I'm really not a Sanctuary Warlock.

"What is it now?" Lynn dragged his chain and slowly walked to the desk, unceremoniously picking up an apple from the table and taking a bite.

"Shut up." Enoria slammed her hand on the table. She looked up, her beautiful eyes bloodshot, clearly from a sleepless night.

As if she had been suppressing her feelings for too long, Enolia surprisingly poured out her grievances to Lynn, "Winter is colder than usual. All the crops in the three southern provinces have frozen to death, resulting in a total crop failure."

Lynn raised an eyebrow: "If there's a complete crop failure, just transfer grain. Aren't those northern cities known as the kingdom's granaries? Didn't they just have a bumper harvest this autumn?"

“Transfer grain? Do you think I don’t want to?” Enoria slammed a parchment scroll on the table. “The four major noble merchant guilds in the north have joined forces. They’ve used the excuse of heavy snow blocking the roads and making transportation difficult to keep millions of tons of grain locked up in the granaries. Not a single grain of wheat will be released.”

Lynn picked up the parchment scroll and glanced at it, instantly understanding the trickery involved.

“Hoarding and speculation,” Lynn chuckled. “If they don’t release grain, the South will be short of food. How much have grain prices risen in the South now?”

“Tenfold.” Enoria’s voice trembled. “In just half a month, grain prices have increased tenfold. People are already starving to death in the south, and there have even been riots in several villages. Those vampires are profiting from the kingdom’s misfortune!”

Lynn pulled up a chair and sat directly opposite Enoria: "Since you know they're profiting from the national crisis, what are all those heavily armored knights under your command doing? Why don't you just send men to ransack the merchant guild's warehouses?"

“You don’t know anything about politics.” Enoria looked at Lynn like he was an idiot. “Behind those four major merchant guilds stand the three northern dukes. If I send troops to forcibly seize them, it’s the same as declaring war on the northern nobles. If the grain can’t be transported out, and the north rebels again, the kingdom will be in turmoil once more. That’s what they’re fixated on.”

In this world, these rulers have far too few methods for solving problems: either they use force to suppress the enemy or they compromise with interests. They simply don't understand what economic warfare or financial leverage is.

"Your Highness, do you feel like you've reached a dead end?" Lynn asked casually, munching on an apple.

Enoria suddenly opened her eyes and stared at him intently: "What do you mean? Can you conjure up food?"

“I can’t conjure up grain, but I can make those four major merchant guilds beg and plead to transport grain to the south, and at a price lower than usual, they’ll beg you to buy it.” Lynn accurately tossed the fruit pit into the trash can and clapped his hands.

Enoria was stunned. Looking at Lynn's confident face, her first thought was that this kid was crazy, but for some reason, she asked, almost involuntarily, "How?"

"It's simple, use greed to defeat greed."

"You shall immediately issue a decree in the name of the royal family, announcing that the national treasury will allocate a huge sum of money to purchase unlimited quantities of grain from the Northern Chamber of Commerce at twelve times the current market price in the south, for the purpose of disaster relief."

"Are you crazy?!" Enoria jumped to her feet. "Twelve times? Where would the national treasury get that much money? You're cutting off the royal family's flesh to feed those ungrateful wretches!"

"Calm down, let me finish." Lynn waved her hand, gesturing for her to sit down. "You don't actually need that much money. You just need to pay them a 10% deposit first. The national treasury can surely afford that, right?"

Enoria sat down, frowning. "You can come up with a 10% deposit. And then what?"

"And then?" Lynn sneered. "Merchant guilds are all profit-driven. When they see that the royal family is willing to pay twelve times the exorbitant price for grain and has even paid a deposit in real money, what do you think they will do?"

Enoria wasn't stupid. Following Lynn's train of thought, her pupils widened instantly: "They'll do anything to transport all the grain from the North, even the seeds, to the South to sell to the royal family!"

“That’s right.” Lynn snapped his fingers. “Snow blocking the roads? Difficult transportation? Faced with twelve times the profit, even if it’s freezing cold, those merchant guilds will hire high-level mages to melt the snow and deliver the grain to you.”

“But once the grain arrives, if we can’t come up with the remaining 90% of the payment, the royal family’s credibility will be completely ruined.” Enoria still thought the plan was too crazy.

"Who said you were going to pay the final payment?" Lynn looked at her as if she were a naive little white rabbit. "When a massive amount of grain, far exceeding the actual needs of the South, is all concentrated in the South, at this time, you suddenly announce that the King is sick, or the national treasury has been robbed, in short, find an excuse to cancel the purchase, forgo the deposit, and let you handle the grain yourselves."

Enoria's breathing quickened instantly; she seemed to have realized something.

"By that time, grain was piled up in the southern markets, and supply exceeded demand."

"The Chamber of Commerce must have paid an exorbitant amount of transportation and labor costs to get the grain here. Now that the royal family is refusing to accept it, what can they do to recoup their investment and reduce their huge storage costs?"

“Sell off…” Enoria murmured to herself, “They can only sell off like crazy, bidding against each other, and they will drive the price down very low in order to sell the grain.”

“That’s it.” Lynn snapped his fingers. “This way, not only was the famine in the south solved at a very low cost, but the four major merchant guilds were also wiped out and went bankrupt. The dukes in the north couldn’t even find a reason to rebel because the merchant guilds themselves were greedy and brought the goods over.”

Chapter 197 As You Wish

"What a talent..."

Enolia murmured to herself, her gaze towards Lynn shifting from initial disdain and anger to an undisguised shock.

"I've been supporting a whole courtyard of cabinet ministers, spending millions of gold coins every year to support those nobles who consider themselves the kingdom's elite," Enoria suddenly cursed through gritted teeth, slamming her hand on the table. "And what's the result? When something happens, all they do is complain about being poor and suggest I compromise and make concessions; they can't utter a single word!"

She became more and more agitated as she spoke, and suddenly turned to look at Lynn: "Did they study all their lives, and all their brains are in a dog's belly?"

“Because they are the beneficiaries, Your Highness.” Lynn leaned against the map, his tone calm yet somewhat cold. “Your cabinet ministers and the noble merchants of the North are essentially of the same class. They would never do something that harms others without benefiting themselves.”

Enoria took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the overwhelming joy in her heart, and walked back to Lynn.

The two were very close, and Enoria could even feel the warmth emanating from Lynn.

She slightly raised her chin, and her beautiful eyes seemed to sparkle with a strange light.

“Lynn, I take back what I said before.” Enoria’s voice became incredibly gentle. “I suddenly realized that you not only drive me crazy in bed, but you also seem to be very useful in political affairs.”

Lynn raised an eyebrow, meeting her gaze without flinching: "What? Does Your Highness now find me valuable?"

“Value?” Enoria suddenly burst into laughter, laughing so hard she nearly fell over.

"You are absolutely priceless."

"Unfortunately, I'm not imprisoned by you yet." Lynn gave a wry smile and shook the magic-suppressing chain on his wrist.

These words did not anger Enolia; instead, they ignited a twisted sense of excitement deep within her.

A man of such wisdom is now chained up in a room, at her beck and call.

This unparalleled sense of conquest is a hundred times stronger than anything else.

Enoria's eyes changed completely; the fatigue she had felt from the pressure of recent government affairs vanished.

She suddenly kissed Lynn's lips, biting them hard, then pulled back half an inch, staring at him with hazy eyes, "I command you to be my... personal strategist."

She ripped off her cumbersome dark purple corset dress, the luxurious fabric sliding down her smooth skin onto the carpet.

Enoria whirled around and roughly swept all the parchment files that had been giving her a headache for the past two weeks off her desk onto the floor.

Then, this high and mighty empress dowager, without any hesitation, straddled the large desk and beckoned to Lynn with her finger.

"Come here." Her eyes were filled with a desire to be conquered.

Lynn stood there, looking at the woman on the desk who had completely shed all pretense.

If the nobles outside, who held her in awe, were to see Enolia in this state, they would probably be utterly astonished.

Her signature, meticulously styled hair was now disheveled, with a few strands of golden hair clinging to her cheeks, which were flushed with excitement.

The great threat in her heart was suddenly eliminated, and the ecstasy of turning the tide completely overwhelmed her rationality as the Empress Dowager.

"What? Do I have to beg you?" Enoria looked at Lynn, who remained motionless, raised her eyebrows slightly, and spoke with a hint of impatience.

She reached out and grabbed the magic-suppressing chain on Lynn's wrist, pulling it forcefully towards herself.

Lynn took two steps forward following her momentum and stood directly between her legs.

But instead of rushing forward as Enoria had expected, he used his free right hand to pinch her chin, forcing her to lift her head.

"Your Highness, is this all the sincerity you show when you ask for a favor?" Lynn looked down at her. "I helped you resolve a fatal crisis that could have torn the kingdom apart, and this is how you plan to reward me? Do you really think of me as some casual male concubine?"

"What do you want?" Enoria's voice trembled uncontrollably. "Anything I can give you..."

"I want you to understand one thing." Lynn interrupted her without any politeness, his fingers sliding down her chin, across her slender neck, and finally stopping on her rapidly heaving collarbone, where he pressed down hard.

"Ugh!" Enoria groaned, her body involuntarily leaning back, her hands instinctively bracing themselves on the desk.

“In this room, it’s not you who’s giving me charity, it’s me who’s dominating you.” Lynn’s voice was low and dangerous as he suddenly leaned down and pressed Enolia firmly against the desk.

"You think you've chained me up?" Lynn whispered in her ear, biting her earlobe, "No, Enoria, you walked into the cage I wove for you. Now, you can't leave me."

Enoria had no way to refute it, because Lynn was right.

She not only succumbed to this man's brutality and wildness, but now she also had to admit her dependence on him in matters of politics and intelligence.

“What a treasure…” Enoria suddenly gave up all her struggles. She looked up at the magnificent crystal chandelier on the ceiling and let out a murmur that was almost a sigh.

She suddenly raised her legs and wrapped them tightly around Lynn's waist, her hands gripping Lynn's back tightly.

“Then prove it to me!” Enoria’s eyes gleamed with provocation. “Let me see how you intend to control me.”

Lynn gave a cold laugh and said nothing more.

……

Five days later.

The door to the royal bedchamber was pushed open again, but this time, Enoria's steps were very light.

Today, she wore a well-tailored dark red court dress, with exquisite makeup on her face. She looked radiant, showing no trace of the fatigue and gloom she had a few days ago.

"boom!"

She slammed several thick battle reports onto the coffee table in front of Lynn.

"Those four major chambers of commerce in the north have gone mad! They've completely gone mad."

Lynn was leaning back on the sofa with his eyes closed, resting. Hearing this, he lazily lifted his eyelids and glanced at the battle reports: "What? The grain transport team has set off?"

"It's more than just setting off!" Enoria excitedly flipped through the battle report, pointing to the densely packed numbers on it. "After receiving our 10% deposit and confirming the royal family's offer of twelve times the purchase price, those vampires emptied all the granaries in the north overnight!"

"In order to save time and travel through the blizzard, they even spent a lot of money to hire three high-level fire mage groups to clear the way and melt the snow. All the mercenary groups along the way have been hired by them. Now the roads in the north are full of endless convoys of grain transport vehicles."

Lynn chuckled and casually picked up a grape, tossing it into his mouth. "Greed is the original sin. The transportation and labor costs they've paid probably already exceed the value of the grain itself, don't they?"

“Absolutely more than that!” Enoria sneered repeatedly. “Intelligence shows that in order to raise this huge amount of initial transportation costs, they even mortgaged the mines and manors under the Chamber of Commerce to underground banks.”

“Very good.” Lynn sat up straight. “Once their convoy reaches the southern border, immediately announce that the national treasury has been robbed, funds are frozen, all acquisition plans are cancelled, and then send the city garrison to take over the market, maintain order, and prepare to enjoy the carnage of them trampling each other and frantically dumping their goods.”

“Lynn…” Enoria suddenly leaned closer to him, staring into his eyes with a complicated look in her eyes, “I really want to appoint you as the prime minister of the kingdom right away.”

"Forget it." Lynn pushed away her face without any mercy. "I have no interest in working for your royal family. I only care about when you will let me and Alice go."

Upon hearing this name, Enoria's smile instantly faded.

She stood up, straightened her skirt, and her tone hardened again: "I said, Alice is the future hope of the royal family. There's no room for discussion on this. I'll give you anything you want, except for her."

Lynn sneered inwardly at her treacherous attitude. He had long known that Enoria wouldn't release her so easily; the reason he had been so diligently helping her devise strategies these past few days was not for any of that damned kingdom.

He was trying to lull her into a false sense of security.

Only by making Enochia completely dependent on his mind, and bringing more and more confidential government affairs into this bedchamber, could he learn about the outside world from these vast amounts of documents.

From that day on, Enoria seemed to have tasted the sweetness of it and directly used her bedchamber as a second study.

Every day at noon, she would bring two maids, carrying half-person-high government documents, and then send everyone out, leaving her alone with Lynn.

“The military expenditure requests from several southern cities have exceeded the budget by another thirty percent.” Enoria frowned as she handed over a document. “They say it’s because of the monster uprising and the severe damage to their weapons, but I know these nobles are embezzling and drawing salaries without working. However, we can’t send people to investigate directly, as it would cause a rebellion.”

Lynn glanced at the document and tossed it aside: "Checking the accounts is the dumbest thing to do. They can balance the ledgers, but they can't balance the contents of the warehouse."

"What do you mean?" Enoria asked humbly.

"Order, in the name of the royal family, to allocate a batch of the most advanced alchemical cannons to several cities in the south, but on the condition that they exchange their old weapons for new ones." Lynn sneered. "Since they reported such high losses, they definitely can't produce enough old weapons. When the time comes, whatever they're short, make them pay back the original price. If they don't pay? Then, on the grounds of delaying the battle, just arrest their logistics officers and bring them back to the capital. No bloodshed, understand?"

Enoria's eyes lit up as she listened, and she nodded repeatedly.

It was late at night.

After a fierce battle, Enoria had fallen into a deep sleep.

By the dim candlelight, Lynn sat on the carpet, holding a copy of the "Royal Mage Tower Monthly Supply Allocation Order" that had just been delivered that day.

Over the past few days, he has reviewed hundreds and thousands of documents and finally found a clue in these seemingly tedious logistical reports.

"The consumption of Starry Mithril Powder has surged... Thirty bottles of high-level life-restoring potions are allocated monthly..." Lynn's fingers lightly traced the words on the parchment, his eyes growing colder.

Alice was imprisoned on the top floor of the mage tower, where the four immortal chief mages were clearly using her newly awakened life authority to conduct some kind of inhumane experiment.

But this is not the point.

The key point is that Lynn discovered in another "Royal City Guard Rotation Log" that, due to the Northern Merchant Guild incident, a large number of elite knights from the Royal City were secretly transferred to the south to maintain order, and the Royal Guard outside the Royal Mage Tower would have a 15-minute rotation vacuum period late at night on the 15th of each month.

The day after tomorrow is the 15th.

Lynn stared at the log, his mind racing. If he could just break free of those damned magic-suppressing chains, fifteen minutes would be enough for him to sneak into the top floor of the mage tower.

Just then, a series of hurried footsteps suddenly came from outside the bedchamber.

"Bang bang bang!"

The anxious voice of the head guard came from outside the door: "Your Majesty the Empress Dowager, urgent military news, it's extremely urgent!"

Anodia was startled awake. She irritably threw on her robe, walked to the door, and opened it a crack: "What's all the fuss about?"

"Your Highness..." The captain of the guard's voice was filled with undisguised panic, "An urgent report has come from Holy Song City. Nora, the leader of the Burning Fire Organization, announced this afternoon that Holy Song City has become independent and completely abolished the noble system... They have broken away from the kingdom's control."

Upon hearing this, Lynn, sitting on the carpet, smiled slightly.

Nora, well done.

"They've rebelled... How dare these lowly commoners!" Enoria gritted her teeth, her voice trembling with exasperation.

Seeing her flustered state, Lynn gently slapped away Enolia's hand and straightened her wrinkled collar.