Herald of Steel

Metztil's bellicose attitude towards others coveting his land clearly told Alexander that he was not only afraid of a fight, he welcomed it.

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And when Alexander put himself in the man's position, the decision became easily clear.

He understood that Metztil was not being intentionally foolish nor was he hoarding land like a dragon would horde gold- just for the sake of it.

The fact was the Helvati were not only the strongest tribe now but was sure to get only stronger in the future.

So why should they compromise with their weaker counterparts?

The most logical action would be to take advantage of their position and gobble the others up, taking over their lands and turning them into slaves.

This was far better than to try and accommodate every one of the tribe's needs.

After all, even the legendary chief Coatl fell exactly because of this, he tried to please too many people and then inadvertently ended up antagonizing everyone.

And Metztil had clearly learned from that mistake.

He would crush all dissent before they could even sprout.

Of course, this sound logic only worked if the Helvati existed in a vacuum- and Metztil was allowed to do all this without any outside interference.

The trouble was Alexander had no intention of letting the Helvati go on this 'EXP grinding' spree.

Metztil was already proving much more bellicose than he imagined and he could not rest easy knowing the man very might well be a new Coatl.

Judging by how disdainfully he spoke with Alexander, it was almost a written guarantee that once Metztil was done swallowing the other tribes, he would turn his attention to the Galiosos island in proper, wanting to retrieve 'his ancestor's lands'.

'It seems there will be no cooperating with him. I need to change my allies.' Alexander thus pursed his lips in displeasure, lampooning on whether it was right to bring this man into this mess in the first place.

But what was done was done.

Now he had to decide if he should assassinate the man right away and cause a brand new conflict, or wait for things to settle down before poking the hornet's nest.

It did not take long for Alexander to reach a decision and it was overwhelmingly in favor of the former. He was in no shape to get caught up in another conflict- he needed to be in Zanzan.

So given that Metztil was still in his placated state, he decided to wait and see how things pan out, while also asking Lady Miranda to send out her fellers into the other tribes, offering them support against the truculent Helvati should the need ever arise.

During the time, Alexander would also learn of a name- Tepin, who claimed to be Metztil's biggest rival, He had apparently fled his tribe at night, and after taking a detour, managed to evade his escort to reach his true destination.

But before Alexander could decide to support the man and fan some flames, he found a truly funny report- the tribe he was in had apparently offered to hand him over to Metztil in exchange for some of the land. But the Helvati chief refused, vulgarly sneering, "You can keep that waste. Make him suck your dick! He is nothing to me."

Clearly after his victory, the man was seen to pose no threat to Metztil's seat.

This made Alexander wonder if this Tepin fellow was worth supporting- he was both disdained by his enemy and betrayed by his 'allies'.

...….

Alexander would leave the matter about the natives for a later time.

For now, as his stay in Prizzle came to an end, Alexander and his army marched east, eager to see his newly conquered fief for himself.

Alexander would take shelter in the largest port city around there- a settlement of thirty thousand called Midshire.

This was also where he wanted Lady Miranda to eventually move after she was done taking care of some of the administrative stuff back in Prizzle.

Alexander planned to stay in the city for a month, during which he took care of quite a few things.

Among which was of course getting to know the bureaucrats of the city, learning how things worked here, what kind of businesses operated here, the tax system used, and lastly the relations the city had with its neighbors.

Speaking of business, being a major port city, it had a large number of skilled artisans, producing all kinds of iron products, good quality furniture, intricate pottery as well a special kind of wheat.

All of which was exchanged for various types of exotic goods bought from all parts of the Central Sea.

But the city's chief specialty was salt!

There were apparently a few large scale salt mines nearby that provided the white powder for most of the surrounding regions as well as exporting a large portion.

This was also the city's greatest source of income, followed naturally by taxes.

And oh boy how there were so many of them!

Even Alexander felt his eyes being opened by the many creative ones.

There was the expected annual feudal tax meant for the Margraves family- be it in the form of military service, goods, or money, as well tithes for the temples used to support the clergy and set at one-tenth of a person's produce or income.

Then there were things like land taxes- which were basically rent the lords collected for letting the peasants use their land.

Inheritance tax, taken during a transfer of wealth, although imposing this was surprisingly harder than one might think.

Most people during the time lived in a joint family and so determining exactly whom owned which part of the family land was quite difficult and tedious.

Thus given the labor involved, only the rich yet not so powerful people could be taxed without incurring a net loss.

After this came the customs duties imposed on goods imported and shockingly even those exported.

As well as different types of sales taxes depending on the specific good- essentials like grain was relatively less taxed, while luxuries like wine and cloth and exports like salt were taxed so heavily that it caused them to in some cases double in price.

Now, all this, although excessive, Alexander could barely tolerate.

But it was the latter list that really angered him.

Because in addition to all these expenses, the poor people had the following costs further heaped onto their already stooping shoulders-

Merchant taxes- which were applied to artisans who did not belong to any specific guild and farmers who did not belong to a large syndicate.

Citizen tax imposed on all to support local governance and infrastructure.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Bridge, road and gate tolls to enter the city and collected using guards and checkposts.

A poll tax which was an occasional fixed tax levied on individuals, regardless of income or wealth to fund military campaigns or even pay the city garrison.

And lastly 'special' levies which the city lord could impose basically any time he wished as a 'temporary' measure.

But as they say, for governments, there is nothing as permanent as 'temporary'.

An example would be a tax on metal buckles which was laid fifty years ago as a punishment for some of the guilds protesting against the local lord.

And although the issue had been resolved, long, long ago, the tax was still there.

There was also a rubbish tax where the poorest of the city were taxed for 'littering'- i.e.- throwing their rubbish to the streets.

The problem was the city had no waste disposable system.

Well, technically there was a huge open air landfill site, but that was almost half a day's away by foot.

So how could a poor man, who earned day to day, and lived hand to mouth afford to make the trip?

He would have to waste the whole day just throwing rubbish. At that point, he might as well just stay there.

So they simply lived with it.

Alexander was understandably very angry with such a system and summoned all the administrators and magistrates, roaring,

"Why are the taxes so excessive here? Why are you making the people pay over and over again for the same things? Why do they have to pay rent for the land, pay for the government, pay for the roads, and pay for the security all at the same time?"

"I thought the social contract was that they worked the lands, paid taxes from it and you governed and protected them? So what use do you have here?"

The people gathered in the room however hardly moved, and producing an oily smile, the lord- a baron named Lamp grinned,

"My lord, please calm down, we have just divided the taxes into a lot more categories. That's why they appear so long. We assure you, these are all necessary expenses."

Alexander might have considered this if not for the extremely fine clothes the man wore, or the gaudy jewelry he showered himself with, or how fat and plump he looked.

It was clear where these 'necessary' expenses went.

Plus when he asked to see the books, it was obviously filled with all kinds of discrepancies or wild impossible estimates.

For example- the cost of buying a single table for the city hall was written at 1,000 wesa, which was at least ten times its usual value.

Alexnader had to do something about it.

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