"Ledos, you've got some nerve — secretly trying to talk Earle into leaving the
Ledos shrugged and spread his hands in a helpless gesture, offering no defense. But Garrilando beside him was bristling, his beard bristling with indignation. "What about it? Can't I ask my own nephew to come back and help his own brothers? Kid Lorist, don't think you're all that just because you've become a Grand Duke and a Sword Saint — if you're so capable, why do you have to cling so tight to Earle and keep him from returning to his homeland? Now that
Ledos looked at Garrilando and let out another bitter smile. Lorist immediately understood — it had all been Old Ga stirring the pot. He remembered that one night last year, he had invited family knights who were old alumni of
Earle and Redi's position had been that they wanted Old Ga's family to relocate to their fief, which would make it convenient for them to visit and look after him. But the stubborn Old Ga had flatly refused to leave Morant City. Lorist and
The atmosphere had grown awkward. Lorist had said with self-deprecation, "Fine, Old Ga, you're a true Morant City man, a true free spirit. We won't ask you to leave Morant City..."
That night's affair had ended on a sour note. But what Lorist hadn't expected was that Old Ga still hadn't given up and was still trying to lure Earle and Redi back.
Lorist shook his head with a bitter smile. "Old Ga, would you stop stirring up trouble? To each his own. Earle and Redi are doing very well with our Norton Family. Earle has already established a family in the Northland, and Redi, though not officially married yet, has a son of his own. In another two years, Earle can be promoted to Viscount, and when that time comes, I'll trade him for a larger fief. What would he even do if you make him come back to Morant City? Back in the day, Earle was the big boss and Ledos was his subordinate. Now Ledos has become the Chief Administrator of the Free Alliance — you want Earle to go back and serve under Ledos? Have you given any thought to what that means for Earle's pride..."
Lorist had said enough to make his point. Garrilando was the elder of both Ledos and Earle, and there was nothing wrong with Ledos having made something of himself and wanting Garrilando to come help him. But Earle was a different matter. Setting aside that he had a promising future with the Norton Family and was Lorist's trusted and beloved commander, setting aside that he had married and had a child in the Northland — even just considering the old days in Morant City, Earle had been the gang's top boss with Ledos as his right-hand man and close brother. Now to ask Earle to give up his title and fief, flee the Norton Family, and return to Morant City to serve under Ledos — never mind whether it made any sense, just on the matter of pride alone, no man could stomach that.
"What does it matter? Between brothers, who's on top and who's on bottom — isn't it all the same?" Garrilando was still stubbornly insisting. He was a thick-headed man, still thinking in the old mercenary-band code from his youth — the greater your ability, the heavier the responsibility you should bear, and no sacrifice was too great for your brothers. "What's so great about being a Viscount? No matter how big the fief, it's still just some godforsaken, desolate wasteland with no one around. Morant City is just like it used to be — bustling and prosperous by the day, and it's his hometown! Why would he stay in the Northland suffering through hardship when he could come back?"
Moreover, what's so great about being a noble? Aside from oppressing your fief folk, it's all scheming and backstabbing, and fawning over the lords above you. Earle is an honest boy. Mixing with nobles like you, he'll easily be deceived and chewed up without a bone left. Don't let his current rank as legion commander fool you — that's only because you still need him. Once you don't, he'll be tossed aside like a used rag. I'm not just talking to you, young Lorist. Even if you value Earle and look after him for your entire life, what about your son? Your grandson? How will they treat Earle's descendants in the future? They could just as easily find some pretext and strip everything away from Earle's children. It'd be better for him to go back to Morant City early, live as a free man, and pass his days in peace..."
Lorist was caught between laughter and tears. So Old Ga had already thought all the way ahead to Earle's children and grandchildren — the man's imagination had gone far too far. Lorist couldn't help but feel a grudging admiration.
"Old Ga, aren't you overthinking this? Even if I were a Sword Saint, I couldn't guarantee how Earle's family would fare a hundred years from now. Besides, noble circles aren't the chaotic mess you imagine. I admit there are plenty of degenerates among the nobility, but the majority still uphold ancient traditions and virtues. Our Norton Family, for instance, is exactly like that.
What's more, I'm sorry to say your perspective is rather narrow. The Northland isn't some remote, desolate wasteland the way you describe it. Right now the Northland alone has over three million people — that's equivalent to three Morant Cities. And Earle's fief isn't even in the Northland — it's in Dremoch Province, hailed as the empire's granary. The land there is every bit as fertile as the Mana Hill Plains. Earle and Redi don't need to bleed their subjects dry; the fief's produce alone brings in over ten thousand gold Fordes per year."
"Like a used rag — right," Lorist continued. "Earle and Redi's fiefs currently have over thirteen thousand subjects between them, and each has assembled a hundred-strong garrison. Earle already has three Family Knights of his own, and Redi has two retainers. However, they've entrusted the administration of their fiefs to our family. Under the fifty percent tax rate, after contributing ten percent to the family coffers, they still keep forty percent of the fief's income — that's over ten thousand gold Fordes. Add in their salaries and benefits from serving in the family's armed forces, and their total annual income comes to roughly twenty thousand gold Fordes. That already exceeds the total income of many Counts with their own fiefs.
When Earle and Redi eventually retire from the family's armed forces, they can return to their fiefs and spend their later years in leisure and comfort. As for their children, per our family's rules, they must begin receiving a traditional noble education from a young age, then attend Nico Academy and Dawn Academy for over six years of cultural, academic, and character development. Those who prove talented can enter our Norton Family's military and administrative systems. The most exceptional might even be taken on as my personal disciple, just like Redi. So Old Ga, you really don't need to overthink things, let alone think the wrong way..."
"What did you say? Only a fifty percent tax rate?" This time even Ledos was astonished. That could well be the lowest agricultural tax on the entire Galentea Continent. The norm was sixty or seventy percent — the lord taking sixty or seventy percent of the harvest, leaving the farmers with forty or thirty. And that was considered the mark of a benevolent, kindly lord. Many lords took an eighty-twenty split, and the farmers who had toiled all year still couldn't feed their families. Take the Free Alliance, for instance — last year when they consolidated and reclaimed the farms around Thomas City and Gypses City, the tax on those redeveloped farms still reached sixty percent of the harvest.
A few years ago, the Merchant Alliance rallied everyone under the banner of sacrificing for the common good, and the farm tax on the Mana Hill Plains hit a heartless eighty-twenty split. To make matters worse, what the farmers grew wasn't staple grain but high-priced cash crops demanded by various trading companies. With only twenty percent of the harvest in hand, the farmers had to sell their crops first and then buy grain, getting squeezed by the trading companies again in the process. In less than three years, more than half of the independent farms on the Mana Hill Plains went bankrupt, and most of their land fell into the hands of the Ford Trading Company...
"Yes, our family's land tax policy is set at fifty percent, and it will always be fifty percent. Under our Norton Family's jurisdiction, no lord may levy an agricultural tax exceeding sixty percent. On top of that, miscellaneous taxes within our family's territory are set at ten percent, and commercial, workshop, and mining taxes generally fall between five and ten percent. There are even tax rebates and subsidies. Only certain luxury goods carry a tax above ten percent," Lorist replied firmly. He had originally wanted to push the agricultural tax down below thirty percent, but Fatty Shi had talked him out of it. After all, every lord across the entire continent charged these rates, and the Norton Family couldn't very well implement such a radical tax policy on its own — lest the noble circles ostracize them.
"Why do you do it this way?" Dolores asked, genuinely curious.
"It's simple. If the people have a bit more income, they can purchase the daily necessities our family produces. Only when they have enough to eat and wear can they find happiness and satisfaction, and only then will they work harder to produce and increase their own income. Our family treats the people as human beings, not as expendable labor to be squeezed for wealth," Lorist replied.
"It's still the same thing. You make it sound pretty, and sure, you can be a benevolent lord now. But what about your descendants? The moment a cruel and greedy lord comes along, everything goes right back to how it was. Never mind the poor commoners — even a landed noble like Eld, with a single word from your Norton Family, you could seize everything he owns. That's why for any person, freedom is the most important thing. Building a bright future with your own two hands, not living a happy life dependent on some lord's charity..." Garyland said with a cold laugh.
Lorist slapped his forehead in frustration. Old Ga was a deeply ideological freedom addict — the views he espoused were exactly what the million-odd citizens of Morant City commonly believed, and it was precisely what Lorist found most irksome. What was truly laughable was that while they openly slandered the landed noble system that had been practiced across the Galentea Continent for thousands of years, these so-called freethinkers had conveniently forgotten the fraudulent oppression the Merchant Alliance had subjected them to during its reign. They were nothing more than commoners in a different form, yet they were blissfully unaware of it — and even took pride in it.
Was there any such thing as true freedom in this world? Lorist was highly skeptical. As the histories of the Galentea Continent recorded, the Age of Reckoning had been followed by the Thousand-Year Darkness — without the Sword Saints and Sword Gods created by mages, humanity had been perpetually at a disadvantage in the struggle against magical beasts. It wasn't until humans rediscovered the use of combat force that they gradually rose to become the continent's masters. In the latter stages of the Thousand-Year Darkness, those who awakened their bloodlines and gained combat force became heroes and the people's pillars of support — they were the very first landed nobles.
The continental history following the Thousand-Year Darkness was nothing but the saga of these landed nobles vying for supremacy — fighting one another, annexing territory, and bending rivals to their will — until they ultimately forged the kingdoms that settled the Galentea Continent into its current configuration. From a critical standpoint, it was these landed nobles who brought war and sacrifice upon the people. But viewed from another angle, it was precisely they who gave the people of the continent order and progress, and who established the rules and traditional virtues that later generations of nobles would uphold for the next thousand years and more.
...happen to lower lords. A noble house like our Norton Family, with its many subordinate landed nobles, would never arbitrarily strip a vassal lord of his title or territory, nor would it casually threaten the lives and property of its subordinate nobles. The only exception was if a vassal lord committed an unforgivable crime or if there was irrefutable evidence of treason — and only with the confirmation and support of the other vassal lords could such a lord be punished.
In a sense, nobles are the supporters and guardians of the lawful order. We favor order and progress over the chaos of anarchism. And besides — have you freethinkers forgotten what life was like before our family's forces landed at Hidden Gold Bay and took Morant City, back when the Merchant Alliance still ruled over you? Do you really think that ration-based allocation system was true freedom?
I believe that only within the framework of an orderly system can an individual enjoy what they consider to be freedom — just as the Free Alliance does now, by establishing laws and regulations to safeguard the freedoms you city dwellers enjoy. It's really no different from the landed noble system. A benevolent lord treats his people like the Free Alliance. A harsh lord turns it into the Merchant Alliance. No matter how loudly you boast about your freedom, you're still living under some form of system — the only difference is that you don't officially have a lord, when in reality you're simply commoners of another sort..."
Old Ga fell silent. Though Lorist's words had been blunt, they weren't without merit. It was Ledos who raised a question: "Big brother Lock, there's something I've been worried about. The Free Alliance is newly formed, and there's no issue right now. But as it continues to develop, won't it end up like the Merchant Alliance? Won't the people who've gained wealth and prominence become dissatisfied with their ordinary status, and once again walk the same old path the Merchant Alliance took — becoming another Merchant Alliance?"
Lorist laughed. He understood exactly what Ledos was asking: "Of course there's a very real possibility. But that's a problem that likely won't arise for many years yet. The solution is actually quite simple — implement the hereditary peerage system."
"A peerage system?" Ledos blurted out anxiously. "Wouldn't that turn us right back into the Merchant Alliance?"
"No, the peerage system I'm proposing is nothing like what the Merchant Alliance practices." Lorist waved his hand dismissively. "The peerage system the Merchant Alliance implemented is nothing more than landed feudal nobility — that's the Merchant Alliance's greatest mistake and the root cause of Morant City's decline. What I'm talking about should actually be called an honorary title system. The idea is to make noble ranks a symbol of honor and status. For example, each rank would come with a fixed annual stipend, the right to establish a manor residence within designated areas, and different levels of ceremonial courtesy befitting each rank. Other than not holding actual territory, there would be no difference from landed nobles. This way, instead of everyone scattering their strength across their own merchant guild territories like the Merchant Alliance did, people would actually be motivated to work hard and serve the Free Alliance in order to obtain a noble title."
Ledos half-understood and half-remained confused. He murmured as he thought it over, "Would that actually work?"
Lorist said, "You can bring it back and discuss it with others when you return, see what they think. I'm just spitballing here."
Just then,
...