Vol 5 Chapter 8 (1/2)

Chapter 8

Editor: Starbuck11

It was a somewhat hot day with the sun rising above the head.

A white cloud floats above the sky, while on the hill there were some sheeps eating gra.s.s.

Time flowed gently.

Certainly, there was a threat of bandits or monsters in this world. However, they rarely attacked the villages that had moats and fences around it.

And the probability of such villages being attacked was only once or twice each year.

Even when one lived in a world filled with war, it didn’t mean there was no place for peace.

However, such small peace was easily broken by just a little malice.

For small villages that didn’t have any strategic value, the officials dispatched from the central government or the feudal lord are usually the one who threatened their peace.

And now, in a small village located in the countryside of the Rozeria Kingdom, one could hear angry voices reverberates despite the peaceful landscape.

A square set in the center of the village. Villagers stood to form a ring showing a mixed expression on their faces. The group of the villagers directed their sight at the center of the ring.

Or more precisely, the man standing in front of the villagers.

“Please don’t joke with us… If you take more than this, we won’t be able to live…”

Words of plea come out from a desperate middle-aged man, that was being interrupted by a dull sound.

A big fist covered in metal glove easily punched the man’s face.

Taste of blood spreading inside the man’s mouth. The drip of blood coming out from the middle-aged man’s mouth stains the earth black.

“Father…”

Eyes mixed with anxiety and fear. A girl shakes off her mother’s hand and jumps into the center.

The young girl looked very young. She herself knew that even if she jumped to her father, she won’t be able to do anything. However, the girl was still unable to ignore her father’s appearance.

Looking at such beloved daughter, the man tried to calm her down by holding her shoulder.

In truth, the man didn’t wish for his daughter to see this kind of scene.

(Why… Why is this happening ?!)

Various thoughts emerged inside the man’s head.

Certainly, when Lupis Rozeria.n.u.s ascended the throne, everyone felt a wave of new transformations. From the time when she was in charge of the chivalric order, the people familiar with her would describe the Princess as someone with a fair personality.

The man can still vividly remember the

cheers he had with his colleagues when she became a Queen.

If one needs to say, then indeed changes definitely happen. However, the changes were not something good for the man.

“I will say it again… When are you going to pay the taxes ?”

From the back of the knight that hit the man, the tax collector smiled with a disgusting smile, casting cold words at the man who fell due to the punch.

Individuals who loves to dominates others were usually humans that won’t feel anything even when they tramples over others.

As a tax collector, the value of the man in front of him was his taxes.

It was the same as hunters who didn’t care about their prey.

“Of course, we will happily pay if we can… But, right now this is the limit…”

The man’s words once again were disturbed by a dull sound.

His diaphragm was struck with a punch which caused the man to be unable to breathe for a moment. The knight from earlier once again attacked.

“Geez, you plebeians are truly beyond help… Are you truly that stupid ? I asked you when you’re going to pay. I don’t want to hear your circ.u.mstances…”

In the merciless world of tax collectors, the man could not do anything but spat out cursed words inside his mind.

(d.a.m.n it, s.h.i.+t, s.h.i.+t… Doing whatever you want…)

Dark murderous intent springs up inside the man’s heart. In his mind, he wanted to stab the tax collector to death.

In the first place, the man had no way to pay the sums the tax collector wanted him to do. Even if the man can be said to be quite well off in this village.

And the man didn’t have the intention of avoiding taxes either.

Since the man who was previously a peddler understood that the Rozeria Kingdom was in crisis and needed more money.

That was why he closed the store he had built.

Originally, cash income from small villages was insignificant.

Self-sufficiency was the basic for such villages, and to supplement the things they didn’t have, they performed bartering with other villages.

They could only make cash if adventurers, mercenaries, or peddlers visit their villages.

To live in this villages it didn’t require much money. Well, that was until the tax collector appeared at this village.

(I’ve had even sold most of the store goods, yet is it still not enough now ?!)

It had all started with the slogan of rebuilding the country.

Of course,

course, at first, everyone cooperated with it. Since they placed high hopes to the new Queen, and they also loved the country.

But, it didn’t end there… Once, twice, on and on, endless tax collectors came one after another… At first, it was just a small amount that it didn’t affect the villagers’ lives, but it  gradually escalated.

Pressures started to build up.

And anger also starts to swell inside the people’s heart.

To be precise, if it was only once or twice, they would manage to pay. However, to the tax collector, such things didn’t matter. The only thing left for the middle-aged man was to sell his family as slaves. Otherwise, his family would have to move away and wander around without a home.

(If I could earn more money… Like this, will I just lose everything again ?)

Regrets and fear run throughout the man’s body.