Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 87 Taxation and Conscription

Harvey was woken up by Reiner early in the morning and two letters sealed with wax were handed to him.

This was a letter sent by a magical messenger, and Harvey found it a little strange.

The only person who can still send him letters using the magic messenger is Ash, Alaye's former academy colleague.

But this guy had written to Harvey half a year ago to tell him that he would soon be sent to the battlefield in the Evil Moon Mountains for a six-month garrison mission, and he would not write to him for a long time.

Harvey carefully examined the wax seals on the envelope and discovered that they were from the Federation and Grizzly Castle respectively.

"Why would they suddenly think of sending a letter to a necromancer? Did something happen over there?"

Harvey climbed out of bed wearing a soft, thick robe, sat on the small desk in the living room and opened the envelope.

There wasn't much difference in the contents of the two letters, but Harvey was furious after just a quick glance.

He obtained the pioneering order from Earl Fagan, the lord of Grizzli Castle. Since the territory was outside the border of Saint Valen, he did not spend a penny on connections and it was only nominally under the jurisdiction of Earl Grizzli.

But now, Earl Fagan, whom Harvey had never even met, suddenly asked the territorial tax collector to write to him, clearly stating that starting from the beginning of next spring, Harvey would need to formally pay territorial taxes to the kingdom.

"Doesn't the Kingdom decree stipulate that the Frontier Territory can be exempted from taxes for five years?" Harvey threw the letter down angrily and picked up the one from the Federation.

The content is roughly the same. The general meaning is that since the countries in the southern continent have invested a lot of manpower and money to participate in the war between the two tribes in the Evil Moon Mountains, the kingdom's finances are tight and taxes are scarce. Therefore, the previous tax exemption policy is no longer valid, and the full amount of tax must be paid.

Harvey frowned and sighed, realizing that the problem was again the internal factional discrimination within the Federation.

Any feudal lord who holds the dual identities of a spellcaster and a noble will actually receive a certain degree of preferential treatment and protection from the Federation.

This advantage is often reflected in tax reductions. Harvey remembered that the family of Earl Feigen in the Grizzli Territory had several spellcasters who were members of the Federation. They had participated in the garrison battles in the Evil Moon Mountains, so the Duchy had always given preferential treatment to the family of Earl Feigen in matters of taxation and conscription.

Harvey is different. He is indeed an official member of the Federation, but unfortunately he is a necromancer who is not loved by his parents. He has been discriminated against in many ways. Now he faces the problem of taxation that changes every day, and the Federation will not take the initiative to help him solve it.

But what made him angry was that, not only did they not stand up for him, but the Saint Valen Federation branch was even more shameless than Count Feigen. Knowing that he was a research-type spellcaster, they actually proposed that he go to the Evil Moon Mountains as an auxiliary mage to assist the battle mage and complete a three-month garrison mission!
"How can I, a necromancer, assist a battle mage? Should I get a few zombies to massage his legs and wash his feet?"

The more Harvey thought about it, the angrier he became. The experience of being falsely accused by Investigator Burko from Jackdaw Town came back to his mind. That guy was sent to the headquarters in Daes for investigation. Apart from a perfunctory apology letter from the headquarters, Harvey had not received any follow-up news.

Most likely it was just a formality and the result was three glasses of wine as punishment.

Harvey felt a little uneasy when he remembered that after he was promoted to a mid-level spellcaster, he did not take the initiative to report to the Federation to change his member information.

He was not afraid of the arbitrary taxation by ordinary nobles like Earl Fagan. His own fiefdom was outside the national border. Even if he dared to send tax collectors with soldiers to put pressure on him in person, Harvey didn't even need to use soldiers. Just a few wolf spider beasts could make them pay.

But the Federation is different. As far as Harvey knows, apart from the dozen or so spellcasters in the Jackdaw Town branch, there are more than fifty combat spellcasters stationed in the Principality of Saint Valen alone. This is just an open display of strength. In order to suppress the power of the Church, the Federation should have many combat mages with hidden identities and disguised as research spellcasters.

Harvey couldn't afford to offend a behemoth like the Federation. Furthermore, if word got out about the various banned inventions and super weapons he'd developed in his territory, it would likely lead to a full-scale investigation by the Federation.

Originally, if Harvey was given three to five years of development time, he would be fully confident that he could build an independent force in the northern wilderness that could compete with the surrounding feudal nobles and federation branches.

"I have to think of a way to get this over with smoothly and buy myself enough time to develop..."

……

Whenever Fran McCaughlin has free time, he likes to sneak back home from the Federation office and spend a lot of time on the Magic Network Spellcaster Forum.

Everyone in this forum is a talent in the world of spellcasters, and they all speak well.

Even if there is no academic exchange or discussion, just chatting about some interesting gossip between spellcasters is much more pleasant than dealing with piles of paperwork in the Federation's affairs department.

As soon as he excitedly entered his forum code and logged into the Magic Network Forum, he received a private message from an unfamiliar member.

Kel'Thuzad: Is Mr. Spellshield here? I have a favor to ask of you...

Fran frowned in confusion. This strange member seemed to seldom speak in the forum, and he had never communicated with him at all. However, according to the Quinn brothers, he was a wild alchemist independent of the Alchemy Exploration Society, and he was sincere and focused on research.

Since he was a friendly person certified by the Quinn brothers and was one of the first spellcasters invited to the forum, Fran naturally could not be too cold and rude.

[Fallen: Hello, I just logged in. Please tell me if I can help you.]

The other party's silver code name flashed several times, indicating that a message reply was in progress.

Kel'Thuzad: First of all, please forgive my intrusion. I accidentally learned from Mr. Man in the Mirror that you have a certain cooperative relationship with the members of the Federation responsible for the management of magical affairs, so I would like to ask for a small favor...

When Fran saw the first few lines, alarm bells immediately rang in her heart. Damn the Quinn brothers, how could they be so talkative that they almost exposed their true identities.

Fortunately, they only revealed that they had a cooperative relationship with the Federation and did not directly disclose the fact that they were internal officials of the Federation. Otherwise, Fran would probably go to their house and beat up these two idiots immediately, and then quickly delete his account on the forum and run away.

Fran has been a member of the forum for some time. Whether participating in online transactions or conducting academic exchanges, everything has gone very smoothly and his identity has not been exposed at all.

This is enough to show that there is absolutely no problem with information anonymity in the forum.

He thought for a moment before slowly beginning to reply.

[Fallen: It's indeed a bit presumptuous, but if it's an emergency, it's understandable. First, tell me why you need help, and I'll consider whether I can provide assistance.]

(End of this chapter)