Faced with Winchester's discouraging words, Osvid merely fell silent and offered no rebuttal. Nor could he rebut them.
The experiences of the past few years had taught Osvid one thing: traditional spellcasters like him truly were unsuited to governing a nation... Osvid had finally realized just how naive he had been. He had dreamed of saving Athkatla, hoped to bridge the conflict between the city's two classes, wanted more ordinary citizens to share in the benefits of the city's development, and wished to make the city fairer.
At the time, Athkatla had already stood on the brink of civil war. The conflict between the noble merchants and ordinary citizens had reached an extreme. After the great tsunami, the entire city needed rebuilding, yet the noble merchants only wanted to secure greater profits to make up for their losses in the disaster. So they began ruthlessly exploiting the lower classes, making their lives even more unbearable.
Meanwhile, the commoners hoped those noble lords would open their eyes and look at their situation. They needed jobs. They needed bread.
The conflict between the two sides had not originally been irreconcilable. There had been no shortage of clever people in the old council, and they had hoped the government could stimulate the city's economy through various measures—for instance, by launching large-scale infrastructure projects so that more people could benefit. Don't think the people of Faerûn knew nothing about economics. Smart people existed everywhere.
Unfortunately, there were always a few bad apples to spoil the whole pot. A group of people with ulterior motives strongly supported the government's funding plan, but the ones who benefited were not the commoners—it was them. Their methods were nothing new, merely the usual corruption and bribery. Corrupt officials had played the same game throughout history.
In short, the