Forests Don't Support Idle Goblins

Old John and his two sons verbally agreed and went out to greet them.

Several men were standing in the courtyard. The one in the middle was wearing a colorful striped shirt and holding a sheet in his hand. He was smiling at them.

Little John frowned slightly, looking at the man dressed like a grouse from the forest, and asked, "Sir, wasn't the autumn tax already collected?"

"Little John is here too." The newcomer smiled and nodded at Little John, then explained, "This is the winter defense tax issued by the Earl. As you know, winter is the time when goblins are rampant, and the territory needs to mobilize a lot of troops to clear them out. After all, no one wants to open the door and see a bunch of green dwarves rushing into the yard."

"How come I've never heard of this project before?" Little John muttered under his breath, while Old John stepped forward at the opportune moment and shielded him behind him.

"We've collected these before, but it hasn't been as bad in the last few years," the tax official explained patiently. Then he asked, "I heard you're about to marry the blacksmith's daughter?"

"How did you know, sir?" Little John asked.

"How could I not know? Mary often comes to my house to pick up her clothes to take home and wash," the tax officer laughed. "Mary is a good girl, beautiful and hardworking. If you don't have enough money, I can arrange for you to pay half a month later."

"That's enough, that's enough," Old John immediately stepped forward, bowing and scraping.

He was then told how much money he needed to hand over, and he turned around, went inside, took out gold coins, and handed them to the tax officer.

"Alright." The tax collector waved his hand and turned away, but then, remembering something, he came to little John and handed him a gold coin: "Consider this my congratulations. Treat Mary well."

"Sir." Little John was taken aback by the other party's reaction and stood there for a few seconds before quickly taking the gold coins. "Yes, I will."

"Let's go, to the next house." The tax official smiled and turned to leave, and the group, leading their horses, hurried towards other houses in the village.

"Father, how much money do we have left?" Little John asked as he stepped forward.

"There's enough for food, but there's something for Mary..." Old John said hesitantly.

"There's really nothing to worry about over there." Little John handed the gold coin he had just received to his father. "Please keep this safe."

"This was just for you."

"It's alright, Wheeler needs money for school too," John comforted his father. "I've already saved enough, it'll be fine."

"Goblins, kill them! Kill them!" Wheeler picked up a stick from the side and swung it around. He was still young and didn't understand much. All he knew was that goblins were enemies and the culprits that brought misfortune to his family.

"Wyler, stop messing around and come inside," John said in a serious tone.

The younger brother walked dejectedly into the cabin, and John comforted his father again: "It's alright, as long as my employer is still here, I'll be able to earn money again soon, Wheeler's tuition won't be a problem."

It seems that a winter defense tax was collected before, but not in recent years. Little John is a little puzzled as to why it has suddenly started again.

However, goblins do become much more active in winter. If only the boss could bring all the goblins in the area under his control, then the surrounding villages wouldn't be bothered by goblins anymore.

"But then, many ear-cleaning professionals will lose their jobs." He chuckled self-deprecatingly.

"Come inside, Father, it's getting cold." Little John beckoned his father inside. "Winter is coming, don't be stingy with the fire, or you'll catch a cold."

Old John grunted twice in agreement.

After a regular lunch, John told his younger brother to wash the dishes properly and not to break anything. Then he said goodbye to his father and went out to find Mary.

The village they lived in was not small; after all, it was located on the edge of a forest, and a village that was too small would have some trouble dealing with the goblin harassment.

Unlike John's family, some people in the village did not own their own land and rented land from the Earl of Valentine to farm, which meant that not all children could attend the church-run primary grammar school.

Moreover, this year's tax payments have exceeded 5%, causing some self-sufficient farmers like Little John to complain bitterly.

However, his "job" was not bad, which gave John a lot of confidence.

Mary's house was located on the east side of the village, at one end of the village from John's house. He had to cross the entire village to see them.

John greeted the passing villagers and arrived at Mary's house with a big smile.

The clanging of blacksmithing never stopped in the courtyard, interspersed with a deep, gruff rebuke: "What are you doing? You're wasting this piece of iron by hammering like that."

With a creak, Little John pushed the door open and entered. He had been here many times and knew the way well, but this time he felt like a triumphant general.

"Hey, who's this?" someone laughed loudly in the courtyard.

John greeted the group with a smile, then his gaze settled on a burly man with a gray beard.

"What are you doing here, little John?" The burly man squinted at little John and said, "I've saved up enough money."

John nodded without saying anything.

"Come with me." The burly man put down the fire tongs, turned and left the furnace. Before leaving, he told the apprentice, "Be careful. If you waste this piece of material, you won't get any food tonight."

Once inside, the burly man poured himself a glass of water, drank it all in one gulp, and said, "You've saved enough money so quickly?"

"Yes, 6 gold coins." Little John took out a gold coin from his pocket, ready to hand it to the other person.

"Well, it's like this," the other person didn't answer, paused for two seconds, and then said in a muffled voice, "You probably don't need to pay this money."

John was taken aback. He took back the gold coins, wondering if this miser had changed his ways.

"They're offering 10 gold coins over there, but I don't think you have enough," Mary's father said.

"10 gold coins?" Little John's eyes widened in disbelief. Was the other party bidding?

"Father, you can't do this!" Mary ran out of the house and stood beside little John. "I'm not a shovel or a pickaxe, you can't do this."

"Shut up, you're my daughter. If they're willing to offer 10 gold coins, of course I'll choose the one with more," the burly man said nonchalantly.

"Is this how you treat Mary?" John asked angrily. He knew that his father had never liked his daughter. Even when he sent her to school, she only attended for less than a year. Moreover, the reason given was that literacy would make his daughter more valuable.

"How I treat my daughter is my own business. If you can offer me 10 gold coins, I'd be happy to marry my daughter to you," Mary's father said with a grin.

John looked at the miser grinning like a pig's head and was so angry he wanted to stab him twice. "Mary is a person, not a commodity."

The other person pursed their lips and didn't reply.

John, furious, pulled out his pocket watch and slammed it on the table. "Is this enough?"

"Huh?" Mary's father stared in surprise at the pocket watch on the table. He recognized it; the tax collector who came to collect taxes had one, and he heard it was quite expensive.

"Jack," Mary snatched the pocket watch first, "this was given to you by your boss, it's not yours."

She placed the pocket watch in her lover's hand, looked into his eyes, and shook her head slightly.

"So it wasn't yours. I thought you stole it from somewhere," the burly man chuckled.

"I can leave it here as collateral, and come back for it when I've made enough money," John said through gritted teeth.

"That's possible, but you'll have to pay a storage fee. After all, these are such valuable items, and there are always people coming and going here. If they get lost..." Mary's father said slowly.

"No, Jack," Mary pushed John away and said seriously, "Don't do that. You can't use your boss's things as collateral."

"But Mary..." John tried to persuade his girlfriend.

"Your boss trusts you, that's why he gave you the pocket watch. Trust can't be tested." Mary shook her head, then turned to her father and pleaded, "Father, please, let me marry him. I love him. Do you really want to see me marry that ugly fellow and get beaten to death later?"

"No, my daughter, of course I don't want to see that happen, but he has to prove his financial strength. Only then can I believe you won't suffer if you marry him," the burly man said with a smile.

John was furious when he heard the other party's high-sounding reasons. Everyone in the village knew that the other party was a shameless miser who not only sold expensive goods but also skimped on materials. Many people would rather walk to the neighboring village to buy farm tools than let him earn more money.

"Father, if I cannot marry him, I would rather die here or become a nun in the church." Mary stepped forward bravely, her chest puffed out.

With a sharp "smack," the burly man slapped Mary hard across the face. "You're my daughter, even if you die."

"You..." Little John was about to step forward when he saw this, but Mary held him tightly.

"Get inside!" the burly man roared. Then Mary pressed down on little John, her eyes filled with tears, covered her face, and walked into the house with her head down.

"You wait, there are still a few days until winter, I'll earn the rest of the gold coins right away," Little John said through gritted teeth, glaring at the other man.

"That's good, that's good. I also think you're young and promising, John. This amount of money is nothing to you." Mary's father immediately changed his tune. "You can really pawn that pocket watch to me. Don't worry, it won't cost much."

"You're dreaming," John said, slamming the door behind him as he stormed out.

The apprentices outside, seeing him come out, immediately resumed their clanging and hammering, and no one said anything.

Mary's father followed her out of the house. Watching little John walk away, he muttered to himself, "Could this kid really have managed to scrape together 10 gold coins? Well, they own land, so they might have some left over. I need to go over there and try to raise the price a bit more."

As he spoke, he went inside to grab a cloth hat, preparing to leave. Before leaving, he scolded his apprentice, "Be careful, or you won't have dinner tonight."

…………

"Sir," a man with a protruding underbite and a blind left eye ran into the house, "Mary's father just came looking for me."

"Hmm, what did he say?" The tax officer tossed out a few cards from his hand and said calmly.

"He said Little John was willing to pay 10 gold coins, but we'd have to wait a few more days," the man with the underbite said, bowing and scraping.

"Is that all?" The tax collector tossed over two silver coins. "Is there anything else you wanted?"

"That's all. He asked me how much more I could offer?" Di Baotian caught the silver coin, wiped it on his clothes a few times, and then grinned as he looked at the pattern on it.

"That old bastard was just like that after all." The tax official chuckled sharply. "Tell him you can offer 20 gold coins."

"20? Sir, isn't that too much?" A burly man playing cards with him turned around and asked.

"Not much, give it to him first, and we can get it back in two years. After all, I'm in charge of tax collection, and they can't just go directly to the Earl." The tax officer then tossed out two more playing cards.

Today, he brought his men out to collect and distribute taxes, but they barely visited any businesses. Their purpose was simply to check on Little John's situation. Seeing that the other party seemed confident, the tax officer had no choice but to raise the price, forcing Little John to back down.

"Thank you, sir." The man with the underbite chuckled foolishly, then quickly went to the side and poured the tax officer a glass of homemade fruit wine from the countryside.

"As we agreed before, I'll knock Mary unconscious on our wedding night. I'll go first." The tax officer took the wine and took a sip.

"Yes, yes, sir," Di Baotian nodded.

"Sir, isn't it unsafe?" the burly man asked, tossing down a playing card.

"Unsafe what? I've had my eye on Mary for a long time. She comes to my house every day to take her clothes back to wash. With that face and figure, if I didn't care about my reputation, would I be doing all this shady stuff?" The tax collector turned his head and spat out the fruit crumbs in his mouth, continuing, "Anyway, I'm in charge of the taxes in these surrounding villages. Can they really rebel?"

"I mean Little John, I heard he became an adventurer," the burly man said after a moment's thought.

"So what if you're an adventurer? You're not a knight. You just follow behind others and slash goblins. You've all seen those things, small and skinny, they can't even withstand a kick from you. How much skill can Little John possibly have?" The tax collector said nonchalantly. "Or are you saying, Hound, that someone who blocks the road and slashes people is afraid of those kinds of weapons that they can't even hold a knife properly?"

"Sir, I'm just worried they might cause trouble," the burly hunting dog said with a smile.

"What can he do? If he dares to do anything, just kill him. Then I'll report him for tax evasion, and his whole family will be hanged."

"However, you have a point." The tax officer nodded slightly and tossed out a few cards. "Although John is a bit simple-minded, Mary is a woman of her own mind, so we still need to keep a close eye on her."

"You, keep a close eye on Mary these next few days. Make sure nothing happens to her. I've been waiting for this long; don't let anything go wrong in the end," the tax officer ordered Dibaotian.

"Yes, sir," Di Baotian said, bowing. "I certainly won't spoil your fun."

"My turn!" The tax collector threw down the remaining cards in his hand and said excitedly, "I won again! Take the money!"

The three people around him reluctantly pulled out silver coins and placed them in front of him. The tax collector happily put them away and said, "They're just adventurers. There are plenty of them in Goat Horn Town. Why don't we spend 20 silver coins to buy a live goblin with its ears cut off, stab it a few times, and we can have our own experience?"

He took a sip of fruit wine and spat out the dregs.

"One more round."

P.S.: Starting today, I'll be writing 6000 words every day. Please read on and add this to your favorites. Dear readers, please don't let this book sit unread.