Page 1751

((Mother's Day Special -- Page 8 of 12))
He turned to Garovel while he waited. “So what should we deal with first?”

‘You need to meet with Madame Carthrace.’

“Oh, yeah. I haven’t seen her at all yet. How’s she doing?”

‘She seems to be handling things fairly well, considering two days ago, she only had to worry about a handful of people. Now she’s suddenly got hundreds in need of accommodations. I heard her mention that she didn’t want to disturb you while you were resting, but I imagine she must be quite eager to have a conversation with you by now.’

“Ah... right.” He decided to just blurt out one of the questions that he’d been dreading. “Do we even have enough money to take care of everyone here?”

‘For a little while, sure,’ said Garovel. ‘Combined with the cost of renovations, we could probably last a few months just on what we have. Before we go completely bankrupt, that is.’

Hector sighed and sat down to eat. “That’s... not very encouraging.”

‘Wasn’t supposed to be. Madame Carthrace would probably have a more accurate estimate for you, but I think it’s safe to say that if we don’t come up with a reliable source of income soon, we are gonna have some big problems on our hands.’

“Agh, and with this... economic crisis or whatever going on...” The soup didn’t have much flavor, but he liked how chunky it was. He’d definitely have to get more to eat after this, though.

‘Yeah. Making money might prove somewhat challenging at the moment, but on the bright side, we’ve got plenty of rich allies who are probably willing to help us out.’

That piqued Hector’s curiosity. “Do the Rainlords still have access to their money, by the way?”

‘Yes and no. I was wondering the same thing, so I asked the various head reapers about it, and apparently, many of the Rainlords have had their assets completely frozen, but there’s also a pretty strong contingent of them who were prepared for this sort of thing.’

“For fleeing their own country as fugitives?”

‘Yep. They say they’ve got hidden funds stored in banks all over the world. Some even have actual secret store houses that they plan on making a trip to at their first opportunity. It’s obviously not as much money as they normally have access to, but they’re still far from broke.’

“Huh... I’m a little surprised that the Vanguard is able to freeze any of their assets at all.”

‘My understanding is that the Vanguard isn’t doing it directly. Rather, they’re applying pressure in the government of western Sair--which, by all accounts, is in total fucking chaos, by the way.’

Hector bobbed his head at that news. “I can imagine... The Rainlords made up, uh, most of the leadership there, didn’t they?”

‘They sure did. Now they’re all missing, and their civilian subjects are left feeling scared and unprotected.’

“Geez...”