27: Chapter 27 One Ledger, Two Approaches to Auditing

In the castle's reception hall, the air seemed to have solidified into amber, sealing the tense standoff within.

Candlelight danced silently on the iron candelabra, casting long shadows of Levi and Princess Ella Radiance onto the cold floor.

Levi's gaze swept calmly over Ella's pretty face, which appeared especially vivid due to her slight anger.

She wore tight-fitting silver soft armor designed for riding, outlining her graceful figure, and her brilliant blonde hair was tied high in a ponytail, giving her a heroic and imposing appearance.

Yet, her emerald eyes were currently filled with undisguised scrutiny and hostility.

Behind her, Sir Kane stood like an iron tower.

The Imperial knight's visor had been pushed up, revealing a weathered, resolute face. His hand never left the hilt of his sword, his knuckles turning slightly white from the force.

His gaze was locked onto Levi like a hawk, as if he would draw his sword without hesitation the moment the princess gave the order.

"Levi Byron," Ella's voice was crisp, yet carried an innate arrogance and an indisputable tone of command. "According to Article 137 of the Imperial Noble Code, when a noble territory undergoes a drastic change in ownership during peacetime, the Imperial family has the right to intervene and supervise. I, Ella Radiance, as the plenipotentiary representative of His Majesty the Emperor, now demand that you immediately hand over the financial ledgers of Blackstone Territory and all properties under your name for audit."

She deliberately emphasized the word "all," as if warning Levi not to play any tricks.

Before Levi could speak, Evelyn, standing at his side, stepped forward.

She had changed into a formal black ladies' suit today, which outlined her breathtaking curves, but she wore rimless crystal glasses on her face, partially obscuring those bewitching purple eyes and adding a touch of ascetic intellectual beauty.

She held a thick stack of snow-white paper made from some kind of plant fiber, the edges of the sheets cut neatly.

"Your Highness," Evelyn's voice was so flat that not a hint of emotion could be detected. She gently placed the stack of documents on the long table in front of Ella, making a soft "clack" sound. "These are the financial reports you require."

The documents on the table were divided into three stacks. On the top cover of each, the titles were clearly marked in an extremely neat Common language font.

"Balance Sheet" "Cash Flow Statement" "Annual Income Statement"

Ella's gaze fell upon those titles, and her brows furrowed involuntarily.

This was completely different from the ledgers she knew.

The ledgers of nobles, whether parchment scrolls or hardbound books, recorded nothing more than how many gold coins were received on which day, and how much was spent on buying food, weapons, or luxury goods—simple and clear.

But these things before her... what were they?

She suspiciously picked up the "Balance Sheet" on top and opened the first page.

What met her eyes was a massive table, divided with extreme precision by thin lines.

On the left were "Assets," on the right were "Liabilities and Owner's Equity," and below were listed a series of terms she had never heard of: Current Assets, Fixed Assets, Intangible Assets, Accounts Receivable, Depreciation and Amortization, Long-term Loans, Paid-in Capital, Retained Earnings... Each term was followed by a long string of numbers accurate to the single digit.

She felt her head buzz, as if an illiterate farmer had been forcibly shoved into the Royal Library.

She recognized all these characters, but combined together, they became a heavenly book she could not comprehend.

Suppressing her dizziness, she picked up the other two reports; the contents inside made her feel equally unfamiliar and absurd.

"Operating Cash Flow," "Investing Cash Flow," "Accrual Basis," "Gross Profit Margin," "Return on Equity"... These cold terms were like a group of sprites mocking her ignorance, baring their fangs on the paper.

"What is this?" Ella slammed the documents onto the table with a "thud," fury rising in her emerald eyes. "Levi Byron, are you mocking me? I told you to hand over the ledgers, and you give me a pile of fabricated waste paper! Do you think that by using these pretentious terms, you can cover up your crime of embezzling the property of Ironhoof Territory?"

Sir Kane, behind her, stepped forward half a pace, his palm pressing heavily onto his sword hilt, emitting a dull sound of metal friction. The oppressive feeling in the air instantly thickened.

Levi remained seated calmly, even picking up the warm water beside him to take a sip, as if everything before him had nothing to do with him.

It was Evelyn who answered Ella again.

"Your Highness, please forgive my bluntness," the succubus financial director pushed up the glasses on the bridge of her nose, the lenses reflecting the candlelight, making her purple eyes appear deep and indifferent. "Your understanding of finance is still stuck in the era of family handicraft workshops from a hundred years ago. These are scientific tools that can truly reflect the actual financial status of an organization."

"You..." Ella was choked red by this merciless mockery. A succubus, daring to lecture her, an Imperial princess, to her face!

Evelyn, however, did not give her a chance to lash out. Her slender, fair fingers tapped on the "Balance Sheet," and she began her "lesson" in a tone devoid of any emotional color.

"First, the Balance Sheet. It reflects all the resources possessed by our Blackstone Territory at a specific point in time, as well as the sources of these resources. The assets on the left are things we can control that will bring future economic benefits. The liabilities on the right are what we owe to others; the owner's equity is the net asset that truly belongs to the Lord. The left and right sides must be equal; this is a balance, a verification. It allows you to see at a glance how substantial our foundation is and how great the risks are."

Her finger then slid toward another document.

"Second, the Income Statement. It tells you whether we made a profit or a loss over a past period, and why. Traditional receipt and expenditure ledgers only record the inflow and outflow of gold coins; that is the 'cash basis,' which is very easy to falsify and hide problems. For example, if your knight order buys a batch of armor on credit without paying, there would be no record in a traditional ledger, but in reality, the territory has already incurred debt. We, however, adopt the 'accrual basis.' As long as a transaction occurs, regardless of whether the money has been received, it will be recorded in the income statement. This is the only way to truly reflect operating results."

Ella listened, feeling confused, yet she could sense that the other party's logic was seamless and self-contained, making all the accusations about "falsifying accounts" she had prepared seem so pale and powerless.

She felt not like an auditor wielding power, but rather like a dull student being scolded by a teacher in a classroom.

This feeling made her incredibly annoyed, yet she had no way to refute it.

Just then, the silent Levi finally spoke.

He stood up and walked to the long table, wearing a gentle and apologetic smile, like a patient host comforting a guest stumped by a complex game.

"Your Highness Ella, please forgive Evelyn's directness. She is a pure technocrat; she has more patience for numbers than for people." He took a one-page briefing from Evelyn's hand and personally handed it to Ella. "Perhaps this will make it easier for you to understand."

It was a report summarized with charts and the simplest language, featuring several pie charts and bar charts that clearly indicated the composition of Blackstone Territory's revenue sources, major expenditure items, and asset growth trends.

Ella's expression softened slightly; she could finally understand the gist of this document.

Levi's voice was gentle and magnetic, like a spring breeze, attempting to disperse the ice in the room. "Your Highness, please allow me to use a metaphor to explain. A traditional noble territory is like a pond; you only need to know how much water and how many fish are in it. So, a simple running account is enough. But my Blackstone Territory is different; I am striving to build it into a flowing, circulating living water system. There are water inlets and outlets, and within the system, the water is used for irrigation, power generation, and aquaculture. What I need to monitor is the flow speed, water quality, evaporation rate, and ecological health of the entire system. Therefore, I need these more complex reports to ensure that this system will not collapse due to a blockage in any single link."

He paused, looking at Ella with a sincere gaze. "The exploitation of subjects and embezzlement of assets that you worry about might be a way to make quick profits for a closed pond. But for a living water system that needs to operate healthily in the long term, that is a foolish act of destroying one's own foundation. Everything I have done is merely to allocate every resource more efficiently and responsibly, allowing every drop of water to exert its maximum value. This, naturally, also includes human resources."

These words cleverly packaged his cold exploitation into a farsighted, advanced, and responsible management model.

Ella felt that the moral high ground she had originally occupied was beginning to totter before this brand-new theoretical system of his.

She wanted to refute it, but found she couldn't even shake the foundation of his theory.

No, she couldn't let him lead her by the nose!

Ella's gaze turned sharp again. She forced herself to break free from those complex theories, turning instead to find the most primitive, most impossible-to-fake breakthrough point.

Her gaze locked firmly onto the "Annual Income Statement," stopping at a massive expenditure item named "Employee Benefits and Performance Incentives."

This number was shockingly large, even exceeding the sum of the territory's weapon procurement and city defense construction.

In her view, this was simply a fantasy.

A poor lord who had just started, and even annexed a bankrupt territory—where would he get so much money to distribute to those mud-legged peasants?

This money must either have been embezzled by him or used to raise hidden private armed forces!

Found it! This was his flaw!

Ella lifted her head abruptly, a glimmer of victory flashing in her emerald eyes.

She no longer dwelled on those reports that looked like heavenly books, but instead launched a new offensive directly.

"That sounds very nice, Lord Levi." She deliberately emphasized the word "Lord," carrying a trace of sarcasm. "Theories can be fabricated, but people's lives do not lie. Since you claim that you are 'efficiently allocating human resources' and not oppressing them, then please take me to see your worker living area. I want to see for myself what kind of 'high-welfare' life those craftsmen and miners who create huge profits for you are living!"

She believed that once she arrived on the scene, those oppressed subjects would surely pour out their history of blood and tears to her, an Imperial princess, and then all of Levi's rhetoric would collapse without a fight.

A cold smirk also curled the corner of Sir Kane's mouth; in his view, this was the most effective way to audit.

Any lie, in the face of facts, would have nowhere to hide.

To their surprise, there was not a trace of panic on Levi's face; instead, he revealed a smile that said he had "expected this all along."

"I would be honored, and wouldn't dare to ask otherwise." He readily agreed, made a gesture of "please," and said to Evelyn, "Evelyn, you lead the way. Make sure to let Her Highness the Princess see the most authentic side, without any embellishment."

Evelyn bowed slightly.

Led by Evelyn, Ella and Sir Kane passed through the castle and arrived at the worker living area located behind the mountain.

The scene before them once again overturned their cognition.

There was no sight of the slum with overflowing sewage and foul odors that they had imagined.

Instead, there were rows of sturdy stone houses planned with neatness, the roads paved with crushed stone, clean and tidy, and there were even dedicated drainage ditches.

The air was filled not with the sour stench of poverty, but with a scent full of the breath of life, mixed with the aroma of baked bread and soapberry.

Not far away, lively sounds came from a huge building; Evelyn introduced it as the public canteen, ensuring that all workers could eat sufficient hot meals for three meals a day.

Ella's expression became increasingly unsightly.

Everything was too "normal," so normal that it made her feel unreal.

She did not believe that a lord who had just escaped the brink of bankruptcy had the ability or the willingness to provide such a superior environment for the bottom-tier workers.

This must be a facade project done for her to see!

Just then, Sir Kane's gaze was drawn to a huge wooden wall in the center of the square ahead.

The wall was densely covered with papers, and many miners who had just finished work, their faces still carrying coal dust, were gathered there, excitedly pointing and gesturing, occasionally erupting into exclamations of envy or sighs of frustration.

"What is that?" Ella asked, her tone carrying a trace of vigilance.

"Monthly Performance Leaderboard." Evelyn's answer was concise and clear.

Ella and Sir Kane exchanged a look and walked over quickly.

Pushing through the crowd, that huge announcement wall was finally presented to them in its entirety.

At the very top, written in striking large characters, was: "Blackstone Territory May Production Performance Hero List."

Below was a huge table that listed in detail the rankings of almost all job types in the territory.

"Mining Department - Black Iron Ore Group: First place, 'Iron Hammer' John, output 347 units of standard ore, excess completion rate 152%, reward 2 performance gold coins, 10 meat coupons..."

"Smelting Department - Blast Furnace Group 1: Team first place, finished iron ingot pass rate 97.3%, reward 5 team gold coins, team leader Blackfinger extra reward one barrel of dwarven spirits..."

From top to bottom, behind every name on the list was a string of output values precise to the decimal point, as well as the corresponding, clearly marked bonus amount.

The entire list exuded an atmosphere of money that made one's blood boil, linking "effort" and "reward" in the most naked and direct way.

Looking at the expressions of excitement, jealousy, or unwillingness on the faces of those workers, all the questions she had prepared about "exposing the truth of exploitation" and "upholding justice for the people" were like a ball of cotton stuck in her throat; she couldn't say a single word.

Everything she saw was, far from oppression, a kind of production enthusiasm she had never seen before, bordering on insanity.

Her gaze subconsciously moved up along the list, passing over craftsmen, miners, and guards, finally landing on a separate section at the very top—"Management and Sales Department."

Under that column, there was only one name, yet it occupied the most prominent position.

"Sales Director: Evelyn."

And behind her name followed a string of performance figures so long it was dazzling, along with a bonus amount that made Ella's heart skip a beat.

Ella's breathing instantly became rapid. She turned her head abruptly, staring fixedly at the calm-faced succubus beside her, extended a slightly trembling finger, and pointed to the top of the leaderboard.