"Doesn't my City Lord's Mansion have any privacy?!"
By evening, word had spread throughout the city, and Annan was furious.
Lei returned just then with her Fishing Rod over her shoulder.
"Lei!"
Annan remembered that Leila had been the only one there that morning. "You told people about the taxes?!"
Lei hunched her shoulders. "I only mentioned it to an old fisherman while I was fishing..." But she immediately raised her head again. "Is that any way to talk to me? You should call me Second Sister!"
Annan stressed every word. "Second Sister, have you suddenly stopped catching fish lately?"
"How did you know..."
"Serves you right!"
"You—"
"Eldest Sister! Lei went fishing again!"
"How could you... Ah—"
Lei hurriedly fled outside.
Ingrid looked away from Leila's retreating figure. "How do you plan to make money? A new Magic Film?"
"Not yet. We've taken too much money from the nobles over the past few months... Let's give them some time to recover."
Annan casually picked up a book beside him, then realized it was Government Affairs rather than a knights' novel. Under Ingrid's gaze, he had no choice but to leaf through a few pages...
"The Expeditionary Army?"
A familiar line of text caught his eye.
"The Expeditionary Army has begun clashing with Demons in the Thunderflash Rift and suffered heavy losses... Even the combined forces of several nations can't stand against them?"
"Because it's a Demon Tide. The kind that can only be held back by the Snow Mountain Fortress."
And with a third of the fortresses in the North fallen, nothing but open country lay between the Northern Frontier and Middle Earth.
"They shouldn't make it this far, should they?"
Annan had faced the threat of the Demon Tide in the Northern Frontier. If he still had to