The Greatest Sin [Progression Fantasy][Kingdom Building]
Chapter 359 – Into the Wolfden

Whether Malam or whether Helenna are more skilled in diplomacy is a question that does get thrown around whenever the Goddess of Love isn’t around to listen in. People’s opinions change and largely the answer depends on whether Helenna has been particularly annoying in the past week. If she has, then it is Malam who is undoubtedly better, whether if she has been helpful or if she is needed, then of course Helenna is the go-to choice for rhetorician.

If I were Maisara or Elassa, then I would have the need to categorize and sort everything and everyone. However I am neither of those Goddesses so I can approach this honestly, and as stated, the answer really depends on recent amicability. That is the real decider in the Pantheon, however generally I prefer Helenna, as annoying as she can be, because Helenna knows how to couch her words in positive rhetoric. Malam, from the few times I have met her in the past, has the same domineering streak that all Divines do, however Malam does not hide hers. In fact, I would say that Malam purposefully plays into the character she gives off.

Whereas this sounds as if I am bemoaning Helenna, I am not. Helenna is infinitely more pleasant to be around than Malam. Malam simply wears her dishonesty on her sleeve and then ponders why people do not want to spend time around her.

- Excerpt from Goddess Allasaria’s, Of Light’s, private diary.

Helenna kicked her feet up and brought her laptop onto her stomach. The Goddess of Love lay on a reclined seat in nothing but her shirt and curling locks of hair, they were a concentrated business black right now. She was in a grand Lubskan hotel in the mountains. It was a tremendous structure, with pools and hot-tubs and views that one could never get tired of. A single road led up to it and in the distance, villages lit up the fields and mountainsides. Helenna had taken the penthouse, with her own bathroom and balcony and pool and drinks and a whole staff of servants at her disposal. The place had basically been remodelled for her and all the other Divines, because Olonia had decided she needed somewhere impressive to host her fellow Divines.

That was usually the pattern whenever a nation got a Divine for a ruler, suddenly, buildings too large for mortals would start springing up everywhere and anywhere with a view. Usually, those buildings became museums after the Divine left, if the Divine left that was. It was funny how the curve went, the most decadent Divines were those who weren’t the weakest, but neither were they the strongest. Particularly cautious Divines always argued against such displays of opulence, those were usually minor inventions that could actually be threatened by humans. The grandest Divines had nothing to prove and usually interacted the most with humans, in which case making their own building inaccessible for mortals would simply be a hindrance.

Anyone with a Holy Order, or with swarms of followers like Helenna or Elassa, could simply not afford to build big. It was only in that small region of Divines who could get away with minimizing their interactions with people that the most decadent displays of power came about. Olonia had wanted to build that here and Helenna had stopped the girl. She was the ruler of a nation, if she wanted a retreat, then she should have something small and hidden away where no one would find her. 

There were Divines that worked at a snail’s pace. Helenna was not one of those Divines though. She had better things to do than organize meetings and business contracts in order to, practically singlehandedly, salvage the Epan economy. The job was relatively simple, Arascus had forwarded her a list with three hundred and eighty-one different companies. Altogether, those three-hundred and eighty-one companies employed roughly three-quarters of Epa.

It was a lot of work, but it wasn’t impossible. Some, like Stara Huta and LKN Uszka from Lubska, then Cellormittal, Kalkokrupp Stahl, and the Mittermeyer Group from Doschia, all represented refineries of steel and other metals. There had been no need for individual meetings. Helenna had merely invited them to Kirinyaa with deals that were far too good to refuse. The dozen car manufacturers across Epa? They were given phone numbers to the Imperial Infrastructure and Logistics Bureau, each one got their own assigned handler. The three plane companies? Same as before.

Arascus had effectively stepped in and bankrupted a dozen civilian logistic companies. Those had been bought out by Helenna’s men and turned from public entities on the stock market to private enterprises in the hands of individuals loyal to Helenna only because it would look terribly bad if suddenly the same Goddess was the largest employer in the continent. In fifteen minutes, Helenna set up a dozen more meetings. It was one thing to provide the Epans with resource to use, they also needed markets to sell in.

And in that way, Arascus’ economy became a closed circle, each part reliant on the next and on the previous. The influx of foreign currency into Kirinyaa would eventually destroy the Arikan province. Already, the urban areas were seeing magnificent growth and the countryside was being rapidly depopulated as Kirinyaans went to work off from rural industries and into the massive mining conglomerates which expanded in the western part of the country. Yet there was another issue.

Lubska and Rilia had both been devastated by war. Rancais was effectively lost to Anarchia. Doschia’s economy was on life-support, with Arascus taking a personal hand in helping Saksma guide it back to life. And Allia had been set back half-a-century by a blockade. It was an issue that Arascus had seen before Helenna even did and steps had been taken to stop the problem from sprouting from a tiny sapling and into a grand tree. Epa’s economy was geared towards the expensive and the high-end. The flag of Rancais on a bottle of wine assured of quality and tripled the price, the same went for the other Epan nations. Nations rebuilding from war could simply not buy Epan.

Yet for Epa to rebuild, it needed to sell. So in came Kirinyaa. Money that poured in from the sale of raw materials suddenly poured out from the purchase of expensive Epan goods. Helenna negotiated the contracts and set up the meetings, even though the meetings were for show.

Helenna idly grabbed a mint and threw it into her mouth as she stared at the system in awe. The Empire as a whole was a self-reliant autarky, and yet no part of it could even pretend to be self-reliant. The Doschians lacked food and resources but provided electronics and high-tech goods, the Lubskans gave grain and weaponry, the Arikans gave raw metals and got cars in return. It turned in a beautiful circle. She supposed that next the pharmaceuticals in Epa should be a helping hand…

Helenna’s phone suddenly rang.

Aliana.

Helenna stared at the phone ringing for a few seconds and then supposed she should answer. Maybe it was Malam, with something important? “Hello? Helenna speaking.” Helenna said as she put the phone to her ear and brought up a secure messaging application on her laptop.

“Hello Helenna.” Aliana’s voice came through the phone. So it really was the Goddess of Allia. Helenna rolled her eyes. If this woman was going to ask for advice, she wasn’t going to be happy.

“Pleasure to speak.” Helenna made her tone warm enough without making it seem like she was feigning the emotion. “How have you been? Are you settling in well after Rilia?”

“I’m…” Aliana stopped for a moment. “I actually wanted to ask about something else, and yeah, I’m fine, thanks for asking.” Helenna noticed the woman did not ask her how she was doing, but maybe she shouldn’t be expecting politeness from children.

“So what do you want to ask about?” Helenna asked.

“In regards to Malam and Allia’s joining of the Empire.” Immediately, Helenna’s smile dropped and she started to tap on the laptop’s keyboard: gently enough that it wouldn’t make a sound the phone would pick up.

“Oh.” Helenna said. “As in do you want advice?” And as she spoke, she tabbed to Malam’s secure contact: Guess who I’m talking to right now.

“No. I actually wanted to discuss the situation and take responsibility for my own land.” Aliana sighed the moment after she finished that and Helenna quickly recovered. She was glad they were talking over the phone, so that Aliana could not see the utterly contemptible smile and the fact that Helenna’s hair started to change into a victorious gold. And to make it all better, Malam answered back: Divine?

Yes. Helenna replied to one Goddess, and then to the other. “You have to explain better than that.” Helenna made her voice business-like, there was no point to try and coddle her and frankly, intuition said that the Goddess wouldn’t like either. “Are we discussing you handling the negotiations, you going behind Richard’s back or you organising a coup?” Helenna asked and waited for an answer. Aliana obviously needed some time.

Malam answered back: Aliana.

How the fuck did you work it out? It was annoying that Malam guessed correctly. Helenna knew she most likely wouldn’t have got it right.

WAIT REALLY!?

Ye. Helenna replied.

HaHa! Helenna always found it funny how the woman would make that capitalization of both ‘Ha’s. And Malam explained herself, much to Helenna’s dismay: I just went alphabetically by Divines we know. Helenna re-read the message and saw her locks turn red with annoyance and anger. That was such stupid and banal reasoning that it was too low even for Maisara and Fortia. What she want?

“That…” Aliana finally answered. “What I want to do is make my country not an embarrassment in front of Malam. Richard is stuck Helenna. He is stuck and meandering and he’ll probably deny her, but not out of any reasoning but out of passivity.”

“And you want him to accept?” Helenna answered as she typed back to Malam. You scared her basically.

Aliana spoke quickly, now that she got on a roll, it was as if she could not stop. “No because Malam will just dominate him. He won’t, I mean, it’s like with the Coalition and Epan Separation, that was Wissel and Jozef and Artois, it wasn’t Richard.”

“Malam does do that to people.” Helenna said as she typed back to Malam. You really scared her.

Malam answered quickly. What can I say? I’m a scary girl.

“I mean…” Aliana sighed. “Whether I want to join or not, I’ve not made a decision.”

Sometimes, it was difficult to work out a person’s intentions, sometimes, manipulation was a slow transformation of a person’s entire style of thinking. Diplomacy was a war, it was about akin to kicking the door in to someone’s mind, but sometimes, it was as difficult as sieging a fully reinforced and prepared fortress. And then there were other times when it was downright enjoyable. Helenna felt as if she was a wolf in her den as she watched a sheep wander in. “So you want to discuss it with me and Malam?”

“Well…” Aliana said, then sighed, then made her voice stern. “I mean, she is the one that makes the decisions, right?”

“Arascus is.” Helenna said. “I probably won’t be able to secure you a meeting with him on such short notice.” That was a complete lie. Ever since she started working with Arascus, Helenna had been impressed with how hands-on the man was. He was always busy and yet he had all the time in the world. Helenna caught herself blushing and continued on. “You’re in Allia and Malam is in Allia. If you want a meeting, then it’s with her.”

“Oh.” Aliana said. “I mean…”

“Nervous?” Helenna asked as if it was funny. Any of the major Divines would find it smarmy and condescending, but Aliana needed a challenge right now.

“Very, Helenna. I am very nervous.”

“I manage the domestic front here. Malam does the diplomacy.”

“You would think it’s the other way round.”

“Once you get to know us, I think you’ll realise we’re better at this.” Helenna typed to Malam. What time you free?

And Malam responded immediately. Anytime. I just drinking right now. “Well, everyone only has good things to say about you.”

“Not so much about Malam.” Helenna said, Malam better bring back a good bottle of Allian whiskey or some chocolate, because Helenna was about to make her job so much easier. “She’s rude and crass, but she’s honest.”

“I…” Aliana trailed off and then recovered. “Well, I don’t think we left a good impression on her.”

“If I tell her anything, then she’ll come in harder on you because she’ll think I would tell how to handle her.” Helenna said. “So I’ll just set up a time.”

“Aren’t you on the same side?”

“We have a friendly rivalry.” Helenna didn’t even know if it was a lie or not. “But come in and just tell her what you want.” That was the worst advice imaginable, but it would certainly make it easier for Malam. “Just straight up.”

“And if I don’t know what I want?”

“You want to be part of something and you want to do what is best for Allia.” Helenna planted the thought in Aliana’s head. It was so general that it could be used for any situation. “And in that case, then having a chat with her means nothing, at the end of the day, you can simply back out and let Richard handle it.”

“Thanks Helenna.” Aliana said.

“No worries Aliana. Time is tight, how does two hours from now sound?”

“That’s fine for me.”

“Perfect.” Helenna said. “Hope to talk soon.”

“Thanks Helenna.” Aliana finished and switched off the phone. Helenna messaged Malam. Sweetheart, I’ve just secured Allia for you.