Satisfied with the fact that he had just learned two spells, Tristan celebrated his success with a sumptuous dinner.

With everyone else busy with their respective tasks, the celebratory meal had suddenly turned into a romantic dinner between him and the woman who had helped him with the spells. At least that's how Hererra felt about it. After witnessing such a significant achievement for Tristan, she was convinced that their bond had strengthened as well. She felt that the moment she shared with him was private and special, and was so elated that she didn't stop smiling the whole night.

The fire magician's affection towards Tristan couldn't be more obvious.

The girl was very beautiful indeed, and it would be a lie if Tristan didn't feel attracted to her. Actually, there was one question in Tristan's mind that he wanted to find the answer to.

Since he already knew Katra, he wondered if he was able to do it with non-elves, and whether or not that would be the key to receiving the release he needed.

But until he knew what exactly his marriage meant in this world, he couldn't afford to be careless. He refused to be the kind of man who only thought with his penis.

When the dinner ended, it was Uriel, the fat elf, who came to see him. Apparently, he had just finished auditing the ledgers. Although it was already quite late into the night, Tristan thought that if the issue was about money, it should probably not be left waiting.

Monthly Income

Farms: 32 coins

Mining: 202 coins

Traders: 15 coins

Others: 5 coins

Total: 254 coins

Monthly expenditures

Kings tribute: 52 coins

Wages: 60 coins

Maintenance: 29 coins

Other expenditures: 305 coins

Total: 446 coins

Total coffers: 129 coins

"What the fuck!"

Tristan's outrage came from the total loss of 192 gold coins at the end of the month. Aligning exactly with what Uriel said, with the 129 coins that they had today, Tristan was still supposed to figure out how they were going to get an additional 63 coins to make up for their losses.

The fat elf added, "You must know, that figure still does not include my 30 coins." A sheepish smile was plastered on his face.

Tristan felt a nerve twitch. Once more, he forced himself to calm his rage and asked Uriel to explain how the system worked.

As income, the town takes 60% of the profit made by the citizens. For example, this past month, the farms produced 32 coins, meaning that they were expected to make 50 coins worth of grains and other agricultural products.

It was the same with the mining. Carleon had a larger population of miners than farmers, and most miners worked in groups as opposed to just individuals. The 202 monthly coins made was the result of taxation collected from three different mine owners.

60% of this income will then contribute to the capital as big as 20% to the overall revenue, while the remaining 40% will be set aside for the town's expenditure needs.

Scanning the ledgers intently, Tristan thought that the current numbers were actually rather logical. That was, of course, with the exception of the "Other Expenditures", which had apparently cost them 305 coins this month alone.

When asked what such a massive amount of money would go towards, Uriel explains, "201 gold coins will go to the 201 families whose members were the town guards who died in the last battle, acting as compensation for their losses. As for the rest, most of it was set aside to pay off mercenaries."

Tristan could understand the compensation for the fallen soldiers, but 104 gold coins for mercenaries? Monthly? That was crazily high. He only became more annoyed when found out that the total was only for 40 adventurers.

"Three gold adventurers cost 30 coins, the rest who were silver rank adventurers would get 2 coins monthly."

"That's a robbery!"

Uriel sighed. "The town was more desperate than I thought."

Tristan asked, "So what's your suggestion, Uriel?"

"The town only has 192 guards. That amount was barely enough to maintain the collective security of 5000 citizens, especially in a border town like this, where crime rates are far higher than average. My suggestion is to negotiate with the adventurers and ask them if they would allow late payments or pay in terms."

Tristan replied "The guards cost only 20 silver coins a month while the silver ranked adventurers cost 10 times as much, Uriel! I should just sack those greedy adventurers."

Uriel advised that the adventurers roughly had the same amount of strength. 40 of them were comparable to 400 guards, not including the gold warrior who was very useful.

"These guards are not Kingsblade, okay! None of them could fight against the orcs' grunts, much less the champions."

Uriel suddenly realized that a wicked smile had spread on Tristan's face. His expression paled as he quickly exclaimed, "No, no! I am telling you, bringing your orcs here will only bring more trouble than solutions!"

Tristan hummed in contemplation, feeling a slight satisfaction in agitating the fat elf. "We will see, we will see."

In the meantime, he considered paying these adventurers a visit and trying to talk to them. He doubted that those greedy bastards would be open to compromise, but he had to try.

The next day, first thing in the morning, to his surprise, Chieng came to see him.

"What is it, Chieng? Have you finished checking those mines?"

Chieng answered with an uneasy expression.

"Master, I apologize, but I have been searching for master Serene all day and unfortunately I can't find her anywhere. I worried she's in trouble."

Tristan's heart stopped in its tracks, and then began to beat rapidly. This was something he knew he couldn't be calm about.

"Damn it! Get the horses, we are going there right now!"

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Written by Avans, Published exclusively by W.e.b.n.o.v.e.l,