128: Chapter 128 Mrs. Lillian's Talent! The Beauty Pageant Budget!

Gino City, Golden Flame Castle.

In the head maid Elise's room.

The sound of rapid breathing gradually calmed down.

In the dim light, Rowan leaned against the headboard, his eyes half-closed as if savoring something.

Elise was curled up at his side, a light blue thin quilt covering only her waist, revealing her smooth shoulders and back. Her golden hair, slightly damp with sweat, clung to her skin, which was flushed with a captivating rosy hue. She had already fallen into a deep sleep.

A hard afternoon's work had made the [Drain] skill very fruitful, converting quite a few free attribute points.

Rowan felt satisfied with this; it proved that his core strategy for managing the garden was correct and efficient.

It was most efficient to wait until the flowers had nurtured enough emotions before performing periodic Drain.

The growth of power, after all, had to be put to practical use.

He glanced at the golden sunset outside the window, suddenly remembered something, and his brows twitched slightly.

Lady Lillian... was still in his master bedroom, facing that pile of files and account books brought back from City Hall.

An afternoon had passed; he wondered if she had figured anything out.

Thinking of this, he didn't delay any longer.

He got up from the bed, grabbed the silk robe draped over the back of the chair to put on, and left the room barefoot.

He walked back to his master bedroom and pushed open the door.

The room was brightly lit, a stark contrast to the dim and languid atmosphere in Elise's room.

Those mountains of files and account books seemed to have been reclassified and organized.

Some were neatly stacked on one side of the desk.

Others were spread out on the open space in the center of the room, which was covered with a thick carpet.

Lady Lillian was sitting in the center of the carpet, with a yellow-edged book titled "Detailed Breakdown of Gino City's Annual Market Tax Revenue and Cargo Commissions" spread across her knees.

She was clearly immersed in it, not even noticing when Rowan pushed the door open and entered.

She seemed to have been sitting there for a long time; her meticulously styled side bun was slightly loose, and a few strands of chestnut hair fell beside her cheeks, adding a touch of focused, intellectual beauty to her charming face.

She slightly furrowed her delicate brows, her long, slender fingers moving slowly over lines of dense numbers. Her other hand was unconsciously resting against her chin, her red lips slightly pursed, and her expression was one of unprecedented seriousness and dedication.

Rowan didn't make a sound, but instead went to a large recliner in the room and lay down, looking at Lady Lillian with great interest.

Seeming to sense the gaze, Lady Lillian finally snapped out of her focus and lifted her head, looking a bit dazed.

When she saw the languidly postured Rowan on the recliner not far away, a hint of trance flashed through her eyes instantly.

Immediately, a smile of excitement involuntarily appeared on her face.

"The Count." She put down the account book and wanted to stand up to salute, but it seemed that because she had been sitting for too long, her legs were a bit numb, and her movement paused slightly.

"Sit and talk." Rowan waved his hand, his gaze still resting on her face, his tone casual, "How is it looking?"

Lady Lillian didn't force herself to stand up; remaining in her seated position, she turned her body slightly toward Rowan.

She took a deep breath, her voice rising slightly: "Great gains! My Lord!"

Rowan was noncommittal, only signaling for her to continue.

Lady Lillian composed herself, her expression becoming serious, and began to speak:

"My Lord, in one afternoon, I mainly skimmed through the geographical maps, population registers, the total financial revenue and expenditure records of the past three years, and some of the City Guard's salary and equipment books."

"First, regarding the maps and population, the situation in Gino City and the core area of the Golden Flame Territory roughly aligns with official records, but in the peripheral villages, especially the manors near the mountains and forests, the situation of population loss and concealment might be more serious than what is in the register, and the tax base might be falsely reported..."

"As for the City Guard, the headcount is generally full, but there are slight discrepancies between the equipment maintenance and warhorse inventory and the books. Especially the procurement and verification of some consumable materials, the process seems... not very smooth."

Speaking of this, she paused, a flash of caution in her charming eyes, and lowered her voice: "And the most concentrated problem lies in the treasury accounts."

She picked up the thick book of market tax details beside her, her fingertip pointing to a certain page:

"My Lord, please look. In the past three years, there has been a systematic... small gap between the total annual transaction volume of Gino City's major markets and the final market tax and cargo commissions deposited into the treasury."

"The proportion of this gap is not large, fluctuating annually between three to five percent of the total tax revenue, but accumulated over three years, plus the unconventional circulation of other fees and fines..."

Rowan listened quietly, his expression unreadable.

He was not surprised by this.

What he cared more about was:

Lady Lillian's analysis was detailed and sharp; she indeed seemed to have talent in this area.

Moreover, she also had some understanding of the deeply intertwined relationships in Gino City.

Locals can sometimes indeed see the crux that outsiders struggle to notice at first.

He did not immediately express his stance on the financial issue, but instead asked a question that seemed completely unrelated:

"I now want to hold a large-scale beauty pageant."

"Huh?" Lady Lillian, who was just reaching the crucial point, was suddenly interrupted. A trace of obvious astonishment appeared on her face, and her beautiful eyes looked at Rowan in confusion.

Rowan changed to a more comfortable position, his gaze cast toward the rising lights of ten thousand homes in Gino City outside the window, and he said in a flat yet clear tone:

"I want to select female officials and maids, and I need a beauty pageant with as wide a coverage as possible."

"Among them, I want to discover and select those women who have potential or talent in various aspects such as administration, commerce, law, military, and even extraordinary professions."

Lady Lillian heard clearly this time, and the astonishment on her face quickly transformed into a strange expression.

She glanced quickly at the mountains of confidential files in the room, then looked at the young Earl before her who was talking about a beauty pageant so nonchalantly.

The huge disparity left her speechless for a moment, and she even suspected that she had misunderstood the meaning of a beauty pageant.

But Rowan's eyes were calm and serious; he didn't seem to be joking.

Therefore, she quickly adjusted her mindset and spoke cautiously: "My Lord, if you want to hold such a... grand event, doing it directly in the official name of City Hall is probably... not appropriate, as it is easy to attract criticism."

"The best way is to entrust it to a powerful and reputable chamber of commerce in the city to handle the specific operations."

"The chamber of commerce is familiar with the process and has the connections and channels to promote it. As for the talent in various aspects that you need..."

She paused and continued, "Women with professional knowledge or special talents like this are probably limited in number locally in Gino County, mostly concentrated in the provincial cities of the Northern Territory or even various academies in the Imperial Capital."

"To attract them to participate, it requires the chamber of commerce to use their network to promote and build momentum. The key is, what kind of cost are you willing to pay for this, My Lord?"

"Cost?" Rowan withdrew his gaze from outside the window and looked at Lady Lillian again, a faint arc curling at the corners of his mouth:

"With my current authority, I will make it as big as possible. What I want is participation, as many and as excellent candidates as possible."

Upon hearing this, Lady Lillian looked at Rowan with an inexplicable expression.

The style of The Count's actions was truly... unexpected.

Having just taken over a city, instead of rectifying the administration, soothing the populace, and consolidating power, he wanted to go all out to hold a... beauty pageant?

This is simply... unheard of.

But she quickly suppressed the sense of absurdity in her heart. As the daughter of a business family, she quickly began to calculate mentally.

A moment later, she reported a number:

"Based on the financial accounts I reviewed this afternoon, the currently available balance in the City Hall treasury is about 430,000 gold coins."

"If we entrust it to a chamber of commerce, we can perform some rollover operations, and the total budget scale can probably reach... about 800,000 gold coins."

She lifted her head, looking at Rowan with burning eyes, her tone carrying a hint of incredulous confirmation:

"My Lord, are you sure... you want to spend 800,000 gold coins to hold a... beauty pageant?"

After speaking, she couldn't help but ask another question: "May I ask, My Lord... roughly how many maids or female officials do you plan to select?"

Upon hearing this, Rowan's answer was simple and direct, but it made Lady Lillian instantly stunned.

"Of course, the more, the better." Rowan's tone was matter-of-fact: "Moreover, for every competition, from the preliminary selection to the final selection, I must be present to observe personally."

Lady Lillian was completely stunned upon hearing this.

She stared blankly at the languidly postured Rowan on the recliner, as if she were meeting this man for the first time.

Spending nearly a million gold coins just to select maids and female officials?

And wanting to personally observe every single one?

This could no longer be explained by a simple fondness for beauty or recruiting talent; it was simply a kind of near-paranoid, incomprehensible fanaticism...

She suppressed the absurdity in her heart, forced herself to calm down, and continued to analyze with a slightly dry voice:

"My Lord, if... if we just mobilize age-appropriate women within Gino County to participate voluntarily, relying on your reputation and prize incentives, perhaps we would only need 200,000 gold coins to set up prizes, and it could be done very successfully. But..."

She paused, took a deep breath, and continued:

"But if you are truly determined to invest a budget of 800,000 gold coins, then, through the operation of a top-tier chamber of commerce, the influence of this grand event will by no means be limited to Gino County!"

"The news and recruitment can quickly spread to the entire five provinces of the Northern Territory, and even penetrate into the Imperial Capital and the wealthy Eastern Territory through the chamber of commerce network! By then, the quantity and quality of participants will be completely different!"

She paused, looked at Rowan, with a final hint of warning, which was also a kind of probing:

"But My Lord, you must know that by making such a big fuss and spending huge sums of money to hold a... beauty pageant right after taking office, you are very likely to become the... laughingstock of the imperial aristocratic circle."

"Those old-fashioned nobles, especially some big figures who care about decency, will probably have many criticisms of you."

...