Chapter 53: Felt: Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill (Patreon)

Pay up?

Extortion. Blackmail!

The moment Cavendish III's words fell, Otto's brow furrowed.

He hadn't known about this at first. But Subaru Natsuki had trusted him enough to ask for his help managing the slums, so Otto had naturally studied every relevant point thoroughly. The Council of Wise Men had issued an explicit order: the slums were exempt from all taxes!

If this was an attempt at extortion, he had nothing to worry about. With so many people watching and the law on his side, he was confident Cavendish III couldn't make a scene openly.

"My lord, perhaps you aren't aware of this, but the slums' exemption from taxes is law, explicitly established by the Council of Wise Men. No matter how much money we make, there's no reason for us to hand any of it over, is there? Of course, since you take the kingdom's taxes so much to heart, I hold you in deep respect. Please allow me to send a portion of our commercial earnings to your residence later."

With filth like this, offering no sweetener at all was out of the question. Even if the man couldn't act openly, he had plenty of ways to sabotage business here. So Otto gritted his teeth and, with no other choice, promised a bribe.

By his reckoning, that should have been enough.

But.

"Heh… hehehe. Commoners will always be commoners!"

Cavendish III burst into wild laughter, eyeing Otto, who thought he had the upper hand. He gestured to his lackey, who took the order and promptly pulled out a stack of paper documents.

Cavendish III snatched them up and flung them, slapping the whole stack against Otto's face with deliberate humiliation. He roared with smug laughter. "This is exactly why I've always said it: what right do paupers and commoners have to talk about the kingdom? You? What grade of commoner are you, to presume to discuss the kingdom's laws with me?"

"Use those dog eyes of yours and look carefully. Anything that has passed through the hands of a high noble like me, and you don't read it on your knees? Do you even deserve to live? Heh, never mind. Kneeling or not, you'll die sooner or later anyway."

Under Cavendish III's brazen, open threat, one of the knights in the escort, a purple-haired man who was the strongest of everyone present, turned grim. He ground his teeth and said, "Lord Cavendish, please watch your words. Even if you are a noble, you have no right to threaten the kingdom's people with death for no reason!"

"—Shut up, Julius. Who do you think you're talking to?"

Cavendish III snapped right back. "You're nothing but an ordinary knight in the Order. Even your captain, Marcos, has to treat me with the utmost respect. With your rank, you dare talk back to me?"

"Besides, where was the threat? Is your head full of water, or just broken? I said commoners die sooner or later. Is that wrong? Or can they live forever? If they're bound to die eventually, what did I say that's incorrect? How dare you read malice into my words. You've got a hell of a nerve, mutt."

"Or is it that, after clinging to that merchant from Kararagi, who only wandered into our high-noble circles on a scrap of dumb luck, you now think your station lets you stand level with me? What a delusion!"

Julius closed his eyes and breathed deeply.

If he'd had a choice, he wouldn't have come today at all. This was nothing short of aiding a tyrant.

But unfortunately, even after becoming Lady Anastasia's first knight, he had never resigned his post in the Order. Today just happened to be his shift, and this notorious piece of filth had turned up with an order from the Council of Wise Men to throw his weight around, requisitioning twenty or thirty knights, Julius included.

The stated purpose was: "To collect taxes. Unruly commoners may riot and resist, so an escort is needed for safety."

Even as the first knight of Lady Anastasia, a Royal Selection candidate, Julius had no standing to defy the Council of Wise Men. As a knight of the kingdom, any order the Council issued, he could only obey loyally.

But he truly couldn't bear to watch. It was intolerable that his sword and his strength were being used to help a man like this terrorize innocent people, people who had finally survived through their own efforts and built up some wealth!

Even so, he could only follow the Council's orders. At this moment all he could do was grind his teeth and say, word by word:

"Please show some self-respect, Lord Cavendish. It's true that I am a knight of the kingdom, but if you insult Lady Anastasia, I cannot guarantee what I will do!"

"Tch!"

Cavendish III clicked his tongue and finally stopped slandering Anastasia. A Royal Selection candidate might not compare to a crown prince in the conventional sense, but in the entire kingdom they ranked just below the Council of Wise Men. No matter how much he looked down on them, he couldn't openly disparage them in public.

Damn them, damn them, damn them!

Ever since the entire royal family had died off from a bizarre illness, he had been the highest-ranking person in the kingdom. And now there were five dog-lucky bastards who dared to outrank him!

The thought that five false nobles were sitting on top of him, a true high noble, made Cavendish III so furious he wanted to kill someone.

But he couldn't lay a hand on the Royal Selection candidates. So for now he could only vent his rage on the slums, which he had already earmarked as his own: a place to supply him with an endless flow of money and commoners to torment and slaughter.

While Cavendish III and Julius bickered, Otto had already picked up the documents that had been thrown at him. His eyes swept over them quickly, and shock and anger, plain for anyone to see, flooded his face.

"How could this be… The Council of Wise Men, just how far will they—"

If cursing the Council of Wise Men in public hadn't handed them an excuse to execute him on the spot, even Otto would have been unable to hold back his curses.

The documents all bore the Council's seal. They stated that, given the slums' present earning power, the kingdom would reinstate taxation there, and that the kingdom would also fulfill its obligation to provide the slums with support.

To hell with obligation!

Now that the place had money and could support itself, what obligation did they need to fulfill for it?

When the slums were poor, they used "no taxes" as an excuse to give no help. Now that the slums were rich, they changed their tune at once?

On top of that, the documents said that because it was Cavendish III who had brought the slums' daily stream of earnings to the Council's attention, then in addition to the taxes owed to the kingdom, the slums must immediately hand over ownership and control of the entire district, unconditionally, to the Cavendish ducal house.

"Finished reading? Commoner, since you're done, why not get on your knees and call me master? The rest of you filth, too, all of you together—"

"—I'll kill your whole family, you mongrel!"

Cavendish III was sneering wildly, ready to humiliate Otto further, but before he could finish, a furious curse had already come roaring across the distance!