"I didn't expect someone to be so heartless. This is utterly heartless! " Kabala, the chief priest of Dar City of the Church of the Void Mask, pounded the table angrily. The anger in his eyes was so intense that it seemed as if it would burn the cup of green tea in front of him dry. "These poor people have finally managed to live a decent life for a few days, and he actually immediately sent a tax officer … Why didn't I see him act so quickly when there was a natural disaster and they needed relief?
"Look at the camp aura on him. How could a guy from the Evil Camp do something like disaster relief?" The old priest said with a smile. "Although the camp aura is not very reliable, most of the time it is not completely wrong. So we should not have expected anything from him in the first place. "
"But I didn't expect him not to help, but to make trouble!"
"Many lords are like this," a young paladin said. "That's why His Majesty taught us to use our own hands to promote the progress of the world."
Kabala pondered for a long time and nodded heavily. "You are right. It is places like this that especially need us. Look at those poor people. If we don't help them, what will they do? "
"But the problem now is, how do we get rid of those tax officers?" Another priest asked. "I think it won't be long before they find the old tax documents. At that time, we won't have any excuses. "
Kabala smiled coldly, and his eyes were full of mockery. "What's the use of finding the old tax documents? They have to prove that those poor people lived in the city at that time and did not pay taxes. "
"Huh?" The priest was stunned and asked, "Didn't they always live in the city? And … they don't have money to pay taxes. "
"My fellow priest! This kind of thing can't be proved by words. We need evidence! "Kabala laughed." Without evidence, who knows if it is true or false! "
"Isn't there a 'lie detection'?" a paladin asked.
"Fellow priest, I can tell that you are not from the Commonwealth of Gold Coins!" Without waiting for Kabala to reply, another Paladin laughed. "We, the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, have never believed in 'lie detection'. There is a famous rule here — as long as there is no evidence, it didn't happen. "
"What can we do? Which businessman doesn't do some sneaky things? How many merchants in the world do business properly? Swindling and cheating has always been the norm for businessmen. It's fine as long as no one gets hold of the evidence. " The Paladin said, "Of course this is not a good situation, but we can take advantage of this tradition."
"One of the arts of struggle is to grasp the situation at all times, to take advantage of all available conditions, and to turn disadvantage into advantage," said the elder clergyman.
With that, everyone laughed.
"In short, as long as the lord can't prove that these poor people lived here and didn't pay taxes, then they don't owe taxes." After Kabala finished laughing, he said sarcastically, "Actually, in this case, collecting taxes is illegal. The reason why the tax officers dared to bully the poor was because they had the lord behind them. What the Lords rely on is nothing more than force, but I want to see if they have the guts to use force against us! "
Baron Dahl really did not dare to use force.
Although this group of people from the Church of the Void Mask was not particularly strong, and the most powerful one was no more than a middle-level High Priest, Baron Dahl was not that powerful either.
Currently, he had three knights and two quasi-knights under his command. One of them was a middle-level High Priest, and the other five were only at the beginner level. In addition, he had two capable subordinates, both of whom were promoted from adventurers, and both were also middle-level High Priests.
On paper, he seemed to have a great advantage. But everyone knew that the Church of the Void Mask did not only have a mere ten people. They had a huge church behind them, and there were many Legendary Masters behind them.
Want to use force? Even if he could defeat these ten people, what use would it be?
Moreover, even if he only had to face the ten clergymen, he did not have an absolute chance of winning.
He had many subordinates, but why would they risk their lives for him? But the clergymen were different. For the God they believed in, to uphold the doctrine, they absolutely did not care about death.
The Dahl family had an important family rule, which was "Do not trust others, and do not place your hopes on others." Baron Dahl would not do something so foolish as to expect others to risk their lives for him. Most lords who made such a mistake would be doomed.
So after listening to the tax officer's report, although he was furious, he did not lose his temper. Instead, with a gloomy face, he asked the tax officers to search for previous years' information to see if they could find any useful evidence.
But he knew that it was unlikely to be found.
Nobles generally did not keep things like tax collection records, because they could become evidence against them at some point. Baron Dahl was a shrewd person, so of course, he would not make such a mistake.
Moreover, even if they found the tax collection records of previous years, what use would it be?
How could a cunning person like Baron Dahl not think of such a trick that even Kabala and the other clergymen could think of?
"Sigh! I did not expect that group of clergymen would use such a trick. What a blunder! " He sighed deeply and shook his head, suppressing the gloominess in his heart and pretending to be calm and at ease.
He had to act like this. Otherwise, someone in the castle might spread the news to the ears of the nearby lords, and then cause something else to happen.
Although he was not sure what would happen, Baron Dahl's request was to not let anything happen unnecessarily.
For this reason, even if he lost some taxes, it was acceptable.
But this did not mean that he would give up!
A few days later, a new order was issued.
The lord was going to take advantage of this winter, when beasts and monsters lacked food, to carry out a sweep of the mountains outside the city. All adults in the city without a proper job were to accept the conscription and participate in the sweep.
Of course, this conscription would not pay a salary, but during the time of the expedition, a meal would be provided.
As for those who refused to accept the conscription, they would either have to pay a 'levy fee' or leave the city. What they could take with them was limited to their personal belongings.
This order did not come as a surprise to everyone. It was common for monsters and beasts to be wiped out in the winter.
But unexpectedly, the city defense officer brought a few soldiers to the slums and read the order aloud.
After reading the order, he looked coldly at the poor people, laughed sinisterly a few times, and walked away.
Without a doubt, these poor people were all 'without a proper job'.
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