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Chapter 2027: The Dinner At The Tavern

The ministers were not the only people there as Questo who was now wide awake and hungry for a good meal was there too. The Merchant Guildmaster, Hocoin, was also there and felt that he should not even be here at all. After all, he had to decide where on earth (or ermm... Atopia) the various items should be stored.

Jin could recognise a few of the faces even though he did not know their names since he had interrogated most of them during the Red Banquet so there was some familiarity to this meeting. Besides, those who had been interrogated were still trembling a little to be sitting at the same table as Jin.

And to Jin's surprise, there were no lackeys behind them except for those who did not attend the Red Banquet and instead, a bunch of documents laid right beside each minister. Even so, those ministers who did not attend the Red Banquet had heard enough testimonies and only brought their most capable lackey to this meeting.

As much as he wanted to trust the competency of the ministers who did not bring their lackeys and instead, a stack of documentation, Jin did feel that perhaps the lackeys sitting at the next table, might have more information than those lackeys but the Discarded King closed one of his eyes for now to this situation.

The only lackey that was on the same table as the 'big guys' was the replacement for the War Minister whom Jin had killed and still did not bother to learn his name. Apparently, this particular lackey, or as explained by Gara, was that he was the most competent lackey that the War Minister had.

Its just that it's precisely because he was the most competent of all of them, the War Minister felt threatened by his presence and did not honour his hard work by inviting him to the Red Banquet.

"Must be fate that gave him the appropriate chance to not only evade the Red Banquet but to be standing in for the 'dearly' departed War Minister." Gara once told him before he walked off and stated that this kind of Minister meetings were for Ministers and not for Generals. If Jin wanted to make a meeting with the rest of the Generals, then he would be there.

"So, I hope this will be a short meeting but considering that all of you are here, it might be quite a long one. We have booked the tavern for 3 hours, so let's hope that we can finish it in 3, or else we might be staying longer than expected, incurring more expenses."

"You could have just held it at the royal court meeting room, there's no expense there." One of the ministers blurted out and obviously he was not in the Red Banquet as the others 'encouraged' him to hush down his opinions.

"You are not wrong, but there are many indirect costs of holding the royal court meeting. Besides, I had already gotten the servants of Ress castle to aid with the moving of people from the slums to the noble houses. That includes the chefs as well. We do not have the manpower to hold a royal court meeting at this point of time."

"That is one of the issues I like to bring up, why are the scums from slums occupying such prestigious places?!" One of the ministers who yet again did not go for the Red Banquet shouted his piece.

"Obviously to right the wrongs that you guys had done. If you guys are not so greedy and build proper infrastructure for the people that you serve, then perhaps I would not need to 'tarnish' your noble houses and devalue them as we speak." Jin said as he finished his drink and slammed it on the table hard.

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"The question that you should be asking is why the people from the slums are in the noble areas, but what are you going to do with the land that had the slums." Apparently, the War Minister Lackey had corrected the rest and King gave a side smirk.

"You are just a lackey." One of the ministers said.

"But the fact that I am on this table now and being the last sole representative of the War Ministry, I could be said to be the interim War Minister until King Jin has officially appointed someone to the said position." The War Minister's Lackey said and Jin smiled widely.

"Then what do you think I am going to do?" Jin asked the War Minister's Lackey and he drank a little to quench his thirst before theorising.

"After the fiasco of this afternoon's unexpected upgrade of the Central Warehouse to a towering monster of a building, I figured that your actions are moving towards the rebuilding of Ress's Capital, Resgar.

You believed that the slums would be the best first step to rebuild something useless but also show the common folk that the lowest of so called commoners were also taken into consideration despite this self contained, survival of the fittest kind of scenario."

"And if your Majesty is able to create such towering heights with the effective use of land, more of such buildings meant that there would be space for development, for all the slum people to stay in without worry of not having a house under their heads.

You put them into not just gratitude but debt and subsequently serve you for the upcoming difficulties ahead." The self appointed Interim War Minister said and Jin's face hardened which caused the lofty Lackey to return a small apology. "Sorry to be this blunt."

"You are not wrong. It's just that the last portion reminded me that I had to implement more jobs even though the current pace of Central Square's portal hunting and scavenging would serve as a decent buffer." Jin said and the rest of the ministers were stunned.

They honestly thought that the King was putting the whole idea of putting the people of the slums into noble houses was to insult the ministers and the rest of the nobles for doing such a shitty job at governing Ress.

They never expected that the King had a proper plan in mind.

"And you started with the slums also because they had the no- erm sorry, the least value within Resgar." The War Minister Lackey said and Jin shook his head.

"If you think that's the whole main reason, then you are wrong. Think again, Interim War Minister." Jin's voice was a little stern and that signalled the conversation to move on. However, the fact that Jin said those last three words had solidified the lackey's position to be the interim War Minister.

"In any case, who is the lnternal Affairs minister or the one that should be dealing with the development of the Ress and the rest of the kingdom? No pun intended. Oh not Topharm though, the one who decides what to build etc." Jin said and a person furthest from the table raised up his hand.

"I am the Kingdom Affairs and Labour Minister,- " And before the Kingdom Affairs Minister could say his name, Jin interrupted him and asked.

"What is the status of aiding the refugees? Are there any temporary holding areas? And what I meant by holding areas, I meant a temporary roof under their heads." Jin said and the minister was dumbfounded as he tried to scramble an answer out.

"Guess not, huh. What about the Lackey behind you? Any answers from you?"

"No, Your Majesty. We have done nothing for the refugees and never accepted any refugees at all. There were previous discussions of using the refugees and training them to be a replacement army unit. But talks with regards to that had fallen."

"Okay, then what are the outstanding issues you have as the Kingdom Affairs and Labour? Especially now that we are self contained in this fucked up nation," Jin asked and the Lackey for the Minister continued to spill out unfiltered content.

"Unemployment rate has been at an all time high and that leads to many defaults to payments and inability to afford food. It was to the point where the Kingdom itself was forced to give out pitiful alms. But that was not sufficient to feed the people. So as much as I do not wish to toot your horn to be as unbiased as possible, your Majesty, you have done a wonderful job for the past few days.

The unemployed are swarming to find work causing the adventurer's guild to be busy as hell."

"I assumed you said adventurer's guild because the Kingdom's administration officers are not able to help?"

"More like the Kingdom's administration had been reduced significantly and those who have clerical knowledge had applied to the adventurer's guild." The lackey stated and Jin could see the minister was furious. It seemed like the lackey was using this opportunity just as how the current Interim War Minister had used the chance to gain favour with the new King.

The attack on his position was tremendously on point.

"Yeah, the moment we put out the notice to have support staff, my own guild workers were putting up recommendations, and most of the resumes were from the Kingdom's administrative offices," Gara added.

"So, is it right for me to assume that the Kingdom Administration and governing bodies had been reduced to the bare bones just as how our dear Interim War Minster is coping with everything on his own at this very moment?" Jin asked as he picked up a meat piece from the centre with his Maqi and threw it into his mouth.

The rest of the ministers could be seen dumbfounded except for Topharm. "Your Majesty, there may be some wrongs done by the current administration and it seems like you wish to replace most if not all?" Topharm asked and Jin nodded his head repeatedly.

"Probably. But this current Tavern meeting is not off to a good start, there are many things I wanted to discuss but if these ministers are so incompetent that they cannot even address a simple broad question, then I should be appointing new people who have the conviction and motivation to work for the Kingdom instead. The rest will be fired."

It was at that point the Lackeys who were sitting behind the ministers at their table were whispering to themselves.