Chapter 3 Intelligence System

  Out of boredom, Raymond looked around and soon found that on the other side of the table, there was someone who was even more depressed than himself.

  "Miss Charlotte, you weren't there to see it with your own eyes, or else you wouldn't believe what happened. At that time, those bandits shot arrows at me like crazy, and I charged forward alone, without even a shield in hand, just swinging my sword to deflect all the arrows. Guess what? I didn't get hurt at all, hahaha..."

  At this time, Harlot, who was extremely drunk, was pulling Charlotte along, speaking with flying spittle about his "brave deeds", as if he had completely forgotten the "two kicks" that Charlotte had given him last time.

  "Really? It seems that the scene at that time must have been 'unbelievable'." Charlotte brushed away Harlotte's big mouth, which was almost close to her own cheek, and particularly emphasized the last four words.

  He didn't even realize that he had blown his own trumpet, Harlot still thought that he had finally gotten the beauty's attention, and couldn't help but get excited: "Of course, I can scare anyone who is timid to death. Speaking of which, when I rushed to the front gate of the bandit camp, I opened the door with just one sword. If it weren't for me, those guys behind wouldn't have been able to rush in, let alone finish them off..."

  "Ah, it seems you're the one who deserves the most credit. Come on, let me toast to you." Charlotte suppressed a smile and raised her glass towards Harlot.

  Since the bandits were eliminated, Charlotte, who had been depressed all along, finally perked up and could even deal with Haruto's harassment to some extent. At this time, she finally exuded a charm that matched her beautiful appearance, and every move she made was elegant.

  Harold's eyes were about to pop out, he mechanically raised his wine glass and poured half of it into his mouth, the other half spilled on his face, but his gaze never left Charlotte's lovely face.

  "Master, that guy is really too detestable, he actually dared to say your achievement as his own, do you want me to go teach him a lesson?" At this time, Basute indignantly leaned in close to Raymon's ear and said.

  "Haha, forget it." Raymond stopped laughing and asked: "How is it? Do you like it here?"

  Bastet scratched her head: "I don't really like it, but the scenery here is beautiful and the food is delicious. Plus, Ruze and I won't stand out too much here. Most importantly, wherever Young Master goes, we'll follow."

  As Bastet said the above words seriously, Raymond's heart was moved and he couldn't help but rub her head. Feeling her master's emotions, the cat girl comfortably narrowed her eyes and rubbed her head against Raymond's body, just like a real little cat.

  "Hey, what are you thinking?" Ricket asked Freddie, who hadn't spoken in half a day.

  Freddie said disdainfully, "I was thinking that holding this banquet would cost at least hundreds of gold coins. Just now we've just eliminated the external threats, and the city is still in a mess. Instead of thinking about how to recover, they're wasting money on such a boring activity. No wonder they were bullied by a few hundred bandits for so long."

  I didn't expect Freddy to be dissatisfied with this too. Ricky was crying and laughing, but this is indeed something that a worldly and vulgar guy like him can say.

  "He couldn't help but say: 'It's precisely because we've eliminated the bandits that we need to celebrate, and this is also to boost morale. Didn't you see how the people in the city were almost at a loss when we arrived?'"

  "Freddie hummed, "The best and most direct way to boost morale is to kill all those bandits to appease the people's anger. Locking them up in prison would only be a waste of food."

  Although he had long known that the guy was ruthless, Rickett couldn't help but shudder. Fortunately, he had joined forces with him at the beginning, otherwise being an enemy of this guy would not be a good thing to do.

  At this time, Dreya interrupted: "What can be done about it? After all, the other side is a prisoner of war. How can they be killed indiscriminately? The Lavierte Federation is not a country in the usual sense, and there is no way to send those guys to prison, so they can only be locked up themselves."

  Freddie gave him a look: "What's the big deal? Load those guys onto your ship, sell them to Reed, and let him resell them as slaves. You'll even recoup some of your losses. That's what smart people do."

  This guy is... actually turned his own Cloud Chaser into a slave ship, Dreya didn't dare to say another word and quickly shut his mouth.

  The banquet that night lasted until late at night and finally ended with most people drunk. However, Raymond's side was very tacitly keeping sober, after Luz supervised the drunken guards to be sent back to their barracks, they held a meeting overnight.

  It can be said that successfully defeating the bandits for Raymon and others is absolutely extraordinary, which means they finally stood firm on this unfamiliar continent. Especially Charlotte publicly announced their agreement, allowing them to settle in this town with a clear conscience.

  At first, they decided to cross the ocean and come to the Veronica continent to find opportunities. In fact, everyone was uncertain in their hearts. However, it only took less than a month for them to find a stable foothold, which made everyone overjoyed.

  Especially Raymond, who subdued the thieves with minimal cost and eliminated the bandits, showing brilliant tactics and strategy, making everyone full of confidence in him. From then on, he finally fully established his leadership position in this group.

  At this time, in a spacious conference room in the mansion, from Raymond to Bastet, Rutz, Freddy, Ricky, and Harlot, the leadership of this wandering team gathered together. Since Dreya is currently only considered as the captain hired by Raymond, she does not have the qualifications to attend this internal meeting for the time being.

  With his hands resting on the table, Raymond gazed at the people sitting on both sides of the long table and said slowly: "Everyone, we've finally done it."

  "Alright." The cat woman and Harlotte immediately cheered and jumped up.

  Rudolph and others were more calm, they looked at each other, with joy in their eyes.

  "Then let's take a look at our first spoils of war, shall we, Ricket?" Raymund said.

  Ricket nodded and stood up, saying: "This afternoon I had some free time to make a preliminary estimate of that batch of spoils. It can be said that the harvest is huge. The value of those two batches of goods added together is at least over 1 million gold coins. It seems that those bandits have made a good profit in the past year."

  From this number, it is clear that Reim did not misjudge Haruto. Although it's hard to say what will happen in the future, at this moment, he made a clever choice by being loyal to Reim, thus securing his seat in this conference room.

  It seems that this time the clearing of bandits was indeed a good deal, not only did they gain Haidington's recognition, but also made a fortune. Adding to the 1 million gold coins' worth of jewelry they got from Lady Silsa earlier, Raymond now has around 3 million disposable funds at his disposal, which naturally speaks volumes for their future development.

  As soon as he heard that the spoils of war were worth so much, Harlot's face flashed with a hint of regret, as if regretting whether he had been too honest when collecting those spoils. He couldn't help but exclaim: "Is it really this much? Great, let's divide it quickly, then our brothers will have money to... uh."

  It wasn't until he saw everyone staring at him like an idiot that he came to his senses, realizing it was no longer the time for a bandit chief to be dividing up gold and silver. He couldn't help but let out an awkward cough, not daring to speak again.

  Ignoring the fool, Raymond continued: "I've decided to sell all of this merchandise to Reed for cash. The question now is where we should put this money."

  "Divide..." Haruhi almost instinctively shouted out, fortunately she quickly covered her mouth.

  "Shall we go buy lots of delicious food?" The suggestion from the cat-eared girl, who had no concept of money, was also directly ignored by everyone.

  "Young master, can we purchase some weapons and armor? Our guards are still wearing the same equipment they had when they were bandits, it's very shabby. With their small numbers, it's really hard to form a decent fighting force." Rutz suggested from his area of expertise.

  Raymond shook his head: "The matter of updating equipment, let's not rush for the time being. Now that we've just cleared out the bandits, if we immediately strengthen our armaments, it's inevitable that Haiton will give rise to suspicion."

  "I think we should invest this money in Haidington," Ricket said suddenly.

  "What, are you crazy? Why give them money?" Harlot asked in puzzlement.

  "It's not a gift, it's an investment," Ricket corrected.

  "It's still the same." Harlot muttered, then turned his head and asked Bast: "What is investment?"

  "Meow, I don't know either." The cat girl also looked bewildered.

  "Raymond asked with interest: 'Why do you want to do this?'"

  Rickett said: "Due to those robbers, the entire business of Haidington is almost stagnant at present. From a business perspective, it's the best time to pick up the bottom."

  "By doing so, on the one hand, we can help Haddington's economy recover as soon as possible and get returns; on the other hand, making investments can also allow us to integrate into this town as soon as possible."

  "I get it, they're short on cash, so we give them some and those guys will be grateful to us." The cat girl had an epiphany.

  "It's not a gift, it's an investment..." Rickett corrected him once again.

  "Are you guys still not getting it?" Freddy said irritably. "This isn't about good feelings, and it's not mainly about money either. Don't be fooled by the fact that they're grateful to us for driving out the bandits - soon enough, they'll start thinking that having a bunch of outsiders in their town is a real nuisance."

  "An alliance without a common interest is never durable. So these investments are not made to help them recover their economy or gain their goodwill, but to bind this town to our interests and make it part of us."

  "So, in the future, if those guys want to abandon the alliance, they will directly harm our interests. This way, we'll have an excuse to take action." He said with a sinister tone.

  It was just this afternoon that Charlotte and I reached an agreement, but by tonight, Freddy can still say such things with a straight face. This guy is absolutely a cold-blooded animal.

  Ricket and Freddy interpreted this investment behavior from economic and political perspectives, which obviously explained the problem.

  "Then let's do it as Ricket says."

  Jiǎo yǐn bù lèi mēng suǒ zhǎng, yú shì tā yòu wèn: "wǒmen gāi ná duōshǎo qián chūlái?"

  Translation:

  Economic benefits are not the only consideration, so he asked again: "How much money should we take out?"

  Ricket thought for a moment: "At first, 50,000 is about right."

  "Is that all? Didn't we have around 300,000 yuan in funds?"

  Ricketts explained: "For safety reasons, it's not advisable to invest too much at the beginning, and it's best not to let the Haidington side discover our intentions. We can add more later depending on the situation."

  "What if they don't accept it?" Ruzi couldn't help but ask.

  "Relax, Haiding is currently in a state of disrepair and needs investment. We're willing to invest and they'll welcome us with open arms, how could they possibly refuse?"

  He said to Raymond, "Although I agree with Freddy that the political significance of this investment far outweighs its economic significance, I still hope to get a return as much as possible. So in the next two days, I will draft a preliminary investment plan, disperse funds into various industries as much as possible, and then you can present it to Mayor Charlotte, no problem."

  "Alright, I'll leave this matter entirely up to you then."

  He added another sentence: "From now on, our funds will be managed by you. For any use of less than 10,000 gold coins, you can make decisions on your own."

  Economics was not Raymond's strong suit, so he wisely chose to leave it to the experts and this decision was quite bold.

  Ten thousand gold coins is not a small sum, and with this power, Rickett can easily make a big profit if he has the heart. On the other hand, by doing so, Raymond can also free himself from tedious financial matters to the greatest extent.

  The only thing he needs to worry about is the loyalty of the person he has chosen. And it's clear that Raymond chose to trust Ricket completely.

  Even Harlott, a slow-witted person, clearly understood what Raymond's decision meant. He couldn't help but open his mouth wide and deeply regret not reading more books when he was younger. And Freddie's eyes lit up, as if he had reevaluated Raymond once again.

  Ricket didn't expect Raymond to trust him so much, and after being stunned for several seconds, making sure he hadn't misheard, he excitedly said: "Raymond-sama, please be at ease, I definitely won't betray your trust."

  "Haha, from now on, whether we get to eat good food and drink fine wine or just drink the northwest wind, it's all up to you." Raymond said with a pat on his shoulder.

  At this time, Freddy suddenly said: "Sir, I hope you can allocate a sum of money for me alone."

  "Didn't expect even Freddy to come asking for money," Raymond said in surprise: "What do you want?"

  "I'm going to set up an intelligence system," said Freddy.

  Everyone is welcome to vote and collect ~~~