“Are you truly suggesting that? It is a bit more than blatant.” Upon receiving the slightly disbelieving look from across the table, Braydon smiled confidently. He had put forwards what he wanted, now it would be up to his skill and bluffs to make it through.

“Re-appropriating my own belongings from the hands of dirty rebels? It is only a contingency for if my iron ends up in the hands of those that would oppose you. You would just need to make sure that it does not happen.” Braydon had asked that if the iron fell into the hands of the rebels rather than the ‘rebels’, he would be able to personally retrieve it with her blessings. Though it was obvious that if it came to that he would not be leaving again in such a hurry.

“And why do you presume that I care so dearly about the scraps that make it into the hands of the rebels. You yourself have said that you would be able to send word to me if you ‘happened to lose any’. This seems to strike quite a different tone.” Alima sounded gravely offended.

“I mean no doubt to your capabilities, Your Grace, merely that rebels can be quite tricky to deal with. They have many ways to undermine whatever plans you throw at them. For instance, they could make it more profitable for me to recommend to our merchants that it is not worth it to trade in Narabun. I am sure that they too have heard of all of the piracy and banditry that has gone unchecked in your lands.” He had offered her benefits but he did not want to look like he was going to roll over. Now he was giving not so subtle threats about what might happen if they did not come to an agreement.

“ Like you have said, Duke Burn still trades with me. I am sure that he is able to get his hands on your iron one way or another.” She came back with her own not so subtle threat. Alima could just choose to work with Duke Burn on the condition that he take out Braydon. Even if that soured relations with the Fiverian King, it only mattered that she stabilised her own position.

“Duke Burn might be powerful but he is not all powerful. I hold land on both sides of the mountains and last I checked, the last time that Cliforge castle forcibly changed hands was when my great grandfather took it? With the aid of the entire Kingdom.” Braydon was not afraid of threats of force when it came to a defensive battle. The only way somebody could realistically dislodge him from his castle was to siege it from both sides of the mountain range at the same time.

“Where would you send them instead. I doubt that merchants would just listen to such advice without an alternative.” Seeing that the threat of violence would not work on Braydon she tried to poke holes in his own threat.

“Ciai probably has less bandits and pirates at this point.” A sore point to bring up for her since he knew that Alima was frustrated by the Emperor’s privateers. Though even if he did not Bring up Ciai, there were still other places that Fiverian merchants could trade with. Like the Twin Duchies.

Most of the merchants that would pay more attention to his words were, ironically, not from the east of Fiveria. Duke Burn held too much sway there. But Fiverian merchants from the west were a different story. They no longer had the backing of Ryder or his faction, not to mention Leighian merchants dominating a lot of western Fiveria’s trade. It also meant that there was no one central figure for Alima to bribe to her side. Despite all of this these merchants were still very rich, owing to the south of Fiveria being where most of the country’s cities were located as well as being Fiveria’s coastal region. The Leighian merchants dominated the west due to good river connections and a shared border. Fiverian merchants had been forced to rely on the port cities whether they wanted to or not.

“And why would they want to trade there?” She knew damn well why anyone would want to trade in Ciai and it hit uncomfortably close to home. War.

“I am sure that you can answer that question yourself, Your Grace. Be that as it may, how about we discuss merchants that I will be granting my seal to allow them to trade between our nations.” He did not want to push her into rejecting him out of anger so Braydon changed from his own desires to the stated intention of the trip.

“Indeed, lets.” The Duchess Regent was not happy with how the conversation had gone so far. It was clear to her that her opponent had controlled the flow of it so far and was not keen on letting that continue. Hence she was more than happy that Braydon himself decided to stop his own momentum and change topics.

“I already have my own list of merchants that already associate with me that I will be granting my seal to trade. But I am guessing that you would be more interested in some of the larger Fiverian merchants being allowed to trade in Narabun?” A slightly obvious question but the fact that he was asking it meant that he was prepared to go along with her desires on this issue to a large extent. The only thing was that he had already stated his price and it was quite a high one. The more she wanted from him on this matter, the harder it would be for her to deny him from taking ‘what was rightfully his’.

“How about we rest on this issue and I will come back to you tomorrow after having properly considered it.” As she heard his offer, Alima knew that Braydon was trying to bait her into asking for a lot on a matter that he cared little for in turn for granting just as much, if not more, on the matter that he truly wanted. The problem was that both aspects were important for her.

On the one hand she could not just let Braydon openly march his men into the west of the country, even with the best of pretexts because there would be no way that he would be leaving if he was not forced. But equally, those that truly supported her needed both his iron and the supplies that Fiverian merchants would bring. She would have to spend the night considering how much she needed and how much she was willing to give.