After reassuring Joseph, Felix and his companions arrived at the lightly guarded Stormwind Keep. After King Varian led a large army off to war, Grand Duke Bolvar, the leader of the Council of Nobles and the Hand of the King, had become its temporary master.
However, out of respect for the king, this regent did not sit on the throne to hear his subjects' petitions as other regents did.
"Come in."
After undergoing a search, Felix, VanCleef, and Baros were allowed into the throne room, where Bolvar Fordragon stood before the throne, watching them with a calm expression.
"Mr. VanCleef," Bolvar said, bowing to him, though the authority in his gaze remained undiminished. "On behalf of the kingdom, I thank you and your fellow workers for your tremendous contributions to the kingdom's construction."
The regent's imposing presence clearly left both the leader and deputy leader of the Stonemasons' Guild somewhat intimidated. Felix glanced at them, stepped forward, and stared at the paladin before him, asking without preamble:
"Grand Duke Bolvar Fordragon, may I ask why we aren't getting paid again this month?"
Bolvar asked in surprise, "What? Isn't the council's accountant responsible for paying wages? What good does coming to me do?"
Felix calmly stared into Bolvar's eyes.
As a servant of the Holy Light, Bolvar had a look in his eyes entirely unlike Duke Wishock's mocking amusement or Earl Ridgewell's domineering arrogance. His was one of pure, utter surprise.
This naive, ignorant paladin probably genuinely did not know what had happened.
"But the Council of Nobles approves this funding," VanCleef said. "And the Council of Nobles has never allocated a single payment to our Stonemasons' Guild."
"Grand Duke Bolvar, I believe I have a duty to remind you," Felix said, "that you are the leader of the Council of Nobles. Every disbursement requires your signature of approval before it can take effect. We haven't received any money, which can only mean one thing: you refused to pay our wages."
Bolvar turned pale with shock.
In fact, he had not taken part in the Council of Nobles' discussions for quite some time.
Ever since the shrewd and capable Katrana Count Prestor arrived in Stormwind City from Alterac, she had kept all manner of complicated, troublesome affairs in perfect order, saving Bolvar and Varian a great deal of effort. Nor had anything gone wrong in the country.
Rather than being a king and a regent, Varian and Bolvar preferred being a warrior and a paladin.
For that very reason, they had gradually entrusted more and more matters to this trustworthy countess. Although Reginald Marshal Windsor had expressed some concern that the king and regent duke might thereby be stripped of their power, that was merely this brawny soldier worrying over nothing.
Bolvar knew perfectly well that a noblewoman from Alterac had neither deep roots nor any claim or legitimacy. She could not possibly strip King Varian of his power.
That was precisely why he and Varian had felt comfortable allowing this beautiful lady to handle more affairs.
What the fuck was going on? Bolvar struggled to recall. It did seem that someone had reported to him about strained state funding and a fiscal crisis, requesting cuts to some "unimportant" funding programs and approval for some measures that could "revitalize" the economy.
And Countess Katrana had been visiting his residence at the time.
Bolvar remembered that part very clearly-Lady Katrana had been wearing a beautiful, elaborate lace gown, through which he could faintly make out a piece of lethally seductive black leather lingerie...
Katrana's perfect body was like a fully ripened peach, made even more perfect by the black lingerie, and that gauzy gown could not conceal her exposed charms at all-
Damn it! Bolvar cursed inwardly. I'm discussing serious business with the guild's representatives. What the fuck am I thinking about!
Yes, that was what had actually happened at the time. May the Holy Light forgive Bolvar's soul-Lady Katrana had cast a mental charm on Bolvar, after which her every frown and smile left him dazed, distracted, and floating in ecstasy. As a result, he had signed his name on those documents without even looking at them, then tangled himself up with the beautiful Lady Katrana.
Afterward, Bolvar had forgotten all about the official documents and everything else.
After all, Andrea Fordragon, the priestess from Lordaeron, was not in Stormwind City. How could he let those damned documents spoil Grand Duke Bolvar's good mood-or his sexual appetite?
Poor Andrea was still in Southshore, studying the Holy Light, treating the sick and saving lives, and raising her daughter, utterly unaware of what her husband had been getting up to.
Bolvar's face flushed with shame. He absolutely could not let anyone learn that certain sanctimonious paladins also harbored sordid thoughts and did things in private that could never see the light of day.
"I may remember now," Bolvar said, doing his utmost to suppress the strange thoughts within him. "Please wait a moment."
The regent left the three men and the guards in the throne room, then hurried to the council chamber himself and painstakingly searched through the mountain of document copies.
At last, he found a relevant document-"Several Solutions to the Kingdom's Financial Difficulties"-and began reading it carefully.
The lettering in this official document was extremely conspicuous, and precisely because of that, it gave Bolvar an even greater fright.
The first "cost-saving" measure in this document was to reduce central funding for local garrisons.
For example, Stormwind City's treasury had previously covered eighty percent of the Redridge Mountains garrison's military expenses, while Lakeshire had only needed to cover twenty percent. However, under the provisions of this parchment document, the Kingdom of Stormwind would only need to cover fifty percent. That meant the remaining half would have to be raised by Mayor Solomon, the local administrator of the Redridge Mountains, making Lakeshire's military expenditure 2.5 times what it had been!
Furthermore, the treasury had previously been directly responsible for the supplies and wages of Kurzen's Expedition in Booty Bay. But according to this document, the Kingdom of Stormwind would no longer cover their shortfalls. Instead, it authorized Colonel Kurzen to raise military pay himself and make up supply shortages on his own.
This was undoubtedly an enormous grant of authority.
The document's fourth "cost-saving" measure was to suspend all wage payments to the Stonemasons' Guild, which had led to Edwin VanCleef appearing before him.
On the fourth page, the Kingdom of Stormwind even issued a call to garrison commanders and administrative officials throughout the country, demanding that they take active measures to raise more funds, cut expenditure, and help the kingdom through its difficulties.
At this point, Bolvar Fordragon felt a slight chill at his neck. He gathered his scattered thoughts, forced himself to calm down, and continued reading.
But when he turned to the sixth page, Bolvar even felt an urge to flee from this place.
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