The Creditor's Reckoning
David Bloomfield bowed his head as Richard entered the audience chamber. “It has been a long time, Your Majesty.”
There was no need to look twice. It was David Bloomfield. Richard answered him in a measured tone. “It has indeed, Mister Bloomfield. Be seated.”
David sat down again with a word of thanks. The light of the candle on the table illuminated the man’s face. Richard had not wanted to look at it, yet the banker’s appearance forced itself upon his eyes regardless of his feelings.
David Bloomfield bore a name as if he were human, but he was not. Even in the yellow glow of the candle, his deathly pale complexion, sunken eye sockets, and grotesquely twisted hooked nose reminded Richard once more that the creature before him was not human.
“First of all, allow me to congratulate you on your ascension, Your Majesty.”
When David opened his mouth, his sharp, jagged teeth were revealed. Richard could easily imagine how many times those teeth had been sunk into animals—or perhaps people—to drink their blood. He quickly averted his gaze from the banker’s mouth.
The Jihan were a sufficiently repulsive race, but there was no need to display his disgust openly. Moreover, this particular Jihan was no ordinary member of his kind; he was the creditor who had extended massive loans. Beyond that relationship, he was also a protector of the Jihan, and every Jihan in Zylan was a direct vassal of the Zylan queens. (Of course, since they were not human, they could not truly be vassals, yet they were vassals who brought considerable wealth.)
Hiding his true feelings, Richard replied, “Thank you, Mister Bloomfield.”
“And this is a congratulatory gift from me.”
David slid the bundle lying on the table toward Richard as he spoke. Richard frowned at both the words and the gesture. Setting aside the fact that the man’s hands were reversed left and right—an inherently revolting sight—David’s action itself violated protocol. To call tribute offered to a monarch a “gift,” to place it in a bundle as though presenting something to a private citizen, and to slide it across the table was a grave offense that could warrant execution. If etiquette were applied even more harshly, the fact that he had extended his left hand—attached to his right arm—toward the sovereign might have earned him a flogging. (Naturally, had he extended the bundle with his left arm, he would have been punished for that as well.)
But the debt Richard owed was far too great to quibble over such trifles.
“My thanks for this as well. Now then, shall we speak of business?”
“That is precisely what I wished to discuss, Your Majesty.”
David smiled again. Looking at this Jihan—who appeared deceptively young yet was anything but, having lived for centuries—Richard once more felt disgust threatening to break through his skin. He exercised patience and said, “So… the principal was four hundred thousand gulden, with interest of… one hundred thousand gulden, was it?”
“The initial principal was three hundred eighty-nine thousand nine hundred gulden, with interest of seventy-seven thousand nine hundred eighty gulden. In addition, the further seventy-eight thousand gulden you borrowed carries interest of fifteen thousand six hundred gulden. The total comes to five hundred sixty-one thousand four hundred eighty gulden.”
Richard compared the sum David had recited with Zylan’s fiscal reality and reached the only possible conclusion. He spoke plainly to the banker.
“I shall be frank with you, Mister Bloomfield. The Kingdom of Zylan has no means of repaying that debt.”
“In that case, I shall arrange funds to repay the debt.”
“At an even higher interest rate than before, of course.”
“You understand perfectly.”
Richard pressed a hand to his forehead and continued, “Mister Bloomfield. I have always felt gratitude toward you. Thanks to the funds you provided at twenty percent below market rates, I was able to defeat the Eight-Nation Alliance and Derim, capture the King of Derim, and extract a handsome ransom from him.”
“And as a result, Your Majesty now sits upon the throne of Zylan.”
“You are correct.”
He rested his elbows on his knees and propped his chin on his hand. The posture prevented him from sitting straight, and his legs were not properly together. It was hardly an appropriate way for a woman in a splendid silk dress with her hair elegantly pinned up to sit, but Richard paid no mind to such things. He went on.
“What reason would I have to hide anything from you, of all people?”
“Of course, Your Majesty. I trust Your Majesty’s words.”
“I am relieved to hear it.”
“In truth, I trust my own abilities more than I trust Your Majesty. The four hundred sixty-seven thousand nine hundred gulden I extended to you is no small sum even for me. The reason I lent to Your Majesty in the first place was my prediction that neither you nor the Kingdom of Zylan would have the capacity to bear such a debt. On that same line of thought, may I ask a question, Your Majesty?”
“Ask.”
Richard felt as though he might explode at any moment. He clenched his teeth and permitted David to speak.
“The annual interest, which currently stands at approximately ninety-five thousand gulden, will rise to roughly one hundred ten thousand gulden next year. The year after that… it will reach approximately one hundred thirty thousand gulden. This is only the interest for a single year.”
Richard did not ask why the interest changed every year. He could not calculate the exact interest owed on the spot as David could, but he at least understood what compound interest meant. He made that clear to the banker.
“I know what compound interest is.”
“My apologies, Your Majesty. Then allow me to ask directly this time. This amount represents approximately sixteen percent of Zylan’s budget from two years ago and slightly over twenty percent of last year’s budget. Is that correct?”
The figures were precise. Richard said, “You are well informed.”
David bared his jagged, twisted teeth in a wide smile. But the words that followed were neither praise nor admiration. Richard lunged at him. With his left hand he seized the banker’s hair, and with the other he grabbed the candlestick and drove it into his throat.
David let out a short, sharp scream, clutched his neck, and collapsed. Yet not a single drop of blood flowed from the wound.
No blood flowed from the wound. The Jihan do not bleed as humans do.
Richard twisted David’s arm behind his back and straddled him. He could not be certain his weight would be enough to pin the banker down. Preparing for the possibility that the Jihan might suddenly regain consciousness and thrash wildly, he locked the arm even more tightly and drove his knee into the center of the creature’s back.
By then the royal guards had burst into the audience chamber.
“Your Majesty. Are you unharmed?”
“I am fine.”
No matter how inexperienced in battle he might be, David Bloomfield was still a Jihan, and a Jihan in pain was capable of anything. The guards knew what to do without further orders. They took up positions on either side of him—more precisely, on either side of David.
Rising to his feet, Richard commanded, “Strike.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
The guards reversed their halberds and brought the heavy metal heads down on both of David’s shoulders. Even under the impact, the Jihan did not regain consciousness. A stench unbearable to human nostrils seeped from his body.
Richard mentally calculated the reward he would give the guards. He was also thinking of something else. A powerful temptation gripped him.
The finances of the Kingdom of Zylan were backed into a corner, and the root of the crisis lay in the fact that the debt owed to this Jihan financier could not be repaid by ordinary means. And that very creditor now lay prostrate beneath Richard’s feet.
He could charge the Jihan with espionage, drag him before a special tribunal, and confiscate all his assets. But that would be no different from slicing open the belly of the goose that laid the golden eggs. No matter how close the owner of the goose was to starvation, the immediate prospect of goose meat was not reason enough to kill the bird. If he seized this Jihan’s property now, every Jihan and human financier across Zylan and the entire continent would never again extend credit to the Zylan royal house.
While he was thinking, David regained consciousness.
“Cough! Gahk!”
The Jihan writhed in agony. Even the royal guards—who possessed far greater physiques than the current Richard or the man he had been before the coronation—were shaken by the force of it. It was a monstrous strength that could not be held down by Richard’s current weight. Frowning, he asked, “Have you come to your senses, Mister Bloomfield?”
“Y-Your Majesty? What in the world… is this…”
“You are under emergency detention in my court.”
“Emergency detention? On what grounds?”
“Espionage.”
“Espionage? Urgh!”
David tried to rise with an expression of utter disbelief. The motion only drove the halberd blades deeper into his shoulders, bringing him even greater pain. Richard looked down at him for a moment, then returned to the chair in the audience chamber. He sank deeply into it, crossed his legs, rested his elbow on the armrest, and propped his cheek on his hand. Still gazing down at David, he said, “The information you possess regarding my kingdom’s finances is something no one could know without spies.”
“I swear, Your Majesty! I have never planted a single spy in Your Majesty’s administration! I swear it! I am innocent!”
David cried out desperately. The insolent attitude he had displayed earlier had vanished completely now that halberd blades were buried in both his shoulders. He pleaded pitifully, but Richard merely gave a short, dry laugh.
“Swear? To whom? On what?”
“That… that is…”
David had no answer. The Jihan were a people incapable of swearing oaths. They were the ones who had sold the Savior for a handful of silver coins, the ones who had brought about the Savior’s death, and the ones who had to pay for that sin through all their generations. Naturally, they had no god to swear by, nor even souls to stake upon an oath. Any sensible human could not help but feel rage at such words. Even the royal guards, who had been carrying out their duty with perfect professionalism, showed emotion in their eyes.
“Gahk!”
When one of the guards pressed down harder on David’s shoulder, he screamed again and twisted violently. A sound like a viper’s hiss escaped his mouth. At the revolting noise the Jihan produced, the guards instinctively twisted the heads of their halberds with all their strength. As the sound of David Bloomfield’s shoulder bones tearing filled the air, Richard said, “If you resist, this detention will only grow longer and more painful, Mister Bloomfield.”
“I-I will not resist! No, yes! I will do whatever you command!”
Even in agony, David’s mind worked furiously. The words of a Jihan, who enjoyed no protection under the law, carried less weight than a single feather from a dotterel. For a Jihan pinned to the floor with blades in both shoulders before the king, the only path to escape pain was not promises or oaths, but obedient action.
Richard smiled with satisfaction. The Jihan pressed to the floor could not see his expression. He asked, “Very well. I cannot know whether your words are sincere. But let me ask you this. If you did not plant spies in my court, how do you know the kingdom’s finances with such precision?”
“I calculated it. My trading company and banks…”
Richard gestured to the guards. The pressure on David eased slightly, allowing him to speak with a little more ease.
“Thank you for your mercy, Your Majesty.”
He had nearly said, “May God bless you.” He barely regained control of his tongue and continued, “I maintain branches of my trading company and banks throughout Zylan, the Northern Sea, the Zylan Strait, and parts of Derim. The ledgers of those branches record local price information, tax payment records, and the uses of loans. That data is regularly sent to the head office in Milehaven, and each year it is processed under my supervision. Among the information produced by that processing is data concerning the finances of the Kingdom of Zylan.”
“Hah. And you expect me to believe that?”
“Of course! Of course! I can send someone into the city right now to bring the ledgers and data books! So please, withdraw these blades, Your Majesty! I beg you!”
“I do not understand.”
“I will explain so that you may understand! Anything at all!”
“I know you are a renowned merchant and great financier both in Zylan and across the continent, but you do not have branches in every single village in Zylan, do you? So how can you know such precise figures?”
“It is a very simple matter of statistics. To know the central government’s revenue, one does not need to know the tax paid by every household and shop. Every transaction leaves a trace. What happens in one place affects other cities. Thus the visible clues reveal information about the money that remains hidden. Even if one clue carries multiple possibilities, one can derive facts that do not contradict the other clues.”
It was a plausible explanation. Yet Richard could not believe that such work could be performed by humans or Jihan. David could not have failed to understand what his silence meant. He spoke urgently. And at that moment, the suspicion vanished from Richard’s eyes.
“Your Majesty does not, on the battlefield, learn the armament, stamina, and courage of every single allied and enemy soldier and officer one by one and then add or subtract them, do you?”