From Londoner To Lord-Chapter 209 - 206. Finances - Part II

"Indeed," Duvas said with a grimace. "98 gold for this particular month, to be exact. For the full year's taxes, it was around..." he muttered while turning pages on his ledger. "Where was it... I know I had calculated it already..." Then he pointed at something, "Oh, here it is. 937 gold is still due as the taxes for the previous year."

"937 gold...!" Kivamus exclaimed. "That's a lot more than what I was expecting..."

Duvas gave a reluctant nod. "At least it's not a full 1200 gold for the year, since the Count knows that we can't sell any coal in the winter months with the road to Cinran blocked every year. Still, we had already saved that much by autumn, but on that unfortunate trip when the previous baron was going to give these very same taxes to the Count is when he was murdered. Usually I went along with him to handle all the formalities and to get our ledger verified with the Count's tax collector, while the baron... met with his... acquaintances there, but as you know I had fallen sick at that time, which turned out to be a blessing from the goddess since it saved my life. However, the result remains the same that the mercenaries stole all our savings, and Count Cinran would still consider our taxes to be long overdue."

The majordomo added, "Usually he would have still sent his tax collector to Tiranat if he hadn't gotten the taxes by the eighth month, but the road to Tiranat was considered too dangerous at the time, especially when carrying such a large amount of gold, so he seemed to have postponed it until after the winter."

Kivamus frowned. "We can only guess if he didn't send the tax collector because the road was dangerous at that time, or because he was also working in collaboration with that bastard Zoricus. In that case he would have to pretend that the roads were dangerous to make it seem like the previous baron had died because of an ambush from some bandits on these wildly dangerous roads, instead of making people wonder if it was a power struggle between nobles."

Duvas looked flabbergasted. "The Count collaborating with Baron Zoricus...? That's not..." Then he trailed off. "Actually, I don't think I can really say that he was fully innocent without knowing more. Even just a few months ago I wouldn't even have expected that Baron Zoricus could have planned something like an assassination of another baron, even though all we have as a proof is our suspicions." The majordomo shook his head. "But at this point, with my previous master of nearly two decades killed so brutally... I just don't know anymore..."

Kivamus nodded. "Whether he was complicit in this or not, the assassination was also meant to include you, since you were expected to accompany the previous baron to Cinran. That's exactly why we have to be on our toes when dealing with any other nobles, including the Count." He continued after a moment, "Anyway, there isn't anything we can do about the past, other than to take a lesson from it to be very cautious of the greedy and blood thirsty nobles in this kingdom."

"I do understand that now," Duvas said reluctantly. "But no matter what The Count may have done to the previous baron, we do have to pay the whole 937 gold to him in the spring."

"That would be in the second month of the coming year..." Gorsazo muttered, "but we will only have just six months to gather a similar amount to pay the next year's taxes for the trailing 12 months, starting from the previous autumn."

Kivamus gave a loud exhale to calm his mind. Just how much money would they have to generate here only to pay taxes... "Isn't there a way for us to get a rebate or something? Or perhaps we can try to tell the tax collector that it's not our fault that the mercenaries stole the savings we were going to pay as taxes..."

"Of course, I plan to try for sure," the majordomo agreed, "but it's not very likely that he is going to listen."

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Gorsazo looked at them. "Even if we can't get a full write off - which would be unrealistic anyway - just getting a discount on that amount would be a Goddess-sent blessing."

"We are going to find that out soon enough," Kivamus muttered. He asked while dreading the answer, "How much do we still have left in the strong box?"

Duvas turned around the pages of the ledger for a while, before he winced. "As of today, we have a total of just 943 gold left, not counting the small change in silvers and coppers. Apart from some small expenses, we still have to pay the wages of the specialised craftsmen, including Taniok, Darora and Cedoron every day, which will eat up our treasury until the time we need to pay the taxes. Of course, the rest of the guards and the servants are already grumbling about not getting any coins, but I think it shouldn't be a big problem for now."

Kivamus grimaced. After paying the wages of the craftsmen until then, most likely they wouldn't have enough gold left to pay the taxes... That didn't leave any scope for buying wheat in time to use as seeds. Of course, they certainly needed to buy a lot more wheat to feed the village in the summer months until they could harvest what they hadn't even sown yet, but that should be doable once the merchants started coming and they were able to sell coal regularly.

"It seems it's a good idea to send Feroy to Kirnos after all," Gorsazo commented, "since any fish we can get from there will help to preserve more wheat and will save our limited gold."

Kivamus nodded. "Earlier I was thinking of giving another feast to the villagers to celebrate the New Year's Eve to mark it as a new beginning for Tiranat, but I don't think it will be feasible this year..."

"I agree with that," Duvas nodded. "Giving that single feast a month ago had already used up more food than we can afford to give for free. We have to minimize our expenses however we can in the coming month."

Kivamus agreed with the sentiment but he still wanted to do at least something to celebrate the evening, even if for no other reason than just to take everyone's mind off from the worries of how they would pay the tax while still having some gold left to buy enough seeds. It just wouldn't feel like a New Year otherwise. Of course, it should also help to calm down the grumbling of the guards and the servants who hadn't been paid for months in cash.

"We still have some of that smoked adzee meat stored up, don't we?" Although Kivamus remembered the sinewy texture of that meat, which was quite chewy and a little hard to swallow, which meant he hadn't liked it at all - just like the people he had asked about it - but for most locals it was the uniquely dangerous source of the meat and the bragging rights which came with it which mattered a lot more than its taste. This content is presented by M4VLEMPYR.

Once the majordomo gave a nod, he continued, "So let's give a small feast just to the manor residents using that meat on new year's eve. That meat is unique enough that it will still mark the day as a special occasion. Madam Nerida can create some other good dishes for the evening, and we can distribute a small amount of the ale we have stored here." He looked at the majordomo. "Before you ask me for this anyway, I'll add a small speech too, to motivate everyone."

Duvas snorted at that, and seemed to think about the proposal for a while. "This smaller feast... should be doable. We are feeding everyone in the manor anyway, so it would barely add any extra load on our food stores. I'll talk with the others to arrange it."

"Feroy would miss the adzee meat this time though," Gorsazo said with a snort.

Kivamus chuckled at that. "That's true, but he can instead have some smoked fish at the coast while he is in Kirnos. Fish is still a unique enough meal for us that it might just be enough to mollify him."

Duvas smirked at that, while Gorsazo joined in his laughter at the ex-mercenary's penchant for eating tasty food.

Kivamus gazed towards the windows in the western wall of the manor hall which were always closed these days. Cinran was still a known entity for trading their coal for grain and they knew what to expect there, especially with the help of the seasoned merchant Pydaso. However, Kirnos was a completely different beast with the local baron's well-known greed of extorting as much as he could from any visiting merchants.

Feroy did have very good instincts, and it was difficult for anyone to fool him, but he was still no veteran merchant. Only time would tell if he would be able to trade profitably in the domain of that greedy baron and help Tiranat save as much wheat and gold as they could. They were certainly going to need it once this harsh winter ended.