The maid squad is too strong, what use is there for me, the Demon King?

The girl's gorgeous attire testified to her extraordinary status.

The gown was made of a special silk imbued with magic, and its surface was embroidered with flowing star trail patterns.

The dress is primarily silver-white, but under the magical halo, it reveals a gradient of pale purple and ice blue, like the aurora borealis sweeping across the night sky.

The hem of the skirt was inlaid with tiny crystals, which emitted a faint, star-like glow.

Thin chains hung from both sides of her star-shaped headdress, with miniature star models at the ends, swaying slightly with her movements and making a crisp, bell-like sound.

The girl's name is Aliceville Celestio, the second princess of the noble Westphalia Kingdom.

Due to years of war, the finances of the Kingdom of Westphalia were beginning to falter.

Military campaigns cost money, and during times of war, military spending could not be reduced. King Edmund, on the contrary, hoped to increase military spending to quell the rebellion as soon as possible.

But how could the "War of the Eight Princes" be quelled simply by increasing military spending? Moreover, with the current financial situation, even normal military spending cannot be covered.

What should the royal family do if they run out of money?

Selling some rare magical items from the royal treasury for money would solve the immediate crisis. The wealth accumulated by successive kings is all in the royal treasury. If the royal treasury can be completely sold off, the war can continue until the other eight kings are out of money and strength to continue fighting, and the central royal family will still have a surplus in military expenses.

But Edmund Celestio wouldn't even part with just one or two treasures from the palace treasury, let alone sell it all.

Where will the fiscal deficit be filled?

Edmund Celestio immediately set his sights on the people of Westphalia.

Collecting three months' worth of taxes in advance to fill the fiscal deficit, and then what to do afterwards, was not within Edmund Celestio's considerations.

What are the sources of income for ordinary people?

Planted mature crops.

The king can issue an order to collect taxes three months in advance, but can crops ripen three months earlier?

Some high-level mages skilled in nature magic can make crops ripen ahead of time, but how could ordinary people who are not even professionals possibly use nature magic skillfully?

As for having high-level mages use nature magic to help crops mature quickly?

Don't be ridiculous. How could noble mages possibly use nature magic to ripen such lowly and cheap products as crops? They would only use nature magic on rare and expensive magical plants.

Even a field of crops cannot compare to a single magical plant.

The vast majority of ordinary families cannot afford to pay taxes three months in advance.

The inability to pay doesn't mean they don't have the money; these are the livelihoods of ordinary families for the next three months. If they pay this tax, how will they survive these three months?

Aliceville Celestio could foresee that once the decree to collect taxes three months in advance was issued, the people would be turned into a living hell.

The lack of food and the resulting food shortages led to a variety of problems.

Prolonged starvation can lead to malnutrition, weakened immunity, increased susceptibility to illness, and even death from starvation.

Large numbers of people suffered from prolonged hunger, which fueled their discontent with the rulers, leading to peasant uprisings and social unrest.

This point is not important. The royal family can easily suppress the uprisings of ordinary people. They can simply send a slightly higher-level mage to quell the uprisings, and those ordinary people's uprisings will not cause any trouble.

In order to survive, people may leave their homes and become refugees, searching for a place where they can live.

Under extreme survival pressure, some people may abandon traditional morality and ethics and resort to theft and robbery in order to survive.

When survival is not guaranteed, some families may be forced to sell their children to ensure the survival of the rest of the family members.

This will exacerbate the already unstable turmoil in the Kingdom of Westphalia.

The thought of the hellish scenes of ordinary people suffering from hunger and even resorting to cannibalism made Aliceville Celestio unable to stand by and watch the Kingdom of Westphalia turn into a living hell.

So she came to persuade her king, determined to make Edmund Celestio rescind his decree to collect taxes three months ahead of schedule.

"Retract the decree! Do you even know what you're saying?!" Edmund Celestio's authoritative voice rang out.

Aliceville Celestio knew that the king's every word and action had a tremendous influence on the entire country.

The decree to collect taxes three months in advance had already been discussed and decided in the Royal Decree Hall, and to suddenly withdraw the decree now would damage the king's prestige.

And more importantly...

"How should the financial deficit be filled after the decree is revoked?" Edmund Celestio asked.

Aliceville Celestio had long understood that to persuade her father to rescind the decree, she had to directly address the financial deficit and provide her father with a satisfactory solution.

But how could she possibly come up with a solution that could both fill the financial deficit and satisfy her father?

Aliceville Celestio knew all too well how stingy her father was and that he would never use the treasures of the royal treasury to fill the financial gap.

Or perhaps they would use some underhanded or overt scheme to force the nobles to pay out of their own pockets to fill the treasury.

This tactic might work if the Kingdom of Westphalia were in a time of peace.

However, the Kingdom of Westphalia is currently in the midst of the War of the Eight Princes, and there are not many nobles and officials who support the royal family. This move will undoubtedly push the nobles and officials who support the royal family to the opposite side of the royal family.

In this way, the Celestio family would not be able to hold onto the throne of Westphalia, and the emperor would never agree to such a plan.

When neither of these options worked, Edmund Celestio naturally turned his attention to the common people, which led to the decree to collect taxes three months ahead of schedule.

Aliceville Celestio gritted her teeth: "I can hand over my own property to fill the financial gap!"

Edmund Celestio raised an eyebrow; he hadn't expected Alice Vil to go to such lengths.

but……

"Not enough? Can you persuade others to hand over their property?" Edmund Celestio asked sharply, getting straight to the point.

Aliceville Celestio pursed her lips and shook her head slightly.

“Then there’s nothing more to discuss. My mind is made up. You may leave!” Edmund Celestio waved his hand, signaling for him to leave.

"Father! After the decree was issued, the common people will not have enough to eat and will starve to death!" This was Aliceville Celestio's last struggle.

"Not having enough to eat..."

The next sentence plunged Alice Wilt into despair.

"Why not eat minced meat?"