Chapter 127 To Drink Both Clear and Muddy Waters
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
The very first thing Ayumu did to secure funds was conscription.
Wielding imperial authority like a borrowed blade, he issued a proclamation: every youth of military age would be drafted. They wouldn’t cost him salaries—after all, service counted as their tax.
Not that he planned to send them marching into war. With morale that low and training that poor, they’d break ranks and run at the first volley anyway.
No, their purpose was different.
Keldan, the old Imperial Capital now rotting into a slum, overflowed with prostitutes. Most worked independently, which meant constant danger—extortion, abuse, even murder.
So the first reform was obvious: protect the sex workers, and legalize the trade. Regulate it, tax it, and suddenly the slum had a revenue stream.
Collecting taxes from Keldan otherwise was a fantasy. Most residents were People of Birene—illegal immigrants in the empire’s eyes—barely surviving off vegetable scraps. Asking them for coin would spark riots.
But without money, there was no rebuilding. And that meant looking where the money actually flowed: the underworld.
Keldan’s black economy was thriving. Birene mafia, Elandric brigand-warriors, Yugan horse-bandits… the slum crawled with predators. Together they ran protection rackets, brothels, human trafficking rings, illegal gambling dens, poaching syndicates, counterfeit presses, weapon smugglers, and potion labs. The profits were enormous, enough to make even Livonia’s state capital nervous.
That ended today. Ayumu’s plan was simple: hijack their revenue streams.
When he laid this out, Ninim practically froze in her seat. Pressed, she admitted what he already suspected—she had contacts in Birene crime circles. She didn’t want to see her kin destroyed. Which made her the perfect envoy to flip them instead.
Naturally, Yoluminette erupted in outrage. A knight to her bones, she couldn’t stomach the idea of consorting with criminals. But Ayumu had no roots in Keldan, no loyal retainers, no local power base. Authority alone couldn’t tame this city. To muster armies, supply lines, production chains—they needed money. Which meant swallowing both clean and dirty together.
Patiently, he walked Yoluminette through the logic. The brothels and gambling dens practically minted money. Once the conscripts patrolled the streets and redirected that cash into legal channels, the gangs would be left clinging to riskier trades. Without steady income, their power would rot.
Yoluminette’s anger dimmed by degrees. Her frown didn’t vanish, but she stopped arguing and started listening. That was enough.
”Don’t worry,” Ayumu told her in the end. “Once their coffers dry up, the rest will crumble on their own.”
And with that, the decision was sealed. Together with Ninim, Ayumu issued his next proclamation: by imperial order, gambling was outlawed, prostitutes were placed under protection, and the new conscript patrols would enforce it—in broad daylight, for all Keldan to see.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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