He politely didn't point out that his crazy idea, before that, had captured an entire troop of 'bandits' alive and unharmed, as well as all the captives. He had a precedence of doing the insane and making it work, but most sorcerers tended to, though he had a few extra advantages over a normal sorcerer. He explained his idea, and used a list one of the aides had drawn up, a list of the responsibilities the empire had to a city, like guards and tax collectors, and another list that listed what the responsibilities of a city in the empire was, maintaining the town, paying taxes, not conducting intrigue against the throne. He then had the emperor's copy of his books, the only one that was completely and utterly honest, including the few attempts to try something new that hadn't worked, mostly ideas from various citizens that had had an idea for a project, and he had used his personal funds to get them going. He then began assigning values to the lists, before adding a second line, this time consulting with the aides, before showing them three different columns of numbers, one for what the empire paid or gained, a second showing what they would pay or gain with Dragon's Roost as a free city, and the last was a slight reduction of the second column, admitting that the third column was what they were likely to actually get, as he couldn't put unexpected city costs down as tax issues now, and would have to pay those in full, instead of getting some help.<br/><br/>The second column, the ideal and perfect city-state without any unexpected issues, was nearly fifteen percent higher than the total gain as a subject city, while the third was only about seven percent higher, in theory. He then shrugged, before looking at the lists. "At least, that is what as reasonably educated guess to the result would be. In truth, not sure, but that is why we are all here working this out. Worst case, a year of not getting as much out of Dragon's roost, and then it comes back into the fold."