Chapter 128: Morning in Rome (4)

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The verdict was made according to what Parsi and I discussed beforehand.

“The fact that you were neglectful when neighboring villages were showing signs of revolting and the fact that you guys acted arbitrarily without reporting to me first are sizable crimes. However, your action of taking care of the traitors hastily has made it clear that you all have no intentions to conspire against me. Therefore, I shall place a prohibition on the three village chiefs. Additionally, I will be seizing their assets.”

I confiscated the three village chiefs’ assets. I didn’t take the tribute that the villages had prepared. The villagers praised my verdict for being so magnanimous. 

From the perspective of the villagers, it must seem like the village chiefs had sacrificed themselves for the villages. It’s almost obvious where most of the tribute I’m returning to them is probably going to go. It’d be like burying your head in the sand. Thanks to this, the village chiefs and I should be able to save face.

I sent a group of goblins to the remaining villages.

Three days later, envoys from the villages arrived at my Demon Lord Castle. They prostrated at the entrance of my dungeon and begged. They pleaded for me to forgive them.

They had a taste of ‘a life where monsters don’t attack’. They were able to focus purely on farming while not having to worry about anything else. They didn’t even need to make a militia. They desperately didn’t want to return to how things were before. 

“There will be a 70% tax rate.”

Even if this is normal in this era, it is still considered a heavy tax rate. The elders of these villages will thank me at first for forgiving them, but complaints will naturally come pouring out over time. They will naturally start to question why they have to pay a 70% tax simply for the protection against goblins.

This is where I employed an expedient. 

The more they take part in miscellaneous tasks like water conservation efforts, the more I will lower their taxes.

“I will decrease your taxes the more you work for this region. Do your best to work for the sake of those around you.”

The actual tax rate is 40% for working civilians. They only have to offer 40% of their profits.

A 40% tax rate was something so generous that citizens would make songs about the magnanimity of their lord. Afterward, I continued pushing forward this 40% tax rate for working citizens. Well, the villages that didn’t take part in the treason don’t have to pay any taxes. This is probably appropriate.

Furthermore, I didn’t put my hands on their second crop of barley. Normally, farming consisted of growing and harvesting wheat and then growing and harvesting barley. They would harvest 2 crops a year. I only applied taxes to their wheat harvest.

“This should be enough to prevent them from starving to death, right?”

I asked Laura while I was consulting her about this. Laura was the esteemed daughter of a dukedom. I wanted to rely on her since I figured she would be well informed about matters regarding taxes, but.

“I apologize, Lord, but this young lady is completely ignorant when it comes to territory management.”

Come to think of it, Laura was ostracized in her household as well. She was most likely excluded from any sort of education classes meant for successors. There was no way she could have been taught about advanced work like territory management. She wasn’t reliable at all…….

“It is disappointing to know that my one and only vassal in name is this incompetent.”

“Ugh……. T-This lady helps when it comes to military tactics. Is that not enough!?”

Laura’s face became red as she retorted.

You’re originally supposed to become a prominent figure who reaches the position of chancellor in the Kingdom of Brittany, you know? How could the chancellor of a nation be well versed in military affairs but absolutely pathetic when it comes to politics? I worry for that nation’s future. Ah, the Kingdom of Brittany does fall into ruin in <Dungeon Attack>. This explains their collapse.

“Military tactics are not necessary at this moment. It will be a very long time before we participate in another war. This means that you are useless until that very distant future. What a splendid freeloader.”

“Uuuuuh.”

Laura glared up at me in frustration. It was cute.

I shrugged.

“It cannot be helped. There is only one thing that you can do now, Laura.”

“What is that? Lord, please tell me. This young lady will do her best.”

“As long as Laura’s head is useless, the only thing you have left is your body.”

Laura’s expression quickly became blank. It was like the face of a scholar who had just lost their country.

“N-No way.”

“Stick your butt this way.”

“No! I clearly told you that I cannot do it anymore, Lord! Uh, hhk!”

Laura resisted desperately, but she ended up becoming a single meal in the end. A pleasant sound effect rang in my ear at that moment.

「Laura De Farnese’s job (Sex Slave) level has increased!」

Among Laura’s jobs, her Sex Slave job had ranked up from C to B. It was a useless job that only lowered your politics and charm stats. Nevertheless, I ended up discovering a hidden merit from the Sex Slave job.

In others……your sex slave level determined your quality when it came to things related to sex. The higher your level, the better you feel!

Sure enough, the sensation wrapping around my member became tighter the instant her level increased. It almost felt like a hot slime was doing its best to tighten around me.

We did it for 6 hours that day.

“…….”

Laura was KIA. She was collapsed on the corner of the bed. Her final moments were glorious.

“Phew. I have defeated the enemy general.”

“…….”

I uttered a complacent line, but Laura didn’t respond. She must’ve passed out. I had enough stamina to make a lively 17-year-old girl pass out. I scooped up a bowl of water to drink while feeling a strange sense of conquest.

After my carnal desire had swept through my body and left, only a realistic concern remained. How should I manage my territory?

“Mm.”

Although I know how to draw the full picture, I’m not confident when it comes to doing the actual work.

This wasn’t like Margrave Rosenberg’s territory. Procedures like tax rates had already established themselves there through hundreds of years of traditions. All I had to do was sign the documents that came up.

On the other hand, the situation was different for the mountain villages around my Demon Lord Castle. These villages were created after being chased away by their original lords’ tyranny and the invasion of monsters. An area where the authority of their lords could not reach and also only had goblins for monsters. These were probably the best geographical conditions one could find.

And then I appeared all of a sudden. I have to build up systems like tax rates from scratch. Similar to how people say the beginning determines half of everything, what we do now will determine the picture my territory will draw in the future. I can’t be even slightly careless.

A savior arrived at this moment.

Three weeks after I practically escaped from the Crescent Alliance, a pink-haired succubus visited my Demon Lord Castle.

“I apologize. Logistics work had piled up, so I could only arrive now.”

Lapis bowed courteously as she spoke.

“From this day forth, I will resume my work as Sir Dantalian’s exclusive merchant again. Please take care of…….”

“Laaaaaapis!”

“Miss Lapis―!”

Laura and I ran up to her at the same time. We latched onto Lapis’ pant legs and cried.

No matter the time and place, Lapis boasted her cold and impassive face at all times. Even though a lord and his vassal were making a scene crying next to each other―they were also both naked―she was completely unfazed. She raised a brow as she looked down at us.

“……What is the matter?”

“My territory! The taxes! The laws! I don’t know where to begin!”

“His Lordship is a sexual fiend! He has his way with this young lady hundreds of times a day. I cannot endure this any longer. Miss Lapis, please stop His Lordship’s sexual appetite!”

Lapis let out a sigh.

“Please talk one at a time.”

Lapis had the most seniority in territory management.

She first listened to the idea I had set up for the villages. Lapis calmly listened to what I had to say before nodding.

“That should be enough. However, there are some parts that need to be fixed.”

“I figured.”

I chuckled.

“First, there is an issue with the tax reduction policy. Being able to lower your taxes through compulsory labor is good; however, how do you intend to determine how much work a person has done? You cannot choose a different supervisor every day and tell them to report to you.”

“Ah.”

She was right.

Compulsory labor is just manual labor. Let’s say that we are going to create a reservoir. Dozens of people would come to work. In this situation, how would I accurately calculate the total amount a person has contributed to the construction? I’d just be hazarding a guess.

“Leaving it to the village chiefs……is out of the question.”

“That is correct. You would be dividing your authority.”

If I leave this task to the village chiefs, then their authority would increase immensely.

The villagers would desperately try to appease the village chiefs. Everyone could do the same amount of work, but those closer to the village chiefs would be reported as having done more work. Ultimately, they would receive a higher tax reduction than others. What would the people who receive the tax reduction do? They would give about half of what was reduced to the village chiefs.

In the end, not only would the village chiefs be in charge of everything, but they would also become wealthy proprietors as well. If it’s like this, then I would only be exerting my ability while the village chiefs monopolize all of the profits.

“What should I do?”

“There is a simple and effective solution. Apply the reduction rate on the entire village and not on each individual person. You can reduce the tax rate according to the efforts of the entire village.”

“Aha!”

My eyes widened on their own. What a splendid solution.

In other words, I could order them to build this and that and reduce their taxes altogether once they’ve accomplished their tasks. There would be no need to make complicated calculations, then. 

“Additionally, you would not have to worry about slackers.”

“Slackers would get berated by everyone in the village since they would all be trying to help each other!”

“If a single person makes a mistake, then their entire village would be incurring a loss. This will naturally promote a joint responsibility environment.”

Not only would this make calculation easy, but it would also get rid of one of the deep-seated weaknesses of labor, laziness. This was quite literally killing two birds with one stone. I couldn’t help but be in awe.

“Amazing. How did you think of such a solution?”

“I am undeserving of such praise. This solution is not that impressive.”

Lapis responded impassively. She must genuinely believe that it wasn’t that impressive.

However, Lapis managed to prevent numerous harmful consequences by only slightly altering the direction of my policy. This wasn’t something that a normal person could do. ……If the intrigue Parsi and I utilized was considered dark politics, then what Lapis had displayed was true politics.

‘Status’.

I checked Lapis’ stats.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Name: Lapis LazuliRace: Half-Succubus　　 Faction: Keuncuska FirmAttribute: Neutral(-10)

Level: 25　　　　Fame: 194Job: Merchant(A-), Witch(B), Swordsman(D)

Leadership: 59　　Might: 32 　　Intelligence: 57Politics: 76　　Charm: 50　　Technique: 2

Affection: 50Loyalty: 82

*Titles: 1. Rags-to-Riches 2. Keuncuska Merchant*Abilities: Trading(B+), Accounting(B+), Arithmetic(B), Dissemination(C), Swordsmanship(D)*Skills: –

Current thought: ‘……He praised me.’━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[Titles]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Her politics stat had exceeded 70. This was a radiant number compared to Laura’s 10 points in politics.

Lapis’ politics ability most likely focalizes her actual work while I specialize in intrigue and schemes.

Even if two people have the same exact 70 points in politics, their abilities will differ depending on their specialization. For example, this is an assumption, but most of Barbatos’ politics points are probably slotted into faction management. She’s a veteran when it comes to dealing with conflicts between factions and mediating relations. However, she’s most likely weak when it comes to territory management.

‘I’m glad I recruited Lapis to my side early. My discerning eye is never wrong.’

Lapis spoke up carefully while I was in the middle of feeling pleased. She was acting unusually hesitant.

“Sir Dantalian, what I told you definitely was not something impressive.”

“Hm? No. It’s amazing. You did well. Sheesh, I feel like I can finally breathe now.”

“Then, would it be all right to ask for a small reward?”

I nodded.

“Of course! Tell me what you want! I’ll grant you anything.”

“……Anything?”

For an instant, Lapis’ eyes shimmered.

***

TL Note: Thanks for reading the chapter. Sorry about the late chapter. I finished this awhile ago, but my editor was gone for a couple of days. The next chapter will probably have a delay because I’ve been suffering from indigestion. I’ve been feeling nauseous and I couldn’t eat anything yesterday. I don’t feel that bad today, but I might as well get some proper rest.

I’ll see you guys in the next chapter once I’m better.