Chapter 373: Centralization

Lords can arbitrarily create laws and impose various taxes. Simply put, after paying the taxes mandated by the kingdom, lords can do whatever they want within their own territories.

Theoretically, a lord could, on a whim, kill all the commoners on his land. Of course, as long as the lord isn't a demon worshipper, devil believer, or mentally deranged, such actions would be unlikely because, even if the royal family did not intervene, various champions of justice would.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, lords do not randomly commit murder. However, even so, the lives of ordinary people are not much improved because nobles generally do not treat their subjects as their equals.

Rather, most nobles regard their commoners as livestock. In some respects, nobles who are born with extraordinary powers are a different species compared to the powerless commoners.

Apart from their humanoid appearance, human nobles and ordinary humans have almost nothing in common—looks, physique, constitution, talents, and even lifespan. Everything about the nobles is superior, determined from the moment of their birth.

A noble's offspring, no matter how mediocre, will still become a landowner with extraordinary powers. In contrast, commoners' offspring are usually just commoners, with very few exceptions finding opportunities to better their situation, although such chances are much rarer than for nobles.

This absolute imbalance of power results in nobles' contempt for their subjects, treating them insignificantly.

In the Lockman Kingdom, the tax levied on commoners, based on a normal farmer's income, is about thirty percent, regardless of whether the harvest is good or bad, which is considered quite fair among human realms.

As long as they are not lazy and due to the land enriched by elemental energies, commoners can usually meet the basic needs of their families after paying taxes. With a bit of extra effort, saving some money and enjoying meat during festivals is possible.

However, commoners living on some nobles' fiefs lead very hard lives. Nobles must pay taxes to the royal family each year, and they often pass these costs onto their subjects.

These common people, after paying the nobles' taxes, still endure further exploitation as the noble lords and their officials create additional tax laws to profit themselves.

Meeting a somewhat merciful lord, his subjects might live almost as well as those directly under the royal domain. If the noble's land contains special mineral resources, they might even live better.

But for the more severe and impoverished nobles, their subjects' lives are extremely miserable. The peasants toil all year only for the lord to take eighty to ninety percent of the harvest, barely leaving enough to prevent starvation.

Muria, having encountered many such nobles who treat their subjects like serfs during his travels across the Osnello continent, cannot stand to see people treated as animals.

"I wonder how many nobles in the Lockman Kingdom act like this?" Muria murmured to himself. "The laws must be rewritten, and only the royal family should dictate the taxes. Lords should have no right to alter tax laws."

The governance of the Lockman Kingdom is somewhat like the concurrent system of prefectures and feudalism during the Western Han period in his previous life, with lords having the right to build armies, enact laws, and levy taxes—each a king in his own right.

Spread across the kingdom, these noble lands are like countries within a country, hardly under royal control. Such a situation is intolerable for Muria, the current ruler.

"How can royal authority be so dispersed?"

"Summon all the ministers and all the nobles still in Scarlet to the council hall," Muria ordered Mia, the dragon-human maid beside him, who looked as young as a girl but as voluptuous as a mature woman.

"At your command, Your Highness!" Mia, summoned by Muria from the Titan Islands and now in charge of all domestic affairs within the palace, smiled sincerely as she relayed Muria's orders.

Soon, under the orders of the head steward Mia, hundreds of servants departed the palace to the residences of the ministers and nobles living in the city of Scarlet, conveying Muria's summons.

The notified nobles and resident ministers hurried to the palace's council hall, taking this first summoning by Duke Muria since his ascension very seriously.

Muria's initial show of power not only intimidated the various alien races but also all the nobles and ministerial officials. However, what truly kept them in check were the three thousand cloud giants and six hundred storm giants; the legendary ancient dragons, appearing in humanoid forms, were not present, so those not on the scene could not feel the chilling dragon might.

...Within half a moment, the grand and splendid council hall was neatly filled with nobles and officials. The most conspicuous were the twelve cloud giant leaders lined up on both sides, making the human dignitaries somewhat uneasy.

When Mia informed Muria that all the nobles and ministers had arrived, Mur

ia used a portal to cross the space and appear directly on the throne in the council hall, overlooking the crowd below without even getting a clear look at the individuals before declaring:

"I have decided to revoke all legislative powers from the noble lords!"

This statement, once made, changed the complexion of everyone in the hall except for the impassive giant leaders. Human dignitaries now looked quite unhappy; the duke had not yet warmed his seat before starting to cut down the nobles' powers.

However, those being cut were the landholding nobility, the real power holders, which did not concern most present. Most standing there were minor officials without even a title, and those with titles typically had no corresponding lands.

Thus, no one in the council hall spoke out against it, although a small group looked particularly troubled—these were the landholding nobles, directly affected by the decision.

"Effective immediately, whether nobles, officials, or lords, all are stripped of the right to arbitrarily impose tax laws. Only the monarch has the right to enact or repeal tax laws.

Aside from the tax laws enacted by previous kings, all privately established laws and tax provisions by noble lords are hereby abolished!"

This caused an uproar among all human dignitaries in the hall, and unable to contain themselves, someone stepped forward, trying to persuade Muria to retract his order.

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