It wasn't until the latter half of the night that Maiev finally stopped working.
According to the intelligence brought back by the cats, the major churches in the city had opened up their supply of holy water. It had gone from a limited distribution to an unlimited supply.
This meant his plan had succeeded.
With so much holy water available, he no longer needed to worry about the safety of the believers. Once the rats in the city were purged, people's lives could return to normal.
The crisis was temporarily averted.
Yunia, who hadn't eaten anything since breakfast, was starving. But she insisted on staying by her Papa's side. Only when Maiev was done did she run to the kitchen, her footsteps pattering loudly. "Papa, come quick! We can finally have dinner!"
Mrs. Cecil had said she would prepare a simple dinner, but to welcome Yunia, the spread she made was nothing short of a feast.
Pea and ham soup, roasted potatoes, fried bacon, scrambled eggs with butter...
Dishes carefully cooked were laid out on porcelain plates, awaiting the diners' favor.
Yunia couldn't wait. She grabbed a roasted potato with the skin still on and took a big bite. Then...
She silently put it down.
"What's wrong?"
Maiev asked as he put a piece of buttered bread into his mouth. "Not to your taste?"
Yunia nodded, then quickly shook her head. Her small hands twisted together as she said with conflict, "I want to eat the beef from last night..."
Cold potatoes tasted like wax and had no flavor. The texture wasn't great either. Maiev thought for a moment, then reached out and took the potato from Yunia's plate, replacing it with his own bacon and scrambled eggs.
"Papa, aren't you eating?"
"I don't like bacon and eggs."
Hearing this, Yunia happily picked up her spoon and scooped up a spoonful of golden, fluffy scrambled eggs. Her little legs swung back and forth under the table as she ate spoonful after spoonful.
"You must drink the pea soup. It's rich in vitamins and good for your body," Maiev reminded her.
"What are vitamins, Papa?"
"Umm..."
Faced with Yunia's question, Maiev didn't know how to explain for a moment. He wanted to use modern medical concepts, but he was afraid Yunia wouldn't understand.
"Peas can prevent scurvy," he said.
"Scurvy?"
"Yes, it's a terrifying disease. It causes your teeth to fall out, makes you depressed, and red and black spots appear on your skin..." Maiev bared his teeth. "If you don't eat enough vegetables, the beautiful Yunia will become ugly."
"Ah!"
Yunia was startled. She quickly abandoned the bacon and launched an attack on the pea soup, sticking out her tongue as she drank because the taste clearly wasn't great.
"Burp... Papa, Yunia finished it!"
Perhaps because she drank too fast and swallowed air, Yunia burped. She put down the empty soup plate and asked nervously, "Now Yunia won't lose her teeth, right..."
"You won't," Maiev smiled. "But drinking it just once isn't enough. You must eat vegetables often, otherwise your teeth will still fall out... Sigh, if that happens, poor Yunia won't even be able to eat meat."
"I'll eat! Yunia will definitely eat vegetables often!"
Maiev nodded with satisfaction. "Tomorrow I'll take you to buy some clothes. Although Mrs. Cecil brought a lot of old clothes, they are out of style."
"Yay! Yay!"
Just then...
Fat Orange and Little Black jumped in through the window, looking exhausted. "Done. The dead rats have been dumped over at Central Avenue. Once the patrol finds them, they'll burn them all together."
"Good work. Want some bread?" Maiev offered the half-eaten buttered bread.
Fat Orange didn't even look at the bread. He just sat next to Yunia, thought briefly, and then hesitated.
"I... have good news and bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?"
"Bad news."
"Let's start with the good news, lest you faint from anger." Fat Orange licked his lips. "The good news is that the church now has a large group of feline believers. You can command them to do anything."
This was indeed good news, practically heavenly news.
Cats were swift, had fast reactions, and came and went without a trace. They were absolutely the most agile eyes and ears in the streets and alleys.
With a cat army, Maiev could do many things he couldn't do before.
"What about the bad news?"
"The bad news is... cough, you have to provide them with warm shelter and delicious food."
Plop.
The bread fell onto the table.
Maiev stared at Fat Orange, dumbfounded, almost choking on his breath.
"What? Did you plan to take advantage of them without paying?"
Fat Orange glared at him with dissatisfaction. "Cats are like humans; they also need food and a shelter from the wind and rain. Winter is coming. If we ignore them, the number of homeless cats will drop sharply!"
"No, no, no... I'm not a scumbag who uses cats and tosses them aside..."
Maiev shook his head repeatedly. "But have you thought about it? It's not one or two, it's... over a thousand! I can't even afford a cattery!!!"
"1,535," Fat Orange gave the exact number. "On the way back, I did a simple calculation. Assuming each cat eats an average of 200 grams of meat a day, you need to prepare... 677 pounds of food a day."
"..."
"If it were normal times, I could organize them to eat rats. But as you know, the number of surviving rats in the city currently won't exceed 50. Hmm, maybe fewer."
The heartwarming words shattered the last shred of hope in Maiev's heart.
"Holy... sh*t!"
Maiev looked at the ceiling with despair in his eyes, his lips trembling.
As someone who frequented the market, he knew the prices in the Windsor Kingdom very well. One pound of beef was 5 copper pence, one pound of fish was 3 copper pence. Neither was cheap.
If someone asked him why not eat pork since beef was 5 pence, Maiev would absolutely spit in their face and solemnly tell them that in this era, a pound of pork cost 7 pence—more expensive than beef!
Even if he provided the cheapest fish every day, 677 pounds would cost 2,031 pence!
Every day!
Converted, just providing food for the cats would cost Maiev 8.5 gold pounds a day!
255 gold pounds a month. A year...
Maiev didn't dare to think about it. His head was already spinning.
The buttered bread that was delicious a moment ago had lost its aroma.
Despair.
Other than this word, Maiev really couldn't find any other term to describe his current mood.
"Meow..."
Little Black came to Maiev, placed a paw on the back of his hand, and comforted him, "Master, you have to look on the bright side! Served by over a thousand cats—who in the world gets that kind of treatment? Right, meow?"
"I... really thank you," Maiev said, wanting to cry but failing to shed tears.
"No problem, Master. It's what Little Black should do, meow!"