Enlightened Empire

"This is our storage facility for precious metals," he explained as he pulled out the heavy iron key. "The door itself is made from heavy oak, as thick as a clenched fist is wide, and reinforced with high quality iron bands from Saniya"s royal foundry. The lock was made by one of the city"s new clock making masters, a genius feat of mechanics and impossible to either pick or destroy by would-be thieves."

Once the banker had opened the door, he let the merchant get a glimpse into the decently sized room. The old man said no word, no doubt overwhelmed by the sight. After all, the room"s interior was entirely filled with the dim glitter of precious metals in the darkness.

"Here is where we store all the property we have received from our customers. They are kept cool, dark and isolated to reduce discoloration on the metals. Copper is in the front, while the more precious metals are in the back."

Most of the room was taken up by the large sheets of copper every merchant had learned to dread over the past seasons. It was the fruit of their efforts over the past half a year. However, hidden away in the distant corners, one could spot an occasional shine of silver and even some gold. Of course, none of them were as impressive as they appeared at first glance.

The few silver coins inside the vault were the last bits they had left from their secret stashes. They were distributed in such a way that they would appear like a larger volume from a distance, hinting at piles were there were only pieces. At the same time, the "gold" was nothing more than some bra.s.s they had bought from the foundry. In the dim light, it was impossible to distinguish from gold.

Although their goods weren"t all the real deal, they had to get creative to convince their prospective patrons. Even more, due to their former status, it was easy for others to believe that they would possess gold and even some of the now rare royal silver. Most merchants had neither to offer, not even fakes.

"As you can see, we possess ample funds, more than enough to handle one or two failures from our lending business. Are you satisfied?"

The old man still remained silent. As if transfixed, he stared into the glimmer before him. Only after Sawo had closed the door and the fake wealth had disappeared did the merchant come back to his senses.

"Can we talk about the details of our contract?" he asked in a cracked voice, his mouth dried out from excitement.

In response, Sawo"s smile became just a little bit brighter. As expected, his efforts had landed them another satisfied customer. At this speed, they would be able to open their own manufactories with ease, as soon as the king released their workers.

Once all the doc.u.ments had been signed and the copper sheets had been weighed and exchanged for certificate notes, Sawo thanked his newest customers and led them out of his store. Once his patrons would leave, he would return to his position in front of the store to fish for some more easy money. The day was young and there was yet much money to extract from the plentiful tree of harvest season. However, as soon as the merchants had disappeared into the crowd, a light-skinned foreigner replaced them and walked towards him.

*Government worker,* Sawo identified right away. While many of these foreigners worked as craftsmen, none of them dressed like the man from the crowd. While many of the foreign craftsmen would wear the traditional clothes of their far-off homelands, the officials from the castle were required to wear something closer to Medalan dress. They wore pants like all their foreign brethren, but they also wore a short, dark-red robe above, which signified their warrior status. The man who came towards Sawo carried his robe in a flawless manner and had a posture as stiff as a broom. He already looked like trouble.

"Good day, Sir. Would you be Sawo d"Ichilia, owner of the Sata coin exchange and money lending business?" the king"s man asked in a matter-of-fact tone, as if he already had all the answers.

"I have not carried the name Ichilia in a long time, as I am no longer a servant of House Ichilia," Sawo answered, already annoyed. The warrior servants below the lords were always trouble, always eager to demonstrate or abuse their power in front of others. No one knew that better than him, so he preempted any attempts of belittlement through forward language of his own. "I would prefer if you were not to use it."

"That is fine, I can do that," the guest replied as if he hadn"t heard the complaint in Sawo"s voice. "My name is Alyn, sir. Alyn di Pluritac. As you may guess from my name, I am a warrior servant by cla.s.s and am sworn to King Corcopaca t.i.tu Pluritac in the function of an official."

"Ah, an official? What can this simple servant do for you?" Although he didn"t like the greedy king"s government, his tone still changed to be more amiable. At least the servant had remained polite in the face of Sawo"s provocation. Further, he could be boisterous towards prospective customers and dismissive of the commoners, but he had to tread with care when it came to servants of the crown. One wrong word towards a man of higher status and the king had an excuse to take off Sawo"s head. He would rather not give him the opportunity. However, the new arrival ignored Sawo"s servile tone just as he had ignored his light provocation from before.

"I am with the city"s finance department, as part of the newly established banking division. Is it correct that you have been operating a coin exchange and money lending business?" he repeated his earlier question while he stared down onto a piece of paper.

"Yes, that is correct. In fact, my business is right behind me." Although he was wary of the government worker"s purpose here, Sawo could only tell the truth. After all, their fancy sign was right above his head and hard to overlook. Even if it wasn"t, his trade and home were well-known in the city, and a clumsy lie would only create more trouble.

"In that case, I have come here to inform you that your business will be considered illegal from tomorrow on. Private businesses have no right to exchange precious metals for certificate notes from then on. Nor do they have the right to indiscriminately lend money at self-designated conditions. Even less so do they have the right to print their own currency and treat it as interchangeable with the southern kingdom"s certificate notes, colloquially known as "blue notes"."

"What did you say, little man!?"

Again, the b.a.s.t.a.r.d king was trying to take away his future. Again, just as Sawo was about to climb back up from the bottom of the pile through his own efforts, the vengeful King of the South had swooped in to destroy it all in a moment. Enough was enough! Who did this little servant think he was? Only a year or two ago, Sawo would have destroyed someone like him with a single word. He could have killed the man with one swing of his axe and no one would have asked a single question. Yet now he was treated like some dirty commoner, to be pushed around as this foreigner pleased? He would not, he could not accept this. His head filled with nothing but red, Sawo stepped forward to teach the arrogant servant a lesson.

"What do you intend to do, citizen?" While the servant tried to produce a stern voice, he stumbled back and shook like a leaf.

"Reinstate justice," Sawo growled as he took another step towards retribution.

However, just as he was about to reach the pale servant, Sawo noticed movement from the corner of his eyes.

*The coward brought guards.*

Two of the city"s guards stood in the periphery with their weapons at the ready, waiting for Sawo to make a mistake large enough to justify his death. As the king"s old foe, he was convinced there was nothing the king wished more than to see his head roll. He wouldn"t give them the satisfaction, neither the false king in the castle nor the little man before him.

"Fine," he said and backed off half a step, but his voice was still firm, loud enough to boom across the street and be heard by the people. Already, the commotion had attracted a small crowd. "Is this your king"s great plan to enslave us all? All the craftsmen already work for him in his manufactories. All the farmers already work for him as well, and of course, all the warriors are his. Does he want to take full control of the lives of merchants as well? What will we do if we cannot lend anymore money? If we cannot exchange our worthless copper? Even more so now that the south goes through such a crisis, through such a struggle for the common people. If we cannot trade the copper anymore, just to still the king"s greed, are we to starve to death? Do you understand the reality out here on the streets, as you sit in your fancy castle all day and think of more things to take from us? Do you understand how much we suffer?"

In response to the pa.s.sionate speech, dim murmurs began to spread throughout the crowd. Sawo could feel the silent a.s.sent of the people around him, and so could the little servant. Although he still looked pale, he tried to straighten his short spine and defended his position.

"King Corco has no intention to make private money lending illegal. Neither will the crown forbid the copper exchange that was of its own design, specifically created to deal with the current crisis. All we want is regulation, to make sure the private interests of the money lenders and coin exchanges do not cause harm to the people of the kingdom, those Sir Sawo seems to care so much about."

"Hah, no intention to make us illegal, yet you close our business from one day to another?" Sawo shouted in derision, more towards the crowd than towards the little man.

"If you comply with the new regulations, your shop will remain open same as before. At noon tomorrow, there will be a meeting inside the castle, where the country"s future stance on banking and finance will be explained. The meeting is open to all money lenders and coin exchangers of Saniya, so you are encouraged to attend as well."

The cowardly servant spoke quickly to fulfill his duties, before he handed Sawo a piece of paper and excused himself from the scene. As the guards helped the little man push through the ma.s.ses in the street, Sawo looked at the official doc.u.ment he had been handed.

Written on the paper were the time and place of the "discussion on the future of banking" as the doc.u.ment called it. Sawo had no doubt that it would be another attempt from the greedy king to control everything and everyone he laid his eyes upon. Before the banker realized, the fancy paper had turned into a worthless ball inside his clenched fist. Never again would he allow the king to play with them however he liked. Not this time. Sawo would attend the meeting, but only to fight for his freedom, and for his future.