Chapter 189: Robbing

Yesterday, Tristan had reaped quite an amount of benefits from the war against the barbarians. After a thorough calculation, he earned himself a total of 163 gold coins, as well as several luxury goods from the plundering he did to the barbarian camp.

The coins would be going straight to his pocket, as for the luxury goods and other things from the plunder, Tristan planned to ask Hererra to sell them later for more coins. After all, he had no use for such things at the moment, nor had such desire for them.

In addition, yesterday's gain was such a successful outcome, and as a result, Tristan was currently enjoying the taste of his victory, slowly savoring it.

But again, he had no such plan as sharing any of those coins to the town. The task was to be Caerleon's mayor for three months and he couldn't know what that bastard king plan for him afterward. It's no time to be sharing these coins with anyone.

The hiring of 500 new guards for the town would cost around 200 gold coins and the development of a new camp for the orcs would require half the amount. 

There was also a certain amount of funds required for the town maintenance as it had quite a number of facilities that needed to be repaired or replaced altogether. After all, the town was quite battered from the battle and riot it had gone through.

Fortunately, for this matter, Tristan had already a plan, and it was in motion.

He called upon the three elders of the town - the landowners of the mines in Caerleon Town's territory. Naturally, Tristan calling up the three people caused Uriel to be worried.

"You aren't planning to rob them, or anything of the same sort, aren't you? If you plan to do so, I need to tell you that will be out of the line.." said Uriel with apparent uneasiness on his face.

Tristan, who heard those words, rolled his eyes as a reaction. Then, he scoffed. "Rob them? No. Of course not. I am not that petty, you know."

The moment the elders entered the meeting room, they realized that the three were still under Tristan's influence.

"Accept our humble greetings, Lord Mayor." the three elders said simultaneously as they bowed their heads to Tristan.

Tristan flashed a wicked smile as he saw the spectacle. Then a moment later, he opened his mouth and spoke, "Have you three prepared what I asked?"

Once again, the three elders answered together. "Yes, my lord. We did."

Each of them then swiftly gave Tristan a book, which he immediately opened one by one before giving them to Uriel without even taking a thorough read. The ex-mayor could only shake his head in astonishment as he read through the three ledgers accounting of the mine.

Mining sector was Caerleon Town's main source of income with almost 2000 of its civilians working in the three mines situated in its territory. From it, the town usually received around 200 gold coins monthly, and before the invasion started, it could even reach up to 300 gold coins.

The ledgers, on the other hand, were the concrete proof of how much the three elders had been stealing from the town. And as Uriel read through them, his eyes gradually bulged until Tristan could see the former's eyes were bloodshot.

The three elders laundered the town's income by just a few gold coins every month. But when one added the duration of time they had been doing this, which was up to 10 years, the total amount of money they stole from the town amounted to more than 2000 gold coins. Truly a staggering amount of money.

After receiving the ledgers and giving them to Uriel, Tristan was seen approaching the three elders. 

Uriel, who saw this, tore his gaze away from the ledgers despite his will telling him not to do so. Looking at Tristan who was moving closer to the elders, Uriel once again became worried as he quickly interrupted. "Lord Tristan, there's always another way, the better one than killing them outrightly."

Tristan only chuckled as he heard Uriel's assumption and his attempt to stop him from killing the elders. He raised his hand to the air, scaring the hell out of Uriel. The latter was about to stop Tristan himself when familiar red mist diffused out of the three elders' bodies. It floated around for a while before entering Tristan's body.

[I50 Blood Essence returned]

Tristan decided to take his [Blood Seal]'s influence he put on the three. He then slowly returned to his seat while looking at the slowly recovering elders which gradually gained horror on their faces as their mind processed everything that had been going on.

Only by removing the seal could Tristan see such sights.

Putting his hand on his chin in a nonchalant manner, Tristan said, "I believe taking the kingdom's coins deserves the death penalty." With a wicked smile on his face, he added, "So, how do you plan on pleading?"

In the blink of an eye, the three elders already got into their knees with their heads touching the cold hard floor. The arrogant demeanor they usually adopted when they first saw him was nowhere to be seen, replaced by a completely terrified one as they desperately asked for mercy.

In the end, Tristan offered them an agreement that he believed would be a win-win situation between him, the three elders, and the town.

The elders would be allowed to keep their lives. In return, they would be signing documents which basically gave the mines under the jurisdiction of Caerleon Town. Moreover, to keep the stability of the mines' workforce, Tristan 'suggested' the elders to keep working there for years to come.

Of course, with the amount of money they stole, Tristan also bestowed them a huge fine that took a huge amount of the wealth they currently had. It was 200 gold coins worth of fine for each of them, and the elders couldn't do anything besides agreeing to it. After all, considering the alternative was death, losing wealth was certainly better.

Tristan beginning to understand the benefit of being a mayor. Today he enjoys one of them; The power to rob people in the name of justice.

Now that the mines were completely owned by Caerleon Town and less corruption regulation he would bring forward, Tristan expected the town's income to increase by 30% which then he could use to fund the town's and his projects.

Before sending the three elders away, Tristan once again reminded them of how he could easily grab them one day and use the same skill to them again. He told them he would make sure if they were to be found steal the town gold again, there would definitely be no more forgiveness for them.

Receiving the 'kind' advice, the three elders sincerely bow to Tristan before leaving the meeting room in haste.

With this matter resolved, Caerleon City should basically have no more funding problems, at least for the next three months.

Next, Tristan planned to hear the reports on the threat of the orcs and barbarians.