Ah...
Seeing such a scene before her, Ileina suddenly felt inexplicably uncomfortable...
She wasn't stupid—being extremely familiar with both Elashia and Catherine, she was very clear that Catherine was definitely using this method to make her anxious.
But... even though she clearly knew this, why was her heart still racing...
Looking at Catherine who was smiling while staring at her and Elashia who was looking at her with pleading eyes, Ileina felt inexplicably uncomfortable...
No! I must act!
Ileina bit her lip, mustered her courage, and said to Catherine in a voice all three could hear:
"No way, after the morning assembly ends I still need to discuss post-war cooperation between the Holy Kingdom and Elasia with Shia!"
Then she turned her head toward Elashia, her face reddening:
"Shia... if there's anything troubling you, you must tell me..."
Looking at Ileina who had lost her composure under Catherine's rather crude scheme, Elashia could only nod with an equally reddened face.
"Mm..."
Should she say this was truly Ileina...
Whether it was "Elashia's" schemes against Ileina in the game, or Catherine's obviously deliberate little act now, as long as it could be connected to Elashia in any way, it could make the wise and resolute Holy Princess lose her composure...
Sigh...
She should quickly help Ileina calm down now—the sun would rise soon...
Soon Ileina as the leader would have to lead everyone to watch the sunrise together...
This Catherine... really...
"Alright... Lena, you know what Miss Catherine is thinking..."
After Elashia finished speaking, she shyly lowered her head.
"Mm..."
After Ileina agreed with voice transmission, she also lowered her head with a reddened face.
"Hehe..."
Seeing the atmosphere between the two girls that seemed to bubble with pink bubbles, Catherine couldn't help but giggle foolishly.
...
Adelin, standing in front of the main platform, was still announcing Northern Fire's policies to everyone.
"Finally, as Northern Fire's administrative officer, I have the duty to remind our merchant compatriots in the Holy Capital—please maintain awareness of the red line, don't think about profiting from national disasters, don't inflate grain prices during special times!"
"If illegal means are used to damage the lives and safety of Holy Capital citizens, we will severely punish without mercy!"
...
Hearing Adelin's serious words, Elashia asked Catherine beside her somewhat strangely:
"Were there serious economic problems in the Holy Capital before?"
This was indeed a part not depicted in the game...
"Oh my... don't even mention it..."
Hearing Elashia's question, Catherine let out a long sigh.
"Before, some merchants in the Holy Capital would band together to hoard goods at the drop of a hat, causing grain prices in the Holy Capital to fluctuate wildly..."
"Sigh... it's really laughable to say—as the Holy Kingdom's capital, the Holy Capital experienced famines more frequently than our Holy Kingdom's average frequency..."
"Ah?"
This was something Elashia truly didn't know!
She hurriedly asked in surprise:
"But... didn't the Holy Court manage this at all before?"
Catherine smiled bitterly and shook her head.
"They managed... but how could they manage it."
"The government could indeed set minimum grain prices, but neither the Holy Court nor we could force merchants to definitely sell... and the black market would also greatly reduce the effectiveness of our policies."
"To maintain their rule, the Holy Court did indeed set minimum grain prices like us, but..."
"Speculative merchants even used this order to secretly purchase large quantities of grain and hoard it, only starting to sell after the Holy Capital began experiencing famines... In the end, not only did they make huge profits, even the Holy Court ultimately had to abandon grain control..."
After hearing Catherine's words, Elashia also became somewhat panicked.
"So these profiteering speculators are now even more powerful than before..."
Catherine nodded somewhat helplessly.
"Indeed... the Holy Court's previous policy failures definitely fattened up these conscienceless speculative merchants..."
"Sigh... this has always been a problem that greatly troubled us—after taking the Holy Capital, how exactly should we maintain the Holy Capital's economic order..."
"Originally we thought this problem wouldn't need to be faced for at least several years... we didn't expect we'd have to solve this thorny problem at this time..."
Hearing Catherine's words, Elashia smiled somewhat embarrassedly...
This... she really had to bear some responsibility...
After all, her previous self only knew she had to quickly help Northern Fire liberate the Holy Kingdom—she really hadn't thought carefully about these specific problems...
"Uh... I really should bear some responsibility for this..."
However, before Elashia finished speaking, Ileina smiled and interrupted her.
"Shia, it's fine."
Ileina smiled at Elashia.
"As long as you're by my side, I can defeat enemies in any form, whether they're Blood Clan with powerful magic or those profiteers hiding in the darkness of the Holy Capital..."
Elashia's face reddened even more from Ileina's unexpected romantic statement, and she glared at her shyly.
"Really... we're not children anymore, why suddenly say these meaningless sweet words..."
Ileina's sudden sweet talk caught Elashia somewhat off guard.
Logically... in the game, Ileina's character shouldn't be such a frivolous girl who liked saying these boundless sweet words to her...
Even because she wasn't good at expressing herself, most of the time Ileina hadn't even expressed her feelings for "Elashia" before "Elashia" died in battle or before she herself died in battle...
"Ah? Why do you say that?"
Being told this by Elashia, it was Ileina who became confused first.
Actually... what she just said didn't have even a bit of falsehood...
As a true leader, although Ileina generally delegated domestic affairs to Adelin who specialized in them and military matters to military genius Catherine, she wasn't completely ignorant of these things...
And she was very clear—as long as Elashia was by her side, she really could face the Blood Clan without fear and could also easily solve the Holy Capital's economic problems...
However, as Northern Fire's leader, although Ileina's emotional intelligence was somewhat low, she wasn't stupid.
Soon she realized—her careless words had made Elashia misunderstand again!
"Uh... no... Shia, you misunderstood me..."
"Alright... stop talking, the sun is about to rise soon, and you'll need to speak in a moment."
Looking at Ileina who was hurriedly defending herself, Elashia reminded her speechlessly.