In the mid morning sun through the open window, Fosi reclined on the couch in the study of the demon king with a plate of various sweets within easy reach. She yawned and stretched out, her hips still aching from the last few days' activities along with her jaw, and everything else. Yet, she was more content than she had been in a long time.
At the room's massive desk, the boar demon princess Suvir was working on Fosi's responsibilities, really the high king's, as a proxy of a proxy. Fosi couldn't very well tell the girl that she herself was the transformed demon king, but it didn't exactly come up. The tap and scratch of Suvir's pen was soothing in its regularity, along with Suvir's little sighs and grumbles, especially those before a question.
"This one wants a thousand gold coins for a foundry, promising we'll receive a twenty percent discount on its product," Suvir said to the room.
Fosi grabbed a cookie. "Reject it," she said, and snapped her treat in half on a fang. The crumbly ones were the best, and this one dissolved into sugary crumbs readily on her tongue.
On the desk, Suvir folded her arms and held her throbbing head. "Isn't all of this the kind of thing that should be put off to advisors and accountants? I don't understand why Avlakoi of all people wants these pitiful sums to come through him alone, and then end up rejecting almost all of them in any case!"
"Your father has his barons, doesn't he?" Fosi peeked, the stack of papers that she'd thought would take all day were already halfway done since Suvir had taken on the role of secretary. The girl's penmanship put Fosi's own to shame, but that was, after all, no great feat. "So, think it through."
"Of course that man has the baronies to take care of piddly things like taxation and disbursements. But that's the way everyone does it. No lord should be so involved in the day to day decisions at this level. How does your father get anything else done!?"
Fosi searched the memories of Avlakoi within herself for an answer.
I didn't, mostly.
She said, instead, "I invite you to think about the amount of power that gives the barons, and how your father came into power."
The girl's thoughtful pout was adorable. "Power? It's taxes, they all flow to the king... Even if the high demon lord has claimed such a tiny territory for himself at this time, with so few sources of revenue, he really should entrust these matters to his accountants, rather than just you, lady Fosi."
"All of those monies and goods make their way to the vassal king? They aren't kept in any way to fund the armies of the barons? The actual coins trade hands? Or is it more likely that promissory notes find themselves passed from one nobleman to the next with paltry sums physically moving?"
Suvir was rubbing her forehead with her fingers. This had likely been the most thinking work she'd ever done in one day, but she'd insisted on it while Fosi was laid up. "... I haven't looked at it that closely... I guess you wouldn't want to just be carrying chests full of gold back and forth all the time."
"Forget gold." Fosi smiled.
"Forget gold!?"
Fosi had another cookie, gestured with it in the air before eating. "Which is more important, gold or wheat?"
"Is this a trick question?" Suvir narrowed her eyes.
Cute~
"Yes," Fosi said through her latest mouthful.
"Wheat."
"Why?"
The princess shrugged. "Because it's a trick question."
Fosi rose to shaky feet and bade Suvir remain sitting when the princess started up to help her, came to kneel at Suvir's side. "Past demon kings were truly examples of the race, amassing hoards of gold, precious jewels, magical artifacts and secrets, and on more than one occasion, wives." From one of the desk's drawers, Fosi fished up a gold coin, set it on the papers along with a cookie. "Barons, governors, and mayors of the day were instructed that anything of any value in truth belonged to the great demon king, from the best of their flock, their whitest flour, their most comely daughters, and he would take them as he pleased. So tell me, Suvir, about what this expectation does to the farmer and the shepherd on the bottom of that pyramid."
"Who cares what a farmer thinks about affairs of state?" Suvir said with a tilted head.
"I'm sure that's what your father thinks." Fosi sighed, immediately sorry that she'd had to insult her new companion by the comparison. By her side, Suvir had a small tusk out with contained affront.
Cute.
"Put your mind in the place of a farmer, contain your revulsion lest I start a garden on site and ask for your help with tending it. Now, you've put your heart into the cultivation of the harsh soil of the demon lands and, at the end of the year, your harvest makes those around it pale in comparison. Your fruits are splendidly-colored and juicy, your wheat is refined to the finest flour, your animals are fat and happy. Then the demon king, recommended to your lands by the local lord, comes and demands a feast for himself and his retainers, and any other noble in attendance. He loves your produce so much that he takes it all, leaving you with barely the funds to replace the fine flour and fruit in your own diet with barley."
"Ugh."
"How much do you plant next year?"
Suvir grumbled. "Okay, okay, only enough to eat, and pay taxes..."
Fosi gestured to the gold piece and the cookie, petted the girl's head. "Have a snack, you deserve it." She returned to the couch and had a few more herself. Actually, the dry ones with the gummy jam were really nice as well, and the chewy, bitter green ones had their own charm. "Previous demon lords, my father believes, did not understand the power of their subjects' sense of industry. He wants most of those petitions rejected so that the cream may rise to the top by its own efforts, not by the benevolence of not even the demon lord himself, but of his underlings, who would almost certainly taint the process with favoritism, nepotism, extortion, embezzlement. Avlakoi is weak, he doesn't extract the taxes that he easily could, but his farmers are wealthy and their stockpiles can weather the lean times ahead."
"Huh... Then why allow petitions in the first place?"
"Look at the ones we've accepted, and the men behind them." Avlakoi's pride welled within Fosi's breast. "Notice the tone, that they approach me as equals, and attempt to gain as much from the deal as I will. Never trust a man who comes to you with a handful of gold and no strings; the strings are always there and it's better if you can see them. That foundry; suppose I order all of its stock. That twenty percent has to come from somewhere."
"I... see. I suppose... On another note, how are you feeling? Should I have Merrili get something for you. Or, would you like a massage?" Suvir came up from the desk and stepped over to kneel at Fosi's side, placed her soft hands awkwardly on Fosi's belly. It was funny, Fosi giggled at it, that somehow she'd learned more about sexuality after only a few weeks as a woman than Suvir knew from her whole life so far. "S-sorry, lady Fosi! Did that tickle?" Suvir startled, but did not stop touching her mistress.
