“Fine,” said Luther, “you win. I will tell you what I have done.”
Helen’s gaze flickered. She hadn’t expected him to give in so quickly. He didn’t look especially unsettled by Helen’s threats, either.
“There is nothing you can do,” he said. “That is why I am telling you. Because it is already too late.”
Helen merely waited.
“You see, I have discreetly removed all of the money from the Royal Treasury and replaced it with borrowed funds. Atreya now holds nothing but debt.” He didn’t smile. If anything, he only looked even more callous than before. “You think you have won your kingdom back, sister? Far from it. Atreya belongs to over a dozen other countries.”
She said nothing, still, only letting her eyes drift vacantly to the side a little. If he was lying, then she would confirm it easily enough; but Luther would know that, of course, which meant that, for now, it was a safe assumption that he was telling the truth.
“They will come to you soon in search of their money,” he said. “Some may be understanding of your circumstances, but I do not think Intar, Horsht, Korgum, or Dozer will be very agreeable. You owe them quite a sum, and any one of them might become upset when they learn that you have done business with the others.”
Intar, Horsht, Korgum, and Dozer. Intar was difficult to deal with on a good day, but the other three were easily the most volatile nations on the continent. As soon as he uttered their names, there was no hope of Helen concealing her exasperation. She shut her eyes and turned away from Luther to press a hand to her forehead.
She needed to think. She’d expected the problem to be bad, but this? Could anything even be done? If the Royal Treasury really only contained borrowed money now, then everything would be made more difficult.
Whatever the case, she had to start asking questions. She required information, and Luther was perhaps the only person who could give it. “You are talking about nearly two hundred billion troas. How could you have possibly removed that much money from the Royal Treasury without anyone noticing?”
A dark serial novel. Set in a modern fantasy world called Eleg. Mature language. Updates every night at midnight PST by ~400 words.
The horror
ReplyDeleteNothing stings like money problems. She should start rebuilding the treasury by selling Luthers TV. Mwhuhahaha
ReplyDelete<3
ReplyDeleteHaha.
ReplyDeleteBut the money has to be somewhere. I mean, he can't have spent that much money in a few weeks. Or did he pay Abolish or something?
ReplyDeleteTypo:
"Helen['s] gaze flickered."
Fixed, thanks.
ReplyDeleteThat depends on what standard they use to back there currency. If it is gold for example, then the gold bricks could have been trucked out in the middle of the night and been replaced with gold plated led. Or If the standard is gem stones, they could have been replaced with cut glass. All the CASH would still be there and in public circulation, but with nothing backing it, the paper money is worthless.
ReplyDeleteThat is the problem the united states is having right now, they keep printing more and more paper money, with nothing new backing it. So each paper bill is worth less and less, especially in international trade. If they ever get to the point where other nations have enough U.S. currency to equal the gold reserve, they could demand payment and wipe out the value of the dollar.
Explody guy somehow had a large quantity of money maybe it was the money that belonged to the treasury. I don't like him so I refer to him as explody guy. he ripped off William's arm.
ReplyDeleteHorsht sounds like horse shxt
ReplyDeleteSure, if they wanted to trash the Earth's primary reserve currency, thereby clobbering EVERYONE'S economy. Heck, that status is why we're able to maintain a trade deficit without damaging the dollar or the flow of trade.
ReplyDeleteFor all his tactical genius, this guy's still an idiot. Does he really think Dozer is going to deal with a multi-billion-dollar loan default by simply toppling the monarch? They'd probably send an invasion army, if not the nukes.
ReplyDeleteBut...why? Why destroy the country if you wanna dismantle the monarchy? The action Luther did could start war. and if I'm not mistaken, isn't Atreya a small country? They'll be toppled! Isn't there still a such thing as slavery? He might have condemned his own country to slavery and death!
ReplyDeleteHe's...he's legitimately insane...
I suppose he might be intending Helen to pay the money back (she does have all the borrowed money, after all) but them find her government broke and ripe for revolution. He's still a moron though. Without a treasury to take control of, any revolutionaries would be no more able to hold power than Helen's, so Atreya would probably end up a failed state with no governing authority at all.
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