Before long, Duvas was back with the tax ledger in his hands. Once the majordomo handed over the ledger to the tax collector of the Count, the wiry old man stood up and walked to a chair kept closer to the open windows, before taking a seat there and opening the ledger. Duvas also sat near Ustaimo to explain any inconsistencies, not that it was likely - with how many times the majordomo had gone over the numbers already.

Not having a chance to work on his blueprints for now in the presence of the visitors, Kivamus settled down nearby as well. This was going to take some time.

***

It was nearing noon, with Kivamus sitting in the manor hall for nearly two hours by now with the tax collector going over all the numbers again and again. With each passing minute, the frown lines on Duvas' forehead had been getting deeper and deeper, with the majordomo having to explain in detail why Tiranat hadn't been able to sell any coal in the last few months before the winter, with their previous Baron murdered on the road and no merchants coming to the village to buy it. Once Ustaimo had accepted the explanation, he returned to peer at the ledger once again.

While waiting for the tax collector to complete his scrutiny, Kivamus had met Feroy earlier in the morning, when the ex-mercenary had told him that instead of a carriage, the tax collector had come here on a wagon, which was rare - although not unheard of, according to Duvas. So, some time ago when Ustaimo had taken a break to get a glass of water, Kivamus had asked him about why he had been accompanied by only one knight as well as about the wagon. The tax collector had hesitated for a moment, before giving a sigh and explaining the reasons.

That had led to the revelation that most likely, it was Baron Zoricus behind this - who didn't see eye to eye on anything with Ustaimo - since the tax collector believed that the avaricious baron was draining the treasury of the Count with loans at extremely high interest rates, apart from sending his thugs to take protection money from the merchants of the town to line his own pockets. Ustaimo had even tried to inform the Count about it in the past, but at that time the Count had just shrugged and said he was only imagining things.

Ustaimo's current opinion was that even though Count Ebirtas must certainly have realized the true character of Zoricus by now, he was in such a deep debt to Zoricus today, that he simply couldn't afford to make his primary financial backer unhappy with him by asking such unwanted questions of him. However the word must have gotten out to Zoricus about this, so that gluttonous bastard had been doing his best to get Ustaimo out of his way, including by sending only a single knight to protect him on that dangerous road.

Kivamus had also been told that Zoricus had sent one of his own guards with the wagon - even though Ustaimo didn't know who it was - and that had immediately made him wary of Zoricus' true motives. So he had told Feroy about it in private, so the ex-mercenary could have their own guards shadow him. Only time would tell if that greedy bastard only wanted to protect the gold with his own trusted man to get his interest payments on time from the Count, or if he had some ulterior motive here.

However, this did mean that Baron Zoricus was even more powerful than Kivamus had ever thought, if he had control over the finances of the Count of Cinran, and had such a leverage over him. It wasn't going to be easy dealing with that bastard in the future, one way or the other. On the other hand, it meant that this was a good chance to make their first ally in Cinran.

Ustaimo had been a native of Cinran for nearly all his life so he didn't like what Zoricus was doing to the town, and what he would do in the future if he gained more power. That meant if Kivamus could somehow convince Ustaimo to become supportive to Tiranat, they wouldn't just have an ear in the Count's court, they would also gain someone important who could advise favourably for Tiranat in any of the future decisions of the Count. Who knows, if Ustaimo became their ally, maybe they could even get an extension for paying the full tax.

Ustaimo had also mentioned the recent Binpaazi raids in the east of Cinran, which was a very sobering thought. Although it didn't seem like a war was imminent, since it was just some small and scattered groups of knights harassing the farmers and damaging their crops for now, it still felt like Binpaaz was testing their defences and readiness for a more serious offensive in the future, whenever it may be.

For now, Cinran seemed to have enough knights that they had been able to deal with the Binpaazi raiders, although it had needed them to send a majority of their active knights to the east. Apart from a risk of a war in the future, this meant that unless Binpaaz stopped its raids, most of the knights would be busy in the east and the nearby areas of Cinran town would be patrolled even less than they were right now - which was barely anything - and banditry would be on the rise in that region, and certainly around Tiranat and perhaps even Kirnos.

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He exhaled. Nobody knew if and when another war would break out over the vast iron deposits of the Tolasi hills, but he realised that in such a case Tiranat would most likely be left to its own devices, and they would have to manage their own defence by themselves - not that he expected much help from them anyway.

Still, this news proved that he was right to prioritise their safety even at the cost of basically emptying their treasury by hiring so many guards, while also spending his limited time designing new weapons of war and keeping their only two carpenters busy making new crossbows and watchtowers - not that he could afford to skip finding out new ways to increase their revenue in the future. It was going to be a delicate balancing act to make sure he did enough to protect his village, while being able to ensure they could afford it by earning sufficient gold.

Soon, the outer door opened and Tesyb walked inside. Following behind him was Sir Tuilas in his full knightly armor, apart from the helmet. A frown was easily visible on his face as he took a seat, while the guard went to his usual position nearby.

"Aren't you done yet, Ustaimo?" the knight asked with annoyance, before taking a big gulp of water directly from the wooden jug.

The tax collector shook his head. "Not yet, Sir Tuilas. I have to make sure all the numbers are correct. There can't be any mistakes in this."

The knight huffed. "Do it fast, then. I don't want to stay in this useless village any longer than I have to. There aren't even any good taverns here!" He glanced at Kivamus with a disdainful gaze. "Just a pitiful alehouse in that half-burnt marketplace, which barely has any stock left. How do you people even survive here?"

Kivamus ignored the nervous glance Ustaimo threw at him, and tilted his head while looking at the knight. "Oh, did you start drinking already, Tuilas? It isn't even noon right now."

The knight snorted. "There wasn't anything good to drink at that alehouse anyway. How could you not even keep a few bottles of good wine here? Is this little village really as broke as it looks?"

Kivamus wanted nothing more than to throw this self-centred bastard in jail for a night so he would learn his place, but held his anger for now. "Well, Tuilas, I'm not much of a drinker anymore, and us Tiranati people are usually too busy at work these days for any major drinking."

"You people have no idea how to enjoy life then..." Sir Tuilas said with a smirk, before he turned away to stare outside the window.

Kivamus shook his head at the young noble. Someone born as a noble in this world would never understand how hard the villagers had to work just to survive the winter, with barely any food for the people and bandits always ready to loot what little they had.

He glanced at Tesyb and raised his eyebrows, wanting to know if the knight had caused any trouble, but the guard just shook his head. He snorted. Well, there was still time for it. Although as long as the knight kept his hands to himself, he would ignore Tuilas' words as someone who had simply been born too rich to see the harsh realities of life in this world.

The tax collector got busy in his ledger once again, with Duvas ready to explain any discrepancies.

It took quite a bit of time before Ustaimo finally closed the tax ledger, rubbing his tired eyes after that. He looked at Kivamus with nervousness for a moment.

Kivamus didn't know what to make of this man being so tense around him since arriving. Was Ustaimo scared of him? But why?

The tax collector glanced at the majordomo before looking back at him. "Sir Duvas may be getting old, but he never makes any mistakes in accounting. Still, I had to check everything myself, but just as I expected, there were no problems in it. The Count will still be disappointed to see that your revenue was lower because of not selling any coal in the autumn, which means his overdue taxes are also lower accordingly."

Duvas breathed a sigh of relief. "So we have to pay 857 gold and 4 silver, right? That is what the taxes come out to, at 20% of our total revenue."

Kivamus waited to hear the tax collector confirm it. Right now they had just under 700 gold left in their treasury, and that was after they had scrimped on every copper for the last few months. Hopefully the tax collector would give them an extension for the remaining amount.

Ustaimo glanced at him with nervousness easily visible in his eyes, before he hid it and looked at the majordomo with a shake of his head. "No, that is what it would have been if the tax rates had remained the same as the usual 20%."

Kivamus frowned. "What are you even talking about? The tax rate has been the same 20% for nearly two decades now."

The tax collector flinched. "Uh... You already know about the Binpaazi raids which have been increasing since last summer, so the Duke of Ulriga had decided to raise the taxes by 3% late last autumn to arm his men and Fort Aragosa better, just in case a war breaks out. Obviously, the Count needed to raise his own taxes accordingly to pay the Duke, but Lord Ebirtas also has some uh.... interest to pay on his debt, so he has raised his taxes further, and now he requires 25% of your total revenue to be paid to him, starting from the taxes overdue since the last autumn."