Chapter 913 Watching Mother Work
After the spar, I had a quick bath to wash off the sweat before I went to follow Mother to watch her work.
"Where are the records for the slave taxes?"
"Right here~"
"Hmm… The records here show that there's supposed to be two hundred Creas more than what was actually paid. Why?"
"Ah, if you would refer to the folder on your right, the one with the label 'Outskirts Expansions', there's a note there that two hundred extra Creas were requested and approved in order to pay for the subjugation of a Monster horde that had appeared in the area."
Mother picked up the folder in question and flipped through it, nodding at what she saw before placing it back down.
"The records for the number of slaves employed in official capacities?"
Unerolia went over to take out another folder from one of the cabinets, "Right here~ It's updated at the end of every week so it's accurate up to two days ago~"
Mother took the folder and narrowed her eyes at the page, "There's an increase of twenty slaves two weeks ago. Why?"
"Ah, that's right. We did an internal audit a few weeks ago and found a group of people had been accepting bribes from several merchants so we removed them. But we needed some people to take over and fix their screw ups so we replaced them with slaves for now."
"Will they be permanently placed in those positions?"
"That is undecided for now."
I'm not gonna lie, this serious side of Mother was a first for me.
I mean… I know that she does work at home as well but most of the time when I enter the office, she would stop working just to fawn over me instead so I never really got to see this working side of her.
And as I thought, Unerolia seems pretty reliable and it looks like Mother was pretty satisfied with what she has seen so far.
"Where are the records of the current spendings?"
"Right here~"
Mother took another folder from her and started flipping through it.
She inspected each line of the record until she paused at one of the lines.
"Why is there a spending of a thousand Creas over here?"
Instead of answering Mother right away like before, Unerolia clammed up and looked away.
Eh? But she was doing so well before? What did she do with this?
Mother obviously noticed her lack of response and looked up at the Marchioness, "What did you do?"
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"I… I may or may not have used that money to try and get a few of the Mercenaries we hired to deal with the Monsters to spar with me…"
"You spent a thousand Creas to do that?"
"There were about twenty people ok?! I needed to give them an incentive to spar with me! I didn't bring money with me at that time so I just needed to use part of the reward money to pay them first! I still properly paid it back after I got back!"
"A thousand Creas?"
"That's fifty Creas per person! It's reasonable!"
"Fifty Creas for a spar with you. Paid to twenty people… Hmm…"
Seems like I was right to think that she was a battle maniac… She's literally paying people to fight with her…
Mother seemed to be looking for something else as she flipped through several more papers until she pulled out one to start reading.
The Marchioness seemed to be a little nervous about it for some reason as she was looking at Mother while fidgeting with her fingers.
Mother then stopped and looked up at her, "Three thousand Creas expenditure over here… Explain."
"... Repair costs…"n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
Mother set down the papers calmly and steepled her fingers in front of her before giving the Marchioness the fakest smile I have ever seen Mother give anyone.
"Repair costs of what?"
"... The outskirts of the city…"
"And what caused the need for repairs?"
"... My spar with the Mercenaries…"
Mother's smile disappeared and then pushed the papers aside, "You will pay for that out of your own pocket instead of using Kingdom funding, understood?"
"Yes, Madam Nilm…"
"And you'll get another set of punishment for trying to pass this off under Kingdom funding."
"Wait! I wasn't really! It's just… I needed to make it look like--"
"Say anymore and I'm also sending this report to little Justi."
The Marchioness immediately snapped her mouth shut.
So I don't even know why she was panicking in the first place? Because from what I saw, the punishment she has 'suffered' so far was basically having me rail her until she passed out.
And even though she did pass out, she definitely enjoyed it so unless there was some other type of punishment involved, I don't see why she would be worried…
Mother scribbled a few words on another piece of paper before pushing the chair back to pat on her lap.
I thought Mother was calling for me to sit on her lap until Unerolia asked, "Wait… Right now? In front of Lady Aster?"
Mother tilted her head at her, "Why? Is little Une trying to dictate the terms of the punishment now?"
"N… No… But… I thought it might be done privately?"
"I am not doing this in front of the entire city, am I?"
"Unnggh… Understood…"
She then started moving towards Mother with clearly reluctant steps.
Eh? Is she going to sit on Mother's lap too?
But… I… I thought Mother only let me do that…
Instead of sitting on Mother's lap like I thought she would, the Marchioness laid herself over Mother's lap and I finally realised what kind of punishment Mother was talking about.
Mother pulled up the short skirt that she was wearing to expose her butt cheeks and she raised a single open palm up into the air.
Then, without any windup or hesitation, Mother brought her palm down on one of Unerolia's bottom cheeks with a resounding slap.
The slap was so loud that the sound of it echoed around the room and I could even feel the floor beneath my feet shake slightly from the impact.
There was nothing kinky about this at all… This was pure punishment.
And as if to confirm my thoughts, the scream Unerolia let out from the pain was pretty intense.
Mother didn't even let her recover on her lap as she immediately rolled the woman off her lap the moment she finished the slap, going back to look through the records while the Marchioness rolled around on the ground clutching her bottom in pain.
Mother continued her work for a while before pausing and turning to me, her face softening up into a smile.
"Ara, ara~ Does my little one want to sit on Mama's lap?"
She even pushed herself back to pat on her lap again.
This time, just this time, I didn't hesitate and went over to Mother and sat on her lap.
She giggled and hugged me close to her before pushing her chair back towards the table, continuing to work while I was on her lap.
"Nggh… This is so not fair…" The Marchioness groaned, still rolling on the floor.
Mother didn't even look at her to answer, "Ara? Is little Une jealous of how I treat my little one? It goes without saying that I will always treat my little one better than anyone else, right?"
She nuzzled her chin against the back of my head before planting a kiss there as well.
"Unngghh… I meant that Cousin Justinia wouldn't hit me that hard…"
"I am not little Justi."
Unerolia let out another groan and made no move to stand up.
In the meantime, I was just enjoying the sensation of Mother cuddling me while she continued to go through the reports in front of her.
I tried to read the reports on the table but I wasn't able to make sense of any of them as they were all just a bunch of numbers noted down like some kind of spreadsheet.
Yeah… I have no idea what they mean at all.
Mother giggled and patted my head, "Would my little one like to learn what the numbers mean?"
"Erm… It's ok… I don't think I would be interested anyway…"
"Ufufufu~ It's very simple, my little one~ Here, here~ These numbers over here is how much little Une has been spending and here is the amount that is reported to us~ And over here is the amount of money that she should be paying to the King~ If the numbers don't match on either side or if there are entries that are questionable, that's when you start asking questions~"
"Does Mother or the King do this all the time?"
"Ara, ara? Of course not~ There's others who are hired to do this~ This is just a special case~ And Mama is doing it just so that Mama can bully little Une of course~"
She's not even trying to hide it I see…
Well… I have to admit it's nice to see this side of Mother at least.
What do you think?
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