Lord Highlander

   Chapter 848 837. Taking office

  The Grimm Empire has just entered June, and the ant swarm on the Bailin plane has not dissipated, but there are no traces of ghost-striped red ants near Dodan Town.

  Andrew, Samira, Gulitum and others have led the cavalry regiment to the mountainous area west of Nantu Town to wipe out the ant colony there.

  Today is Surdak's first day at the town hall.

Selena went to the free market in the town very early. Recently, there will always be some outsiders in the free market. They are not familiar with the rules of Dodan Town, and they always have some disputes with local small traders. They need Selena Only by coming forward in person can these chaos be quelled.

   By the time Suldak got up, the sun had already shone through the gap in the curtains.

  Signa was the only one left sitting at the dining table, with a glass of milk and a plate of biscuits in front of her. She curled up on a chair in the dining room, holding a magic book in her hand and reading with gusto.

  The magic note on the dining table was open, and Ms. Celia Cooper's upper body appeared on the page, explaining a few sentences from time to time.

  Signa is wearing a Lolita-style princess dress, with long hair shawl, trimmed very neatly.

Suldak walked over, poured out a glass of water from the water bottle, picked up two slices of white bread from the basket, spread butter in a hurry, stuffed it into his mouth as soon as possible, and asked Signa vaguely: "Seeing that you are very interested in these magic books recently, is there any progress?"

Signa raised her head, her dark eyes fell on Suldak's face, and she proudly said to him, "I'm learning ancient Elven language from Mr. Cooper, and if you want to learn magic spells, you must be proficient in this language." , besides...you see."

  Speaking, Signa stretched out a finger in front of Suldak, and just under Signa's short chant, a little light blue faint light appeared on her fingertips.

  Although Suldak only mastered the Land of Holy Light, at his level, he can also feel other magical elements around him.

   On Signa's fingertips, there is a little bit of weak water element, gathered by her spell.

   Before awakening the magic pool, Signa could not store magic power, and the spell could only arouse the resonance of the magic elements around her.

   It was for this reason that this faint light blue light appeared on her fingertips, and then quickly went out.

   "Can you feel it?"

  Although Suldak has never met a magic apprentice, he knows that the magic elements that many magic apprentices perceive at the beginning are like this.

  If Signa didn't like Lance and his friends, he would have wanted Signa to learn magic with Lance.

   "Well, with Mr. Cooper teaching me, what's so difficult..."

  Signa rolled her big innocent eyes and said in a natural tone.

   "..."

  Suldak was stunned for a moment.

He picked up the water glass and took a sip before saying: "If you can awaken the magic pool, then you will be a magician noble from now on. I asked Lance that there is also a magic awakening ceremony in Wilkes City, about eight It will be held in the middle of August, and we are planning to go to Wilkes in early August, and it is estimated that by then, the beast tide here will be over."

  Signa put the thick magic book on her knees, and said to Suldak:

   "Well, although I don't think it doesn't matter whether I participate in this awakening ceremony, I'd better listen to you."

   Possibly... that's growing pains.

  In fact, Suldak still misses Signa when she was a child. At that time, Signa would just squat by the fireplace, staring at the chestnut rice porridge in the iron pot.

  At that time, she was not like she is now, every word was directed at a small knife.

He pinched the corners of his eyes and was a little angry at Signa's attitude. He tried to make his voice lower and his expression more serious, and asked Signa: "It doesn't matter...how can it be nothing? Don't you want to be a A magician?"

  Signa spread her hands and said indifferently: "Actually, I think it's good for me to study these magics with Celia at home."

   "Look at Selina, she hasn't awakened the magic pool, but can't she also cast those magics? Those magics... I will too in the future."

  Obviously, she may not understand the essential difference between the ability to cast magic given by "Goddess Descends" and her own spellcasting.

  But Suldak couldn't refute it, because Selina who accepted the "Goddess Descending" was indeed very powerful.

  Suldak said to Signa: "...Actually, I think that if Selena had the conditions to awaken the magic pool, her current achievements might be higher."

   "Maybe you are right." Signa lowered her head, absently flipping through the magic book in her hand.

  Suldak put the empty water glass back on the tea tray.

  Signa saw Suldak get up and was about to leave, and immediately asked, "Are you coming back for lunch?"

  Suldak said: "No, if there is not much going on at the town hall, I will go to the barracks."

  Signa then said: "Then I will go too..."

  In fact, almost all the guards at the barracks knew Signa, and she was free to come and go in the barracks, just like at home.

  The soldiers also knew that she was Selena's daughter, and she was also favored by Suldak.

  …

  Suldak hung his sword on the wooden frame at the door of the room.

   Walked out of the small building where Selena lived, and walked directly to the town hall in the center of the town without riding a horse.

There is a lot of traffic on the main street of Dodan Town, and the main street near the square is being widened. The road surface needs to be re-paved with granite slabs, and the town has recently issued a new law that no stalls are allowed in front of all buildings facing the street. , in order to alleviate serious traffic jams.

  Because he was going to the town hall, Suldak didn't wear full-face armor, but only a set of tight-fitting salamander leather armor, which showed his figure very well.

He is tall and tall, with a sword hanging on his waist - a blood red crescent, the fine linen wrapped around the hilt and blood mixed together, as if forming a layer of paste on the hilt, the shield and the holy light torch are all put into the magic waist bag Here, it looks very light.

  While walking, Suldak was still slowly touching the larynx of his neck, thinking about the rune language, but unfortunately there was still no progress for half a month.

The pedestrians who come and go are all town residents. When they usually see him, most of them are wearing full armor, riding a strong ancient Bolai horse, wearing a steel helmet on their heads, and occasionally covering their faces. mask.

   So few people know him.

  Suldak mixed in with the crowd, like a mercenary or adventurer who rushed over from Wilkes City.

   Someone even came over to strike up a conversation and asked him if he had a regular adventure group or mercenary group. If not, you might as well join their team. The treatment is good, and there are beautiful swordsmen and so on.

Some four-wheeled trucks full of goods were blocked on the long street, and a magic caravan was lying across the street. It was probably turning around, but unfortunately, the front and rear were tightly blocked by the trucks. Three coachmen stood on the roof On the ground, the horse whips in their hands were yelling at each other.

   There were two nobles sitting in the magic caravan.

  A group of members of the adventure group stood on the side of the street looking idly, looking around curiously.

  The small vegetable vendor parked his cart aside, wiped the sweat off his face, and waited for the crowd to pass by.

  Some aborigines carrying bags saw the severe congestion here, so they carried sackcloth bags into the alley next to the main street.

  On the noisy street, the curses in Imperial language came and went.

  The crowd of onlookers seemed to hope that the three coachmen would take off their white gloves and throw them at each other's feet if they disagreed like knights or nobles—let's fight!

  What's the point of cursing like this?

  However, the three parties behaved fairly restrained, always just cursing, and did not do anything.

  Wait until the sheriff of the town arrived late, he drank the truck away with his stomach full, making the magic caravan turn around successfully, and saw the people inside the magic caravan dressed in gorgeous costumes, and they were still standing outside the car and saluted repeatedly.

  The traffic here is slowly recovering.

  Suldak stood on the side of the street, the scenery in front of him seemed to touch the memory fragments in the deepest part of his heart that had long been dimmed.

  …

  As the town of Dodan has gradually become lively these days.

   Three hotels and a tavern opened in a row near the main street.

When Suldak passed by here at night, he could always see a row of beautiful and slender liquor girls standing at the entrance of the tavern. Of course, it was so early in the morning, those ale girls might still be lying in the arms of some generous drinker, Only at dusk, they will dress up beautifully, stand in front of the tavern in beautiful skirts, and greet the passing guests to enter the store for a drink.

  As the ant tide in Dodan Town has been controlled by the garrison, mercenary groups and adventure groups can hunt red ants in the hills and mountains, so some business opportunities have emerged, and many outsiders have poured into Dodan Town.

  When Suldak walked to the town hall, he saw a long queue in the courtyard of the town hall. It seemed that they went to the town hall to pay taxes.

Hathaway established a tax system. Merchants need to pay taxes when they conduct large transactions. If they are only traded and digested in the small town, this does not require taxation, but as long as the goods are taken out of Dodan Town, You need to pay taxes.

   Otherwise, the guard at the south exit of the town will not let you go.

  Of course, tax evasion is not uncommon recently. The system adopted by Duodan Town is... Once caught, it will be punished to the heart.

  It’s just past breakfast time, and the merchants probably wanted to leave Dodan Town as soon as possible, so they came directly to the town hall to declare taxes.

  Suldak did not see Batra tax officer, only two young tax officers were maintaining order outside.

  The magic caravan that made a temporary U-turn in the downtown area was parked next to the flower pond in the courtyard of the town hall. The coachman sat on a chair and put a felt cap on his face to catch up on sleep.

  Two horses are secretly nibbling the flowers and plants in the flower pond.

  Suldak walked to the gate of the town hall and looked around, but it happened that no one knew him.

  The young female receptionist in the lobby was not in her seat either, and she didn't know where she ran to at this time. There was only a long line at the door, and the tail of the line had already flung into the courtyard of the town hall.

  Suldak stepped in, turned his head and looked around the hall for a while, and then walked directly to the stairs.

  The merchants in the queue didn’t know Suldak either, and seeing him as suspected of jumping in the queue, someone immediately pointed at Suldak and asked:

   "We are all queuing here, please go to the back and queue..."

  The businessmen on the side immediately echoed: "That's right, if they all cut the queue like this, wouldn't it be completely disorderly?"

  Suldak waved his hand and said casually: "Oh, I'm not here to pay taxes, I'm going upstairs."

   He didn't care about the offense of these businessmen.

   He stepped up to the second floor, planning to go to Mrs. Luna's office first, and communicate with Mrs. Luna first.

   Mrs. Luna still needs to continue to be responsible for the daily management of the town. As the mayor, he just tries to keep the development track of Dodan Town in line with the pace of developing the Invercargill Forest.

  As soon as I walked to Mrs. Luna's office, I heard a quarrel coming from inside.

   "Aunt...why didn't you say a word! When Mayor Marko was still here, he didn't say that everyone had to pay taxes before they could leave Dodan with their goods."

   A young man's voice said sharply.

"At that time, you were Mayor Marko's secretary. I came here to make leather voices, and I never paid taxes... Now that you have become the acting mayor and the highest chief executive of Dodan Town, how can someone confiscate you Nephew's taxes?"

   "Batra, what's going on?"

  Ms. Luna's questioning voice came from the room...

The young man's voice was sharper, almost roaring: "Batra, it doesn't matter if you don't know who I am, can I leave now? By the way, I also need to give me a customs clearance ticket, without which I can't leave at all Dodan..."

"Of course, you can do it anytime, but if you want to leave Dodan with those goods, I'm afraid you can't." The voice of Batra tax collector came from the room: "Although your aunt Mrs. Luna is the acting mayor, But she can't control me, and Miss Hathaway is responsible for the taxation of Dodan Town now, and the tax for this part of the transaction can't be less than a copper coin."

   "Why, my aunt is the acting mayor of Duodan Town. Doesn't it count if she speaks?" The young man shouted sharply.

   "Of course not!" Batra tax officer said firmly.

  (end of this chapter)