The next day and so forth passed by in a blink of an eye before we knew it… it was already nearly two months since we arrived, there weren’t many events that happened other than the construction of the four corner inns being started, houses being fixed and the start of farming.

 

To keep the mana plants safe, we allocated them to a place nearest to the gates where the two assigned captains of each direction could see along with a few dozens of guards.

 

The mana plants also required a special technique for them to grow fast which is complicated to talk about, but it revolves around putting dead bones of monsters with mana deep on the ground then performing a few kinds of stuff.

As for the situation with the construction, with the help of a technique I remembered from Solis VR called ‘Magical Construction’ we managed to speed up the progress with almost twenty houses demolished and rebuilt with the new design within the past few days.

 

“Tanya, how do you think I did?” I looked out from my room in the new town hall. The town hall, despite being rebuilt looked fairly the same on the outside. We wanted to preserve the heritage of the town hall but also modernized it a bit. My room looked so much better than before, right there was also that noble’s manor which we ended up renovating as my manor here.

 

It wasn’t even us who renovated it, but the people apparently cleaned it up together with the few councils that have newly existed as part of a thank you surprise apparently. I went a bit emotional at that time though I usually only come to the manor every few days since I was mostly stuck with work.

 

“You did well over the past week, my lady… how about taking a break and have a stroll around the town, I am sure many people want to see the person who is changing their lives slowly,” Tanya smiled.

 

The only thing I’ve been doing over the last few days were looking at paperwork from the wages that were sent within the past few days to new policy suggestions that came from the people themselves which is usually passed towards the People’s Voice Council which was created to hand us opinions from the people, suggestions, and their satisfaction in a policy.

 

“Well, I don’t really know if they are happy after I implemented that new wealth tax policy which is still fairly new,” I smiled bitterly. In an attempt to slowly gain more wealth for the town, I decided to follow Rome’s path and implement a wealth tax which isn’t commonly seen in the modern world.

 

The advantage of wealth tax is it becomes a lot easier for the poor since they wouldn’t be taxed for their base income. We are following Rome’s method of taking 1% wealth tax from the people, according to the People’s Voice Council though, the satisfaction rate was around 98% but I don’t really know if that is their honest opinion.

 

“My lady is afraid of the people not telling their true opinions, am I correct?” Tanya giggled which surprised me… was my thoughts out in the public, I don’t think I am that easy to see through, “My lady is indeed extremely easy to see through. You don’t have to worry though; any dishonest opinion would earn the citizen a bad record from the council which lowers their potential for benefits in the future.”

 

“That means, most if not all the people who gave their opinions on your new tax policy were honest. Not to mention, most merchants who recently arrived here also gave their opinions and after they were being told of the new tax policies you added, they were all happy and satisfied to the extent that they placed the town as one of their guaranteed routes,” she smiled.

 

Indeed, recently there was a little rise in merchants and businesses who came from other towns or cities who heard of the town having a miracle. Even the news reached the ears of the capital according to Kaori who comes here every now and then which was convenient for me since it reduced my loneliness and homesickness.

 

“I see… how about we go for a quick stroll then, I want to see with my own eyes how the town is doing. It has been a while since I went outside, also don’t bring any guards with me. I don’t want to scare the people…” I said before Tanya nodded, she was pretty much an experienced bodyguard which is why she is fine with me not bringing any guards.

 

After some time, the two of us left the room and greeted the people who were working at government posts on the town hall before leaving as the fresh sight of the town of Iana with cleaner roads, a fresher smell, and a brighter atmosphere came to sight.

 

“It seems like the road construction which I spent a lot on went well,” I smiled while looking at the streets where people could be seen with their children or families eating some kind of food. It was a major contrast to the first time we arrived here.

 

Instantly, the people near us caught the sight of me and quickly greeted us one by one, showing their respects with better clothes and fresher faces than before which made me smile as we passed by the new modern houses. They were all constructed with wood, but they looked so beautiful and clean, not to mention, the wood was reinforced with mana which made them sturdier than concrete.

 

It was a simple technique that involved pouring water that is imbued with a bit of mana onto the wood, not many would have thought of that since it sounds wasteful to imbue mana onto the water, and even they accidentally do so, they wouldn’t notice since it only works on wood.

 

“The town looks so much better now,” I said; almost like a huge burden was lifted off me, my heart felt super relaxed now. There were still many houses being demolished and rebuilt each day but now it looks super modern. A mix of modern and medieval which went better than I thought.

 

The houses used both wood and modern glass which was introduced to the world by Kaori after I ranted an entire night about how this world has pretty bad-looking glass which she immediately gave some instructions to some glassmakers in the capital to spread… her influence is pretty scary which is why since that night, I stopped ranting in front of her.

 

“You should see the marketplace, my lady. It’s a lot better than you would imagine,” Tanya smiled as we roamed around before three children caught my sight as I immediately walked over to them with a questioning gaze, they looked a little bit dirty and their clothes were ragged, “My lady, where are you goin—?”

 

“Excuse me but are you three lost?” I asked before the three shook their heads, they didn’t answer with words but simply shook and nod. I was a bit surprised but then Tanya told me something that shocked me even more.

 

“My lady… I forgot to mention but the town does not have a single orphanage which is why a lot of homeless children are roaming the streets,” she said which caused the mana inside of me to fluctuate a bit, but I quickly calmed it down as I heaved a heavy sigh.

 

It was an oversight from us once more, we were too focused on making the adults life much easier than we forgot about an issue with homeless children… we could ask for a church to come here and take care of the children, but I don’t really trust the church that much—or rather, the church was hardly influential here after a heinous deed done by their pope was exposed.

 

“Tanya, how much funds do we have?” I looked at Tanya in the eye and asked.

 

“We have around a hundred and twenty-six gold coins, my lady after taking some of the taxes from businesses and merchants which wasn’t a lot,” she answered.

 

“Allocate four gold coins to building two orphanages then another ten gold coins each orphanage, that should be enough right considering the average price of orphanages should be around two gold coins... is that correct?” I asked before she nodded.

 

“I will relay your orders once we return,” she answered as I nodded before taking out a piece of baguette sliced in pieces from my bag, lowering myself a bit as I handed them to the children… I felt bad because I couldn’t do anything about their shelters or long-term support but then again… as much as I want to be kind to everyone, I am not a saint—I am simply a human and have limitations.

 

“Take these loaves of bread and try to sustain for a little longer… one day, your lives will change,” I looked at them in the eye with a bitter smile, enduring the heavy fluctuations of mana on my body from the anger… it was something I realized whenever I hear about bad deeds, my mana would fluctuate a lot.

 

The only reason I thought so far about why it would fluctuate is because my body is constructed with the Goddess’s divine power which might have influenced my mana. After taking the bread, I took one glance at the children before leaving in a bitter mood as I looked at Tanya with a wry smile.

 

“You did your best, my lady… it was a mistake on our side for forgetting about them,” Tanya said which I shook my head.

 

“I understand but to think that I would make such a crucial mistake,” I let out a bitter laugh before looking forward as I smiled a bit, “Well, we aren’t perfect anyway, but we can always fix those mistakes—for now, how about we continue on with our inspection?”

 

“Yes, my lady…” Tanya said before the two of us continued looking around before entering inside one of the finished inns which were already populated by people who could afford the price of 15 silver coins, the inns weren’t meant for the poorer people but for the medium salary people.

 

Instead, we planned to have eight motels for lower-wage people with an upfront price of 3.5 silver coins per head every month which is considerably cheaper than any inn you can find in this world. Motels are funnily not a thing in this world yet which is why when I introduced them to the Workers Council, they were immediately hooked.

 

The inn looked as luxurious as I wanted, the entire place’s sanitization was perfect and the meals on the menu were properly priced at 1 to 5 silver coins profit instead of the usual 10 silver coins that most businesses impose.

 

“Welcome, Lady Ayumi, do you need anything from the inn?” a waitress immediately bowed as I gestured her to rise which was a bit annoying, but it was still etiquette so I was practically forced to do so.

 

“I am only taking a short look here; it seems to be doing well. Do you mind if you guide me to the manager since I want to ask some stuff?” I asked.

 

“Not at all!” she immediately nodded without hesitation, guiding us towards a room behind the counter where a female with eyeglasses could be seen counting money and writing on the accounting books.

 

The female was so focused that she didn’t realize we were here only until the waitress knocked on the wall eight times was when she noticed, immediately doing a dogeza on the floor as if she was afraid I would execute her which made me giggle a bit.

 

“Please forgive me, young miss!” she said in a loud voice.

 

“You can stand up, it was amusing to see someone so focused on her work that I was ignored for a few minutes. Now, Tanya… bring me my sword!” I joked before she screamed, making me giggle “It was a joke! I wouldn’t kill someone for ignoring me, is my image in the people’s eyes that scary?”

 

Immediately, the three of them shook their heads as I smiled before sitting down on the couch as I looked at the accounting book she was writing on from afar, “Do you mind if I take a look at the financial situation on the inn?”

 

“No problem at all, young miss! Here is all the data for two months,” she said while running towards the bookshelves as she took out two books and handed them over to me. I could feel her nervousness a bit which made me curious as I skimmed through the book a bit.

 

The financial situation was all in the green, within a month, they managed to make a gold coin of profit, and the second month being even more. The profits mainly came from the meals and upfront cost for the room which compared to the motel is a weekly cost, so that means a person is paying around 15 silver coins per week to stay and a single gold coin for the inn for a full month with full capacity.

 

Added with the meals, the profit for last month was around 1.6 gold coins and the month before being around a few dozens of silver coins because we started out near the end of the month. That is already excluding the operation costs.

 

“This is better than I expected, with the inns alone, we could pay back the town debt in fifty months but of course, I don’t plan to use the inns for that reason. We will have to go with the mana plants which will inevitably be our biggest selling point,” I smirked… simply imagining that Richard crumbling to his knees is amazing.

 

After reading all the records, I immediately handed them back before leaving with Tanya as we reached the marketplace where we were immediately greeted with a bright and cheery atmosphere filled with crowds of people purchasing fresh vegetables and meats which were earned from individual people or groups of hunters and farmers.