Chapter 174 New man in town. (1/2)

“I don’t think the local populace appreciates ave out a sigh while looking through aThere he saw so around as they continued with their work

“You did great my lord, I’m sure you have reached the hearts of the common folk!”

“Mary, you can drop the honorifics, we aren’t in Isgard anymore, not like anyone really seese chair by his desk After co his inauguration speech When he thought back to it, the speechhere

Fro any other long speeches ever again Now that the

Announceet infor

It wasn’t really in with, the only points of interest were the growing city and the C rank dungeon that was here His siblings had also received similar plots of land with other points of interest

“Lord Arthur, I’m sure that with time they will learn to respect you, you just need to show them that you are on their side and not like the other nobles!”

The cat maid that ith him was one of the few people that he could trust She was a few years older than hi that she was a maid instead of a butler her position had been lowered

Arthur knew Mary since they were young as she was one of theup She was the only servant that illing to go with him Even now he felt somewhat bad for this turn of events as fro a bad deal here

With how skillful she was, Mary could have gotten the position of a head er estates Instead, she was stuck with an ‘impure’ member of the family which would probably cause her future prospects to disappear

“Not like the other nobles? I wouldn’t be so sure about that, Mary Just like them, I want to use the common people to furtherthat he was any better than the other nobles just because he felt slightly h his life as an unlawful h a lot of prejudice fros

This was due to his et on the son that came froh to allow hise Without any real power to speak of he would not be able to do anything about it Thus he needed to prove hioal was to aid hisaithout the freedoood name of the Valerian household She was not allowed to attend the noble get-togethers as his father’s wife She was nothing more than a commoner-born mistress that was not to show herself to others

His and her existence was not so that his family wanted to admit The best option for the Valerian household was to keep theth While his mother was locked away in the mansion he was sent away to the far reaches of their territory

No one really expected eon here was only a C rank which was soeons sprinkled through the entire kingdom, only when it was B rank and above would it pull in interest A dungeon of such rank could supply tier 3 monsters and tier 3 materials which went for a lot of coins

“You are right about one thing Mary, if I want respect fro in self-pity Have you brought over what I had asked?”

“Yes, here is the currentwith the most important locations”

“Good”

Arthur nodded while unrolling the e desk On it like Mary described were all the sites of interest that were instruan noting down some information into his own notebook

This was not a sier that the Mayor was previously responsible for The old man apparently didn’t want to part with the book of records but Arthur at least had enough power to h the examination of some of the open records, he could see soh the city

“The adventurer’s guild is at the center of it all, It’s the most important part of this city's developeon the city would probably go under quite fast It didn’t really have any export goods to make any money besides thein

These adventurers also put their hard-earned coins back into the city Pubs, inns, and brothels were on the rise as the sellswords spent an exorbitant as on alcohol and women

Without the adventurers, Arthur couldn’t see the city existing as it was There were soeon appeared here Albrook was just a dying village with a dwindling population Now after the dungeon existed here for close to five years it was quite boo

“I can’t really do uild, it has its own autono ithis chin he decided to put the adventurer guild to the backburner There was not really ht have been the lord of the city but not like he could reduce their taxes

These were agreed upon by the Duke as the lands belonged to him Part of the money that was created in these lands would then be put to use for further developate resources to the country's war effort This could be done in several ways, sending troupes, sending food, or just plain ions were forced to send their sons instead if they were not able to pay

Everyone needed to pitch in, if not they would be in danger of having their noble title revoked and their lands seized by higher-standing nobles This was also a reason forto the nobles with rich lands A tactical betrothal could save a dying noble house fro younghter of a rich noble For the ti the issues by hiain his mother's freedom

“What if you offer them some land instead?”

“I don’t think there is any left for ive…”

While he couldn’t really affect the tax percentage as the lord of the lands he could lend it out In reality, people that bought houses and land in this kingdo a set sum for a timed deal

While normally even the common people would be able to pass over houses to their children or siblings, there ays that the kingdoht parcels One of the reasons would be not paying taxes on ti some kind of crime

Arthur as the lord could dictate where specific partitions of the land could be sold to In a developing city like this, the land would be auctioned off to the highest bidder That is if the lord agreed to it

He could outright sell it to whoever he wanted to, thus sos could surface It wasn’t odd for rich et their hands on the best spots for their shops

The ained in such a ould not be taxed as they never showed up on the record They could also do it in a less underhanded way by giving the nobles gifts of jewelry, various goods or lowered prices to their wares

“If we need money, why don’t we just increase the taxes a bit?”

Mary asked while Arthur just shook his head While increasing the taxes would let hiry This was still a developing city that was attracting new people