“How much?”
Listening to the figure Neuvillette reported, Eris almost jumped up.
“A total of 9,748,621 Mora,” Neuvillette glanced at the number on the document.
“This is just the statistical figure from this morning after the newspaper was released, and it only covers a portion of the residents of the Court of Fontaine.”
“It is estimated that within a week…
no, a few months, this figure will continue to rise.
Lady Furina, Lady Ying, how should this money be handled?”
“Wait, hold on, let me catch my breath,” Eris sat down, took a deep breath, and asked, “Under what name were they donating again?”
“The Hydro Archon’s Travel Plan,” Neuvillette glanced at the report again.
“That is the name, indeed.
The people of Fontaine are filled with great passion for this, an activity organized spontaneously after hearing about your plan.”
“If you go to the second-floor window of the Palais Mermonia now, you can see the people outside who are donating.”
Upon hearing this, Eris dashed to the second floor, with a smirking Furina and a serious-looking Neuvillette following behind her.
She pushed open the window and saw the sea of people outside.
“I’m donating 100,000!
When our Hydro Archon goes on a trip, how can there be no fanfare!”
“Lady Furina doesn’t usually save much money; we can’t let Lady Ying be short on Mora!
I’m donating 100,000 too!”
“I’m donating 500,000!
My poor daughter, the Hydro Archon has avenged you, do you see that?”
“Exactly!
Lady Ying didn’t leak a single bit of information for the sake of the people of Fontaine, traveling all the way from here to Snezhnaya.
She hid her identity the whole way, who knows how hard that was.
That was for the case, but she can’t be like that for future travels!
I’m donating 200,000!”
“Right, we can’t let other nations look down on our Fontaine!
I’m donating 200,000 too!”
Slap!
Eris shut the window.
She realized she had indeed been thoughtless, overlooking Furina’s personal prestige as a god.
Thinking about it carefully, it was actually quite normal for such a thing to happen.
Not to mention Fontaine, it would be the same in any other nation.
For example, Mondstadt—if word got out that Barbatos was going to visit Liyue and was struggling to pick out a gift…
the bizarre and strange things the Mondstadters would offer would probably fill the Cathedral of Favonius.
Liyue would be even more so.
In a nation with such a strong commercial atmosphere, if they knew the Geo Archon intended to travel but didn’t plan to use government reserves, there would be countless people willing to pay.
Inazuma…
um, well, they closed their borders; they really can’t get out.
Sumeru…
let the Lesser Lord Kusanali get out of prison first…
Thinking about it this way, Furina was on the same level as two of the original Archons; did this status even need to be questioned?
(Laughs)
“Caught you, didn’t I?” Furina poked her stinky little sister’s waist, gloating.
“What’s wrong?
Usually, you act like you know everything, all high and mighty.
Why are you dumbfounded now?”
Try fighting me, you little thing.
You’ve only been born for a few days!
Seeing her smug look, Eris reached out with both hands and gently pinched her cheeks, exasperated.
“You knew this would happen all along, didn’t you?”
“Of course,” Furina said dismissively, looking triumphant.
“I am the Hydro Archon, after all.
Having governed Fontaine for five hundred years, of course I know what will happen.”
“What do you say, stinky little sister?
Do you yield?”
“…Since you knew, why didn’t you stop me earlier?” Eris sighed upon hearing this.
“Now things have blown up so much…
*Sigh*, if I had known, I wouldn’t have let Charlotte publish it.”
“If I may be blunt, you need not worry about this,” Neuvillette said seriously.
“The Hydro Archon cannot possibly travel to other nations incognito; there must be corresponding etiquette, so we…”
“No, that was just a casual comment!” Eris realized why things had developed this way.
“Neuvillette, you took it seriously?”
“…If I have not misunderstood, do you mean to say that you and Lady Furina have no intention of traveling?” Neuvillette’s expression became serious.
“I had assumed that you, Lady Ying, would be more mature than Lady Furina…”
After all, in his eyes, someone who had arranged everything so methodically from the investigation to the arrest certainly wasn’t speaking without purpose if she mentioned visiting other nations.
“No, there is—there is a travel plan.” Watching the hardworking Neuvillette, Eris truly couldn’t bring herself to tell him that she had just been speaking casually, so she could only say awkwardly, “It’s just that we didn’t intend to raise funds from the public.
Furina’s savings are more than enough.”
“But the enthusiasm of the public cannot be ignored,” hearing this, Neuvillette did not delve deeper, “What do the two of you want to do now?”
“They made the donations out of adoration and respect.
Even though we have an accurate registry, we can’t just give it back to them directly.” Hearing this, Furina broke free from Eris’s hand, gave the latter a smug look, and then spoke eloquently.
“This would undoubtedly hurt many people’s feelings, and we can’t really use this money to go traveling.
Once a precedent is set, how is this any different from levying taxes on the citizens?”
“So we must find a suitable reason to spend this money.
It would be best if it were a one-time project that could benefit the vast majority of people in Fontaine.”
Having said this, she teased, “How about it, my dear sister, do you have any ideas?”
“How about we renovate the Fleuve Cendre?” Hearing this, Eris thought carefully for two seconds, then said, “So many people living underground—it’s not exactly ideal.”
The Fleuve Cendre is the shadow hidden beneath the clear light of Fontaine, and it is also the dwelling place for the exiled.
There, there is a saying known to everyone: even the ashes sifted out by the law will eventually return to the river.
Most of the people here are composed of criminals who have finished their sentences at the Fortress of Meropide and their families.
Many of them did not commit serious crimes and were released after being locked up for a period of time.
Among them are scholars from the Fontaine Research Institute, as well as petty thieves who usually engage in pickpocketing.
Their backgrounds are vastly different, yet they all gathered here.
It might not seem tempting right now but who knows what the future holds?
“And If you’re enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!”