The Legendary Rebuilding of a World by a Realist Demon King Chapter 76
A New Hero
I had a chair brought to the office in Decarbia Castle. As the former lord of this castle did not use chairs, many of the rooms did not have them.
While Demon King Decarbia had fled, the endeavor had still been a great success.
After all, I had now had control over his trading town.
Obviously, trade did occur in my own town. There were both farming and manufacturing industries. But Decarbia had one of the best in the area.
It was in the center of several intersecting roads, and there was even a great river.
And so people gathered to it naturally, and trade would thrive.
Demons, humans, and demi-humans. All came to sell and to buy.
“It’s surprising that the greedy Decarbia allowed all of this.”
Eve said. But it was because he was greedy that he allowed it.
However, his taxes had been very high. You even had to pay to enter the town. There were taxes put on houses of certain sizes and how many people lived there. There were even taxes for the number of windows.
As Eve had her own strong opinions on governing, her mouth dropped in shock when she heard this.
“He was a great fool. You should not raise taxes so high, just because you can.”
“Yes.”
“Such heavy taxes will cause merchants to leave. That will result in a reduction of taxes that are paid. During the Sengoku period, Hojo, who Fuma Kotaro served, made the taxes about forty percent. This made him popular with the people and his lands prospered.”
Fuma Kotaro heard this and grinned.
But he had nothing to add, and just leaned against the wall.
“I would like to follow his footsteps and lower the taxes as well. So, we should start by halving the entrance fee for the town. We could get rid of it altogether, but I could use the money.”
“I think that is a good idea.”
Eve agreed.
“But we will get rid of the taxes based on households etcetera. Especially that one about windows. People will build houses with fewer windows and use more candles. That will mean more fires.”
In fact, there had been a period in Japan where taxes were decided based on the width of the front of the house.
And so people started to build their houses long and narrow.
Many such buildings remained long after the law changed, especially in the city of Kyoto.
People would always find loopholes and ways to avoid paying.
“While getting rid of those other taxes is good and all, it will be difficult to keep track of everyone’s income. Still, it will not be very good to have taxes put on children. That will cause the population to shrink.”
“Then only have it for adults.”
“Indeed. But at what age should that start? It may be good to create a family register.”
“A family register?”
“Aye. It will have records of births that we can keep. It seems that the previous Demon King did not do this, so it would be a good time to start.”
“It will cost a lot of money.”
“But it will make it easier to collect taxes.”
Eve’s eyes shone when she heard the word ‘taxes.’ And she quickly ordered the civil servants under her employment to begin preparations.
“However, some might feel cautious regarding such a thing. We should give bread to those who are added to the register.”
“Very good, Master. They will easily bite such a bait.”
“Well, people always agree when money or bread is involved. Whichever you think is best. Some people say you are not to feed your prey after catching them, but we won’t work like that.”
The taxes from this town would be used to expand it and build a richer city.
If I could do that, the residents would gladly pay their taxes.
This turned out to be correct, and the new tax system was a success.
On the following day, the news was shared with the people and the merchants.
Perhaps one of the reasons it was well-received, was because they could hardly imagine such a thing happening under Decarbia.
One merchant said,
“Taxes have been reduced. Now I can offer my products at a lower price.”
And one woman said,
“Now that we don’t have to pay taxes for each child, I can give birth to a third.”
And one elder said,
“There are no window taxes now. My house will be brighter.”
They were all happy.
This improved the reputation of the town and brought in more visitors.
“Business is much better under the new Demon King.”
“It should expand greatly now that Decarbia is gone.”
The merchants were quick to gather.
“If we arrested all these merchants and robbed them. You would end up with quite a fortune.”
Eve joked. Of course, we would do no such thing.
Instead, I offered my dwarves to help them design and construct new shops and houses.
As not everyone had the money, we lent it to those who were worthy of trust.
Even I thought all of this was rather bold, but it couldn’t hurt to encourage as many merchants to come here as possible.
And so the structural reform proved to be fruitful.
Eve could not stop singing my praises over it. That was the only downside to all of this.
But now I had the castles of both Demon King Eligos and Demon King Decarbia.
This meant that I was lord of three castles. However, I could not govern three at once. It seemed like a good time to appoint an official lord for each one.
I had Fuma Kotaro and his spies search for a good candidate but had received no promising reports yet.
If I made Saint Jeanne the viceroy of this town, it would become a town with nothing but food.
If I made Toshizou the viceroy, he would build brothels and centers of entertainment.
It was hard to maintain a proper trading town.
And that burden could not be put on them.
“Should I just do it myself?”
It would mean significantly less sleep. As I started to make calculations, Fuma Kotaro appeared.
He appeared without making a sound.
“Demon King. I have found a Hero who lives not far from here.”
I had been thinking about a demon or a human.
So this was a pleasant surprise.
I grabbed Fuma Kotaro’s shoulders and thanked him. Though, he currently had the appearance of a female maid.
And of course, it was just then that Eve walked into the room.
She stared at us for a moment before muttering.
“So, Master has a thing for French maids. Regardless of gender…”
As I didn’t care for her to misunderstand the situation any further, I let go of Kotaro and coughed gruffly.
Eve seemed to have found this funny. She chuckled.