Chapter 29: Christmas Tax
“So impressive?” Ye Mu instinctively opened her panel to check the stats, but it displayed:
【Light Mage Cloak】
—No description available.
Ye Mu: “…?”
Isaac chuckled, “It’s an all-attribute equipment. In general… the experience points you earn daily will be doubled, and the other stat attributes are the same as mine.”
Ye Mu: “So I have max-level construction skills now?!”
“Well, not quite…” Isaac noticed her misunderstanding and awkwardly corrected her, “It’s the main attributes that are the same.”
So what are your main attributes like?
Ye Mu pondered silently.
Since they added each other as friends, Isaac’s main attribute panel had been completely hidden, revealing no information. Even though they were quite familiar now, she still had no idea what Isaac’s actual level was, only vaguely sensing that his strength was likely not low.
However, she ultimately didn’t press Isaac about his main attributes. Since the topic had reached this point, if Isaac wanted to share, he would, if he didn’t, it was likely because he wanted to keep it hidden for some reason.
Between adults, there was no need to create such awkwardness.
Ye Mu simply said, “Thank you!”
Then she asked them, “Do you want a late-night snack?”
Isaac was about to say, “No,” but Chase blurted out, “I won’t refuse anything!”
“Hahaha, then I’ll go make some.” Ye Mu walked into the kitchen, opened the wooden cabinet, and while looking, asked, “Do you want 【Braised Chicken Wings】? Should I pair it with 【Fresh Pepper Stir-fried Eggs】? Rice or flatbreads?”
“Rice, please!” Jenna replied.
“Gulp—” Chase heard his stomach growl.
Isaac, driven by instinct, picked up on the key words: braised chicken wings, braised.
Braised again!
Now when he heard those two words, images of braised dishes mixed with rice flashed in his mind, it was too cruel!
That night, a chilly wind swept through the streets, wailing as it brushed against the rough stone bricks, and the sound alone felt freezing.
It was definitely not a good choice to go outdoors at this time because monsters were particularly aggressive at night. Moreover, it was very cold, and many monsters that had lacked prey since the beginning of winter were on the verge of starving, leading them to hunt recklessly.
However, the “Christmas tax” became the last straw that broke the camel’s back.
The deadline for the “Christmas tax” was Christmas Eve, and on Christmas morning, the police would start arresting people. Although it was theoretically possible to pay the tax during the arrest process, the police often wanted to line their own pockets, so paying taxes at that time usually meant having to fork out even more money.
But if people could afford that extra money, they wouldn’t have let their tax payments drag on until this time.
As a result, many people had no choice but to flee overnight to avoid being arrested and sent to prison. They either sought refuge in other territories or just wanted to hide temporarily until the storm passed, hoping to escape the clutches of the law.
Such situations quickly spread throughout the entire kingdom.
This “Christmas tax” was not unique to Dragon Town, it had been first introduced last year by Lord Damon, who owned Dragon Town. It was very well-received by the lords, and most of them had followed suit last year. A small number received the news a bit late last year, but this year they would not miss the opportunity.
Thus, this Christmas, almost all territories—except those that had not yet been divided and were still under the king’s jurisdiction—were collecting “Christmas taxes,” with wealthier territories collecting even more.
In comparison, the Christmas tax in Dragon Town was considered low.
—
In the central kingdom, in the city of Luseka.
This city was very close to the royal city and was the closest to the royal city among the lands divided among the lords.
At midnight, when the entire Holy Light Knight Order arrived outside Luseka, they found a 【Frost Giant Bear】 attacking passersby.
“Oh no!” Commander Aaron thought to himself.
The 【Frost Giant Bear】 was the strongest monster in this area, standing nearly four meters tall when walking on all fours and up to five meters when standing upright. It possessed a variety of high-level ice skills, many of which ordinary mages would never master in their lifetime.
“Quickly subdue it!” Aaron ordered as he galloped his horse, and the knights immediately charged toward the 【Frost Giant Bear】.
At that moment, the 【Frost Giant Bear】 unleashed its skill: 【Frigid Roar】!
“Ah!!!” The people who had already been fleeing scattered even more frantically in terror. However, 【Frigid Roar】 was an area-of-effect attack, with damage values decreasing outward, those closest to the 【Frost Giant Bear】 suffered the most.
In the three seconds of the skill’s casting, the two nearest pedestrians had their heads exploded and died without a complete corpse, while another higher-level person withstood the fatal damage but was knocked unconscious by the shockwave.
Further away, more people who had been fleeing were knocked down by the sound and fell into unconsciousness. Among those who had run the fastest, a few remained conscious but were injured to varying degrees and were all afflicted with the negative effects of 【Weakness】 and 【Nausea】, collapsing on the ground and vomiting uncontrollably.
Seeing that its prey had lost its ability to attack, the 【Frost Giant Bear】 let out a long howl and stepped toward the nearest person who had fallen unconscious.
Unless there was absolutely no food available, bears wouldn’t eat prey that had already expired, it preferred prey that had fainted.
It walked up to the person, seeming cautious that he might be playing tricks, and circled around him twice to observe.
After confirming that the prey had indeed lost all ability to move, the 【Frost Giant Bear】 huffed and lowered itself, preparing to devour its prey.
For this massive creature, tiny humans could be swallowed whole, unlike ordinary bears that had to take their time!
But at the critical moment—
“【Holy Light Bind】!” The overlapping platinum light formed a circle, separating the 【Frost Giant Bear】 from its prey, and the blinding light caused the 【Frost Giant Bear】 to stagger back repeatedly.
“【Forest Mirage】!” Just as the 【Frost Giant Bear】 recovered from the blinding light, it saw the once barren winter wasteland transformed into a lush forest! The trees were densely planted, making it difficult to find the prey.
“【Flame Prison】!” The temperature around suddenly rose as a massive prison engulfed in roaring flames appeared out of thin air, trapping the 【Frost Giant Bear】 inside.
“Roar—” The 【Frost Giant Bear】 let out an angry roar, trying to break free from the prison. However, fire skills were the most effective against ice-type monsters. Its charge failed to break the skill’s constraints and instead caused it to lose a significant amount of health.
“【Holy Sword Judgment】!” The remaining knights simultaneously drew their knight swords and launched a lethal attack, perfectly coordinating with the three spells, delivering a fatal blow to the 【Frost Giant Bear】.
With a final unwilling roar, the massive body of the 【Frost Giant Bear】 crashed to the ground, kicking up a large cloud of dust. However, in this world, only the corpses of dead humans remained, the bodies of monsters would disappear within seconds of death, leaving behind only a pile of dropped rewards.
Commander Aaron said, “Collect the equipment, and distribute the remaining potions, food, and copper coins among the survivors.”
Upon hearing this, the knights immediately began picking up the loot and splitting it up. Aaron glanced at a middle-aged man in the team named Oliver.
As a member of the knight order, Oliver was indeed a knight, but due to the needs of the order, he had been focusing on healing skills in recent years, serving as a priest within the team.
Oliver and Aaron had been partners for nearly twenty years. Understanding Aaron’s intention through a glance, he raised his staff and cast the spell: “【Natural Healing】!”
A massive green circle immediately covered the area, larger than the 【Frost Giant Bear】‘s previous attack range. Consequently, everyone who had been attacked received healing without exception, those who had been unconscious gradually awakened, and all negative effects disappeared, with their health restored to at least 60%.
“Please line up to collect the supplies,” said Asher.
Most people were still dazed, only vaguely recognizing that they seemed to be in the presence of a knight order, and they instinctively obeyed the knights’ request, beginning to collect supplies.
As Asher quickly distributed the dropped items, the knight order wasted no time and rode off to the next possible location where a high-level monster might appear.
As the dust kicked up around them, Asher instinctively turned his head to glance at the people continuing on their way and sighed sadly, “It’s too difficult, they will keep encountering dangers along this route.”
Commander Aaron remained silent.
He certainly understood this well, but there was only so much they could do, they couldn’t escort these people to their destination. They could only clear out some monsters as much as possible to protect more individuals.
In reality, the greatest “danger” these people faced probably wasn’t even these monsters.
What truly put them in danger was the tax that had ultimately driven them from their homes and the increasingly greedy hearts of those lords.
Over the next few days, as people fled, some rumors circulated. Although they were not enough to make the newly established territory of Qiana Town famous, they were enough to attract some individuals who happened to hear the news and had nowhere else to turn.
So on the last day of the year, when Ye Mu pushed the door open and stepped outside, she felt an atmosphere reminiscent of “history repeating itself.”
—Great, Isaac and the others had hurriedly built new houses again, and they would be insufficient once more!
The comfortable atmosphere of Qiana Town left her unaware of what had happened in the kingdom over the past few days, she suddenly found herself facing countless newcomers, their numbers even doubling since the last time.
But fortunately… during these days, the new houses had at least accumulated some capacity, and the official inns had long been completed—there were five of them, enough to accommodate quite a few people.
As for the previously overlooked issue of naming the inns, she quickly resolved it after Jenna found her—since the town was called Qiana Town, it was only natural that the official inns were named “Qiana Official Chain Inn,” with the branch names added afterward.
The eastern one was called “East Branch,” the western one “West Branch,” the southern one “South Branch,” and the northern one “North Branch.”
As for the one closest to the town hall, it was named “Central Main Store!”
Ye Mu was quite satisfied with this naming idea and didn’t care at all about the twitches at the corners of Jenna and Chase’s mouths. Isaac also had no objections, after learning the names, he quickly made signs to hang at the entrances of all five inns.
Now, the five inns were bustling like never before, with the “Central Main Store” filling up first, while the remaining four were constantly registering new guests.
Near noon, a young mother, holding her six-year-old daughter’s hand, walked into the North Branch, the farthest inn from the town’s main gate.
Even though they had escaped, they looked particularly haggard, with dust all over their bodies, faces, and hair. Their clothes and backpacks were worn out and dirty, with visible injuries on their filthy bodies.
Their actual situation was indeed more tragic than that of most refugees. Originally, they were a family of three fleeing together, but last night they had encountered a monster attack. The woman’s husband had chosen to hold off the monster to protect his family. However, he was just an ordinary mage, and from the moment he charged in, he had no chance of survival. The woman wanted to go back to retrieve his body, but considering her young daughter, she had no choice but to keep moving forward.
Yet, although they had made it to Qiana Town alive, they had been injured, and their backpack was torn. According to the system’s mechanics, damaged backpacks would randomly lose items, and not just drop them on the ground, but they would completely vanish, making retrieval impossible.
So when they entered the North Branch and opened their backpack, Marianna despairingly discovered that she only had 37 copper coins left. Even though the lodging here was surprisingly cheap, that amount of money was only enough for them to stay for one day.
But there was no other choice, they didn’t have a tent, and it was too cold outside. Even if they could only stay for one day, they had to settle in for now.
Marianna forced herself not to show any unease in front of her daughter. Gritting her teeth, she clicked on the check-in panel and selected a room.
Then, she saw a panel pop up: “The system has detected that you have joined the territory for less than 12 hours and that your remaining copper coins are below 200. According to the new regulations of Qiana Town, you can stay at this inn for free for 7 days.”
“Would you like to confirm your check-in?”
Huh???
Marianna stared at the panel in shock for a long time, uncertain, before tentatively clicking “yes.”
She prepared herself for a system bug, but the next second, the system displayed a perfectly normal new message: “Check-in successful. Your room number is 306. We wish you a pleasant stay. Goodbye!”
…Can they really stay?
Marianna couldn’t believe it as she took her daughter Annie’s hand and, still in disbelief, walked toward the staircase to the third floor.
—
In the residential area, Isaac, who had territory authority, received a system notification the moment the hotel’s fees were modified. At the same time, someone knocked on the door.
He opened it to see Ye Mu, and a smile broke out on his face. “I was just about to find you.”
After saying that, the two entered the living room together. Isaac had just acquired a full set of sofas and a coffee table, and they sat down on the sofa.
Before entering, Ye Mu had been deep in thought and didn’t notice his comment about looking for her. As soon as she sat down, she hurriedly said, “I feel like something’s off today.”
Isaac nodded. “I wanted to find you because of this. But…” He tilted his head and gestured for her to go ahead. “You speak first.”
Ye Mu frowned deeply and shared her analysis. “Don’t you think the people who just moved in look too miserable? I’m not saying the ones who came before weren’t miserable… but this wave is particularly obvious!”
Most of them had injuries, and a considerable number had negative statuses like 【Weak】, 【Exhausted】, and 【Hungry】, with their level of poverty even more exaggerated than before.
She pondered and speculated, “I feel like many of them must have come from very far away.”
The longer the journey, the more likely they were to be attacked multiple times by monsters, sustaining injuries, after such a long trek, it was also easier to trigger those negative states.
Isaac’s expression grew serious. “You’re right. Some of them even came from the northernmost part of the kingdom. Their original destination wasn’t here, they were trying to reach other towns to seek refuge with friends and family, but due to various circumstances, they heard about this place along the way and came directly here.”
“The northernmost part of the kingdom?!” Ye Mu couldn’t help but be shocked because their area was almost at the southernmost point of the kingdom.
She took a deep breath. “What happened? Was there some major disaster?”
“No.” Isaac shook his head with a wry smile. “Natural disasters can’t compete with man-made calamities now. I just contacted a few of my friends from before, and the situation is that they were driven out by the Christmas tax.”
The Christmas tax wasn’t the first time Ye Mu had heard of this peculiar tax.
But it was the first time she realized: “Isn’t this tax only imposed in Dragon Town?!”
“Yeah,” Isaac explained. “Last year, nearly 70% of the territories had it. This year—I can’t say it’s absolutely certain, but I think it’s very likely that except for Qiana Town and the towns directly under the royal city, other territories have adopted it.”
Ye Mu’s expression was complex. “So the lords are banding together to be oppressive?”
Isaac shrugged.
Ye Mu took a deep breath to calm herself and then spoke seriously. “I have a bit of a plan. You can listen first, and if you think it’s reasonable, you can help me execute it as the acting lord.”
Isaac smiled and crossed his arms. “Sure, my lord.”
Ye Mu started counting on her fingers. “First, we need to expand the housing. The two-story buildings aren’t urgent, but we need to build more single-story houses. It would also be great if we could add two or three more inns!”
Isaac nodded. “No problem, I’m planning that as well.”
Ye Mu continued, “Second, I see that they’re all very poor, so I set up seven days of free lodging at the inn. But just not charging for lodging is a temporary fix—it doesn’t address the root of the problem. Even if lodging is free, there are still other expenses.”
Isaac replied, “That’s true. What’s your plan?”
Ye Mu said, “Let’s tackle it from both ends! On one hand, we can use some money to buy food at the market—cheap food that can meet basic needs, allowing everyone to receive three days’ worth for free.”
“On the other hand, I think we can form monster-hunting and gathering teams to have everyone help gather resources for the territory in exchange for wages?”
“That sounds feasible,” Isaac agreed. “In addition to hunting and gathering, we can also expand the number of people for logging and mining. Building houses requires a lot of materials, and having more is never a bad thing, we’ll eventually earn it back when we sell the materials.”
“Great, you can make the arrangements!” Ye Mu nodded and continued with her ideas. “Also, I noticed that the police station’s recruitment doesn’t seem to be going very smoothly? But now that the number of people has surged again, and most of them are particularly poor, it’s easy for security issues to arise. Should we consider hiring some ‘temporary workers’ to maintain order in the territory?”
Isaac fell silent at this idea.
Ye Mu calmly said, “I know what your concerns are. If this department with power isn’t strictly evaluated, there can easily be abuse of power. So I just want to do this temporarily, as a stopgap measure. Additionally, I’d like to temporarily hire the Xibel team to supervise these ‘temporary workers.’”
Having a supervising body sounded much better.
Isaac hadn’t expected her to think through these details directly, and he sighed in relief. “Then let’s give it a try.” As he spoke, he couldn’t help but look at her a couple of times. “It seems like you’ve changed your views on human nature a bit?”
“Well… you learn from your mistakes,” Ye Mu pouted. “One incident like Billy’s is enough!”
She gradually adjusted her mindset.
Initially, she had viewed this place as a game world, so she hadn’t paid much attention to many things. But now, not only had she witnessed Billy’s betrayal, but she had also directly encountered the dark side of this world, witnessing the nobility’s oppression of the commoners every day. All of this was enough to make her realize that this seemingly game-like world wasn’t as simple as she had imagined!
Isaac smiled. “I’ll have Jenna join Xibel and the others, while Chase and I will handle the distribution of free supplies and recruitment. As for expanding the houses, I’ve already met a few high-level construction mages in the territory, and I can assign that to them.”
“Great, thank you for your hard work!” Ye Mu sighed in relief, seeing that the major issues had been settled.
Being a lord was really tough.
Especially when the entire world was crazily exploiting the commoners, and she was the only one with a normal territory, the pressure was immense!
—
As she made these arrangements, the residents of the territory also noticed something unusual. Most people might not dig into the reasons like Isaac, but they could tell that those who had just moved in were struggling.
And the majority of them had also come through similar hardships.
In the market, Laura and Carly, who had just set up their stall, stared at the exhausted people in the square, falling into silence and forgetting to display their goods and panels.
After a while, Carly cautiously probed Laura, “What do you think… if we gave up half a day’s income, wouldn’t that have a minimal impact?”
Laura’s eyes lit up. “I… I was just thinking, what if we gave up a whole day’s income? Would that work?”
The conclusion was that both of them felt it would be feasible.
They had been poor for too long, and going a whole day without food was nothing new. Now, they couldn’t starve, at most, they would eat a bit more simply for a day or two to save money, but their living conditions wouldn’t worsen drastically just because they lost that day’s income.
In contrast, those people outside were more like their past selves, struggling day by day, where even having enough to eat was a luxury.
The two sisters reached an agreement and immediately headed back to the residential area with their backpacks.
In Qiana Town, no one knew who the lord really was, but everyone knew that Isaac was the acting lord, so they directly knocked on Isaac’s door.
Isaac was discussing recruitment with Chase when he heard the knock and went to open the door. Before he could see who it was, a backpack was thrust in front of him. “Mr. Isaac, we want to donate some supplies!” Laura got straight to the point. “Please distribute this food to those who have just arrived in the territory, or you can sell it to them to share the profits, this is our small gesture. Thank you!”
“This…” Isaac was somewhat moved, but seeing the sisters’ simple clothing, he said, “You’re not well-off either, there’s no need for this. The lord will handle these matters well.”
“We believe the lord will handle it well,” Carly said, thinking of the kind lord who preferred to remain anonymous, and she smiled. “But we also want to make this territory better.”