Chapter 1236: Poor Old Man

Chapter 1236: Poor Old Man

The next day.

The emperor was leading the meeting with his ministers in a smaller chamber before a messenger suddenly entered, whispering something to the emperor.

The emperor nodded. The messenger then exited first as Henry came in.

“Grand Tutor. How are you doing? It’s rare to see you in the capital.” The emperor stood up, spreading his arms.

“Your Imperial Majesty. I’m glad that you are doing well.” Henry smiled before turning his head to the rest of the people. “I would like everyone to vacate the room.”

The ministers were perplexed, so their gazes shifted to the emperor. Once the emperor nodded, they hurriedly exited the room.

“So, what’s wrong? For you to suddenly come and ask me to vacate the room.” The emperor’s face turned serious. The Grand Tutor was known for his character and wisdom, so he wouldn’t ask him to vacate the room without any reason.

Henry asked, “Does Your Majesty perhaps know about a group called Lantern and Candle?”

“!!!” The emperor widened his eyes in amusement. “As expected from you, Grand Tutor. Despite not overseeing the empire anymore, this name still somehow reaches your ears.”

“Hmmm? What kind of group is this Lantern and Candle? Has it done something extraordinary, especially for the empire?”

“You guessed it correctly. No, didn’t you already know it all?”

“No. This is the extent of my knowledge. That’s why I want to know about this group. What has it done?”

“Why do you ask?”

“There has been an accident.”

Seeing the Grand Tutor’s face, the emperor knew he should share the information first. The emperor let out a long sigh. “Do you know a device called the cloud-repelling device?”

Henry shook his head.

“This device claims to be able to open the sky. To be honest, I have received a report from Duke Christian, who has seen it with his own eyes.

“Originally, the dynasty was able to form a connection to the creator of this device and secured it.

“You should know that the current food price has increased to 50 times its original value, right? And that’s just an estimate.”

Henry nodded this time. “I have heard the report. Even where I reside, the prince has increased 15 times. And this is simply because it’s the second largest city in the empire. If it’s in other places, I can safely assume it’s much higher than that. It won’t be weird if people sell themselves just to get some food.”

“Indeed. The biggest problem is due to the cost of opening up the sky to get the necessary sunlight. To open up the ash cloud, we have to hire high-level summoners, who are not cheap.”

“So, with this device…” Henry started to connect the dots.

“By acquiring this device, we can lower the cost of food tremendously. The cost of maintenance is not something a noble will even look at. To put it bluntly, the people under them can embezzle more without batting an eye than the cost of the maintenance.

“With this device, we can remove all the food inflation. Maybe not all, but it will go down by at least 95%, if not more.”

“95%?” Henry was dumbfounded. He didn’t expect this device to be so cheap. “The cost…”

“Well, Duke Christian has found someone who can smuggle the machine to the empire. And he doesn’t seem to have any problem delivering at least 4,000 devices for us.

“It looks like Duke Christian has tried to make a counterfeit, but it doesn’t seem to be possible. Nevertheless, we can still acquire this device.

“The only cost that matters is the price of the device itself. Duke Christian has agreed to sell it at 22 million per device. It should be able to operate until the ash cloud disappears as long as we take good care of it. For daily use, it will probably use 10 to 20 proto-class cores.”

“So cheap…” Henry was completely astounded. He finally figured out what Nathan meant by doing the empire a great favor.

By lowering the food price, the empire would stop its decline. Besides, those high-level summoners could be placed elsewhere.

This was not a great favor anymore. They practically saved the empire.

“There you have it. So, what’s wrong, Grand Tutor? It’s unlike you to suddenly come to me for this kind of stuff. Is there something wrong?”

Henry scratched the back of his head. Now that he knew what the Lantern and Candle had done, saying what actually had happened gave him a headache.

Before he could speak, a loud, angry voice echoed from outside the room.

“What are you doing? Unhand me. You bastard. Let me meet the emperor right now. This is a matter of emergency. I demand an explanation from the emperor! Are you blind?”

The emperor was perplexed. He obviously recognized this person’s voice. After all, Duke Christian was the one who managed to acquire the device through this smuggler.

Suddenly, the door slammed open as Duke Christian dragged himself into the room while a few people were practically holding him to stop him.

“Your Majesty. What the hell have you done?”

“Duke Christian. Mind your manners!”

“You are in the presence of His Imperial Majesty!” One minister tried to stop him.

“The Grand Tutor is still inside.” Another minister tried to calm him down.

Sadly, their efforts were useless.

“Shut up. Who cares?! I need an explanation. Who the hell is insane enough to want the empire to burn?! Get off me!” Duke Christian roared as he grabbed them all and tossed them to the side.

“Aaaahhh!” The ministers screamed. One of them even said while pointing his finger. “Not good. Stop him!”

But it was too late. Duke Christian had entered the room and slammed the door shut to prevent anyone from dragging him out.

The first thing he did was to rush to the emperor and ask out loud, “What the hell have you done? That lowly merchant told me that you had one-sidedly told them to leave. Think carefully before you answer because I will be very disappointed or very angry depending on your answer!”

Rather than the emperor, it was the Grand Tutor’s heart that dropped.

*Thud—!*