“How exactly are you going to be rude?” This girl’s personality was just too interesting. In Henry Clark’s memory, in this world, unless a woman was powerful, most of them were just men’s appendages. Suddenly encountering a girl who seemed both feisty and capable gave him a feeling just like bickering with female classmates in his original world—familiar and natural.

“We curse you!” Alice was both angry and anxious at Henry Clark’s sudden shamelessness, and the words of a curse slipped out.

“Curse me?” Henry Clark’s expression suddenly became a bit blank, and a trace of fear flashed in his eyes.

Henry Clark’s reaction made Alice straighten her chest a little, and a blush swept across her face.

“Didn’t Grace tell you that I have a way to break the twins’ curse?” Suddenly, Henry Clark returned to his playful self, smiling leisurely at Alice.

Chapter 7: Fiscal Revenue (Part 2)

“You!” With no one else around, Alice seemed to feel she couldn’t handle Henry Clark, both angry and anxious. But she quickly realized something and blurted out in surprise, “You, what did you just say?”

“Sis, the lord said he has a way to break the twins’ curse.” After watching the show for a while, the anxious but helpless Grace finally found a chance to interject: “And yesterday, the lord even made it rain here.”

“Rain?” Clearly, such a supernatural phenomenon instantly left Alice in a daze.

When Alice recovered from her shock, Henry Clark had already taken out the letter of appointment signed by the king of the duchy from his inner pocket and handed it to her. Along with it, he also passed over the certificate showing all taxes for the next ten years had been paid.

“You’re really the lord?” Seeing the letter of appointment, Alice was completely stunned, hardly able to believe it. But when she saw the tax certificate behind it, her eyes lit up instantly: “Two hundred gold coins? My lord, you actually paid two hundred gold coins in taxes?” As soon as she said this, even Grace looked at Henry Clark as if he were a fool.

“My lord, the taxes here for a whole year don’t even amount to a single gold coin!” Hearing something about money, Grace grew bolder and quickly interjected, anxiously reminding him as if hating iron for not becoming steel.

“You think I wanted to?” Just thinking about it made Henry Clark angry. The two hundred gold coins His Majesty the King had rewarded him with were only warmed in his hands on the way, and then all snatched away by that count. Now that the two girls brought it up again, it only made him more annoyed.

However, Henry Clark only flashed this thought in his mind and didn’t say it out loud, nor did his face show any sign of his helpless mood. Instead, he looked relaxed and snorted coldly: “Two hundred gold coins for ten years of taxes—what a bargain.”

At this, Grace and Alice exchanged a glance and said nothing more. Was this lord, who spouted such nonsense, actually crazy?

“Alice, what’s our main source of income here? How much do we make each day?” Henry Clark had asked Grace before, but she said her sister Alice was in charge of these things, and she only took care of everyone’s daily life. As the lord, he had to care about the territory’s finances, right?

Since the lord was asking, Alice had to answer, but she was afraid that telling the truth would make this young lord unable to accept it. After all, a lord who could break the twins’ curse and make it rain was just too important for this place.

Ever since being taught a lesson by the count last time, Henry Clark knew that if he wasn’t careful here, he’d end up dead. He didn’t know if there was a “Yellow Springs” in this world, but it was better not to die if he could help it. This strong sense of crisis was even more urgent than his previous life’s job search, so reading people’s expressions had become his daily homework.

“Don’t worry, I’m prepared for the worst.” Henry Clark immediately guessed the reason for Alice’s hesitation. He already had a sense that the territory’s income was low; he just wanted to know how low.

The lord’s smile made Alice forget her earlier embarrassment and her worry that telling the truth would make him give up. She lowered her head and quietly reported, “Each day, we can only hunt a few magic beasts, and we rely mainly on chopping wood. We go to the market every three days, but because of the twins’ curse, they really drive the prices down. On average, we make less than three silver coins a day, which isn’t even enough to buy the lowest quality grain.”

As she spoke, Alice’s voice grew lower and lower, her head dropping as if she wanted to shrink into herself. She didn’t dare look up to see the lord’s expression, nor did she know if he would just turn and leave. Although she had first suspected Henry Clark was a fraud, now that it was confirmed he was the lord, she was afraid that the little hope they’d finally gotten would turn to despair again.

“Three silver coins, huh!” Henry Clark couldn’t help but sigh when he heard that number.