But what good would regretting it now do? The damage had already been done.
My only wish was for this flashy-looking playboy to disappear without a trace, so quietly that not even a mouse or a bird would notice.
“Then I’ll be off.”
Tatio slightly opened the carriage door, preparing to get out, but I ignored him completely.
‘What has he done to deserve a proper farewell?’
I turned my head and gazed indifferently out the window.
‘Once I get home, I’ll take a hot bath and tell the coachman to spray some disinfectant inside the carriage.’
What if I’d caught some bizarre disease because of that guy?!
But he didn’t get out. Instead, after acting as though he was about to leave at any moment, he closed the door again.
“What are you—”
“What exactly are you doing right now?”
“Oh, really?”
That’s my line!
Who was the one refusing to get out and glaring at me with narrowed eyes?
I’d practically begged him to get in, and now that he’d gotten his way, was he putting on airs just because he was a noble?
“I let you in because you asked for a ride. What are you dissatisfied with?”
When I shot back at him sharply, Tatio’s gaze grew even more intense.
“I appreciate you giving me a ride, but why are you being so unpleasant? Have I done something to offend you?”
Tatio’s tone was polite, but his attitude was anything but.
He crossed his arms and glared at me as if he had no intention of getting out until he received a proper answer.
‘Well, I suppose it would be frustrating to be treated with contempt all of a sudden without knowing why.’
So I decided to tell him directly, without beating around the bush, so he’d at least know what he was being judged for.
“That’s right. You’re the reason I’m uncomfortable. I offered you a favor out of goodwill, only to find out that I’d personally driven a visitor to those ‘infamous’ clubs in Togglow. Who could possibly feel good about that?”
Although I’d managed to get twenty gold coins out of him in return, a favor was still a favor.
Perhaps because I’d hit the nail on the head, Tatio began to sweat and fumble for words.
“How could you possibly know about that……? N-No, that’s not what I mean! I’m not that kind of person!”
“Of course you aren’t. That’s what everyone says.”
“I’m not lying! I’m really there for work……!”
“Of course, of course. Lots of people go there to take care of their own business.”
“No, I can’t exactly show you……”
Show me what? No thanks. Disgusting.
I hurriedly gestured for him to get out.
Tatio looked terribly aggrieved, but I pretended not to notice.
Before leaving the carriage, he said to me,
“When some time has passed, you’ll come to realize that I’m innocent.”
***
“There are too many nobles these days.”
The Viscount grumbled disapprovingly as he read the newspaper.
His eyes were full of displeasure, as though he’d come across some unpleasant article.
“Dear, I told you not to read the newspaper during meals.”
“But how can I not read it when the newspaper is reporting something like this?”
The newspaper in the Viscount’s hands had a huge headline announcing that taxes would be drastically increased starting next month.
I glanced at it from the corner of my eye and nearly spat out the salad I was chewing.
‘They’re raising all taxes by twenty percent? Have they gone mad?’
When taxes go up, prices rise, too.
If the taxes people had to pay to the state increased, miners whose actual income had shrunk would demand higher wages. The mine owners, in turn, would raise coal prices to cover the increased wages.
Once coal prices went up, so would train fares, since trains relied on coal.
Trains were an essential means of transportation in the daily lives of everyone in the empire. All goods transported by train would have their shipping costs reflected in their final prices, and eventually, the cost of living would rise.
‘Didn’t they just raise taxes?’
It felt like only yesterday I’d been lamenting how my meager salary had shrunk from the size of a hamster’s tail to that of a mouse’s, and now they were raising taxes again.
And although they said it would happen next month, in reality, there wasn’t even a week left.
Perhaps the Viscountess had been thinking along the same lines as me, because she furrowed her brow.
“This is all because of the late Emperor Alisand, isn’t it?”
The late Emperor Alisand was the grandmother of the current emperor. Although she was a legitimate imperial princess, she had been the youngest of six siblings, so she had been far removed from the line of succession.
She had ascended the throne purely through good fortune.
That was no exaggeration. One after another, the princes and princesses ahead of her in the line of succession had died due to war and epidemics, leaving her as the sole remaining heir.
The problem was that she’d only taken the throne because there was no other choice. Very few nobles actually supported her.
It was only natural that an emperor with weak imperial authority would be manipulated by the nobility.
Thus, the late Emperor Alisand had worked hard to gain power. Her method was to win over the nobles by granting them tax exemptions.
Apparently, she still felt she didn’t have enough supporters, because she even began handing out noble titles indiscriminately.
Thanks to that, she managed to hold on to power until her death, but she left behind an empty treasury and the unfortunate consequence of increased taxes.
The Viscount was just as distressed about the tax hike. Even wealthy nobles would have to consider how much money they stood to lose to taxes……
“If taxes go up, I’m the one who has to listen to complaints from the people in my territory……!”
Ah, so money wasn’t the problem. It was that.
The Viscount was the lord of the Nezer estate as well as the steward of Count Bathory’s territory.
In other words, he had twice as many residents to manage and twice as many complaints to deal with.
I tuned out the Viscount’s lament and continued eating.
I only had a vague concern that prices would skyrocket. I didn’t give it much more thought.
How naive I was back then.
***
Today was the tea party hosted by the daughter of Baron Seia.
Ever since I’d become acquainted with many ladies at the imperial ball, I’d been receiving invitations to tea parties, and I had decided to attend one of them.
‘When the young lady was still here, she never once received even a single piece of cheap promotional paper, let alone an invitation.’
Thinking about it made me feel a little sorry for her.
My lady…… It’s fine to be rebellious, but you should’ve made some friends, too.
I was stuffing a sweet pastry into my mouth to soothe its bitter taste when Baron Seia’s daughter suddenly raised her voice.
“Have you read today’s newspaper? They’re raising taxes by as much as twenty percent!”
At her words, the surrounding ladies immediately began murmuring.
Apparently, the announcement of the tax increase had been quite a shock.
After all, even the ladies sitting around a table laden with delicious treats and fragrant tea were talking about it.
“They say tariffs are going up, too. I really can’t imagine who came up with such an idea.”
“Probably some desk-bound fools who think all that matters is filling the imperial treasury.”
“What on earth are the council members doing?”
I was surprised to hear their conversation.
Honestly, I hadn’t expected this. I’d assumed that noble young ladies were the sort of people who cared about nothing but jewelry and dresses. It seemed I’d been mistaken.
“Ladies, you’re quite interested in economics, aren’t you?”
When I cautiously brought it up, they looked at me as though I were the strange one.
“Of course. How could we simply ignore such an important issue?”
“Isn’t everyone concerned about it unless they’re completely thoughtless?”
……So the people I’d met at the imperial tea party really had been thoughtless after all.
Those people had been too busy bragging about what they’d bought and sold and praising the imperial family for granting tax exemptions.
They’d acted as though tax increases were a natural phenomenon that had nothing to do with them.
“Lady Ulpina, you agree with us, don’t you?”
The atmosphere was so tense that I felt a teapot might come flying at me if I waited even a moment too long, so I hurriedly answered.
“Of course. My family has been struggling with the issue of estate taxes, too. Goodness, how do they expect everyone to deal with the aftermath of this?”
I deliberately added a note of indignation to my voice. The ladies nodded with expressions that seemed to say, ‘I knew she was a sensible person. We knew we could trust her.’
Phew…… Master, Madam, I’ve once again protected the Nezer family’s reputation today.
***
After the tea party ended, I headed to the Bathory estate.
It was a very simple errand. All I had to do was deliver some documents the Viscount had left behind.
It was supposed to be that simple, but……
“Guarantee the people of the estate their right to survive!”
“How can you raise taxes when our income hasn’t changed?!”
“Carry out tax reform!”
……Why was I caught up in the middle of an angry public demonstration?
Comments (0)