Leo was sitting inside his office, and the nation was churning. After a lot of criticism, the budget of the nation was denied by the King. He looked at the finance minister and asked one question, "What is the purpose of a government when you cannot even look at things with a long term perception? These things that the Respected Finance Minister wanted to hand out to the people is not going to make them able but it would make them dependant. This is not the budget that would make a nation but it would destroy the nation."

The statement set fires in the parliament, and the people took a deep breath before the session was dismissed. The King stood up and walked out of the parliament. The media people standing outside stood outside, and since the King himself been handling the Parliament sessions himself when it came to addressing big issues, they all have been camping out and they would ask what his thoughts were about particular issues.

As soon as the man came out of the parliament the media reporters all came over to meet them, and the man stopped before he raised his hand and said, "You all have come to bother me again."

The people chuckled and after a moment, one of the reporters asked, "Sir, the people have been very upset with the way the finance ministry has been working for the past few years. Can we really not call any Financial Advisor from outside, like Stag nation is doing?"

The old King nodded and said, "We have been thinking about it and there are many outstanding people we can consult with but we have to be very careful and give out proper guidelines to handle things properly."

The people nodded and after a few more questions and answers they all left. As the King boarded his car, he leaned back and fished out his phone and called the Finance Minister. The call was connected quickly and then he said, "Albert, reach out to Elvin Rao or Leo Cardinal, have them come up with some suggestions to handle the budget for the nation."

The other person replied, "Yes, I will handle this right away, Your Majesty."

The call was disconnected, and the King closed his eyes to relax a bit, he was an old man what else could he do after handling such drama all day long.

...

Leo was packing up the bags for the children and was about to take them back home, when the door of his office was pushed open and Elvin appeared with a panicked expression on his face, and said, "Leo, something big happened."

Leo turned to look at him and said, "Why are you such a mess, do you know I have a reputation here?"

Elvin felt a twitch develop on his mouth and said, "You fucking made Jock beat me two times a day in the name of fitness and now you call me a mess."

Leo snorted and said, "You asked for it. Now why are you here instead of the training ground?"

Elvin sighed and sat down on the couch as he said, "The Finance Minister called me to ask for some advice about the finance budget of the nation. The recent one they showed was rejected by His Majesty."

Leo nodded and after some thoughts he said, "That is a good thing, why are you reporting it to me?"

Elvin smiled and replied, "That is because I have no time and mental energy to deal with this shit I have to train like a dog. So, you are going to report to the Finance Minister, and do this."

Then Elvin dashed out even before Leo could say no to the man. He sighed and just when he was thinking of reaching out to the King himself or the Prince, his office number rang. Leo picked it up with a quick press of the speaker button and the person on the other side said, "Hello, am I talking to Lord Cardinal?"

Leo sighed, he knew that the headache was coming here, but he still answered, "Yes, this is me? Who might be calling?"

The person replied, "Lord Cardinal, I am Albert Zach, the current Finance Minister to the Nation. May I ask if this is a good time to talk?"

Leo nodded and replied, "Yes, I do have a few minutes, Minister. If that is not good enough, I can call you up in the evening if you are alright with that?"

Albert Zach chuckled and replied, "No, this is fine as well, Lord Cardinal, can you tell me what can I help you with?"

Albert told him exactly what Elvin had said, and Leo said, "Sir, for this thing you don’t have to appoint me as anything."

The minister offered Leo to join the cabinet as a special consultant but Leo declined and he continued, "The first thing that you need to do is to improve the budget for the education and medical facilities, even if you have to cut it off from other departments, you need to increase the scholarships and create even more universities that could match the national university, be it for technology or medical.

Then you have no appoint teachers and people necessary to run these things. Although it will not be quick but in the coming five or ten years the situation would improve significantly. Also, apart from freebies we have many schemes and policies that are aimed to pay money to various households, but instead of that if we teach these people some real skill, they would be able to earn that money by themselves, yeah we would need to look after their condition at that time, but the situation will improve...."

The talks continued, and Leo finished packing the bag of the twins and also changed their diapers, while they heard him talk and sometimes talking among themselves that how the minister might have fallen asleep, or something.

Leo had a hard time keeping his face straight. After a few minutes, the call ended, and in the office of the finance minister, Albert sighed as he looked at his secretaries and said, "Did you note it all down?"

The people nodded and Albert said, "That is why he is the richest man in the nation. Well, now that it has been said, we should start amending things as soon as possible. I want everyone, the entire department, and include the city governance bodies as well to make sure they come up with solutions for their own cities and report them to us, so we would be able to make a better budget. Go, we have a fortnight to handle this."

...

Lily had been picked up from school, and she was riding with Leo and her siblings while looking at things on the tablet. She said, "Baba, Julian is peeking at the screen."

Julian turned his head away and Leo revealed a bitter smile before he said, "We talked about this, why are you using the screen with them around? Babies are curious."

Lily sighed and closed her tablet. Then Leo asked, "Is the tension that high?"

Lily shook her head as she replied, "It is not the tension that is worrying me. They arrested twelve men from seven places, some work in a group, some alone, but they all are using the same method to skim money from the system.

I cannot help but see a pattern in this. Could it be they are a nexus operating in the dark?"

Leo raised his brow, he replied, "Well, it is not that far fetched but we need some more evidence in this situation."

Lily nodded and asked, "But how long must we wait? Although we have a strong system in the country, these things affect the moral spirit of the people were have been really working hard. We must find out something."

Leo nodded and agreed before he said, "Yes, I understand what you mean but perseverance is something that comes at a big cost. If we acted in hurry, it would cause a lot of trouble, because there is a big chance that if there is a hidden hand here, this person would get alerted and then start erasing his traces."

Lily frowned and sighed before she said, "Baba, I understand now, it is like we have to hunt the prey and for that we need patience."

Leo nodded and replied, "Yes."

Lily pouted and looked at Leo as she asked, "Baba, will you give me some help?"

Leo shook his head and replied calmly, "This is your time. You found out the lead, so you need to handle this on your own."

Lily sighed and said, "Baba, sometimes, you are a big meanie."

Leo smiled and dotingly squeezed her face and said, "That is because I want my baby to grow up smart and strong."

Lily snorted but then she smiled, because she was happy that her father trusted her this much.