Chapter 2043: Plans for the Kingdom

Questo and Hocoin were giggling at the side of the corner when they saw the ultimatum of the duel. Against their peers' advice, they decided to go through the bet by putting a huge sum of money onto Jin's side since the odds were heavily against them.

In turn, when the duel outcome came about, they won a ton of money that could effectively buy a rather huge house in the Noble's quarters. (Hocoin was able to buy 10 of such houses from the winnings) That was how much money they were earning just by betting on Jin's now commando mages.

It was a good thing as well since now they have some funds to pay the overtime for the people who had been working hard for them. (After all, Hocoin did tell Questo to use his guild's funds as part of the betting money. If anything, Hocoin would put up his savings as collateral if things go awry.)

The Adventurer's guild had more support staff from the ministry and those who did overtime were promised monetary or material payment. So now that Questo had the money, he can do just that. He would also be setting up a fund where those people who were working as part time labourers would be paid by the guild as well. .com|v-l'e .com

This would allow faster payment compared to the government and Jin also acknowledged that the guild would be faster when it comes to money more than the kingdom's sluggish finance system which he hoped would change in the future.

But this information that Jin had announced shocked both guild masters. They had always been guessing what Jin's objectives were and even though he did mention that he wanted to kill demons, they never expected him to declare that demons and expansion were part of his plan.

The guild masters had always believed that the King was doing this because he wanted a personal guard even though he was powerful enough to defend himself. And the main objective was to consolidate the governmental powers to the king only so that he could make the changes that would not only be beneficial for him but also to the kingdom.

But now it was plain and obvious to not just the guild masters but also those who had some form of power within the kingdom, the King was capable of building an army that could effectively annihilate the surrounding kingdoms quickly and subjugate them in an instant. After all, he produced 10 soldiers who were capable of murdering the supposed best 10 mages in Ress.

And beating Ress standards also meant that he could have beaten the rest of the world too.

This was why Ress had yet to be invaded and the War Minister was able to have a standstill for so long despite its theorised collaboration between the rest of the kingdoms surrounding Ress. If one enemy kingdom acts, the remaining kingdoms either have to go all in or see Ress swallow the enemy up in one fell swoop.

After all their mages were not particularly strong like Ress' and the only resource they had compared to Ress was manpower.

But now if Jin wanted, all he needed to do was to send 5 10-men squads to each and every kingdom and he could annihilate their kingdom's top brass in less than a day. Yet, he had decided to use that power to go against the demons and claim the Northern Wasteland for himself.

Even if he did not, those remnants of those fallen kingdoms could still get back what was rightfully theirs and be a staunch ally against the kingdoms that Ress had painted a target on her back.

However, it was precisely because Jin had such positive utilitarian motives for Ress to achieve, that the refugees as a whole felt hope for the first time. And they were inclined to believe the new King mainly because of Portal 6, the Sea Portal. If not for the request of fishermen or anyone who was willing to risk and lend a hand in Portal 6, they would not have food to eat.

Right now, because of their hard work, they were able to trade the fish they caught for basic essentials as temporarily dictated by the King himself and enforced by the guilds. The other kingdoms never cared when they were stranded at the outskirts of the border. So did Ress until Jin came into the picture and finally allowed them to stand on par with the rest.

In fact, the Merchant Guild was also helping them to sell the fishes too since they did not have any permits to do so. Hocoin was considering a temporary merchant permit for them as well but it was too much paperwork since the rules were changing. Thus, Hocoin had approved a temporary lifting of rules to the refugees to let them sell.

However, despite being a genius child, he too had suffered a fair bit of consequences due to his early exposure in this field. So, even when he enabled a temporary lifting of the rules, he made sure that every one of the refugees was to read out the rules before enabling the purchase. It was stifling but the refugees did not care.

If all they need is to read the rules and earn money or get essentials for their family, they are willing to do it.

A majority of the commoners were also a little upset that the new king was being inclusive of the refugees but now that he had given the rest a taste of the possibility of expansion, they were understood.

But what some of the then ministers and even Gara had concerns with was that Jin wanted to give the same military capability to the refugees. They do not understand why Jin wants to do that and if the new kingdom was able to have such capable soldiers, they have to be wary of such a kingdom in the future.

Yet, this was Jin, the King who had been producing miracles that they were talking about. Surely, the ministers or lackeys that supported him believed that he might have some plan in mind which would allow them to have the same capable military as Ress had.

What they did not know was that the entire Atopia World might potentially disappear after the fight against the angels and he needs every single person to pull their weight against the angels. Even if they did survive the annihilation, Jin honestly did not know whether he could even return to this world again.

To him, it was appropriate that he would be called the discarded King for he would discard the people when this entire thing is done. Right now, he was doing all he could get to make sure he would be ready against the angels.

So despite all the announcements and concerned queries that Jin needed to answer, he eventually decreed that they would be working towards that direction and many changes would be made to make sure things were done as per his plans and wishes.

"Right now, my first priority is the rebuilding of the slums, towns, and villages. If any of you asked why, the population contributes to nearly 40% of our workforce. By reconstruction of the slums to a proper residential area, Not only those people would have shelter under the roofs but we have more space to accommodate the refugees to come in."

"The refugees that officially come in would be under a provisional citizen permit where their expertise is the thing that enables them to be in this kingdom. I do not want any incompetent person in the kingdom especially when our goal is a lofty one. Even a disabled citizen can provide some value added services to the kingdom.

It is whether the person is willing to work or not." Jin said and looked particularly at the ministers.

"As such, the nobles in the kingdom would also be subjected to a competency evaluation and evaluated on an annual basis. The evaluation of the nobles would be conducted within a month or so and if they failed the requirements or evaluations, they have one year to sort out the problems. Should they fail the second evaluation, they would be kicked out and a noble title would be up for grabs.

So do not think that being a noble is a right, it is a privilege." Jin stated and everyone went bonkers.

This was the first time such a system had been implemented and while it is still a diamond in the rough, it showed that the King wants competency in his ranks and meritocracy is the only way up.

"Don't worry my fellow citizens, I will personally conduct the evaluation with a group of trusted individuals. They would be sufficient in making sure that the nobles had a standard to uphold and show the public that they were worthy to be a noble.

Otherwise, off they go and a competent new lord would be up and running. By the way, as a word of advice, bribing does not work for me. Results do" The king said, causing everyone to suddenly cheer.

It was as if telling Jin that there were quite a fair bit of nobles who were corrupted or incompetent and there was someone higher up in the food chain who was willing to take action and to do something about it.

"Aside from that, there would be a daily news announcement that would be handling all of this. I assume that you guys passed messages through announcements right? There would be a telecast as well as written notices to be placed on the boards to tell the people more about it." Jin stopped here and told everyone to disperse as Portal 5 and Portal 6 still needed to proceed with their work.

Not to mention the new Portal 7 must be up soon.

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