Chapter 52 |
Mills and O’Brien were both startled by that sudden voice.
The brows O’Brien had just relaxed knitted tightly again. How long had it been? The other party’s control over space seemed to have strengthened again, to the point that he had not sensed a thing.
He now felt that Kyle was becoming more and more mysterious and unfathomable, to the extent that he could control such a terrifying existence.
Fortunately, the other party was a dark lifeform that followed rules. If it had been the kind of existence that was a ‘madman,’ he truly did not know what kind of disaster that would have been.
“You’ve been monitoring us the whole time?”
O’Brien looked at Alvaro, who had appeared in the reception room at some unknown time, with some vigilance in his tone.
“Not at all. I just happened to be in charge of the intelligence summary for Coral Thorn City, and I also happened to look into today’s situation.” Alvaro responded without the slightest emotional fluctuation.
“And you’re not going to come out and resolve it?”
“Why should we resolve it?”
“Isn’t this Kyle’s matter?” O’Brien’s voice rose a little.
“But my lord is not here at present, and the contingency plans he set down also did not require us to handle leftover issues.”
“So you’re just not going to care about it?” O’Brien felt a wave of absurdity.
Alvaro’s core consciousness operated at high speed. He was a metal lifeform and did not understand O’Brien’s thinking, but after careful consideration, this might be a kind of human obsession with the ‘continuity of responsibility.’
“Is this problem something that absolutely must be resolved?”
Alvaro decided to first clarify the seriousness of the problem before answering. Unable to understand complex human emotions, he could only throw the question back to O’Brien.
O’Brien took a deep breath and tried hard to suppress his emotions. “The hospitals’ blood banks are full, and the warehouses are full, causing thousands of patients to lose access to their treatment. This is already a very serious problem. Since he established this purchasing system, naturally he should also be responsible for it!”
“And wasn’t he trying to build a beautiful world? A livelihood issue on this scale should not be some unimportant leftover problem no matter what.”
Alvaro fell into thought once again. Kyle had left him with a great deal of knowledge related to humans. He rapidly searched through it, extracting useful information and quickly combining it with the current situation for analysis.
“Lord Kyle had standards and regulations for blood purchasing. Continuous purchasing while the blood banks were not full shows that my lord had considered the state in which the blood banks would become full.”
“And my lord did not leave any contingency plan for what to do after they became full, which shows that this situation was originally within the range of his controllable expectations, or that he judged that this situation would not cause any substantive impact on the operation of Coral Thorn City.”
“The theory you mentioned, that once a system is established one must be responsible for it, is not reasonable. Blood purchasing was merely my lord’s personal action and personal need. It was not a part of the medical system.”
“Moreover, building a beautiful world was never the undertaking of a single person, much less the infinite responsibility of a particular individual.”
“If the medical system collapses because of a temporary supply interruption caused by an individual’s actions, then that shows that the system itself has defects. That belongs to the negligence of Coral Thorn City’s managers, not an individual’s duty.”
O’Brien was left stunned by Alvaro’s clear logic and rigorous reasoning.
Mills had not expected this non-human existence to possess such eloquence as well!
Alvaro did not stop, and continued adding:
“The Silver Moon Chamber of Commerce has already advanced two months of medical fees. During this period, it is enough for the managers to improve the medical system.”
“For example, they could introduce installment payment plans, supplementary work-for-relief schemes, or jointly establish a medical mutual aid fund with the Artisans’ Association and the Adventurers’ Guild. If after two months the problem is still unresolved, then that would be the dereliction and incompetence of the managers, not a lack of responsibility on the part of my lord.”
O’Brien opened his mouth, wanting to refute him, yet did not know where to begin.
Expecting a bunch of noble lords who clung to the lowest commoners and sucked the marrow from their bones to solve the problem—wasn’t that just a fool’s dream?
Wait… wasn’t there one of the managers right here?
When O’Brien turned his gaze toward Mills, all the hairs on Mills’s body stood on end, and he shuddered.
“M-My lord… you aren’t thinking of having me take the lead on this medical mutual aid fund, are you?” Mills asked in a trembling voice.
“Can’t you?” O’Brien felt that this seemed to be the most direct solution at present.
Mills shook his head as fast as a rattle drum, to the point that afterimages appeared.
“No! Absolutely not!”
Without waiting for O’Brien to press further, he hurriedly said:
“The two lords may not understand the economic structure of Coral Thorn City. The foundation of this city’s prosperity lies in the fact that it is a giant free trade port facing the Transcendent world!”
“Its core fiscal revenue comes from the auction house’s high commissions, the port’s import-export tariffs, and all sorts of high-end service taxes provided to Transcendent professionals! This money almost all comes from the Transcendent class!”
“And livelihood projects such as medical mutual aid should require long-term, stable, and abundant support from civilian tax revenue. Coral Thorn City just happens to lack that! We hardly levy much tax on ordinary commoners at all, because that is not conducive to attracting population inflow.”
“If a medical mutual aid fund is to be established, that would mean using fiscal revenue that mainly serves the Transcendent economy to subsidize the vast medical expenses of the common people! That would be equivalent to making the Transcendents ‘pay out of their own pockets’ to do charity! Do you think those chambers of commerce, nobles, and powerhouses would agree?”
“Furthermore, the people currently relying on selling blood to treat their illnesses are only a very small portion of all patients! There are plenty of people so severely ill that even selling blood cannot cover their medical expenses!”
“Once a medical mutual aid fund is established, then should all patients be included in it? If they are, then I’m afraid the cost would shoot through the roof!”
……
Mills spoke without pause, listing and analyzing one problem after another in medical care, livelihood, the economy, and more. The more O’Brien listened, the more his head swelled, while Alvaro instead grew more and more energized, even occasionally exchanging a few lines of discussion with Mills.
Alvaro’s impression of that fat man rapidly improved, swiftly rising from indifference to admiration.
Sure enough, the collaborator my lord had taken a liking to was indeed extraordinary. If nothing else, purely in terms of ability, he was absolutely solid.
No wonder—even though this fat man had caused my lord a big headache—Lord Kyle had only raised the matter heavily and set it down lightly!
After speaking for nearly half an hour, Mills downed a whole pot of tea in great gulps and was about to continue. O’Brien finally could not help but raise a hand to interrupt him.
His mind was now full of those orphaned and widowed women waiting for treatment. He simply could not take in the conversation between Mills and the other two.
“Stop! Just tell me what can be done!”
Interrupted right in the middle of his enthusiasm, Mills’s small eyes revealed a trace of grievance and dissatisfaction.
In his eyes, the halo of O’Brien the paladin began to rapidly fade. This man was like one of those leaders who understood nothing, could only talk empty morality, and then slapped his forehead and issued unrealistic orders on a whim—thoroughly detestable.
He and this ‘Lord Metal’ had clearly been discussing the various current problems of Coral Thorn City itself, as well as exploring feasible solutions, yet this ‘Lord Paladin’ directly demanded an answer from him?!
No wonder every empire forbade paladins from taking part in governmental decision-making, and did not even give them the slightest law enforcement authority. If they did, who knew what kind of problems they would stir up!
Fortunately, these paladins also understood their own issues. Aside from hunting dark creatures, dealing with all kinds of dangerous evil cult organizations, and resisting natural disasters, they basically did not participate in the internal affairs of human society.
But obviously, this one had gone a bit ‘out of bounds’ today!