Kays Translations

Chapter 174: Plunder

After a thorough search, the results were extremely impressive. It was estimated that there were as many as 50,000 gold coins alone, which was an exaggerated number.

As expected of a duke, his financial resources are truly enviable.

Seeing this scene, even Owen couldn’t help but sigh. Before meeting Winston, the annual fiscal revenue of Bianshu Town was only more than 2,000 gold coins.

Moreover, in order to maintain the normal operation of the town, a lot of supplies need to be purchased from outside, and there are also undead monsters to fight against, resulting in very high expenses.

Therefore, there will not be much surplus every year, and there will occasionally be a deficit.

In early spring, Owen set up some projects and invested a large sum of money.

Not long after, Clive came to the door urgently, saying that the vault was in urgent need and would soon be empty.

Fortunately, by selling some of the Bianshu town’s specialty products and earning a thousand gold coins from President Masha, they were able to gain a temporary respite.

Duke Eddie was able to accumulate such a huge fortune, which shows that he is very good at squeezing money from his subjects.

However, Owen felt sorry for so many coins lying quietly in the vault.

Only when money is reasonably invested in the development and construction of the territory to form a virtuous circle can its role be maximized.

Just stored in the vault, those coins are just a pile of precious metals.

These were the superficial economics lessons Owen had learned from Winston.

Now, with such a large sum of money in Owen’s hands, Bianshu Town can finally say goodbye to its past days of lack of money.

He would never let the money continue to lie in the vault, but would boldly invest it in various engineering projects to promote the economic development of the Bianshu town and make the best use of the money.

In addition, Owen was very clear that Duke Eddie definitely had more than just this visible wealth, and he must have other treasures hidden privately.

Thinking of this, he turned his head to look at Duke Eddie, whose face was pale, and asked,

“You should have more than this money. Tell me, where did you hide the rest of the treasure?”

“What are you talking about?”

Duke Eddie glared at Owen and said angrily.

“This is all I have. You’ve already stripped the vault and underground warehouse! What else do you want?!”

“Oh? You don’t want to say it?”

Owen winked at Viscount Jarvis, who understood immediately and drew a knife to threaten Duke Eddie as he had done last time.

“Do you still want your finger?”

“No means no!” 

Duke Eddie said stubbornly.

In this case, Owen could only nod and allow Viscount Jarvis to take action, while two soldiers controlled Duke Eddie from behind.

However, this time Duke Eddie did not struggle as desperately as he did last time. No matter how Viscount Jarvis threatened him, he refused to confess.

In the end, one of Duke Eddie’s little fingers was actually cut off. He howled in pain, and the sound almost echoed throughout the entire lord’s castle.

Even after going to this extent, Duke Eddie was still unwilling to reveal the location of his hidden treasure.

In desperation, Owen had to send someone to call Theresa and asked her to perform healing magic on Duke Eddie to stop the bleeding.

Otherwise, Duke Eddie might have been howling and making a lot of noise.

The wound healed, but Duke Eddie was left with a missing little finger forever.

He covered the missing part of his palm and said to Owen with a sob: 

“I said there is not, and it is no, even if you kill me!”

Tsk! I never thought Duke Eddie would value money so much. I’m afraid he wouldn’t say anything even if I really threatened to kill him.

Since the evildoers could not force Duke Eddie to reveal his hidden treasure, they had to take another approach.

So, Owen called Euchina over and asked her questions to find out which floors contained the treasures.

“I ask you, is the treasure hidden on the first floor?”

“No matter what you ask, it’s useless!” 

Duke Eddie said.

“Stop talking nonsense!” 

Owen scolded. 

“Answer me, yes or no?”

“No!”

“What about the second floor?”

He asked on every floor, and when he asked on the third and fourth floors, Owen knew with the help of Euchina’s ability that Duke Eddie was lying.

In other words, the treasure is hidden in those two floors.

Continue to ask questions to further narrow the scope.

After determining the approximate range, Owen asked the soldiers to escort Duke Eddie to the third and fourth floors, and ask him in each room within the range whether the treasure was hidden in this room.

Duke Eddie naturally shook his head in denial.

Through Euchina’s ability, Owen learned that Duke Eddie had lied three times in total and quickly locked down three suspicious rooms.

Next, Owen ordered several soldiers to conduct a close and thorough search of one of the rooms.

As Duke Eddie watched the soldiers search the entire room, cold sweat broke out on his forehead and his face was full of worry.

“I’ve already told you there’s no treasure hidden here.” 

He cried.

“Why don’t you believe me?”

Soon, the soldiers found a suspicious place, which seemed to be a secret compartment.

Owen ordered his soldiers to force it open and discovered that it was filled with many rare, crystal-clear gems and other precious treasures.

Seeing this scene, Duke Eddie screamed.

“Ah—those are my gems, no!”

Then they went to search the second room and found another secret compartment, which also yielded a lot of rewards.

However, when searching the third room, the soldiers could not find anything suspicious.

There was no point in wasting time, so Owen had to use the emergency call to contact Winston and briefly explain the current situation to him.

“I see. You can’t find the treasure that guy hid. Please leave it to me. I will definitely help you find it.” 

Winston said confidently.

【Then I’ll leave it to you.】

Afterwards, Owen went to the two next rooms to check according to Winston’s request.

Through comparison and calculation, he discovered that there was a completely enclosed dark room with no entrance or exit hidden between this room and the room on the left.

Upon hearing the news, Owen returned to the original room, raised his hand and pointed to the wall on the left, ordering the soldiers to break down the wall.

The soldiers quickly found tools to break the wall and violently smashed it open.

After breaking open the wall, they found a secret room filled with various expensive crafts, such as pure gold scepters, crowns, swords, etc., all of which were inlaid with gems, and each one was priceless.

The last treasure hiding place was discovered, and Duke Eddie was furious.

“Marquis Eisen, you, you are going to kill me!!!”

As soon as he finished speaking, he fainted on the spot.

Now, all the treasures in the lord’s castle were really stripped away, and Owen ordered the soldiers to lock the unconscious Duke Eddie in the dungeon.

Since he fainted, his trial had to be postponed.

The looted treasures will be escorted by Owen’s personal guards and transported back to the castle in Bianshu Town via the Border Guards for storage.

But there are so many treasures that I don’t know how many days it will take to move them all.

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