Chapter 274: Set Up a Thanksgiving Day for You

Arend Island, Viscount’s Residence.

Leon sat in the study, looking over the reports and accounts Adele had submitted, while Adele stood beside him waiting.

Leon looked at the report, then glanced at Adele standing beside him like a secretary, and said: “You don’t need to stand here waiting for me to finish reading. Go take care of your own things.”

“I don’t have anything else to do right now. In case there’s anything you want to ask, if I’m here, you can ask me anytime.” Adele said.

“Then find somewhere to sit down. Having you standing here keeps making me feel like you’re urging me to finish reading.” Leon said.

“Oh……” Adele responded and found somewhere to sit down.

After quite a while, Leon finally finished reading the report Adele had organized and nodded toward her: “Not bad. It looks like the reserve funds are still sufficient. At the beginning of next month, I have to go to the Archdiocese to handle some work. I’ll have someone send the funds over in advance. Get back to your work, I’m leaving.”

After saying that, Leon stood up and was about to walk out of the study.

“You’re leaving already? Do you have something arranged?” Adele was a little surprised.

“I don’t really have anything else arranged, so I’m heading back.” Leon casually replied.

There was no need to be in such a hurry though, right? Adele thought.

Recently, she had become quite curious about the business Leon was doing. She actually really wanted to find an opportunity to chat with Leon a little more.

Yet over the past five days, he had only come back twice, and both times he had simply looked over reports or given a few instructions before leaving. The previous time, Adele had not even managed to run into him.

Adele somewhat wanted to ask Leon to stay, but she also felt that saying it directly would be a little strange. She only wanted to chat with him for a while, yet it would make her seem as though she was very clingy……

After thinking it over and over, she came up with a reason: “Right, the market near the harbor has recently finished building its stalls. It’ll be ready for use before long. Do you want to go inspect it?”

“There’s no need, right? You wrote about it in the report. I saw it.” Leon replied.

“Then don’t you need to personally take a look? Aren’t you afraid I might make a fake construction project and a fake report for you, then transfer your money away?” Adele said.

“I trust that you wouldn’t do something that stupid.” Leon replied, then suddenly noticed that Adele’s eyes had become somewhat disappointed and could not help smiling, “What? You want me to inspect it and then praise you afterward?”

“Who cares about your praise!” Adele replied insincerely, “I was just mentioning it. It doesn’t matter if you don’t want to go. The less you interfere, the easier things are for me.”

“Alright then, I’ll still go take a look.” Leon changed his mind.

“Fine, I’ll have someone prepare the horses.” Adele said as she walked out.

Several minutes later, the two of them boarded the carriage at the residence and traveled from the manor toward the newly constructed harbor market.

Through the carriage window, Leon looked down the hillside toward the originally desolate fishing village below. Because of the large influx of people, most of it had now been rebuilt, with many new houses constructed, along with additional farms, restaurants, and various workshops, as well as broad roads.

“It really changes every few days.” Leon commented.

“All thanks to the generous financial support of a certain boss.” Adele said in a teasing tone.

Leon only chuckled softly after hearing that.

Adele absentmindedly stared for a couple of moments at his profile as he looked out the window, then came back to herself and tentatively asked: “Leon, just how did you grow your business to this point? Is it convenient for you to tell me about it? I once found out that you used to be just an ordinary Inquisitor.”

“To be honest, it’s not very convenient. There were a lot of things along the way while I was doing business that aren’t suitable for people to know about.” Leon said.

“You can leave out some details and just tell me casually. It’s not like I’m going to report you to the Church. I’ve helped you launder so much money that it would be enough to put me in prison for at least ten years, yet you’re still keeping things from me.” Adele muttered.

“Why are you suddenly so interested in how I do business?” Leon casually asked.

“I’m just curious. I used to really like listening to Grandfather tell me about the things he encountered while doing business too. You’ve made so much money now, of course I’d want to hear about the process of how you earned it.” Adele said.

Because she was becoming increasingly concerned about Leon’s affairs, she had also tried asking around and had obtained some scattered clues.

In less than three years, Leon had gone from an ordinary civilian Junior Inquisitor to a Tier Two Ordained Inquisitor of the Archdiocese, while also becoming the Underworld leader of the largest Magic Potion sales organization in the Empire. This made her increasingly curious about Leon’s experiences.

“It was because I happened to encounter her by chance, and then I started cooperating with her in the Magic Essence business. We ran into quite a few things along the way too. We were betrayed by a middleman, one of our cooperating distributors was assassinated, we were investigated by the Inquisition…… Fortunately, we made it through all of it.” Leon gave Adele an extremely brief explanation.

“I heard that before you, the business in River Valley County and Southport County was handled by an organization led by someone called the ‘Earl’.” Adele said.

“What else did you find out?” Leon had already noticed something.

“I also heard that you used to work for him, but in the end you killed him, then took over the territory he left behind.” Adele tried to confirm.

“That’s right. When I first started doing business, I lost to him. He chose to take me in as his subordinate, an executive responsible for the business in Southport County and River Valley County. I helped him build this kind of production base in the Labyrinth on this island.

Later, we had a disagreement. He wanted to kill someone beside me to warn me, so I killed him first.” Leon continued speaking while observing Adele’s expression. Fortunately, Adele did not show any disgust merely because killing had been mentioned.

“You directly took everything he had accumulated, saving yourself quite a lot of development time.” Adele said.

“Then maybe I really should set up some kind of Thanksgiving Day for him.” Leon chuckled softly.

In his world, if one were to talk about the origins of Thanksgiving, there was a fair amount of dark humor to it.

Leon and Adele continued chatting for a while. The carriage finally arrived at the market by the Pier. After Leon got out, he looked around a couple of times. The market really did look quite well constructed, and some stalls had even already started being used.

Some people were scattered around setting up stalls to sell fish catches and agricultural products, some were selling various snacks, and others were selling daily necessities. Hawking cries rang out without end, while quite a few customers came and went.

“It’s the Viscount and the Viscountess!” Someone noticed Leon standing outside the market entrance conducting an inspection and quietly said this to the people nearby.

Many gazes focused on Leon and Adele. Whenever their eyes met, some people hurriedly gave him a salute. Leon had more or less grown accustomed to it by now. His investments had built up this island and improved the lives of its residents. The island’s population had now reached around a thousand people, and the residents seemed to respect him greatly because of that.

At that moment, a little boy who looked no more than five or six years old walked over from not far away, holding a handwoven flower wreath.

Leon noticed him, so he turned around, lowered his head, and asked the child: “What is it, little guy?”

“For you, honored Viscount. Thank you for letting us live good lives.” The little boy handed the flower wreath in his hands to Leon.

Adele silently watched from the side. This truly was respect Leon deserved.

“Oh, thank you.” Leon casually accepted the flower wreath, looked over the little boy, and smiled, “But who taught you to say those words?”

“My dad and mom.” The little boy pointed into the distance without the slightest hesitation.

As soon as Leon turned his head, he saw a couple at a stall immediately show embarrassed expressions.

From the little boy’s appearance alone, Leon could tell that adults had taught him to come approach Leon, hoping that perhaps if Leon became pleased, he might give out some kind of reward.

“You’re pretty straightforward.” Leon laughed loudly, patted the little boy on the head, and let him run back by himself.

“Even though it was staged, this still shows that everyone thinks you’re a good person, right?” Adele said from the side.

If the people of the territory all regarded him as one of those lofty, unapproachable lords, they probably would not dare do something like this.

“I’m not a bad person to begin with.” Leon glanced at Adele, “You’re probably the only one who’s always treated me like a villain.”

“Not always, right?” Adele muttered quietly.

At least now, her impression of Leon was already completely different from before.

“Everyone really is grateful to you though. Maybe in the future someone will set up a Thanksgiving Day for you?” Adele said again.

“Uh, there’s no need for that.” Leon knew Adele had meant nothing else by it, so he could only give an awkward yet polite smile, then looked a couple more times at the fairly lively market.

Workers from the Pier and the island’s residents moved back and forth through the market. The place was filled with bustling voices, and every now and then, coughing and sneezing could be heard.