Chapter 200: City Hall (01)

[Name: Medium City Hall of Red Grass City

Description: A medium-sized city hall with space for two hundred employees and the capacity to serve even a large city. It has all the necessary administrative facilities of a city hall, from tax collection to two small courts and many various administrative offices.

Its design was created by a famous architect from a city lost to the past, but of legendary fame. The City of Red Grass.

Effect: +20% tax collection efficiency, +30% public trust, -20% crime rate, +20% monthly barony control gain.

Operating cost: one lower mana core per month.

Price: 5,000]

Ethan didn’t hesitate to buy the town hall.

Taking a step back, he watched the building rise from the bare ground, a structure only slightly smaller than his own mansion slowly taking shape before his eyes.

The earth trembled faintly beneath his boots as the magic of construction unfolded. Stones rose and settled one atop another with a low, resonant hum.

The children—hundreds of them standing in front of the school—turned toward the sound.

Their eyes lit up the instant they recognized him, and within seconds they came running, little feet pounding against the stone road, voices rising in an excited chorus.

"Lord Ethan! Lord Ethan! Are you building something new?"

"What is it this time?"

"Look at the size—it must be a castle!"

"Oh... will we have a princess?"

Ethan could only smile bitterly as he found himself surrounded by the tide of excited children, a sight that drew horrified glances from their parents, who watched from afar with pale faces.

Obviously, he wasn’t unhappy about it.

The adults respected him deeply, and the children loved him as if he were a superhero straight out of a fairy tale, dreaming of the day they could become like him.

Ethan couldn’t blame them for being so excited to finally catch him during a free moment.

It didn’t take long for the teachers and parents to rush over, panting and apologizing profusely as they herded the little ones back toward the school.

In the end, Ethan found himself alone in front of the new building.

The structure was relatively modern, built from high-quality concrete and coated in white and blue paint that glistened beneath the sun. It stood about four meters tall, with two imposing statues on either side of the ornate entrance.

Looking at the elaborate pillars and the carefully carved windows, Ethan let out a sigh.

Without a doubt, Earth’s concept of minimalism didn’t exist in this world.

Not that he was against it.

Minimalism was fine, until every building became a tedious, depressing copy of the next.

With a wide smile on his lips, Ethan turned and headed toward Tomas’s house.

It was a simple, two-story wooden residence, occupied by both Tomas and the scholars he had hired to assist him.

When Ethan pushed open the door, he found Tomas hunched over a table, surrounded by hundreds of documents.

Revisions upon revisions, all dedicated to a single thing: the future constitution of Goldenveil.

Ethan watched them for a brief moment and pulled a bottle of green fairy wine from his Spatial Ring.

It was good to reward hard workers, wasn’t it?

The instant the sweet, herbal aroma of the wine drifted through the room, the drowsy scholars snapped awake as if an electric current had jolted them.

Sleep and fatigue were swept from their aged bodies in an instant, and even Tomas nearly leapt out of his chair, the wood creaking sharply under his sudden movement.

Ethan watched the five men approach him with quick, humble steps, hungry gazes locked onto the bottle in his hand.

"M-my lord! How nice to see you here! Hehehe..." Tomas was the first to bow, a trickle of saliva nearly escaping the corner of his mouth.

He was so tired, but for a single sip of that wine, he’d gladly work another twenty hours without sleep!

Ethan, of course, wasn’t cheap. He handed the fairy wine over to the scholars, who clung to it like goblins guarding their hoard.

They poured the liquid into wooden cups and drank as if tasting divine nectar, sighs of ecstasy escaping between sips.

"Ah..." Tomas finally relaxed a little, his back sinking against the chair’s backrest. "My lord, would you like to take a look at the latest drafts of the constitution we finished this week? We’re already almost eighty percent done!"

Ethan naturally didn’t refuse, accepting about ten pages of documents from Tomas’s hands.

The Goldenveil constitution had, in total, three branches of rights and three branches of law.

The three branches of rights were noble rights, commoner rights, and military rights.

The three branches of law were civil law, criminal law, and, naturally, military law.

These six pillars would form the foundation of Goldenveil, defining the rights and powers of every citizen.

Ethan wanted to create a simple system, one rooted in responsibility. A system in which the greater the power, the greater the responsibility a citizen of Goldenveil would have to bear.

A judge, on Earth, or at least in certain countries, was practically a god.

He could end hundreds of lives with a single stroke of his pen through an unjust ruling, and if he ever faced any consequences, even the heaviest punishment was usually mandatory retirement.

Imagine destroying hundreds of lives and being sentenced to never work again, collecting a fat salary while enjoying the rest of your days?

Ethan would not accept this disgusting, rotten system in Goldenveil.

A judge would wield a great deal of power, but with that power would come the obligation to relinquish many rights and to assume countless responsibilities.

The same would apply to a noble; their power was unmatched, but so were their responsibilities.

It was an almost perfect system of reward and punishment. But for it to truly work, with Ophelia’s help, he wanted to begin creating a new organization.

The Shadow Hand.

They would be, simply put, a group dedicated to handling internal investigations within Goldenveil, ensuring that this system of power and responsibility was enforced, and that every case of corruption was met with overwhelming force and severe punishment.

Only then could he create a truly just system. A system where those at the top would receive wealth and power, but along with that wealth and power, responsibility.

At the same time, a system where those at the bottom would have almost no power, but that could accumulate wealth through their hard work, and as a result,, would possess freedom.

As for creating a democratic system, Ethan hadn’t even given it a thought. He would be the supreme authority in Goldenveil.

The constitution itself made that clear. The book was important, but the law was his word.