11 Chapter 11: The last one

"Welcome, everyone. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to attend this meeting."

In a well-lit room, around a large polished oak table, sat every person responsible for the management of the ducal estate. Elron, flanked by his tutors, had placed himself in his father's chair at the head of the meeting table, facing all the fief's advisors and key figures such as the head of the knights, and the main accountant of the dukedom. There were so many that some, who didn't fit on the table, had remained standing in the back.

"As you already know, my father has retired for a... Vacation, leaving me in charge of the fief's management."

Around the room, several men showed sour expressions.

'Arrogant geezers. Just wait until I put you back in your place.'

Elron inhaled softly and squeezed his fists in order to reign in his displeasure.

"Still, I am lacking in terms of experience, so I ask for your guidance in order to maintain the dukedom stable until my father's return."

He could see his tutors' unrest at his statement, but he silenced them before they could say anything by raising his hand.

"All non-trivial matters shall be reported directly to me, the rest I will leave for you to deal with as you already do. I will be depending on your patience, as it is the first time I am taking full charge of overseeing the estate, but I believe that with your and my tutors' aid we can welcome the Duke with a perfectly managed fief."

After he finished speaking, several advisors and members of the court stood up, raising their voices.

"In all honesty, young Lord, I believe it might be too soon for you to take on such a heavy burden."

"I agree."

"We are already quite experienced when it comes to the governance of the dukedom."

"Please don't tire yourself out, young Lord."

"We don't want to distract you from your studies."

At the same time, his tutors made up the other front of the discussion.

"When the Duke is gone, it is obvious the ruling of the dukedom should be handed over to his successor."

"This is valuable experience for the young Lord's formation."

"It will not be long until the young Lord begins partaking in the fief's governance anyway, and he has been learning for years for this moment."

"With our assistance there should be no problem-"

The voices only got louder and louder, muddling over each other. Elron looked at the clock on the wall. This meeting was going to be long.

----

At the same time, down the hallway from the conference room, Neera had just made her way into the Duke's office. The smell of paper permeated the air as her feet met the elegant carpet that covered the whole floor. A big window facing a private courtyard brought light into the space, shining on the shelves full of books that reached the ceiling.

She carefully checked her surroundings, making sure she was alone. A small smile stretched her lips. The plan had worked.

In the two years prior, Neera had tried coming into this room, but she had never managed to actually enter since it was always full of advisors during the day, even when the Duke wasn't in the premises, and two carefully picked guards stood watch inside it at night.

The meeting Elron was conducting was the first time all the dukedom's relevant figures met in a single room, leaving the office deserted for her to explore.

Not knowing how long the conference would last, she hurried to the shelves, brushing the backs of the books with her gaze until she found the titles she looked for:

'Laurendt Dukedom Ledger'.

The books went from the tome I to XVI, covering an entire shelf of one of the bookcases closest to the hardwood desk.

She grabbed the last five and spread them on the floor. Starting from the sixteenth, she swiftly flicked the pages, giving each of them a good look before passing on to the next. She was unsure of how much time had passed as she didn't want to break her concentration, but before she knew it the sound of footsteps could be heard in the hallway outside. Neera hurriedly put the books back in their place and retreated to the tunnels.

She hadn't managed to read them all, but by the time the door opened, the only trace of her passing was the subtle contour of a hidden door at a corner of the room that slowly disappeared until it merged back into the wallpaper without a sound.

Back in her chamber, Neera hurried to write down everything she had seen into the piles of paper Elron had prepared for this and supplied to her beforehand. Her fingers flew over the white canvas, staining it with dark ink that created rows and rows of numbers. By the time she was done, the floor was covered in the dukedom's transactions from the last eight years. She had been unable to complete the ninth since she had been interrupted before she finished reading it, but she had found what she needed.

She then took another piece of paper hidden in the loose floorboard underneath her bed that detailed a list of the purchases of the noble households pertaining to the Laurendt territory. Dresses, jewelry, exotic animals, all appeared in the court's expenses. There were even some household renovations and human trade mixed in between the most extravagant acquisitions. Neera had compiled this list a few weeks ago from all the gossip she had heard from Alea and the spying she had conducted herself through the castle's walls. Although the exact amounts spent were missing, she had written down her approximations according to the prices she had seen in the dukedom's ledger. The Laurendt house had significantly less luxury spending in the last few years compared to other families in the court, but it had still sustained enough to maintain its wealthy status, giving her the opportunity to measure how much the other houses were wasting.

In the ledgers, Neera could see how much the dukedom had sent as monetary relief to each of the noble households, and the yearly tax they had to pay to the duke. Since the tax was two percent of the total revenue of each house, she was able to approximate how much each household made in a year.

Neera proceeded to create a yearly sum of each house's luxury spending for the last four years, adding next to it the total amount of monetary relief the dukedom had supplied to it along with the estimated revenue of each house.

Once she was done, a smile came to her face. She had been right. Almost every household had bought luxury items for a total amount way above their budget, meaning only one thing:

'They have used the relief fund meant to help their respective territories in private pleasures.'

In her hands, Neera had evidence of embezzlement.

Circling the relevant transactions in the duplicates of the ledgers, she neatly hid everything under the loose floorboard, patted her skirt down to get rid of the dust and jumped out the window once more.

There was only one last thing to be done today.

Back in the tunnels, Neera opened a small passage that lead to a dimly lit room. The smell of dust was strong as crates and shelves covered the large space. In a far end, a big door was guarded by two heavily armed men, and she knew that outside there were two more. Walking between boxes, another guard was making rounds with a torch in his hand.

Neera kept her body close to the ground as she dragged herself towards one of the bigger crates, closer to the entrance. She grabbed a rusty fork from one of her stockings and slowly lifted up the nails that held the lid shut. Her fingers trembled from the effort, but she didn't rush. Once she had removed them, she softly placed them on the ground, being careful of making any sound.

When the light of the torch came closer, she hid behind a shelve and waited with abated breaths until it passed and she peeked from her spot to confirm the man was gone before returning to her task. Neera pushed the lid extremely slowly, stopping when the gap was large enough for her to reach inside and take out a shiny and heavy golden ingot.

It was the last one in the crate.

As quietly as she had come, Neera crawled back to the passage, where right before the opening to the room many rocks had been neatly stacked. She had been collecting them there for days.

One by one, Neera carried the rocks and placed them in the crate, making the same trip back and forth and only stopping when the guard walked past until the box was filled to the top. She pushed the lid back in place, wrapped her shawl around a small rock and softly hammered at the nails to close it again.

She finally made her escape with dust on her clothes and a shiny golden ingot in her hands.