"I've only been gone for six months! What have you done?! Did you rob the Vatican's treasury?!"

Upon hearing the word "robbery," Huggins said with a look of disdain, "Your Majesty, I used to think robbery was a good job. Back then, the Twilight Knights worked tirelessly from dawn till dusk to rob those nobles in the Silver Ring Kingdom. After all that trouble, not to mention the dead and wounded soldiers, they only managed to steal a few hundred thousand gold coins. Look at you now, sitting in your castle, wealth flows into your treasury like water."

Todd leaned against the wall, his head buzzing, and asked in a low voice, "Then where did all this money come from?"

“Part of it comes from the operation of royal properties, part from royal patent royalties, part from your previous treasury, and the rest from taxes and donations.”

Harkins raised an eyebrow at Todd: "Your Majesty, now that you're back, perhaps you should think carefully about how to spend your money..."

The eastern suburbs of Xicheng, an immigrant area.

A knight in old armor sat in the corner of a drafty shack, with an ancient longsword beside him.

The knight carefully opened the pot above the fire pit, glanced at the steaming oatmeal porridge inside, and inhaled the aroma of food mixed with earth and wild vegetables in the air, unconsciously swallowing.

Standing up, the knight slowly pushed open the door beside him and whispered to the elder lying on the bed, "Lord Gordon, the meal is ready."

The elderly man with a full beard got out of bed and said weakly, "Harry, are you the only one here? Where is everyone else?"

"The tavern in town is short of a security guard, and I heard they're offering lunch as a bonus. Nelge is planning to go and earn some extra money. As for Kaponodas and Dizzy, they went out early this morning, saying they'd found a great way to make money..."

The elder grabbed the knight's wrist and said anxiously, "Did you tell them...?!"

Knight Harry gently patted the elder's arm, reassuring him, "Lord Gordon, please rest assured. Before they left, I specifically instructed them to remove their badges, leave their weapons behind, and not to announce to the outside world that they were an envoy from the Holy Guard City."

Gordon nodded vigorously: "That's right. When we're traveling abroad, as members of the delegation, we have to consider the image of Holy Guard City."

Seeing the head of the delegation's impassioned manner, Harry whispered a reminder to him, "Sir, we're out of money again."

Gordon asked in surprise, "Didn't we just sell that mule that carried the luggage yesterday?!"

Harry counted on his fingers and gave the commander a breakdown of the expenses: "We've been staying here for a week. This morning the landlord asked us for next week's rent. The warhorses in the group need fodder, and one of them got sick and we had to go to the vet at the grain shop at the village entrance. We need to pay off the previous debt, and..."

"Sigh, just tell me directly, how much money do you have left?"

"Three silver moons, plus seventeen bronze stars."

"Hmm... Five copper stars can buy a loaf of rye bread, and two copper stars can buy a handful of hay. So, we can still..."

Harry interrupted Gordon's calculations: "Commander, that's not how you do it. Prices here aren't as outrageous as in the city, but they're definitely not cheap either. A rye bread costs twelve copper stars."

The head of the delegation, Gordon, opened his mouth, but it only turned into a long sigh.

Just then, the door of the shed was pushed open forcefully, and a tall young man with calloused hands rushed into the room, shouting loudly, "King Muxi is back! King Muxi is back!"

Upon hearing this, Gordon's eyes widened, and he jumped off the bed, grabbing the visitor's shoulders and excitedly asking, "Nelge! King Musi really has returned? You didn't hear me wrong?!"

“It’s absolutely true! The people of the city are celebrating the King’s return, and the royal family has even issued a proclamation saying that a grand banquet will be held the night after tomorrow to receive the delegation from Holy Guard City!”

Gordon laughed heartily, "We'll soon be able to see King Muxi! Our mission will finally be complete!"

When it came to processing this news, Knight Harry and Captain Gordon had very different focuses.

The former pulled Nelson to a corner of the room and asked again, "Did the announcement really state that it was a grand banquet?"

Nigel's eyes lit up, and he nodded frantically.

"Wine and meat?"

"We have wine and meat!"

Wiping the drool from his mouth, Knight Harry said to Commander Gordon, "My lord, I have a suggestion."