Chapter 11
On the morning of my second day in Tessis, a fierce-looking man came to see me.
Glen said the man looked suspicious and offered to drive him away, but I permitted the visit and had him brought into my study.
Because I knew who he was.
“How did it go?”
At my question, the man snorted.
“Bandits? What bandits? We kept watch for four whole days, and instead of seeing any bandits, people passed through just fine.”
Just as I expected.
The man was the “fixer” I had hired through the labor agency in Herona.
To put it simply, he was a mercenary.
Hiring them had cost me almost all of the savings I had withdrawn in Herona.
And that was only the advance payment.
Even so, I was confident that this operation would bring in funds far exceeding what I had spent on them.
“If there aren’t any bandits, then we’ll have to create some.”
“Are you ordering us to carry out Plan B?”
“Yeah. Do it professionally, without any casualties. You know what I mean, right?”
“You do know that’ll cost a little more, don’t you?”
There was really no need for him to make it rhyme at a time like this.
In any case, I nodded.
About two hours after he left, Glen returned from going out and reported,
“The head of the Merchants’ Association says he’d like to meet you today if possible. What shall we do?”
“The sooner, the better. Time is money.”
So, at around five that evening, I found myself sitting across from the representatives of the Merchants’ Association in the reception room of the baron’s estate.
The news of the deaths of the baron and baroness had apparently already spread throughout Tessis.
They entered wearing solemn expressions, offered their condolences, and then took their seats.
But I could see straight through the thoughts they were trying so hard to hide.
‘You’re happy that a young girl has become the ruler of this territory, aren’t you? You can’t wait to strip every last bit of flesh from her bones, can you?’
As if I’d let you.
Sure enough, once they finished offering a few words of mourning, Baker, the chairman of the association, began his pitiful act.
“I hate to bring this up at a time like this, but the commercial district of Tessis is in terrible shape. Every time we transport goods from Erandor, we organize a militia to escort them, but we’re still losing a considerable amount to bandits in the form of tolls.”
Erandor was the closest commercial city to Tessis.
Grasico Forest lay along the road to Erandor.
It was also the place I had passed through while escaping from Viscount Turner’s territory.
“That’s why we’ve been providing subsidies for the militia until now. We even reduced your taxes temporarily.”
“That alone isn’t enough. At this rate, we’re all going to go under.”
For someone claiming that, your clothes look awfully expensive.
But perhaps they truly saw me as nothing more than a naive little girl, because they kept piling one absurd lie on top of another.
“Last time, they even stole an entire wagon. The marketplace had no goods to sell for quite some time because of it.”
“If the militia couldn’t stop the bandits even after receiving subsidies, is there any reason to keep maintaining it?”
“Ah, haha! Well, when I said ‘last time,’ I meant before we organized the militia.”
“Then things are fine now. So what’s the problem?”
Apparently, they hadn’t expected me to question them like that.
They busily exchanged glances with one another.
“W-Well… after seeing our militia, the bandits started bringing in even more of their companions.”
“That’s right! If this keeps up, our goods will be stolen again, and the situation in Tessis will become much worse.”
“What if rumors spread that life has become harder the moment you became our new lord, Miss?”
Oh, please.
Since when were you all so concerned about me?
I barely suppressed the urge to laugh and simply nodded.
“So what you’re saying is that you want me to bring in people to wipe out the bandits myself?”
“N-No! How could we possibly burden you with something like that, Miss? You’ve already been through so much.”
“Then what do you want?”
“We’ll try gathering more men ourselves. So if you could increase the subsidy and postpone the tax deadline…”
That was an awfully long-winded way of saying you wanted to bleed me dry.
I silently stared at them, deliberately letting the silence drag on.
They seemed to grow increasingly anxious, yet none of them backed down.
Then again, they probably thought manipulating a twenty-year-old girl would be easy.
“Fine.”
I said that while flipping through the ledger Glen had given me.
“I’ll take the reserve funds from the baron’s estate and use them to increase the militia subsidy.”
“What?”
The one who reacted was Glen.
Unable to stop me in front of the Merchants’ Association, he could only gape in disbelief.
Meanwhile, smiles spread across the merchants’ faces.
Don’t worry, Uncle Glen.
I’m going to teach those bastards a lesson they’ll never forget.
“But I have one condition.”
“A condition? Please, tell us, Miss.”
“If I’m supporting you this much, then your goods shouldn’t be getting stolen in the forest anymore.”
“So the tax deadline for the second half of the year stays exactly as it is.”
“The tax rate will also remain unchanged.”
“W-What? B-But…”
“Why?”
“Are you trying to avoid paying taxes forever?”
“N-Not at all!”
“I know Father overlooked your situation several times.”
“This is your last chance.”
I snapped the ledger shut.
“If you keep whining after I’ve gone this far for you, then you’re simply incompetent.”
“And I have absolutely no intention of accommodating incompetent people.”
Unable to completely hide their displeasure, they forced awkward smiles onto their faces.
I wondered how long that arrogant attitude would last.
‘You think you’re going to steal my money? Not a chance.’
As I left the reception room, I tightened my lips to suppress the sneer threatening to appear.
The curtain had risen on the play I had prepared for them.
☆☆☆
“She doesn’t know the first thing about anything, yet she’s trying to act like a baron. Heh.”
“Go easy on her. Personally, I’m glad Miss Rosalyn became the Baron.”
“Ah, I hope she doesn’t get married anytime soon. Hahaha!”
The executives of the Merchants’ Association left the Baron Tessis estate praising themselves for pulling off another successful scheme.
Adam Tessis had been a lazy lord who was easily influenced, making life very convenient for them.
Now that the even more foolish Rosalyn had become the ruler, their profits were bound to grow even larger.
“We’ll take our share first and split the rest as usual.”
“Honestly, we should increase our share.”
“The others are making easy money thanks to us.”
“That’s true.”
“Let’s increase our percentage this time.”
“If anyone complains, we’ll just throw them out of the association.”
Even while enjoying money they hadn’t earned, they were busy scheming to increase their own share even further.
They were scheduled to travel to Erandor to purchase goods two days later.
None of them were worried in the slightest.
No bandits had ever appeared in Grasico Forest.
Nor had they ever lost any merchandise there.
“Oh, right.”
“How much are you investing in this buying trip?”
At Baker’s question, the others shrugged.
“I’m going big.”
“Now that we’ve received today’s money, I’m planning to buy even more fabric.”
“I’m spending a lot this time too.”
“The wheat harvest season is coming soon.”
“People always spend more money around then.”
“Then should we take Randolph’s wagon along this time too?”
“I think we should.”
Everyone answered while laughing heartily, filled with dreams of making enormous profits.
But their happy dreams were completely shattered on the way back from Erandor with their wagons full of goods.
“B-Bandits! It’s bandits!”
Before the shout from the front of the merchant caravan could even reach the rear, masked men surrounded the merchants.
There weren’t many of them.
But judging from their weapons, physiques, and intimidating presence, they were obviously experienced fighters.
“Well, they said if we waited in Grasico Forest, prey would come walking right to us.”
“They were right.”
“W-Who are you people?”
When Baker summoned his courage and shouted, the leader of the bandits let out a scornful snort.
“Who are we?”
“Can’t you tell just by looking?”
“You people must’ve been living very peacefully.”
Gasps could be heard throughout the caravan.
As if he had heard them, the man who appeared to be the bandits’ second-in-command stepped forward and spoke in a gentle voice.
“Don’t be so frightened.”
“We’re not bad people.”
“If you show us a little sincerity, we’ll treat you kindly.”
He was demanding a toll.
The caravan did have escorts.
But they weren’t professionally trained fighters.
They were merely local young men hired to work as laborers as well.
Their opponents, on the other hand, were professional(?) bandits casually twirling sharp swords in their hands.
If a fight broke out here, it was obvious the merchants would be the ones to lose their lives.
With tears of blood in his heart, Baker took out the remaining travel funds.
“H-Here!”
“This is everything we have left.”
“Please take it and let us go!”
However, after taking the money pouch from him and looking inside, the bandit leader laughed in disbelief before raising his head.
“Are you kidding me?”
“Kidding or not, that’s all the money we have left!”
“Then why is this all you have?”
“And what’s all that loaded onto the wagons?”
☆▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎☆
