However, just as Elashia got up from the bed, Candice frowned again.
"Your Majesty, although your chambers are cleaned daily, please don't develop the habit of getting out of bed without wearing shoes."
As Elashia stood up from the bed, the girl's delicate feet in pure white long socks stood prettily on the chamber floor without shoes.
"Hehe..."
Elashia scratched her little pink head.
"I didn't wear slippers when I came in, so running to the chamber entrance now would be quite troublesome..."
Candice sighed somewhat helplessly.
"Sigh... then Your Majesty, please don't forget next time."
Seeing Her Majesty Elashia, who was only wearing white long socks on her feet, and Candice finally come out of the chambers, Cecilia quickly turned her somewhat flushed pretty face away.
"Minister Cecilia, why are you turning your head away..."
Elashia was somewhat puzzled by Cecilia's reaction.
"Ah... it's nothing, let's quickly get to the point!"
Although saying this, Cecilia's eyes couldn't help but glance toward Elashia's small feet in white stockings that weren't wearing shoes...
No! Cecilia! Aren't you a Guardian Knight? Are you trying to rebel?
Cecilia's inner voice kept repeating admonishments to herself, but she still had some difficulty controlling her eyes...
"Uh... Minister Cecilia?"
Elashia looked at Cecilia blushing and lowering her head toward her, feeling increasingly strange...
Why was she inexplicably blushing and lowering her head?
She wouldn't inexplicably suddenly kneel down again, would she...
As Elashia sat down across from the table, Cecilia finally returned to normal.
"Ah... it's nothing, I was... uh... thinking about educating my sister..."
Just right, now she could use Sophia to cover for herself!
Elashia asked with some curiosity:
"What matter..."
"Alright, don't waste time, let's talk about business."
Candice's cool voice interrupted the conversation that was extremely embarrassing for Cecilia.
Cecilia gratefully glanced at Candice.
Upon hearing about discussing business, Elashia immediately showed a serious expression.
"Yes, I called you here to discuss business."
"We need to be mentally prepared for this matter. We'll inevitably have to face considerable casualties."
Elashia had called them mainly to discuss bandit suppression.
In the plot, Elasia's bandit problem had become seriously dangerous, and these scattered bandits were extremely difficult to handle...
Opening a map she had prepared long ago, Elashia pointed to the bandit groups she had already marked and began speaking on her own.
"Look, these three are the bandits we need to focus on attacking..."
However, Cecilia, who had looked very serious just now, suddenly laughed.
"Hmm? Minister Cecilia, what are you laughing about?"
With a glance, Candice's eyes also seemed to have some amusement.
What? What are you laughing about?
I'm being very serious...
Elashia's large emerald eyes immediately became misty.
"You... what are you laughing about..."
Candice smiled and took the map from Elashia's hand, saying to Elashia:
"Your Majesty, do you know why Elasia's bandit problem is so serious?"
"Ah?"
How would Elashia know this?
"Uh... because Elasia has too many mountains? Maybe because the mountains are convenient for evading government pursuit?"
Candice smiled and shook her head.
"No, Your Majesty, this isn't the reason bandits run rampant."
"You must know—if people weren't unable to eat, no one would do such dangerous and despicable things."
Elashia didn't understand.
"But what does this have to do with formulating battle plans just now?"
Candice smiled and nodded.
"Of course it does."
"Your Majesty, do you remember what you've done before?"
Elashia was even more confused.
"What have I done?"
Seeing that Elashia still hadn't realized, Candice directly gave Elashia the answer.
"Your Majesty, now, the problem that has troubled Elasia for nearly a thousand years has basically been solved by you."
"Ah?"
I haven't even seen a single bandit, so how was it mysteriously solved?
Candice smiled and explained:
"Your Majesty, this brings up the enormous effect of your previous complete exemption of agricultural taxes and large-scale disaster relief."
"The reason Elasia's bandit problem couldn't be resolved was precisely because a terrifying cycle had been continuing."
"The Elasian royal family had always collected heavy taxes from the people, making them barely struggle above the subsistence line."
"While these people could barely eat during normal times, once natural disasters came, they had no choice but to sell their land to lords or wealthy people, thus losing their land."
"When these landless people encountered disaster years again, when everyone couldn't eat, they could only become bandits."
"This way, there was less labor on the land, and productivity decreased accordingly."
Candice continued with an extremely serious expression:
"This is the terrifying aspect of this cycle."
"Thus, there was one less person who could pay taxes to the country, but the total amount of money the country needed wouldn't change because of this."
"So the tax burden that this person who became a bandit should have paid would be distributed among other normal farmers."
"The burden on normal farmers would thus increase."
"Like this, repeated natural disasters made these landless people increasingly numerous, and the bandit problem became increasingly serious."
"By the time you came to power, Elasia's contradictions in this regard had become so severe they were about to explode."
"Very likely, if your coup had been delayed by even one day, we would have had to face large-scale uprisings."
Speaking of this, Candice's face couldn't help but show a fortunate and gentle smile.
"At that time, we had no way to salvage this destined tragedy, until a girl suddenly launched a massive coup, bringing a glimmer of ethereal hope to everyone in the world."
"Although they all knew that most Elasian emperors wouldn't bring much change after coming to power, that possibility still existed."
"As long as there was a thread of hope for a benevolent ruler, they wouldn't choose to take this risk."
Candice looked at Elashia tenderly and said:
"However, this time they bet correctly."
Candice's speech left Elashia still somewhat confused.
She didn't understand.
She didn't understand politics, so wasn't talking to her about this like playing music to a cow?
Seeing the confusion on Elashia's face, Cecilia smiled and said straightforwardly:
"Your Majesty, I've actually met the leaders of those three large bandit groups you mentioned."
"One of them was quite clever, directly ordering his subordinates to disarm and tie him up to hand over to the local lord."
"Another was quite loyal, ordering his subordinates to kill him and use his head to surrender."
"As for the other one..."
Cecilia smiled and said:
"When facing subordinates who were clamoring to go home, he chose to kill to establish authority..."
Hearing this, Elashia couldn't help but ask nervously:
"And then?"
Cecilia smiled and said:
"Then, he was dismembered by his subordinates."
"When the lord received reports from his subordinates and led troops to arrive, he had already been dead for several days."