Family Business Interlude: Jarvan III (Patreon)

Family Business
Interlude:  Jarvan III

-VB-

986 AN

The Royal Palace
The Great City of Demacia

He did not expect Count Jorasmang-Crownguard to be able to sway both the court and the public in such a quick manner. For a boy who has yet to reach his majority, this was an astonishing feat, especially for someone known for his eccentricity and lack of court life.

“Perhaps I’ve underestimated him,” Jarvan III spoke quietly in his personal office with only his son, the High Marshal, and a few others in his inner circle.

The High Marshal, on the other hand, looked constipated.

“I apologize for my nephew, your majesty. None of us in the family expected the twins to have been meddling in magic of all things…” she apologized again for the fifth time since the rather public reveal of Jorasmang’s pro-magic views.

Jarvan III snorted. “I expect that’s not what the majority of my more frisky nobles are thinking right now. The dear count has given them the go ahead to visit many brothels as their wallets - and stamina - could take.”

His son blushed. “Why allow it if the nobles would be led astray, father?” he asked.

“Because if I prevented the cure of syphilis to be spread, then there was a great chance that the nobles - and the wealthy merchants - would become disloyal. After all, what happens if a king does not tend to the needs of his subjects?”

“He is not worthy of being a king.”

He nodded. “Exactly, son, and the disease is one such thing that affects the nobles disproportionately.” He turned to his Minister of Coin. “What is the actual impact of the count’s healers?”

“It has significantly reduced the crown’s expenditure in that field,” Baron Beram Almins replied. “It costs money to have the sickly taken care of in the hospital and the clinics, and with the healers having cleared out most places of patients who could be healed by their magicks, the crown has spent less gold coins in the past week. The orderly procession and taxation of the commoners for healing has always increased revenue, though not by much as your majesty has taken the advice of the count in not taxing the poorer commoners and taxing the average commoner very little.”

Jarvan III still remembered the words of the count, wise beyond their years to the point of being suspicious. “The poor stay poor because of a lack of opportunity to move upward,” the count had said. “While Demacia does not provide opportunities like Noxus does, it provides safer routes of social mobility that does not risk one’s life. The poor, however, cannot take advantage of this due to two reasons: education and health. Due to the paid education system in place, the poor simply cannot learn and gain skills, which reduces their productivity. And because they are poor, they cannot pay for medicine when they are sick, and if the breadwinner of the family dies from disease, their family plunges deeper into poverty, which repeats the cycle of lack of opportunity and death by disease.”

While the count’s words were something Jarvan had thought about, he hadn’t had the time nor the opportunity to fix the issue. The way the count came in with some solutions had only allowed Jarvan III to do what he’d sought to do for years.

Because the way the nobles and the commoners alike were enamored by the count, the court’s usual efforts to stymie his previous attempts at raising the poor out of poverty were no longer there… at least temporarily.

No noble was going to object to the count’s requests when they still had to get their syphilis healed. Even those who weren’t affected by the disease held their tongue because they had relatives or allies who did.

“Why has magic not been used before if they are this beneficial?” his son asked. “Why didn’t anyone know that magic was this beneficial?” Though he had been raised on the best Demacia education the kingdom had to offer, it also somewhat limited his perspective.

“It’s because of what magic can do down the line, your highness,” the high marshal answered for him. “And also, unfortunately, most magic that our people have encountered have been used for war or for other sinister purposes. The prison break that led to the count coming here with his secret magic healers is one such event.”

His son grimaced.

Jarvan III knew that his son had been enraged at magic and magicians for the damage the city had suffered at their hands, and had been one of his inner circle members to advise against allowing the count to continue the use of his magic.

Fortunately, he relented after seeing so many citizens became fit and better after they were healed.

“His ‘Blackguard’ makes me uncomfortable, however,” the high marshal said warily. “Marris spoke of them as being highly competent, which speaks a lot considering that he used to lambast every single bureaucrat except a select few who were competent back when he was the treasurer for the family.”

Where did they go from here? The count convinced people because it was all within one city and with effects very easily seen and felt. The same couldn’t be said for the more than half of the kingdom, where the majority of the Mageseekers operated and anti-magic factions held great sway. While his son was an ardent supporter of these factions, Jarvan III knew better.

Regardless, the kingdom was long overdue for a change.

What could he do to prevent that?

Because this? This was an opportunity for Demacia to finally take the offensive against Noxus after centuries of defence.