Alexander went to sleep not long after Grace left.
He did not return to his chambers instead; he walked around the garden and chose a patch of ground under the shade of the trees.
He laid down there without ceremony because he knew tonight would be long and tomorrow would most likely be even longer.
***
While Alexander slept, the Reus estate was anything but quiet.
The four ministers worked deep into the night, personally overseeing the seizure and cataloguing of the family's wealth.
Normally, this kind of task would be handed off to subordinates, however today, none of them dared do so.
The Imperial Treasurer moved from vault to vault, personally inspecting each storeroom workers.
He watched his slaves work, they weighed gold carefully and sealed in crates to be taken back.
Same was done with mana crystals.
Large trade families like the Reus rarely stored wealth in Vale coin which was very understandable.
The Vale currency was unstable, while the public still used it, no rich person keeps their savings in it.
The reason? Vale coins were not pure precious metal.
A Gold Vale contained only half gold; the rest mixed with cheaper alloys.
A Silver Vale was worse with 90% copper and only 10% silver and it didn't use to be like that.
The coins used to be pure gold and silver but over the last few emperors the emperors had to devalue it.
Now 500 Silver Vale equals 1 Gold Vale which equalled 50 Pure silver coins.
The Treasurer paused as he flipped through another file.
Some of the Reus family's wealth was stored elsewhere.
First Legacy Bank.
He frowned. "How am I supposed to get this money out of those bastards…" he muttered.
The bank had a habit of calling imperial deposits "debt adjustments." More than once, imperial funds had vanished under layers of contracts and excuses.
"They haven't even paid us our profit share in years," he sighed.
First Legacy Bank was created long ago by merchant city-states and trade group.
The reason was simple.
Merchants could not safely travel with massive sums of coin, bandits were a threat, but so were hired escorts.
Too much gold tempted everyone, and the solution was to store wealth at one branch and withdraw it at their destination for a fee.
Goods on the other hand were a lot safer, they were harder to steal, harder to transport and even harder to sell, even if one knew the right people.
So, it worked… in exchange for setting up this bank branches in states like the Valekar Empire, a certain percentage of the profits, ranging from 10% all the way to 51%.
Valekar Empire's share was 30%.
One of the ways First Legacy Bank made its profit was simple, they borrowed money to large institutions especially states like the Valekar Empires included.
The Valekar Empire had borrowed from them years ago, back when the treasury was strained and few options remained. Since then, the terms had grown… aggressive.
Any imperial funds that somehow passed through First Legacy's hands were automatically seized and counted toward repayment without discussion or delay.
At first, it had been tolerable now, it is just absurd.
The Imperial Treasurer knew it but for now, there was nothing he could do.
He was still turning that thought over when a sharp voice broke the silence.
"By the Sun…" The Minister of Trade was frozen in place, staring at a document in his hands.
"What is it?" the Minister of Magical Resources asked, stepping closer.
Without waiting, he pulled the scroll from his grip and skimmed the contents.
His eyes widened.
"What?" the Minister of Imperial Businesses demanded.
"Earl Campbell is finished," the Minister of Magical Resources said quietly, handing the scroll to her.
She read only a few lines before letting out a slow breath.
"Oh… I see. Yeah. He's done."
A colder voice spoke from behind them.
"What is that?"
All four ministers turned sharply.
Vice-Captain Hannibal stood in the doorway, hands on his sword.
"Vice-Captain," the Minister of Trade said quickly, recovering himself. "I was just about to send for you. You'll want to see this."
He passed the documents over.
Hannibal glanced at him, then lowered his eyes to the scrolls.
The longer he read, the deeper his smile became.
After several minutes, he rolled the documents shut and looked at the four of them.
"It is late," he said calmly. "Each of you will be assigned a courtyard room. For your safety, twenty guards will be stationed nearby."
No one argued.
"Tomorrow morning, the seized wealth will be transported to the palace," Hannibal continued. "Until then, none of your attendants or slaves are permitted to leave the estate… for safety reasons."
He turned the scrolls once in his hand.
"I will be taking these documents for review and sending it to the palace. I trust you will cooperate."
The Imperial Treasurer nodded first.
"At this hour, returning to the capital would be pointless," he said. "I still have work to finish anyway."
The Minister of Trade sighed. "Agreed. I'd rather continue to verify the ledgers myself than leave it to chance."
The Minister of Imperial Businesses gave a small nod. "We're already here, we might as well see this through properly this night."
They all knew what it was… detainment so they couldn't warn Earl Campbell.
But since none of them objected, the Minister of Magical Resources kept his mouth shut too.