There may have been a misunderstanding, Mister Preston. It might seem irrelevant to you and your admirable swaths of credits what we mean to call the transaction, but for us it is very important that we both use the same term. You see, Sir, if I called it a donation, and you called it a loan, then you would expect me to pay you back in the future, but I would not. And that's quite some potential for a serious crisis. That is the problem here. I'm afraid, Sir, that we might not be able to pay you back. If we could cover the costs, we would have already done it. Will we be able to pay in the future? As I said, I don't know. It is a gamble. The Bank of Bretonia has contracts with a number of gambling establishments and I am very privy to the fact that, although some gamblers are rich, most of them end up in poverty. We can't really do anything about it -- we are a bank, not a charity. It was their mistake in the first place, not ours. The best Bretonia can do is not repeat those poor proles' misjudgement. Say, what if we promise you to pay you back and then discover that we are bankrupt? What then, hm? Do we sell you a piece of our land? A planet, like Rheinland did to Synth? No! Never!
Your company needs this trade lane as much as Bretonia does, Mister Preston. If you wish to be the one who decides how long the repairs will take, then it should be you who pays for them. Otherwise you will have to wait until we can afford to do it ourselves. Do you understand?