Chapter 159: I"m not in charge!
"You made it! How"s your day?" Stepping forward, I greeted Ayda. Walking towards me directly on the street, she wore the same distinctions that I added to all my outfits, flaunting just how beautiful my cult was.
"Bearable. Is this the place?" Despite wearing the best dress that the people I hired could create for her, Ayda refused to just be here to look nice. Cutting right to the point, she looked at the huge building in the middle of the town.
"Yeah, but we still have some time. I already reserved the seats for us." Pointing at a nearby bench, I smiled at the girl. "How about we sit down for a short rest?"
Ever since we returned from Ayda"s world, life was pretty frantic for the both of us. Torn between all kinds of duties, we barely had the time to sleep, not to speak about any kind of leisure activities. In light of how busy we were, the chance to just sit down and enjoy the moment was pretty rare.
"Sure, if you don"t mind." Instantly seating herself right beside me, Ayda glued her body to my side. Wrapping her hands around my arm, she rested her head on my shoulder. From how tense her body was, I could tell how truly tired she was.
"Hopefully, we need to hold still for just a few more moments. Once the situation with the stones will hopefully calm down…" Thinking about the near future, I could feel a certain stiffness in my heart. This wasn"t the leisurely life that I imagined for me and my family. But I didn"t really have any choice anymore.
"Calm down? I wouldn"t count for that before at least two weeks. In fact, I think we can expect the price to surge even higher." Shaking her head, Ayda reached out to a small bag she got along with the rest of her outfit. Pulling out two chocolate bars, she pa.s.sed one to me with a questioning look on her face.
"Thanks." Accepting the candy, I tore its cover off before biting on the sweet chocolate snack. For some reason, just the fact that it was a piece that Ayda brought, its taste seemed to explode in my mouth with far greater intensity than usual. At the same time, just the fact of sitting at the bench together managed to put a satisfied smile on my face.
"But speaking of the price, two weeks? I think the hype will die off way sooner." Rather than disapproving of Ayda"s opinion, I simply wasn"t sure whether she managed to judge the situation while taking the differences between her world and earth into account. In the end, it wasn"t that easy to manipulate the population into a financial scheme, if those people were already used to this kind of market manipulation!
"Well, I prefer to have high hopes. The longer the situation lasts…" Taking a quick look at the watch on her wrist, Ayda unconsciously smiled. Out of all the applicancies that the modern civilisation offered, this simple tool to measure the pa.s.sage of time struck her fancy the most.
"Either way, we need to hurry up inside, the meeting is about to start." Releasing a pained sigh, Ayda stood up before reaching with her hand towards me. Grabbing her delicate palm, I couldn"t stop myself from kissing the top of her hand before standing up as well and following after the girl into the building.
After marching through a simple set of corridors, we quickly joined into a rather vast crowd of nicely dressed people, before one of the attendants of the event guided us to the lodge on the VIP floor.
Freed from the burden of the crowd, we finally reached our reserved seats. Given how the entire event was taking place in a former theatre, all the VIP lodges were occupied by various forces that controlled the city ever since the uprising against the corrupted local government.
It was here that we finally managed to get some proper rest. Sitting in huge and insanely comfortable chairs, we didn"t even need to say a word before a steward came, pouring the two of us a gla.s.s of clearly expensive booze. From its delicate bubbles, I could guess that it was the legendary champagne, but given how little I knew about fire drinks, it could as well be just carbonated booze.
"For the future." Raising the cup towards the girl, I struck her gla.s.s in the popular gesture before taking a small sip of the drink. Compared to my expectations, it turned out to be even better. Gently caressing my palate, its bubbles transported the taste while the drink itself gently flew down my throat.
"To be perfectly honest, your booze is great… But softer drinks not so much." Lightly twisting her lips, Ayda tasted the drink before putting the gla.s.s aside. Compared to the snacks prepared on the side of our chairs, the alcohol stood no chance!
"Everyone! Let"s the third meeting of the town"s agenda begin!" Looking down on the scene while munching on the treat that Ayda fed me a moment earlier, I saw one of the retainers of the greater players on the local scene. Given how I intended to steer clear of the politics, I could be very well mistaken though.
"Today, we are faced with great turmoil. A chaotic rise of the market that we didn"t see coming. And I don"t think I need to speak much for you to understand." Instantly cutting to the point, the host of the meeting announced. "As such, let us discuss how the city should react to this new situation."
Pointing his hand towards the furthest of the VIP lodgest from us, the host smiled as he gently bowed his head.
"Thank you for giving me the prime voice for the meeting." Soon, a voice of a certain rich business owner that thrived in the city appeared. With just a single look around the lodge, I located a loud-speaking set, most likely connected to the general auditory system of the hall.
But as soon as I made this discovery, my attention escaped again. Baited by Ayda"s hand holding yet another treat, I completely ignored the proceedings, enjoying my filtry play with my woman.
Bit by bit, the event continued to develop. Absorbed in the fun I had with Ayda, I barely noticed when half of the speakers from the VIP lodges finished their lithanes.
In the end, this wasn"t an event that I wanted to attend for any reason other than sc.r.a.pping up some resting time for me and Ayda. Given how everyone around was just as busy as the two of us, only by pretending to actually work could we find some time for ourselves.
But then, I heard a rather disturbing sentence.
"Given how the Boruta cult is in attendance today, what is their stance on the topic?"
Shaken awake, I looked down at the scene. For some reason, someone dared to direct everyone"s attention to our lodge, making any further leisure impossible.
But instead of getting riled up by the fact that I had no idea what we were actually asked about, I calmly picked the microphone of the loudspeaker set before pompously uttering.
"This matter is too complicated and important to be discussed out in the open like that. Only by ensuring careful arrangements and proper a.n.a.lysis of the problem can we reach a conclusion that will satisfy all the parties concerned. As such, I would like to take my liberty to withhold my response, given how I have yet to consult my experts about the problem."
Rather than bothering to come up with some fancy response, I simply quoted one of the greatest pieces of dialogue from the locally made series that I ever heard about. Crafted as a universal response for politics faced with difficult questions, it allowed one to keep the dignified front while basically pushing the entire topic away.
"Your excellency, I do not understand. Aren"t you the local head of the cult? If so, who do you need to consult with whether or not make a voluntary donation to the city funds from the extreme riches your cult obtained on the recent market rise?"
Most likely recognising the set of sentences that I just spoke, the man kindly provided me with enough context to understand what the question was actually about.
"When the invasion of monsters came, it was the people of the Boruta Cult and I myself that protected the city. After giving everyone a fair share of the magic stones from the battle, we went out of our way to even further promote their worth." On one hand, my answer had nothing to do with the question posed. But I had to bring forward those few words in order to make my second part a bit more reasonable.
"And despite that, you still believe that despite holding ourselves back from joining the city council, we somehow still owe the town the wealth that we obtained on our own?"
Riled up by my own words, I stood up and approached the bal.u.s.trade of the lodge. Still holding the mouthpiece by my lips I smiled before adding some more words.
"If you want to rob us, at least have the face to do it directly. And one more thing."
Smiling internally, I actually turned around before reaching with my hand towards Ayda.
"I"m actually a subordinate of the Bishop Ayda. As such, I"m not the one in charge of the affairs here!"
The shock on the girl"s face when she heard those words was the best thing that I happened to see in a long while.