Chapter 74 - You Guys Were Too Excited
“Haah.”
Dan Minha frowned at the throbbing headache rising again today.
It had been half a year since she started acting as regent.
The political situation was still like walking on thin ice.
From her mother, the Empress, who kept trying to test her and burned with the will to throw her in a storage box if she made a mistake,
To the lizard bastards who, somehow, had gained the Emperor’s trust and suddenly risen to become the main faction in the palace.
It was fortunate that there were human officials who took her side, otherwise she might have been purged at any time.
Moreover, today’s agenda also greatly irritated Dan Minha.
-You must issue a prohibition order to correct the discipline of the capital, Your Majesty!
The discipline of the capital, my foot.
They were selling only makgeolli which, though tasty, completely shattered your head with a hangover the next day.
As soon as a new culture entered, they immediately closed the doors and advocated for isolationism, which was infuriating.
How dare they try to interfere with the business of the man the Imperial Princess had her eye on.
She wanted to overturn it right away, but.
Unfortunately, Dan Minha lacked justification.
The slogan put up by the prohibition supporters:
Let’s drink the alcohol we make ourselves.
Long live drinking our own local products.
If you object, you’re a traitor.
She was properly caught by this.
“When they’re the ones actually selling out the country…”
Crunch.
Recently, those lizard bastards,
Especially the actions of the dinosaur bastards, were very suspicious.
So she had the Revelator follow them,
But there hadn’t been any satisfactory results yet.
“Your Highness. A request for an audience has come from Lord Ark.”
“!”
Speak of the devil.
The wrinkles on Dan Minha’s brow melted away.
She hurriedly looked at her reflection in the bronze mirror,
And adjusted her clothes in case anything was disheveled.
Although she couldn’t directly see herself due to the lowered screen, Dan Minha still smoothed and adjusted,
Unable to contain her excitement.
Only after thoroughly grooming herself did she finally,
“Let him enter.”
She squeezed out the most dignified voice possible.
Soon the door slid open.
“I greet the Imperial Princess.”
Seeing him greet her very politely, following palace etiquette with a respectful voice, her heart pounded again today.
“Yes.”
The thought of immediately removing this screen, running out in her socks, grabbing those arms and dragging him to the basement to lock him up and admire him alone sprung up strongly, but.
She was the First Imperial Princess of the empire and the legitimate heir to the throne.
She couldn’t afford the political damage from such behavior “already”.
Dan Minha had firmly made up her mind like that, but.
“Imperial Princess, I am truly wronged…”
The moment she saw his deer-like eyes filled with sadness, his voice dripping with 300% sincerity of wrongdoing,
One of the chains tightly binding Dan Minha’s sanity snapped with a loud crack.
At first, I had no intention of clinging to power and running after the Imperial Princess going “wah wah, Imperial Princess-sama”.
My shop that had been packed for three days straight.
Unofficial name: Ark’s General Store Branch 2.
Official name: Sentimental Bar ‘Starry Night’ – even if its business declined a bit, I could endure it.
Buy Celestia’s vodka, add a few times the margin, and sell it in Neo-Hanyang.
Just by running that routine a little, I was able to rake in an enormous amount of money.
It was basic international trade.
But with no tariffs, and market prices in the dark.
If the prohibition was just a passing incident,
I believed that if I endured a little, the sun would rise again.
“Haha, as expected of His Majesty the Emperor!”
“He’s merciless. Indeed. Since ancient times, alcohol should be thick to be tasty, how could such alcohol of unknown origin and no foundation become popular in the capital?”
Until I witnessed the scene of blatantly selling alcohol that should have been banned in a tavern I saw while walking down the street.
What’s this?
People living without laws?
It’s absolutely not because I’m jealous.
I’m a person with a strong law-abiding spirit.
I scurried over to a constable loitering nearby and tattled.
“Hey, aren’t they selling alcohol? How can they sell alcohol when a prohibition order has been issued under the august national law?”
However.
The staff of the people, no, the six-sided club of the commoners, only snorted at my report.
“Look here, foreign lord. How is that alcohol? It’s grain tea.”
“…?”
I was at a loss for words at this absurd nonsense that only drunk monks would say.
Moreover, the tavern owner who was fooling around inside popped out and,
“Yes, yes! It’s grain tea made by boiling rice until soft! Hehe, would you like to have a table?”
“Hmm, though public duties are busy, it’s also a constable’s duty to listen to the voice of the people. Maybe I’ll taste the grain tea once.”
I witnessed with my own eyes the sight of them putting their arms around each other’s shoulders and scurrying into the tavern.
The scene of collusion between the private and public sectors…!
A sense of justice burned in my chest.
And now again.
The angel-like Imperial Princess, who had seriously listened from beginning to end to my grievances full of wrongdoing due to discrimination against foreigners,
Whispered like starlight.
Although I may be of foreign origin,
That kind of gloomy discrimination should not exist.
Also, under the august national law, even if it’s brewed with rice, there can be no exception to the prohibition. Unless it’s not rice.
Her words were a hundred times right.
“Hehehe.”
And one document I obtained.
[Certificate of Exclusive Sales Rights]
This will bring about the normalization of Neo-Hanyang.
That day.
“Oh no, my lord. Why are you doing this!”
“Hmph. I’m executing public duties. Confiscate everything!”
Most of the carefully brewed makgeolli in the taverns within Neo-Hanyang’s walls was confiscated.
The jars of thick stored alcohol were sucked right into the warehouses of the Office of the Inspector General, adding flavor as they aged.
Originally, alcohol made by aging is imbued with ‘the angel’s share’.
The nameless angels in the Office of the Inspector General secretly diverted the confiscated alcohol that day and shouted “Long live the Imperial Princess” while savoring happiness.
But no one dared to curse the direct bloodline of the supremely august imperial family, the First Imperial Princess.
If they cursed, their bodies would complete a phase transition into a storage box at some point.
Instead,
“That foreigner called Ark or evil spirit is the problem.”
“Taking away alcohol from the common people, he deserves divine punishment!”
Seeing the sight of one sycophant, relying only on his looks, shaking the country up and down in just three days,
Sighs of loyal subjects overflowed here and there.
They had struck first with the prohibition order because they were annoyed and meddled behind the scenes,
But people naturally don’t remember things that are disadvantageous to them.
“He’s acting too big for a foreigner.”
The bourgeois class that owned about half the shares of all the taverns in Neo-Hanyang.
The dinosaurs’ mood became displeased.
Happiness shared is doubled.
Misfortune shared is halved.
Although there was the regrettable incident of my new store, Starry Night, falling into a state of temporary closure,
The ‘side income’ I collected while circling around Hanyang today was quite salty, so there was no big problem even if I closed for a while.
Wages?
Is there a need to pay wages when there’s no work?
Food ingredients?
If customers don’t eat it, Rene eats it all anyway.
Electricity bill?
Haha.
This store is under the direct jurisdiction of the First Imperial Princess. There’s no way management fees would come out.
Having minimized the losses that original business owners should have incurred, a smile bloomed on the corners of my mouth even in this situation.
“Hm? Sleeping here today?”
“Nya!”
The heroes freely came and went between Celestia and Neo-Hanyang.
Whether they didn’t like my minimalist interior design or not, the guild house in Celestia was more popular.
But there were also oddballs like Tinya now who specifically came to Neo-Hanyang to sleep.
Of course, there were also heroes who had completely settled here like me.
“The kyaoo concentration around Master is getting thicker, woof…”
Lumi, who would probably follow me even if I opened a shop in hell, has recently been raising her tail sharply due to an inexplicable intuition.
“Hehe. Ark-nim? This concubine has brewed some medicinal herbs for you.”
“It’s an aphrodisiac, right? I won’t drink it.”
“As expected, Ark-nim has good eyes.”
Elise, who is usually kind and nice but becomes desperate to feed me something with some severe ingredients at night, were the regular members.
Other than that, Yohena regularly appeared to establish military discipline, and Saha would pop out shyly in a bikini, now forgetting even shame.
But tonight was relatively quiet.
Lumi, Elise, and Tinya. Just the three of them.
Four if you include Renatel who went out for a walk saying she couldn’t sleep.
Well, whatever.
It was already 3 AM.
Elise’s medicinal brew was a bit much, so I thought about having a glass of vodka and lying down in bed, and just as I got up from the sofa with a heave,
[A new branch has occurred based on the Revelator’s actions and relationships between characters.]
“…?”
Suddenly, a window I had never seen before popped up.
Moreover.
That wasn’t the end.
[An event has occurred. You will forcibly enter the tower.]
[The current number of heroes in the guild house is insufficient. A party will be formed automatically.]
[Party 1: Lumi, Elise, Tinya, Renatel]
[Party 2: Vacant]
“Huh?”
Without even time to properly understand the meaning of the message,
I felt my body being sucked somewhere.
The sensation of entering the tower passed through my whole body.
And.
Although the visible scenery hadn’t changed at all──
[Entering Tower of Wishes 23rd Floor Zone 1]
[Tower of Wishes 23rd Floor – Neo-Hanyang Zone 1]
[★☆☆: Survive.]
[★★☆: Win without anyone falling.]
[★★★: Find out who’s behind the attackers.]
For the first time, not by my will,
But by the tower’s will, I entered a zone.
An inexplicable ominousness crept down my spine.
“Master! Are you okay, woof?”
“What’s going on, what’s going on?”
“Oh my… Surely Ark-nim hasn’t entered the tower, right?”
The three heroes burst open the door to my room with question marks floating above their heads.
At the same time,
The outside suddenly became as bright as day, and the sound of many people surrounding us, buzzing.
“…”
This is bad.
There are too many things I can guess.
I don’t even know which malicious forces are behind this…!