The forces within Neverwinter are intricate, with multiple gods intervening in the shadows, and the situation is far from as simple as it seems. It can even be said that all the characters on the surface are unimportant, whether it is Archbishop Linton or Vanswick, all of them are small chess pieces, and the real characters are hidden under the water.

Like the Baron of Deep Water City and the Legendary Magician of Deep Water City that Shen Yan came into contact with, they came and left as soon as they wanted, and Nasher couldn't even receive news at all.

In addition, the Lord of Nasher must also have a few hidden in his hands, the kind that will never be exposed until the moment of extreme danger; Erebeth should also have one or two in his hands, but he won't have any contact with Shen Yan. Because Shen Yan is only Sister A's younger brother, those people may not trust him.

The only person Shen Yan knows of hiding beneath the surface of the water is the Deszaire who infiltrated Neverwinter posing as a Reverend of Haim.

Now that Shen Yan lives in Neverwinter City, it seems that the road is very wild, and the starting point is the Nine Guards of Neverwinter. In fact, his eyes are black, and he can't tell whether he is a friend or foe.

There is no way, he came twelve years late, and now it is too late to build a network.

Since there are already signs of sick people in the city, it means that Deszel is secretly experimenting with the effect of the virus, and it will soon spread on a large scale, and the plague outbreak in Neverwinter is imminent - this point Erebeth and Shen Yan can't control - it has nothing to do with the camp, how many orderly and kind bigwigs are watching, and the two of them rushing forward can only expose the advantage of "predicting the future".

So at this time, Shen Yan's best choice was to leave for a while and go to a place far from the center, and wait until everyone's eyes were attracted by the plague before coming back.

This is a plan that Shen Yan and Erebeth have made a long time ago, they came to Neverwinter to brush their faces, and sometimes a bad impression is much better than no impression......

*****

"I heard that kid ...... Erebes' brother is back? Lord Nasher asked with a melancholy expression.

Standing behind him, Jarvis shrugged his shoulders, Shen Yanhui didn't come back, would you know? Not to mention how many eyeliners Nasher has in the city, if Shen Yan doesn't come back, will you be willing to drink those bottles of red wine?

If Shen Yan really doesn't come back, those superb red wines will be cut off from the purchase channel, and the "supply" may be on another plane. Therefore, both Nasher and Yalvis, as soon as they heard that Shen Yan was missing, hurriedly sealed the red wine and hid it again.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Ahh

There were some things he couldn't say to his subordinates, even if that person was his confidant—for example, he bought a lot of things from that store and couldn't stop...... Chopping hands is very melancholy.

Not only him, but as far as Nasher knew, the daily turnover of this obscure store was surprisingly high. Customers are not rich or expensive, not to say, not to enter, must be introduced to be qualified to go in and chop hands.

This introducer is usually Vanswijk, because none of the people who went in complained and came out, so he gained a lot of favors.

Now I want to ask Nasher what he wants to do the most? What he wants most is to tax this store!

He felt distressed when he saw the money flowing into it, and Nasher felt like he was robbing the merchant ship...... No, even dragon slaying is not as profitable as this store! Don't think that taxes are a simple matter, in modern society, the "scientific" method of collecting taxes is the limit of "not enough to eat (too much to eat), not to die of hunger (to starve to death and want to rebel)".

But not in the medieval environment, where taxes are simple and crude, and if you don't rely on privilege to do business, you will wait for bankruptcy - because taxes, road taxes, water taxes, card taxes, etc., add up to ninety percent of gross profits. And the point is that it's not all...... The lord can specify a new tax according to his method, for example, if your house has many windows, he will collect a window tax of 15,000 yuan each......

In the eyes of the lord, the merchant is his spare little purse, and he will not give up until he is clean.

So if Shen Yan didn't have the skin of Wudong Jiuwei, then he might as well close the store and be a gentleman. Because of this skin, Lord Nasher couldn't do anything about his "Towcente" shop, because collecting taxes would make the old guys uncomfortable, so he could only wait for Shen Yan to make mistakes in other aspects.

In Nasher's opinion, how could a gentleman like Shen Yan not make mistakes?

However, Shen Yan seemed to guess his careful thoughts, except for the "tax exemption", he did not touch any other privileges, and happened to step on the edge of Nasher's tolerance. It made the Lord of Nasher not up or down, and he could only watch him grow into gold every day.

This kind of psychology of his, as a staff member, Jarvis can actually see it clearly.

"You say, how do you get the money out of that kid's pocket?" Nasher asked softly.

"Well, it's very simple, compulsory apportionment, fundraising, exchanging gifts, banquet invitations, you can do it." Jarvis said that these were the means by which wool was plucked from merchants in the past.

"It's not enough, you don't know how much money he has!" Nasher shook his head.

A gift of a few thousand gold coins can cause a sensation in the entire Neverwinter City, but it doesn't matter to Shen Yan at all, because he himself sells luxury jewelry.

These methods are good for ordinary merchants, and a few thousand gold coins are enough for them to suffer for a long time. But Shen Yan was different, Nasher felt that Shen Yan's pocket contained hundreds of thousands of gold coins, to say the least! It's not cranky...... Nasher alone spent more than 10,000 yuan, and his heart was bleeding when he thought about it!

“…… Gotta find a way to justify his spending of hundreds of thousands of gold coins. Nasher said to himself, and Jarvis immediately shut his mouth - he knew that usually when Nasher had this expression on his face, it meant that he already had an idea in his mind.

But the idea of really consuming hundreds of thousands of gold coins is a bad idea, and in the end, not only will it not only offend Erebes but also fail to achieve its goal, and who is really a fool who can earn hundreds of thousands of gold coins?

Although the two of them shouted "boy, boy" here, if they really saw Shen Yan, the money in people's pockets alone would be enough to make Lord Nasher look at him! So he thinks that there is something wrong with this matter, and smart people should not interfere.

After waiting for a long time without Yalvis speaking, the lord of Nasher had no choice but to say to himself, "You say, how about giving him a fortress?" ”

"Fortress?!" Yalvis was shocked, you ...... How dare you think about it!

*****

Waterdeep regards Neverwinter as a buffer zone with Luskan, but Neverwinter's nearly 100,000-strong city, even if it is located on the front line, needs its own strategic buffer. Therefore, between Neverwinter and Lukanth, there are five or six fortified fortresses scattered around.

Almost all of these fortresses were built in their prosperous years, when Neverwinter was about to be destroyed by the Luskan army, and under the catastrophe of destruction, the people of Neverwinter built many fortresses in one go! Unfortunately, construction is easy and maintenance, and when the war subsided, Neverwinter's finances simply couldn't come up with such a large sum of money to maintain last year.

In the end, most of the fortresses were abandoned, except for a northern fortress near the trade route, which barely survived by collecting taxes on road cards.

What Lord Nasher is talking about is obviously those fortresses that have been abandoned - each fortress wants to restore its old appearance, and it will cost hundreds of thousands of gold coins!

"Isn't he the Nine Guards of Winterless? It is appropriate to do their duty for Neverwinter, and the Nine Guards also happen to have the right to recruit and train militias. It would be nice to have an extra barrier between us and Luskan to help us keep an eye on Luskan and the orcs. Lord Nasher said.

Although this money is not handed over directly, it is necessary to buy sand and stones, hire people, and hire officers, and more than half of the money spent will flow back to the lord's hands one after another.

"But the commander only has jurisdiction over the fortress, and it is not a noble fief, will he really pay for the maintenance of the fortress himself?"

"Then give it to him!" Lord Nasher waved his hand.

Two days ago, he finally figured it out - in the past, he maintained his status as a baron and did not divide his vassals, which was for fear of weakening the royal power in the future. But hundreds of thousands of gold coins can buy a noble pawn, a broken castle and a fief located on the front line in Deep Water City, and this price is not sold by fools!

Jarvis opened his mouth, but finally chose to remain silent.

He was now 100 percent sure that Lord Nasher's idea did not originate from his own...... Someone must have instilled it in him!

If you divide a military fortress and recruit militia on your own? Hehe~ Jarvis felt that he had to clear up this matter, and he must not have the slightest relationship!