Chapter 54 (2/2)
Steele was in a daze and woke up from her memory. She turned around to see the store Ray referred to, thought a while and said, “That store…” she thought again and then shook her head, “I do not quite remember…”
“Why not ask someone else?” Without getting a reply from Steele, Ray immediately get off from the horse and stopped an adventurer who was just walking by and asked.
“About a month ago, the owner of this store went out to replenish his stock. While he was riding, there was someone riding in front of him very quickly. His horse was frightened and was out of control, then his carriage was turned upside down and all his goods in the carriage were confiscated.”
The adventurer knew what had transpired and told Ray everything he knew, “He did not come back home and hanged himself on a tree along the road, then his wife and children killed themselves. Later, this store was bought by a relative of an aristocrat. He rebuilt this store and reopened it recently.”
Ray did not show any emotions and asked, “How much did that man spend on this store? This is really a good area. It must have cost him a fortune!”
“No, not expensive at all. The original owner was actually in debt, and the new owner promised to return the debt and he got this store without spending a penny. If the original owner were not in debt, his wife and children would not have killed themselves,” the adventurer smiled and shook his head. “So being an aristocrat is really good.”
“How about the debt?” Ray asked, hoping to get to the bottom of this matter.
“In fact, the debt was all because of the efficiency of the circulation, which means that when the goods were confiscated, the owner then became broke and was in debt. When the goods were returned to him, he would not be in debt anymore,” the adventurer sighed. “My friend, do not joke with me! This sort of thing is too common here!”
Then he shook his head, sighed and left.
Ray laughed and casually said, “‘Once the goods of a merchant fall onto the ground, his goods shall be confiscated.’ This law has already been abolished in many regions of the Gold Coin Federation; I never thought it still works here— it seems that the officials here are having a hard time collecting the tax!”
“Quite true, this city is not that big. We do not have enough sources of various revenues. We can not make everything look good if we have not come up with more ways to collect more money!” Steele forced a smile and said, “To make everything look good, we have indeed come up with many ways. Alas! We aristocrats should not be troubled by this sort of thing! I do hope we can abolish the laws that hinder the revenue collection as much as possible!”
Ray sneered and asked Sui Xiong in telepathy, “Your Majesty, do you still think this woman can mend her ways?”
Sui Xiong was silent for a while, then he said, “I think the suggestion you made earlier was worth trying.”
“What suggestion?”
“Block the city gate, kill everyone and control the Manor.”
Ray was stunned. “What! Are you kidding me! Currently, my picture is on the wanted paper of the Church of the Brutal Hunter. Do you want my picture to be put on one more wanted paper… ? No, several more wanted papers?! Besides, it is impossible for us to do as you told! If you do this yourself, it is possible that you could wipe out the whole population of this city at most, but you can not possibly control the manor! I am not even the Geerteng Family…”
“Have you forgotten that you told me that the bloodline can be easily changed with only a magic ceremony that costs about twenty to thirty thousand gold coins?”
“But why do I need to change my bloodline to the bloodline of a Viscount in the countryside! I am—” Ray suddenly realized he was going to say something he was not supposed to say, so he immediately stopped talking, and this had made Sui Xiong feel unhappy.
This guy was indeed smart, if he had said just one more word, I would have known his origin!
He sighed and said, “This woman is past help… maybe we should find someone younger and purer, after all a white paper is a better choice for writing.”
“No matter how pure one is, they would finally be spoiled by the extravagant aristocratic life.” Ray had no confidence in the aristocracy.
“Then find someone who is pure in character and has less desire.”
“There is no one like this among the aristocrats!”
“Then find someone who is not an aristocrat, and later we just need to spend twenty or thirty thousand gold coins to hold a magic ceremony.”
“… well, I have to admit that you are right this time…”
Then things were settled between the two. When they got settled in the Viscount Mansion, Ray would show himself in front of everyone and help Steele to keep up her appearances. Ray began to take a walk casually around the Geerteng City.
As for the reason why he agreed to do so, he did not bother to say, since there was no one who could stop him from doing anything, or technically speaking, no one would try to stop him.
The Geerteng City was not big at all. It only took Sui Xiong and Ray less than a half day to see the whole city. Luckily, they had managed to find a person who was young, pure and a bit talented: the collateral branch of the Geerteng Family; Olian Geerteng who was the administrator of the Geerteng City Library. She was just fifteen years old.