CHAPTER 95: Oh bugger, I forgot about Elle
Schneider continued his explanation of why I was suddenly being taxed by the king.
“After your application to start a new town, Endeavour. I'm assuming he saw the notification and decided to take action against you, although strictly speaking is perfectly right to point the tax issue out.”
Schneider alluded to the kingdom's tax system, largely based on land usage. Declaring the existence of a new town was paramount to declaring the local populous were affluent enough to start paying higher taxes. I hadn't thought of that, but even if I did, I didn't expect it to come in that quickly. I doubted the king intended to do anything about it until Lord Berelli pointed it out, in which case he had to take action.
“How exactly will that affect me?”
“You'll be taxed ten percent based on the expected return of the land value.”
“That doesn’t sound too bad, surely we can afford that?”
“That's not the problem, it's going to be backdated to the beginning of this summer season.”
“What? But we only started a single moon cycle ago.”
Hana confirmed the issue with something she noticed from her trip to Shimmerstal.
“Unfortunately, Schneider's right. I recall seeing that in the merchant law. To stop people avoiding tax by declaring a town mid-year or later the kingdom back dates the tax. That’s why new towns only appear in the new summer cycle.”
It wouldn't be a showstopper for us, but I had no idea just how much we were going to be taxed.
“Then just how much tax are we going to be paying?”
“We're fortunate this area is not considered high-value land area, so we only pay ten percent and not fifteen. Because of that you’ll need to pay about twenty small gold every cycle.”
I spat out the tea as I nearly choked from my laughing. Even Hana and Schneider started laughing. Obviously they were pulling a fast one on me, trying to look all serious while getting me all anxious.
“Heck, Obon only gets taxed fifty small gold every summer cycle. We could pay that in our sleep. Why would Lord Berelli bother about something so trivial?”
“Because that’s just like him.”
I could rest easier after hearing that news. Then Schneider gave me an update of his true reason for being there.
“Pandora moth appeared in the warehouses soon after you left. Strangely, the outbreak seemed limited to Berelli Estate’s warehouses and their associates. I’m glad you warned me of the tainted wood, it seems lumber demand is skyrocketing along with their prices. How do we proceed?”
“We’ll keep increasing production to meet demand.”
“I hear that you’ve recently lost a large part of your labour force. How are you managing?”
I shrugged like someone who didn’t care to worry.
“We’re doing okay, we had a few more people coming in to help take the load. Have you had any supply issues yet?”
I bounced the problem question back to Schneider and he shook his head.
“No, we’re managing to meet demand very well. Even with the elevated prices, we continue to meet market prices. If we continue that trend, soon we’ll deflate the prices that much they’ll be back to normal. By the time that happens, I’m sure we’ll have full control of the wood market.”
It was excellent news indeed. I could bet Lord Berelli started to have sleepless nights around that time after all, bio terrorism sucked, especially when you were unprepared for it. Schneider didn’t want to drop the question he raised.
“Why did the king want you to return the slaves?”
“He didn’t explain. But whatever it was, he made sure I couldn’t say no. Do you have any ideas?”
Schneider seemed to know something I didn’t.
“All I know was that Lord Berelli arrived around that time. It seems he made some serious consents to the palace. My contacts say he didn’t look happy when he left Shimmerstal. Personally, I hope he choked on them.”
It wasn’t like Schneider to get emotional about things but then it wasn’t everyday he was ambushed by the Lord’s troops pretending to be bandits. He continued.
“I on the other hand have spread the word, privately of course, within the merchant guild of Lord Berelli’s actions. He will be finding his trading business difficult the next few summer cycles.”
That’s all Schneider said. Judging by the smile on his face, it wasn’t a small thing he did to Lord Berelli. I expected Schneider followed up on more than a few favours to exact his personal revenge. I shivered at the thought. Why did upsetting a merchant scare me more than upsetting an estate lord?
In the Berelli Estate, events unfolded that even Lord Berelli could not have anticipated.
“How is it possible? Why have the merchant guild suddenly hiked tariffs?”
Uncharacteristically loud, Lord Berelli’s voice echoed down the corridor from his office. Even the waiting servants didn’t dare breathe as he berated Duke Orville, the man responsible for maintaining the relationship between the Berelli Estate’s wealth generation and the merchants. The duke’s role was one of the most important in his kingdom next to military control. Lord Berelli wasn’t stupid, he discovered the troops he sent out to harass that stupid kid’s woodcutting operation also happened to kidnap one of the most influential guild merchants. How were they supposed to know the damned merchant, Schneider, would be on that same road? Now the merchants wouldn’t antagonise him directly, instead preferring to use more subtle means. It wasn’t insurmountable but it added to his current woes.
“Don’t bother answering that.”
He countered his question. He wasn’t in the mood for the excuses that would inevitably follow as the duke covered for something he couldn’t explain. What made the news even more unpalatable were the events recently unfolding in his estate. Some idiots inadvertently imported the damn worm infestation from his warehouses in Shimmerstal to his estate where unhindered, it took on plague proportions. He wondered how infected wood could spread so far and wide that not only were their winter fuel stores at risk, but that the gold mines were suffering huge damage to their timber supports. Any attempt to separate the infected wood didn’t help and they burned huge stockpiles of processed timber to try and stem the plague tide.
He dismissed the duke with a wave and rubbed his temples from a headache he developed from that morning already. The light hurt his eyes so much that he couldn’t admire the calming view from his office window which didn’t help. Lord Berelli’s recent visit to the king haunted him. The unexpected appearance of his elite knights as slaves hit Lord Berelli hard. That it was possible to overcome three hundred knights in one night, that not one of them suffered injuries, was unfathomable.
If it wasn’t for the dire need of his estate to recover the lumber they lost in just that moon cycle, he would have left the knights to rot as slaves in that kid’s woodcutter’s camp. It was nothing but pure luck that when forced to work as slaves, the knights were already trained as woodcutters. As a measure of his displeasure, all the knights involved with the bandit operation were stripped of their ranks and demoted to commoners and forced into woodcutting. Lord Berelli considered it a befitting role for those who betrayed his trust.
With bitter regret, Lord Berelli recalled his latest visit to the king. Not only did he have to pay reparations for not meeting the palace’s wood supply contract at the most critical time before the winter, but he also negotiated for the return of his enslaved knights from a humiliating position of weakness. Never in all his life had he experienced such disgrace. Even worse, he retaliated in anger like all the other Berelli family when he thought himself better than them. Understanding the king’s weakness, he threatened a full retaliatory attack on the commoner Shane Karosaki and that town called Endeavour. To his surprise, the king backed off and only demanded that he transfer to the palace the swamp territory between the Hull Estate and the Mystral mountains. In return, the king offered the removal of that upstart Karosaki from that town.
Lord Berelli knew when to accept a draw. In reality, the situation cost him little. Originally, the wetlands in the north belonged to the Hull Estate but during a fallout with her mother, Lady Hull nearly lost her entire fortune. To help her financially, Lord Berelli forced Lady Hull to sell the land north of her estate more as a means of humiliating her than of financial gain. In return Lady Hull received the financial capital she needed to forward her plans. Lord Berelli had no idea what to do with the near worthless territory but simply took it to assist the Hull Estate. He knew they had little else of value to barter with. Why King Leopold wanted that useless territory, remained unfathomable. His thoughts returned to the duke still waiting for his leave.
“Duke Orville. Don’t go too far away. I have something else I need you to do for me.”
Sitting in my office, I was of course unaware of the events unfolding around me. I certainly didn’t plan for the pandora worm to end up in the Berelli estate. Although he never said anything about it, I had a sneaky suspicion Schneider knew more about the pandora moth than he let on. It was simply too convenient that somehow the infected wood landed up on those carts headed to Lord Berelli’s hometown. As I said, I didn’t plan it, but it was a stroke of genius that only a master mercantile strategist could devise. I knew better than to delve further into that subject and changed the topic.
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“Schneider, even though the estates pay a tax each summer cycle, surely that wouldn’t be enough gold to keep the kingdom’s finances going?”
“Although having said that to you, tax could be legally offset by contributing military to the palace or food stores, even gold or silver from the mines to mint the coins the kingdom uses. In the latter case he might not even pay a single silver tax, so the king also looks at alternative sources of taxation like the merchant guild tax.”
“He taxes the guilds?”
“Every one of them. And in return he grants them autonomy from interference.”
With that amount of gold floating around the estate, it was easy to see why estate lords held most of the financial power in the kingdom. The king’s income however lay squarely in taxes, no wonder he took it so seriously.
“On another note. How is it going with your share investments?”
“They are performing better than expected. In a few days’ time the dividends will pay out.”
Shares relating to the different industries represented in the merchant guild could be purchased, gold, silver even something I was interested in, wood. Only guild members and the aristocracy could participate in share transactions and a lot of money was tied into them. Many a start-up venture in the kingdom found its financial roots in shares. The moment Shimmerstal felt the effects of the pandora moth, wood stocks plummeted as everyone looked to get rid of their worthless wood shares like rats abandoning a sinking ship. Everyone except Schneider who snapped them up as the share prices fell. Eventually he picked up shares at a few silvers each. Even as shares plummeted their dividends continued paying, as little as it was. Nonetheless Schneider cornered a huge part of the wood shares market. The dividends of wood shares came through wood trading in the merchant guild who then added a goods surcharge on items traded by their members and pretty much anyone wanting to trade in the kingdom, if not the continent.
“Shane, I’d like to talk to you about something.”
Said Karato arriving at my door and interrupting my conversation with Schneider.
“Oh, Hana, Schneider, welcome back.”
All three greeted each other enthusiastically, more so than usual. I guessed the bandit incident may have drawn them closer together.
“Hey Schneider, I can recommend the bath next to the fort by the way, you’ll love it after your trip. I can recommend a dark elf with hands that finds all your sore muscles.”
He made massaging movements with his hands. If I didn’t know the context to that comment, his statement could be seriously misjudged.
“Have you made a booking? I doubt you’ll get an available slot anytime soon. Perhaps Shane has a slot?”
Hana commented so casually.
“Why is everyone looking at me?”
Bloody heck, Hana hung me out to dry. Surely, I wasn’t the only person who bothered to book the bath? With a sinking feeling I realised that I wouldn’t be having a hot bath that afternoon. The dark elf Karato spoke about was an elf who, somewhere in her life in Endeavour, decided her calling in life was massaging people. When she approached me for the job I had my doubts, but Elle, out of all people, quickly dispelled them. She encouraged the dark elf to see me after she received a free trial massage. Around then I realised there was a golden opportunity to start a thriving business by turning the entire hot bath into a spa. Naturally, depriving the folks of a publicly available bath meant I needed to create another one, something I needed to address relatively soon.
Over the following days I arranged for the creation of a small elongated wooden house with an open front-end deck for folks to enjoy the view. It was fashioned on a Nordic minimalistic theme with broad light-coloured wooden panelling to give the feeling of space. I created an internal infinity pool with the massaging and spa facilities towards the back end where a warm fireplace and scented candles could heat up the room on a chilly day, adding some atmosphere.
Shutters could close off the front to help keep the wind out, but that was only necessary in the worst of weather. I framed the opened end with enough mustite with a wind attribute to keep the pressure positive in the building to prevent cold breezes. Ara of course was key to the modelling, and it took a few tweaks to get it right, until the place was cosy no matter the weather. To the side of the wooden house, I created a door leading to a sauna, something that would become a well sought-after facility during the winter.
As soon as the dark elf lady, Mevné, walked into the room she started walking around with joyous laughter. We watched her in a mixture of surprise and anxiety. Everything in our experience said that Dark elves weren’t in the habit of spontaneous expressions of emotion, so excuse us if we stood, transfixed for a few moments. Obviously, I did something she found exhilarating.
“Is master giving me this place?”
I nodded, smiling. I liked it when people enjoyed the surprises I made for them. I could see her fitting in there just fine. I asked her many times not to call me master but she insisted so I gave up and stopped correcting her. My instructions to her were simple.
“You can do with the place whatever you like while maintaining and looking after the spa. I’ll leave you to decide what you’ll charge people to come here. Be warned though that I’m intending to open a public hot bath facility in the town, so customer numbers might drop. But the idea is to leave you with the customers that really want to enjoy a spa experience.”
She bowed to me, showing me respect, something no other dark elf had done to me before. I bowed my head slightly and left her to get on with moving into her new business.
In the following days I designed new public bathing facilities with Mr. Papadopoulos help. He rubbed his hands together in eagerness when he heard what I planned. I think he champed at the bit for something more challenging than his usual mainstay of roading and housing. We decided to place the baths near the centre of town using stone from the wall. I envisioned the same sort of styled Turkish spa baths with their large saunas and a large frigidarium pool. The main addition would be the Japanese styled pre-washing facilities, mandatory use for patrons planning to use the other facilities. The bath’ building would stand about seven metres high and about thirty meters long and twenty meters wide. Other than the fort on the hill, the bathing facilities would be clearly visible when approaching the gate.
Envisioning how it would look from the gate, using Ara’s heads up display to overlay the image, I wondered if it might have been a better message turning the building into a library. Somehow I couldn’t see the woodcutters rushing to get their library books renewed. Nah, that thought settled the issue for me.
The next day I got a knock on the door and Slouchy, the gate guard announced himself. I called him slouchy because every time I saw him on duty, he leaned on his spear like a crutch. He was the same guard who called me when the dark elves first arrived. I wasn’t too hard on the guards. My scolems, spread around the forested area, were far more of a deterrent against monsters than those guards would ever be. But seeing Slouchy at my door meant something was up at the gate.
“Um, Sir. We have someone here to see you. Um, actually there’s a whole bunch of them.”
Typically, Slouchy was as cryptic as his lazy demeanour.
“I guess I better find out who the mystery guest is? I choose door number one.”
I said mimicking a gameshow contestant. Slouchy somehow realised I was telling him to let the person in. It was an anti-climax; I didn’t recognise the person at all. The man walked upright and strode up to my desk, then dropped to one knee and bowed. Now why didn’t Slouchy behave like that?
“I hope you’re taking note.”
I said to Slouchy.
“Greetings My Lord.”
“My name is Sebas Chronos. I’m one of the bandits you freed from slavery after capturing us.”
My eyes widened at the news. I certainly didn’t expect to see any of them again, especially following their humiliating defeat and enslavement by us. He continued after a pause, allowing me to absorb the information.
“I, and all the men you captured, have returned to ask your clemency. I have been selected to represent them. Would you consider taking us back into your town as workers?”
Heck there were far more questions I wanted to ask. I realised I needed to take a separate tack on the issue.
“Come, stand up. Let’s sit together and talk man to man. Slouchy, see if we can accommodate the men who came with him.”
Slouchy looked like he wanted to say something, then stopped, then wanted to say something but shook his head and left.
“Here. Have some iced tea, you’ve come a long way. Now explain to me the events that led to you coming back here, then I can make an informed decision.”
He described how after returning home from their enslavement at endeavour they arrived with no welcome at their barracks. When Lord Berelli received word of their arrival, all the previously enslaved knights were unceremoniously stripped of their ranks and decommissioned into commoners. No matter how much loyal service they had given, no matter that the knights were not able to prove themselves in a battle, they were treated worse than if they were deserters. Not able to keep face in their communities, and forced into hard labour camps, chopping wood, they recalled their lives under my hand and realised there was more chance at a decent life for them under me, than staying in the Berelli Estate where ostracism would slowly throttle them and their families.
“And finally, we all arrived today to ask you for your consideration because we don’t have anywhere to go from here. Even if you make us slaves again, we will consider that a better fate.”
Phew, talk about a mind-blowing result, it would make an excellent bard story for Harry’s shadow puppets. I decided I should look them up when I was in Shimmerstal again.
“I’m happy for you all to settle in. I’ll tell you what. I’ll give everyone that came with you, twenty silvers each to spend as you like as a welcoming gift to Endeavour and in three days come and see me again. By then you’ll have a better idea of how you and your families would like to contribute to the community.”
As I watched Sebas leave I laughed at the sudden boon that fell into my lap. Thank you Lord Berelli for unselfishly supplying me with people I desperately needed. My laughter came to a dead end when the voice of the silvery haired elf came wafting through the doors.
“Making business arrangements without me perhaps?”
“Oh bugger, I forgot about Elle.”