The Villainess Is My Cute Daughter

His elbows touched the table as he brought his finger tips together.

”So we just need to go down there. We check his territory and see if he is telling the truth or just faking the tax logs.” Roderick concluded. ”Only then can we take official action. So, what do we do next?”

A young girl sitting right beside the First Prince raised her hand.

”We have received an invitation from Baron Sterling.” the Princess announced quietly. ”Here. It is an invitation to his daughter’s birthday party. We could use this to go there and take a look in secret.”

That was when Princess Elara jumped off her chair. She practically jumped up and down with excitement.

”Can I go?!” Elara shouted. She shot her hand high up into the air. ”Can I go? Please! Can I go?”

She looked pleadingly at Maximillian. ”Please, Father, can I go?”

The Emperor already hated Adrian with a burning passion.

”No.” Maximillian snapped. ”You cannot go.”

He looked at the entire room and delivered a strict order. ”We will not be accepting this invitation. Even if it meant that you can spy on him to see if you can find the truth. Use the royal inspection as a reason to forcefully check what’s going on later instead.”

This time, Roderick did not say a single word. Because this was strictly a royal family matter. And if the Emperor did not want his family to travel somewhere, then the whole family had to listen. It was not about the survival or economy of the kingdom. It was just personal family business.

Roderick had zero interest in what the royal family did when it was solely connected to their personal lives. So he just stayed quiet.

”Hmm.” Roderick mused internally.

But he was definitely interested in the reason why the youngest princess was so incredibly excited to actually go to Oresfall.

So Roderick just watched her quietly for a while. Then he focused his attention right back on the political meeting.

The whole group continued talking about internal issues and border reports.

The meeting dragged on for another three hours before they finally ended it. While everyone began to move out, Roderick deliberately hung back a little. He walked over and intercepted Elara before she could leave.

”Elara.” Roderick asked gently. ”Why do you like going to Oresfall so much?”

Elara grinned brightly at her uncle.

”Well, Lord Adrian is a really, really good chef!” Elara squealed excitedly. ”He makes these amazing dishes that I have never actually tasted before! They completely ignore all the boring royal table rules! But they taste so good! Even better!”

She grabbed his fingers and shook his hand wildly.

”Plus he has this meat. The inside looks pink like it’s raw and you do not get sick at all!” Elara added proudly. ”He made me eat it and I loved it! It did not give me any fever or stomach ache at all!”

Roderick blinked in surprise.

’Huh.’ Roderick thought. ’Did he really make something like that?’

”Wait.” Roderick frowned slightly. ”I mean, we also have purified meats here in the capital. It is not that hard to get them here.”

”But the royal chefs do not make it like his!” Elara argued happily. ”Lord Adrian made this really big, thick piece of meat. And if you poke it with your finger, it just goes right in! The meat is as soft as butter!”

”Huh.” Roderick mused. ”So only Adrian can do that. What about this dungeon thing? About him being a blessed and the Goddess of Prosperity blessing his dungeon?”

Roderick stared down at the little princess.

”You did go there, right?” Roderick asked. ”And you should have been able to see if this is the truth or not.”

”Yeah, it is true!” Elara nodded eagerly. ”They have a lot of iron coming out from the dungeon. I have seen it. Like every single citizen, whenever they go inside with a group, they come out with at least one or two or three iron blocks.”

Roderick nodded slowly. ”Okay.”

He patted her head gently. ”Go back to your room.”

Roderick turned around and started walking down the corridor.

As he walked, his mind was already spinning with various calculations.

’I should free up my schedule so I can go visit this place.’ Roderick thought to himself. ’If it really is true that he is buying raw iron directly from the citizens and pulling all of that off... then he is pretty crafty. It would be extremely good to have him on my side.’

A few weeks later.

Roderick climbed out of an unmarked, heavily guarded carriage, and the first thing he saw was the massive crowd of people who were working nearby.

The men were basically moving huge, cut up pieces of wood. They were actively shouting, ”Heave ho! Heave ho!” as they hauled the materials across the construction site.

Roderick just stood there and watched them build their houses.

He was immediately intrigued by the exact way they were actually building it. Because whenever people built houses in this world, they usually just set up the four main corners using thick logs. Then they just used iron nails to secure multiple flat slabs of wood to make the walls.

These guys were doing the exact same basic concept. But their wooden frame itself was not just the four corners. It was much, much more complicated.

The frame had multiple wooden sticks laying flat on the floor, connecting directly to the base of the walls. And it was the exact same with the walls too. There were multiple thin sticks running vertically between the main beams.

’Well.’ Roderick thought. ’Looks like the way they build their houses is pretty different from how we usually do it.’

He left the construction site and walked straight up to Adrian’s newly built mansion.

”State your name and business.” the heavily armored guards demanded the second he approached the gates.

”My name is Roderick Crestwall.” the minister answered calmly. ”And I am the Financial Minister of the empire. I am here to meet your Lord.”