57: Chapter 57 If there's no food, knock him unconscious with gold.

Levi's gaze held not a shred of hesitation, as if he were not deciding the life or death of a swath of land for the next century, but merely reviewing an ordinary document.

His finger, steady and forceful, drew a clear circle on the map around the region adjacent to the Abyssal Rift.

"Here."

That land was known as the 'Scar of Demonic Breath'.

For centuries, the faint demonic energy seeping from the Abyssal Rift had thoroughly corrupted the soil there. Even the hardiest weeds could not survive on the saline, alkaline land.

It was like a festering sore on the body of Blackstone Territory that could never heal, serving no purpose other than as a natural buffer zone against the Abyss.

Mia followed the direction of his finger, a flicker of complex, barely perceptible emotion passing through her clear eyes.

She could feel the pain and desolation of that land, yet now, she was to coax the hope of saving countless lives from its corpse.

It was a twisted balance, a cruel mercy.

She asked no further questions, only gave Levi a deep look before bowing slightly. "As you wish, my lord."

Ella, watching from the side, felt a chill run through her body.

She looked at Levi. This man's face showed not a single ripple even as he made such a momentous decision.

She couldn't help but speak, her voice dry. "You just... decided the fate of a piece of land like that?"

Levi retracted his hand and calmly rolled up the map.

He turned to Ella, his expression so placid it seemed he had merely been discussing what to have for lunch.

"Your Highness, a competent administrator must understand how to extract the final value from a 'sunk cost'." His voice was soft, yet it pierced Ella's eardrums like an ice spike. "'The Scar of Demonic Breath' has long been wasteland—an irrecoverable sunk cost. Now, I am merely making this land, destined to yield nothing, contribute its last and only function for us. This is not sacrifice. This is optimal resource allocation."

Ella opened her mouth, only to find herself speechless, choked by this cold and alien logic.

Optimal resource allocation?

He actually used such a term to describe wringing the last vestiges of life from a piece of land.

She felt an unbridgeable chasm between them. On the other side lay a cold, precise, and utterly incomprehensible new world.

Levi gave her no time to digest these concepts. He turned and walked out of the cellar, his steps steady, showing not a hint of panic after the grain robbery.

"Evelyn, go inform Old Jack. Have him do as I said, first thing tomorrow morning at the lord's square."

The next morning, a cold wind whipped fine snowflakes against pedestrians' cheeks.

Yet the atmosphere in Blackstone Territory's central square was more heated than ever before.

A platform built from thick logs rose from the ground. On it, Old Jack was shouting hoarsely with all his might to the hundreds of commoners and merchants gathered below.

Behind him, the most eye-catching sight was over a dozen huge, open wooden chests.

The chests held no grain, no cloth—only one thing: gold coins.

Standard gold coins issued by the empire still gleamed with a seductive luster under the gloomy sky.

They were piled haphazardly, forming a dazzling golden hill. The sheer visual impact made everyone who saw it swallow hard, their breathing growing heavy.

"Fellow countrymen of Blackstone! Friends from all corners!" Old Jack pointed at the golden hill behind him, his wrinkled face flushed with excitement. "Our lord has declared that Blackstone's credit is harder than gold! I know some of you have doubts, worried that your grain subscription vouchers won't be exchanged for grain when the day comes!"

He paused, raising his volume so his voice echoed across the square. "Now! Our lord gives you a choice! Starting today, we establish a 'Temporary Grain Subscription Voucher Redemption Office' here! Anyone who lacks confidence in Blackstone Territory, anyone who fears their vouchers are worthless paper, can bring your vouchers up here! We will exchange them for shiny imperial gold coins—immediately, on the spot—at the original purchase price!"

The crowd erupted instantly.

"What? We can exchange for gold coins now?"

"Heavens, what is the lord doing? Has he gone mad?"

"Did I hear correctly? Redemption at the original price? My vouchers have appreciated by thirty percent!"

Speculators squeezed among the crowd, their faces filled with doubt and suspicion.

They had expected Levi to hold out stubbornly until the redemption date. They never imagined he would open redemptions early, and with gold coins no less!

It defied all reason.

A timid merchant hesitated for a long time before finally squeezing out of the crowd. Trembling, he climbed onto the platform and pulled ten crumpled vouchers from his robe.

"I... I'll exchange."

Old Jack didn't even glance at him, waving a hand grandly. "Exchange for him!"

The clerk in charge of counting immediately took the vouchers. After verifying their authenticity, he grabbed a large handful of coins from a chest, clinked them together as he counted out the correct amount, and stuffed them into the merchant's money pouch.

The heavy weight and the crisp sound of metal were so tangible.

The merchant cradled the pouch, his hands shaking with excitement. He bowed repeatedly towards the platform, then, under a wave of envious gazes, fled the crowd in a panic.

His redemption was like a stone tossed into a lake, sending ripples outward.

Several more timid individuals or those urgently in need of money stepped forward to exchange their vouchers for gold.

But the majority, especially the shrewd speculators, remained where they were, observing coolly.

They watched the nearly undiminished golden hill on the platform, observed Old Jack's confident demeanor, their minds racing.

Why would the lord do this?

If he truly had no grain, cash flow should be his last lifeline. Why would he spend it to buy back this 'worthless paper'?

The only explanation was that he wasn't worried about redemption at all!

His granaries were full of grain!

What he was doing now was purely a display—to the market, to everyone, and especially to Count Augustus—of his unfathomable financial strength and confidence!

It was a blatant show of muscle!

Realizing this, a merchant who had been hesitating slapped his thigh fiercely.

What a fool he'd been!

The price of vouchers on the black market was still rising daily, nearly half again higher than Augustus's grain prices.

Exchanging such high-value vouchers for gold at the original price? Only an idiot would do that!

"I'm not exchanging! I wouldn't exchange even if beaten to death!"

"Exactly! The lord is testing our loyalty! Anyone who exchanges is a fool!"

"Right! Hold onto the vouchers, wait for the granaries to open, and you can double your money by selling them! Exchange for gold? You'd lose out!"

The tide of public opinion reversed instantly.

The crowd, which had been wavering moments before, immediately grew resolute.

The way they looked at the gold coins on the platform was no longer one of greed, but carried a trace of pity, as if gazing upon fools about to miss a fortune.

In a corner of the square, Evelyn watched everything from the shadows, a faint, almost imperceptible curve lifting the corner of her mouth.

The lord's methods were always so simple, brutal, yet struck directly at the heart.

In Count Augustus's castle, the atmosphere was as oppressive as the sea before a storm.

"You say what?!" Augustus grabbed the intelligence report from the table, his withered fingers crumpling the parchment with force. "That little bastard Levi is using gold coins to buy back his vouchers?"

Standing before him was Sophie, her face pale.

She nodded wearily, bloodshot eyes filled with exhaustion. "Yes, my lord. According to our informants in Blackstone Territory, the scene is spectacular. He has prepared at least a hundred thousand gold coins in cash reserves. But... very few people are redeeming. Most are choosing to hold onto their vouchers."

"Haha... Hahahaha!" Augustus suddenly burst into a hysterical laugh that echoed eerily in the empty study.

"I knew it! I knew he couldn't hold on! He's bluffing!"

He sprang to his feet, pacing back and forth in the room, his eyes feverish and greedy.

"Sophie, can't you see? He has no grain left! He's afraid we'll keep buying, afraid he'll be utterly bankrupt when the redemption day comes and he can't deliver the grain! That's why he's desperately throwing out cash, trying to stabilize market confidence, buy back some vouchers, and reduce his redemption pressure!"

"But, my lord..." Sophie's voice trembled slightly. She mustered her courage and looked directly at her master, who had descended into madness. "It doesn't make sense. If he were truly weak, he should hide his cash. This move is too abnormal... it's like... a trap."

"A trap? No!" Augustus cut her off with a wave, his eyes flashing with a gambler's final frenzy. "This is his last gasp! A sign of his weakness! He wants to scare me off? Dream on! This is precisely the signal for the final assault! He's dying. We just need to push a little harder to crush him completely!"

He rushed to Sophie, grabbing her shoulders with such force it hurt her.

"Sophie! Go! Mortgage my last silver mine, and the three estates outside the city! Borrow money from every merchant guild we can reach! The interest doesn't matter! I want money! More money!"

His breathing was ragged, his eyes bloodshot, like a beast driven mad by the scent of blood.

"I want to buy every single subscription voucher circulating on the market! I won't let him buy back even one scrap of worthless paper! I want him to stand before empty granaries, facing all his angry creditors, and be torn apart alive! There can be only one voice in the northern grain trade, and that is mine—Augustus!"

Sophie looked at the man before her, a deep sense of helplessness and chill rising in her heart.

She knew any attempt at persuasion was useless.

The Count's vision was clouded by greed; he had completely lost his reason.

He was steering the great ship of the Augustus family at full speed toward what seemed like calm waters, but were in fact treacherous, reef-filled seas of death.

She closed her eyes and replied softly, "...Yes, my lord."

Just as Augustus's entire capital flooded into the market like a bursting dam for one final, frenzied surge, pushing voucher prices to an unprecedented peak, the atmosphere in a secret chamber within Blackstone Castle was icy cold.

Levi stood quietly before the sand table, which was dotted with small flags representing various factions.

Augustus's flag had been driven by Levi's own black wolf-head banner into a narrow corner, surrounded by invisible nooses.

The time to draw the net closed had arrived.

The chamber door opened silently, and Evelyn's figure melted into the dim light.

She walked to Levi's side, her voice lowered to a whisper, carrying a hint of gravity.

"Master, Augustus's capital chain is completely strained. It's expected to snap by noon tomorrow. Our plan proceeds smoothly."

Levi nodded. This was within his expectations.

"However," Evelyn's tone shifted, a flicker of vigilance in her purple eyes, "our agents stationed in various towns report something strange. A mysterious buyer has been quietly purchasing our vouchers using the royal family's secret channels. Their moves are extremely cautious, the quantities small, but they've never stopped. According to model estimates, the number of vouchers they've amassed has quietly reached about ten percent of the total circulating volume."

Levi's brow furrowed imperceptibly.

Ten percent.

That was a quantity sufficient to exert a subtle influence on the entire game at a critical moment.

"Have you identified who it is?"

"Their counter-intelligence capabilities are extremely strong. All transactions are conducted through multi-layered, encrypted royal commercial channels." Evelyn handed over an encrypted intelligence scroll. "Our agents risked their lives to intercept a fragment of a transaction record. After decryption, we found the ultimate source of the transaction orders points to the Radiant Empire's Central Bank... and was executed personally by a special envoy."

The Radiant Empire Central Bank? A special envoy?

Levi took the scroll, a cool sensation at his fingertips.

Countless possibilities flashed through his mind in an instant.

Was it the Emperor's probe?

A scheme by a rival faction?

Or...

He did not continue the thought.

His gaze lifted slowly, passing through the dim corridor toward the room where Princess Ella resided.

That woman seemed to be hiding more secrets than he had imagined.