Chapter 84. Miller’s Plan

The Viscount’s Bedroom, Ironwood Castle

“So you were actually able to convince Lady Frederica to strike a deal?” Miller asked. He was laying upright, propped against the bedframe, as he casually tossed a card onto the pile resting on the bedside table.

“It isn’t exactly a smooth deal. If the Holy Civil War doesn't break out by the end of the year as predicted, she won't be cooperative,” Francesca smiled, sitting in a plush chair pulled right up to his bedside. She picked up a fresh card from the deck on the table. “But at the very least, she will try to keep the rest of the Council in check for now.”

“Lord Edward and his immediate supporters must not have budged from their position on the matter, then,” Miller replied, drawing another card. “He isn’t really the type to change his mind easily, and he holds quite a bit of personal resentment toward me.”

“Yeah... I wasn’t even able to get a proper conversation with him,” Francesca admitted. She threw two matching cards onto the pile with a confident, smug look on her face. “I am about to win, so you better focus, Miller.”

Miller chuckled, drawing a card from the deck before immediately laying down two of his own. “Don’t be so overconfident.”

He shifted slightly, minding his injured back, and asked, “What about the cable cart test? I really wanted to be there to see it myself.”

Francesca nodded with an excited, bright smile. “It was a resounding success! With Lady Frederica no longer being openly hostile and keeping half of the Council off our backs, we should be able to begin construction on the real transport line as early as tomorrow.”

“Show! I win,” Miller suddenly declared with a triumphant laugh, dropping his last two cards onto the pile. “That’s fantastic news. We need to solve the territorial goods transportation problem as soon as possible.”

Francesca sat stunned by the sudden loss. Pouting, she started gathering up the cards to shuffle them all over again. “True... even if we can’t magically fix the trade embargo inflation on imported goods, the cable carts are the second best thing.”

As she began dealing the cards for a new round, she looked up at him. “What about that thing you were going to do? You said you figured out a financial plan revolving around the civil war.” She passed him his starting hand.

Miller smiled. Taking his cards, he fanned them out and asked, “You know why the Third Prince has been trapped in the Imperial Palace all this time, right? And why we have to constantly send our own Ironwood Mercenaries to the Capital to guard him?”

Francesca nodded, picking up her own hand to arrange her cards. “Marriage, isn’t it? Didn’t His Imperial Majesty announce that he would be finding the Prince suitable matches? It was a deliberate ploy to tie him to the Capital right after you returned from the war... It was just the Emperor's way to isolate him, right?”

“Exactly,” Miller confirmed, looking down at his cards as he planned his next move. “After we returned victorious from the Jin Kingdom war, His Majesty abruptly bestowed the Ironwood Viscount title upon me and sent me up here to the North. Simultaneously, he started aggressive matchmaking for the Third Prince to forcefully separate us.”

Miller threw two cards onto the table, adding, “It was orchestrated so the opposing Imperial Prince factions could keep the Third Prince monitored and prevent him from gaining any real political or military power. We keep a rotating unit of Ironwood Mercenaries down there to guard him, we simply cannot trust the Imperial Knights with his life.”

“Hmm...” Francesca murmured thoughtfully, drawing a card from the deck. She looked up at him, her golden eyes filled with curiosity. “So what is the correlation with the impending Holy Civil War here?”

“The Third Prince didn't get to attend our wedding, remember?” Miller smirked, casually drawing another card. “We can use that as the perfect excuse to make him visit us here in the North right before the Holy Civil War officially begins. Once the religious war breaks out across the southern and central regions, we can easily keep him here under the pretext of safety. We could claim it is far too dangerous for Imperial Royalty to travel through war torn territories, right?”

Francesca’s eyes widened as the brilliant, hidden layers of Miller’s master plan finally clicked into place. “The war will rage on for nearly two years... You can keep His Highness safely out of the Capital’s clutches for two whole years! That gives the Third Prince’s faction the freedom and time to actually focus on consolidating their power in the North!”

Miller chuckled warmly. Reaching out, he playfully booped Francesca’s nose. He winced slightly as the stretch pulled at his sore back, but his smirk remained.

“You are forgetting one other massive advantage in this, Francesca. Every Imperial Prince receives a royal allowance from the treasury... His Highness couldn’t support our territory financially before because his ledgers were being strictly monitored while he lived in the Capital. But...”

Miller placed his final two cards down on the table with a sharp snap and proudly announced, “Show!”

Francesca pouted again, letting out a defeated sigh. “How did you win again so fast...?”

She looked at the cards, then back up at him as the sheer financial scale of his plan hit her. “Wait... so we can use his royal allowance directly because the Imperial funds will be disbursed up here in the North while he is living with us! His royal stipend is more than enough to solve our financial deficit, keeping everyone easily fed during the winter despite the trade embargo and inflation prices!”