Unable to repay my student loans, I had no choice but to work part-time as a demon hunter.

Gordon took a deep breath.

"...The Blackwater Hermitage, they hold baptisms in the river, constantly drowning people, and calling those that float and move believers. For months, their behavior has escalated and caused great harm, reaching the point of systematically stealing imperial assets." Gordon finally brought the Blackwater Hermitage to the forefront.

"...Stealing Imperial assets?" Elizabeth looked at him calmly. "That's a very serious accusation."

"I was too lenient, ma'am."

Next, Gordon took out a blank sheet of paper and began to calculate.

"The Logris lads have tremendous energy; their lives are glorious."

"As everyone knows, Logris expects everyone to fulfill their responsibilities!"

"At three, he looked up at the chimneys and volunteered to crawl inside to clean them. At five, he loved industry and went to work odd jobs in factories. At twelve, he heard the call of the spinning machines and donated a few of his fingers. At sixteen, he heard that the ocean was the lifeblood of the empire and went to the docks to carry sacks. At twenty, he went deep into the mines and embraced the empire's coal. At twenty-five, he rallied his spirits, spent all his savings to marry and have children. At forty, the empire rewarded him with a trip around the world, but he was shot on an overseas battlefield."

"In forty years, a young man can be self-replicating and automatically reimbursed, driving value from birth to death. Even funerals will boost the coffin industry and support gravediggers."

"..." The count suppressed the corners of his mouth.

"..." Elizabeth fell silent.

“However!” Gordon drew a tiny man with gills on the other side of the paper, “Some people shove men into the river, and they come out with whiskers, gills, or scales. The fish-men don’t work, they don’t buy bread, coal, or new clothes, they only think about esoteric rituals all day. Then their wives and children lose their breadwinners and start lining up for welfare. If they don’t get welfare, the secret order comes to their door and tries to persuade them to join, it’s called buy one get two free…”

Elizabeth crossed her arms and continued listening.

"And to deal with these merfolk, we have to send people to capture them, which means we lose one laborer first, and then have to send another. A double loss. More importantly, the merfolk will no longer reproduce, or rather, the offspring they reproduce will not be human. In this sense, Logris has not only lost himself, but also his descendants."

"Then," Elizabeth finally spoke, "according to your calculations, what is the Empire's loss for each Wetfooted Person the Blackwater Hermitage converts?"

"By the most conservative estimate..." Gordon wrote down the formula, summarizing the young Logris's life, "approximately 200 gold pounds."

"The size of the secret order?"

"I'm not sure, but I'd guess at least 10,000 people. That's two million gold pounds, enough to clean up the Blackwater River twice."

The office was completely quiet.

  (Please remember that 101 Reading Network is the best choice for reading books. 20 ...

"..." Elizabeth closed her eyes and thought.

The count looked up at the chandelier on the ceiling.

He had already heard Gordon's fallacies before.

After the full discussion today, he found it quite reasonable.

It makes one want to expel the Blackwater Hermitage from this city immediately, leaving no one alive.

The most amazing thing is that the generous minister seemed to have taken it to heart!

"..." Elizabeth opened her eyes. "The Blackwater Hermitage is indeed a chronic problem."

"That's why I said these two questions are the same question." Gordon nodded.

He placed the draft of "The Blackwater Hermitage owes the Empire two million pounds" on Elizabeth's desk.

"Once the Blackwater Hermitage is eliminated, the risks of any river projects will decrease. By investigating their rituals, we can also figure out what is polluting the Blackwater River. This way, those digging the mud will know what they are digging for, and the Empire will no longer suffer losses."

"Your first thought was to dig in the mud."

"Let's proceed step by step. They've made so much money off the Empire; we need to make some back too. We can even find fish by following the pollution—"

"...Stop." Elizabeth's voice remained gentle. "You shouldn't have mentioned that name."

"it is good."

"Logris has one and only one monarch. One, not two."

"Big Fishman. Big Fishman," Gordon changed his tune.

"Who mentioned that monster to you?"

Eve Grant.

Elizabeth's gaze shifted subtly.

"She is under a ban, so the information she provides is invalid. Therefore, I must say that the existing information is insufficient to support your conclusion," Elizabeth said tactfully.

"The Royal Academy of Sciences will be holding a conference on the Blackwater River in June, where I will reveal many of the Blackwater River's mysteries and prove that everything is traceable," Gordon said, throwing out his final hook.

"Uncover the monster's secrets?"

"It can be peeled off, but only a little bit. I'll need to offer paid consultations for the rest."

Elizabeth gazed at Gordon for a moment, her gentleness unsettling.

“Well…” Elizabeth said, “if that presentation can truly reveal the mystery of the Blackwater River, I will lift the ban on Eve and allow her to assist in the investigation.”

This is a bargaining chip that exceeded expectations.

Once Eve returns to Lundnium, Gordon can obtain more intelligence from her, pointing directly to the truth of the world.

More importantly, she would be very grateful to Gordon if he had made this opportunity possible on his own.

"You are so generous."

"That's what people call me," Elizabeth smiled.

"By the way, speaking of generosity, my student loans... I think..."

Don't even think about it.

……

Upon leaving the Imperial Government Building, Earl Monford carried a document stamped with gold sealing wax.

priority.

For the next sixty days, starting today, all other individuals and companies applying to have their Blackwater River silt removed must wait in line behind the Monford family.

In other words, the Earl can begin planning and constructing the refinery without worrying about Midas Industries or other capital giants preemptively seizing the riverbed.

He plans to acquire factory buildings and recruit workers in the riverside area to gain a first-mover advantage in turning mud into gold.

Gordon was also pondering it.

He needs to do something at the end-of-term meeting in mid-June to keep the ever-shining Mount Monarch betting on things.

Even the most basic thing... allowing a white mouse to grow gills in full view of everyone, that abnormality of the Blackwater River would be enough to be reported in the news.

If we could do something funny, like turning the mouse into a giant rat demon, that would be even better.

If they fail, Eve's fate will hang in the balance, and she will be excluded from Lundnium...

The two descended the steps of reverence; the count took forty steps.

"A company will be established." Earl Montfort walked toward the carriage. "It needs a name."

"High-Level Company." The name flashed through Gordon's mind. "What do you think?"

"Who is the master?"

"It's me now."

"Vulgar." The Earl of Montfort changed the name to "Montfort Spiritual Industries."

"It's hard to remember, sir. What we need now is something that sounds good and is easy to spread."

I don't believe it.

"I insist on calling it the 'Master Company'."

"Whatever you want."

As they descended the steps, Gordon prepared to board the carriage, but the Earl blocked the door with his cane.

"Go back," the count said.

"Why? What did I say wrong?"

"I only brought you along when I came here for a work report. Returning to the Monford home is a private trip for me. You're not wrong, but we're not on the same page."

"Give me some face. I need to take a bus back to the city, otherwise a girl will get worried."

"If you dare to sit down here, I'll be worried for my girl too."

The Earl closed the car door, and Gordon had already jumped in.

The count closed his eyes, pretending not to see him.

After all, he can't just shove someone up on King's Mountain; the sun will see.

……

The carriage left Mount Junwang.

The moment he stepped out of the boundary between sunshine and rain, a torrential downpour began, and the streets became increasingly congested, making Gordon yearn for the mountains where it was summer all year round.

Coal carts, double-decker public carriages, and pedestrians were crammed together. Coachmen and passersby loudly discussed each other's mothers' professions. Gordon listened for a while and found that their jobs were strikingly similar.

Rain pattered against the roof of the carriage, and four black horses trotted impatiently on the ground.

In ten minutes, the Montfort family's carriage moved forward no more than six meters, two meters of which were the rear roof.

"It's so congested," Gordon muttered.

"In ten years, the city's freight volume has tripled, and its population has increased by forty percent. Mayor West has been busy giving speeches," the Earl quipped.

"He doesn't need to commute?"

"He slept in his office because people would throw stones at him as soon as he stepped outside."

Gordon looked around.

He sensed that beneath the street were drainage ditches and culverts, as well as deep underground waterways.

Now only he, the wet-footed man, and the rats know how vast and empty the underground is, forming two extremes with the crowded surface.

"If the Blackwater Cult is wiped out, all the passageways marked on the underground hydrographic map will be empty," Gordon said slowly.

"Yes, it can be used to build several underground warehouses."

"Why not use it to build roads?"

"An underground road?"

"The railway. Steam cars pulling carriages underground..."

Gordon drew a line on the fogged-up car window with his hand.

The count looked over and saw a line running horizontally and vertically across the window, along with some markings that looked like stations.

"Shipping goods?"

"Also, people are being transported."

"The cost is very high."

"So we need to figure out where it leads to first, and then we can acquire the nearby land."

"Is anyone actually sitting here?"

"Mount King. All the civil servants in the empire work here. They have the most stable jobs, the highest salaries, and they hate being late under the sun the most. If a vehicle could transport them here and there on time, how much would they pay?"

The count considered the idea carefully.

Passenger and freight traffic, land and shops, GG and urban expansion... Gordon once said that wherever the railway goes, wealth follows. If this comes to fruition, then wherever the subway goes, wealth follows.

"First, establish the river mud refinery. Then, deal with the Blackwater Hermitage. Finally, there's the transformation of Lundenim itself."

"Of course. That's what it means to proceed step by step."

The count reached out and wiped away the line Gordon had drawn on the car window.

……

The carriage returned to the Monford house.

Before he even got close to the gate, Gordon heard a loud gunshot ring out from the garden.

boom!

"Is someone attacking the gardener?" Gordon said.

Ask yourself.

Gordon pushed open the car window, his gaze passing over the iron gate.

Charlotte stood on the side of the yard, dressed in a dark blue hunting outfit, white trousers tucked into brown leather boots, holding a hunting rifle in her hands, which she named "Dawn".

boom!

The recoil caused her to raise her arms high, and a tree branch died instantly.

Beside her were three veterans, whom the Earl had recalled from the New Albion Dominion across the ocean. They had followed the Earl through enemy fire and were now responsible for ensuring that the young lady did not kill the gardener.

"You're the one who helped her find this gun," the count said, settling accounts.

"That happens often."

"..." The Earl looked at Charlotte.

Charlotte rubbed her shoulders and adjusted her posture.

During the first ultimate bomb explosion, she was blasted five meters away, but now she can at least stand still.

When the Earl of Montfort himself joined the army, his father looked very proud, while his mother looked very worried.

With Elena absent, a mixture of pride and worry settled in his heart, his expression a blend of sadness and relief.

"Do you know?" the count said in a low voice, "a child raised for twenty years might not survive more than six seconds on the battlefield."

"I heard that you helped her choose the source material."

"Special selection. Carefully chosen, the most unique gifts. You can't imagine how much effort went into them; they had to be kept top secret before reaching Lundnium. I used a lot of connections. And even with all that effort, she could still make the wrong choice."

"I can help her check."

"Insufficient inspection."

"Maybe it's not enough, but that has nothing to do with whether it's right or wrong. As long as it's her own choice in the end, that's all that matters."

The count sighed.

"Let's get back to you."

"What's wrong with me?"

"King's Mountain's appreciation comes with a price tag. The fact that the generous minister is willing to listen to you shows that she is weighing what you can bring to the empire. And the Blackwater Hermitage, they are not salted fish lying on a chopping board. Many good people I know have drowned in their homes, on the road, or even in carriages without knowing why."

I will be careful.

The Earl of Montfort alighted from his carriage, tapped on the window with his cane, and told the coachman to take Gordon away.

"You should go now."

"Give me two seconds, I need to say something to Charlotte."

"Haha, no way." The count knocked on the carriage door, and the coachman drove off.

……

The carriage returned to 9 Knightsway.

Vera squatted at the door for a while, causing Dr. Hopkins to miss six patients who needed tooth extractions.

She finally smelled Gordon's scent wafting out of a metal can.

As soon as the carriage came to a stop, before the door was even opened, Vera ran over a few steps in the rain.

Gordon jumped out of the car.

But it didn't land.

Vera grabbed him, lifted him off the ground, and held him tightly in her arms, constantly smelling his breath.

She genuinely believed that Gordon had been taken to King's Mountain and beheaded.

"Wait a minute! Nothing special, just going home normally." Gordon struggled.

"I don't have anything special. I just wanted to hold you." Vera hugged Gordon tightly, his face sinking into an unfathomable minefield.