What did you do with the dice?

The latter carefully tried not to make any sound as he bowed deeply to Rusalka. "Grand Duke Pearl Tears, it's an honor to meet you. I'm a junior manager in charge of material mobilization within Silver City. I've taken the liberty of visiting you today for a simple matter. It's simply about Mr. Crown's shipment. I'd like to personally report to Lord Sanita regarding the details of the storage allocation and the logistics transport team's itinerary."

Rusalka said to Crown, "You're the only one who's well-informed," and then said to the official, "Don't bother looking for Sanita. He's busy. Just talk to me directly."

The other party was quite surprised. He had never thought that Rusalka, who never met with officials in person, would suddenly be in the mood to listen to a report today. Moreover, Sanita seemed to be away. This made him so nervous that his whole body was shaking. He repeatedly checked in his mind, thinking about whether there was anything overlooked in the seemingly ordinary reports he received. "It's really an honor."

Rusalka glanced at Shangri-La, who was standing there in a daze, holding a biscuit. She felt secretly proud of herself. On the surface, she pretended to be used to it and said to the two people standing there, "This is the lounge. We don't have so many rules in my house. You can find an empty seat. Maid, bring you two some refreshments."

"Okay, Master."

The maid pulled out the small sofa beside the table for them, bowed, and walked out the door. Less than a minute later, she came back pushing a cart full of refreshments.

It seems that the kitchen in the City Lord's Mansion has become accustomed to Clown's visits. They have prepared the dining cart in advance and are ready to entertain the guests as soon as Rusalka gives the order.

"Let me introduce you. This is Shangri-La, the direct ancestor of our Grand Duke Zhulei's family. He has been living in seclusion in the Kingdom of God, but I have invited him here now."

Clown immediately stood up and bowed to Shangri-La, extending his hand. "Hello, hello. My name is Clown. I'm a small businessman whose business has only just begun to flourish under the care of the Grand Duke of Pearl Tear Territory."

The official next to him also followed, but he knew that his status was not as good as Clown's and he was not as close to Rusalka, so he did not dare to extend his hand: "Hello, Lord Shangri-La, my name is Newman, and I am just an insignificant non-commissioned officer under the Grand Duke."

Shangri-La smiled awkwardly, nodded to the two, and after symbolically shaking Clown's hand, stood up and wanted to leave. "Then you two can chat. I'm just a knight now, and you, as the head of the family, should take care of the family affairs. It's not convenient for me to interrupt or interfere in government affairs, so please step aside."

Rusalka immediately stopped him. She was finally in a favorable situation, so how could she let him get away with it? "What do you mean by interrupting? It's nothing serious. We're family, so how can that be called interference? Just sit down and listen to me tell you (the story of Versailles)."

Shangri-La declined, "Really? No need. Rules are rules. You are the head of the family now, and you have the highest status. I will just be responsible for fighting for you."

Rusalka: “Do you really think so?”

The old ancestor nodded.

After hearing this, Rusalka burst into laughter, pointed at Shangri-La, and shouted rudely, "Then I order you to sit here in the name of the Pearl Tears Patriarch. You are not allowed to leave. What are you doing? You don't obey? I am the Pearl Tears Patriarch now. How dare you disobey me?"

The smile on Shangri-La's face suddenly froze, and his brain froze for several seconds before he came back to his senses from Rusalka's words.

Damn it, how could his descendant Rusalka be so disrespectful and disrespectful to his elders? Even in his previous life, no one in his family dared to speak to him like this. Even his master when he was a knight knew his limits. How could he issue such arrogant orders?

Shangri-La's face immediately shifted to a faint scowl, but he couldn't do anything about Rusalka. He couldn't just lash out here. On the one hand, how could he slap his own offspring in front of outsiders? On the other hand, Rusalka was right. His status was higher than his own. He was the master of this house, while he was just a guest knight.

According to the rules, how could I commit a crime against the head of the family?

But Shangri-La, who was well versed in aristocratic rules, always felt that there was something wrong with this logic. No matter what, he picked up the identity card and scolded him as an unfilial descendant first.

He could only glare at Rusalka and say, "You've gone crazy, you rascal! How dare you talk to your elders like that?! It really makes me mad! Didn't anyone in your family teach you manners?"

Rusalka nodded to Shangri-La and said sincerely, "Yes, my parents died when I was very young."

Shangri-La fell silent for a moment, the lingering anger on his face turned into immense guilt and self-blame. He cursed himself in his heart for forgetting about this matter. He didn't know how to be reserved and argue with the younger generation. It was his fault in this matter. He was living a dog's life at his age.

He sighed and was about to apologize to Rusalka when he heard Rusalka suddenly burst into laughter:

"Haha, I'm kidding. I was already an adult when they sent it, and I actually don't care at all. Did you ever want to apologize to me just now?"

Shangri-La didn't feel suffocated in the sea, but now she felt like she couldn't breathe: "You...you..."

Rusalka: What's wrong? You still want to kill all nine of my clans? It's like we're mutually deterring each other. We're both within the attack range of each other's nine clans. This is invincible.

"Hey, hey, hey, and oh, ancestor, that's not what you promised just now. If you don't keep your word, your nose will get longer!"

"Tsk..." Shangri-La was speechless. He glanced at Rusalka, then looked at Clown, snorted coldly, and tried to find another breakthrough point: "Besides the fact that he is indeed heartless, does he look even a little bit like a qualified noble?"

Crown and Newman didn't dare to say a word: Then...what else?

"A Grand Duke is supposed to protect a territory and suppress the powerful. I've never heard of someone with such a stubborn character becoming a Grand Duke."

Clown thought: I heard that tens of millions of orc troops in Alice City were wiped out by Rusalka in one fell swoop. This is too overwhelming. He must be the Grand Duke, right?

Shangri-La continued, "I don't know if you're the bards he hired to perform, but you might not know that according to the Nobility Law, anyone who pretends to be a noble will have their title stripped and will never be granted another title. Anyone who spreads these rumors will have their entire family executed! If you tell the truth now, I'll pretend nothing happened and not blame you. Otherwise, this matter won't end."

This situation confused Clown, but his brain was working quickly. Rusalka's upgrade speed was indeed quite fast. It was possible that he had found this in some ancient forest deep in the mountains and had never heard of it. "This Lord Shangri-La, this Lord Pearl Tear is really the Grand Duke of the Kingdom!"

Shangri-La demanded, "What's the evidence?"

Everyone in the country knows that he is, but Rusalka thinks that there seems to be no evidence. Is it possible to take the ancestors to the palace in Alice City and find Challens to testify for him?

What if our ancestors say that the emperor is fake? Idealism seems to be invincible. Should we eat breakfast or not?

But what Rusalka didn't expect was that Clown nodded with an expression that said, "Fortunately, I was prepared." He said, "Yes, elder of the Pearl Tears family, I have the canonization letter of Grand Duke Rusalka."

As he spoke, Crown took off his coat, unbuttoned the lining, and took out the tax exemption order wrapped in a triple-layer enchanted leather sheath from his underwear, and placed it carefully on the table.

Then he made another click, and suddenly pulled open the second layer of clothes as if he was about to reveal two rows of grenades.

Then, under the astonished gaze of the crowd, he slowly untied the rope tied around his chest and removed the first copy of the original Rusalka Grand Duke enthronement decree that he had paid a huge sum for, which was tied to his body. He handed it to Shangri-La on the spot: "Please take a look. These are documents that have been stamped by the royal family and the three dukes."

To be honest, even Rusalka himself had never seen the investiture document. It seemed that Sanitita had received it on his behalf at that time.

But when Rusalka looked at the way and position in which Crown took out the two things, she suddenly felt that this guy seemed a little disgusting.

He had completely imagined this scene: this byd Crown was drinking and chatting with someone, and suddenly he got excited and pulled open his clothes to reveal the tax exemption order on his chest. Then, under the envious eyes of those people, he put the tax exemption order down, and then pulled open the second layer of clothes to reveal the book of enthronement.

What's going on? How can he be so incredibly talented? Why does my Rusalka always pull it open with such a cool pose? It seems like it's really the exploding crystal that Sanita prepared for me?

Clown, you have changed. You are no longer that pure greedy businessman. You have become so flattering for a little power and vanity. But you never thought that the person you show off so much to must also be burying your father and mother in the cemetery in his heart. Is it really worth it?

The royal seal and the three duke seals on this enthronement book were almost all passed down from generation to generation. Although Shangri-La had never seen all of them, he had seen the two from the De Lai family and the royal family.

As we all know, the method of making this magic rubbing scroll is to use magic ink to rub things in reality.

If that is the case, then the existence of a copy means that there must be a corresponding original copy, which means that what is recorded on it is a true event.

There is no photo-editing function in this world, and the mages at that time were either getting stronger or conducting experiments to get stronger. Everyone was busy fighting, and they were not so bored as to develop piracy functions, so this sentence was really right in the eyes of the older generation in Shangri-La.

Watching Shangri-La's face change colors like a neon light, Rusalka smirked at him, "Ancestor, I know you don't believe me because you can't accept that I'm better than you. In fact, many times you shouldn't question reality. Instead, you should reflect on yourself. Have you trained well and worked hard to improve yourself? Why am I just a knight, and not a great knight?"

"You rascal... uh, I mean, um, His Majesty, the Grand Duke of Pearl Tears. I think we can discuss this matter later. Right now, you should deal with the matters these two want to report first, how about that?"

"Ancestor, I still like that rebellious attitude you displayed when you entered the city. Can you show me that again? The one where you said, 'My descendants are better than me, I'm so happy I can't even be jealous.'"

Shangri-La was so angry that she almost wanted to have a knight duel with Rusalka on equal terms.

But his reason restrained him - a duel would be equivalent to giving Rusalka another chance to bark, because in his impression, the difference in strength between a great knight and a knight was as huge as heaven and earth, and he, a knight, should not be able to beat a great knight like him.

I am a knight of the kingdom who strictly abides by the Eight Honors and Eight Shames. How could I be jealous of my descendants and fellow tribesmen living a good life?

Are you kidding me? !

But Shangri-La was also puzzled: Why was it that Rusalka, the descendant of the Pearl Tears family, was so proud of herself, but she really couldn't be happy at all?

Is it a side effect of coming back to life?

Shangri-La fell into self-doubt.

But happiness will not disappear out of thin air, it will only be transferred to another person, such as Phoenix, who has seen through everything and is gently shaking his tail.

Maomao was in a good mood because she knew that with a new target, Rusalka would probably not cause trouble for her and Hydra for a while.

Chapter 431 My Neighbor Stores Food, I Store Guns

Rusalka wasn't such a petty person. After explaining his ancestors' previous distrust of him, he felt relieved and decided to get down to business. "So, let's get back to the point. Why do you want to find the Sani Tower?"

Clown took a sip of tea, quickly swallowed it with a gulp, and then spoke to Rusalka, "Lord Pearl Tear, the situation is this: your aide, Sanitieta, asked me to order a large quantity of grain. Rumors of my stockpiling of food couldn't be concealed, causing prices to rise. Therefore, it may be too late to purchase the goods as originally planned."

Newman next to him echoed, "Yes, I'm here for this batch of grain as well. The quartermaster said there's too much of it, and the barracks warehouses can't hold it all. It's fine in the winter, but if it's left on the ground after summer, it'll rot. So, I wanted to ask if you could allocate it to other cities within the territory. Or, if you don't want to go through too much trouble, there's another option. We could divide this grain into military rations, issue a war requisition order, and temporarily requisition commercial and private underground warehouses in the city for storage."

Rusalka found this very strange. Crown said he didn't have enough time to buy more goods, and Newman said there was too much to store. How could these two people contradict themselves? "How much food did Sanita buy?"

Crown replied, "Five hundred thousand gold coins."

Rusalka was stunned: "Mr. Duo?!"

It’s not that his ears are bad, but the food worth 500,000 gold coins, combined with the food stored in the warehouse, can probably allow millions of people in the entire Pearl Tears Territory to lie at home and do nothing, eating their fill for a year.

This amount of gold coins cannot be covered up by just one word because of one's wealth and power. Sani Tieta's action is probably to use all the available funds in the Pearl Tears Territory to buy food.

What does this mean? Is he planning to raise the price of food?

I still remember that when he was just born and was still a small baron, his annual net disposable income was dozens of gold coins. However, Sanita had investigated and found that in the pre-baron era, the annual income of a well-off family was 2 gold coins per capita.

In the eternal plane, food is actually not a scarce commodity. Rusalka has data on the soil fertility of this world in her head. It is ridiculously high. The output of slash-and-burn farming can be comparable to that of hybrid rice.

Therefore, the daily food expenses required by a normal family may be lower, because most families have their own farmland and are self-sufficient in food. Basic ingredients are basically not sold in the market, and those that are sold are mostly through barter.

Only lords would do such a strange thing as "buying grain", and they would only buy the best batch, which would be used for banquets or brewing wine.

Now that Sani Iron Tower has changed its policy and made Zhulei County "industrialized" and "commercially regulated", the annual income of an ordinary worker in Zhulei County has reached 6 gold coins. If the annual income of a soldier is included in his military merits, the average income is as much as 10 gold coins.

However, in this situation, the price of food actually dropped significantly due to Sanitieta's policy of "exempting military service from food tax". This once caused dissatisfaction among the catering industry and full-time farmers, because it was equivalent to reducing their income in disguise, resulting in a widening gap between them and the soldiers.

This also made Sani Tieta realize that the supply of food in the market seemed to far exceed the demand, but this was very strange. Why was this so? When he first landed, he saw many people who did not have enough food to eat.

Later he found out that it was not that he could not eat enough, but that the lord did not feed him enough. He could not help but sigh that it was the older generation of native nobles who knew how to balance the market of the permanent plane through "exploitation". It really makes sense not to fix bugs if the program can run.

He later added the "government agricultural subsidy purchase policy" to quell the momentum that almost led to conflict between the army and farmers.

In fact, in almost all cities of the Sinidi nobles, a large amount of spoiled grain is dumped every year to farmers as fertilizer for free, or simply distributed to the poor for free to ensure that they do not starve to death.

Although the nobles are bad, they are not stupid. They know that they can force people to be poor, but they cannot force them to starve to death. Moreover, talent is the most valuable resource. As long as they breathe in the territory for one day, they must have value that can be exploited.

As for pouring out grain, the logic is actually different from pouring out milk: it is not that building cellars and adding freezing runes to store grain is bad, but it is more cost-effective to pour it out directly. You don’t even need to hire someone to deal with it. The people will take the initiative to "clean up the garbage" for the lord's family.

Seeing Rusalka's big reaction, Clown thought that Rusalka might know about this matter, but there was just a small discrepancy in the amount.

When he heard the order quota, his reaction was even greater than Rusalka's. He canceled the date right then and there, leaving the girl alone in the restaurant while he rushed to the Chamber of Commerce headquarters to verify the original contract. "Well, it's indeed the upper limit of 500,000 gold coins, and the down payment of 100,000 gold coins has already been transferred to our Chamber of Commerce. We also think it's outrageous, but he did bring the document with your personal seal, so it must be authentic."

There was something that Crown had in his heart that he didn't dare to say: Even if the documents are fake, what does it have to do with me? I'm just a businessman. As long as the gold coins are real, it's fine. I'm only responsible for bringing the goods, and I don't have to worry about it.

Rusalka: (Brother, you're using this amount to buy food. Do you want to starve all the starving ghosts in hell to death when the demons attack? If you want food, why don't you increase the tax?)

Sanitita: (With a year and a half left, what else do you think we can do with this money besides strengthening the city's defenses? Don't forget, the First Demon War lasted a full fifteen years on the Eternal Plane. According to incomplete statistics, the number of people who died of starvation due to being unable to farm was actually greater than the number who died in battle with the demons.)

Rusalka: (Oh, the whole world complains about too much food, only Sanita is frantically buying it. People laugh at him and call him an idiot, but he remains unmoved because only he knows that in seven days, demons will invade the Eternal Plane. He survived to the end, but was still starved to death by Bai Yueguang and the rich second generation who pried open the city gate and stole the food.)

(This time, he vowed not to repeat his mistakes. He was determined to buy up all the food, build a solid Silver City, and make those who betrayed him in his previous life pay the price.)

Sanita: (I told you to watch less short videos and read more books, but now you're completely hopeless. Even if you die of overeating, you still think it's a waste of food. Ask Clown how much he can bring within the deadline.)

"How much can you bring within the time limit?"

Crown calculated for a moment: "Well, if it's the original price, it's at most five... no, a hundred thousand."

Rusalka: "Then let's reduce it from 100,000 to 200,000."

Clown didn't feel sorry. After all, he didn't think that Sanita would push the order to the upper limit. In fact, he expected 100,000 in his heart. The extra 100,000 was enough to make him overjoyed - he got a full 5% commission for this order, and it was a commission based on transaction volume rather than net profit. 200,000 meant that he could take 10,000 gold coins, which was more than enough for him to buy a Baron in Sinidi.

Of course, it was impossible for him to buy the baron title. After all, as the royal merchant in the Pearl Tears Territory, the earl looked at him as if he was looking at the shadow of Rusalka behind him, so he had to give him some face. Could a baron have such treatment?

Sani Iron Tower: (Well, considering the transportation risks and wartime losses, a year's supply of food for the entire Pearl Tear Territory is still not a safe bet. After all, demons don't eat grains. What if they learn to wage guerrilla warfare this time? With a year and a half to go, maybe we should pass a policy to encourage agriculture, impose a rationing order, and stockpile enough supplies to last at least three years.)

Just as Sanita was thinking, Crown suddenly came up with a clever idea: "But if you are really short of military rations, I have a good idea."

Crown knew that Sanita was preparing for war by openly hoarding food at such a time. Who wouldn't hoard so much food for war? They were waiting to make fertilizer, right?

Store up a lot of grain and become king.

But he didn't care about the reason at all. He didn't care that the Sunny Tower might bring war equally to every piece of land in the world. He only cared about whether he could do some business.

This business is addictive. Although he is not short of money, he enjoys the feeling of being pursued and envied by other businessmen after making a lot of money. This feeling is much better than making money itself.

But blind flattery is boring. It is better to add some secret slander and bad words to it. Watching those losers huddle together and keep themselves warm by cursing each other, only those who have tasted it know how it feels. Even the most beautiful woman in the world will instantly seem dull compared to it.

Seeing that Clown had an idea, Rusalka, who was already here and wanted to speak freely, and even wanted to hear some outrageous ideas, naturally didn't think his IQ was low: "Tell me about it."

Clown was indeed well-informed, and his perspective differed from Sanita's. "I heard the elves have preserved the ancient recipe for compressed biscuits. These biscuits, using a special elven technique, can store and compress food. Not only do they never spoil, but one bite can also provide a soldier with a day's worth of rations. However, the Elven Forest is shrouded in a vast mist, and they never allow non-elves to enter, nor do they trade with humans."

"However, I see there are many elves in the Lord's mansion. Since you are short of food, why don't you ask them to act as middlemen and trade with the Elf Forest on your behalf?"

Rusalka: "I know the cookies you're talking about. They were in the warehouse when Alice's Magic Castle went back in time. They're little elf cookies."

As for the second half of Crown's sentence, he knew it even more. It was something that Great England had already played out a long time ago: clear the fog and enjoy free trade!

Crown's plan is feasible, but Sanita doesn't want to waste time making a trip for some groundless intelligence.

And the more he learned, the more ignorant he felt. He now wanted to apologize to the fog formation.

At least he couldn't think of any means to forcibly crack the thing other than "filling the capacity": the core of this thing is in the fog, and if you want to crack the core, you have to go through the fog first, but if you want to go through the fog without being allowed, you have to crack the core first, directly forming a nesting doll - it is worthy of being a thing passed down from the Age of Gods, it is more difficult to break than the formation of the Free City of Estelon.

However, this didn't stop him from casually confirming, "Alizee, Shana, let me ask you something. Do you elves still have the technology to make those ancient cookies?"

Alice's private chat message showed: (Yes, there are, but the cookies are dry and hard, and they taste terrible. We have tons of them in the Elf Forest, but not only can't we sell them, no one eats them either.)

Shana: (Do you want that? A cream cake can probably be exchanged for hundreds of them. Of course, I don’t think it’s worth it at all. After eating that thing, I won’t be able to eat anything delicious for the whole day.)

Sanita: "Oh, I see. I almost forgot. The elves have a very long lifespan. You might have preserved a lot of good technology here."

Alice said proudly, "Hehe, of course, Teacher Sanitieta, we elves who were born and raised under the World Tree are really powerful! Our teacher knows a lot of ancient magic, maybe there are some that you don't even know."

Sanitita smiled softly and said with emotion, "That's great! Why don't you sisters go back and find a chance to bring her here? I also want to see how your most powerful magic teacher of the elves teaches."