The Vampire Empress.

After resolving the farmland issue, we went back to the town hall where Felice and Iona were waiting; the two of them had been looking through piles of paperwork that they weren’t supposed to be doing, even though the two can do paperwork, their main expertise is to be a knight which makes me feel a bit guilty as I took away their swords and handed them pens instead.

Sitting down on a couch with Ayaka on my lap, my gaze turned towards their direction with a wry smile as I asked, “Have the knights informed you about the rationing issue—what’s your take on it?”

The two of them both nodded with Felice speaking, “In my opinion, doing six plates for every family is indeed efficient and will work well but I think it would be better if we went with four plates instead, my lady. We don’t have an actual guarantee over our food after a month, after all.”

“Food after a month is not an issue, we could always hunt for more. Not to mention, once the men are fed properly, they can naturally go hunt for their own food if they wanted and keep it all for themselves. The rationing is only here to act as a first step to reviving the manpower of the town,” I replied.

Felice looked at me with a bit of hesitation but nodded anyway as she continued, “If we are heading for six plates for every family, is that a daily basis or every interval day?”

“It should be daily, though another idea came up to me just now…” I replied, “We should ration the meals based on how large a family is, for example, a family of eight members will receive eight plates; two members will receive two plates.”

Ayaka seemed to be interested in our conversation as she continuously kept frowning her eyebrows as if she was trying to understand which looked adorable. She was a cutie indeed. My hands couldn’t help themselves but pat her hair every time she frowns, giggling inside as the cute little girl tried her best.

“We might receive discrimination complaints from that, my lady,” Iona interrupted my sweet time with Ayaka which made me glare at her unconsciously.

“If they dare complain about what is fair and equal then don’t give them a single share; I am not a saint but a person like them, complaining about something fair to everyone is an act of greed. A family of eight cannot feed themselves with two plates of meat yet a family of two can feed themselves for days with eight plates. If that is what they call ‘discrimination’ then there is something rotten on this world,” I fired back with a sigh as my eyes gazed towards the rundown town outside.

It lacked the energy most towns had: the excitement, the joys of a town. There were only sadness, grief, hunger, and cries. It was at a pathetic state that even I would hesitate to call it a ‘town’ right now, it was only a ‘town’ in name but in reality, it was weaker than a village.

“How long do you think we can get a response from the royal family?” my gaze turned towards Felice.

Her head tilted a bit to the side, touching her cheeks with her finger as she looked back at me with a wry smile, “If there is nothing much on the royal family’s desk then we should expect a response within twelve hours of sending the letter but if they are busy then we will have to wait an extended length that could stretch from ten days to a few months.”

Ten days to a few months is not ideal for our situation. If we want to sustain long, then we will have to rely on other sources that are not dependent on the bank or the royal family—how troublesome… why was I even chosen to be here?!

“If we are to expect our reply to arrive within ten days to a few months then it’s better we stop waiting for the reply. We should focus our efforts towards creating funding for ourselves…” I mumbled.

The only way we can create quick funding right now is to create an invention that would create waves in the entire community then sell that invention for a hefty price or to go dungeon diving which is what I would prefer since it is a job that will earn me a lot of money but that would also require me to leave the town for an extended period which would be bad.

“Do we have any funds or resources remaining?” I looked at Iona who was surprised by the sudden question.

She quickly ran through her documents before replying a few seconds later, “We have a few ryegrass seeds and two hundred silver coins, my lady. That is about it on the storage.”

Two hundred silver coins are way too little for a town of this size. There is no other way except to create an invention that would cause waves of shock all around and with my current capabilities, the only thing I can make are recipes but to sell them, we would need a sample.

“Iona, can you bring all two hundred silver coins?” I asked before she stood up with a salute, quickly leaving as I looked up at the roof with a sigh, “I will be doing a fairly risky move which is to create a bread recipe that would make a lot of nobles interested and auction it off with samples.”

“How much do you think a bread recipe would sell?” my eyes returned to Felice who was looking through documents.

She tilted her head once again as she replied, “If the bread is super delicious and cheap to make then my father would risk several platinum coins for it since the bread industry is a major market for both nobles and civilians; while it may not bring a lot of profits quickly but for a long-term business, it is one of the most profitable kind.”

“You are saying your father would be willing?” I inquired before she nodded.

“My family runs a kingdom-wide bakery that is quite famous, the profit is quite consistent every year which makes it a very nice business to go about but our chefs have been having issues with creating new kinds of bread lately,” she replied.

Well, for a bread recipe to sell around millions of dollars or several platinum coins, that is quite shocking for me, but I did once read on the economics book that said the most expensive recipe to be sold back on the days on this world was a simple bread and cheese recipe that made around three platinum coins. It was just a super simple recipe but for people at that time, it was apparently complex.

I wonder if bread is somehow hard to do for the people here since no one has managed to create a better recipe since then, which means I do have a large market that I could monopolize which would be the bread industry.

Though if we are talking about bread recipes, the best one that I can think of in terms of quality and price would be cheesy bread garlic which I remember from Neck Degovanni back in my world. It was a simple recipe with all the ingredients already existing in this world which means it won’t be hard to produce.

“Felice—do you mind sending a letter to your father that I want to negotiate with him over a bread recipe I know from my world? It may be cheating but this bread is cheap to produce and is super delicious which I can guarantee can make him quite the profits,” I smiled.

“How much do you think of selling the recipe, my lady?” she asked.

“My estimated price would be around five platinum coins, but it can be negotiated down to four and a half platinum coins or even three at minimum. I also wanted a short ten percent royalty for every bread sold but that might be too demanding for me,” I smiled wryly, “Though I can add in a guarantee that you will also learn about new recipes from me if they accept.”

“The price seems a bit too low for the demand, my lady. My father is more than willing to offer around ten platinum coins if it is indeed a revolutionary recipe,” she answered back with a smile, “Also, how are you planning on using the coins?”

“I don’t want to exploit your family that much, as for how I am going to use the coins: 200 gold coins onto the walls, 400 gold coins onto rebuilding houses, 300 gold coins into sanitization, and 500 gold coins to rebuilding inns.”

“As for wages, I would allocate around 600 gold coins and another 500 gold coins for equipment and materials for all jobs to resume function. All of that would total into 2,400 gold coins or 2 and a half platinum coin, giving us a few to spare for an emergency,” I replied before a bright, warm smile appeared on her face.

Her smile surprised me a bit as it was very warm, “My lady is indeed different from most nobles, most would use a lot of the money to fund themselves while sparing little for the civilians which is what caused my family to postpone purchasing stuff from nobles since he has a very keen sense of justice for the civilians.”

“You don’t have to worry my lady, I will immediately send a letter to Father about your request,” she replied.

“Thank you,” I smiled back as she nodded before Ayaka looked at me with a sleepy gaze, she was already preparing to sleep on my lap like the quiet girl she was, “Are you hungry, my dear?”

“No…” she shook her head as she yawned heavily, “Ayaka sleepy…”

“You can go to sleep, don’t worry about me,” I kissed her forehead before she nodded, resting on my lap as Iona soon came back inside the town hall carrying two hundred silver coins on a leather bag; two hundred silver coins is more than enough to purchase me a lot of samples.

“My lady, what are you going to use with two hundred silver coins?” Iona asked.

“I want you to purchase fresh dough, garlic, oil, and cheese. Make sure to buy the fresh ones,” I replied before she hesitated a bit which can be attributed to her shy nature which made me giggle a bit as I joked, “You don’t have to worry, if you succeed, I will give you head pats.”

“As you wish, my lady!” she saluted cutely, causing both Felice and I to laugh a bit as she glared at us.

“Anyhow, how long do you think the trip will take?” I looked at her in the eye and asked.

“E-errr… If my calculations are correct, it should only take six hours for a roundabout trip and another one hour to purchase everything,” she replied.

“Then come back as quick as you can,” I said before she nodded, “You can leave anytime, in the meantime, I will take a short break.”

“Have a nice sleep, my lady,” the two of them said as I nodded before looking at Ayaka one more time who was now asleep, closing my eyes while leaning my back on the couch.