I! Cleaner!

Late at night, west of Lowther Arcade.

Unlike Redwood Avenue, which is nicknamed the "noble district" by the residents of the capital and is home to a large number of old noble manors, the western area of ​​Lowther Arcade, known as the "rich district", is also home to many nobles, but there are few large manors.

Since it was built nearly a hundred years later than Redwood Avenue, the capital, where every inch of land is worth a lot of money, no longer allows the enclosure of land to build large manors. In addition, most of the people living here are new nobles who started out as businessmen, and their political status is much worse than that of the old nobles, so the specifications are naturally reduced again and again.

Owning several gorgeous and exquisite townhouses here is already a "top configuration" in the entire "rich district". If it can be equipped with a medium-sized garden, then the owner of this residence will most likely be an important figure who controls the situation in the political arena of the capital.

However, this rule is not completely absolute.

After all, although the Lowther Arcade was built very late, it was not a wasteland before it was built. There were still several relatively old noble manors that were included in the scope of the Lowther Arcade, and the Cuiyu Manor belonging to the Jinjuan family was one of them.

...

Strange, what exactly did the Jinjuan Marquis want?

When he stepped on the road bricks that should have been very white, but after hundreds of years of rain erosion, it had turned into dark yellow, and came to the entrance of Cuiyu Manor, looking at the gorgeous buildings hidden in the jungle, Lyon couldn't help but frown slightly.

To be honest, although it is obvious that Baohua Manor is larger if we only look at the area, the manor in front of us is not much smaller.

And looking at the delicate reliefs on the facade of the main building, the marble statues scattered in the garden, and the decorations on the outer porch that can be seen at a glance as being from the hands of masters, this Cuiyu Manor is much more gorgeous than the simple Baohua Manor.

So are they crazy? Why did he not live in his own house that was hundreds of years old, but had to occupy the manor of Senior Emma that had been abandoned for six years?

With a heart full of confusion, Leon walked out of the dark night, stepped into the light outside the manor gate, and entered the field of vision of the night sentry, and opened his mouth slightly.

"Meow~"

"Who is it?!"

After seeing a somewhat hazy figure approaching, the guard on duty suddenly became alert, and instinctively wanted to call out his companion who was taking a nap in the duty room, asking him to question the identity of the person who came and why he approached Cuiyu Manor alone at night.

However, at this moment, it seemed that the oil in the lamp dripped a little more, and the street lamp directly above the sentry suddenly burst into flames for a moment, and the originally soft night light became extremely dazzling, which made the sentry's eyes unconsciously squint.

And when he tried to blink his eyes and continued to look at the figure, he found that it was not a person, but a cat with something hanging around its neck.

Strange... cats and humans are so different in size, how could I be wrong?

He stared at the kitten again and again in surprise, but no matter how he looked at it, it was just a fluffy long-haired short-legged cat, with no sign of turning into a cat girl. The sentry of the Jinjuan family could only hiss at it twice, and then retreated to his original position in confusion, but...

"Meow!!!"

Accompanied by an angry cat cry, the gray and white cat turned into a gray and white phantom, and instantly pounced in front of the sentry, knocking him to the ground with a rather brutal movement.

I... was beaten by a cat?

Before the sentry who was knocked down could accept this outrageous reality, the small cat with four short paws used his chest as a springboard and got into the duty room through the open window.

The concierge in charge of registration in the duty room only had time to let out a scream before he fell silent, and the other two sentries on night duty also fell silent after a muffled groan.

? ? ?

After finding that the duty room was too quiet, the sentry who had struggled to get up was startled, and hurried over to take a look. Then he was shocked to find that the three people in the room had already fallen down.

The entire duty room was full of tiny cat footprints, but the strange kitten had long disappeared, and there was an inaudible breathing sound from the back of his neck...

"Meow!!!"

...

"Well done."

After catching the kitten with a hazy figure and scratching its chin with his hand, Leon gently flicked the small red fork hanging on his chest.

With a dreamlike and pleasant chirping, the gray and white kitten with a hazy figure disappeared, and a door key with a cuckoo pattern appeared in Leon's palm.

Sorry, I'm not very familiar with this thing, and it seems a bit heavy, but you can leave work early today.

After apologizing to the sentry who fainted on the ground with a horrified face, Leon let him into the duty room through the window, and then took the key found by the dream cat, opened the locked door in front of the door, and entered the manor of the Golden Cuckoo family openly.

The third-generation old man used the weapon of the [Lord of Desire Dreams] as the core material to build the [Desire Dream Invader] for himself, which has an extremely hidden way of launching.

As long as there is any "interaction" with oneself, the soul of the target will be shaken, and the power of the dream world will use his soul as a springboard to temporarily intervene in reality.

As an ordinary person with no abnormality in his body, after hearing the "meow" sound he made, the sentry of the Golden Cuckoo family fell into the control of the "Dream Invader", and directly "dream" under its influence A kitten arrived.

And this dream cat, which invaded reality with the help of his soul, easily knocked out everyone in the duty room under his control, and left a lot of cat footprints in the room.

After the General Administration sends someone to investigate, if the investigator is not careful enough, as long as it is confirmed with the sentry's memory, the direction of the investigation will be directly diverted, or even led to some abnormal object that "turns into a cat".

Even if there is no result in the investigation in the end, it will still be found on his head, but with this non-existent target, his suspicion will be diluted in disguise. This is what he did after the "alibi" provided by the coachman. , the second tactic used to get rid of suspicion.

And as the saying goes, if there is one, there will be two, and there will be three, and four. As for my third back-up...

"It's work!"

After touching his button and getting the black goat out, Leon pointed to the main building still brightly lit in the distance and said calmly:

"Come on! Help me find someone!"

…

"Shashasha..."

Even though it was already late at night, and even the sky was faintly pale, there were still people who were not asleep and were still busy at their desks.

After writing more than half of the letter paper with complicated and colorful calligraphy, the man who looked a little tired folded the letter paper in his hand and handed it to the secretary standing at the table.

"Go ahead, seal the letter and stamp it, and send it to the Mining Guild together with my warrant tomorrow!"

"OK."

After carefully collecting the letter handed by the man and processing it as required, the secretary, who also looked tired, cheered up and said:

"Sir Leonard, after your letter is delivered, will you continue to woo the mining guild as you did last time, or will you?"

"No need to win over them, they have no other value."

He took another document from the table and looked at the signature at the bottom. The man named Leonard frowned and said:

“My previous support for the mining guild’s request was to allow them to move to Merino County for mining through tax cuts, and the spices produced in the spice gardens in Merino County are the biggest rivals of our Cuco family.

Since both the mining and spice growing industries have very high water requirements, as long as the mine is opened in Merino County, it will start to compete with several large spice gardens there for water. This will suppress the opponent and reduce the kingdom's spice production at the same time. , increase the selling price of spices.

This function is the reason why I support the mining guild, not the value of the mining workers themselves. Now that they have a warrant to mine, there is no need to continue to spend effort on them. "

"Ah, okay!"

After writing down Marquis Leonard's instructions, the secretary pondered for a moment, and then said hesitantly:

"But the miners in the Mining Guild have had several conflicts with Merino County over this matter, and seventy or eighty people have died. If it gets bigger..."

"Then let them go find the princess. She issued the decree to encourage the energy guild. She will be responsible for anything that happens."

"And she has always wanted to bypass the Ministry of Finance and Parliament and find sources of fiscal revenue that do not require approval, so that she can fill the military spending pit. The industrial guilds established by these citizens are the ones who support her the most, and even actively contribute funds Donated the ordnance of two regiments.

If a few more people can die this time, it can wake up those mud-legged people and understand that the game between the royal family and the Ministry of Finance is not something they are qualified to participate in. Maybe it will be a good thing.

Also, who brought this letter to my desk? "

After reading the sincere declaration letter in his hand, Leonard frowned and said with a displeased face:

"The weavers' guild actually submitted a declaration form and came to me crying to complain that they couldn't survive and hoped for some tax reductions... Their taxes have been reduced. What will the municipal government do this year? The green plants in the mission area and arcades were reduced last year. It’s time to renovate. If I don’t collect their taxes, where will I get the money?”

"This...it's really a bit difficult with the Weavers Guild..."

After flipping through the corresponding materials, the secretary carefully reminded:

"After losing the battle six years ago, two of the kingdom's external maritime trade routes were robbed, and the fabric trafficking route was among them. Many things could not be sold, and a number of weaving mills had closed down.

As for you and Bao... you and that family run the Northbound Overland Trading Route together. Although they can still continue to traffic fabrics, they will be taxed heavily by the Kingdom of Aichto, resulting in very low profits, so they may indeed have a little difficulty..."

"Why do you talk so much today?"

After squinting his eyes slightly, Leonard looked at his secretary with cold eyes and said with an unkind expression:

"Did the Weavers' Guild give you money?"

"I did give some away...but these are indeed facts."

The secretary smiled sheepishly, and then said:

"You know, many weavers' guilds are still small and medium-sized workshops. They are indeed not as good as those big businessmen with huge wealth. If there is a slight change, it is easy to be unable to sustain..."

"Then let them hold on!"

Leonard snorted and said:

“I don’t care about your collection of money, but tax reduction is definitely not an option!

Don’t think I don’t know. I also worked in this industry back then. If you want to make money in this industry, it is nothing more than draining the blood of the weavers. A weaver can make two hundred pieces of fabric, and only needs to give back fifty or sixty pieces of fabric. The money is enough.

So instead of asking me for a little tax cut, why not just pump out more water and reduce the salary to 40 horses without starving people? If it can be reduced to 30 horses, it will be more useful than my two tax cuts! "

"This is true, but I'm afraid the weavers..."

"Then drive away the troublemakers. Do you still want me to teach them this?"

After crumpling the tax reduction declaration letter for the weaver industry and throwing it into the trash can, Leonard said impatiently:

"If you really can't recruit people, just go to the slums and work! Those people can do it if they are given food. They can't do the dyers who need skills, nor can they do the weavers who only need to move their arms and legs?

In addition, don’t think that because your surname is Cuco, I can tolerate you again and again. No matter how many benefits they squeeze you, this matter will end here, and the due taxes will not be less than a copper wheel! "

"Okay, then I'll go tell them the day after tomorrow..."

"We'll go tomorrow! Also, how's it going at Baohua Manor?"

After drinking a cup of refreshing tea imported from across the sea, Leonard vigorously rubbed his swollen temples and asked with his eyes closed:

"It's been cleaning up there for four or five days, right? Has the main building of the manor been cleaned up? Can it be occupied?"

"This... I'm afraid it will take another three or four days..."

The secretary said solemnly:

"Lord Marquis, you know that it has been deserted for six years. Except for the occasional cleaning of the garden, most of the rest of the place is deserted, so..."

"Don't worry about whether the manor is deserted or not, clean up the place where you live first!"

"This... that place is so deserted, wouldn't it be wrong for you to live there..."

"It doesn't matter whether it's deserted or not, as long as it can be inhabited and not collapsed."

Leonard stopped rubbing his temples and explained with tired eyes:

"The princess has the support of the Lion-Hearted Duke. In addition to the Ministry of Military Affairs and the Ministry of Road Administration, she also won the seat of Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords. If His Highness Joshua wants to compete with her for the seat, he will only have the financial resources. The support of ministers is not enough, they must also have the ability to speak out in the House of Lords.

According to the Chancellor of Finance, as long as I change my mind and admit my marriage to that woman, he can help me work and force the Baohua family's seat in the House of Lords over, so that the two highnesses can return to the same place. On the starting line.

Moving from Cuiyu Manor to Baohua Manor is the first step in this operation. Even with the endorsement of the Finance Minister and the royal family, my people must be there. At least they must look good before they can inherit. Do you understand the political legacy of the Baohua family? "

"understood……"

“If you understand, just do it!”

After seeing this cousin who was nominally his secretary, but actually came to learn how to deal with government affairs and then find an opportunity to go out, Leonard relied on his last patience to urge:

"You can put other things aside, but this matter was assigned by the Minister of Finance, and if Baohua's seat can be occupied, His Majesty the King will also strongly support it, so it must be done first!

So now you go and hurry me up, call out those workers, and start working for me all night long! "

"Okay! I'll go right away!"

After receiving the order, the secretary quickly stood up and walked out of the office quickly. Leonard, who was no longer disturbed, put down his tea cup and re-examined the documents piled high on the table. The whole room became quiet again, leaving only I heard the rustling sound of the pen tip rubbing against the paper until...

"Crack!"

The whale oil in the lamp on the table swayed slightly, making a slight sound, causing the light of the lamp to sway slightly twice, and also alerted the man who was busy writing at the table.

After looking sideways at the empty side table, Leonard couldn't help but frown, turned around and shouted loudly:

"mark?"

"Where's the man?"

After waiting for a while, there was no response, not even the guard guarding the outside. Leonard frowned and stood up from the table.

"mark?"

"I am here."

Following a slightly vague response, a slightly hazy figure appeared at the door, but his body shape seemed to be slightly different. He looked slimmer than the slightly fat Mark...

"mark?"

"Um."

With an affirmative response, the person walked in from the shadows outside the door. The figure that looked a little hazy at first returned to normal under the light and became completely stable.

Seeing Leonard's tense body relaxing again, the secretary, who still had tired eyes, smiled slightly and said calmly:

"Lord Leonard, I'm here."