“Drunkards are so full of openings that it’s actually hard to hold back enough. They can’t aim worth a damn, which actually makes it harder to dodge their attacks since they go all over the place.”
I wanted to return to my office and get back to work, but there were still a dozen more giants I had to subdue. Granted, this was nothing compared to the time I had to spar with a hundred werecats, at least.
“All right, who’s next? I have a meeting I need to make, so hurry it up.”
“Damn you!” yelled another giant as they charged in.
To my surprise, they decided to attack me one at a time. Oh wait, it’s probably because the street is too narrow for more to attack at once. I made the third giant’s left foot extremely heavy, applying the principles of Gusokujutsu, but with magic.
“Hwuh?!” the giant yelled in surprise as he fell, and I made his right hand heavier as well to keep him stuck to the ground.
That’s another one down. Grinning, I turned back to the remaining giants.
“Well, since I have to do this anyway, I might as well have some fun with it. So, who’s next?”
Half a minute later, the battle was over.
“I get that you wanted to blow off some steam after weeks of hard work. There’s nothing inherently wrong with getting drunk, but please do it outside the city next time, or you’ll end up destroying all the warehouses you worked so hard to build,” I said gently to the young giants. Eight of them were incapacitated, while the other five sat meekly on the ground, trembling in fear.
“W-We’re sorry!” one exclaimed.
“We won’t do it again!” added another.
You don’t have to yell so loud... You’re gonna make me go deaf. Ryunheit was growing rapidly, and small villages were already popping up outside the newer districts of the city. These giants had all been hired to help construct new houses and buildings for those villages. They were new to the city, and the work had started stressing them out. Unsurprisingly, a human city felt a bit claustrophobic for giants. But still, I needed these guys to get along with humans, or it’d cause problems down the line—especially with how threatening humans could be. A human with a Blast Rifle could easily take down a giant.
I smiled at the giants and said, “If you really need to vent all that excess energy, come join the Demon Army. We’ll take good care of you.”
“O-Okay.” One of the giants nodded.
A few seconds later, a kentauros messenger galloped up to me. She was a young girl, still in her teens.
“Um, Lord Veight!”
“Is it time for the meeting? Don’t worry, I’ll be there soon.”
“No, it’s not that.”
“Then what?”
In an apologetic tone, the girl said, “The Demon Lord said you haven’t finished today’s reports, and she needs them for the upcoming meeting.”
“Urgh! I totally forgot!”
I needed to get back ASAP.
Somehow, I managed to finish the reports in time for the meeting, but as always, the meeting itself was an exhausting ordeal.
“What kind of budget proposal is this?! Both Beluza and Lotz are raking in profits from the new trade routes! Us folk in the north need help the most!” shouted Yuninel, the new viceroy of Draulight.
Draulight, the City of Peaks, was the northernmost city in Meraldia and, as its name suggested, was surrounded by mountains. Yuninel was the youngest child of the old viceroy and hadn’t even celebrated his twentieth birthday yet. Back when I fought the Senate, he was just an infant. However, it seemed he had support from his siblings, who held substantial influence in the city. He did seem to be trying his best to be a good viceroy.
Unfortunately, Beluza’s viceroy Garsh wasn’t one to let someone younger than his own son talk back to him.
“Oh, give me a break! Your city got all the funds back when the Senate still controlled Meraldia! We’re finally catching up to your lot in the north, so don’t say you need the money more!”
What Garsh said was true. The Senate was primarily staffed by people from the northern cities. Furthermore, the Senate seats were inherited positions, and after many generations, most Senators had become quite corrupt. However, Yuninel didn’t live through the time of the Senate.
“That’s ancient history now! I wasn’t even born to experience it!” Yuninel shot back. “You have to look at the present! If Rolmund attempts another invasion, Draulight will be on the front lines! Without that funding, we’ll fall instantly! Do you really want to give Rolmund a foothold to invade the rest of Meraldia?!”
This was a reasonable argument. Granted, I’d made plenty of under-the-table deals with Eleora, so it was unlikely Rolmund would invade. And since Rolmund had come to our aid when we’d asked for help in slaying the dragon, it was safe to say Rolmund was an allied nation at this point. But the official story was that tensions still existed between Meraldia and Rolmund, giving the northern viceroys a valid pretense to request more funding. The worry that Rolmund might attack again wasn’t entirely unfounded. They didn’t know Eleora as well as I did, after all. In her campaign, Eleora had managed to conquer a vast swath of northern Meraldia and even push as far south as Ryunheit. If one focused solely on her military achievements, she made for a very dangerous empress.
“Calm yourself, Sir Yuninel. Let’s hear what the other viceroys have to say,” I said, giving him a placating smile. “The funds we have to allocate come from taxes we levy on each of the cities. We all have an equal say in how this money should be spent.”
“If you say so, Professor...” Out of respect for me, Yuninel reluctantly backed down. Like most young nobles in Meraldia, Yuninel had graduated from Meraldia University.
The Commonwealth Council received a fixed amount of tax revenue from each city and then redistributed those funds each year. The goal was to remove as much economic disparity between the cities of the Meraldian Commonwealth as possible.
As I tried to think of a compromise for Yuninel and Garsh, I absentmindedly flipped through the budget proposal Ryucco had given me. Reading through his sloppy handwriting, I let out another sigh. With how strained relations already were over the current budget, I wasn’t sure I could successfully advocate for diverting more funds to research.
Seeing an opportunity to interject, Belken, the viceroy of Krauhen, raised his hand. He was a sincere, mild-mannered man who’d served as viceroy for decades, but he was also shrewd enough to have sided with Eleora when Rolmund invaded sixteen years ago.