Hey, did you see today's 'Spark News'! The curfew system has been lifted!"
"I heard Northern Fire promised us yesterday that there would be no taxes this year!"
"I saw in today's newspaper that Elasians came to help us?"
"..."
Under the sun's radiant light, the Holy Capital's streets were now more full of life than ever before.
People crowded in front of Northern Fire's official newspaper office to buy today's paper.
According to Northern Fire's spokesperson—they would detail the events behind the Holy Capital battle in the newspaper and would widely collect the Holy Capital people's opinions on future development.
"Let me see..."
An elderly man with glasses squeezed out from the crowd, wiped his reading glasses, and began to examine carefully.
The newspaper's front page read—"Victory Belonging to Humanity—How Exactly Did Northern Fire Win."
The old man didn't care about these things and continued reading down.
After all, the Holy Capital had already become Northern Fire's prize, so looking at these things now had no meaning other than satisfying his curiosity.
Next, the section titled "How Should We Achieve Final Victory" under the headline caught his attention.
"Oh... these policies are indeed good..."
Looking at Northern Fire's promises in the newspaper of tax exemption, military non-interference in economic activities, lifting of curfews and such, the old man nodded.
The old man had previously been a minor government official in the Holy Capital. He could clearly judge from this content the possible development direction of an organization.
Things like reducing tax burden and lifting curfews were liked by everyone, but whether they could be achieved depended on the government's capability and specific circumstances.
Since Northern Fire could make such promises, it showed their confidence in maintaining the Holy Capital's economic order must be very strong...
Looking at Northern Fire's series of promises in the official newspaper, the old man couldn't help but mutter to himself...
"Good... good... it seems the Blood Clan's puppets can never return..."
However, before he could be satisfied for long, an extremely conspicuous text in the newspaper nearly scared his glasses right off!
"To Maintain the Holy Capital's Food Supply, We Make the Following Special Regulations"
Under the title, unbelievable new policies made his hands tremble...
"To maintain economic order, Northern Fire's Political Committee stipulates—in the Holy Capital, no grain store may raise prices above thirty copper coins per pound of bug rice, with a suggested price of ten copper coins per pound."
"As a supplementary measure, Northern Fire will establish state-run grain stores through rental at fifty locations in the Holy Capital, selling grain from Northern Fire's food reserves, including various grains from before the great catastrophe, with prices at most ten copper coins per pound..."
The old man trembled as he stood up while reading.
"No... I must write a letter of opinion to dissuade them!"
Who could have thought... Northern Fire would actually make the same mistake the Holy Court had already made!
Northern Fire's policy... wasn't this exactly the same as the Holy Court's previous error!
...
"Hehe... I thought Northern Fire's upper echelons would be so clever..."
Looking at the newspaper in his hands, the pot-bellied man smiled at his steward and underground merchant association members beside him.
"You all saw it too, right? It seems Northern Fire still wants to walk the Holy Court's old path again..."
The corners of his mouth curved into a confident smile as the man said to the merchant association members below:
"Just don't know... do they still have enough food reserves?"
"Hahahaha..."
The merchants below burst into laughter.
Hearing the association members' laughter, the man continued:
"Oh my, next... it's going to be old tricks with new twists!"
"If I say when we blocked the Holy Court last time I might not have had much confidence... but now..."
The man smiled at the merchant association members below:
"Do you know, through so many years of operation, how many resources our Louis Merchant Association can produce in an instant?"
Looking at the members at the table watching him with expectant eyes, Louis Das smiled and crossed two fingers.
"One hundred thousand!"
The merchants below looked at each other, and after a while, a merchant with gold teeth asked expectantly:
"One hundred thousand silver coins?"
One hundred thousand silver coins... converted to gold coins would be one thousand... plus the assets of other merchants in the association, they could completely gather three to four thousand gold coins!
According to Northern Fire's stipulated grain prices... this money could at least purchase tens of millions of pounds of grain!
Although this money was completely insufficient to contend with the Holy Court in the peaceful past, the smoke of war had just cleared from the Holy Capital!
This money was completely sufficient to shake the unsteady Northern Fire!
However, hearing his guess, the man burst into laughter.
"Hahahaha... brother, you're underestimating me too much!"
"We've monopolized the Holy Capital's grain trade for nearly ten years, could we only have this little savings?"
Louis Das stood up and walked to the large door behind the conference room.
Louis Das turned around and looked seriously at everyone:
"Today, bringing everyone here is to give everyone confidence!"
"I want to tell everyone—what the Holy Court couldn't do, Northern Fire equally cannot do!"
"Don't look at their military success, but when it comes to economics... there's not a single person in the entire Holy Kingdom who can contend with us!"
"Everyone! Watch carefully!"
The man forcefully pushed open the door that was several meters high!
Behind the door... was a brilliant golden expanse!
"My goodness..."
"This... are these all gold coins?"
"Has the Louis Merchant Association already accumulated such enormous resources..."
"Could it be... the one hundred thousand mentioned earlier... are gold coins?!"
Looking at the shocked crowd, Louis Das said proudly:
"I'm telling you all! We've definitely won this economic war!"
"Right now just from my side I can produce one hundred thousand gold coins! Adding your strength, we can completely give Northern Fire a good show of force!"
"Next, we just need to inflate grain prices like before, and then... it'll be time for these guys who claim to represent the Holy Kingdom people's interests to submit to us!"
...
Sitting comfortably on the temple sofa, Ileina looked at the news in the newspaper that was completely within her expectations, and listening to the sounds of cooking from the kitchen, somehow suddenly felt an unprecedented sense of satisfaction...
She was comfortably reading the newspaper on the sofa, the plan to reorganize the Holy Capital's economy was proceeding in an orderly manner, and Elashia was cooking for her in the kitchen...
The feeling... was just an inexplicable sense of happiness...
"Lena, don't lie down while reading the newspaper."
Elashia's gentle voice came from the kitchen, making Ileina quickly sit up.
"Mm... I know."
After sitting up, Ileina put down the newspaper and looked with gentle eyes at the petite figure busy in the kitchen.
Soon she would be able to eat Elashia's cooking while having a good chat with Elashia about all these years...