The Lion's Castle (The Lion Princes Book 1) by Chase Leslie

Author:Chase, Leslie [Chase, Leslie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-09-14T07:00:00+00:00

* * *

Roman sat in his banker's office and sighed. It was, like everything else in this damned country, something out of a history book. That wasn't quite fair; unlike the offices in the castle, at least here there were computers, even if they looked like they were a decade or two old. The bank had kept a little more up to date than the royal household, it seemed. He supposed it really had to. In the modern age, a bank that didn't use computers would hardly function at all.

The banker himself was keen to help in any way possible, so keen as to be annoying, in fact. He couldn't seem to cope with the fact that a royal prince was really in his office, and ten minutes into the meeting Roman had started to think that the man wanted to pinch himself to check if he was dreaming.

Looking up at the inevitable black-edged portrait of his grandfather that was prominently displayed on the wall, he wondered how the old man had put up with this kind of treatment.

Maybe you actually liked it, granddad? You were raised to find this kind of thing normal. The painting didn't give any answers, just glowering down at him.

Of course, these days there were still plenty of countries with kings, but a lot fewer where the king actually ruled. The old man had hung onto power and the old ways.

"Of course, Your Highness's full fortune is at your disposal, ah, Your Highness," Mr. Hargraf was saying. It almost seemed that he was playing a game, trying to fit Roman's title into the conversation as much as possible. "However, state funds won't be available to you until the succession is finalized, I'm afraid. Your Highness must understand that—"

"Yes, yes," Roman interrupted, leaning forward. "I don't need access to those now. What I need is an idea of how much money there is, so that my brothers and I can plan for the future. There's a lot of work that needs to be done, and we can't plan for it if we don't know how much money the country has available."

It wasn't the first time that he cursed the setup of the family funds. In any modern nation this wouldn't be a matter of inheritance, there'd be a government department that dealt with it instead. But the government of Leotania was the King, and there were few distinctions between the state's funds and the royal family's.

The various parts of the bureaucracy did have their own reserves, enough that people would keep being paid in the time it took to install a new king, but starting any new projects or funding anything big would be impossible.

"Ah, that is a difficulty, Your Highness," Hargraf said, loosening his collar and leaning back. "I'm afraid that such questions can only be answered with the authority of the crown. I said as much to your family's earlier messenger, and I am sorry to say that I must give Your Highness the same answer I gave him.

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