“Were you bored without me?” Gerald asked Braydon when they met up in the morning. After the carriage had arrived the day before and Braydon went to eat with the Duchess Regent, Gerald had been led to where he would be staying. If a guest was to come to harm in her own palace that would be catastrophic for her, so Gerald was not strictly necessary within the walls of the palace. Braydon was probably safer than Alima herself if the end of her husband was anything to go by.

“The opposite, I had an intelligent conversation partner after a week without one.” They were currently looking around the palace garden in the late morning. Or at least Braydon was and Gerald was there to accompany him. If he had to guess, Alima would ask to meet him again in the afternoon to continue where they had left off the previous evening.

“Who needs intelligent conversation when you have wine and a good fight?” Gerald was not going to pretend that Braydon’s talks with Alima Shuluk interested him in the slightest.

“You, since you had neither yesterday.” There was no way that Gerald had gotten his hands on much wine as the guard of a visiting guest and even less chance of him getting into a fight in the most secure place in Narabun.

“Fair, I heard that you annoyed the Duchess though. Apparently the look on her face after you left was not a pretty one.” Gerald, whilst not interested in the topic of their conversation was more than happy to share the gossip.

“I somehow doubt that she showed that expression to anyone that would care to spread the news. If I were to guess that was a guess that someone made up and wanted to spread for their own purposes.” Braydon knew that Alima was smart, even if he had gotten the better of her on the first day, that might not be true on the second. And he doubted even more that she was so loose with her expressions when most of the nobles only trusted her insofar as she was her son’s mother.

“And? Were they right?” Gerald asked, noticing that Braydon had not confirmed or denied that he had gotten under her skin.

“And you think that there is nobody listening to our conversation right now? The walls, or in our case the trees, have ears.” Braydon was not going to help out Alima’s opponents by spreading rumours before she made him an offer. He might do it afterwards to try and get a better one, but he wanted to be on as good terms as possible with her if he was going to deal with her in future.

“A shame.” Gerald looked slightly miffed but he was not going to try and sabotage Braydon’s chances at getting a good deal just because he wanted to hear some gossip from the source.

“You were just going to brag about it anyway. If the wrong people did not hear it from me then they would definitely have heard it from you.” Braydon knew that rightly or wrongly, those looking to undermine Alima’s position as the regent would not mind spreading rumours about her failures and downplaying her successes. And any source would do. Even if that source was the knight of a visiting earl from a different country.

“...” ‘Hit the nail on the head.’

“I hope you have had a pleasant morning, Your Grace.” Braydon greeted Alima, this time in her study. Or the Grand Duke’s study as she had described it the day before. As he had expected, not too long after having eaten lunch, she had asked to speak to him once again.

“Likely not one as pleasant as your own, I would guess. It is not often that I get to visit my own garden these days.” If the pile of documents on and around her desk were anything to go by, she was not lying. Braydon had thought that he hated dealing with petty matters of administration and he was an earl, she had to deal with the administration of an entire Grand Duchy. Despite the rebel’s best efforts to relieve her of the land that she had to administer, the war would have only increased the amount of paperwork she had to deal with.

“I pray that you will be able to have such peaceful days once again.” ‘Though not before I have gotten what I want out of you.’ Of course, Braydon did not say the last part out loud. He was here to profiteer from her civil war, it would not do him any good if it ended before he could get something out of it.

“So do I, though I do not presume that it will be in the near future. Now, you suggested that I look into some Fiverian merchants that I rely on for goods from Fiveria. And I have done that as well. But you must know that your King’s embargo on Shuluk works both ways, our own merchants are frequently turned away from the various ports of Fiveria. I must ask since Aled has given you decision making power over who is allowed to trade with us, do you have that same power for us trading with you?” A valid question. Trade was an exchange, not a one way street. If Fiverian merchants could trade with Shuluk, there would certainly be Shuluki merchants wanting to trade with Fiveria.

“So long as they carry my seal…” In truth the King had not been so specific as to state only Fiverian merchants when he made his decree. And Braydon was not against making use of the King’s words in the most loose way possible. If the King never said that his reward only extended as far as Fiverian merchants then that had to mean that it included Shuluki ones too.

“Perfect, then I have a list of my own merchants that I would also like to request to bear your seal. Merely allowing Fiverian merchants back here once again would not be anywhere near enough for me to consider it a fair trade.” Alima had spent her time wisely and thought up a countermeasure to Braydon’s previous negotiation tactics.

If he was going to grant her things that he did not care about for things that he did, she would pile on as many things that he had not even thought about as she could. It was not like he had long to go away and look into the issue to get a good understanding about how much everything she wanted was worth to her. If he wanted to get the best deal it would not only include granting things that he did not care much about for things that he wanted, he would also need to know how much she valued the things that she wanted and was willing to give him.