"
She offered her thoughts of the matter, Lakyus understood quite clearly that should they eliminate Eight fingers, the power vacuum they leave behind would be filled by another but she believes they can easily prevent that by taking care of said organisation early on.
Having heard Lakyus's idea, Renner took note that the maid that had silently stood a ways away from them had her interest peaked, however that was all Renner was willing to let her hear before clapping her hand and commanding her to leave and the maid did so without complaint.
After such actions, she turned to Arthur and signaled him to speak. He also let out his Demon lord's haki, targeting anyone aside the three of them, ensuring that no one else was listening.
"I have a simple idea. Rather than get rid of Eight fingers and have to deal with whatever organisation comes after it, why not transform it to work to benefit the kingdom instead"
"What do you mean?"
Lakyus was quick to question. She did not like the direction this seemed to be headed, and she hoped that a nice person like Arthur was not about to suggest that they let Eight fingers continue operating.
"for the most part, people will do Immoral things regardless of how much you may want they don't, drugs,prostitution, gambling, human trafficking and so on are all things we can agree are terrible"
He received an affirmative nod from Lakyus while Renner gave a nod that was less affirmative, almost as if she was saying that all that he said was debatable.
"no Matter how successful a country can be, it never actually gets rid of those things, unfortunately that's just how people work."
"Where are you going with this?"
Lakyus questioned, and Arthur continued.
"however that doesn't mean we can't make those bad thing good, control them so that they don't harm as many people as they would and make so the people affected don't suffer as much"
He paused and let his words sink in. He leaned forward and took a sip of his drink before he continued.
"for instance, prostitution. Women who participate in it are usually poor and had no other option or were forced into it because of debt but unfortunately they usually can't leave the life once they start and they get get fed drugs to keep them in and no matter how much money they male they can never pay off the debt so I propose…"
Arthur explained, the idea was not as simple as he stated, the idea was that the country would control all the organised crimes and less than moral businesses, the drugs would be controlled and regulated by the country, how much of it is on the street and what type of people can buy or sell it, it would be the same with prostitution.
The difference is that there would be contracts that ensure that no one is exploited or taken advantage of. Gambling would work similarly as well.
Of course, they wouldn't be able to control all the crime, but it's better than creating a power vacuum that would invite a greater disaster.
"I see, so essentially we'd take over either fingers and minimise the damage it causes to the kingdom while still using it to gain profit, is that it"
"yes but I also have a few ideas too, but we'll discuss them another time. What do you think about all this Lakyus?"
Arthur Asked, turning his head towards the blonde haired adventurer, he knew that she might have a problem with his idea however at the same time he knew that she was not stupid, she understood that no matter how much she may not want it to happen, crime will happen.
Lakyus closed her eyes in thought, contemplating the idea Arthur brought forward. His idea made a lot of sense, and she understood it clearly, but at the same time, she couldn't help but dislike it.
"it's fine, but no children should ever be involved"
"Of course, that was always a given."
"If we're all in agreement then the matter is closed, although your idea will require quite the sum of money and I do not think Eight fingers money will be enough, you also said you have some ideas as well."
"No need to worry, Renner, I know a place."
He gave her a wink as he said, he does remember momonga finding some dragons that had a ton of treasure and gold plus subjugating a few dragons, and having them become his pet will be actually perfect.
"alright, I will not ask questions about it"
Renner said as much before taking a sip out of her now cold tea, and unfortunately, she could not call her maid back, so she had to drink it cold.
"Also by the way. Would I need to be an official knight of the kingdom to start my own knight order?"
"Yes that would be the case, although to be a knight of the kingdom, you'd need to have been born in the kingdom or have contributed significantly to the wellbeing of the kingdom. Currently you have two contributions, the basilisk and the undead event in E-Rantel and since you have dealt with most of the members of six arms I'd say it will be a matter of time before you're officially knighted."
Renner explained and Arthur nodded to her words, although Arthur felt that there were enough people within the kingdom that would be worthy of his knight's Order but he'll have to do with what he's got.
"That's good, while I'm still waiting on Lakyus. To answer, there's someone I think would be a good addition. He's comparable to Gazeff in terms of swordplay, so I'll be going to his hideout to recruit him tomorrow"
Arthur explained. He would much rather have Gazeff on his team, but the man is loyal to a fault and most likely would never betray the king, so Arthur is forced to look for someone else.
"comparable to Gazeff? Is it–"
"yes, it's Brain Unglaus"
...….
[Evening]
Brain Unglaus yawned deeply before letting out a powerful sneeze that caused him to shake his head as he did so.
"Somebody must be talking about me"
He quipped as he lay down on his bed, his arms behind his head and his face staring at the dark cave ceiling he called home.
The mercenary life was not pleasant, and he did not particularly enjoy it, but it did give him the type of freedom he wanted.
One could say That being an adventurer would be much better and less criminally involved, however Brain sought to not be bound by anything and his sole purpose was to strengthen his martial arts skills, which he did successfully.
"Heh! Just you Wait, Gazeff. You'll see the peak of swordsmanship"
He whispered to himself, of course his meeting with Gazeff Would take a while to occur, Brain believed that with his new technique the God flash, no one Within the kingdom Could best him in technique, through years of effort and effort alone he reached the pinnacle of Swordsmanship and Soon Enough he will showcase to The whole continent.
However, right now, he's content with relaxing and enjoying Himself after all spending four years doing nothing but nonstop training waa unhealthy, as such, he needed a year's worth of a break.
He may seek to improve his skills and better himself as a martial artist but that in no way means he had to kill himself and besides he was confident that There were few who could match him in strength as such he had time to relax.
Turning on his side Brain closed his eyes, feeling a great sense of calm, After completing the God flash, he was more than content with himself and his dreams were feeling with nothing but his victory over Gazeff.
...
A/N: most of the things talked about regarding eight fingers will happen in the background, I wrote it here be I didn't want to feel forced when all of a sudden they have control over eight fingers.
The next chapter will be Arthur VS Brain. There's gonna be a time skip in the future, but it's far away, so don't worry. Also, also expect heavy drama between Renner and Lakyus