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Tax Collector

Here's the first regular chapter of the week. Some good old face-slapping for those who like that kinda stuff XD!

The townsfolk all had deep respect for Old Hugo and it only took a few lines from him to disperse the crowd of up to 3000 people. Within less than half an hour, only tens of people remained at the plaza.

"Milord, please follow me back to the town hall for a seat," Old Hugo said as he pointed at a three-storey, brick-and-wood building not far away.

The town hall was rather old and simple with the first floor's main foyer having a few old and worn tables and an old sofa which had been patched up multiple times.

"Dominion lord, usually, we would be on the second floor as the first floor here is mainly used to manage the affairs between Whitebird Town and the nearby villages while the third is used as a storage warehouse. We store all the wealth we've gathered up over the past five years there and I will bring you the inventory to check right away," said Old Hugo.

"There's no rush for that, Old Hugo. First, tell me about the situation of Silowas Island during the past five years. I have to apologize to you here as the original dominion of my family is located at the very borders of the Northlands and it's incredibly inconvenient for us to travel over here. That's why we haven't bothered to visit our new dominion, Silowas Island, during that time. In a sense, it can be said that I didn't carry out my responsibilities as a dominion lord, and I am truly sorry for neglecting my subjects here," Lorist apologized as he sat down on a stool he found while inviting Old Hugo to do the same.

"Dominion lord, please don't say that. I have long been in the military and have heard about the impressive reputation of the Norton Family of the Raging Bear. The Northlands is thousands of kilometers from this place and between here and there is the enemy nation, the Madras Duchy, so the inconvenience of transport is definitely something that isn't within anyone's control. This is definitely not your fault," Old Hugo said as he waved his hands fervently.

"Right now, that's no longer the case. The family has managed to set up a port at the Northlands and we have come by ship on this trip. In the future, it would only take one month to travel over here. Old Hugo, let's begin talking about the situation here."

"Alright, dominion lord," Old Hugo said before he began to recall. "I only returned to Whitebird Town after my retirement from the Whitelion Legion during the 3rd month of Year 1765. Back then, I was 53 years old and Silowas Island was still the principality of the Second Highness. I remember seeing the Second Highness looking in the direction of the imperial capital at the port often. Two years after I returned, a messenger suddenly came and according to him, the Second Highness managed to grasp power and influence over the affairs of the kingdom and enfeoffed Silowas Island to the Norton Family.

"Many of the Second Highness's men left the island after that and took with them almost everything. Even the garrison force was disbanded and their equipment taken away, leaving Silowas Island completely unattended to and sinking into chaos. One month passed just like that and Whitebird Town had completely become garbage with nobody overseeing it. Every day, somebody would get into fights and the inhabitants of the town could no longer continue to live like this.

"It was at that time that something happened. A small boat came to the island and its crew wanted to resupply themselves here. It was then when the sailors realized that nobody was in charge and began to lose all inhibition and go wild. Within only three days, they already killed seven townsfolk and even captured quite a number of women. At that time, I realized that three of the sailors breached into my neighbor's house and intended to rape his wife and daughter. So, I couldn't resist the urge anymore and killed those three bastards with my sword. And so, the townsfolk began to eliminate the sailors of that small boat with me and proceeded to elect me as the mayor of the town to take charge during the absence of the dominion lord.

"At that time, I felt that since I've returned to my hometown, I might as well do my part to contribute to it. That's why I rebuilt the garrison force of Whitebird Town and tried to restore order. At the same time, I elected multiple other officials like a security officer, a secretary, a tax collector and an accountant. These tables that you see are their usual workplace.

"When Silowas Island was still the principality of the Second Prince, the tax rate was at 50 percent. I don't know how much the usual tax levied by your family is and I didn't know where to ask, so I just used the old system set by the Second Highness and paid the officials with it. The records of all transactions are detailed in the accounts, so you can inspect them at any time.

"Apart from that, when the Second Highness was still here, there were seven other different taxes, namely, a poll tax, an alcohol tax, a boat tax, a fishing tax, a leather tax, a salt tax and a trade tax. At that time, the yearly income generated by Whitebird Town only amounted to 2000 gold Fordes and the lives of the townsfolk was still decent and they wouldn't have to worry about food as long as they worked. When Viscount Aslan first came over to collect taxes, he was still reasonable and only took ten percent. But on the second and third years, he incremented the main tax by ten percent each year and even took over collecting the alcohol and poll taxes.

"Two years back, Viscount Aslan raised the main tax rate to 50 percent and not only did he take over collecting the 7 other taxes, he even introduced 6 new ones with the excuse being the restoration of the empire. I've made my objections heard before but Viscount Aslan said that I wasn't a person appointed by the dominion lord and was elected by the townsfolk, so I didn't hold any legitimacy. Having no other choice, I could only request him to detail the taxes we needed to pay in an invoice.

"Dominion lord, during the past two years, the whole of Silowas Island paid 5700 plus gold Fordes each year to Viscount Aslan, almost more than two times the original tax we had to pay..."

"Wait a second, Old Hugo, didn't you say that Whitebird Town only had a yearly output of 2000 plus gold Fordes? Then how did Viscount Aslan come up with a figure of 5700 gold Fordes?" Lorist asked.

"Oh, milord, in some sense, the Whitebird Town is the administration center of the whole island. Before the arrival of the Second Highness, the island only had three villages and one town. But after His Highness came, he brought along with him another 4000 or so people with half of them living in Whitebird Town and the others forming another village nearby.

"When the Second Highness left, he enfeoffed the island to you, milord, and more than half of the people that followed him here left the island with only around 1000 who refused to leave and wanted to continue living in that village. A few years later, quite a lot of immigrants came over again and the current population count of Silowas Island is at 12000 people. During the year before, the tax collected rose to 4000 gold Fordes and coupled with the extra miscellaneous taxes introduced by Viscount Aslan, the total amount levied is around 6000 gold Fordes. However, we were unable to collect that much and if we continue to pay Viscount Aslan like that, we would be losing more than 700 gold Fordes every year," explained Old Hugo.

"Why was the total tax set at 6000 gold Fordes despite you being unable to collect that much in the first place? What is going on?" Charade interrupted and asked.

Old Hugo shook his head hopelessly and took out a map of Silowas Island. "Dominion lord, please take a look here. Not far east from Whitebird Town is Seaview Manor. That place is the most luxurious area on the whole of the island and every evening when the sun sets, the beach right in front of Seaview Manor will reflect golden beams of light. The beach's beauty can rival even that of the Platinum Beach in the Sidgler Province of the Madras Duchy. However, its area is much smaller. Even so, it's still a great place to spend summer and have fun near the ocean.

"That manor was the original residence of the Second Highness. But when he left, it was occupied by a few other nobles of the kingdom and they turned the whole manor into their own place for luxurious living and we aren't even allowed to approach it. Milord, you've probably seen those extravagant ships when you docked at the port, right? Those ships are the ones used by those nobles when they come here to have fun.

"Also, over here, half a day's travel from the town is Farama Village where the men of the Second Highness that remained behind stay. Even though the people there occupy one of the richest fields, they refuse to pay any taxes at all with the reason being that they are the men of the Second Highness and have served him through high and low and anyone who demands taxes from them is being disrespectful to the Second Highness himself. We've been unable to deal with those people.

"But Viscount Aslan doesn't care about these things and he puts all the taxes Seaview Manor and Farama Village owe on us. We're unable to do anything about it as none of our complaints are heard. After that, Hector came up with an idea for us to form a fishing team and sell the catch to merchants. That way, we were able to make up for the deficit and even have some extra funds for the garrison force's food..."

"Milord, that Viscount Aslan has been captured by us," Jim reported when he entered.

"Where did you catch him?" Charade asked.

"He brought two of his attendants and attempted to escape by ship, but their sailors were all drunk at the town pub and were unable to set sail. When we came to the port, we notified Captain Wilson and some of his sailors said that they saw attempting to board. After we checked, we found and apprehend them," Jim said.

"Bring that dogshit viscount over here. I want to hear how he plans to explain this to me," Lorist instructed.

"I object! I'm a noble, you cannot treat me so rudely!" Jim only went out and came back in within a moment with a skinny man dressed in noble robes. Perhaps because he heard Lorist call him a dogshit viscount, he became incredibly mad. Jim had to drag him by his clothes all the way into the tent.

"Old Hugo, who's that Hector you just mentioned?" Lorist said as he ignored the loudly complaining Viscount Aslan and continued to chat with Old Hugo.

"Dominion lord, Hector is our head secretary and he graduated from the Mobor Academy of the empire and served as an apprentice instructor there before. But when the academy was ruined in the days of the civil war, he came back with the Second Highness to Whitebird Town with his family and took up a position as the official for the transport of goods. When the Second Highness decided to leave the island, he didn't want to follow and remained at Whitebird Town. I appointed him to be the head secretary of Whitebird Town as he is well-versed in writing official documents," Old Hugo replied.

"Oh, Old Hugo, you've all done well. I am very thankful for your presence on Silowas Island that stopped the situation here from sinking into chaos. As your dominion lord, I offer you my gratitude and respect for your hard work. The Norton Family will definitely not forget your efforts," Lorist said as he stood up and saluted Old Hugo. Charade, Els, Patt and Jim who were within the room did the same.

"This... this... Milord..." Old Hugo only stammered, not knowing how to react at all to the situation.

Lorist waved his hand to indicate that Old Hugo didn't have to keep up formalities before turning around and taking a look at the pale and frightened Viscount Aslan. He said with a warm smile, "Viscount Aslan? I've long heard of your great name. I am the dominion lord of Silowas Island, Norton Lorist, and I'm incredibly glad to finally be able to meet you."

Lorist's smile caused Viscount Aslan to develop a wrong impression. Perhaps thinking that Lorist was merely a man from the rural Northlands that hasn't had much real world experience, he felt that Lorist would be really easy to deal with. The skinny viscount straightened his robes and said in an arrogant tone, "So you're Count Norton who came from the Northlands? As a noble, you must apologize to me and reimburse me for that kind of treatment. Your family soldiers violated my status rudely and that is not an offense that a noble like me can overlook. You must punish your soldiers right here in front of me in order to obtain my forgiveness. Otherwise, I will definitely sue the Norton Family for violating the pride of nobles in the noble court and make your barbaric acts known to all the other nobles of the kingdom..."

"Oh no, how scary... I definitely cannot bear to have that happen..." Lorist said as he pretended to speak in a fearful voice. He turned to Jim and said, "Are you the one who offended Viscount Aslan? Come over here! I will punish you!"

With Jim in front of him, Lorist gave him two light slaps on the face and said, "You idiot, how could you force the noble and revered Viscount Aslan to appear before me in such proper fashion? Look at him, he's overstepping his bounds right now. You should've stripped him naked and covered his whole body with horse feces before dragging him over. Only then will he beg us to give him a torn rag to protect his noble pride with and not make such excessive demands of us."

Lorist lightly slapped Jim's face twice again and said, "Do you remember this lesson now? Remember the feeling of these slaps well. That is your punishment."

Jim laughed out loud and said, "I have learned my lesson, milord. I will never repeat this mistake again."

Lorist nodded and said, "Very well, stand to the side."

"Yes, milord!"

Everyone within the tent burst out in laughter with only Viscount Aslan staring wide-eyed with his mouth agape.

"Objection! I want to object!"

Lorist walked over and gave him a harsh slap on the face, causing the skinny viscount to turn 180 degrees and his face to swell up with his lip broken. He even spat out a few of his teeth and fresh blood could be seen flowing out of his mouth before he fell to his butt onto the ground dizzily.

"Object my ass! Yours truly still hasn't even mentioned the debt you owe me and yet you dare to complain up front? Let's go over all your mistakes. First, I am a landed noble of the rank of a count and you're only an honorary viscount. Be it rank or status, I am far superior than you in either regard! You actually dared to put the blame on me in front of my face and ask me to give you respect and accuse me of violating your noble pride? Are you joking? You're pride is worthless! In my eyes, a viscount like you is nothing but a pile of crap!"

Stretching his right foot out to stomp of the viscount's face, Lorist said, "And you still dare to object! Are you challenging the honor and pride of the Norton Family? It has just been a few short years, yet the nobles have forgotten how the roar of the Raging Bear sounds like... How regrettable. I believe I must remind the nobles of the kingdom the consequences of incurring the rage of the Raging Bear."

Viscount Aslan flailed around and said, "AI emm the taksh kollectur uuf da Shekend Hainisss... I wuss orderrd tu komm hier..."

"You still dare to talk back?" Lorist couldn't understand what the viscount was spouting and increased the strength of his step, causing the viscount to let out cries of pain.

"Ah, where was I just now?" Lorist asked as he forgot what he was just talking about.

"Milord, you were going through the mistakes of the viscount with the first one being his lack of respect for you and his challenging of the Norton Family," Howard reminded.

"Ah, that's right. Second, on what grounds have you come to collect taxes on my dominion? From whom did you get the guts to do that? I will definitely hang all the members of your family for this..." Lorist rebuked.

The viscount suddenly turned quiet as he took out a small golden-threaded beastskin scroll from his robe and waved it in the air.

"What is this?" Charade said as he took the beastskin scroll and unrolled it. Clicking his tongue, he said, "Milord, this viscount was truly sent here to collect taxes. This is the appointment letter signed by the Second Highness.

Kicking the viscount away, Lorist said, "Get up. I have questions for you."

Taking the scroll Charade handed over to him, Lorist saw what the scroll stated. 'Viscount Aslan Robiossen shall collect taxes from the dominion of Count Norton and Jillin Harbor on behalf of the Andinaq Kingdom and carry out his duties with pure dedication to his utmost abilities and make his contribution to the restoration of the empire.'

The letter was signed 'Krissen Auguslo', the Second Highness's name, dated on the 23rd day of the 5th month of Year 1768 along with the private stamp of the regent of the Andinaq Kingdom belonging to the Second Highness.

"Ah, I didn't think that Viscount Aslan here was truly appointed by the Second Highness as a tax collector! And to think that I thought you were a conman!" Lorist said as he finally understood what the viscount was trying to say despite the stinging pain in his mouth.

"You... you actually dared to treat me like that! You Nortons better be ready for the rage of the Second Highness! He'll definitely turn your family to ash with his 300000-strong army!" Viscount Aslan cried out as he struggled to stand up and held his pained face while giving Lorist a hateful stare.

"300000-strong army? Hehe, I'm so afraid right now. Seems like a puny viscount like you is cared for so much by the Second Highness that he would mobilize the whole army for you... Is that why you've been raising the tax rate ridiculously? Speak!" Lorist shouted, causing Viscount Aslan to jump in fear.

"Didn't you read the appointment letter?" Viscount Aslan said stubbornly.

"Hehe, since you're a tax collector sent here by the Second Highness, why did you try to escape?"

"I wasn't escaping. I was just getting on my ship to get my appointment letter so that I can prove my identity. It's your family soldiers that offended me first."

"Is that so? Since you're still insisting that you're innocent, no worries. We'll find out after we head to the royal capital and bring you in front of the Second Highness. I'll see if he really did instruct you to increase the tax rate. We'll know by then... Els," Lorist called out.

"Milord, please give me your instructions," Els said as he stepped forward.

"Have Jim work with you to bring this dogshit viscount to the wooden structure outside. Strip him naked first and give him 30 canes. Since he dared to cane Old Hugo three times, we'll pay him back ten times as much! After that, cover his body with some glue and feathers. Don't forget how the folk of the Northlands treat fraudsters and liars," Lorist instructed lazily.

"Yes, milord. I know the custom of the northlanders well. Liars are covered with feathers and paraded around for everyone to see. We will definitely do so accordingly," Els replied.

"Understood, milord," Jim agreed casually.

After that, Viscount Aslan squealed out like a pig that was about to be slaughtered. "No! You can't do this! I am a noble! I'm the tax collector appointed by the Second Highness!..."

Hector

Hey guys, second regular chapter of the week coming your way. Enjoy the read.

"Mi-milord, Viscount Aslan is indeed the tax collector sent by the Second Highness..." Old Hugo muttered as he stared at Viscount Aslan being dragged out of the building. Not long after, cries of pain and ear-cracking whipping sounds could be heard, followed by the cheers of the onlookers.

He didn't understand why that young dominion lord, Count Norton, dared to treat the Second Highness's tax collector like that without any hesitation. Either he was inexperienced or he truly knew what he was doing and didn't have a single care for Second Highness Auguslo who was at the peak of his position and feared like a tiger by all the other nobles of the Andinaq Kingdom.

Either way, Old Hugo was worried that the young dominion lord would incur the wrath of the Second Highness and cause 'the innocent fish of the pond to perish along with the city fire'. Even though Grindia didn't have the exact saying per se, there were similar idioms that carried the same meaning. Old Hugo was worried that Count Norton would just run off and leave the people of Whitebird Town to suffer the consequences.

"Hehe, Old Hugo, don't worry. I have my own reasons and thoughts for treating Viscount Aslan like this," Lorist said with a smile to the old man. "As you have spent most of your life in the army, so you might not understand the traditions and customs between nobles and don't know the responsibilities of a tax collector. In actuality, as the mayor of a town within the Norton Family dominion, you have right to refuse unreasonable taxation unless you were specifically ordered otherwise by a dominion lord like me.

"A tax collection officer's responsibilities include collecting the taxes from the various areas under the jurisdiction of the royal family and stopping corruption and tax evasion. To dominion lords, their authority only concerns inspecting the economical situation of their dominions and collect any due taxes from us as a tribute for the royal family. They have no authority at all to increase tax rates and must definitely gain the approval of a dominion lord like me first before they do anything. As he dared to introduce more taxes and increase the main tax of Whitebird Town, is he treating our dominion like the territory belonging to the royal family? That act of his has already infringed upon the honor of the Norton Family and that goes against the customs regarding the interaction between a senior and junior nobles. Even if I hang him, the royal family won't be able to do anything about it.

"In a few days, I will bring this viscount to the Second Highness and ask him whether his actions are carried out per his orders. I will make sure that the Second Highness personally orders this dogshit viscount to be hanged, and he will, unless he intends to offend all the other nobles by violating our sacred customs by protecting the viscount. No matter what, this viscount is definitely a goner.

"You might not understand the behavior of the nobles well enough, and I don't blame you for that since you only served in the army before. The more you tolerate their selfishness, the more ridiculous they will act. Like today, this viscount even dared to bring soldiers into Whitebird Town. Since he didn't gain permission from me to do so, that can be considered a declaration of war. That's why I definitely won't let this slide. Don't worry, if the sky falls, the Norton Family will be here to bear it for you.

"For now, just call your subordinates over here to make some introductions. This is the chief knight of our family, Charade. Everything concerning the administration of Silowas Island will be temporarily his responsibility."

"Alright, dominion lord. I will call them over right now." Since Lorist was so confident, Old Hugo could only keep his worries to himself and call the rest over.

In a few moments, Old Hugo returned with five other people.

"Dominion lord, this is Old Mike, my accountant. He had worked for 20 years for the Carey Merchant Guild in the imperial capital and only came back to his hometown here after it closed down."

Old Mike was an old man with balding white hair even though he only looked around 54. It was probably because he taxed his mind so often as an accountant that his hair fell that quickly.

The next person was a 49-year-old skinny, tall man. He stepped forward and introduced himself, "Dominion lord, I am Kriston, the security official of Whitebird Town."

Old Hugo added, "Dominion lord, Kriston here used to work as an undercover inspector for the security bureau of the former empire and he has handled all sorts of cases. His wife is a Whitebird Town local, so he settled here after the empire broke apart."

Lorist nodded and made a mental note on Kriston. Even though the family set up various patrol forces within the towns it controlled, the forces can at most handle small cases like drunk people getting into brawls and still lack the ability to properly investigate and crack criminal cases. As the dominion continues to develop, the population will increase as well and it will require a lot more people and procedures to maintain order.

The third man who stood forward was a red-faced old man. Old Hugo said, "Dominion lord, this here is Old Hart and he has been the tax collection official for Whitebird Town all this time. During his forty plus years on the post, he has gotten to know almost everyone on Silowas Island."

The fourth person was the limping garrison captain Victor and he reported, "Dominion lord, the soldiers are already settled down and I stationed a squad of garrison troops to keep watch on them."

The last person was a pale-faced youth who should be around five to six years older than Lorist. He stepped forward, bowed respectfully, and said, "Dominion lord, I am Hector, the main secretary of Whitebird Town. I'd like to add that your treatment of Viscount Aslan is a little rash. Are you not worried about the vengeance of the Aslan Family?"

"The vengeance of the Aslan Family?" Lorist said as he laughed out loud. "Well, tell me more about what you understand of the situation at hand."

"Dominion lord, even though Viscount Aslan is only an honorary noble, his brother Count Aslan is a proper landed noble. Additionally, the Aslan Family is one of the first to side with the Second Highness and they are well-trusted by him. Not only is Count Aslan a Gold ranked knight, he is also the commander who rebuilt the Royal Family's Second Local Defense Legion and his family holds great power and influence. This is why even though I knew clearly that Viscount Aslan's requests were excessive, I could only advise Old Hugo to endure it. After all, your family hasn't had any contact with us back then and I was worried that Old Hugo would be put to death if he dared to resist. In fact, a few other accusations could be made on Old Hugo for being a mayor picked by the townsfolk without the official sanction of the ruling family..."

Hector paused for a while before he continued, "Dominion lord, I'm actually quite uninformed about the might of the Norton Family. But I've heard rumors that five years back, your family's northbound convoy helped the Second Highness out tons, but the original dominion of the Norton Family is really too far away. The Second Highness also holds a really high position in the kingdom nowadays and has built himself six legions with up to 300000 soldiers to prepare for the reunification of the former empire. At this crucial time, if you, dominion lord, think that you can rely on previous favors and friendship to avoid repercussion for your actions, I'm afraid that the Second Highness wouldn't be too pleased with this. I believe the case of Viscount Aslan's treatment should be given more serious consideration."

Charade laughed out loud and said, "Hector, I hope you can understand one thing. The Norton Family is not relying on anything like favor or friendship, but our own might. Milord has his own reasons for treating Viscount Aslan the way he did. However, I am interested in what you said about the Second Highness's six legions of 300000 soldiers. Can you tell me more about that in detail?"

"You are...?" Hector muttered as he gave Lorist a weird look. That knight that just spoke up only wears a Silver ranked badge and isn't even a Gold ranked knight. How can he interject so casually like that?

"This is Chief Knight Charade of our family. He will be in charge of all affairs concerning Silowas Island," introduced Lorist once more.

"Oh..." Hector said as he suppressed his curiosity and nodded in acknowledgement to Charade. "Sir Knight, I don't really know too much myself, but during these past two years when I dealt with the fish merchants, I heard a lot of rumors about the Second Highness. Five years back, after the Second Highness went to war with the Redlis Kingdom and the Madras Duchy, he reformed the various legions of the Royal Family's Local Defense Army. After disbanding the Fiercegale Legion, he organized the Local Defense Army into three separate units each with up to 56000 soldiers. After that, he formed three other Reserve Legions each with 42000 soldiers and another 5000-strong Royal Knight Brigade.

"According to my understanding, the taxes that all the nobles have to hand to the royal family has increased to 30 percent with the territory belonging to the royal family themselves charging up to 70 percent. All the wealth gained through the increased taxes will go towards funding these six legions. The Second Highness even announced that he hopes that the people of the Krissen Empire whether they be nobles or commoners endure for the next few years, and promised that he would make up to them for it after unifying the empire..."

Lorist couldn't help but laugh out loud and pat on Howard's shoulder uncontrollably. "Howard, did you hear that?! This is the epitome of alpha-strike mentality! The Second Highness wants to replicate the achievements of the first Krissen Founding Emperor, Krissen I, and is ready to use his 300000 soldiers to unify the empire. But it's a shame that he forgot that times have changed. Right now, he's alone in his effort and if he fails, he will no longer be able to retaliate and the Andinaq Kingdom will end at that time."

"Milord, even you are doubtful of the chances of the Second Highness's war plans?" Hector asked.

"I'm not just doubtful. I am completely certain that the Second Highness's plan to unify the empire has zero chance of success. Putting other things aside, in the time of the first Krissen emperor, it was the warring-states period and each kingdom was akin to a modern-day barony. Krissen I's 300000-strong army naturally was able to sweep the floor with his enemies and even if tens of kingdoms unite together to resist, they wouldn't even stand a chance against the army's assault. It must be noted that at that time, the most elite force of a kingdom was lesser than 100 men, so how would they even stand a chance?

"But now? Even you were able to find out about the Second Highness's movements through mere rumors from merchants, so the nations at the border would definitely be keeping their guards up as well. Even if the Second Highness manages to conquer a few cities, he would suffer heavy casualties. And if he bumps against a foe that has a clear mind and is able to manipulate his enemies well and can stop the Second Highness's army from obtaining the necessary supplies, if the Second Highness continues to stubbornly persist in his struggle, how long can the poor commoners of the Andinaq Kingdom last? I suspect that the kingdom would collapse even before half of the 3000000-strong army is eliminated..."

Howard looked to be in deep thought. Charade asked, "What I'm curious about is this... The Second Highness and the Redlis Kingdom as well as the Madras Duchy signed a ceasefire for 5 years, but it's already expired. Since he already has an army of 300000 prepared, why isn't he taking the opportunity to start the battle for unification right away? Isn't he letting this chance go? The longer he waits, the more the Madras Duchy and the Redlis Kingdom will be able to build up their defenses..."

Hector said, "Perhaps, I know the reason to that. A while ago I heard the merchants say that the Third Prince's sickness is getting rather bad and he doesn't have much longer to live. The Second Highness might just be waiting for his father to pass on first before launching the battle of unification. I'm guessing that it's because he wants to be crowned the monarch after the unification. If the Third Prince doesn't die, the crown has little chance on falling on the Second Highness's head..."

"Hehe, he's blinded by his lust for power," Lorist commented.

At that moment, Jim and Els entered with smiles on their faces and said, "Milord, we have completed your orders and Viscount Aslan's body has been covered with fish glue and feathers. Right now, he looks completely like a weird bird being tied up on the wooden structure by us."

"Alright," Lorist said while nodding. "Old Hugo, how many people did you say are at Seaview Manor?"

"I'm not too sure about this myself, but judging by the number of guards there, I'd say around 100 or so is there," Old Hugo replied after giving it some thought.

"Josk, Freiyar, the two of you shall bring Els and the other guards and sailors for a trip there and bring everyone at the manor over here. Anyone who resists shall be killed without quest-- Actually, try your best to catch as many alive as possible. I suddenly feel that we will be needing much manpower over here for many things," Lorist said in a frustrated tone.

"Milord, will you be fine here after we leave?" Freiyar expressed his worries.

"It's alright. It's not like you guys don't know my abilities. It'll be enough for me to have Knight Charade and Howard here. Also, Victor, bring 100 men from your garrison force over there as well," Lorist instructed.

"Dominion lord, the Whitebird Town Garrison isn't equipped with even leather armor and are barely armed with only a pike each man. How can we even stand a chance against the fully-armed guards of the manor? We can't do anything about that," said Victor as he refused Lorist's order.

"I'm not asking you guys to go on a suicide mission and don't need the garrison soldiers to attack the manor. Just leave that to my family soldiers. The reason I asked you go there is because you know the terrain better and will be able to stop anyone from escaping. Other than that, you just need to bring along some rope to tie up the prisoners with. If the attack doesn't work out, I will allow the garrison soldiers to retreat first," Lorist said as he met Victor's gaze.

Convinced, Victor said, "Alright, dominion lord. I will gather my men right now. I hope our excursion will not be for naught."

"Milord," Freiyar said as he stepped forward. He pointed to the map of Silowas Island on the table and said, "After taking Seaview Manor, should we attack and conquer that Farama Village as well?"

Lorist shook his head and said, "There's no need. We are a little short on time, so all you have to do is to attack Seaview Manor and capture the nobles and others that are there. I will be waiting to deal with those insolent idiots tonight. As for Farama Village, I will bring you guys along with me there tomorrow. Nobody in our dominion will be allowed to go unpunished after challenging the Norton Family. They didn't pay their taxes for five whole years? Very well...."

"Alright, milord. Then we will leave right away," Freiyar said before bowing to Lorist with the rest and leaving the building.

"Dominion lord, if they really make that trip, then we won't only be offending the Aslan Family. You should know that after the Second Highness left the island, the ones who remained at Seaview Manor are the descendants of some of his noble attendants. They can at most be considered to be causing mischief like all youngsters do. If you really punish them seriously, then you will be considered to not be giving the Second Highness any face and will also be offending the other noble attendants of the Second Highness," Hector warned hurriedly.

"Hehe, he's quite an interesting fellow," said Lorist to Charade. "He doesn't understand that we only bother to give the Second Highness face because he is our senior noble and we've never once feared the might or power of the Second Highness. As long as others don't offend us, we won't cross them either. But since someone is knowingly causing trouble, then our only response will be blood and fire. Charade, this guy is a talented fellow. Don't let him continue working as a mere secretary, let him stay by your side to train instead."

"Yes, milord. I already know what to do with him," Charade replied.

"Good, then I'll leave this place to you. You should research more about the situation of Silowas Island, Whitebird Town and the other villages here and think of how we can develop this dominion. After our forces return in a few days, we will head straight for the imperial capital, so go get on with your work. Howard, let's go take a walk."

"Alright, milord!" said Howard gleefully.

Whitebird Restaurant

Here's the first bonus chapter of the week courtesy of Josh S. from the UK. Thank you so much for the support.

There was once again hundreds of people gathered at the plaza, but this time around all of them were there to look at the feather-covered Viscount Aslan. Lorist didn't bother to join in the commotion and merely brought Howard to a small alley and looked at the sights of Whitebird Town in a casual manner.

The road they walked on was made up of huge rocks with cobblestones squeezed in between with various houses and buildings built from clay lining its sides. Even though the structures didn't have a uniform outlook, they looked rather clean and there wasn't any trash to be seen all around. The two sides of the alley were lined by the walls of the buildings and from time to time, fish racks could be seen with some fish placed upon it and left to dry. The breeze brought with it a slight fishy smell.

The alley was quiet and curvy. After a while of walking, they reached the end of the road and had to turn into another path within the town. That path was wider than the alley before it and could even allow carriages to pass through. On one side of the road was the tideland with some plants growing on it. The tide had already receded that time and tens of people carrying something on their backs and picking stuff up on the tideland could be seen. The adults walked barefoot with their pants rolled up and used the wooden sticks in their hands to poke around the muddy ground while the children ran around and played naked.

"Master, this place is so different from the Northlands. The sights here are so pretty," Howard said.

Lorist looked into the distance and replied, "This is an island after all and it is very different from the Northlands. The Northlands are mostly desolate with the skies high up and the clouds thin. But this place on the other hand is like a pearl in the middle of the sea with wide skies and blue seawater; it is indeed a great place. It's a shame that Second Highness Auguslo doesn't have an eye for these things and didn't know about the value of this place when he was here and even abandoned it to us for an incredibly low price. How laughable..."

Howard tilted his head in confusion and asked, "Master, why do you think so? Transport to and from Silowas Island is inconvenient and its farmable area is also rather small. I feel that the Second Highness made the right choice to abandon this place and left for the imperial capital."

"It's about perspective, Howard. You must change yours. Farmable land is not the most important cornerstone of a nation or family's might. I've told you before that the main expenditure of war is manpower and resources. The present is really different from hundreds of years ago when one knight and his few attendants could dictate the tide of war. Battles on the scales of tens of thousands are no longer new on the continent of Grindia, and that's why I don't approve of the Second Highness's preparation to reunite the empire with his 300000 plus troops.

"The Andinaq Kingdom currently has six provinces and the Second Highness has used up almost one whole province to feed his soldiers. They're only barely hanging on just by relying on the local produce and you've also heard that the tax rate of the territory of the royal family has been raised to 70 percent, which can already be considered tyrannical. If this goes on, the commoners will definitely not be able to hold on. No matter what grand excuse the Second Highness uses, that doesn't change the fact that he's barely sitting still on the sides of the volcano.

"You'll understand it right away after looking at the map. Silowas Island is actually the central hub of this region of the sea and controlling this island is akin to controlling the thousands of kilometers of shores nearby. From an offensive standpoint, we can attack the Andinaq Kingdom as well as the Redlis Kingdom's coastal province s. From a defensive standpoint, we only have to retreat back to Silowas Island and there's nothing the enemy can do about us. Naturally, our family will first require a strong fleet.

"That is only the military considerations. Howard, think, what will happen if we convert Silowas Island into a central trading hub?" Lorist asked.

Howard thought for a bit and replied, "Just like the offensive standpoint, our family can ship the salt we produce to the coastal provinces and trade it with money or other required resources. Even if we don't have enough farmland on this island, we can still trade for huge amounts of food for our use, is that right, master?"

"You're half correct. Our family still needs to form a strong fleet first. If we can have full dominion over the waters from this island to the Northlands, we can use Silowas Island as a starting point for our merchant vessels to travel to any other coastal city on the continent of Grindia. As long as trading continues, money will continue to flow to us and our family's might will also increase. That's why I feel that the Second Highness made an idiotic decision to give up on this island. All he has in his mind are outdated ideas," Lorist insulted.

"Master, I feel that you've been getting more and more confident in the recent days. Just like Knight Josk said, you're starting to have a more domineering aura and is starting to feel more like an actual dominion lord," Howard praised.

Patting on his disciple's head, Lorist said, "Oh, your ass-kissing skills have improved... Howard, you must remember this well. Confidence must come from the might of the family. The stronger the family is, the more you can back your confidence up with. In the case of Viscount Aslan's treatment, we can afford to not give the Second Highness any face. While he can instill fear in other nobles with his 300000-strong army, it is useless against us because we understand that even if we end on pissing the Second Highness off, he can't do anything about us given our might.

"Think about it. A few years ago when we were still leading the convoy back to the dominion, could we have imagined that a day like this would come? At that time, don't even talk about the Second Highness's 300000-strong army, what about that Count Cor-something? His force of around 10000 soldiers was enough to make us jump with worry. But during the past few years we stayed put within the dominion to development it like a turtle withdrawing into its shell, the Duke of the Northlands, Duke Loggins, and the Second Prince thought that we've become a ripe persimmon that can be squeezed for juice. Right now however, Duke Loggins is already ill and bedridden and doesn't have long to live and the Second Prince just became our prisoner.

"The reason we don't use the same alpha-strike mentality is because even if we occupy huge amounts of territory, without developing them, they would not provide any benefit for us. Just like right now, even if our family forces were to be wiped out, the family can still form a second one, and perhaps even a third. It is because we have this foundation that we don't fear our enemies. Development is the only correct way, understood?"

"Development is the only correct way? Master, this saying is a little of a mouthful, but I guess it does make sense. When I heard that the Second Highness had a force of 300000 soldiers, I didn't even feel any dread at all. I guess you're right that our family's might allowed me to not be bothered at hearing about the 300000 troops," Howard said as he nodded, before his stomach grumbled.

Lorist snickered and said, "Kid, you should've said so if you were hungry. Come on, let's find a place to grab something to eat. I already forgot about eating after we got off the ship and getting so busy..."

Past the corner ahead was a wooden, brown plaque which had a picture of a white bird with the words 'Whitebird Restaurant' engraved upon it.

"I didn't think that a small town like this would have a restaurant. I thought that sailors would usually frequent inns or taverns for food and drink. Let's go check it out," Lorist said.

The restaurant wasn't that big and it was obvious that the wall dividing the living hall and the dining hall was knocked down for more space. Six small square tables could be seen with each of them covered with a linen cloth with blue boxy patterns and had small baskets placed on them with bunches of wild flowers within. While the small restaurant was rather simple, it was unusually clean.

It was currently around three in the afternoon and only two tables by the walls were seated by other guests. One red-nosed, fat old man saw Lorist and Howard enter and was dumbstruck, before he said, "Hey, look who's here? Isn't that the dominion lord who just arrived at our Silowas Island? I didn't think that the dominion lord himself would come to a small restaurant like ours..."

The red-nosed man's whole face was slightly flushed red, probably because he had drunk quite a bit of alcohol. Lorist didn't mind his crude manner of speech and instead nodded to the other customers before smiling and saying, "Even though I am indeed the dominion lord, I have to eat and sleep too. Is there anything wrong with me coming to a restaurant when I'm hungry?"

After he said that, he found a table and sat down before waving for Howard to come over as he asked, "May I know how I can order food over here?"

That red-nosed man looked at Lorist for a good while before he shouted towards the stairwell, "Nataya, there's a customer here! You won't imagine it... The dominion lord is here for a meal! Also, don't let little Martha come downstairs... Dominion lords are all fiendish perverts and he'll definitely take Martha away if he sees her..."

Howard was enraged by that comment and was just about to thump on the table and curse at the old man, but he saw Lorist smile and shake his head. Lorist said, "Don't you think that old man is rather cute? He made us aware of the presence of a pretty girl by asking her to stay upstairs..."

A stocky woman hurriedly came over and bowed to Lorist with respect before she asked, "Milord, what do you wish to order?"

"Is there something you can serve right away?"

"Milord, we have some steamed bread, meatballs, sausages, smoked fish and some grilled food along with seaweed soup, conches, crabs, breaded and fried small crabs, loaches, mashed potatoes, baked apples and seafood pie...."

"Then I'll have a seafood pie, meatballs, steamed bread, smoked fish and two servings of seaweed soup. And give me one of those breaded crabs or something. I'd like to give it a try. Also, what drinks do you serve here?" Lorist asked.

"Milord, we only have our self-brewed fruit wine here and it tastes rather good."

"Then I'll have that too, and some fresh fruit if you have some."

"Alright, milord. Please wait a while, I'll start serving the dishes right away," said the stocky middle-aged woman before she hurriedly left.

It didn't take long for Lorist and Howard to be able to take a look at the beauty Martha. She was only around 17 to 18 years of age and she had long, chestnut-brown hair with large, grey eyes and some freckles beside her nose, giving her a rather energetic and rowdy feel. Paired with her fair skin and slender figure, Lorist rated her 80 out of 100 points.

Martha was there to serve the dishes and she gave each of them a brief introduction. Lorist was surprised that the food served by a small restaurant like that would taste that good and focused on eating without caring much for staring at the beauty. In the end, the dish Lorist liked the most was the fried breaded small crabs. The crabs were first washed before being dipped into some batter and bread crumbs and deep fried until they become golden brown in color. Each bite off the crab let out a satisfying crunch and its brittle shell only served to enhance the mouthfeel. Paired with the sweet and sour fruit wine, the crab tasted magnificent and Lorist ordered two more servings after finishing the first until he was satisfied.

"The food you served were all really delicious. Sum it all up and tell me how much they cost," Lorist said to the beautiful Martha with a satisfied tone as he wiped his mouth with a white linen cloth.

"Milord, your presence here is already bestowing us an incredible honor. This meal's on the house as our welcoming treat to you, milord," said the bowing stocky woman from behind Martha.

"Hehe, forget it. I'm a dominion lord but I won't eat anything for free," Lorist said as he took out a large silver coin and paced it on the table. "Is this enough?"

"Oh, no, milord... This is too much. Your food didn't cost more than 3 small silvers..."

One gold Forde was worth 20 large silver and each large silver was equal to 5 small silvers.

"Keep the change as your tip. Howard, give them three more gold Fordes, we'll be ordering 70 people's worth of food later tonight. There's a ship called Flying Fish of Dawn at the port and I'll have you send over 21 meals there, with the remaining ones sent to the administration building of the town. If there's any money left over, I'll use it to buy some of your self-brewed wine. Also, after you finish cooking the meals, notify us at the administration building and I'll send some garrison soldiers to help you transport the food," Lorist instructed.

The stocky woman stared at the three gold Fordes and one large silver on the table in a daze before she nodded hesitantly. "Alright, milord. I will do as you say."

After filling up their stomachs, the two of them strolled about the town once more and quite a number of strangers bowed to Lorist when they recognized him and Lorist greeted them back with a warm and friendly smile.

It was only after his facial muscles were sore from all the smiling that he decided to head back to the administration building. The sky was already turning dark. Freiyar and the rest were back with the troops and a busy commotion could be seen right in front of the administration building. Apart from a huge group of onlookers, there were another 400 or so men and women who had both their hands tied behind their backs, kneeling on the ground.

"Milord, we've returned with the rest of the people from Seaview Manor and left only a squad of ten sailors there to watch the place," reported Freiyar who was standing at the entrance of the building.

"How were the casualties?" Lorist asked.

"Milord, we didn't sustain any casualties, but some of the guards at the manor resisted capture and after we killed some of them, the rest attempted to escape, only to be stopped by Patt and Els. In the end, we killed 27 of their guards and not one of the eight nobles who occupied the manor managed to escape. They've all been captured by us."

"Who are these people tied up over here?"

"Milord, these are all the servants and maidservants of the manor. Didn't you ask us to bring everyone here? We've done just that," Freiyar replied.

"Ugh..." Lorist grunted as he patted his forehead. He didn't think that those nobles would actually treat the Seaview Manor as their own home and brought so many of their servants there.

"Why are the ones watching the place our sailors? What about the garrison soldiers?" Lorist asked as he wondered why he couldn't see even a single garrison soldier with them. Did the 100 or so soldiers leave the moment a fight began?

"Oh, they went back for dinner and said that they would switch out with another group after finishing," explained Els.

I guess that's fine, Lorist thought while stroking his chin.

"Milord, we've worked for the whole day and only had something at the Seaview Manor to fill up our stomachs. What do we do about dinner?" Patt said as he walked over with his armor still bloodied. It was said that the last resisting guard was cut into two halves by him.

"I've already ordered food from a restaurant nearby. I think it's about time they sent it over," Lorist said as he looked at the darkening sky.

"Milord, there's a woman who says that the food is done and is asking us to go collect it," reported a guard, right as the food was mentioned.

"Alright, I'll go. I'm already dying of hunger," Patt said as he turned and walked away.

After that, a loud shriek could be heard, startling everyone present.

When Lorist went over, he saw the beauty Martha sitting on the ground crying, with Patt troubled and not knowing what to do.

"What's going on?"

Seeing Lorist there, Martha suppressed her cries embarrassedly and explained in a stuttered voice that she was shocked by Patt's bloodied look and how he walked towards her with a fierce and murderous aura.

After resolving the misunderstanding, Lorist sent Patt with some other guards to follow Martha to collect the food and asked him to clean his armor off at the restaurant. After that, Lorist entered the administration building and heard a voice screaming out when he opened the door. "You actually dared to attack us... The Reid Family will definitely not forgive you for this! This is a declaration of war against our family!"

Lorist entered with a gloomy look and said, "What the heck are you doing? I heard that their families are rather strong? Heed my orders, have the loudest one caned 100 times with the rest given 50 canes and leave them hanging for one night. Remember to use more force. I don't mind even if they end up dying."

The few guards present quickly hauled the loudest brat outside before cries of agony and pain rang out.

"Knight Charade, did you become soft after staying in the family dominion for the past few years? The title you got at the Andinaq Kingdom, 'Charade the Demon', doesn't fit you at all!" said Lorist strictly.

"Milord, I only wanted to ask him who instructed them to occupy the manor in our dominion," said Charade while shrugging helplessly.

"Did you even need to ask? Seeing that they brought so many servants and guards with them, it's obvious that their family leader was the one who did all this. They took advantage of the fact that our dominion is far away and thought that we wouldn't be able to manage this place. It's enough if we know which family is behind it. We'll settle the bill with them when we reach the imperial capital.

"Also, Knight Charade, screen the rest of the people outside and we'll move into Seaview Manor tomorrow before we bring some troops to give Farama Village a visit. We must squeeze the pus out of the wound to make it recover faster," Lorist said.

Farama Village

Here's the second bonus chapter of the week also by Josh S. from the UK. Sorry for the slightly late release.

Farama Village was located on top of a small mound by a small stream. By the time Lorist arrived with about a hundred others with him, the people of the village were already armed and prepared.

Patt rode forward on a donkey he found at Whitebird Town and shouted, "Open the gates! The dominion lord of Silowas Island, Count Norton, has arrived! Come out to receive him quick!"

Nobody in the village bothered to answer him and Patt repeated himself three whole times. In the end, a huge man appeared at the edges of the village fortifications with a raised longbow while calling out, "This is Farama Village, and we serve the Second Highness! This is not the territory of any dominion lord. Scram! Otherwise, I'll show you the might of my longbow!"

Even though Patt was pissed beyond measure, there was no way he could just charge towards the gate riding a mere donkey, so he rode down the mound angrily to report the villager's response to Lorist.

Lorist was currently seated in a luxurious carriage which was one of the spoils he got from conquering Seaview Manor yesterday. There were only three carriages and six horses within the whole of the manor and two of them were used for transport of goods while the last was for transporting people. Apart from the two horses that pulled Lorist's carriage, the other four were temporarily used by Josk, Freiyar and the rest.

"Milord, should we slaughter our way in then?" Freiyar asked.

Lorist merely shook his head. Farama Village was no Seaview Manor and he had already heard Hector speak in detail that the village here was originally called the Stream Village because it was located on a mound right next to a stream. When the Second Highness went to Silowas Island, his principality, the one thing he actually put effort into was the construction of that village.

Back then when the Second Highness first came to that island, most of the people that followed him were his trusted attendants and they brought their family members there with them, totalling up to around 4000 people. Quite a number of them had followed the Second Highness through many of his battles and perhaps because some of them were getting old or injured, they decided to settle down. So, Second Highness moved all the villagers of Stream Village to another location and ordered one of his subordinates who was skilled in construction, Farama, to build a place for the soldiers that had helped him greatly to settle down.

In actuality, the Second Highness had entrusted too menial a task for a talented man like Farama. At first, Farama even had building a whole citadel in mind and even ditched the original site at Stream Village because he felt that the terrain there would be hard to defend and moved the site up to the mound near the stream. After that, he began modeling the village after a citadel.

Had it not been for Second Highness Auguslo's whimsical visit to the site, he definitely wouldn't have realized that Farama intended to build a small castle that would take up to four years to complete. He questioned Farama angrily about who would man and defend the citadel and it was from that moment on that Farama was no longer regarded as a trusted aide of the Second Highness.

Farma thus left Silowas Island, but the construction work had already begun. As the Second Highness didn't want to waste the finished designs of the citadel, he continued building it accordingly but greatly decreased the work and resources required by changing stone walls into mud and wood walls and so on. By the time the construction was finished, the inhabitants asked the Second Highness to name the place and he called it Farama Village since that man was the one who first came up with the design.

And so, Farama Village became the place where Second Highness Auguslo settled his men down and eventually, the surrounding villages became absorbed into it as a result of continued development. The area the village occupied was the most suitable place to farm on the whole of Silowas Island and it covered around 5000 square meters of farmland. When the Second Highness left the island to fight for supremacy within the kingdom, there were over 400 households, roughly 1300 people, who wanted to stay behind at the village. Not only did they occupy almost all of the farmland, they even refused to pay their taxes.

Hector told Lorist that there were around 300 veteran soldiers who had experienced with the blood and gore of the battlefield. As they were veterans who had fought during the civil war of the empire, most of them had awakened their Battle Force and up to 100 or so of them were Silver ranked in power. Had it not been for the fact that they were already 40 to 50 years old with their bodies starting to age, the Second Highness definitely wouldn't have left them there to retire and farm.

Lorist turned to look at the men he brought. There were Freiyar and Josk, two Gold ranked knights, Els, Patt, Jim and Dulles, all Silver ranked knights, and tens of other Iron ranked guards. As a squad of 10 sailors stationed at the manor among the 16 that left the ship, the other 6 only had one Iron rank among them with the rest being Bronze ranks. Additionally, he had Howard, a Bronze rank, by his side. Charade couldn't come along as he was busy researching with Old Hugo, Hector and the others back at the town to find out how best to develop this dominion.

Also following Lorist were the limping Victor and the 100 or so garrison soldiers who were armed with nothing but pikes with no armor at all. They were only there to cheer as they weren't even qualified to become attack fodder. There was no way that Lorist could bring them along to attack Farama Village.

While Lorist didn't doubt that he could easily obtain victory if he rushed forward with Josk and the rest, a victory like this wouldn't be good for anyone. Apart from having to pave a path of blood, he was afraid that his guards and sailors would sustain huge casualties. Lorist wanted to avoid pointless casualties from trivial conflicts like that as best as he could. After all, he had all the time he needed, so he felt that it was better for him to toy around with the residents of Farama Village and to teach Howard a lesson on tactics while he was at it.

He waved for Victor to come over, and he did so in his usual limping fashion.

"Victor, does Farama Village rely on that stream as its water source?" Lorist asked.

"That is the case, milord," replied Victor.

"Tell me more about the situation."

"Dominion lord, you will not be able to cut off their water source. Farama Village was originally designed and built as a citadel, so the stream near the mound is within the firing range of their bows. Also, there is also a well within the village that taps into a subterranean water channel that is connected with the stream with another reservoir in their village. So there's no way you can stop them from collecting water from the river." Victor understood right away why Lorist asked those questions as he used to be a military officer in the Fiercegale Legion which used to be one of the three main armies of the empire, so he understood at least that much..

Lorist smiled and said, "Howard, ride back to Whitebird Town and have Charade release a notice to hire 1000 youths and have them bring some digging tools here. They will be paid one silver coin each day and their three meals will also be provided."

Victor looked at Lorist with shock and exclaimed, "Milord, are you going to trick those youths to become fodder for the attacks of Farama Village?"

Lorist clicked his tongue and said, "I'm not as cruel as you guys. The Norton Family will definitely not do something like that. Order your garrison soldiers to make preparations to set up camp. You'll understand what I plan to do when they come tomorrow."

Howard left for the village on horseback right after that.

Next day afternoon, a large group of youths rushed over under the lead of Old Hugo and Charade. To the residents of Whitebird Town, a small silver per day of work was rather good pay. If they could work like this for a year, they would earn up to four gold Fordes.

"Milord, what are you planning?" Charade asked.

"Look, I'm going to reroute the stream near the mound over there. The digging will start from that spot and circle around the mound to make a moat. I want to see what the idiots up there will do without water."

Even though Lorist made it sound easy, Victor who was right next to them almost fainted from hearing that. The dominion lord is set on cutting off Farama Village's water source after all. But as opposed to what he originally thought, Lorist didn't intend to do that by damming up the stream under the fire of Farama Village and instead chose to cut off the source of the stream even further away. That was a far larger undertaking and the combined cost of hiring 1000 youths for 1 small silver per day and providing food for them was at least 20 gold Fordes each day. Five days would mean that 100 gold Fordes would be spent. This was far too ridiculous as Lorist was basically forcing his enemy to kneel with the might of money.

For their freedom, the proud villagers of Farama Village still held onto their pride and refused to bow down to their oppressor, Lorist. But after another ten days, around 1000 Norton Family soldiers armed with their gleaming armor arrived, causing the villagers to despair.

"Milord, Nors and 1000 other men from the Local Defense Brigade, reporting for duty," said Nors, standing completely straight as he saluted Lorist.

The two whaling ships they had each transported 500 men to Silowas Island and even though they left two days earlier than the Flying Fish of Dawn, they were ten days slower to arrive. The leader, Nors, was a familiar face and he had been one of the knights who defended Beastguard Town, the central town of the sixth sector of Felicitas Settlement, during the first magical beast wave and helped Lorist to build an ice wall there.

This time around, Lorist was hoping to form the Third Local Defense Brigade and the Second Navy Marine Brigade at Silowas Island. Nors had come with the 1000 soldiers who were mostly veterans and in another two months, the family would be sending over another 1000 new recruits. After that, a recruitment drive would be started on Silowas Island to recruit 1000 local youths and that would be enough for a third Local Defense Brigade.

"Was the trip smooth?" Lorist asked.

Nors laughed out and said, "Initially, many of them got seasick, but over the course of ten days, they got used to it. However, just this morning when we got off the ships, quite a lot of them collapsed right away and only recovered after two hours of rest."

"That's normal," Lorist said. "After staying for a long period at sea and going back to shore, the ground will feel like it's moving up and down," he said with a snicker.

"Milord, are you going to attack that village? Do you want us to participate?" Nors asked.

"It's fine. Just look at the grass near the mound; they're already wilting. The villagers will definitely not be able to last through the next few days. I also hope that our forces will not have to suffer unnecessary casualties and just play along with them for a bit. This will end soon, so you guys should rest up for a few days. After this, the safety of Silowas Island will be up to you."

"Understood, milord. Please be assured that the Third Local Defense Brigade will not disappoint you," Nors said as he saluted.

Just when Lorist was relaxing after seeing his soldiers arrive safely, an atmosphere filled with sacrificial bloodlust built up within Farama Village. 128 men aged around 40 to 50 put on their old leather armor and took up their swords and pikes before drinking their last swig of strong liquor and heading towards the gates of the citadel in a neat row. Among them, there were even some old men who strode forward with walking sticks in hand. On the sides of the main path of the village were the sobbing family members who were looking at the old soldiers depart.

The 128 old soldiers were all the Silver ranked fighters Farama Village had and they shouted out Second Highness Auguslo's name before launching a suicidal charge at the forces of the Norton Family with the belief that their deaths would shock the newly-arrived Count Norton while also causing him to incur the rage of the Second Highness, thus allowing their family members to continue living their lives in peace.

The gates of the citadel opened as 128 old soldiers determined to die on the battlefield charged outward. Ack, there's quite a lot of distance to reach them... Indeed, the moat Lorist dug up was roughly 300 meters from the village, meaning that the brave old men had to first run a distance of 300 meters before they could charge into the formation of the Norton Family forces to fulfill their desire to die fighting on the battlefield. However, that was a little unfair to some old men who had to use walking sticks.

Naturally, the movements at the village alerted the Norton Family forces, but when Lorist saw the silver blade glow of the one who led the charge, he was elated and instantly ordered, "Family soldiers, retreat 100 meters backward. Knights above the Silver rank, I want all of you to come forward. Josk, hold your fire. Listen, I want them captured alive! These Silver ranked old men are perfect as laborers for mining! Not one of you guys is to hurt them too badly. Otherwise, you will take their place working at the mines!"

All of the soldiers laughed out after hearing that order. During the development of Blackmud Marsh, two of the cliffs at the Bladedge Mountains had to be shaved off. Back then, many Silver ranked fighters of the family had to toil hard there as it was far easier to cut rock with blade glows than pickaxes.

Given the age of the attackers, they had almost expended all their stamina after running up to 300 meters and jumping over the moat. They were so tired that many of them collapsed on the ground right away, and Lorist himself knocked more than half of them unconscious. He was so impatient that he even leaped over the moat himself to greet the onslaught of the few tired old men with walking sticks before disarming them.

There was not the slightest hint of death and tragedy on the battlefield with most of the old men merely put together in a pile. Lorist even beckoned for his soldiers to quickly bring some water to the old soldiers to relieve their thirst as they were all very valuable in Lorist's eyes.

In the end, Farama Village surrendered by bringing out the commonly-used white flag. Every one of the villagers from young to old all left the village and made it their first priority to get something to drink.

After they drank enough water, their punishment was announced by Lorist as they listened, despairing and helpless. Since they didn't pay taxes for five whole years, all of the villagers had to serve for five years as punishment regardless of gender and age. After five years, they would be free to leave and go wherever they wanted.

One old man couldn't help but ask, "Dominion lord, are you not going to hang us or kill us off? You're not going to sell us off as slaves either?"

Lorist said in a solemn voice, "There is no place for slaves in the Norton Family and we do not involve ourselves in slave trade. The only punishment for crimes is to serve time as laborers. Unless the your crime is too severe or you have taken another person's life, you will not be hanged. As long as you work as laborers without causing trouble, we will not take your families apart. But you better remember that if you dare to slack off or resist, you will merely be doing your family members a disservice and they will also be punished with you."

After settling the matter of Farama Village, the journey to the imperial capital was up next. Lorist decided that he would have 500 soldiers of the Local Defense Brigade accompany him and left Charade on Silowas Island to work on the registration of the residents of the island, the formation of the Third Local Defense Brigade and the Second Navy Marine Brigade, as well as the development the island.

Originally, Lorist intended to have Jim become the leader of the Third Local Defense Brigade that was to be formed and stationed at Silowas Island as he felt that it was about time he let the man go his own way since he had spent so much time with him. Nors on the other hand was considered by Lorist to be rather reliable and was assigned the position of the leader of the Second Navy Marine Brigade and would be in charge of recruiting more sailors on the island. What he didn't expect was that Patt didn't want to go to the imperial capital as he actually fell in love and was wooing the beauty, Martha, of Whitebird Restaurant, whom he had accidentally frightened to the point of tears not too long ago.

Lorist could only give Patt his blessings for him to one day return with a beauty in his hands and let him take Jim's position instead. Thus, Patt was made the leader of the Third Local Defense Brigade.

Imperial Capital

This third bonus chapter of the week was brought to you by Leonard L. from France! Thank you for your support!

Imperial Capital and Royal City, Taian, was built by Krissen II using near 100000 slave laborers and countless resources over a span of eight years. It was named as such in hopes that the empire would be mighty with its people living peaceful lives. However, as Taian was a word that was derived from the ancient language of fairies, when it was pronounced in the Grindian Common Language, it sounded almost like a word that meant 'goner', so the later Krissen Empire Emperors considered that word taboo and neglected using it. Even in official correspondence or documents, Taian City was simple referred to as the imperial capital. Eventually, after two to three hundred years, while many people would know what the imperial capital referred to, not many could recall its name.

The imperial capital was protected by three walls with the royal court located in the very middle. In the early days, the Royal City of Taian was comprised mainly of those three walls with the residence of the Krissen Emperor at its very center, which was recently used as the residence of the Andinaq Royal Family. Beyond the second city wall was where the heads of the various departments and high-ranking officials of the empire stayed and it was known as the inner city. Within the third wall was the where most of the citizens of the imperial capital lived.

When Krissen II designed the city, he didn't imagine that its population would multiply by ten times within a few hundred years. His initial designs only provided for 100000 citizens and the farmland that could sustain up to 100000 people was gradually turned into residential areas, prosperous business areas, horse-racing facilities, a stadium as well as academies and workshops.

In the golden age of the empire that spanned for 30 or so years during the reign of Krissen V and Krissen VI, the imperial capital was one of the largest cities on the whole of Grindia, boasting a population of up to 1 million. However, when the Forde Trade Union was formed, Morante City later came to don the mantle of the most prosperous and greatest city of the Grindia Continent and the imperial capital only continued to spiral downhill, especially with the 7-year-long civil war that further exacerbated the imperial capital's downfall.

The fatal blow to the imperial capital was dealt during the final days of the civil war when the First Prince sent half of his forces to one way and led the other half to attract the attention of the Third Prince's forces. As a result, the first half managed to raid the imperial capital and their men truly did their worst from plundering to killing. Even though the Second Highness sent reinforcements, he was entangled at the business area with the other forces and the battle even lasted for three whole months. By the time the Second Highness eliminated the enemies, the interior of the third wall of the imperial capital had already been razed to the ground with more than 200000 citizens perishing as a result of the conflict and the business area completely reduced to rubble.

Even after the civil war ended and the empire split into 3 kingdoms and 7 duchies, the population of the imperial capital continued to dwindle. The newly-arrived peace didn't provide the citizens a stable life. Instead, having lost the places that used to provide food supply for the imperial capital, an inevitable famine further deteriorated the city. The fact that the Third Prince offended the merchants from the Forde Trade Union only served to worsen the situation. Not only the imperial capital, the whole of the Andinaq Kingdom was embroiled in a storm of uncertainty.

By the time the Second Highness stabilized the situation of the kingdom using the forces of the Norton Family's northbound convoy and firmed his position within the kingdom, the population of the imperial capital was less than 70000, not even a tenth of what it used to be during the golden age of the empire. The Second Highness rebuilt the inner and outer cities and gave up on the residential and business areas outside the third wall and converted them back to farmland while greatly simplifying the bureaucratic procedures of the administration. After five years, the empire seemed to have a renewed chance for vitality.

On the 18th day of the 9th month, Lorist brought 500 soldiers from the Local Defense Brigade and some knights to the southern entrance of the imperial capital and heard some bad news. The Second Highness had gone to the frontlines to inspect his troops and he would only be able to return by the end of the 9th month or the start of the 10th. That way, Lorist had to wait for up to 10 or so days.

The City Defense Army's company leader politely declined Lorist's request to let his 500 or so soldiers enter the city to set up camp and said that the Second Highness explicitly ordered that the forces of nobles could only set up camp at the west side of the city and each noble could at most bring 10 guards with them into the city. That was a new regulation of the imperial city.

And so, Lorist brought the rest of his men to the west entrance and registered to occupy a small area there for a camp and changed the lookouts and their secret signals to each other.

As Lorist was figuring out what to do within the next ten days in his own room, Dulles walked in excitedly and said, "Milord, look who's here?"

Behind him was a man equipped with the armor of the Local Defense Force of the Royal Family. When Lorist saw him, he broke into laughter and stretched out both his arms for a hug. "Karitoke, long time no see! Are you doing well?"

Karitoke was one of the 36 Dawn Academy students that joined the convoy formed by Charade and Terman in the early days and he was also one of the elite members of the Swordsmanship Society with Battle Force of the Three Star Silver rank. But when the northbound convoy was held up at Nadegas City, he and many others believed that there was not much of a future for the convoy and were poached by the Second Highness in the end. He was one of the 7 academy ex-students who left the convoy to serve the Second Highness.

Even though those who left the convoy were cursed at quite harshly, when the people of the convoy realized that the Second Highness's forces suffered heavy casualties, they began to miss the ones that head left them. Back then when Second Highness Auguslo led his troops to encircle Lichtana Citadel, the soldiers that defended the citadel launched a surprise attack during the night. While the forces of the Second Highness managed to defend against the enemy's assault, many of the Silver ranked knights from the Dawnn Academy who had joined him perished in battle. Terman and the rest were even hugging the corpses of two of the ex-students of Dawn Academy after the battle while tearing up nonstop. It was truly a tragedic sight.

When Karitoke received Lorist's warm hug, he began to tear up as well and said, "Lord Locke, I miss you guys so much. If I only we could go back to the days of the convoy..."

Of the 7 Dawn Academy students and 19 Silver ranked knights from the convoy that sided with the Second Highness, only 14 of them remained. Just recently during the Second Highness's battle at Flowater Creek that brought him to fame, three ex-students of the academy and four Silver ranked knights from the convoy lost their lives. Coupled with the two ex-students and three Silver ranked knights that died at the battle at Lichtana Citadel, almost half of those who left the convoy had perished.

"Of the 7 students of the academy, only Sander and I are left. Even though we've managed to become the knights of the royal family, we don't feel happy at all. Right now, the Second Highness is already preparing for the battle to unify the empire... I don't know if I can live long enough to see ourselves victorious..."

Karitoke was completely demoralized as he briefly described the things that happened after they left the convoy.

"What position do you hold currently?" Dulles asked.

"I am the regiment leader of the First Local Defense Legion's Second Heavy Infantry Division's First Regiment. We're currently stationed at the west gate of the imperial capital and tasked with cleaning up the rubble of the business area. As I didn't have anything important to do, I rushed to the south gate because i heard that you, Count Norton, is here," replied Karitoke.

"Eh? Even though you were already a regiment leader back in the convoy, why are you still in the same position after joining the Second Highness?" Dulles asked straightforwardly.

Karitoke shook his head and said, "The ones the Second Highness truly trusts are the subordinates that has been by his side for a long time. Currently, the only ones who hold high positions over all six legions and 300000 soldiers are his old subordinates or the nobles who allied up with him. Common born knights like us should only heed our orders and be the ones to lead the charge. I already regret leaving the convoy right now..."

"You can always come back," Dulles said.

"I no longer have the honor to do so. As knights, we can't be that half-hearted. Since I chose this path for myself, I will persevere till I reach its end," Karitoke expressed his thoughts honestly.

"Karitoke, you mentioned just now that you were put in charge of cleaning up the wreckage at the business area? Isn't the Royal Family's First Local Defense Legion the main force of the kingdom? Why are you guys tasked with a menial job like that?" Lorist asked curiously.

"Hmph! You guys don't understand..." Karitoke exclaimed as he patted hard on his thigh. "There is a person called Marquis Reid by the Second Highness's side and he is well-trusted by him. That person gave the Second Highness a suggestion. He said that even though the business area of the city is already reduced to rubble, many merchants stored their goods and resources in the basements. The Marquis said that the unearthed resources would greatly alleviate the burden to the treasury of the kingdom. That's why the Second Highness ordered us to secure the whole area and sent some others to start digging there. Just as Marquis Reid had predicted, we did find a number of those underground storehouses and the combined worth of those resources are as high as 100000 gold Fordes. Not only that, we have only excavated about a third of the business area so far."

"Isn't that a little unfair? These resources should belong to those merchants, right? How could they dig them up and claim them as their own?" Dulles commented.

"Marquis Reid argues that since the merchants didn't bother to clean up the rubble and reclaim their stuff so many years after the civil war ended, the Second Highness is perfectly in line to absorb them into the treasury. In actuality, when we began excavating, a few people claiming to be the descendants of those merchants who owned those stuff came up to us, but they were all given a fine for the fees incurred to clean up area as well as their neglect by leaving the rubble and trash occupying the business area for so long without bothering to clean them up. In the end, those people gave up on their claim to the stuff and left. After that, nobody bothered to show up to request for the return of their resources," Karitoke said.

Dulles sighed and said, "That is far too underhanded. It's all because of the royal family's incompetence in the first place for letting the enemy barge into the imperial capital and cause so much loss to the merchants and other residents. After that, not only did they not provide reimbursement of some sort to make up for the lost lives, they even dared to forcefully possess the things that belonged to the merchants. If they continue to do that, people would lose even more confidence in them!"

"That was what I thought too, but I was rebuked by the commander of my legion after saying a few words. The Second Highness doesn't care about the livelihood of his subjects at all. He only wants to reunite the empire. Don't let the knights who are busy discussing what to do during the unification war fool you. Actually, I understand that the soldiers don't wish to go to war at all and their morale is incredibly low.

"Even though the Royal Family's Local Defense Force absorbed the Fiercegale Legion and split into three separate legions, there are many others who are secretly opposed to the policies of the Second Highness. For example, some of the ex-generals of the Fiercegale Legion believes that the Second Highness intentionally didn't send reinforcements and allowed the commander of the Fiercegale Legion, Gold ranked knight Nedram and 5000 other elite soldiers perish so that he could more easily absorb the Fiercegale Legion into his own force without much resistance," Karitoke nagged.

Lorist poured him a cup of tea and advised warmly, "Karitoke, Dulles, the two of you studied at Morante City just like me, so values like freedom, equality, and the sanctity of private property have heavily influenced our own worldview. But don't forget that we're now within the former Krissen Empire. I am a dominion lord, so I am confident that I can practice my values within my own dominion. As for the two of you who are just knights, it's understandable that you don't feel like you fit in with the other nobles of the empire.

"The nobles of the Krissen Empire have never considered the welfare of their people. Given their high status, they still think of themselves to be above the common man despite the collapse of the empire. The Second Highness himself only cares about his ambitions of being the sovereign who reunites the empire but doesn't consider the consequences should he fail in his endeavor and whether he can rise once again after that. Nobody likes a warmongering king. Right now, he is counting on the nobles, but they are far from a reliable bunch. Karitoke, I hope that you will be wiser. If you feel that things are bad, please leave right away and don't let yourself be dragged down into the quagmire. That is far too wasteful..."

In the end, Karitoke continued drinking with Lorist until he was dead drunk before he was sent back by the two guards Dulles brought over.

The next day, Lorist brought Howard with him to take a casual walk around the imperial capital. It didn't take long for him to realize that the cheapest things up for sale there were books, and most of them were those that were collected by noble families. After asking around, he found that those books that were valued highly during the times of peace had become useless piles of trash that took up space as it couldn't be consumed nor put to practical use. Back when Charade led the northbound convoy through the three provinces of the Andinaq Kingdom, over two-thirds of the nobles there were hanged and the residences of those nobles were later taken by the Second Highness as his own.

To gather enough funds to feed his army, the Second Highness began to auction away all the belongings and collections of those nobles. The best-selling items were armor and weapons and they sold for the highest price. As the nobles' residences would usually have a study with more or less 100 books in them, those books were all put up to auction in one go, causing the sky-high price of books in the imperial capital to plummet almost instantly.

Lorist experienced a tumultuous wave of complicated emotions when he thought about how the books he purchased for one gold Forde could be bought for only two to three large silvers there. As he and Howard were both book-lovers, they spent many of their days among the book markets to fish up rare gems.

One day when Lorist returned to the campsite, he saw Dulles and Karitoke waiting for him at the entrance suspiciously.

Right after Lorist asked them what was going on, the two others pulled him into the building and shut the door.

Dulles said, "Milord, Karitoke is here to borrow some money..."

"How much?" Lorist asked curiously as he wondered, why are you behaving like underworld criminals just to borrow money?

"100 gold Fordes," Dulles replied.

Huh?! Lorist was slightly surprised as Karitoke was a regiment leader of the Royal Defense Force and his salary was only at a low 10 large silvers each month. His annual salary would only amount to 6 gold Fordes, so what in the world did he want to buy for 100 gold Fordes?

Dulles quickly explained, "Milord, Karitoke just received an invitation to an event and if he wants to attend, he has to dress up properly and purchase some suits or something. Originally, he only wanted to borrow 10 gold Fordes, but after I considered his request, I decided that he should borrow 100 gold Fordes from you, milord."

"Alright, I'll lend out the money," Lorist said. During this trip to the imperial capital, he brought around 10000 gold Fordes with him and had only spent around 2000 or so buying books during the past few days. Since he had so much left, he figured that it wouldn't hurt him to lend it out. However, his curiosity was piqued and he asked, "Can you tell me what kind of function costs so much to attend?"

Dulles laughed out loud and said, "Milord, since you're lending us the money, we'll bring you along to experience it for yourself. Each person invited can bring along two others with them. We'll have Karitoke take us along with him."

Karitoke said, "It's like this... Milord, do you know about Princess Carey?"

"Princess Carey?" Lorist mused, before he shook his head and said, "Never heard of her."

"Princess Carey is the sole daughter of the late First Highness..."

"What did you say? The First Highness has passed away?" Lorist exclaimed in shock.

"That's right. Two years back when he was put under house arrest, he suddenly spit out a huge mouthful of blood and stopped breathing within an hour after that. It was said to be a sudden manifestation of the symptom of his disease, but many suspect the Second Highness had played a part in the First Highness's death. However, that's only speculation and nobody really knows the truth."

Lorist thought deeply before he said, "Go on. What's going on with that Princess Carey you mentioned?"

"Princess Carey is 25 years old this year and she possesses incredible beauty and is said to be one of the most beautiful women within the whole kingdom. However, she is extremely promiscuous and she has countless admirers. It's said that she believes in the Goddess of Desires and Pleasure, Mishla and even organizes a little orgy participated by many other noble men and women who believe in the same faith. Every month, she will organize that orgy and I've heard from some of my colleagues that one will get to experience the greatest pleasure should one be a part of it. Even though there isn't an explicit fee, participants must tip at least one gold Forde and most people aren't able to afford that kind of money. That's why I've come here to request your help, milord."

Dulles said, "Milord, can we go experience it for ourselves tomorrow? I haven't attended a function with nobles of the empire before. Let Karitoke bring us along to expand our horizons."

After Lorist considered it while stroking his chin, he said, "Alright then."