Chapter 326: Festival

Raids on households were not something Li En personally carried out; he had plenty of chaotic matters to attend to.

The frontline executors were the Weaver Knights and the City Guard, but those behind them—the Radiant Guard, the Archmages, and certain Shanshen Sects—stood ready to provide support at any moment.

"It will just fill the recent funding shortfall; the harvest this year has been terrible."

Dai Niya complained to him that with constant incidents lately, various military expenses and pensions had long exceeded the budget.

The investment and construction of the Dungeon Town, along with various supporting service projects, all required money.

For an ordinary city, one could simply hand the matter over to the local city lord to handle, but this time, relying solely on the local high nobility was insufficient, and the royal family had no funds to subsidize.

In fact, the city lord had already borrowed a huge sum in the name of Radiant City from certain transnational organizations; if the underground exploration fails to yield expected returns, next year's days will likely be even harder to endure.

But if everything goes smoothly and the progress of underground exploration improves significantly, that would be a different story.

Merely the "transaction tax" on high-grade materials alone could make this city earn a huge profit, but in Li En's view, there was also the surface revenue brought by the Mirror Demon livestreams.

Talking about these things now is meaningless; just do it when the time comes. Li En had the Sudar family acquire shops and rental properties near a "Livestream Plaza," preparing to make a fortune from this opportunity as well.

"Going deeper might require elite exploration teams composed entirely of high-level professionals; if they succeed in hunting, the returns are substantial. A single transaction tax on a sub-dragon material could amount to tens of thousands of gold coins. Even so, next year's military budget still has a huge shortfall; now we are counting entirely on the harvest below."

Li En had heard of this point, but the shortfall seemed to stem mainly from the current girl's frantic military expansion.

In a sense, the sponsoring families of those "Beast Cults," being raided so urgently, were too lazy to play the long game (investigating their upstream and downstream connections) because there was a substantial need.

Raiding households is good; raiding a few nobles might exempt taxes for several years.

"They are richer than me! A mere baron is actually richer than me!!" Dai Niya grew angrier the more she spoke. The Queen had already opened financial channels for her, but even so, the cash she could mobilize was less than the assets of a low-ranking noble.

Watching the pouting Dai Niya, Li En knew there was no need to comfort her; in these times, minor officials and minor nobles frantically amassing wealth had long stopped making the news.

Li En sighed, pulled the quilt, and covered his innocent body.

A superior's trust might be a good thing, but for a superior to video call you immediately after waking up over some trivial matters, or simply to chat for no reason, was truly going too far.

"You find me annoying?" The girl was sensitive, first showing a aggrieved expression, but Li En knew that if he didn't coax her soon, she would likely be looking for a quarrel and hissing.

"How could I? I just feel that such a rare resource as the little Mirror Demons shouldn't be used for such trivial matters."

"It's fine, heh. My God is very satisfied with my results here and has dispatched another batch of little Mirror Demons and big Mirror Demons to me."

While the girl was boasting, she had handled those underground troubles and successfully started the underground exploration work; the kingdom had managed to weather a major crisis.

Victory often brings more investment and trust.

"Boom!"

The sudden explosion attracted Li En's attention, but seeing the fireworks outside, Li En put down the sword in his hand.

The roar of an elephant was just nearby, followed immediately by noisy music.

Through the open wooden window, fireworks traveled along the street.

That noise and chaos seemed to involve several circuses performing together.

In the half-sky, winged bird-people were scattering flowers to guide the way, but the cheap perfume scent mixed in made those standing too close feel slightly uncomfortable.

"Is it today?"

"Yes, today. I still need to prepare my speech."

Seeming to remember the serious matter, Dai Niya finally ended the call. Li En truly didn't expect that coming to another world would still involve the trouble of a superior calling where one couldn't hang up first.

"The Autumn Wheat Festival? It really is the perfect timing." Looking at the scenery outside, this seemed to be his first time celebrating a festival in another world.