"You should temporarily suppress your anger; it will only force the nobles to do something out of line," Queen Tiffin said helplessly. "Our country has just been reborn and cannot withstand major storms."
"Your Queen is right," Arthas said. "The nobles are united in not paying, and extreme actions will only lead to more serious consequences."
In fact, the Stonemasons Guild not receiving their due compensation was inextricably linked to Onyxia.
It was this Black Dragon princess who orchestrated things behind the scenes, making many nobles on her side refuse to pay for Stormwind's reconstruction.
Varian, naturally, would fall out with the nobles without their support. At that point, she only needed to slightly fan the flames to ignite conflict between the King, the nobles, and the common citizens represented by the Stonecutters.
If her scheme succeeded, Stormwind would immediately become precarious, as the mutual distrust and hatred between different classes would quickly escalate into a major upheaval affecting the entire Stormwind Kingdom.
Onyxia's series of overt and covert schemes left Varian almost helpless, with no idea how to break free.
Trouble the nobles? The kingdom was full of deeply entrenched noble families. Varian, as he was, had no chance of success if he tried to trouble them now. He would either bring disaster upon himself or end up in a lose-lose situation.
Trouble the Sonemasons Guild? Not to mention they deserved payment for rebuilding Stormwind, a significant portion of the Stonemasons Guild members were veterans retired from the Second Orcish Wars. Not paying them would be disheartening to all the common people.
Neither of these two groups was easy to provoke. Varian, as King, could only carefully mediate, but the overdue wages would have to be paid sooner or later. One day, the balance would be broken, and the entire kingdom could be overthrown.
This was the Countess's overt scheme, and the most crucial part of the entire plan.
Because Stormwind had no capital to repay the enormous compensation, and even owed foreign debts to many Human Kingdoms, Varian's treasury was already empty. He simply couldn't find the money to fill this terrifying void.
To break this stalemate, he had to wrest the balancing weight from Onyxia's hands, which meant finding someone who was as rich as a nation and willing to help Stormwind repay this huge sum.
Regrettably, in the entire Eastern Kingdoms, there were few humans with such wealth. Even if they had the money, why would they use it to help a dirt-poor kingdom?
"That's the situation. I truly have no solution."
The noble councils collectively decided to withhold wages. Although Varian and Tiffin strongly opposed it, their efforts had little effect.
There was nothing they could do; Stormwind was simply too poor now. All the wealth was in the hands of the nobles. Even if Varian emptied his own pockets, he couldn't come up with that many gold coins.
Arthas pondered for a moment, then asked, "How much does Stormwind still owe the Stonemasons Guild?"
"It's about a million gold coins."
This was indeed a huge sum. It should be noted that the annual tax revenue of Lordaeron, the wealthiest of the Human Kingdoms, was only around this figure. And an ordinary family's annual expenses would not exceed five gold coins.
Varian had already given up hope of repaying this debt, but Arthas's next words made him almost think he had misheard.
"Then, allow me to pay off all the compensation due to the Stonemasons Guild for you."
"How can that be?! Your Majesty Terenas won't agree! And I won't agree to you doing such a thing for me!" Varian still thought Arthas was going to use Lordaeron's treasury to repay his huge debt.
Queen Tiffin, standing by, also nodded. "Prince Arthas Arthas, thank you for your kindness, but we already owe Lordaeron too much."
Arthas immediately realized the couple had misunderstood. "Don't misunderstand, I'm not using Lordaeron's treasury, but my own money."
"Your own?!" Varian's mouth was wide enough to fit a Strider egg.
When did his brother become a super-rich magnate? A million gold coins, an entire kingdom's annual tax revenue, spoken so casually?
"You should have heard of the Black Gold Merchant Guild, right?"
"Of course, that's the largest merchant guild in the entire Eastern Kingdoms. It's said even the elves trade with them." Varian nodded without hesitation, then he seemed to understand something. "Wait, you're not trying to say you're behind this, are you?"
Arthas smiled and nodded. "That's right, the Black Gold Merchant Guild is actually a subordinate department of the Secret Intelligence Agency, responsible for providing financial support to the entire Secret Intelligence Agency."
Varian's expression could only be described as bewildered. He only knew Arthas was a Prince Arthas, but he didn't know he was also a merchant. "When did you learn commercial trade? Is Uncle Terenas supporting you from behind the scenes?"
"Not at all. My father hasn't been involved in the guild's operations, and in fact, I don't understand much either. I just barely manage to cover the living expenses of my subordinates."
Arthas might indeed know a lot of commercial knowledge that doesn't belong to this world, but he considered himself to have no business talent. When it came to trade expertise, he still had to find the professionals of this world—the Goblins.
So, shortly after the Secret Intelligence Agency was founded, Arthas sent people to "invite" a goblin tycoon back. Incidentally, he should be a former tycoon. All of this one's assets had been completely swindled by his arch-rivals. It was already clever of him not to have fallen into a massive debt he couldn't repay in a lifetime.
However, he was a lucky fellow. After receiving initial funding from Arthas and some 'modern' economic knowledge, this goblin is now devoted to the Prince Arthas, wishing he could grovel before Arthas to gain more ways to earn lovely gold coins.
The guild he managed had footprints across the entire continent. Even the continent of Kalimdor across the sea, which humans didn't know much about, had Black Gold Merchant Guild trading platforms. The goblin, who had risen again, even attained the highest title among his people—Trade Prince.
The Black Gold Merchant Guild was also called the Black Gold Conglomerate by the Goblins. The wealth it possessed could literally crush any Human Kingdom with money.
However, this behemoth appeared to have no relation to Lordaeron on the surface, but in reality, Arthas was the true mastermind behind the guild.
A million, for Prince Arthas, was not a particularly large number.
At most, it would make that money-loving goblin trade prince ache for ten or twenty years, but Arthas felt that money left unused was just a number, and lending this money was something he had considered carefully.
Varian, having received Arthas's affirmative reply, hesitated again. He wasn't sure if he deserved Arthas's aid. "My brother, Stormwind cannot repay you this million. I cannot accept."
"Don't worry, Varian, you are a wise monarch. You think for your people, and the citizens of Stormwind will support you. I trust my judgment, and I trust you."
Arthas took out two magic notes from his spatial pouch, one for a million gold coins and the other for five hundred thousand, and pushed them in front of Varian. "Take these. You can cash them at the Black Gold Merchant Guild's bank in Stormwind. The extra five hundred thousand is a gift for Anduin."
"But…"
"No buts, Varian. I'm not giving you this million for nothing. You can repay me later, and I also need your help with something, so you don't owe me anything."
After an intense internal struggle, Varian still accepted Arthas's checks. He solemnly promised Arthas, "Whatever you want me to help you with, I will do my utmost."
"Don't be so tense, Varian, but I need to meet the leader of the Stonemasons Guild first. Hmm… his name seems to be Edwin VanCleef?"
...
Vancleef was a little uneasy. He didn't know why the esteemed king had suddenly summoned him. Was it because he really didn't want to pay the wages? So he was summoning him to secretly dispose of him?
Although he still had a wife and a newborn daughter, when he thought of the difficult lives of the other Scarlet Crusade members in the guild, he didn't hesitate to put on his coat and hurried to the side hall of Stormwind Keep.
Stormwind's King, Varian, had been waiting there for a long time. The moment Vancleef entered the side hall, the Royal Guards closed the heavy door, and two guards, leaning on their halberds, stood guard at the entrance like statues.
The muffled sound seemed to strike Vancleef's heart. He couldn't help but let out a bitter laugh. Looking at the setup, he was probably in grave danger today. He just hoped Your Majesty wouldn't take his anger out on his wife and children.
However, he didn't intend to just sit there and wait for death. Vancleef decided that no matter what happened next, he had to explain the pros and cons to the young King. Even if he died, he would fight for the rightful interests of the Scarlet Crusade members and protect his beloved Stormwind.
"Edwin, I heard you worked for SI:7 for a period before becoming an engineer?" Varian's tone was neither hurried nor slow, making it impossible to discern what he was thinking.
Vancleef's heart sank. This was checking his background. Could it be that Your Majesty Wrynn had listened to slander and thought he was using his former spy experience to cause chaos in the kingdom?
"Your Majesty, I did work for SI:7 before, but now I am just an ordinary engineer."
"Ordinary, you are not ordinary at all. Can an ordinary engineer build Stormwind so well? Your ability is not ordinary!"
Vancleef, knowing he was in grave danger, remained silent, thinking about how to answer Varian's words next.
"Come closer, Edwin, don't be so reserved. Come sit next to me." Varian patted an empty seat beside him.
Vancleef looked at the longsword leaning against the armrest of Varian's chair, wondering if he would be cut down by Varian's sword if he went over. But he dared not disobey the King's command and could only obediently walk over and sit down.
"Actually, it's not me who wanted to see you today, but someone else. I'm just chatting with you incidentally."
Your Majesty wouldn't be about to send me to meet the deceased former King, would he? Vancleef shuddered, thinking he might be cut down before he could finish his words.
"Come, you all have been wronged these past few months." Varian reached out and picked up something.
Vancleef immediately rose and knelt on one knee before Varian, speaking in the fastest possible tone, "Your Majesty can kill me, but you must think about the other members of the Stonemasons Guild! They represent the common people of Stormwind. They abandoned their farmlands to come and rebuild Stormwind. Without wages, many of them, entire families, will starve to death!"
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