8 How to Deal with Von Geld

The young Captain of the Sun Knights, Mia Von Ritter, decided to stop for the night. She led her twenty knights and one barbarian, who, according to Hans and Friedrich, was called 'Ethan', into an open area near a small creek where they could set up camp for the night, as it was around sundown. Once there she set her gear down and began chanting in the Magicae Language to create a 'Golden Protective Barrier' in the shape of a dome so that they could camp safely for the night. The Golden Protective Barrier was an A+ level spell that was invisible shortly after it was cast, could even protect against a calamity class monster at full power, and even lasted for the entire night. There were only two drawbacks to the spell: It took over ten minutes to cast, and used about half of Mia's mana. Once she had finished the long incantation in the magicae language, a golden dome appeared over their heads and then turned invisible a few moments later. Mia then drank five mana potions in small blue bottles and then went into her tent that Hans and Friedrich had set up for her while she was chanting. After she went inside, she pulled out a map and began to examine it. [We've covered 36 kilometers today. I suppose we should be able to make it to the small village of Verafgelegen by noon tomorrow if we keep going tomorrow at the same pace that we went today. That's good. I'd like to re-supply in Verafgelegen as this whole journey back to the capital will take over a week even if we can get our horses back once we get to the monastery that has been taking care of them for us at the edge of the Ancient Forest. What to do about that barbarian, though? Despite my words at Hans and Friedrich, I really do feel bad about capturing him when he was doing nothing to harm us. What I said was true though, we can not afford to let him fall into the hands of the Western Empire. If the Western Empire were to figure out how to survive without mana, that could give their soldiers a clear advantage over ours if and when we go to war again.] She thought. [In any event I should find out more about him. I thought that he was just a simple minded barbarian, but he spoke some Vorbei words at lunch with me and even negotiated a deal with me. Since Hans and Friedrich were interacting with him the most, I should call them in here]

"Hans, Friedrich, get in here." She said.

"Yes, milady" They both said simultaneously upon entering the tent.

"Regarding that barbarian, Ethan, you two taught him some Vorbei today, didn't you?" She asked. She was fairly sure that he didn't know any Vorbei when she captured him, but he knew some at lunch. The only explanation that she could think of was that these twins had taught him.

"Well, you're not far off, milady, but it would be more accurate to say that he taught himself while conversing with us." Said Friedrich.

"His vocabulary was pretty limited and his grammar was very broken at first, but in the afternoon he got much better." Said Hans.

"How conversational was he by the end of the day?" she asked

"We could have a somewhat normal conversation with him by the end of the day, so long as we did most of the talking." Hans added

"Although, it seemed like he could only conjugate verbs in the present tense, and he was declining even irregular nouns and adjectives as if they were regular. Despite this, we could mostly understand what he was saying, and it seemed like he could understand us." added Friedrich.

"He grasped that much of our language in a single day?! Forget calling him simple, that undead person is a genius!" Mia exclaimed.

"Well, about that, he claims to be alive and healthy, having never died." Hans said.

"Apparently, where he is from, a place called 'Earth' east of the Ancient Forest, No one has any mana, and they somehow survive their whole lives without it." Said Friedrich.

"What?! How do they survive the mana deficiency?" Asked Mia

"According to Ethan," Friedrich started to say.

"They just live their whole lives without it." Hans finished

"What a strange land. What else did you talk about?" Said Mia

"Mostly we talked about the Kingdom of Vorbei." Said Hans

"He asked a lot of questions about what the kingdom is like." Finished Friedrich

[He's a lot smarter than I thought then. To try to learn more about a potential adversary, it was the first thing we had learned in knight training, but to think that he, who clearly has no military training, thought to do that in the stressful situation of having been captured. I suppose that I have to be wary of his mind from now on.] thought Mia.

"You're both dismissed for the evening." She said.

Hans and Friedrich left the tent, and Mia's thoughts turned toward the Minister of the Treasury for the Kingdom of Vorbei, Otto Von Geld. Over a day had passed since she had led her knights into the fight against the Red Dragon of Calamity, and Mia was only getting angrier.

[That man set us up to die! Not just me, but all of my subordinates as well. All for the sake of getting rid of me, because he knows that the King favors me. Five brave knights are dead all because of his evil plot! I have to deal with him somehow. Maybe I can get the King to punish him for me? His Majesty has always had a crush on me, maybe I could use his affection for me to get Karl X to jail Otto Von Geld for me… No, that won't work. The House Von Geld is a high ranked noble family. While the King in theory has the right to jail Otto, in reality it may look like the King is cracking down on high ranked nobles in general which would likely lead to a civil war between the Royalist Faction led by the King and the Noble Faction led by Von Geld. Even if the Royalist faction wins the civil war, in the Vorbei Kingdom's weakened state the Western Empire may use that as an opportunity to invade. I have to deal with Von Geld myself, and make sure that the young King doesn't get involved directly. If I were the one to do something, it will just look like two high ranked noble families, the Von Gelds and the Von Ritters are fighting with each other, which is no big deal. If I could get him removed from his post as Treasury Minister, most of his wealth and political power will be gone, and then I can maybe get rid of him permanently after that. The trouble is that national ministers, including the Minister of the Treasury, all have lifetime appointments and can only be removed if jailed, or if a two-thirds majority of the other national ministers vote to remove him. I've already established that jailing him is not a good option, so I will have to get two-thirds of the other national ministers to vote to remove him. Aside from Otto, there are twelve national ministers, meaning that I would need to get eight of them on my side in order to remove him. Six of the national ministers are either allies of mine or enemies with Von Geld, so I can assume that those six will vote to remove Von Geld from his position no matter what. Of the remaining ministers, four are either enemies of mine or allies of Von Geld so I can assume that those four will vote against removing Von Geld from his position no matter what. It all comes down to the remaining two ministers who are neither enemies nor allies of either Von Geld or me: The Minister of Education, Josef Von Buch, and the Minister of Agriculture, Frank Von Weizen. That will be a difficult task though to get both of them on my side. Von Buch is very bookish, and doesn't involve himself much in court politics unless there is a chance to gain knowledge from it, and Von Weizen just gets drunk all the time, and doesn't pay much attention to his work, or politics, or really anything that isn't gambling or drinking. I could try to bribe Von Buch with some kind of knowledge that only I have in exchange for his voting to remove Von Geld. But that is a daunting task, as Von Buch is very well studied, and I don't think that there is much that I know that he doesn't in the field of academia. I suppose that I could get Von Weizen to drink a little too much and beat him very badly in gambling to get him to owe me a huge debt, and then offer to forgive that debt if only he would vote to remove Von Geld. That is easier said than done though as Von Weizen is notoriously good at gambling hence why he hasn't accumulated any gambling debt throughout his life despite gambling all the time. I have to find some way to beat him if I want to remove Von Geld. Well, I suppose that I have a week to figure it out before I go to the capital, and on the bright side, Von Geld probably thinks I'm dead so he won't have time to prepare for me by the time he realises that I'm alive...] Mia thought

Just then one of her knights rushed into her tent and said "Milady! The barbarian is showing symptoms of partial mana deficiency!"