Chapter 174 – New man in town.

“I don’t think the local populace appreciates me too much…”

A certain silver-haired noble lord gave out a sigh while looking through a window. There he saw some servants moving around as they continued with their work.

“You did great my lord, I’m sure you have reached the hearts of the common folk!”

“Mary, you can drop the honorifics, we aren’t in Isgard anymore, not like anyone really sees me as a proper Valerian…”

The young man waved his wrist around while slumping into a large chair by his desk. After coming to this city he had done some research before doing his inauguration speech. When he thought back to it, the speech might have been a bit too flowery for the people living here.

From how bored they looked he had to reconsider doing any other long speeches ever again. Now that the announcement was done he needed to get informed about the region that he would be managing.

It wasn’t really much land, to begin with, the only points of interest were the growing city and the C rank dungeon that was here. His siblings had also received similar plots of land with other points of interest.

“Lord Arthur, I’m sure that with time they will learn to respect you, you just need to show them that you are on their side and not like the other nobles!”

The cat maid that was with him was one of the few people that he could trust. She was a few years older than him and was raised as a bodyguard. But considering that she was a maid instead of a butler her position had been lowered.

Arthur knew Mary since they were young as she was one of the maids in training when he was growing up. She was the only servant that was willing to go with him. Even now he felt somewhat bad for this turn of events as from his point of view she was getting a bad deal here.

With how skillful she was, Mary could have gotten the position of a head maid at one of the larger estates. Instead, she was stuck with an ‘impure’ member of the family which would probably cause her future prospects to disappear.

“Not like the other nobles? I wouldn’t be so sure about that, Mary. Just like them, I want to use the common people to further my cause.”

He didn’t fool himself into believing that he was any better than the other nobles just because he felt slightly more sympathetic to the plight of the common person. Through his life as an unlawful member of the Valerian line, he had gone through a lot of prejudice from his older siblings.

This was due to his mother being part moon elf. It planted a target on the son that came from this unorthodox match. While his father was proper enough to allow his mother to live a good life, she was nothing more than a bird in a cage.
Without any real power to speak of he would not be able to do anything about it. Thus he needed to prove himself, his goal was to aid his mother that was locked away in the mansion just withering away without the freedom to leave.

She was seen as a blemish on the good name of the Valerian household. She was not allowed to attend the noble get-togethers as his father’s wife. She was nothing more than a commoner-born mistress that was not to show herself to others.

His and her existence was not something that his family wanted to admit. The best option for the Valerian household was to keep them at arm’s length. While his mother was locked away in the mansion he was sent away to the far reaches of their territory.

No one really expected much from him or this city. The dungeon here was only a C rank which was somewhat ordinary. There were many such dungeons sprinkled through the entire kingdom, only when it was B rank and above would it pull in interest. A dungeon of such rank could supply tier 3 monsters and tier 3 materials which went for a lot of coins.

“You are right about one thing Mary, if I want respect from them I should probably stop wallowing in self-pity. Have you brought over what I had asked?”

“Yes, here is the current map of the region along with the most important locations.”

“Good.”

Arthur nodded while unrolling the map on the large desk. On it like Mary described were all the sites of interest that were instrumental to this growing city. As he examined the map he began noting down some information into his own notebook.

This was not a simple matter as he needed Mary to bring over the ledger that the Mayor was previously responsible for. The old man apparently didn’t want to part with the book of records but Arthur at least had enough power to make the previous city leader bend the knee.

Through the examination of some of the open records, he could see some of the cash flow that was going through the city.

“The adventurer’s guild is at the center of it all, It’s the most important part of this city’s development.”

He realized fast that without the dungeon the city would probably go under quite fast. It didn’t really have any export goods to make any money besides the monster parts that the adventurers were bringing in.

These adventurers also put their hard-earned coins back into the city. Pubs, inns, and brothels were on the rise as the sellswords spent an exorbitant amount of their earnings on alcohol and women.

Without the adventurers, Arthur couldn’t see the city existing as it was. There were some old records pointing that before the dungeon appeared here Albrook was just a dying village with a dwindling population. Now after the dungeon existed here for close to five years it was quite booming.

“I can’t really do much with the Adventurer’s guild, it has its own autonomy, even the King would have trouble making it move…”

While rubbing his chin he decided to put the adventurer guild to the backburner. There was not really much he could do for the guild at this point in time. He might have been the lord of the city but not like he could reduce their taxes.

These were agreed upon by the Duke as the lands belonged to him. Part of the money that was created in these lands would then be put to use for further development of the kingdom.

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Each noble needed to relegate resources to the country’s war effort. This could be done in several ways, sending troupes, sending food, or just plain money. Some of the nobles that lived in poor regions were forced to send their sons instead if they were not able to pay.

Everyone needed to pitch in, if not they would be in danger of having their noble title revoked and their lands seized by higher-standing nobles. This was also a reason for marriage proposals always going to the nobles with rich lands. A tactical betrothal could save a dying noble house from certain doom.

Arthur was quite a good-looking young man. He was also offered a choice of being married off to a daughter of a rich noble. For the time being, he was still confident in managing the issues by himself but if all failed he might have to sell himself off to gain his mother’s freedom.

“What if you offer them some land instead?”

“I don’t think there is any left for me to give…”

While he couldn’t really affect the tax percentage as the lord of the lands he could lend it out. In reality, people that bought houses and land in this kingdom didn’t really own them fully. They were mostly paying a set sum for a timed deal.

While normally even the common people would be able to pass over houses to their children or siblings, there were ways that the kingdom could take back the previously bought parcels. One of the reasons would be not paying taxes on time or committing some kind of crime.

Arthur as the lord could dictate where specific partitions of the land could be sold to. In a developing city like this, the land would be auctioned off to the highest bidder. That is if the lord agreed to it.

He could outright sell it to whoever he wanted to, thus some underhanded dealings could surface. It wasn’t odd for rich merchants to line the pockets of nobles out to get their hands on the best spots for their shops.

The money the nobles gained in such a way would not be taxed as they never showed up on the record. They could also do it in a less underhanded way by giving the nobles gifts of jewelry, various goods or lowered prices to their wares.

“If we need money, why don’t we just increase the taxes a bit?”

Mary asked while Arthur just shook his head. While increasing the taxes would let him take the surplus for himself, it would make the citizens angry. This was still a developing city that was attracting new people.