Villain Princess.

As for the engagement?

How could being a royalty be better than being the duke or duchess?

The Head Butler sighed in his heart but kept his face straight on the surface. He wouldn’t let Duke White knew what he was actually thinking in his head. After all, Duke White would not be happy and might even kick him out of the White Family if he knew.

The Head Butler still want to stay in this job.

At least, for the time being.

"How about the price they offered?" Duke White asked another question.

"It’s higher than the normal price but it’s still acceptable," the Head Butler replied.

If not for the urgency to buy more food, the Head Butler felt that no one would accept the price quotation from the Era Guild. But the Head Butler had the feeling that they would not lower the price at all cost.

For this matter, the Head Butler could only sigh.

The fact that Duke White needed to find a lot of food was being kept a secret. But how could such a thing be hidden from those sharp people?

Some people had their own way to obtain information and in that way, there was no way information about Duke White didn’t attract the attention of many people?

Those who have food in their hands might be trying to figure out a method to earn more money through it from Duke White.

This was normal.

The Head Butler also knew that as long as they didn’t raise the price outrageously, Duke White would definitely buy it.

"Okay." Duke White nodded. "Can we fill the goal set by the Yellow Kingdom’s King through this guild?"

"No." The Head Butler shook his head. "It’s only 80% and they didn’t have more supplies."

"Is it because the price is not high enough?" Duke White asked. Some guilds would also keep some of their stocks and didn’t sell it because the price was deemed not high enough.

"I tried but they didn’t budge, so it shouldn’t be the reason," the Head Butler replied.

Duke White nodded. "Then, find out where we can get the rest of the food."

The Head Butler: "..."

Saying it was easier than done.

There were not many guilds that had surplus of food and the Head Butler had tried to ask some other nobles. However, most of their answer was very consistent.

They didn’t have enough supplies for their own, so they couldn’t sell it to them.

For this answer, the Head Butler could do nothing but to accept it.

Because he knew very well that not many people would stock so much food. The news of the war between the Sand Kingdom and the Yellow Kingdom was also quite sudden.

Not many people were prepared for this.

The Head Butler himself also couldn’t do anything.

Thankfully, there were many guilds who could spare some and the accumulation was enough. There were also no other competitor because the other nobles sent by the Yellow Kingdom’s King were asked to collect different things.

"I have bought from several stores and guilds. The budget from the Yellow Kingdom’s King is almost used up completely and it’s barely enough to fulfill His Majesty’s request."

"Wait, there’s no surplus?" Duke White was stunned when he heard this statement from the Head Butler.

He thought that since the Yellow Kingdom’s King had given them so much money to buy the food, there would be some surplus that he could pocket. Anyway, they only needed to modify some of the numbers when submitting the report.

"No." The Head Butler looked at Duke White who didn’t do anything during this period of time indifferently.

The one who did all the work was him and the Head Butler was so tired to do all the negotiation so that it would fall within the budget stipulated by the Yellow Kingdom’s King. If it was not because he spent so much time and effort in the past month, there was no way it could fit.

The result was that there was no surplus.

Oh wait, there are a few copper coins left, but for such a small amount of money, Duke White would never take a liking to it.

"Why do you have to spend so much? Can’t you do something so that you don’t need to spend that much?" Duke White complained.

The current White Dukedom was really poor and Duke White felt really uncomfortable when he thought about it. And the channel for him to earn some additional funds and money were gone.

Where should he find more money?

Duke White felt at loss.

"Master, it’s not possible to earn more money from this matter," The Head Butler replied.

Before giving them the number, the Yellow Kingdom’s King should have asked his advisor to calculate the amount they needed. In that case, they would have to make sure that this number would be enough.

Not too much nor too little.

Even if the number might be slightly off, but it should only be a few gold coins and the Yellow Kingdom’s King could afford that mistake.

Anyway, the one who paid in the end was Duke Yelan.

Probably, the only person who would want to vomit blood was Duke Yelan. For this war, he was suddenly dragged in because of his sister’s failed negotiation and then have to pay a lot of money to support the war going on.

It was estimated that the treasury of Duke Yelan would be emptied because of this war.

The Head Butler only felt a bit of pity for him, though.

It was good that this was not placed on top of Duke White’s head.

"But you should have spared more money!" Duke White was irritable. In the past month, he couldn’t buy anything he wanted and the spendings was sprightly controlled by the Head Butler.

He was not allowed to buy anything because every time he wanted to buy, the Head Butler would send someone to send it back to recoup the money.

There was no money to spend, which made Duke White annoyed.