Medieval Knight System: Building the Strongest Empire Ever!-Chapter 14: Collecting Debts

"I’m not sure if I’ll do well, but I’ll work hard to serve you," Sabine murmured.

"If you devote yourself like your brother does, I’ll take responsibility for you as your master until the end."

"Thank you so much."

After hiring Sabine as my handmaid, the household improved dramatically. First off, she was outstanding when it came to housework. And she was quick to read the room. A subordinate who works well is a good subordinate, but a subordinate who works well and reads the room is the icing on the cake. In that sense, Sabine was an excellent handmaid.

She was still a bit clumsy, but I appreciated how hard she tried.

She said she was 12 years old, right? Daniel was 13, so they were a good match.

I had Daniel leave his drunk father and set him up in one corner of my living room. The living room was fairly spacious, so it wasn’t too cramped for Daniel to lay down a small bed and stay there. But when I took Daniel in, his father demanded I pay him a ransom.

So I gave him 100 copper coins and warned him that if he showed his face again, I wouldn’t let it slide. But that bastard was all too happy, having gotten only 100 coppers. How the hell did Daniel turn out so well under a father like that? It made me wonder.

The mystery was solved when Daniel said he had been heavily influenced by his late mother. His father was a piece of shit, but because he had had a good mother, Daniel was able to grow up bright and kind. With Daniel joining us, I instructed Hans to put Daniel through physical training.

"Hans, you’re the senior now. Properly train your junior and future brother-in-law."

"I don’t want to acknowledge him as my brother-in-law, but I can train him, right?"

"Yeah. We need to at least build up his stamina and strength. He’s in his growth period, so don’t push him too hard."

"I’ll keep that in mind. Come here, Daniel. Time for training!"

"B-brother?" Daniel stammered.

"Who’s your brother? I don’t accept you!"

Tough love at its finest.

With this, the number of retainers I was responsible for grew to three.

Through repetitive quests, I was steadily earning copper coins in addition to points, so there was no shortage of funds for wages or upkeep. I was simply planning to save diligently and move to a better house. There was a bank in Breisburg too, run by the Medici family of Florence.

The Medici family’s influence was considerable. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Still, they had the best credibility among banks, so I used them regularly.

The money I had deposited totaled 35 silver coins.

Then one day, my landlord came to me asking for help.

The landlord was a financial bureaucrat-noble and also a tax collector.

And this tax collector was under the Elsheimer family’s authority.

"Count Elsheimer of the court suddenly died, so tax collection work is temporarily paralyzed."

"Suddenly died? Why?"

"Rumor has it he caught a disease from constantly visiting the brothel district, but I’m just a low-ranking bureaucrat noble, so I don’t know the details. Anyway, when everything ground to a halt, the order finally came down to collect the overdue taxes, so we’re scrambling to get moving," he elaborated.

Fundamentally, the work of tax collectors could never be viewed favorably by commoners. Sometimes there were those who extorted taxes through threats, but commoners had nowhere to file complaints. Of course, there were inspectors who monitored this, but they wouldn’t intervene over something of that scale.

"The judiciary has always provided guards, but the problem is that since Count Elsheimer of the court may have been murdered, the investigation of the brothel district was ordered, leaving us woefully short of guards for support," he continued.

"Ah, so you’re hiring me temporarily?"

"That’s right. Plus, you’re a duchy knight, and you even have subordinates."

It was awkward to refuse the landlord’s request, so I eventually agreed to help. Of course, I was receiving official work bonuses. No matter what, I couldn’t work for free. And since this also fell under the category of occupation quests, I had no intention of passing up the point-earning opportunity.

[Repetitive Quest: Occupation]

[Tax Collector Assistant]

[Help the tax collector collect taxes]

[Reward — 200 points, 200 copper coins]

So I set out with the landlord.

The landlord coordinated with other tax collectors and intensively canvassed the shop district south of Kisling Boulevard (east side), his assigned street. The landlord confronted a general goods merchant named Brandt.

"Brandt! If you keep postponing payment even though the deadline has passed, we’ll have no choice but to seize your goods!"

"Oh my, tax collector, sir! Business isn’t going well at all, so even though I want to pay taxes, I don’t have the money! Please, couldn’t you extend the deadline a bit more?" the merchant pleaded.

"No more extensions! I’ll take goods equivalent to 1 silver coin!"

It seemed the merchants in the Kisling Boulevard shopping district weren’t paying their taxes properly. The merchant kept pleading his case to the landlord. From what I heard, the landlord had given him a reasonable deadline to pay. But still, the merchant was making an emotional appeal.

"Hans, grab that merchant."

I ordered Hans to separate the merchant from the landlord.

The landlord sighed, looked around the shop, and picked up a silver kettle.

It seemed to be worth 1 silver coin.

"This is tyranny!" the merchant protested.

"Want me to show you what real tyranny is?"

When I glared and pressed him, the merchant shut his mouth. After forcibly collecting from the general goods merchant, I followed the landlord to another shop. After going through five places like that, I learned that the occupation of tax collector was quite emotionally taxing.

And the landlord didn’t skim extra taxes for himself.

He was a bureaucrat noble who worked fairly and honestly. His disposition was also honest (neutral).

"As I’m getting older, even this job is getting tough now. When your father was alive, I got a lot of help like this. I miss those days," he reminisced.

It seemed my father and the landlord had been close.

I had no such memory, so I hadn’t known the relationship between the landlord and our family was a good one. This gap sometimes caught me off guard. Nobles I didn’t know at all would visit and greet me warmly, or lower knights would stop by and try to borrow money by invoking their friendship with my father.

Of course, I immediately threw those freeloaders out.

Anyway, for several days I went around with the landlord helping collect taxes.

Most merchants paid without a fuss, but a small minority always caused problems.

Whenever that happened, Hans and I would step in with physical force to seize goods.

If they didn’t pay taxes, their permits would be suspended, so I couldn’t fathom what nerve these people had.