Road to the Crown

"Is that everything?"

Looking at the two small chests brought to me by Elia's family and association of my men, I couldn't help but grin internally while faking a serious expression on the outside. While I would love to make use of my super-duper-ultra-great system to either scan the expression of the two exiles-to-be to make sure nothing was hidden inside that wasn't supposed to leave the mansion… Either this system had no such usability in the first place, or I simply had no idea how to find it.

"Yes, or do you want to take even this little bit from us?"

Sending me a hateful look as if I was the cause of their downfall in the first place, Onar spat out those words through his gritted teeth. With his sabre - the most valued companion of all the lower nobles - still in the hands of my people, he continued to alter his sight between longing looks directed towards his weapon and a gaze filled with despise and pure hate aimed at me.

"Well, it depends on what you put in there. Men, search them again."

In a situation like this, I wasn't going to take any chances. Following my orders in an instant, a new batch of men that didn't help Elia's family pack before jumped towards the crates and started throwing everything out on the floor, looking for the stuff that they might've managed to sneak in.

And just like that, three pouches filled with coins, two pieces of golden jewellery generously embedded with various kinds of gems and surprisingly, a small notebook, that I had to pick myself after my men simply dropped it on the floor and discarded it as something unworthy of their attention!

Just like a stupid friend of mine who fell into the trap of supplying his… friends with substances that weren't strictly legal, either Onar or his mother actually written off the list of their own damned people inside the city!

As I browsed more and more pages of this handy book, more and more details about various shady businesses unveiled its secrets in front of my eyes!

"Explain to me this one thing… If you never intended to go back or meddle with our affairs, why did you need this notebook for?"

Finally closing it and holding the thin book in my hands while waving it in front of the kneeling people, I didn't get any reaction out of them outside of the usual, filled with hate stare. Since they were going to play this game like that, I didn't mind to tune myself to their own tastes.

"Elemo!"

While I didn't mind asking anyone from the militia to do other kinds of mundane tasks, handling the affairs with money had to be done through the hands of the nobles directly under me. Throwing one of the pouches that those fuckers attempted to hide towards my retainer, I looked at Elia's former family for a moment, before shifting my gaze to my fake fiancee.contemporary romance

"I hope you won't mind it, but this thing here…", I waved the notebook I still held in my hand, as it was too precious to give up even for a second, "... proves that they were going to break their words anyway. With that said, I can't be as nice to them as you wanted to be."

"Sure, do your thing."

Shrugging her shoulders, Elia turned her head away, as if she thought the things were about to get dirty. But contrary to her expectations, I wasn't going to get violent with those people. There were better ways to make sure they wouldn't pose any threat during the first few months that would take us to stabilise the situation and establish ourselves in this city.

"Elemo, leave only two red goldens in the pouch. You can split the rest equally among everyone."

While I only judged the worth of the coins inside the pouch basing on how much it weighed in my hand, in the end, I never expected to find additional gold in this situation, so raising the morale of my men just like that was as good as using it on any other project. With the few ideas, I had in mind, making money wouldn't be any problem in just a matter of a few days anyway.

Making cement was one of the first things I wanted to introduce, along with the beer that I required to establish control over one of the most profitable and popular aspects of the economy of my lands, but so far, neither of those two projects could be turned into a raw profit in a short amount of time, requiring vast amounts of gold for the wages and all sorts of initial costs instead. That's why, during the time we had to waste to reach Pilzno, I looked through the system to find something that I figured out all the way back when I couldn't enjoy the soup of my recipe as much as I thought I would be.

While hearing the cheers of the militia while watching the sour faces of Elia's family as they most likely realised the first part of my plan that I was going to explain them anyway, I couldn't help but recall one particular kind of memory from my past life.

"Listen now. Since you couldn't follow either of your promises, let's have some fun. I'm not a monster to kill you right here and now… Or rather, I don't think it is worth to waste two weeks of my life in house arrest only to obtain the satisfaction of killing you guys myself."

Reaching my hand to the side, I grabbed now light pouch that Elemo instantly placed on top of my palm, before throwing it in front of the kneeling duo.

"This money is all that you are allowed to take outside of what you have on yourselves right now. What's more, I will have my men escort you outside of the city, so that you won't get in touch with any of your former… friends."

While I officially claimed this, the real intention behind my scheme, was to deprive them of ability to rent or buy any horses in the city, where people would still respect them enough to exchange the gold coins for a currency used by normal people. Forcing them to organise their mounts outside of the city walls, meant that if they didn't want to simply be robbed by some random thugs, they would have to go to the next city on foot!

"Also, if I were in your place, I would make sure to travel fast. After all, the nights are dark and full of…. Bandits!"

Stopping myself in the last moment from making a reference of one of the shows that I loved all the way till its producers took the initiative to destroy all their hard work with the final season, I graced them with devious smile number seven from my collection of repulsive expressions, before turning my back to them.

"Men, lead them away!"

done.co