Chapter 20 : Chapter 20
Chapter 20.
Chief of Staff Victor’s body swayed violently.
For a moment, he thought something was wrong with his ears.
Ten million?
What kind of concept was that?
That amount of money was enough to cover the Northern Legion’s military expenses for twenty years.
Those seven families had clung to the Northern Territory like parasites, sucking blood from this already starving wolf until they had drained even more than its own body weight.
“Those parasites!”
Victor trembled with anger.
“General, please calm down.”
Grayson pushed up his glasses.
“This is only the beginning.”
He turned to Sylvia and continued.
“Your Highness, we now possess this enormous sum of money, but the financial system of the Northern Territory has already rotted to the core.”
“If we do not establish a completely new and efficient taxation and financial system under our direct control, this money will be squandered within at most two years.”
“And the situation in the Northern Territory will not improve in any meaningful way.”
“The ‘loyalty’ that those surviving nobles delivered today is worth more than five million Golden Lion Coins.”
“But the total taxes they paid last year together did not even reach two hundred thousand.”
Grayson’s words were like a bucket of icy water poured over Victor’s head, extinguishing the excitement in his heart.
That was right.
They had killed seven greedy nobles.
But dozens still remained.
Today they could buy their lives with money.
Tomorrow they could return to their old habits of outward obedience and hidden resistance.
Sylvia’s eyes revealed a trace of thought.
“What is your plan?”
Sylvia asked.
“Your Highness.”
Grayson’s voice carried suppressed excitement.
“The rot in the Northern Territory’s finances comes from the greed of the old nobles and the lack of oversight.”
“I suggest that we immediately dismiss all city tax officers and replace them with our own people.”
“At the same time, we should establish an inspection unit directly under your authority to rigorously audit all accounts.”
“As long as we replace the personnel and establish strict regulations, we can protect this wealth and restore the Northern Territory’s finances to proper order.”
His plan was simple and straightforward.
Replace the people.
Strengthen oversight.
It was a solution that any clear-minded administrator might think of.
Chief of Staff Victor nodded in agreement.
Sylvia, however, frowned slightly.
This plan only treated the symptoms, not the root of the problem.
At that moment, a lazy voice sounded from the sofa.
“Different medicine in the same bottle.”
Logaris did not even lift his head from the thick leather-bound tome in his hands as he casually turned another page.
“You are simply replacing one group of parasites with another.”
“In a few years, they will rot the same way.”
“Because the soil that allows them to rot has not changed.”
Grayson wanted to argue, but he suddenly realized he had no words.
Logaris finally closed the book and pushed up his glasses.
Behind the pale blue lenses, a flash of rational clarity appeared.
“The core of a taxation system is not ‘who collects the tax.’”
“It is ‘who is taxed’ and ‘how the tax is collected.’”
He looked at Sylvia as if engaging in an academic debate.
“Why would you squeeze peasants who cannot even feed themselves?”
“Their production is already pitifully low.”
“If you take half of their harvest, they will simply starve.”
“What you should do is drastically reduce or even abolish the basic agricultural tax.”
“What?!”
Victor and Grayson cried out simultaneously.
“If you abolish the tax, where does the money come from?”
Even Sylvia found it unbelievable.
For the first time, she realized that the man’s mind contained more than magical formulas.
It also contained knowledge of governing a nation.
“Of course you take it from the people who should be paying.”
Logaris spoke as if stating an obvious truth.
“Commercial tax.”
“Establish progressive tax rates based on business scale and profit.”
“Should a small grocery store and a cross-city trade route pay the same tax?”
“Landholding tax.”
“The more land a person owns, the higher the tax rate.”
“The increase should be exponential, forcing large landowners to release idle land.”
“And luxury taxes.”
“All non-essential goods—southern spices, silk, expensive jewelry—should be heavily taxed.”
“In short,” Logaris concluded.
“The higher a class' income, the greater the cost it should bear to maintain this system.”
“Do not take the last copper coin from the poor.”
“Instead, cut the largest slice from the vaults of the rich.”
“That is a healthy fiscal cycle.”
The study fell into complete silence.
In Sylvia’s silver-gray eyes, an unprecedented shock flickered.
She had always believed she understood Logaris.
She knew he was a once-in-a-generation magical genius.
A mad researcher obsessed with magical theory.
But she had never imagined that his understanding of politics and economics would be so profound.
It even surpassed the learned financial ministers of the royal capital.
“I… I understand now!”
Grayson’s breathing suddenly became rapid.
A fanatic light burst from his eyes, as if enlightenment had struck him.
“Abolishing agricultural taxes will calm the lower classes and win the people’s hearts.”
“Progressive taxation will suppress the expansion of powerful nobles while greatly increasing fiscal revenue.”
“We could also… yes, we could introduce special resource taxes for different industries, such as mining and fur trading.”
“My heavens… this is an entirely new world!”
Seeing that Grayson had already begun extrapolating further ideas, Sylvia withdrew her complicated gaze from Logaris.
“Good.”
She interrupted Grayson’s excited rambling.
“Grayson, from this moment onward, I appoint you as the Acting Financial Overseer of the Northern Territory.”
“Your first task is to use Professor Logaris' theory as the framework and produce a complete tax reform proposal within three days.”
She drew the dagger at her waist and lightly tapped Grayson’s shoulder with the hilt.
“I grant you the highest authority.”
“Select your personnel from the guard I brought with me.”
“As for funding, you may freely allocate the confiscated assets.”
Grayson’s body trembled violently.
His eyes looked at Logaris with deep reverence.
Then he dropped to one knee before Sylvia, his voice trembling with excitement.
“Grayson is willing to die in service of Your Highness!”
In the corner, Lilith, who had been quietly pretending to be invisible, witnessed everything.
Her small mind could barely keep up.
They killed people.
They confiscated property.
Then they used the confiscated wealth to deal with things like agriculture and taxation?
In the underworld where she had lived, whenever someone seized money, they simply bought better equipment, recruited more people, and robbed even more money.
The princess and that man with glasses seemed to have minds that worked very differently from normal people.
…
At the same time.
While the upper circles of Winter City were shaken by this reshuffling of power, inside an inconspicuous residence in the city, several elderly men dressed in judicial officials’ robes had gathered together with dark expressions.
“This is lawlessness!”
“It is simply lawlessness!”
Chief Justice Herman slammed his hand on the table.
“Bypassing the Ministry of Justice, conducting trials directly, executing people directly, and even confiscating noble estates.”
“This is trampling on the kingdom’s laws!”
“Lower your voice, Herman!”
Another man hurriedly warned him.
“Do you want the princess' Shadow Guard to hear you?”
Herman’s anger faltered.
A trace of fear flashed across his face.
“Then… then what should we do?”
“Are we just supposed to watch her act recklessly?”
“Today she can kill nobles.”
“Tomorrow will she start eliminating old officials like us who refuse to obey?”
Silence filled the room.
After a long time, the oldest judicial official finally spoke quietly.
“We cannot defeat her.”
“Do not forget the man beside her, and those steel monsters.”
“But the Northern Territory belongs to the kingdom, not to the Winterhold family as private property.”
“She may ignore the rules of the Northern Territory.”
“But she cannot ignore the laws of the kingdom.”
He paused.
A sinister glint flashed in his eyes.
“Send someone to the royal capital.”
“Report everything that has happened here to His Majesty and the Privy Council.”
“Tell them that Her Highness the Princess is plotting rebellion in the Northern Territory.”