“Yes, brother! Yes! This position is perfect for you!”
Liya was no longer withdrawn.
She poked her head out and laughed heartily without any manners.
“Don’t worry—the door to my security booth is always open for you!”
Fei Bi’s face stiffened slightly.
For the first time, she thought Pupu was asking for a beating.
‘Huff… don’t get angry… don’t get angry…’
At least she had gotten close to the Hero.
As long as she could get close to the Hero, there was still a chance.
Moreover, this saved her from dating the rough military soldiers the Hero would introduce.
“By the way, work and marriage don’t conflict, do they?” Joen suddenly spoke.
Liya was stunned for a few seconds, then couldn’t help laughing even harder.
“Friend! You’re a genius! Exactly! Being a security guard and blind dating don’t conflict!”
She hopped over excitedly and patted Fei Bi’s fragrant shoulder twice.
“Now you have a job. You just need a good man and a cat to form a happy three-person family.”
Even with puppeteer-level acting skills, Fei Bi couldn’t hold it together at this moment.
Her smile was extremely stiff.
“Th-Thank you.”
“No need to thank me. Be good, call me sister-in-law.”
Fei Bi completely fell silent.
Not giving Liya an Earth Throw was already the greatest respect she could show the Hero.
Back in the front hall again.
Joen was happy that he had helped another pitiful person.
And Gibran was struggling to maintain his smile, not wanting anyone to see through him, especially Joen.
But this was really hard.
“Fei Bi” was his favorite Blood Puppet, and now not only did she have to guard the gate for the Hero, but she also had to accept the Hero’s introductions and date those rough military types.
If asked which among his older brothers and sisters he hated the most, it was definitely the First Prince, Kaisawen.
By extension, he also hated those soldiers.
The conservative and stable-minded court officials and the war-hungry, aggressive military leaders across the regions naturally didn’t get along.
After returning to their seats, the banquet atmosphere was still lively.
But Joen, after meeting Fei Bi, thought of even more people in worse situations than her.
He squeezed past the beautiful, singing dancers, approached the main seat, and regardless of whether it was appropriate, took a deep breath and asked the Second Prince:
“Second Prince, regarding the relief funds for Dry River Territory, I’d like to ask for your guidance.”
Gibran’s face could barely hold even a forced smile now, clearly stiff. He quickly pretended to drink greedily, using the wine glass and sleeve to cover his face as he adjusted his composure.
Setting down the wine glass, Gibran put on a sincere, heart-to-heart expression and sighed lightly.
“Joen, this matter… it’s difficult.”
He didn’t directly refuse, but first put on an attitude of “I really want to help you, but I have my own difficulties.”
“You may not know, but recently there have been frequent personnel changes within the royal court. Nine key positions are being contested by everyone. Plus, the autumn harvest accounting has just begun, and the national treasury accounts are somewhat unclear. In my opinion, if you want to get the relief funds, you’ll probably have to wait two or three months, at least until winter.”
“Winter?”
Joen was shocked.
“That long? What if people starve or freeze to death?”
“Shh—”
Gibran quickly made a silencing gesture.
In his urgency, his voice rose several pitches.
Then he concealed the guilt in his eyes.
His position was awkward; managing the money bag had never ended well since ancient times.
Dragged into this mud pit by the Hero, he had to be two-faced and scheming.
“Joen, my good friend, I really appreciate this pure heart of yours. Really. If it were anyone else, I would have told them to get lost long ago.”
Gibran patted Joen’s shoulder, lowered his voice, and took on the appearance of a caring older brother offering advice.
“Since the national treasury is temporarily blocked, why not… think of another way? Like the Church?”
“The Church?”
“Right, I mentioned this to you before. A few days ago, didn’t the Church hold a big ‘Dry River Territory Charity Fundraiser’? It’s said that from believers to wealthy merchants, everyone donated a lot of money.”
“Combined from various places, that’s a huge sum. How about we first let the Church take out this money to cover it? It’s all for the common people.”
Gibran was still trying to divert the trouble, shifting Joen’s attention to the Church.
The reasons, besides his open and secret struggle with the Third Prince, included the most important point—that the Church really could take out the money.
If he were in Joen’s position, he would similarly only target the Church.
This wasn’t a matter of picking on the weak or the strong, but at this moment, only the Church still had “considerable family assets.”
On the other side.
Joen couldn’t help frowning deeply, lost in thought.
Although it was difficult to implement, it did sound like a reasonable and feasible method.
“Thank you for your guidance, Your Highness.”
Joen didn’t linger further, cupped his hands in a salute, and returned to his seat.
After the banquet ended, taking leave of the Second Prince, Joen rushed nonstop to Duke Robert’s mansion, where Saintess Yuna usually stayed.
At that time, Yuna was alone leaning on the balcony railing, letting the wind blow.
The night wind lifted her long hair, but couldn’t blow away the disappointment between her brows.
The meticulously planned seduction plan had inexplicably miscarried; she hadn’t even seen Joen’s face, and even now, she couldn’t figure out which link had gone wrong.
She looked at the lone moon in the night sky, feeling that even the imperfect moon was mocking her.
“Holy Maiden, the Hero Joen seeks an audience.”
Just then, a handmaiden hurriedly reported.
“Joen?”
Yuna’s dim eyes suddenly lit up, as if a dying person had grabbed the last straw; her breathing became rapid involuntarily.
She forced herself to stay calm, looked down to adjust her clothes for a few seconds, then said coolly:
“Alright, lead the way.”
Learning that Joen had come for the donation funds, Yuna didn’t say a word, and was even more eager than Joen.
This was a golden opportunity to restore her image and get closer!
“Don’t worry, this money should be sealed in a special warehouse. I’ll go check immediately.”
Yuna acted swiftly, immediately using her authority to investigate the whereabouts of this huge sum.
Fortunately, Yuna had intercepted this money in time, and it hadn’t been used to fill last year’s deficit and bad debts.
But unfortunately—
When Yuna clenched the thin account book and returned to Joen, her face was whiter than paper, and her hands were trembling slightly.
“How is it?”
Joen asked full of hope.
Yuna opened her mouth, but didn’t know how to speak.
Finally, she could only hand the account book to Joen, her voice dry:
“Joen, see for yourself.”
Joen opened the account book, his eyes scanning the balance figure on the last page, his mouth slowly opening wide.
For a moment, he was so speechless he almost laughed.
“Wait… what do you mean we collected 240,000 Gold Kuron, and only 8,000 Gold Kuron is left?”
“Yuna, are you sure that’s a warehouse? In Tulip Territory, we usually call this an incinerator.”
Joen, who had always spoken bluntly without guile, now, stimulated by this rotten news, had learned to speak sarcastically.
The huge amount of charity funds raised in the name of disaster relief, after passing through hands, now left on the books was less than one-tenth!
Joen’s eyes were opened wide.
He even somewhat admired these people.
“Where did the missing money go? Did it grow legs on the road and run away by itself?”
Joen questioned in a not-so-calm tone.