45. The Duty of Taxation

Besides doing business throughout the kingdom, De Ville Trading Company also earned decent profits by buying buildings in the center of the territory and operating them as famous restaurants and inns.

De Ville Trading Company, which had maintained a close financial relationship with Lady Ygret, was initially shocked by her tragic death.

However, a crisis was nothing but an opportunity by another name. And wasn’t utilizing this to the fullest extent the very essence of entrepreneurial spirit?

After mourning Lady Ygret, who had provided tremendous help in money laundering, De Ville Trading Company decided to consume the rest of her slush fund.

“You know what? Stupid people always sit at desks trying desperately to make incorrect calculations work.”

Nicola Graus looked kindly at the merchant who snorted at the tax officer directly appointed by the Grand Duke as if it were nothing special.

At his gesture, a strong man he had brought as an escort dumped a pile of garbage in front of the manager.

“Ugh, what kind of business interference is this! Suddenly!”

“When calculations don’t add up, it’s just that the other party is committing fraud, why doubt your own intelligence? Sure enough, when I suspected something was wrong with the books and came to the site, there’s always something.”

“No, those who enforce the country’s laws should work legally! What kind of outrage is this!”

“Do you know how much your garbage talks?”

“This is absolutely ridiculous! I tried to be polite because you’re from the Grand Duke’s household.”

Nicola, who had experienced everything as a tax officer, just laughed heartily seeing the merchant’s face turn red and blue.

“According to De Ville Trading Company’s tax report, this building receives about a hundred customers a day.”

The strong man who brought the garbage bag wasn’t alone. Soon, dozens more people arrived at the building carrying garbage bags, besides the first person who brought garbage.

“Are you crazy? What are you doing!”

Garbage began pouring into a place that was supposed to guarantee delicious meals and comfortable beds.

“Tell me, how does this look like garbage from a hundred people staying for a day?”

The space, famous as a northern specialty restaurant, was covered in garbage.

“Anyone can see that at least a thousand people would have to visit to produce this much.”

Nicola Graus patted the merchant’s shoulder affectionately.

“Ten times as much, you’ve got some nerve, haven’t you?”

To catch De Ville Trading Company’s lies, Nicola Graus didn’t hesitate to sit in the store across from this building and count the number of customers coming and going himself.

He felt pleasure every time he uncovered a falsified number.

In this way, Lady Ygret’s slush fund hidden by De Ville Trading Company, along with the taxes that De Ville Trading Company had been embezzling separately, were all discovered in the first month after Nicola Graus returned as the territory’s tax officer.

* * *

Just thinking about the money Nicola Graus had recovered made me so happy I woke up wide awake.

“Ah, you slept here again today as usual.”

On a clear morning, feeling the warm body temperature next to me, I deliberately frowned.

Recently, I had been busy running around taking care of a few things as the Grand Duchess, but that was only temporary. Originally, Darius was much busier.

Seeing Darius processing documents piled as high as his head in his office, I was so thankful that I was the Grand Duke’s wife and not the Grand Duke.

Darius would be stuck handling work and only come to bed late at night, which I felt sorry for, so I left him alone, but this man had developed a bad habit.

If he came to bed on time, he would hear me say, “The Grand Duke is an adult, so go sleep in your own room.” So he just comes late at night to sleep.

Poke, poke, poke. Come to think of it, that annoyed me a bit, so I poked Darius’s forearm with my finger.

‘If you have the nerve to come to bed late at night, have the manners to leave on your own at dawn, too.’

“……Anette.”

Darius grabbed me beside him, whining sleepily.

His voice, half-awake and half-asleep, sounded very attractive because it was so deep.

‘Yes, flirting with women other than the female lead is prohibited.’

Are you watching, Evangeline? I’m such a setting-faithful extra.

“……Is it morning already? Let’s sleep more…… I’m tired.”

This man must have low blood pressure. Unable to open his eyes properly, he pulled up the blanket and rubbed his warm cheek against my arm as if completely unconscious.

I pushed the handsome forehead that was sticking to me like a puppy with the palm of my hand.

“You have eye boogers.”

I had asked before why Darius kept calling my name in his sleep and clinging to me like this.

〈Are your sleeping habits always this bad?〉

〈Well…… I guess it’s because sleeping with someone is strange to me.〉

He was a brave Grand Duke who lost his mother at a young age and grew up alone without even a nanny. For him, the only beings who might enter his bedroom at night would be assassins, so the presence of someone sharing the same bed must indeed be strange.

But in that case, wouldn’t it be better for him to sleep in his own room? If he swings his arm wrong on a night with bad dreams, I could even die?

“Good Grand Duke, it’s time to wake up now. Today has today’s duties.”

“I only slept a few hours.”

Postpone today, and tomorrow it doubles.

He must have been really tired because Darius’s clingy behavior was worse than usual today. Normally when he wakes up, he gets embarrassed and moves away. Today is different.

“Anette, you need to come with me to the assembly today.”

Darius spoke in a grumpy voice, as if annoyed that I kept trying to wake him.

“Ah, there’s nothing for me to do there anyway.”

“The lord’s wife should be with the lord. It’s the day to hear the voices of the territory’s people.”

“At first, you said to come along because we were newlyweds.”

If it’s not the early days of marriage, can’t I skip it? I don’t know how every Monday became a day for meetings with Darius.

This isn’t like some ancestral rite that was revived as soon as a daughter-in-law arrived. Since when did this territory require the lord’s wife to attend meetings? The position of Grand Duchess in the Inkheart territory had been vacant for over a decade.

“I only slept a few hours and have to go to work again, but my wife, who went to bed earlier than me, is trying to kick me out and sleep in, saying she won’t even come to the meeting.”

“I have a lot to do too!”

“Are you busier than me, Anette?”

Darius opened his eyes wide. Objectively, subjectively, and honestly speaking, that’s not the case.

“Sigh.”

“Just thinking about going to the meeting with a wife who will take my side makes me feel secure already. I guess this is why everyone gets married.”

The Grand Duke, who didn’t want to suffer alone, held my hand tightly and smiled happily. Didn’t someone say that shared sorrow is half the sorrow?

I’m really paying the price for waking up the Grand Duke who couldn’t sleep well.

* * *

“This year’s harvest in the territory……”

“In preparation for the upcoming labor market period……”

I had once given my opinion on the blacksmith business proposed by the gnome.

But that was because it was a field I actually knew about, and I didn’t know much about most territory affairs.

So I just sat quietly next to Darius, thinking I would get used to it if I kept listening.

These days, the vassals who had high favorability toward me were pleased even when I just sat with my eyes wide open, saying that the lady was showing great interest in the territory.

“Anette.”

It seemed the lord who brought along someone who didn’t want to be there felt the same way. He kept smiling whenever our eyes met.

“Our Grand Duke must have really felt wronged suffering alone.”

“What are you saying?”

“No, yawn. These are all unfamiliar topics to me. It’s not like my listening will be of any help.”

“If you have nothing to do, just cheer me on.”

“Are you a child? No, more importantly, you were doing fine on your own without my cheering.”

During a short break in the middle of the meeting. As we sat in chairs right next to each other, whispering with our heads close together, the vassals in the meeting room smiled at the harmonious grand ducal couple.

When I requested a contract marriage from Darius, I offered cotton, a southern specialty, as the benefit I could bring to the north.

Unfortunately, the first attempt at cotton cultivation ended in spectacular failure. Most of the sown seeds didn’t even sprout.

〈Was it a problem with the amount of sunlight, or watering?〉

〈Since it’s common knowledge that cotton only grows in the south, it’s hard to even find someone who knows how to grow it in the north.〉

While the garden manager and I worried anxiously, Darius, on the contrary, didn’t make much of the failure.

〈We didn’t plant the cotton expecting success from the beginning, did we?〉

He was right.

Besides, although I hadn’t succeeded in the cotton cultivation I had promised, I had found Grand Duke Inkheart’s legendary gold coins, eliminated the witch who had infiltrated the castle, and recently even persuaded a capable tax officer to return to work.

After doing all this, if someone criticizes me for failing at cotton cultivation, they’re the bad ones.

‘Suddenly I feel proud and confident.’

However, the brief respite ended quickly.

“Your Highness, we should keep an eye on the Tiberius territory for the time being.”

“Tiberius?”

The Tiberius territory bordered our northern region.

“The count who rules the Tiberius territory has been in constant conflict with the Shire viscounty over the territory boundary.”

“You’re saying that Viscount Shire seems likely to lead an army to invade the Tiberius territory.”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

Seriousness filled Darius’s eyes as he received news of the risk of conflict in a nearby territory.

“Count Tiberius. He certainly wasn’t one known for deep thinking.”

“The resentment between them runs deep. From Viscount Shire’s perspective, it might be better to use force at this point.”

All nobles, from Count Tiberius and Viscount Shire to the Grand Duke of Inkheart, had sworn loyalty to the royal family.

In other words, as long as they remained loyal to the royal family, they could govern their own territories as they saw fit.

Territorial wars. ‘Private’ disputes between nobles were freely allowed.

Of course, if the entire country was embroiled in war and on the verge of collapse, the royal family would intervene, but generally, there was no separate intervention in territorial wars, and after the outcome was decided, the winner only needed to get approval from the royal family for territorial expansion.