58 Chapter 59. Domestic Affairs (1/2)
Once Celia and I arrive in Rafen, Irijina heads straight into the building that looks like the feudal lord's mansion.
「Welcome, thanks for coming. I have received your notice and made preparations for your arrival.」
Adolph has set up camp at the previous feudal lord's mansion. He specially set up an annex close-by to live in, in preparation for my arrival at any time.
「Well~, I didn't hear from you so I thought you forgot about me.」
Sorry, I actually forgot.
「I was actually going to send a messenger or something to visit you, but as I thought, the Viscount has something for me right?」
As usual, he is flattering me or maybe he's making fun of me. Either way, I can't understand this guy.
「Aside from that, I heard from the villagers that you decided to exempt them from the head tax, and the tax on their harvest is 20%. Is that the truth?」
Celia didn't even drink the tea she took out and was ready to flare up. Recently, Celia has been reading every day and has collected a variety of books from somewhere gaining an unexpected amount of knowledge.
「Yes. That's true.」
Adolph answered with a smile as usual.
「What are your intentions? The tax from the citizens is Aegir-sama's precious income and you just decided to change that on your own; are you spoiling the citizens so that you can get popular!?」
Hm, it's true that the expense in this area is continuing. Up until now, I have been receiving rewards from the king so I wasn't strapped for cash, but after receiving the territory, it's normal for me to manage on my own.
「First, it was natural for me to decide things on my own. Aegir-sama has authorized me to do things like this.」
Adolph is imitating the way I usually speak. He's definitely the type of person who is hated by his superiors.
「He told me to make the citizens as rich as possible and make whatever decisions I wanted until he gets there. Then he gave me 100 gold and told me to produce the best results, so I was doing just that. I haven't created any debts at all either.」
He smiled, adding on that the citizens are in better shape than those in the north in Lord Radhalde's territory. It's true that he's not wrong, I remember saying those things.
But Celia is not convinced. He hasn't used the money inappropriately but exempting and reducing tax is close to breaking the rules. The diligent Celia has no reason to acknowledge him.
「Even an idiot can say that the citizens will be happier if you simply reduce the tax!」
「This territory is poor. If we return the tax as we have taken it, it won't develop as we wish.」
「That doesn't matter. Even if you don't return it to the people, it still becomes Aegir-sama's income!」
Adolph looked at Celia then to me, his expression seems to be saying 'good grief'.
「That is why I decided to increase the number of mothers. First I will lower the tax so that I can stabilize the disarrayed lifestyles of the people due to the war. Next, I thought about our expenses; If we increase the size of the farmland and amount of harvest, what would happen?」
「We would just lose money then!」
Celia is still flaring up at him.
「Wrong. In order for the other territories to profit from occupying them, they are imposing taxes, and our territory is the only one with light taxes and abundant land. If you were a farmer, where would you want to live?」
In order to increase the population, you are encouraging the couples at night. However, it would still take at least 15 years to see the fruits of that. Does Adolph plan to accumulate farmers from the neighboring lands? It seems it is for that reason he puts out a 'signboard' to tell them that taxes are exempted and reduced.
「But most of the feudal lords forbid immigrants. It will be useless if the farmers can't come.」
For any feudal lord, it isn't a good thing for farmers to leave their territory. It is normal for this to be strictly enforced, and if they cross over to their destination, it could turn into a war.
「That's why I'm doing it now. During the time that things are calming down, and just before things start settling down. Right now, it's hard to determine whether those that have died in war and those that ran away with their lives are refugees or not, since they haven't settled down yet.」
Adolph left a copy of a thick book in front of me.
「This is something I made. Starting with Rafen, it's an account of the citizens living in the surrounding villages. I have collected the information of where everybody lives and put it together. But it's still incomplete and has to be revised eventually. The reason is that Arkland's former ruling class instantly disappeared, so the information we have is inaccurate and the only way of confirming the people who aren't there is to ask those who live in the area.」
「Amazing...」
Celia flips through the book. Listed there are the residents' name and house, even age and family composition is mentioned. In some places, there is just a name listed, and a question mark was written for those whose details could not be confirmed. There are also many whose names are crossed out with a line; they are mentioned but have actually died due to war or famine.
「Please look at this extremely inaccurate resident record. This is something that I did and nobody else can do.」
He's speaking in a way that I can hear some arrogance, but being able to present something like this in such a short period, he is certainly talented. If it was me, I would have torn out one page and written Celia's name on everything. Like Celia 1, Celia 2, Celia revised, or something.
「So that brings us to now. Even now the feudal lords of the neighboring territories do not have a grasp over all the residents in their own occupied land. If some families went missing, they wouldn't know. If it was discovered by other people and they started protesting to us, if we are also confused, it would remain unknown.」
「Mumumu...」
Celia groans. Once she saw the book, she realized that her knowledge is not at a level where she could clash with Adolph, who has been doing this for many years. Irijina, meanwhile, seems to have stopped thinking somewhere in the middle. The biscuits that were brought out were all eaten by herself, and now she's eyeing Celia's tea.
「Talking about the issue regarding income, it is the same to take 40% from 100 people and to take 20% from 200 people.」
Well, I guess that's true.
「But if we are in a hurry, and need to demand money, it is much easier to increase the tax from 20% to 30% rather than 40% to 50%. There will also be a large growth in income. It will only be for a brief period where we experience loss, but the day will come eventually when we will be smiling!」
Adolph unusually puts some energy into things and emphasizes the point.
Then I think I should let him do it. Rather than letting me manage the territory with a half-assed understanding, it is better for him to guide it to a better direction.
「I understand. Let's do it according to your plan. Let me know if something happens.」
It seems Adolph is surprised that I didn't refer to any specific tax rates or policies.
「Didn't I say I would leave it to you? If there is something that must be prioritized over your ideas, then I'll take back control and give out orders, so until then you can do as you like.」
「Thank you very much. Then I have something to discuss right away.」
「Hm, what is it?」
「Currently we are using the gold to hire the villagers and they are engaging in flood control and maintenance of the small roads. This is causing them to actively participate in labor as well as giving the villagers some income...…」
「I understand. Just tell me what you want me to do.」
「I'm running low on money. So please give me some more.」
I'm thankful for the uneventful summary so far.
「How much do you need?」
「As much as you are willing, if it's 100 gold it would be sufficient, and if it's 1000 gold it would also be satisfactory.」
I want to hand it to him generously, but I actually don't have much to spare. I also need the expenses for all the women to move here. It's my territory so we can do something about the house, but it's not like we can live poorly.
The upcoming wedding ceremony will be the most expensive too. With Nonna as the legal wife, and Carla and Mel as the concubine, I will be setting up a ceremony for the three of them altogether.
I'm not going to throw a party and invite all the nobles, but I intend to hold a grand ceremony for ourselves. Mel and Carla were satisfied with just saying the vows, but my beloved wife Nonna looked at me with tears in her eyes. Recently, she has been crying a lot in front of me.
「She's smiling! This woman, she's looking down and smiling!!」
That's what Carla said, but when I looked at her, I could only see Nonna covering her face and trying to hold back her tears. These girls actually get along well, so it would nice if they got along with each other more on a regular basis.
She's getting a wedding ceremony after her house was destroyed, and after she fell into slavery and gave up. It seems like it's a woman's happiness so it's fine to let her have a little luxury. So, I was thinking that I need an appropriate amount of money to hold the wedding ceremony. Instead of giving it to citizens I don't even know, it's obvious that I would rather make my own women happy with the money.
「Sorry, but because of various things I can't give you that much. I'll give you double the original amount, 200 gold.」
It's not like I normally carry several hundred gold with me anywhere I go, so I promised that I would send it to him at a later date.
「Thank you.」
Adolph doesn't say a single complaint. I guess he does things if it's there and doesn't if it's not.
「Is that alright with you? Giving such a large sum...…」
「I don't mind. Right now I only need the money for the wedding ceremony. I think I'll be able to set up quite a grand ceremony with about 500 gold.」
「That is actually useless. ...…Nonna-san is really a spendthrift.」
If I wasn't a man who was prepared to accept that much, then I wouldn't be able to get her beauty and her giant breasts in my hands.
Oh right, I didn't come here just to listen to Adolph. I forgot one of my goals for this trip.
「Anyway, I'll become the commander of the eastern independent army but I am also planning to establish a private army....can I take some people?」
Even as it is, there is not enough people or funds, so it might be a bad time.
Adolph thought about it for a little and hit his hand.
「Shouldn't that be fine? There have been reports of a group of impersonating thieves too, and maintaining the peace will also affect the attractiveness of the land. Also...…」
「What is it? Say it clearly.」
「The army has nothing to do if there aren't enemies around. So I had them perform civil engineering since it would be no different from hiring laborers. Unlike the temporarily employed farmers, their ability will also improve, so you can expect a lot from them as elites.」
What can they do as elite civil engineers? First, if there are no enemies then they should be training. If the army does nothing but civil engineer work, then won't they just be a group of laborers?
I'll discuss that part with Irijina. She's a stupid child, but has an abundance of experience being in the army. The training and the application of their labor should be done decently with her in charge.
「Irijina, it's fine if you do something small first but make a prototype private army for me. I'll make it an expense to Adolph to manage it somehow, can you do it?」
「Leave it to me! Even if you say construction, the requirement is the same in building camps. It's an essential skill in the army!」
With that, I did everything I could for now.
「Next is to at least have a look around the territory. Irijina, come with me too. If possible I will also do some scouting for my private army there.」
「Alright!」
「Yes.」
With the two of us, we dropped by several villages in different places but all of them seem to have similar situations. There isn't a large population and they are living not-so-abundant lives. But there was no despair on their faces, and they aren't struggling to eat.
When we said we were recruiting for an army in Rafen, we got unexpectedly good responses. Different from the Arkland days, the rewarded wages are large.
「With this, then the citizens may actually come flowing in.」
「Yes, but is it alright? With the 200 gold and the expense for the wedding ceremony, thinking of our move, we will have nothing left on hand right?」
「I don't mind. I don't have a hobby of surrounding myself with money.」
If I run out, then I'll think about it at that time.
「And also, it might save me for a little bit...…」
「What are you talking about?」
No, it's nothing. Let's not have unrealistic expectations.
I look around, informing the people of my plans to assemble an army, and show my face as the feudal lord. I repeat those actions, and around the time when I was going to return to Rafen, I heard an unusual sound.
「Aegir-sama!」
「A battle-!」
Celia and Irijina also listens carefully. There is no mistaking it, this is the sound of blades clashing and a person's scream.
「They are sounds of a fight.」
Everyone held their weapons and completed their preparations quickly. We can not see it directly, but it isn't far away. It's inside a thinly spread forest.
「How many people can you do?」
「I can do 2...5 people!」
Don't push yourself, 2 people it is.
「I can take up to 5 people!」
Irijina is a soldier, she won't say something random. She should actually be fine with 5 people.
「This is a part of maintaining peace. Don't let the bandits escape. Crush them.」
「Yessir!」
「Yeah!」
With me at the front, Celia close beside me, and Irijina a little bit behind me, we line up our horses and charge in. Let's test out how comfortable it is to fight with this new spear.
–Third Person/Immigrant POV–
「I'm begging you, please stop! We don't have anything you want to steal-!」
「No way, there's lots here. The cart and also tonight's dinner...…and maybe your nice ass too.」
「Dammit, everyone run away. Break through them!」
There is no god in this world. I have never felt that as much as I did today.
It was a few days ago that we abandoned the village and decided to migrate. The ones who destroyed our hope of rebuilding the field destroyed by the war was the ones occupying us.....the acting official who came from Treia kingdom.
「The tax during the time of harvest is 40%, the same for our county, but you guys have taken up battle expenses during the war, so as compensation I'll have you offer a special tax for 3 years!」