By the end of the day, Ye Wei'an had not only spent all five thousand gold coins he'd earned from the auction, but had also chipped in another fifteen hundred.
But from a business perspective, it had been an extremely worthwhile "investment."
Four years ago, when he left home, he had been nothing more than a penniless bastard;
Four years later, he'd been back in Firefall Territory for less than three days, and the people were already calling him a "just man" and a "merciful man," showering him with praise.
As merchants traveled from street to street and townsfolk visited friends and relatives, word of it would soon spread throughout Firefall Territory.
Best of all, not only had he spent not a single coin on the whole affair, he'd actually made a fortune.
Lady Selina had paid for everything.
She had plotted his assassination with painstaking care, only to lose her own lackeys and then get fleeced by Ye Wei'an, who had followed the trail right back to her. He'd used her money to win over the hearts of the entire town.
She had lost all the businesses she'd spent years building in Firefall Town, and personally created a formidable rival whose reputation was soaring.
Early the next morning, as Ye Wei'an prepared to leave, Firefall Town erupted in an unprecedented outpouring of warmth.
The shopkeeper handling the spoils offered the highest possible estimate.
When it came time to restock, the town's grain merchants and blacksmiths voluntarily lowered their prices.
When Cain went to recruit laborers, the strongest men eagerly pushed to the front of the line, clamoring to help Ye Wei'an's guards for free. They were willing to do even something as simple as helping push the supply wagons.
After the column set out, countless townsfolk came carrying their own cheese and smoked meat, insisting on stuffing them into the soldiers' hands.
Some even took up pitchforks and hunting bows from their homes and silently followed behind the column of their own accord.
A vast procession stretched endlessly along the road to see them off.
The townsfolk cheered and sang his praises, braving the scorching sun to accompany them for seven or eight miles. Only after Ye Wei'an repeatedly ordered them to turn back did they stop at a fork outside the town, watching reluctantly as the flag embroidered with the Three Gold Stars on Blue disappeared into the distance.
Even after the column vanished at the end of the forest road, they could still hear people praying softly, hoping that the merciful heir to the lordship would receive the blessing of Lathander, the Lord of Dawn.
The soldiers were deeply moved, too.
They had never received such treatment before.
In the past, when they went out into the countryside as the lord's guards, they were met mostly with fearful, furtive glances.
Farmers would hide their food and even their daughters in their cellars.
But now, the soldiers walked among the crowd with their chests held high, rations the townsfolk had pressed into their hands, and gazes of awe and gratitude all around them. For the first time in their lives, they felt the pride of being soldiers.
Inside the carriage, Ailian listened to the cheers gradually fading behind them, her little face flushed with excitement.
Unable to resist, she lifted the curtain and looked back again. "Young master, this sight... I doubt even the Baron himself could inspire such a reception when he rides out. They're practically treating you like a messenger from the gods."
"To achieve this, I spent only a small portion of what I confiscated from Gray Crow." Ye Wei'an leaned back against the seat cushion, his expression calm. "Ordinary people are actually the kindest and easiest to satisfy. Until they're pushed to the brink, give them even the slightest chance to get by, let them fill their stomachs and enjoy a few peaceful days, and they'll be so grateful they'd be willing to die for you."
Ailian tilted her head in confusion, her wide eyes full of puzzlement. "If it's so easy to earn their affection... then why don't the Baron and the noble lords we met in Suzail ever do it?"
"Why should they?" Ye Wei'an gave a cold laugh. "They have sturdy plate armor and sharp swords. A professionally trained knight could easily slaughter dozens, even hundreds, of ordinary people. They also have magic and divine spells to back them up... If they can take everything by force, why waste time 'pitying' ants?"
Ailian stared blankly at Ye Wei'an. After a long pause, she muttered, "Young master, I think the way you feel about other nobles... is really strange."
"Oh? What's strange about it?"
"It's just..."
Ailian twisted her fingers, trying to find the right words. "I feel like you look down on them from the bottom of your heart. Whether you're talking about the local lord in Firefall Town or a great family like the Amariskes, you sound as if you're judging a bunch of... idiots."
"Why should I respect them? Forget the Amariskes; even the Obarskyrs are nothing special in my eyes."
Ye Wei'an said it again, his expression perfectly calm, and the words frightened Ailian.
Obarskyr was the surname of the royal family of Cormyr!
Ailian's mouth fell open in astonishment. "B-but they've accomplished so much! They built such a powerful nation, established its laws, and safeguarded the prosperity of its lands..."
She recited Cormyr's history as if counting off familiar treasures. "The great Azoun II slew the fearsome Purple Dragon and laid the foundations of Cormyr; Azoun IV, 'the Suffering,' defeated the Tuigan hordes and saved Faerûn; Azoun V perfected the code of laws and clarified the duties of the nobility; and Vangerdahast, 'the Sage,' personally established the War Wizard Corps, whose name inspires fear far and wide..."
"So what?" Ye Wei'an cut her off, a mocking glint in his eyes. "They did build a nation, but after that, they relied on the power they had amassed and treated it as a license to exploit people at will. I'm no saint. I like making money, and I crave power, too. But what I find laughable is that in a world full of magic, miracles, and limitless possibilities, the rulers who wield supernatural power use it for nothing but squeezing every last coin out of the land."
He straightened up and pushed the curtain aside, looking toward the townsfolk, who were gradually shrinking into dots in the distance.
In that moment, the familiar arrogance returned to his eyes:
"Honestly, in my eyes, these so-called noble families aren't even as impressive as Netheril was. Netheril ultimately failed, and nearly destroyed the entire world, but at least its Arcanists tried to forge a different path. They explored the Astral Plane and sought to stand eye to eye with the gods. These people, by contrast, sit atop a gold mine and spend all their time picking up scrap metal."
At the word "Netheril," Ailian jumped in alarm. She hurriedly clapped a hand over his mouth and glanced nervously outside the carriage.
"Young master! You must never say things like that in public!"
In Cormyr, those words were extremely "politically incorrect."
As one of the most powerful nations in Faerûn, the Purple Dragon Kingdom's greatest enemy was now the revenant of that ancient magical empire—the Shade Enclave.
When the Netherese Empire fell, the Shade Enclave happened to be conducting planar research in the Shadowfell and was fortunate enough to escape destruction.
To survive in that desolate realm, the survivors had turned to its ruler, Shar, the goddess of night.
A century ago, when the flying city returned to the Material Plane, the Shadovar, who styled themselves the rightful heirs of Netheril, began a frenzied campaign of southern expansion with Shar's support.
The greatest obstacle in the way of their ambitions was Cormyr.
To remove this thorn in their side, the Arcanists of the Shade Enclave unleashed terrifying destructive magic, pouring a torrent of shadow energy onto Tilverton, a strategic stronghold in Cormyr's Eastern Marches.
Thousands of Purple Dragon elites and tens of thousands of civilians were torn apart on the spot. The once-prosperous stronghold became a ruin choked with shadow and plague, and to this day it remained forbidden to the living.
From that moment on, Netheril became synonymous with Cormyr's bitterest blood feud.
For a citizen of the kingdom, openly praising that evil empire was no different from praising demons.
"Look how scared you are." Seeing his little maid as jumpy as a startled bird, Ye Wei'an gently lowered her hand and reassured her. "Don't worry. I only talk like this behind closed doors, with you."
That said, these really were Ye Wei'an's honest feelings.
Especially during those two days in Firefall Town, he had seen with his own eyes how so-called noble families colluded with local strongmen to bleed ordinary people dry.
This corrupt, inefficient, and shortsighted way of ruling clashed violently with everything he'd been taught in his previous life.
In his eyes, these people didn't deserve to be called "rulers."
Though he had spent the last two days in league with those local strongmen, it had been nothing more than a way to earn his first fortune.
Once he had a territory of his own, he would never tolerate such parasites on his land.
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