episode_0145

“Lord. I have finished the investigation into the territory residents you instructed me to do last time. Is it okay if I give you a report now?”

I nodded at the village chief’s words that I would report, and headed to the office in the mansion with the village chief. In fact, it was an office, but not a place that was used often.

To be honest, even though he became a lord, he did not know the details of what a lord had to do, so he handled a lot of matters related to the territory in a haphazard manner. It can be said that the reason is that the work is not organized enough to be done in the office.

Anyway, I was receiving a report now, and since I couldn’t talk to the elderly village chief in the garden, I decided to receive the report in his office.

I entered the office with the village chief, sat down, and received the results of the survey on the residents of the territory from the village chief.

They gave me a report with various letters and numbers written on it and explained it to me.

“Currently, the number of people in the entire city is estimated to be approximately 8,000.”

“Eight thousand? No, when did it increase so much?”

When I was young, when this place was a village, the population was less than a thousand people. When the previous lord, Viscount Tarr, brought in a large number of immigrants to expand the size of the city to the level of a city, the number of people exceeded 1,000.

But now the number has increased eight-fold to over 8,000. Although it was said that the size of the village grew from a village to a city in an instant, it was hard to believe that the number increased eight times as quickly.

“Among these, the number of residents who actually settled in the territory is a little over 5,000.”

“Then what about the remaining 3,000? The structure is a bit strange. Even so, the people who are not residents of the territory are close to half of the territory?”

And, I couldn’t understand the village chief’s words even more. It was even more difficult to understand that only slightly more than half of the people who set foot in the city were Yeongjimin. Because they said 3,000 people were outsiders.

But the explanation that followed had me nodding my head. Moreover, I could see that it was entirely my fault that this deformed structure had been created.

“About 3,000 people are coming from outside… … . It was discovered that they were users using Logis Skeleton, merchants trying to purchase weapons from Smith Skeleton, and mercenaries who followed the merchants.”

Heh heh – I felt embarrassed when I saw the village chief smiling and giving me a look as if all 3,000 people had come because of me. I wouldn’t call it a strange structure.

Feeling embarrassed for no reason, I scratched my head and looked down at the report, and the village chief smiled softly like a kind grandfather. Well, maybe he was a kind grandfather.

Anyway, as I looked at the report like that, I was able to check a little more detail.

“Those who visit Logy Skeleton have a strong tendency to leave the city quickly, right? Even if you stay for a long time, it’s only a week… … .”

“Some are people who are looking for Smith Skeleton personally, while others are people who are staying for a while to move to another territory.”

I nodded at the village chief’s words. Since Logy Skeleton’s buses and trucks travel to each territory on certain days and times, it was not unusual for them to leave immediately as they only stayed in the territory while waiting for the buses and trucks.

After finding out that most of those in the territory who came using the Logis Skeleton were people who would leave the territory as soon as possible, I continued reading the report.

There was an indication of how long the merchants who visited my territory usually stayed and how many people were visiting.

As the upper part is something that moves steadily with a certain cycle and path, the content was quite detailed. In the case of some merchants, information was also written about the time they would visit my territory and the number of people they usually had when visiting.

Of course, the part about the mercenaries was also quite detailed. The number of mercenaries residing in the city, the number of mercenaries operating using my territory as a base, and the number of mercenaries who accompanied the merchants or the users using the Logis Skeleton to escort them were all written down in detail.

“I received help from my wife regarding the mercenaries. Thanks to you, I was able to get detailed information easily.”

The reason the information about the mercenaries was written in such detail in the report seemed to be because Amy helped. Since Amy was the leader of the mercenaries in my territory, it would not be difficult to obtain this information.

I nodded slightly and read the report a little more. The report did not simply contain information about those who came from outside and stayed there.

The information was quite diverse and detailed, including information about those who have been living in the village since it was a village, information about newly introduced people, population distribution by age group, and newborn birth rate.

“The information is quite detailed. You must have had a hard time… … .”

“You didn’t have any trouble, so you don’t have to worry too much. haha. I am very happy that this small village has developed greatly and has become a city. So, the joy of my life is watching this city develop further with my own eyes.”

I was worried for no reason given the village chief’s age, but he said he was fine, so I had nothing more to say. Moreover, he added that traveling around the city to see the city’s development in person is a joy and happiness in life, and it was impossible to tell him not to do that.

In the end, instead of worrying about the village chief’s health, we decided to focus again on what was written in the report.

What caught my attention the most in the report was the part about those who came to my territory using logi skeletons and stayed there. It was written that one or two people, and sometimes entire households, were settling in my territory using logis skeletons.

“It is said that some of those who come in through Logis Skeleton are steadily settling in the territory. Have you heard any news?”

“What do you mean by news?”

“Why, there is no way the lords would welcome their people leaving.”

“Ah… … . There were no special rumors about that part. But I don’t think you need to worry too much. This is because there is not a steady flow of residents from one territory, and the majority of those currently settling in this territory are nomads. After arriving at a territory where you can use the Logis Skeleton, you used the Logis Skeleton to cross over.”

I thought that if wandering people, who can be called free people, were to settle in the city, there would be no need to blush with the surrounding lords who signed regular service contracts.

Still, we can’t just accept everyone into the city, so we decided to deal with them soon. It would be fortunate if the people who had settled in easily integrated themselves into my territory, but it was clear that it would be a headache if they were unable to integrate and wandered around, causing an accident.

After we finished talking about the residents of the territory, we talked about taxes this time. In order to run a territory, it is necessary to properly collect taxes from the people of the territory. I couldn’t run my territory forever just by emptying my own pockets. Although taxes also come into my pocket.

Of course, I did not ask much for the village chief’s opinion regarding taxes. Even when I tried to ask for his opinion, he seemed to take a step back, saying that it was the lord’s job to do, and also because I had no intention of leaving everything to him.

Although he is said to be a minister, what he talked about with the village chief was how faithfully the residents of the territory can pay their taxes, how the payment will be managed, and the opposition that the residents of the territory will have regarding the new tax law.

“Are you saying that taxes are levied differently depending on the industry? So wouldn’t that be too difficult to manage? Oh, it’s my personal opinion, so don’t pay too much attention to it.”

“There’s nothing I can do. How many businesses in Youngji are growing in size because of me?”

“… … ah! Are you mainly in the lodging or restaurant industry?”

“That’s right. Most people who visit the territory as Logy Skeleton use inns and restaurants nearby. In some ways, they are the ones who benefit more from Logis Skeleton.”

“But I think there will be a lot of backlash… … . Are you okay?”

“It’s money I wouldn’t have been able to earn anyway without Rosie Skeleton. Moreover, there needs to be some limit to the money they earn. Otherwise, the entire territory will only do business with those who visit the territory? Who would want to farm if they made more money building an inn and doing business than farming all year long?”

If it was said that only certain industries would receive more taxes, it was obvious that people in those industries would naturally dislike it. But this was something that could not be helped.

“We need people to produce food for the people of the territory, and we also need people to make necessary items. Youngjimin: If everyone is in the lodging and restaurant business, they have to purchase everything from outside. Then there is a possibility of being swayed by those who possess those items. Even if there is a limit to creating a permit system for the lodging or restaurant industry, restrictions are necessary.”

“… … Certainly, such a situation should be avoided.”

The village chief nodded, saying that in the past, there was a product that depended on one merchant, and he had an experience where the merchant who monopolized the product had to give him several times more money.

At the same time, he said that he would make arrangements in advance so that even if he received more taxes, the residents of the territory could accept it with ease. Since he was still a village chief with a high reputation among the people of the territory, it seemed like it would be possible.

“Lord. However, in order to levy taxes separately for each industry, wouldn’t we need a means to clearly identify the residents of the territory? It would be difficult to collect taxes if the owner of the lodging business pretended to be a manufacturing company rather than a lodging business.”

However, there was still one problem. That too is a very big problem.

The point was that there was still no system that could manage all of that.

When collecting taxes, trusted people are called in to collect taxes, but it is not easy to remember each and every person, so it is not easy to classify them by industry.

“What… … . We have to find a way to do that somehow.”

But it wasn’t like there was no way. If you were to create a hive mind by connecting the minds of the undead, it wouldn’t be difficult to collect taxes differently for each industry.

Since it is possible to create a system to manage all the residents of a territory, it is not a problem to know what industry each of the residents is engaged in.

In the end, because the need for a hive mind was growing day by day, there was no choice but to focus on creating a hive mind. The hive mind would play a big role in not only managing the territory and tax issues, but also defending the entire city, so it was better to create it as quickly as possible.