"I agree, Your Majesty. Thank you very much for giving my clan such a big opportunity." Zarim bowed his head to Aditya.
Compared to the benefits that the Tigrine clan was receiving from Aditya, losing control over Savannahclaw City was nothing. Zarim cannot thank Aditya enough for this opportunity.
At the same time, Calista also bowed her head to Aditya for giving such a lowly human the chance to become the City Lord.
"Rise your heads. There is a question that I would like to ask you Zarim." Aditya folded his hands over his chest.
"Yes, Your Majesty....."
"Are you also responsible for the mysterious curse that has been affecting the normal humans and normal beast-folks that are living in this city?" After all, Huda Aditya learned that in order to cure the curse, the people had to pay a large sum of money to receive healing.
Since Zarim was already charging money to the citizens of Savannahclaw City for water, naturally Aditya was suspicious of Zarim.
"I did hear about the curse from one of my subordinates. But since the curse did not affect any cultivator, I did not care much about it. Although I care about money but that does not mean that I would fall this low to earn money." Although Zarim was greedy, arrogant, and prideful in nature, he was a man of dignity. His prideful nature won't allow him to fall this low and do something like this.
Aditya decided to believe in Zarim's words for now.
"Your Majesty, if I may be bold, I would like to say something." Since Zarim decided to serve Aditya, he decided that he needed to be honest with his lord.
"What is it?"
"Actually, aside from my intention of making money by selling water, there is a second reason why I decided to charge money for water."
"Oh...that is....." Aditya became interested. He didn't think Zarim would have other reasons behind his motive to sell water at a price.
"The thing is, in all other neighboring cities and villages, and clans, water is a very precious resource. To us, Water is gold. When I took over the position of the City Lord, I heard that there were some people who were taking tons of water from the oasis of our City and selling this water to other cities for a huge profit. If I made water free for all, then I am afraid that greedy merchants from other cities would come here just to take tons of water for free and sell it to other cities. Eventually, this will suck all of the water that our city's Oasis has."
Hearing this Aditya fell into deep thought. He thought that only Zarim was charging for water but it seems all other cities and villages also charge for water.
'To the beast-folks, water is more precious and valuable than any other resources. The resource that we take for granted is so limited here that there are people having conflicts over the issue of water.' Aditya thought in his mind.
"How about this? All the citizens of Savannahclaw City will get a certain amount of water for free that will be enough for their daily needs. The amount of water that each person can get will be limited. Of course, for businesses (restaurants and inns) or firms that need water, those entities will still need to pay money. If one were to exceed the limit, then you can charge that person as much gold as you or Calista want."
"As for the non-residents of the Savannahclaw City, you can still charge money from them. But there will be still a limit to how much water that the non-residents of the Savannahclaw City can get. Once that limit has been reached, for every liter of water, the price will keep on increasing by 50%. You can decide how much water that a non-resident can get." Since the non-residents were mostly travelers and merchants were mostly stopped in this city to restock their water supplies for their journey to the rest of the beast continent, this rule would prevent anyone from taking excessive water with them.
"Also, lower the price of the water for the businesses of this city by 10% to 20% since these businesses will essentially drive the economy of this City."
"You can leave everything to us, Your Majesty. I will discuss this whole matter with Ca....cough!!! I meant Lady Calista." Zarim put his hand over his heart and said while lowering his head to Aditya. Calista also did the same.
"Your Majesty, there is another problem that I would like to talk about." Zarim lowered his head and asked.
"Hmmm....!!!"
"It has been a few years since I became the City Lord. In these few years, the level of the water in the Oasis has decreased by half. At first, we thought this Oasis was a natural spring however this isn't the case. With the growing population of Savannahclaw City, the demand for water is only going to rise. My clan did try to look for a solution unfortunately the power and influence that my clan has is very low so there wasn't much that I could do. I really hope Your Majesty can help us."
"Please....!!!" Calista also bowed her head along with Zarim.
Aditya stroked his chin with a thoughtful look. "Let me think about this matter."
Next, Aditya summoned one of Spencer's subordinates to take over everything. Aditya made him in charge of the entire matter. Tomorrow, Calista will officially become the City Lord of Savannahclaw City.
As for the subordinate of Spencer, he was going to make a visit to the Tigrine clan along with Zarim to write a soul-binding contract. The contract is going to be signed by Calista and the Tigrine Clan. This will prevent both parties from betraying each other.
Once the contract has been signed, Calista will be given 100 Dragonians from the Istarin Empire to make her work easier. The Empire is going to be responsible for educating Calista and also providing her with all the cultivation resources and financial support that she is going to need to rebuild the city.
Of course, the financial support part wasn't free. Although Aditya had too much money that doesn't mean he was going to waste it. In the future, once the city starts to prosper and the revenue of the City increases at that time, Calista can slowly pay the amount back. There won't be any need to pay the amount with interest.
Scene change______
By the time Aditya returned back to the inn, it was already 9 in the evening.
Click!!!!
"You're late!!!"
As Aditya stepped inside the room, he found everyone sitting on the couches and staring at Aditya.
"Sorry about that. I was busy with work. It took more time than I had expected." Aditya said as he sat on the single chair that he found empty.
"Is that so....? Exactly what were you doing?" Alicia asked as she crossed her arms under her chest and looked at Aditya. She was sitting next to Julia.
"It better not be flirting with another girl?" She said with a glare.
"What made you think that I was flirting with another girl? I am not a womanizer." Aditya replied as he poured himself a glass of water. Hearing his response nearly everyone in the room except for Lara rolled their eyes.
'Even though this guy says that he is not a womanizer yet the number of women that him have keeps on growing. This guy is like a maject. Wherever he goes, he always attracts beautiful girls.' Everyone other than Lara had the same thoughts in their minds.
Julia took a quick look around the room. 'Let's see, Aditya is officially engaged to Me, Alicia, Riya, Lara, and Sasha. That takes the number to 5. There is also Lilith, although the whole thing is conflicted, she is going to become our sister in the future. That makes her the 6th one.'
Julia then closed her eyes as she folded her arms under her chest. The images of other girls appeared in her mind. 'Aside from us, there are also some unconfirmed ones such as Sylvie, and, Amber. That takes the number to 8. Without even realizing it, Aditya's harem has grown this big.' Just thinking about this Julia felt a headache. Originally she said that she was going to allow him to marry up to 7 wives but now seeing the speed at which his harem was growing, she felt that it would be very possible that the number is going to surpass 10 very soon.
'It all this Bad Wolf's Fault.' Aditya who just finished drinking a glass of water felt someone looking at him. As he put the glass on the table, he saw Julia pouting at him.
He had no idea why Julia was angry.
"Huh.....?"
'In the end, it's not even Aditya's fault. He is just too awesome.' Julia sighed. She was suffering from Aditya's success.
Really Thank you very much to all those who send support with valuable golden tickets. I hope we can keep it up!!!
