Section 119 Small discussion

"Duke, as far as the current situation is concerned... I'm afraid it will take you two or three years to return to the royal city. In other words, these are unnecessary expenses in these two or three years."

This is the truth, because according to Byron's plan, he patiently waited for the Queen's financial bankruptcy and collapsed. At the same time, he worked hard to win support from all over the country and finally had a final battle with Rafa. Only when all this was completed would he return to the Hawk City as a king. Add up all these things, if everything went well, it would take two years, and if everything didn't go well... It is estimated that it will be four or five years.

If you take a risky blow, you may get much faster by relying on force. But since Byron already has such a big advantage, how could he reduce his value and make an unexpected gambling with others? He is still in good health now, and living for another ten or eight years will definitely not be a problem. Perhaps having a few more illegitimate children is not difficult.

"Well..." Byron looked at the list and hesitated. There were three types of people following him retreating. The first was political allies, the second was loyal subordinates, and the third was coaxing and deceiving them before leaving. The current situation is that the first and third were useless. Especially the first, although the ministers were all Byron's alliance, they were not considered the kind of subordinates in the true sense. Now that they have completely broken up with the little queen, these people have no meaning at all.

If the relationship between these officials in the past (most of them came from famous families) to win over powerful factions from all over the country, now there is no such value. The little queen's trick directly pushed everyone to Byron's side - the queen said that you were rebellious and wanted to confiscate your title, territory and property. Then are there any other choices besides forming an alliance with Byron?

"Duke, to be honest, among these people..." said the subordinate. "Most of them have their own private territories, at least they are land owners. To them, these salaries are just small money..."

"Duke," another person made an opinion. "Although this expenditure is not expensive, it is not impossible to afford it. You will need them in the future when you return to Hawk City."

Byron nodded softly.

"Why is it necessary? Don't you know that the little queen has been re-appointed and formed a court?" the first subordinate retorted. "At that time... we may have to arrange a deputy for each position. Let's talk about money. Although we still have enough money at the moment, in the future... Lord Duke, we still have a lot of work to do in the future, and all the work needs money."

"But they came to Fornoros with the Duke, and if they abandoned them, it would be a big blow to the Duke's reputation. It would likely have serious consequences."

Byron nodded vigorously this time, and looked at the person who made the suggestion.

"Mr. Duke, please give me this matter if you can." said the subordinate. "I will find a way to solve this problem without hurting your reputation."

"Oh, how do you do it?" Byron asked with interest.

"For those former ministers, I will talk to them one by one. I will explain that the current situation is complicated and ask them to go home and wait for a while. For those below, especially those small officials in Eagle City, they can handle the position under the name of the exam. If the exam fails, it is not the Duke's fault, but they do lack the ability."

"What if there are many people who fail?" someone asked.

"Oh, that's even simpler. Officials without a post can only pay a portion of their salary for normal officials... This is a reasonable rule, and no one can say that the Duke is not."

"Okay, then leave this matter to you." Byron finally made up his mind. Although he got a lot of money by stealing the treasury, he also felt that it was not cost-effective to raise such a group of people who only eat but don't work. "It will definitely not... affect my reputation."

"Duke, please rest assured." The subordinate said immediately, bowed respectfully, and retreated aside.

"Is there anything else?" Byron asked.

"Sir, I have an idea." Someone stood up and said.

Byron gestured to him with his eyes.

"Mr. Byron, the reason why Ethurfate can fight us now (everyone on Byron now knows that Ethurfate is the Lord of Ethurfate City, and the little girl is just a banner) is entirely because he has a queen in his hand. But if the queen dies..."

"Dead?" Byron looked at the other party.

"Yes, since the death of the previous king and the crown prince... and the death of several princes, the royal family has now withered. Now there is only the Little Queen in the direct bloodline. As long as she dies, Ash Rufate will be unable to support her immediately, and there is no need to waste time waiting like now."

"It's easy to say, how do you do it?" said a man next to him. "Ashu Rufat was originally the queen's personal bodyguard. No matter how stupid he is, he will not relax the queen's safety."

"I haven't figured out how to do this yet. But the Duke can regard this as a direction of thinking as an alternative."

Byron nodded. "It makes sense." He said so, his eyes did not stay on this person for even a second, but looked at others.

“Is there anything else to report?”

"Sir, about Miss Shirley's affairs..." said a subordinate. "There has been an answer."

"What did she say?" Byron's eyes were on the face of the subordinate who was speaking. "Ash Rufate is now in the royal city. Although he is a magician, it is impossible to give her orders with magic communication every day... In other words, Shirley is now temporarily controlling the Tobacco Chamber of Commerce..."

"She refused." The person who spoke replied in a panic. "I think Miss Shirley must be impressed by the Duke's refusal to lend a helping hand back then." He originally wanted to say "hold a grudge", but at the last moment he decided not to use this word.

"I had all my strength to fund her, but she messed it up!" Byron snorted in his nose. "Where are the other related women?"

"Well, they all contacted each other, but they all failed. Lord Duke... In this case, it may be more than possible to buy it. Asu Ruffatt's family is rich and he is the kind of person who is willing to spend money on women... As for the Countess Marian... she seems to have always had prejudices against you. This whole thing is difficult to do."

"That's it..." Byron showed a hint of disappointment. Unfortunately, Bracian is really a small place, and it's far away in the sky. At present, he really doesn't have much power to extend his hand there. Fortunately, this is actually just a leisure move. Of course, success is the best. It's just a fire in Ash Rufate's backyard. It doesn't matter if he doesn't succeed.

"This month...our little queen's debts..." Byron asked a subordinate who had been standing with his hands down and without speaking. "Is there anything new?"

Because he planned to hang Eagle City from the beginning, Byron specially arranged a subordinate to serve as an intelligence officer to investigate the financial situation of Eagle City. Although Ashu Rufate was very concerned about the financial situation, it was difficult to hide income and expenditure from those who were interested. Even if Ashu Rufate hid the account book in his arms and kept it secret, those who were interested could still deviate from other channels to infer a general result.

"Duke, the debt this month has been spent peacefully. According to the results we inquired from the relevant chambers of commerce, the payments were very timely and fully met the requirements of the loan contract. So those merchants could not find any reason to attack." The subordinate reported. "At the same time, based on other speculations, he did not seem to have opened up new sources of wealth... he could only guess that the little queen had a secret fund, or that Ashu Rufate himself had used the money to fill the deficit."

"Duke," another subordinate next to him spoke. "I heard that the little queen's men took over the Watch Castle. I remember that the city had a lot of accumulation, and maybe this matter was a little related."

Byron nodded. Indeed, the little queen may have a secret property left by the previous king, and Ashu Rufate may also take out his own money. The savings of Watch Castle must have played a great role. These are all explained.

However, no matter what, they are just surviving. No matter how big the secret property left by the former kings is, no matter how much wealth Ashrufat has, they cannot delay this year. On the one hand, there is a huge debt of more than 10 million gold or more, and on the other hand, there is limited income and expenditure that greatly exceeds income.

In the current situation, the biggest variable is Rafa. The problem is that this old opponent suddenly disappeared. Faced with such a situation, Rafa was also silent and did not know what he was planning. Of course, no matter what he was planning, Byron had the confidence to win the throne of Groone. At most it was just how much time was spent.

"Well, is there anything interesting happening in the royal city?"

"Ah, according to the latest news, Ashu Rufate has been on an envoy. Now the little queen is in charge of the rule."

"What?" Byron had to express his surprise. "Now the little queen is in charge?"

"Well, that's the case for the time being. No one knows why... Maybe it's Ashu Rufate deliberately showing his importance." said the intelligence officer.

Everyone present was talking. To be honest, no one expected that the little queen would take charge of the government by herself. However, according to a deeply rooted prejudice, most people believed that this was completely a trick of Ashu Rufate because the little girl was not able to handle government affairs at all. In addition, there was another view that this might indirectly show that there was a disagreement between the little queen and Ashu Rufate.

No matter which possibility it is, it is irrelevant to Byron - when the latter is better.

The small discussion ended soon, and Byron once again focused his eyes on the intelligence officer's face.

"Also, Lord Duke, something strange happened in the royal city," said the intelligence officer. "Someone recently auctioned the transaction license issued by the elf prince Ash Rufate in the royal city."

"Elf Prince? Ashu Rufate? Transaction License?"

"Well, it's a coincidence that he has the same name as Earl Ashu Rufat. But this should be just a coincidence in the pronunciation of different languages. This elf prince is the ruler of the port city of Eriber, with noble blood and powerful power."

Byron smiled. "It's quite interesting to sell the transaction license documents of the Elf Prince. Who is that seller?"

"I don't know, the auctioneer refused to disclose the identity of the seller. Those who participated in the auction were all senior figures of the Chamber of Commerce... so the details are ominous, but they should have been sold at a very amazing high price."

"Well, it's indeed an interesting little thing. It seems that the eyeliner we arranged is very good." Byron said this. He instantly threw away this matter. His thoughts began to turn to another thing - regretting the original arrangement. After all, it was a hasty thing. When he retreated, he did not arrange the lurkers at the top of the top, and now he can only ask for information from the outside.
Chapter completed!