To an outside observer, the whole issue about hiring ships in Herald City might seem stupid.
If the problem could be solved with money, why not just take the hit, pay the money, and be done with it?
That, unfortunately, didn't take into account just how expensive this evacuation was going to be.
Optimistically, 2,500 people could be moved aboard the Sunchaser to Herald City, leaving some 3,500 refugees who would need to be evacuated by boat. That meant, at minimum, it would take 35 large merchant vessels to get everyone out of Redwood Town.
If essential supplies were added, such as food, weapons, and armour, then a conservative estimate of the number of ships Redwood Town would need to hire was 40.
Sasha, Charles, and Anna didn't know what the current market price for hiring ships in Herald City was, but they were sure it wouldn't be less than 500 Gold per day.
Even if it was 1,500 Gold per day, it wouldn't surprise them.
Being generous and saying it was an even 1,000 Gold Coins per ship per day, that still meant having to somehow come up with 40,000 Gold in order for this evacuation to even be possible.
Simply put, there was absolutely no way they Charles, or even the entire Newton Barony could come up with so much money.
In fact, there was only 1 person in this room who could take out such a large sum all at once, Celestina Balfour.
Everyone knew this, but considering everything the Balfour Marquess had already done for Redwood Town, Charles and Sasha both felt incredibly embarrassed asking her to do even more.
So far, Celestina had been assisting Redwood Town free of charge because it was her duty to defend the kingdom, but she had also been going far above and beyond what those duties required of her.
As a noble and General of the Rockwell Kingdom, Celestina's only responsibility was to defend the integrity of the nation's borders. Saving the lives of farmers and labourers from small countryside towns and villages was by no means something she was obligated to do.
The General would be well within her rights to say that defending Redwood Town wasn't worth the cost and to simply fall back to the far more defensible Herald City with just her own subordinates.
As for the inhabitants of Redwood Town; well, whether they lived or died didn't make much difference to the Rockwell Kingdom as a whole.
If some could flee on foot or on horse, good for them, if not, the kingdom would probably not even notice their absence.
There were a number of reasons Celestina didn't take such a ruthless approach, despite it possibly being the better one from a purely strategic perspective.
Redwood Town was the home of her granddaughter and her two Disciples, so she felt some obligation to save it. There was also Celestina's sense of patriotism and her general care for the citizens of the kingdom; however, just because she wasn't counting every Copper she spent here, didn't mean she wasn't still spending them.
The cost to operate the Sunchaser alone during this incident was probably going to exceed 300,000 Gold, which was several times more than the Newton Barony's entirety net worth.
Then, there was the cost of deploying dozens of her elite soldiers, the cost of food, the cost of supplies, the cost of equipment, and so on and so forth…
Of course, some of these expenses would be reimbursed by the Royal Court, and Celestina would be sure to wring as much compensation out of the miserly ministers as possible, but she also wouldn't be surprised if she was still left with a loss of over half-a-million Gold by the end of things.
The Balfour Family was massive and basically controlled an entire province of the Rockwell Kingdom, bringing in an enormous sum of money every year from various businesses and taxes; however, it's expenses were equally extraordinary.
In an average year, the Balfours tended to have a budget surplus of around 2 to 3 million Gold, so having to fork 15% to 20% of that amount for the citizens of another province with no hope of ever recouping that money was no small bit of charity.
Adding another 40,000 Gold to that already substantial bill wasn't going to bankrupt the Marquess, but it wasn't just a rounding error either, and who was to say if that would be the end of it?
As for Steward Warren, he was a merchant before all else, so he had to weigh the costs and benefits of all of his actions before taking them.
While Warren might be able to leverage his position in the Rising Sun Merchant Guild to help Redwood Town a bit, there was little to no immediate benefit to him doing so.
As for long-term benefits, those were never a certainty, especially in dangerous times like the ones they were currently experiencing.
Just offering to rent the Guild's ships to the town at standard cost was already a huge concession; there was no reason for Warren to stick his neck out more than that.
And so, the office fell quiet, with all the adults glancing around at each other awkwardly.
Finally, after a good minute of silence, Celestina let out a sigh. She knew what everyone wanted to say, and why they were reluctant to do so, but she also knew that in the end, the final decision would rest with her, but before she could speak up, a young voice suddenly cut her off, "Master!"
"Hm?" Turning her eyes towards her First Disciple, Celestina raised her brow, wondering what he wanted to say.
Having gotten Celestina's attention, Lucas said in a solemn tone, "I need a loan."
Everyone in the room gawked when they heard this, but it didn't take long before Sasha, Charles, and Anna quickly understood what Lucas was intending to do and hurriedly called out, "Wait! There's no need for you to do this, Lucas!"
Celestina, however, lifted her hand to silence the others as she seriously stared into the eyes of the young boy.
Meeting her gaze, Lucas didn't avert his eyes from his Master, silently expressing his determination.
Seeing this, Celestina didn't bother asking him if he was certain, or if he knew what he was doing, she simply nodded, "Very well. How much do you need, and what kind of terms are you willing to offer?"
Having already prepared a rough estimate in his head, Lucas immediately declared, "An allowance of 500,000 Gold at 5% interest a year."
"Done," Celestina agreed immediately, extending her hand to seal the deal.
Taking the outstretched hand, Lucas shook it without hesitation before turning to Steward Warren, "20 ships, each capable of ferrying 100 passengers, 4 days from now, for less than 50,000 Gold. Can you do it?"
Warren's jaw was hanging a little loose, clearly stunned by the discussion that had just taken place in front of him, but several bits and pieces of information he had collected over the past few months soon came together and he quickly composed himself, "I'll have the ships anchored at Sandy Cove 4 days from now for less than 40,000 Gold."
Cracking a small smile, Lucas nodded, "Redwood Town thanks you for your efforts, then, Steward Warren. We'll be sure to remember this favour in our future transactions with you."
Grinning as well, Warren stretched out his hand, "A pleasure doing business with you, as always, little mister inventor."
"I appreciate the compliment, Steward Warren, but I honestly have no idea what you're talking about," Lucas said innocently while shaking the older man's hand.
"Of course, of course, how silly of me," Warren nodded, playing along with the charade.
Warren had always wondered how Redwood Town had suddenly come up with so many strange ideas and products, and had discreetly been investigating the matter since the beginning of the year, but the information he got back only left him more and more confused.
From what he could tell, soap, sugar, hand-pumps, and several other innovations which had popped up in this rural town all traced back to the local blacksmith, or more specifically, his son.
However, the idea that a 10-year-old boy had come up with so many revolutionary ideas seemed impossible to Warren, so he had initially dismissed it as mere hearsay, thinking that the true origin of these products was someone in the Town Lord's Manor.
This idea was only reinforced over time as it was always the Town Lady, Sasha, who negotiated with him while Lucas seemed to be nothing more than her assistant.
Today, however, Lucas' intelligence and boldness had been on full display. Clearly, there was something different about this young boy, and Warren no longer doubted that he was the true source of all these innovations.
If it had been before, Warren would have tried to win Lucas over, using whatever means he had at his disposal, but knowing that the boy had recently become the First Disciple of Marquess Celestina Balfour, he wisely discarded any such notions and instead was determined to maintain as friendly a relationship with the young prodigy as possible.
Who knows, maybe this boy still has other lucrative ideas floating around in his head, Warren thought to himself, deciding to do his best to further lower the cost of hiring those evacuation ships in order to leave as good an impression as possible.
With the necessary funding secured, the meeting continued on, as there were still many details left to be ironed out.