Witch Troupe and the Undead

The rare winter sunshine shone on the pristine white garden, where patches of creamy white and egg-yolk yellow flowers bloomed in marble flowerbeds. The gardener swept away the snow left over from yesterday and piled it into adorable snowmen of different sizes.

Two apprentices from the Royal Mystic Advisory Board were inspecting the enchanted effects on the flowerbeds and replacing some of the depleted yellow gems. It was these magical effects that allowed the garden to bloom as if in spring even in winter.

Freya rested her chin on her hand, gazing out the window at the white swing swaying gently in the wind. The white structure, decorated like a flower basket, seemed to radiate a heavenly glow in the sunlight. Yet, she could only stay here, forcing herself to listen to reports she barely understood.

The emperor extracted assets from those merchant guilds, pocketing the high profits and nearly draining their cash reserves to reward the royal guards and the army. In particular, an elite army maintained entirely by personal charisma and money required a great deal of money to sustain.

All Freya was left with were some tasteless scraps. Of course, if she continued to operate in the old way, squeezing every last penny out of the poor, the profits would be substantial. If she could continue with those gray or even black industries, the profits would be even more exorbitant.

Just like the saying that the most profitable businesses are written in the criminal law, no matter what kind of society it is, as long as it is still run by people, you can get rich by abiding by the law and working hard, but at most you can only be moderately wealthy. If you want to make a fortune, you have to get involved in some dirty work, if not some shady dealings.

Now Freya is forced to take over this terrible mess, and her suggestion to let the workers manage themselves has also gone wrong. First of all, most of these "workers" are bankrupt farmers or even runaway serfs. They are not even literate. If it were a more high-end industry, such as an alchemy workshop, it might be possible.

But what is she holding now? It is something that is theoretically related to the national economy and people's livelihood of the empire, and in fact, it is related to the daily livelihood of millions of people in the capital. However, in reality, no one cares about it, there is not much profit, and the cultural level of the people involved is also indescribable.

Freya's current assets in the Chamber of Commerce include: a salt mine that is on the verge of being depleted; several old mills in the suburbs of the capital; a water-powered forge; more than a dozen bakeries located at the junction of the lower city and the slums; a Chamber of Commerce office building in the lower city; more than a hundred large mules and donkeys; and dozens of dilapidated trucks.

The only significant asset here is the water-powered forge, which can forge and produce weapons and various tools. Apart from that, there are several thousand criminals who have been sentenced to exile or hard labor and can be used as cheap miners.

However, after years of mining, the high-quality salt in that salt mine had long been depleted, and the remaining scraps were ground up, mixed with other random cheap "additives," and sold to the common people in the lower city.

As for those bakeries, they mainly sell black bread. The only slightly noteworthy ones are the suburban mills and several large cooperative farms. However, as mentioned earlier, these are assets used to maintain the "lower limit" of the empire's, or rather, the capital city's, survival.

These farms only provided inferior rye and similar products, while high-quality wheat and other products were used to supply other mills. Of course, in the past, this was just a part of the guild's assets. Simply put, it was to package the scraps, by-products, and even waste of high-quality assets to maintain the most basic living needs of the poor or to maintain the most basic needs of their employees.

However, now, these large merchant guilds are being violently broken up by the emperor. Those with a little bit of culture, connections, and skills have all gone to the high-quality assets, while the remaining low-quality assets have been packaged up and given to Freya.

Although the emperor knew that if the lower classes were not fed, they would rise up and overthrow the royal family, he also knew that if they were fed too much, they might also rise up and threaten the royal family. Therefore, the purpose and instructions he gave Freya these assets were only one: to make sure that the lower classes in the capital did not starve to death on a large scale. Yes, not to starve to death on a large scale; it was normal for a few to starve to death randomly.

Of course, if she does a good job, it's not impossible to give her a portion of the other assets, thus maintaining the basic standard of living in the capital and preventing unrest caused by eliminating the chambers of commerce and those wealthy merchants. In fact, when the old emperor actually brought these industries under his control, he found that his bureaucrats were not as capable as those merchants.

If he hadn't simply eliminated wealthy merchants in the capital, and done so legitimately that he could still bring supplies from other regions to the capital, then the current commercial downturn, logistical disruptions, and supply failures affecting the entire region would have dealt him a heavy blow.

This made him re-examine the power of the chamber of commerce and the business community. He found that it might be difficult for this group to do anything, but it seemed too easy for them to sabotage anything.

"Your Highness, Your Highness, are you listening?" The advisor finished a lengthy explanation about how to better exploit the criminals and former employees under his command, so as to ensure that even if the prices of raw materials from other places rose due to the turmoil in the capital, the prices of products could still be kept from skyrocketing.

As for those who are exploited to death? No need to consider them. There are plenty of scum in the slums who can replace them. They even consider reducing management expenses as much as possible. They also consider hiring gang members as supervisors. They only care about the final product quantity and price, as well as the taxes paid. They don't care about how the money comes from.

Just as the advisors were feeling smug about their meticulously prepared plan, they looked up and saw that the princess was already having a great time playing with a butterfly that had flown in through the window.

"Ah, I'm listening. Where were you?"

"Speaking of matters concerning factory and miner management, and how to investigate whether price increases are normal or not," Freya replied, "Ah~ I understand." She knew nothing; she hadn't been listening to their nonsense. "So, it's over now, right?"

She got up to leave, but was stopped. "Your Highness, Your Highness, you can't leave yet!"

What do you mean by "it's over"? I've only just explained the probabilities; the specifics, especially personnel appointments, haven't even been discussed yet. Why are you leaving already?

For these advisors and staff in the court, the emperor's actions were a weathervane bigger than the city gates; the woman before them, a mere figurehead, was very likely to become the next empress. Given her incompetence, once on the throne, she would most likely rely on trusted high-ranking officials. And who among them was more qualified than these advisors and staff? Hadn't they spent so many years of their youth in the court all for such an opportunity?

Even if I don't become the King's Hand (Prime Minister), I can at least be an advisor. The essence of politics is the power of speech and influence. As long as I can have a voice in the future Queen's court and have a certain degree of policy influence, wealth and power will continuously come to me.

"Isn't it over yet?" Freya sat on the luxurious chair with her knees drawn up in the same pose as a little witch, her eyes almost completely dead. Such beautiful weather, such a wonderful time, why was she here listening to a bunch of old men chanting scriptures she didn't understand at all?

"Okay, didn't I tell them to mind their own business? Why do I have to interfere so much?" Freya was very confused.

"Then you must at least have the power to appoint and dismiss personnel. You must select someone from among them to manage them. And if I may be frank, Your Highness, your idea is almost impossible, because these people simply do not have management experience."

"Then at least they know how to make bread, right?"

"...Unfortunately, under the apprenticeship system, one may not necessarily understand the entire process and procedure."

"Well..." Freya really didn't want to stay here any longer. She just wanted to completely ruin this whole thing and get herself out of there—"Then they'll understand, right? Just pick a few people from each link and process and let them choose for themselves. I'll sign off on their selections."

As if anticipating the many signatures she would make in the future, Freya proudly displayed the pure silver quill pen she had commissioned overnight from a court alchemist. It had only one function: once activated, it would automatically write two words in a fixed position on the paper: "Pass" and "Freya Storey".

Now it's the aides' turn to lose their composure. Other rulers are afraid of becoming signing machines, but you don't even want to be a signing machine. So what are you here for?

"But in that case, they will only be accountable to the people who elected them, not to you. They won't be satisfied with such low profits from the products they produce, because after handing over the quota to the royal family, their own supply will be insufficient. So, they will either delay production in various ways and try to raise prices or reduce quality, or they will try every means to avoid handing over money to the royal family."

"Ah~" The princess seemed to be about to spit out her soul.

"Moreover, if you do not have the corresponding power of appointment, they will soon turn these industries into their own, not yours. Thus, you will have simply spent your time and used your authority to facilitate a tax-paying chamber of commerce, which will grow to be even more terrifying than the original chamber of commerce alliance."

Because they can avoid paying taxes or pay only a small amount, and if the royal family is left unsupervised, these stewards can quickly drain it through various means and establish a large number of affiliated guilds. Don't think that those elected by the people are immune to this problem; they still have it.

"But I don't know if they're doing a good job or a bad job. How about... we select a group of representatives from the civilian population to keep an eye on things? And then select a group of representatives from the management and the working class as well. Wouldn't it be possible to resolve everything by having all three parties discuss it together?"

"Then what are you going to do?" This is indeed a good idea. If the three parties—consumers, producers, and regulators—can continue to hold talks, it would be a perfect structure. However, don't you think there are any superfluous people in this structure?

“I’m in charge of getting them to sit down and discuss!” Freya looked at the other person in surprise. “I know I’m not a smart person, but since everyone else is smarter than me and there’s never been such a communication mechanism, there must be some external force preventing them from sitting down and discussing.”

"What if they start arguing?" Shifting blame, opposing for the sake of opposing, and so on—although these are common problems in democratic countries that no one knows about at this time, everyone clearly understands one thing: the interests of these three parties are completely conflicting. They cannot reach a consensus without arguing, so in the end, nothing can be done and the status quo can only be maintained.

"But isn't our goal to maintain the status quo?" Freya asked a thought-provoking question. What she meant was that what everyone was discussing here was how to ensure that these industries could still provide the capital with the most basic supplies and maintain the status quo, rather than causing the collapse of the chamber of commerce due to the confiscation of a large number of members' property, which would then trigger a series of political and economic upheavals.

"What if their dispute affects normal production activities? Would you make a ruling?"

“Yes!” Freya thought for a moment, and in her opinion, it wouldn’t be difficult.

"Then what are you going to do?"

"Well, let's pick 25 people from each group, plus 25 from the miners and farms in the suburbs, that'll make a hundred people. Let them figure it out themselves."

"But wouldn't that mean you're completely delegating power?"

"No, I'll join too."

"..." To obtain a majority vote, it is necessary to win over every neutral swing vote. The problem is that the interests of these four parties are almost completely mutually exclusive, so Freya's vote will be crucial.

She could use this influence to manipulate the outcome of this rudimentary discussion at will, and regardless of whether the decision was right or wrong, the ultimate backlash would not fall on the royal family, or at least not on Freya.

After all, it was a decision made by everyone. The princess only had one vote, so the responsibility was only 1%. No matter how angry the people were, they wouldn't direct their anger at her. As for the majority—they could just die and another group could be elected; it wasn't a big deal.

"Hmm, that's a good idea indeed, so are you planning to start now?"

"Well, first I plan to build one..."

"Meeting room"

Octagonal cage

"what?"

"what!?"

"What do you mean by octagonal cage?"

"Huh?" Freya looked at the faces of her advisors, which were all contorted. "A duel before the gods. If they are evenly matched and I can't tell whose strategy is better, let them decide before the gods. Whoever wins, I'll vote for their plan."

Everyone's expression was extremely distorted. Divine judgment is indeed a long-standing tradition, but that was during the era of war between many small cities and states. In that era, if a conflict arose, a real military conflict might allow other cities and states to take advantage of the situation. Seeking mediation from the church would most likely result in a compromise, since your church is a church, but his isn't?

Therefore, the church introduced this method that everyone could accept. In that era of war, bravery was a basic virtue of the nobility, so the two of you should fight under fair and just rules. Whoever wins is right. In essence, it evolved from blood revenge.

In today's world, the thought of a group of impeccably dressed gentlemen stripping naked and engaging in a deadly brawl with miners and bakers in an octagon makes many of the aides think that the princess's thought process is extraordinary, while also giving rise to the thought that "even if it costs money to see it, it's worth it to see this in your lifetime, even if you die!"

"In that case, the miners and workers are guaranteed to win." Don't say that those in charge have more resources or anything. They certainly have resources, but they may not have the time. Handling official business requires a lot of time and energy. Moreover, under this system, they also need to spend a lot of time and energy coordinating with each other. Where would they find the time to train their bodies and develop their fighting skills?

Moreover, Freya chose the steward class, not the aristocracy. Under these circumstances, the burly miners and bakers could indeed take on three opponents at once.

Therefore, it means that although the representatives of the middle and lower classes are less influential and less united than those of the middle and upper classes, they have more power and will inevitably be more effective when the forces are evenly matched. Both sides will try to win over the neutral faction, especially the princess, in order to avoid entering the octagon and to enter the octagon as soon as possible.

"Oh right, I heard there's an arena in the capital, is that right?"

"Well, those were the remains of an ancient empire. They were criticized by the church for being too bloody, so they've been abandoned now."

"Let's fix it. I've been thinking, the octagon is too small, so let's make the grand arena move. I think everyone wants to see men fight."

Looking into the princess's sparkling eyes, I really want to say that I don't know if the people of the capital want to see it, but you really want to see it, don't you?

Thus, with the emperor's attitude of not interfering as long as there was no second riot, and the church's traditional mindset of thinking that women could accomplish anything, the Grand Arena was quickly repaired amidst the toll of thousands of convicts and laborers, and even the demolition of the residences of several purged members of the merchant guild to gather stone.

Meanwhile, the people of the capital also learned that Her Highness the Princess was preparing to convene a group of "civilian representatives" to discuss solutions to a series of issues, including prices and logistics and employment caused by the liquidation of the Chamber of Commerce.

Thus, a mysterious, bizarre system or structure, even more haphazard than a makeshift organization, began to operate crookedly. And as everyone knows, if a system can function, then regardless of how it functions, it's best not to touch it.

Before the first plan was introduced, less than a week after those chambers of commerce resumed operations, and even when the emperor had to raise money from time to time to find ways to purchase supplies from other places to stabilize the soaring prices in the capital—now it was really time to stop the large-scale killings, or the city would collapse—the princess's assets actually began to make a profit.

The biggest profits came from... the arena ticket revenue, especially from the civilian and miner representatives. At the beginning of the discussion, they didn't even think their proposal would pass. They did their best to focus on one thing: to tie the score as much as possible and force the other side to fight them hand-to-hand in the arena.

“Even if we don’t understand anything and can’t do anything, at least we can punch those old men once. I think that’s enough.” Many miners thought so, but the managers and farm owners didn’t want to go into the octagon, much less face the bloodthirsty crowd at the arena.

As a result, for things that did not involve fundamental interests, the workers, miners, and even apprentices basically got the results they wanted, and the mess actually started to move around, albeit with some stumbles.

Cheap black bread has reappeared in the capital's markets, with even less sawdust mixed in than before. The capital's citizens, who know nothing about politics, the nobles who do, and even the emperor himself all think: "Since this thing is already running, let's not touch it!"

However, this can only address the production stage. In reality, there are many more problems. For example, the price of finished products cannot be increased, but the price of raw materials may increase. The capital city cannot rely on just a few farms to supply its food.

Moreover, while the capital city is relatively safe, if this policy is rolled out across the entire empire, other countries will undoubtedly take the opportunity to raise prices, quickly depleting the empire's treasury with this loss-making subsidy, and causing an accumulation of overproduced useless goods.

When the emperor found Freya, who had almost completely let go of everything and was now back to her normal routine, she once again displayed her astonishing wisdom: "Well, issuing more won't work, and stopping production won't work either, so why not use the extra weapons we produce to find land for the extra agricultural tools we produce?" Let's not even talk about whether it's wise or not, just tell me if it's astonishing or not!

Chapter 109 The program for the nation operates on bugs.

The chaos in the capital lasted for several months, and it only slowly subsided shortly after the beginning of spring, due to the large amount of manpower tied up in spring plowing and the deaths of a number of people from the winter cold. During this process, the assets of the merchant guild managed by Her Highness the Princess played an important role in preventing the shortage of commerce and supplies and the chaos from spreading further.

When road conditions improved in the spring and caravans from other regions began trading in the city, the turmoil gradually subsided. Although several large merchant guilds were no longer in the city, the leaders of the small and medium-sized merchant guilds that were not involved did not feel any sense of shared sorrow. They decisively took over the markets that the emperor had to relinquish due to mismanagement, and thus grew rapidly.

Public opinion in the empire has once again shifted to the idea that professionals should handle professional matters, that imperial bureaucrats and nobles should not engage in commercial activities, and that merchants should be given more power and autonomy to prevent similar incidents from occurring.

As the snow melted in spring, the roads to the Imperial Survey Corps gradually became clearer. However, the originally planned reinforcements did not arrive on time, and news of the coup spread rapidly.

"..." Augros stared at the latest intelligence report from the capital delivered by the messenger, his expression stiff. What was going on? A coup had suddenly erupted in the capital; the eldest prince was under house arrest, the second prince had been executed, and now...

“Princess Freya???” Ogros made the face of an old man using a cell phone on the subway. Princess Freya was a famous figure in the empire, possessing both beauty and (astounding) wisdom.

Basically, the higher-ups all knew that her role was merely to be used as a tool for future political alliances. She hadn't demonstrated any political talent, and no one knew whether she actually possessed any wisdom in this area; in any case, she hadn't shown any intelligence whatsoever.

"Let's observe this further. Perhaps our reinforcements will never arrive. Have everyone prepare for a complete evacuation, or even for the Empire to abandon Rock Tower County and Lywood County." Abandoning the land and population of two counties is hard to imagine, but the problem is that the princess is in charge now, not the old emperor. Her extraordinary wisdom has already been reflected in the official reports from the capital.

The witch's hut.

"Big news! Big news!" Leslie jumped in happily, waving the latest news she had gotten from the investigation team. It has to be said that after being cooped up in this small area for so long, this kind of news, along with the supplies that came with the small caravans, was a necessity for everyone.

"A coup has occurred in the Empire, and there may be some trouble on our way back." Roach looked at the information in front of him, then looked at the little witch, Livia, who looked drowsy. She forced her eyes open and stared blankly at him. After a few seconds, she nodded slightly, indicating that she thought so too.

"Isn't the capital city too far from here?"

“Yes, but if we’ve got the intelligence here, the Orcish Alliance and the neighboring Kingdom of Rada should have gotten it by now. We don’t need to worry about the Kingdom; they barely managed to quell the previous undead tide, so they probably don’t have time for that now. But the Orcish Alliance’s rangers are very likely to infiltrate border areas like Rock Tower County and Lywood County.”

Alessina said seriously, as a beast-demon she was very familiar with her people’s tactics. If she received such intelligence, she would definitely take advantage of the Imperial Army’s inability to act rashly and launch a probing attack.

After all, at this sensitive juncture, the Empire's generals would absolutely not dare to mobilize the border troops to make any big moves, as they would easily be categorized as traitors. As for the orcs' raids, as long as they did not target large cities such as fortresses, sacrificing a few civilians was a perfectly acceptable price to pay.

No one here had any expectations of the empire's bottom line, including Roach. Although the current empire was indeed slightly more enlightened than the purely feudal empire he remembered, at least it was not as restrictive on personal dependence and population movement, except for some traditional areas.

However, even the British Empire, which evolved to the Victorian era, was still far from meeting the standards of "humanity."

"So you're saying we'll most likely encounter...orc rangers or raiders on our way back?"

"Yes, but we don't need to worry. They won't attack large targets like us, especially magical targets." The Orc Alliance certainly knew that it couldn't really use this opportunity to substantially seize land or other benefits from the Empire. It could only use the opportunity to weaken and weaken the Empire, reducing the intensity of the Empire's attacks and raids on the Orc Alliance in the summer and autumn.

These small-scale infiltration or plundering operations target small towns, villages, and even small military outposts and outposts far from fortresses and major cities, as well as caravans, adventurers, and small groups of travelers.

However, we will absolutely not attack fortified targets such as large cities or magical targets, as that would likely be counterproductive and could even lead to the complete failure of the entire operation.

“However, we can’t pin our hopes on the orc raiders themselves. After all, we can’t stay together forever; there will always be times when we need to go into the city to buy supplies or stop to rest.” Besides, Livia seems like an easy target to bully.

“Master Roach, you’re right. We should be prepared. However, perhaps by the time we leave, everything will have calmed down.” Alessina shook his head. “We’ll probably be staying here for a long time, won’t we?”

"We should stay here for a while longer. Livia is very interested in the ruins and the royal city, especially those ancient barriers. However, the adventurers are currently lacking equipment, funds, and supplies. We expect we should be able to stay here until autumn."

Roach took stock of everyone's progress and needs. Vilandella's task was finished; she had successfully recruited a witch to help block the gate for an entire winter. Although she hadn't improved the state of the barrier, she was considered a diligent and capable worker among the dragons. Even if she ran away now, no one would say anything.

Roach is about halfway through his progress, having tested the practical effects of various alchemical bombs, as well as his own magic water heater. He has also accumulated a lot of inspiration and data on the use of rune disks, runic literature, and runic devices. However, his progress in collecting historical artifacts and antiques of the Kingdom of Gulush is basically zero.

These days he has been in Livia's room reading records and historical books about the ancient Luster Palace in order to gain a basic understanding of this lost civilization, so that he can combine it with field excavation for research, which is his original profession.

In the future, I should at least get rid of the title of "Explosive Sage" when I go out—I can't get rid of this title since I invented that fireball launcher—otherwise, what if I get refused entry to hotels in the city?

As for how far the Little Witch has progressed, nobody knows. Considering that she spent almost the entire winter either dozing off in front of the fireplace or bedridden with a cold, her research progress is probably not much different from zero.

In the end, Alessina and Leslie, two pets in the same ecological niche, just went with the flow. Alessina didn't care much; in her eyes, she had simply joined a small but powerful new tribe and taken on the role of warrior leader.

"Master Roach, we've come to take our leave." The four newcomers came to say goodbye to Roach. They weren't fools. Although they were hired workers, everyone knew that this powerful alchemist was indirectly protecting them.

Otherwise, given Roach's status, there would be plenty of people in the camp who could help him gather herbs, and a powerful high-ranking warrior to protect him. There was no need to hire four newcomers.

Conversely, it was precisely for this reason that the former comrades tacitly agreed to give the four newcomers the last bit of assets in the team as start-up capital or severance pay. After all, those things could be obtained through various channels, but the opportunity to establish a communication channel with a powerful alchemist skilled in weapon manufacturing was not something that could be found everywhere.

A powerful adventurer team must have its own channels for acquiring equipment, enhancing magic, and purchasing items. Relying solely on buying equipment from magic shops in the city will not yield good results, and even if you find decent equipment, the price will be prohibitive.

Conversely, cultivating a good relationship with an alchemist or workshop that can craft high-level equipment is a different story. By collecting materials and paying processing fees, one can obtain corresponding magical equipment or useful alchemical tools at a relatively low price.

"As a farewell gift~" Roach rummaged through the box and finally pulled out a long wooden stick, handing it to Ray. "This is for you."