(Lian Li POV)
I checked on the reports detailing our current supplies and stage of our plan. All of it seems to be going just as we planned.
"Where are the records for Elaria's goods?" I asked.
A folder appeared at the corner of my vision.
"Thank you, Beta. You can go ahead and rest first if you want to."
A girl with sharp, white, feline ears appeared beside me, her long, thin tail waving in the air behind her.
"For me to rest when the High Priestess is working so hard, that would be unbecoming of me."
"Hehehe, I know it's not easy to keep track of all the administrative matters, you can leave such things to me tonight. Where is Alpha?"
One of her adorable cat ears twitched, "That she-wolf? I believe she's escorting sister Elaria's caravan right now."
I raised my eyebrow, "Isn't Gamma in charge of security?"
Beta nodded, "Gamma is making sure no one messes with the shop. We've had several attempted arsons in the past week."
"Curious… It's like they already know we are a threat. How?"
Beta's tail turned rigid, "I do not know… I made sure information about our mercantile endeavors was kept on a 'to-know' basis. I… I'm sorry, I should've taken extra precautions."
I made a face before scratching her behind the ears, " Can't be helped then. Good work."
She purred and relaxed, enjoying the moment of peace.
I flipped open the folder that Beta had handed me with my free hand, scanning through its contents while my other hand continued scratching the cat youkai beside me.
Although I have already been given a quick rundown on the things Elaria had made, most of the things she had listed inside the memo was still quite alien to me.
The only thing I recognised was the Monster Crystal Generator, supposedly a gift to the Bei Royal Family for the princess's coming of age ceremony from the Vera merchant family.
Since most of our country��s industries are still operated by a mostly manual workforce, the generator would allow the automation of a large number of industries, increasing productivity and profits.
Any business owner worth their gold will be able to tell the value of such a machine and leap at the chance to get one for themselves. That will put the Vera Family at an even higher position of standing and garner more influence for us.
Sure, right now they have the money, but most of the other nobles and merchants see them as a family that got lucky in the business and don't take them seriously. That is partially true since all we did was take over most of the Xi Family's business and all of the underworld tradings.
Those merchants don't know that fact, so it looked like a struggling merchant family taking advantage of another family's misfortune to make a name for themselves.
Mind you, the other merchants do this all the time, so the action itself is not the reason the other merchants looked down on the Vera Family. It was more of an upstart getting to the top few positions relying on the efforts of someone else.
Not an entirely unacceptable action,but it does not garner the Family any respect due to not having any achievements of their own.
It's all about prestige to them after all.
But once they start marketing Elaria's goods as the sole distributor, every one of them will be scrambling over each other just to earn our favour.
That would gain us some friends in the noble sector which we can use to influence the upper stratums of the country.
Once that was done, it would pave the way for the next step of our plan. This would have to be streamlined as soon as possible since there was also the threat of the Dong invasion behind us.
I don't understand why there is just so much trash in this world? If everyone could just open their eyes and see Master's light, there wouldn't be so much trash in existence! The only redeeming feature about this world is the fact that Master has treaded on it before, or else I might have just wiped out the entire surface if I could!
"High Priestess? Are you alright?" Beta asked, snapping me out from my thoughts.
"Yes," I assured her. "Just thinking about how sad the state of our world is. Why is it so hard for people to see Master's benevolence and worship Him for the Divine Being that He is?"
Beta looked at me for a moment before bowing her head, "High Priestess, I was nothing but a worthless beast when you brought me in alongside the other girls. Alpha had talent in leading, Delta was very eloquent and knew how to influence people and Gamma is gifted in battle. I, on the other hand, could only help you do paperwork."
I frowned at her, "I did not choose to take you in because of your talents. All of you were residents of the slums and as a former slum dweller myself, I understand exactly how you feel. Your eyes have been opened to Master's light and this is what is most important."
She shivered slightly, "I am but a worthless cat youkai… Not even a nekomata youkai... My Elemental Quarks pale in comparison to everybody else… Am I still worthy of Master's light?"
I patted her head before scratching behind her ear, "Silly girl. As long as your eyes are able to see Master's light then you are worthy. Master's benevolence is infinite!"
"Rea… Really?"
"Of course! If all goes well, you might even meet Master during that princess's ceremony! Besides, who else could ensure the administration of our Church is always perfect other than you?"
She poked her fingers together shyly, "Then… Then does that mean… It's also possible that Master might give me ear scratches one day too?"
"Huhuhu~ I do not doubt it. As I said, Master's benevolence is infinite."
Beta squirmed, "I… I see… I'll work hard then! I won't let Master down! I'll go compile the business records for all the merchant houses that we managed to acquire!"
The cat youkai rushed out of the room, no doubt to carry out what she had said she would do.
I suppose this world isn't all that bad after all. We do have a good number of believers who can see Master's light. It would be a shame if these people were to perish before they could spread Master's glorious name to the rest of the world.
Speaking of which, I am quite curious on how the new disciple of Master would be like? Since he will be the only male, I wonder how we should treat him?
Make no mistake though, we might be cordial to him because of the fact that he is Master's disciple, but if he shows any ounce of disrespect for Master or even tries to take advantage of us in any way…
I will make sure his existence is completely erased.
