[D'sP] Where Taxes And Magic Meet - Chapter 516 (Patreon)

Darren squeezed the bridge of his nose, ears lying flat. “I feel we’re talking past each other right now. You’re acting like we need something from you.”

The cocky guy leading the other merchants who were taking advantage of the coin imbalance sticks his hands in the pockets of his blue jeans and snorts. “I think you’re underestimating how much of the market on coins we’ve managed to corner!”

Darren glances over at Ace with a raised eyebrow.

Ace shrugs, “This is your show. I give you permission to handle things in whatever way you think is best for the town.”

The merchants are all watching this interaction and miss Jim on Darren’s other side, smirking.

Darren turns back to the merchants, “Does your group at least have a name? I’m not going to write all your names down every time I need to refer to you all in paperwork.”

Behind Mr. Blue Jeans, the other merchants laughed among themselves at something.

Not that Mr. Blue Jeans keeps it a secret for long. “You hear that? We’re laughing at you for not knowing! How can you run a town and not know the name of the biggest merchants guild in the entire community!

“My pants aren’t just me showing off. See, I wear the pants in this talk so I get to literally wear the pants! We’re the Blue Jean Cooperative. Besides us who are here, I’ve got probably three times this many people out and about making money.

“Hells bells! The only reason so many of us are here is to gather coin. You think it’s been hard to use them because they’re rare? This isn’t the only dungeon and the other started out more generous. We’re rich! You can’t stop us at this point.” He takes a step back with a cocky smirk.

Darren sighs, “I had noticed an occasional coin making its way here that wasn’t from us or the system.”

Mr. Blue Jeans frowns, “Not sure how even one got here! We’ve been careful to keep them away. Less coins people realize there are, the better price we get! Meh, that was going to stop mattering soon enough.”

Darren rifles through some papers on his desk before holding one up. “Okay, I can see your game. You do realize it is impossible for you to come even close to monopolizing the system currency? Eventually everything opens up and your hoards of coins will be worth just as much as any other coins out there.”

Mr. Blue Jeans scoffed, “A hundred years is a long time! We can set things up well before then. Give us a few years and we’ll be the ones who own the dungeon.”

Darren nods, “I can see why you’d think that. So, there’s nothing I could say that would convince you to help stabilize the market?”

Mr. Blue Jeans, “Why would I? We’re making Money! Making it hand over fist! No way, no how are we going to help with that nonsense.”

Darren, “No room for negations? Nothing we could do to make you reconsider?”

Mr. Blue Jeans rolls his eyes, “Are you deaf or something? I said no! We already offered for you to buy our coins, but now? Even that’s off the table. Others will buy for more.”

Darren places the paper down and fixes him with a steady stare, “I’m asking one final time. Will you help our town stabilize the coin problem?”

Now a bit angry, Mr. Blue Jeans crosses his arms and raises his voice, “We’re going to make more money than you can offer! I’m actually tempted to destabilize things here even more.

“I’m starting to think you don’t understand the situation you’re in! Sure, you’re strong, but we all are. Maybe when the world finally opens up to the rest of the universe, someone will be around that can suppress the winds and the waves with personal power. We aren’t even close to that, and money? It still makes the world go round.

“And guess what? We have the money! While you guys? You have a single town out of so many. I bet you haven’t even seen more than a couple places. Me? I’ve been to all four corners of our community!

“Help you ruin our advantage? Screw that noise. Have fun selling steaks for nothing.” He turns to the others with him, “Guy’s? Time for us to head out!”

He moves to leave, but Darren speaks up, “Just a second. I do have one last thing to tell you.”

Mr. Blue Jeans turns back with a smirk, “Oh, is it time for you to beg?”

Darren waves that off, “Oh no, I have something else to tell you.”

Mr. Blue Jeans, “Why would I bother listening to something a small-town merchant like you has to say?”

Darren shakes his head, “I’ve heard your people have a saying about how not knowing history dooms you to repeating it. Well, maybe we simply didn’t make a big enough example? Eh, it was before my time here.”

Mr. Blue Jeans raises an eyebrow, “What are you even talking about? Get on with it! Time is money and my time is worth infinitely more than yours.”

Darren, “We weren’t rude or anything. We even covered the room and board for you to come to this meeting.”

Mr. Blue Jeans shrugs, “So? A stay at your inn and breakfast doesn’t mean we have to do what you want.”

Darren waves his hands in denial, “No, no, no. I’m not trying to use that as leverage. I’m just setting down the facts that your group who named yourselves the Blue Jean Cooperative stayed here and we offered proper hospitality.

“Anyway, you denied is three times and spat on our hospitality. Because yes, we know how you treated our people. So, with the authority invested in me by both the people and Ace, I declare you to be Sanctioned by the town of Wolf’s Rest until the quarantine of the planet falls. All goods except for our coins, since that is what you care about and desire the most, will now cost you more.

“Now, please leave. Since you decided our hospitality isn’t worth anything, we retract it. You are free to return to your rooms to retrieve your things, but you will not stay the night and will have to find your own accommodations if you plan to stay.”

Mr. Blue Jeans laughs, “Oh, scary. What? You’re going to tax us? Heh, good luck with that. At most, we’ll just send someone else to handle it for us. And stay another night? Why would I want to waste my time doing that?” And with that, he and his group leave.

Darren, Ace, and Jim wait for them to leave their hearing range, which for Jim is quite extensive.

Jim nods to the others, “They’re gone.”

Ace sighs, “Well, that could have gone better.”

Darren rolls his eyes, “But you didn’t expect it to. There’s a reason you set them up. I followed the money and their attempts at market control were obvious once the Barrais started getting reports in. Not that they made it hard. No matter what they said, they were not good at it.”

Jim gets a distant look in his eyes, “I wouldn’t say that. What they did? Pre-system? It would have worked. They could have manipulated things anonymously and you’d need more than some spies to uncover it. The problem is you can’t just call up someone from across the world.

“Oh, sure, they took precautions, but when you have to personally meet others? Well, a well-placed spy will uncover uncountable sins. Then you just follow the people back to the source. And the Barrais? They trained us some good operatives.”

Darren, “Whatever. Even if I might not uncover the whole, our merchants uncovered the plot. Though I really would like to know why you didn’t let me counter their plans. Everything went down now before they were ready because the dungeon changed. Otherwise?

“They would have had the time they needed. It would not be out of the realm of possibility for that group to have gathered ninety percent or more of the coins. Even with your plan, it’s hard to come back from that.”

Jim, “And will the plan work? I know that the system can automatically tax people within the town, but will it actually take a cut anytime they buy something of ours outside as well?”

Ace’s eyes gleamed, “If we wanted to just depend on the system? No, no, it wouldn’t. Which is exactly why they scoffed at us. While I don’t think much of them. They didn’t get into their current position by being idiots.

“They built a merchant group up from nothing and got this far. For that to happen, they have to be knowledgeable about the system because that’s what runs the world. That’s why they so offhandedly threw out that they planned to get around the sanction by sending someone else.

“It would work. The system isn’t going to track things back to them so as long as it isn’t them personally coming to town? Well, that isn’t going to work anymore.”

Jim, “I know this sort of thing worked on that person years ago, but that was kind of a different situation.”

Ace, “Well, even if this doesn’t work? We have a dungeon that produces everything we need, including money. They can’t even freeze us out because adventurers will always be willing to come train in our dungeon. Nevermind what happens when we connect up with other communities.

“Though honestly? Even if they did end up driving everyone away, we would be fine. We survived that before, and we can again. They don’t realize how strong we have become.

“However, I don’t see this not working. The beliefs and rituals behind things like hospitality and names are quite strong. There’s a reason we went through all that.

“We had them name themselves, admit they dishonored our hospitality, and denied our attempts at reasonable negotiations three times. That’s a heavy amount of magic wrapped up into it.”

Jim, “Was it an honest attempt to negotiate?”

Darren nods, “Part of him giving me permission was transferring the rights to actually make a deal. If they had negotiated with us in good faith? At the very least, that part would have fallen through. Instead, they completely denied all three attempts.”

Ace, “If what the Tower has managed to figure out about this kind of magic is true? Then anytime they buy something of ours, the system will extract a fee. They might not even notice at first.”

Jim, “How far does it go? As in, what counts as being a product of our town?”

Ace shrugs, “Goods and Labor spiritually from our town. If someone grows up in another town, only to come and train for a year in the town? Hiring them as guards would count as hiring someone from our town. If they buy an arrow with a bronze arrowhead made of our metal? That will depend on the quality of the rest of the arrow.

“If they just took a regular arrow and stuck our arrowhead in it? Well, that’s not going to count. If instead the arrow was made because of our arrowhead? Then it does count. As with a lot of things like this, it goes more by feel. It is entirely possible to buy something made entirely from stuff taken from our dungeon, but not count because the work to make it counted for more.

“Opposite of that, something made mostly from other stuff outside of town, might count as ours because they incorporated a tiny bit of mithril from our dungeon. It all depends. Though the reality of it is, they’re going to be hit the hardest by food. Most of it in the community comes from us. They’re going to be in a restaurant halfway across the community and order a steak, only for us to get our pound of flesh as well. And the system isn’t going to barter with them. It’s going to take system coins.”

Finishing Up The Loot Distribution - Chapter 515

The Hidden Cost Of Dinner - Chapter 517