Book 5: Chapter 17: Leaving A Note
When I returned to my City Lord’s mansion, Hunter was already kneeling before the entrance.
When he heard the sound of footsteps, a shiver wracked his body, but he didn’t dare lift his head to look at me and instead kept his forehead pasted to the ground.
I passed by him without even taking a look at him, opting to directly walk into my City Lord’s mansion.
First let him kneel for an afternoon.
Truth to be told, I understand these rising nobility. The former old nobility of West-Resisting City had their heads chopped off by some bandit miss so the nobility now, strictly speaking, are all classified as new money. All things considered, they’ve followed West-Resisting City’s policies and with their flexible minds, they understand to draw support from West-Resisting City’s development to unceasingly grow and eventually emerge as the new group of nobility. However, their grassroots origins cannot be changed. Aristocratic families with several generations of inheritance mainly attach importance to face and would never do such a thing like publicly shaming commoners, but new money would.
To speak of this situation more simply, these people are indeed loyal and they’re very clear on the fact that their status is what I’ve given them, so fundamentally, the thought of opposing me won’t rise in their minds. But they need a channel to vent their happiness. Apart from marrying wifes, marrying concubines, and purchasing land, the only thing that they have is bullying commoners in order to make themselves feel superior.
——Without a way to return riches to your homeland, who would know you’re rich if you don’t show it off?
Isn’t it human nature to want to let everyone in the world know that “I’ve become successful” in order to make everyone envy them?
But back to our main topic: I don’t feel like caring if they’re innocent or not and I don’t want to analyze what kind of person doesn’t have human nature. The reason I made Hunter kneel is very simple; it’s because his trivial matter dirtied my eyes and made me feel very uncomfortable. Isn’t that more unreasonable compared to why he did his thing? I, Li De, am West-Resisting City’s biggest ‘justice’, so if I want to make him kneel, what do I need to explain?
As I sat behind the desk with a blank sheet of paper before me, I began pondering over the problem Moon presented to me.
In regards to the conflict between the populace and land, my solution can be subdivided into three categories:
Number one, increase the land.
Number two, make the wealthy buy less land.
Number three, make the poor people survive without land.
Number one is quite simple: so long as Fang Thirteen, who’s fighting in the front line, is able to seize land from Li Neng, the excess population within West-Resisting City will naturally gain a place to stay. The core idea of number two is to develop industries and commerce so that the nobility can invest in other things besides land. These industries include entertainment facilities so as to make them have a place to spend their money. In the case of number three, it still requires the development of industries to support the “workers” of the working class and share a part of the pressure from the agricultural aspect.
As I was writing down some of my views onto the paper, I suddenly discovered a neatly folded note inserted into the pile of documents on my desk. Just as I was wondering whether or not it was a love letter that somebody secretly inserted onto the stack, I opened it up to take a look and found that there was only two brief phrases on it:
“Tonight. City, south.”
The heck is this supposed to mean?? Is this an invitation to a fight??
I pondered over the reasons and my connections and came to this conclusion: the only one who’s able to write such a note is Felita, right? But isn’t this too bold? I’m 17 years-old as of this year, okay? That’s 17 years of preserving my pure and flawless appearance, so how can I do such a thing??
Therefore, I immediately called Felita into my room. Upon discovering that the two of us were alone, Felita came over to hug me, but this time I chided with extreme solemnity:
“Stand there obediently!”
Felita stood up straight in fear, causing her ample chest to sway chaotically. I coughed and said:
“Felita. Did you know, everything should be done at a suitable time otherwise problems will certainly arise. The weather now has already turned cold, so it’s best to stay in your room at night, understand?”
Felita obediently nodded.
I continued:
“Mm. It’s good that you understand. There’s no need to cling to a location; as long as romance is in your heart, everywhere you go will show the beauty of the world. Alright, take that note back with you, I won’t chide you much this time.”
Felita asked with befuddlement:
“Note? What note?”
I picked up the note off of my desk, handed it over to her, and asked:
“Didn’t you write this?”
Felita received it and took a look, then shook her head. I wrinkled my brows upon seeing her reaction. I called Aleya over and asked:
“Aleya, during the time when Moon and I went out, did someone come into this room?”
Aleya thought for a bit, then replied:
“I didn’t see anyone, young master. Did something happen?”
After hearing this, I realized that things had become a bit serious, so I called over Moon and Bai Huang as well. Once everyone gathered, I first handed over the policy recommendations over to Moon. Next, I took out the note, placed it onto the desk, and queried Moon:
“Are there any iconic constructions in the south of the city? Like some place that instantly comes to mind when you hear the words ‘city, south’?”
Moon put his hands into her pocket and answered:
“The residential area in the south of the city is relatively sparse and the development there is lacking. As for any iconic constructions……”
Moon suddenly clapped his hands and exclaimed:
“The granary! West-Resisting City’s granary is in the south of the city!”
I held the note between my fingers and asked:
“Speaking of, Aleya, didn’t you say before that when the assassin single-handedly entered the military tent last time, she was like a ghost? That it was only when her blade was about to fall onto Fang Thirteen did a trace of killing intent leak out, otherwise you absolutely wouldn’t have noticed this person’s arrival?”
Aleya nodded with a stiff face.
I bitterly smiled:
“Well, it seems like this ‘ghost’ is most likely already inside West-Resisting City.”
The puzzled Bai Huang, who didn’t know what was going on at all, asked:
“Ghost? What ghost? What are you guys talking about?”
After giving Bai Huang a general run down of the situation, Bai Huang then questioned with confusion apparently in her voice:
“If such an expert really does exist, then it isn’t strange for them to be able to sneak into West-Resisting City so quietly. But the problem is, I’ve never met a thief that would give an advance notice before committing a crime. According to common sense, perhaps this way of handling things is so that she can lure us away from our territory? Apart from the granary, there should be many other important constructions within West-Resisting City.”
“Such as the Demon Cultivation Farm and the northern industrial base.”
Moon added as he rubbed his forehead and then said:
“It doesn’t matter which area problems arise since any one of them will create an extremely harmful influence on West-Resisting City.”
I thought for a bit and suddenly realized that the current West-Resisting City’s military strength still seems a little too lacking. Aleya is a Level 5 Swordsman at greater perfection realm while Felita is in the middle echelons of Level 5 Sorcerer. Even if we were to add Heji, a Level 6 Swordsman, as external help, such combat power is still unable to make ends meet when faced with such a situation. To use an example, it’s like trying to play Plants vs. Zombies without enough sun on hand. You might have several lanes for which you can’t afford to purchase any peashooters, so you can only pray to rngesus that zombies don’t appear on those lanes for the time being.It’s that type of feeling where your life or death is completely within the hands of another.
Indeed quite uncomfortable.
Aleya calmly said:
“I’m going to stay by young master’s side. If that assassin’s target is young master, I will find a way to stop her; I won’t hesitate even if I have to use this life of mine.”
Felita clutched the magic staff in her hand and concurred:
“My magic power right now is sufficient, if I activate my Demon blood……maybe I can be of help.”
All of them had the look of not being afraid to die.
I was very moved, but, how do I say this?
I, ah, actually don’t need such protection. Moreover, if our enemy truly is an assassin at Level 7 at greater perfection realm, you guys fundamentally won’t be able to protect me. This time, it should be me protecting you guys.
But until then, this situation……isn’t it quite interesting?