Chapter 541: Overworked

It took about an hour on foot to reach the primary iron mines of Torren Ridge from where the group had landed. They could have ridden horses, a carriage, or even their Tartans to this spot and saved some time, but Lucas had intentionally decided to take the scenic route to get a better idea of the situation in the city.

When the group of four finally did reach the mines, which was located at the base of a small hill to the west of the settlement, Allina spotted a familiar face and called out, "Quinn! Over here!"

A short statured, short blonde-haired woman with a scholarly look, wearing comfortable loose-fitting clothes perked up upon hearing Allina’s voice and smiled back, dashing over from where she was standing.

"This is?" Lucas asked as the woman, who he sensed was a Mid-Rank Spirit Initiate, was approaching.

"Quinn Oxley, Head Treasurer of the Balfour Family," Allina explained, "I asked her to come as this is a financial problem as much as it’s a logistical one."

"She’s a bit soft-spoken and reserved, but she’s extremely competent at keeping the family’s finances in order, which is why the Marquess and Elder Council appointed her to her current post despite there being many others in the Treasury who are much older and more experienced."

"Oh?" Lucas tilted his head, before smiling, "If that’s the case, I’ll be glad to make her acquaintance."

"En, I’m sure she’ll be... very happy to meet you too, Lucas," Allina mused as a playful glint flickering across her eyes.

Lucas, however, missed the meaningful undertone in Allina’s voice, which would soon come back to bite him in the butt.

.....

Head Treasurer Quinn Oxley soon stood before Lucas’ group of 4, and even though he now knew who this person was, it was only polite to introduce oneself when meeting someone for the first time, so that was what the boy intended to do.

However, before he could get a word out, the rather short, scholarly, innocent looking Quinn fixed a rather piercing gaze on him and asked aloud, "Are you Lucas?"

"Uh..." taken slightly aback, Lucas froze up for a moment.

Taking a closer look at Quinn now, Lucas could see dark bags under her eyes, which given her Mid-Rank Spirit Initiate cultivation could only mean she was extremely exhausted and sleep deprived.

Her hair was also a mess, her clothes were a bit out of order, and there were other clear signs that life had not been kind to this young woman as of late.

There was also something... off, about the look the Balfour Family’s Head Treasurer was giving him, one that was causing red danger signs to flash across Lucas’ head.

Still, it wasn’t like he could just say ’no, my name is Bob’ and call it a day, so Lucas just nodded slightly.

The next instant, two delicate hands shot out, grabbed Lucas by his collar, and hoisted him up into the air.

At the same time, a nearly crazed look appeared on Lady Oxley’s face as she cheered, "We meet at last, my destined enemy!"

"Wha..." Lucas couldn’t make sense of what was going on.

Why did this crazy woman he had never met before seem to have a massive grudge against him?

Turning his head to the only person here who might be able to explain, Lucas was stunned to discover that his reliable Big Sister Allina had a big grin on her face as she was leaning back against a nearby wooden pillar with her arms casually crossed.

Clearly, she had no intention of getting involved in whatever this was.

Out of desperation, Lucas shot a glance over towards Marco and Adam, hoping beyond hope that they would at least speak up on his behalf, but the two traitors actually had the gall to avert their gazes the moment their eyes met, one of them staring up at the sky like he was counting clouds, the other down at the ground like he had suddenly discovered treasure beneath his feet.

Deeply understanding that he was alone in this cruel, cruel world right now, Lucas did his best to put on an innocent smile and appeal to his captor, "L-Lady Oxley, a-a-are you sure there hasn’t been some kind of... misunderstanding?"

"Misunderstanding?" Quinn’s face twitched, twisting from crazed to enraged then back to crazed again, "Misunderstanding, you say? You think I misunderstood my workload increasing 10-fold ever since last October? You think the Family Budget getting 100 times more complicated, with tens of millions of Gold worth of extra costs and expenses constantly being added, then removed, then added back, then altered, then cancelled, then re-ordered again and again and again!?!"

"You think I just dreamed the last 8 months, 22 days, 10 hours, and 15 minutes of the worst nightmare I’ve ever had in my life, YOU LITTLE BASTARD!?!?!"

Although he was now being throttled mercilessly, his shirt collar literally choking him from how tightly it was being gripped, Lucas was still just barely conscious enough to hear the torrent of grievances pouring out from this young woman.

At first, he wanted to deny the charges, but even Lucas had enough self-awareness to realize that what Quinn Oxley was saying was pretty much 100% accurate. Since the mass-evacuation plan for the South-West Province he put together was enacted, Lucas had probably made over 1,000 different requests for funding to the Balfour Family.

On top of these all being big expenditures, most of the requests were also incredibly complicated, requiring frequent amendments, addendums, and additions.

When a project got too off-the-rails, in the interest of efficiency, Lucas would often just cancel it temporarily, only to return to it a month or two later after having worked out a new approach.

All of this, of course, required an enormous amount of paperwork to be submitted, reviewed, debated, and archived.

It was a lot of work for Lucas, his Head Manager Victoria, and the various other leaders of all the projects he was working on.

But it was obviously also a mountain of headache for the ones who needed to approve the funding and then see to it that cash was delivered and payments were made on time.

In other words, the burden of all of Lucas’ crazy ideas had fallen on Head Treasurer Oxley’s thin, delicate looking shoulders.

Emphasis on delicate ’looking’, as it was clear to Lucas from the way he was being thrown around that Quinn had plenty of arm strength.