Chapter 418: Cat Fight V (2/2)

Adela's brow raised slightly upon hearing this suggestion as she glared at her sister in disbelief. She immediately asked for clarification as to what Ava was suggesting.

”Are you suggesting that I use my authority as High Queen to usurp a private business which has been granted the power to operate within the Kingdom of Austria by the Royal Crown itself, solely for your husband's benefit?

If I were to do such a thing, I would be committing multiple crimes under the Anti-Corruption laws that are in place. Not only would you and I be punished severely for such actions, but the prestige of the Austrian Crown would be forever diminished in the eyes of the people!

You don't understand how things work nowadays, do you? The Nobility no longer can take whatever they please from the common people. There are punishments that can be applied to all members of society, including the Royal Family, for engaging in such corrupt behavior. No, Ava, I will not give you land, even as though you are a member of my family.

Suppose you and your husband want a business to run. In that case, you will have to build it from the ground up like everyone else; you will have to purchase or rent the land from whoever owns it, build the factory, pay your employees a decent wage, and have a product of high enough quality that people wish to purchase it with their funds. You will also have to pay the necessary taxes to the Royal Treasury that apply.

If you and your dullard of a husband can figure out how to achieve all of this, then maybe, just maybe, I can give you a loan from the Crown with a fair interest rate. However, until such a presentation can be made, I will not assist you.”

After saying this, Adela reached into her purse and pulled out a few silver thalers that acted as the price to pay for the meal they had shared and as the tip to the server. After doing so, she leaned in and whispered something to Ava.

”It is funny, isn't it? In your youth, you wanted nothing to do with Berengar and even broke your betrothal because you believed he was worthless. Now he is the King of Austria, and I am his Queen; I guess your loss is my gain!”

After saying this, the young Queen of Austria departed from the Cafe and returned to the protection of her guards, where they proceeded to ride in the Carriage back to the Royal Palace. Ava was left stunned in the Cafe by her lonesome; she had no idea how Adela had found out about her previous engagement to Berengar so many years ago.

However, Adela was wrong about one thing; Ava did not break her betrothal with Berengar because she thought he was worthless; instead, she did so out of fear that he would die before they could get married. In her childhood, she deeply cared for Berengar; in fact, he was her first crush. However, when he became sickly, she did not have the emotional strength to stick by him and thus ran away from her responsibilities.

This misunderstanding between the two siblings was because they were separated in age by nearly a decade. The engagement with Berengar was broken up long before Adela was old enough to understand what such a thing was. If Adela knew that even now, Ava still had some feelings for her Berengar, then the young Queen would have been far more ruthless in how she dealt with her sister's request.

Eventually, Ava sipped on her tea before sighing in silence. Even though she deeply regretted her past actions, she had no way to change the outcome. As such, she could either do as Adela had advised and begin the arduous process of building a business from scratch or continue to mooch off her parents for the rest of her life.

After careful internal debate, Ava sighed before taking a sip from the tea in front of her once more; since her husband was all but useless, she would have to rely entirely upon herself. After all, she was reasonably clever; how hard could it be to start a business? If only she knew the difficulties, she would face in the long path set before her.

---

If you want to support me so that I can commission art of the characters in my novel, as well as maps, coat of arms, and other vital illustrations, please visit my Patreon page at

All of the art will be released within my discord server for free.