Adrian very well knew that Aldren Morcant, the previous tax collector of Valewood, was the one who had robbed the village’s treasury dry.
But it was just a feeling.
He had no evidence, and this world’s accounting system was by no means enough to catch him.
Even worse, Adrian couldn’t even kill him despite wanting to.
He had just killed Donald Stump, and Adrian was already a very big suspect in his murder.
If he killed Aldren Morcant as well, he would definitely be punished by the King.
Even if he technically had no involvement at all, the King would be forced to punish Adrian—the 33rd Prince—for taking a loan from Aldren and then killing him to avoid paying it back.
This would set a dangerous precedent in the country: royals could simply refuse to pay back their loans and kill the lenders instead.
That would make rich lenders sceptical about lending to the Crown ever again.
Due to all this, Adrian’s hands were tied.
Aldren Morcant was a guilty man whom Adrian desperately wanted to kill, but he had no proof, and killing him would simply be bad optics.
So, Adrian had no choice but to tolerate him for now.
Nonetheless, Adrian was not going to sit back and watch Aldren gloat over the fact that he had fooled the 33rd Prince and gotten away with it.
First, Adrian decided that he needed to eliminate any leverage Aldren had over him.
That meant he needed to pay back his loan.
But how?
Valewood’s land was a problem.
The drought was bad enough to lead to almost no produce, which then meant no taxes.
And no taxes meant no income to pay or spend.
Adrian thought that the King sure had given him a mess to deal with.
As if all of this wasn’t enough, Adrian received a letter from the capital.
The stunt Adrian had pulled back at the royal capital—the assassination attempt on his own mother—had led to the King noticing her more.
And she was pregnant once again.
Adrian thought,
Damn that pig.
He has no intention of stopping at all, just increasing the competition as if it isn’t already enough.
Technically, Aldren Morcant had never stolen anything.
According to the rules of the Kingdom, the tax collected was the right of the tax collector to do anything he wanted with after he was done paying the Royal tribute.
So Aldren was legally innocent.
And hence, no matter what Adrian did, he could never frame him for embezzlement of the village’s taxes.
Adrian was losing his cool.
One thing after another, things were not going as he wanted them to—or as he had planned.
Tired, Adrian wanted to quit everything and live like a nobody prince which he was.
But then, a thought came rushing into his mind the very next day.
Why should I be the one to quit?
No.
I am not giving up.
Not now.
Not ever.
I will destroy Aldren, no matter what it takes.
And Adrian started planning.
To eliminate Aldren’s leverage over him, Adrian thought he would start a bank.
But he couldn’t physically do everything that ten people in a bank do and this world has no concept of accounting let alone banks .
Adrian thought this world is a white sheet which could be painted in anyway he wanted .
So he decided he would train some people to run his bank for him and set out to search for people skilled in mathematics so he could teach them accounting.
Soon enough, reality came crashing down on him.
How was he supposed to find skilled people in mathematics in a world full of illiteracy?
He then thought he would teach mathematics himself.
Now the problem became finding people who could learn fast enough without needing much repetition from his side, and eventually become good enough to teach another batch themselves.
He concluded that he would need thirty people for the first batch.
The village had a population of many, since nobody cared to count exactly how many, but Adrian assumed he would find enough people.
And Step One was recruiting someone who could teach them how to read and write.
That was accomplished rather easily by him.
Because that someone was none other than Ronald.
Ronald started scratching his head, wondering why his workload seemed to increase all of a sudden when he had not been given any extra work.
Now came the thirty candidates.
Adrian decided to conduct a village-wide recruitment programme and announced everywhere that the lord wanted everyone to gather near the big ground in the village.
Obviously, the rich didn’t come, as they had already gotten wind of what nonsense the Prince was going to pull.
But the middle and lower classes did come.
And there were more than enough people there.
The guards had all the people covered, and then Ronald announced:
“Anyone who wants to learn how to read and write can stay. All else, leave.”
Ronald made this announcement with a magic horn that amplified his voice enough to reach all the villagers.
Soon enough, the crowd dispersed like crazy.
Only around a hundred people were left.
Then began the reasoning test.
All of them were illiterate, so the test was not written but oral.
Ronald asked them a series of questions, which were given to him by Adrian, observing their answers and reasoning abilities.
After the series of questions and answers, Adrian finally decided on the thirty people he wanted to keep.
Some of them were also the people who were learning under Evran, Adrian made them attend too thinking they might not be talented in assassination but accounts.
But before teaching them, there was another problem.
Most of them had torn clothes.
And, worst of all, they smelled very bad, as they hadn’t bathed in weeks due to the drought in the village.
Adrian gave them some clothes and told them to come to his residence the next morning after bathing themselves.
That was when their education would begin.
To make sure nobody ran away after receiving free clothes, he promised them food twice a day and a place to stay at his residence itself for the duration of their education.
And so, Adrian’s first step toward building his bank had begun.