After finishing his speech, Stephen returned to his villa.
A guard beside him flattered:
"Master Stephen is truly a natural-born consul! The citizens all had strong reactions to your speech!"
Stephen just smiled smugly and didn't say anything.
He still had several big things to prepare for next!
Stephen ordered the guard:
"Go call all the administrative officials over! I have several big matters to discuss with them!"
Before long, all of Yage City's administrative officials walked into Stephen's villa.
Looking at the administrative officials below, Stephen issued orders:
"Next, I want you to handle several matters for me."
"First—disband the city-state guard for me. From now on we will not invest a single penny in military affairs, and the saved funds will be invested in citizen welfare!"
Looking at the administrative officials' incredulous faces, Stephen said:
"Don't be so surprised. I know we'll still face quite a few military threats next, but I have my own methods."
"Listen carefully..."
Upon learning the fact that the magical beasts in the Northern Forest had disappeared overnight and Stephen's plan to borrow Elasian soldiers to maintain Yage City's security, quite a few administrative officials put down their concerns.
But some experienced administrative officials still had some worries.
An elderly administrative official said to Stephen:
"Although from the perspective of interests, the Elasian lord indeed has no possibility of breaking his promise, but... Your Excellency the Consul, some things can't be determined solely based on interests..."
After hearing the old administrative official's words, Stephen glared fiercely:
"What kind of talk is that? Are you opposing this decision that represents the citizens' will?"
"I tell you, opposing the citizens' will won't lead to any good end!"
Having been given a hat he absolutely couldn't wear, the old administrative official quickly answered after hearing this:
"This subordinate wouldn't dare!"
Seeing that his threat had successfully scared the old administrative official, Stephen commanded:
"Then shut your mouth!"
Looking around at the other administrative officials, Stephen said:
"Any other matters? If there's nothing else, hurry up and get to work!"
"Yes!"
The administrative officials quickly all left Stephen's villa.
"Phew... today's matters are finally finished."
Just as Stephen was about to go deeper into the villa to find his mistress for some fun, one of his trusted subordinates suddenly burst in.
Looking at his subordinate, Stephen said somewhat impatiently:
"Don't bother me after I'm done with work unless it's something important!"
His subordinate quickly shook his head.
"Master Stephen... Your Excellency the Consul, your friend from Elasia has sent you a letter!"
Suddenly remembering that Stephen was now the consul, his subordinate quickly corrected himself, but Stephen no longer had the mind to care about his form of address.
"You mean that lord from Elasia? Quick, give me the letter!"
Stephen snatched the letter from his subordinate's hand and hurriedly opened it.
"My respected friend, I presume you're now sitting on the consul's throne."
"I can agree to our cooperation."
"From now on, Yage City will pay me one thousand gold coins annually, and in exchange, I'll send out an army to protect you when you're under attack."
Reading to this point, Stephen jumped up excitedly.
"It's done! It's done!"
How could this not make him excited? That lord from Elasia had even agreed to his deal without any haggling!
Although that lord had agreed a bit too readily, wasn't that a good thing?
He had originally prepared to make some more concessions, but now it seemed he had indeed been overthinking.
But the letter's content wasn't finished yet, so Stephen endured his excited mood and continued reading.
"There's one more thing—we currently have quite a large demand for weapons, but the cost of forging a new batch of weapons is too high. If you're going to disband the city-state guard, could you sell us all those weapons you're not using?"
"We'll pay matching funds for them. How about thirty silver coins for one person's full set of equipment?"
"If you're interested in trading with us, please hurry and transport the weapons over. We'll immediately send you the money once we receive the weapons."
After finishing the letter, Stephen stood up happily once again.
He had been worrying about how to handle those useless weapons.
They couldn't be used but it would be too wasteful to discard them.
Perfect—those unused weapons could all be sold directly, making a huge profit!
"Hey! Come with me to the armory immediately! We're arranging people right now to send those useless scraps of metal to Elasia!"
Having reached such a major cooperation with that Elasian lord, Stephen had no need to worry about them not fulfilling their promise.
But what Stephen didn't know was—this would be the last week he could spend happily.