Foreign Land Reclamation By a Vegetable-growing Skeleton

If Shamara decided to settle in Dark City permanently, what would become of their Silver Knight squadron? Would they strive to annihilate Shamara to the death?

The curia would say: You can do away with fallen angels; what are those undead in the Dark City? Continue wiping them out, no excuses accepted.

If they didn’t attack and kept their distance, the curia would say: Why do we need you, let’s cut their funding.

Moreover, Terek already felt that with Anthony’s Eastern Diocese declaring independence, the whole atmosphere of the Church of Light had changed. The old ways of slacking off weren’t working well anymore. Could it be that the Silver Knights, who had been established for more than 200 years, were about to fall apart?

However, this worry was somewhat eased after hearing about the situation in the Goddess of Beauty City.

“You’re saying that a single treatment in this City of the Goddess of Beauty can cost up to tens of thousands of magic crystals? One treatment?” Terek asked in disbelief.

The vice-commander who brought the report was equally astounded, he nodded continuously adding, “Even more, if you choose many options, the cost multiplies. For instance, if a seventy-year-old woman wants to look ten, twenty, thirty years younger, the price is different. It’s different too for a fifty-year-old woman.”

“And that’s just for wrinkle removal, there are also treatments for skin whitening, skin softening, treating scars, bone carving, height increase, enhancement, and liposuction… Each one has a different price. I heard that Duke Leite’s mother spent a total of 600,000 magic crystals, and she ended up looking thirty years younger.”

Terek nearly lost his footing after hearing this, “600,000 magic crystals?” Don’t make a mistake thinking that since Ange easily makes tens to hundreds of millions of magic crystals, these crystals are worthless. 600,000 magic crystals is already equivalent to the annual tax revenue of a typical duchy.

“If we taxed it at 60%, wouldn’t we gain 360,000 magic crystals? That would cover three years’ allocation from the curia and this is just one transaction!” Terek murmured to himself.

Don’t think that a tax of 60% is absurd. These days, which commoner’s tax isn’t at this rate? Territories that tax at 50% are very rare, and places where the tax is 40%, would be ostracized and isolated by all the other lords. They wouldn’t play with you anymore, as you would be destroying market prices.

Tax rates across the world must be unified. Otherwise, the populace would drain away to lower tax regimes.

Good-hearted lords would stop after collecting taxes. However, some unscrupulous lords would also impose levies, or divide taxes into various names. Ordinary people, without specialized knowledge, couldn’t calculate how much tax they had paid. If they could, they would discover the tax reached up to seventy or eighty percent.

This led to many farmers going bankrupt, becoming slaves. Nobles and lords would buy their land at a low price, hiring these bankrupt farmers to cultivate their own former properties. Although they lost their freedom, the right of first night, personal rights etc., at least they could have enough to eat and wear.

This also caused situations where many places treated people worse than slaves, the Western District had these conditions far more severe than Anthony’s Eastern Diocese.

While Anthony was unable to prevent land consolidation, many years ago he enacted a law that stated if the faithful continued to decrease inside the Diocese, the tax adjustments targeted at that territory would increase from a 10% rate to a 50% rate or even a 100% rate.

This tax was aimed at the lords, which led to the lords of the Eastern Diocese leaving more room to maneuver when exploiting the common folks, so as not to drive them to death. When a disaster struck, their enthusiasm for relief would also be high. Otherwise, if too many people died of starvation, Anthony would take the opportunity to claim the decrease in the faithful as a reason to act against them.

Now that the City of Beauty had no lord, wouldn’t it make sense for him to represent the curia and tax at 60%?

Of course, Terek was just thinking about it. He didn’t yet know the details about the City of Beauty. What if it resisted the tax violently? But even if he couldn’t impose a 60% tax, a 50% or 10% tax was still acceptable.

One fifth of 600,000 amounted to 120,000, which was enough to offset one year’s allocation from the curia, enough to support their mixed forces of a few thousand. This way, even if they lost the support of the curia, they could still survive.

With his mind immersed in a beautiful fantasy, a stern shout suddenly came from the outside of the tent: “Who’s there!”

Soon, an alarm rang out, gradually fading as it rushed away.

Terek was on alert. It wasn’t long before a guard returned to report, “The Search Light caught a black warrior lurking outside the camp, we immediately gave chase with the Holy Spirit.”

“The Black Warrior? Is it Rogge from Dark City?” Terek was surprised. The black warrior was an artificially created undead, not anyone could create one. The only black warrior he knew of was Rogge.

“Seems like it.”

“Is he trying to assassinate me?” Terek was stupefied. If Rogge could assassinate him, he would have died tens of thousands of times already. To prevent assassination, he’d equipped all sorts of detection devices for travel and encampment.

The personal guards around him had undergone extensive anti-submarine training, and he himself was a God’s Knight, his strength was incomparable to a pretty-boy like Leonardo.

Knowing full well that it was impossible to assassinate him, why would Rogge still lurk outside his camp?

Terek immediately ordered, “Dispatch aerial units to scout the surroundings of our camp.”

Just as Terek’s order was issued, his vice-commander replied with an embarrassed look, “Sir, you forgot. Our last Goblin Airship defected. In recent times, the Sub-dragon Rider has constantly been harassed by a unicorn and he has been cursing at it for a week. The sub-dragon is getting a bit irritated.”

“Cursing? What is he cursing?” Terek asked in puzzlement. He would understand if it’s attacks by a unicorn, getting jabbed by a horn or kicked by hooves, but being cursed?