Viscount Allen was walking through the hallway, his one side had decorated walls, and another side had a beautiful garden with gardeners tending to it. They, and all the guards on the passage, all bowed as he passed by them.

He was in a good mood, humming to himself as he walks. After all, he hasn’t seen his daughter for over a month. He has already spent some days, working with other nobles to finish his part of the report, as the domestic affair head, right after the meeting with the Duke. Even being here, he couldn’t visit her at all. Right now, his destination was Lia’s residence.

That was some surprise he got when he asked one of the servants about her room but he answered that Duke gave her a residence. This just meant Duke is serious about taking her as his wife. But he still wanted to know how she was faring. Was she unhappy? Uncomfortable? Were the things that were going through his head.

He came upon the residence after a short walk, confirming his noble ID, the guards let him enter with respect.

“Master!” Emma and Olivia greeted him with a bow as soon as they saw him. Right now, Lia was in her courtyard enjoying tea leisurely. Seeing her father entering and her maids greeting him, her face was filled with delight and her eyes shone happily. She darted hastily, straight to her father’s embrace.

“Father!” “My little snow, I missed you so much!” Their familial love made the heart of the two maids warm and light. They missed this scene a lot. Their young mistress was always doted by her father, unlike her mother who was always strict on her.

“Won’t you invite me in, little snow?” The Viscount asked cheekily and Lia felt a little embarrassed and looked down shyly. If it was her mother tagging along, she would have been scolded by now. Shyly, she pulled her father along with her inside her residence, and her two maids followed.

Inside Lia’s Mansion

The Viscount was very content with his daughter’s residence. Colored with light blue and white, decorated with beautiful furniture, the fact that the one he was sitting on came from a very rare tree, expensive vases on the cupboard, beautiful portraits, the one which caught his eye was the chandelier above him, the hexagonal crystal and darker blue crystals within it to make it look like a figure encased in light hexagonal ice, his family symbol.

He could see that his daughter wasn’t ignored by the Duke at all and she confirmed it to his heart’s contentment. He was listening to his daughter’s time in this palace.

“Wait? You mean his grace isn’t in Alore City now?” I asked in a jolt. Lia puffed her cheeks complaining he wasn’t listening at all and he had to make some excuse to pacify her.

“Yes Father, In the morning before yesterday, he visited me as usual. Before he left, he told me that he has some urgent important task to handle so he will be leaving right then.” Lia obediently repeated it again.

Hmm, an urgent and important work that he didn’t tell us about? What could it be? As unpredictable as always, eh. I might just be wasting my time overthinking it. I’m certain he won’t punish someone unjustly. Coming out of his thoughts, he was back to listening to his daughter. He knows his daughter well, and he could tell, she was purposely leaving out some parts in her narration.

“Lia, you didn’t tell me the whole thing about your outings? What might you be hiding now, I wonder?” That question made Lia flinch a little, and she looked down again. She knew from the start she couldn’t hide it from him. She slowly raised her head up to look at her father’s face and decided to tell him about what happened then.

** Flashback **

It was the next morning after their first outing in the capital. Duke Lyon visited to have the usual breakfast time together. He would always come when he wasn’t busy and eat with Lia, in her courtyard. He easily noticed her sulking quietly as she ate her breakfast. Huh* he sighed a little.

It can’t be helped then. “Lia, please come with me to a place after breakfast.” She seemed surprised because he promised her to continue their city tour after lunch. Her surprised expression slowly faded away to her usual ‘obedient-pleasant wife face’ if Lyon can describe it and she nodded without any question.

In Commoner’s section of City Alore

Lia was wondering why he brought her here. Right now, they were climbing stairs of a multistoried inn owned by Duke Lyon. She can tell they were heading for the roof. It didn’t take them long to reach it.

After reaching the roof, Lyon walked straight, stopping at the Parapet, and looked over straight at the area that the backside of this inn was facing. Lia followed as well and peered over it. What she could see was the ‘slum area’. She understood that she has been seen through by the Duke.

“E-erm...Your Grace…I…was” She was stuttering and couldn’t look at his face. Lyon looked at her for a while and couldn’t resist pinching her right cheek lightly.

“Tell me, Lia. What’s bothering you about this scene?’ Lyon asked her pointing towards the slums. Lia, still looking down, clenched her hand that was squeezing the helm of her long skirt (Author: You can picture the clothes that noble girls wear in isekai anime) and gathering her strength, she finally looked up.

“Your Grace, why are they still living in poverty? Why are they the only ones living like that in a deserted corner of this beautiful city? You can change everything in Saluda if you want to, right? then….why….why ignore them?” She looked down immediately after saying that. Lyon can tell she was shaking. If she was someone else, he would have been angry at questioning his duty.

Alissa who accompanied them as a guard today thought it was wise to keep quiet. She was not good at explaining stuff.

“I’m glad you said it but I’m not ignoring them.” Lyon again pulled her cheeks and made her look up to the smiling him. He could see she was close to tears already. He sighed* again, he really has to make her stop fearing him.

“And, I can’t develop it at all. It isn’t because I don’t want to but I really can’t.” Lyon told her calmly. “Why?” Her response made Lyon play with her cheeks more. They were so soft.

“See, over there.” He showed Lia, a man who was doing something with papers, he was continuously scraping and redoing whatever he was doing.

“That guy was a small merchant some months ago. He lost his fortune to some bandits and lost everything. This is the place where he is making plans to start over again. He got demoted from ‘Citizen’ to here by himself because slum people don’t have to pay taxes to me.” “Huh?” She was still confused.

“He won’t be paying any taxes for now but he works to earn and he is making plans. As soon as he has saved enough, he can start another business that he is planning after regaining his ‘Citizen’ status as we can see.” I pointed towards him scraping the paper again.

“Slum in a city across Saluda is like this, a place where people start their city life, the ones who come from villages and remote areas and they haven’t planned anything for now and don’t have money for taxes, the slum is for orphans who have to pave their life themselves……… and for people like him, who come to the slum to restart their city life anew.” Lyon can see the expression of realization in Lia’s face as he goes on with how slum works.

She was told the reason why he couldn’t develop it. If he develops it, first, the very low rent will be raised a lot and, secondly, people of slum won’t be eager to get their ‘Citizen’ status back if there is no difference in lifestyle between the slum and the commoner area. She was shocked moreover when he told her that her City Gladen which her Father governs also has a slum area. The realization of not knowing much about this subject struck her as well making her feel guilty and embarrassed inside.

Lyon also narrated all the changes he did to make the life of slum people easy. From establishing public order to introducing a lot of public jobs for them, clean water, clean surroundings using the slum people themselves, and paying for their hard work. And, he humbly added that all those credits go to his fiancée Princess Elaine. Lia wasn’t foreign to news about Princess Elaine. She can bet that almost everyone knew about them. For now, she was convinced he paid attention to the slum people.

**Flashback ends**

Viscount Allen slowly nodded his head listening to his daughter’s narration. He was satisfied that his daughter has learned something new.

“Father…”

“Hmm, what is it?”

“There was something that I couldn’t ask the Duke then. I was overwhelmed at that time.” The Viscount could see the curious look in his daughter’s eye. He nodded at her to signal to go ahead.

“Everything Duke Lyon said about the life in the slum, those things sound much favorable. What if those people always want to live in slums? Viscount Allen wasn’t surprised. This question was normal. He slowly took out his ID and showed it to her.

“Like we nobles have an identity, the ‘Citizens’ also have it while the slum people don’t. They can’t have any paperwork done, like owning any property or marriage until they become ‘Citizens’, the one who pays taxes to the Duke, and the Duke and his vassals give them protection in return. If a war breaks out, and there is no way out, the Duke will prioritize his ‘Citizens’, not them.

If you don’t have an identity, and you travel outside of your country, the best outcome will be that you make it to that country’s slum safe but the worst outcome is without an identity, you can be made a slave by a slave trader. So, it is rather favorable to get ‘Citizen’ status rather than living as a nobody in a slum.” Viscount Allen puts his ID back and looks towards Lia who took everything he said silently.

“I understand now.” She looked relieved and her usual smile was back.

“Father, I want to learn. I can’t stay this ignorant.” Before Viscount Allen could pacify his heart over his daughter’s beautiful smile, Lia plunged into his embrace and asked him with her upturned eyes.

“Okay, when you return, I will teach you everything that I know.” He patted his daughter’s head lovingly. Yes, he is one of the most doting fathers, a noble girl could ask for.

If I remember Duke Lyon asked for Lia as his second wife. It should be fine teaching her about governing. She should be ready for when the Duke and his first wife are absent in the future for some reason. He was already thinking about making preparations once he returns to his City Gladen.

They talked about matters back at their home for sometime before Viscount Allen had to go to answer Marquis Lloyd’s invitation to dinner at his place, along with other nobles that participated in Duke Lyon’s meeting some days ago and then, he would return to his City.

Lia couldn’t leave for her house without permission from the Duke and the said Duke was outside of Alore City as of now so, she will have to wait a while before returning to learn from her father.

“I need to learn a lot.” Lia claimed to herself with a determined tone.