CH 55

A few days later.

Inside the upper part of the Vliette, which was already a mess, became noisy again.

“Master, Finally, we have the sales strategy and price of Holt’s top dress.”

“Let’s see what we can do.”

Ager, the head of the upper ranks of Vliette, snorted and stole the report presented by his deputy.

‘How dare you take away all my designers?’

I thought I would be able to hold on until the Fog of Fall incident was buried if I just passed the part of this social season well.

The only thing that shattered that wind was Princess Frey, who only knew how to spend money, and Holt, whose sales were always at the bottom.

The pride of his life in commerce was not allowed.

Agar lit his eyes and looked at the dress sales information on the guild of the Holt.

just as expected.

‘I can’t believe I made such a rudimentary mistake.’

The corners of his mouth curled up as he realized his mistake.

The selling price of the dress was outrageously expensive.

If the price of goods is this high, the luxury tax will increase proportionally.

‘Besides, noble ladies order several dresses, not one.’

If so, no matter how sacred the dress was, the price would be unaffordable.

Because the luxury tax is soaring.

‘This is why inexperienced merchants are no good. At best, designers are taken away and the customer’s trust is lost… hmm?’

As he read the final price portion of the report, Ager was speechless for a moment.

‘what? There is no luxury tax on such an expensive dress?’

Soon he realized what Frey had done and was speechless again.

The luxury tax is literally a tax levied on things that exist for the sake of luxury.

It was a system created by the state to prevent the purchase of luxurious items that are uselessly in vain.

However…

[Item: defense]

Ager felt like he was choking and called for his deputy.

“Did you do your research properly?”

Did Frey report what was obviously a dress as a defense?”

“Yes. I also thought it didn’t make sense, so I double-checked it.”

“Does Frey have no tact, or is she just going to trust the Emperor and leave?”

His voice grew louder because he was so dumbfounded.

In order to pay less taxes, they use fake books that they traded at a lower price than the actual transaction price.

Or stealing part of the luxury tax paid by customers and reporting it differently from the luxury goods actually traded.

‘Scrolls with defensive magic are meant for everyone, so it was great when they made a law not to levy any tax.’

High-ranking officials, including Count Vliette, had a strong influence in the political world, and there were many times when they benefited legally.

But isn’t this going too far?

“I wouldn’t even think of reporting a dress as defense gear. Anyone can see that it is a false report!”

“Master, that’s…”

“Listen to it, too! The guild who does things that will be criticized by fellow merchants won’t last long!”

Ager preached his business philosophy for a long time. The deputy said hesitantly.

“Please read the details on the back page.”

“hmm?”

Ager, who read the details without much thought, froze as it was.

[Each dress is decorated with divine power in rose quartz processed in a special way to prevent undead monsters from approaching.]

[Declare an item as armor or defense for this reason.]

‘The dress contains divine power?’

He suddenly remembered something from the past.

A long time ago.

‘Wizards are scholars who study the truth, how could they covet riches!’

There was a suggestion made by a new senior who was crazy about money in the presence of senior members of Mage Tower who live by that word.

[“They sell magic scrolls in clothes, right? Report it with armor and evade taxes.”]

‘Was his name Vikram? He was expelled from the Magic Tower for revealing his wealth, but he seems to have been quite talented…’

Anyway, after hearing what he said, Eiger thought it would be okay, so he put the scroll between the fabric and sewed it, but it was all a failure.

Because parchment was stiff and large, it was difficult to apply it to clothes.

But how can you easily overcome the limitations by decorating jewels containing divine power?

‘Shit. Because of the law proposed by Count Vliette, armor won’t pay taxes!’

Also in terms of price and in terms of quality.

From the customer’s point of view, there was no reason not to buy the products of Princess Frey and Holt.

Adding a defense function by putting divine power into clothes is something that only Frey can do, so it is impossible to check.

“I never thought you would have done this kind of research with dresses and jewels in a corner of the imperial palace…”

Agar gritted his teeth and blamed himself in the past for proposing a tax exemption law for armor or defense.

* * *

A few days later.

Lina brought the news she had been waiting for.

“Your Highness, Grand Duchess.

The capital’s customs office has sent a certificate acknowledging that the clothing declared by the guild has a protective function.”

She couldn’t hide her joy all the time.

Well, Holt’s upper house benefited

the most from the collaboration between the northern clothing room staff and the capital’s designers.

It was only natural that Baron Holt’s face brightened.

‘In addition to that, I’ll soon absorb the upper ranks of Vliette, who ruined the business of the social season.’

How far can the Holt Merchant, which has acquired the distribution network and commercial know-how of the Vliette Merchant Merchant that stretches throughout the empire, leap forward?

Can we do business with the regions that have been almost monopolized by the Vliette Merchants?

In my heart, I wanted to invite the guild officials and have a big celebration party.

‘But the social season is just around the corner, so let’s be patient.’

It was because there was work to be done before leaving Grand Duke Prause.

I took out the list I had received from Daniel the other day from the drawer.

On the paper, the names of the merchants who reacted abnormally when the Fog of Fall was first introduced at the central shopping district were written.

All of these were the reactions of the users of the Mist of the Fog of Fall when they were exposed to divine power.

‘Let’s see. Among them, those who have interacted with Breck Vliette…’

I picked out a few and handed them over to Lna.

“Lina. Could you tell Luke that you want to briefly interview these people? as soon as possible.”

“Yes, your Highness the Grand Duchess. Everyone is being watched by the knights, so it should be possible by tomorrow.”

“Thank you.”

According to Daniel’s personality, he wanted to capture all of them and send them to the Great War in the capital.

Of course, it is the right thing to do.

‘But now that I’m determined to hurt count Vliette, there’s a way to make more use of these Fog of Fall Addicts.’

Fortunately, the meeting I wanted to take place the next afternoon.

“Your Highness, Grand Duchess.

They could pose a threat, so we’ll keep an eye on them.”

The red serpent, which has become very fast in front of me, brought the merchants I pointed out.

When Luke showed me a respectful attitude, I could see that the depraved fog addicts who had been called were also stunned.

‘They must have been stabbed a lot because they’ve been under intense surveillance for the past few days and they’ve been thinking about their sins on their own.’

Even though they couldn’t touch the fog of Fall because of the knights, they didn’t show severe withdrawal symptoms like Viscount Bart or Baron Heinz.

Fog of Fall seemed to be relatively less poisoned because it was traded at a fairly high price.

‘The price was said to be burdensome even for a big merchant.’

In any case, it was fortunate that they were sober as I was trying to get a confession.

“I called because I wanted to ask you guys who were close to Count Vliette’s eldest son.”

When I deliberately lowered my voice, the merchants who had been called shrank.

“You’ve heard that I’ve been working hard to absorb the vliette guild these days, right?”

I winked at Prause’s employees.

They handed out the paper, ink, and pens they had prepared in advance to merchants.

“Once we take over the guild, we plan to investigate through the guild staff how Count Vliette’s eldest son received the fog of Fall.”

Some of the eyes shook as if there was something being stabbed.

“So, I will give you a chance, confess everything related to the Fog of Fall. I promise to show mercy to the one person who gave me the most information.”

“…”

“I think an hour would be enough.”

As soon as I concluded my words, the hourglass was turned over, and the merchants looked at the paper and pen with devastated eyes.

‘What should I do?’ The worry was evident on their faces.

If I send them home and ask them to write a statement, there is a possibility of group manipulation or concealment of the truth.

However, if the merchants were not able to interact with each other due to being monitored by the knight if they were pressured to make a statement in a short time.

‘If you knew how the Fog of Fall was distributed, you would be shaken. People who don’t know can’t help it.’

They must have learned something since they saw that the prestigious count family collapsed for a moment because of being related to Fog of Fall.

I added, twisting my hair with my hand.

“Ah, by the way, we plan to interrogate everyone who served Count breck Vliette as soon as we take over the Vliette Merchant.”

“…!”

“Employees belonging to the count family have been investigating since the beginning of the Great War.”

As I raised one corner of My mouth, the merchants gripped their pens with trembling hands.

“Since the matter is so serious, if you leak wrong information here or know something but don’t tell it, you will have to pay with death, right?”

Adding to the threats, some merchants began to write things down quickly on paper.

He seems to have realized that even if he is silent if others tell the truth, he will die.

‘Because if I investigate the members of the county as well as those involved in the guild, one person will open their mouth.’

However, researching all of them will take a considerable amount of time.

‘My father and the high priest are investigating in the capital… It would be nice if we could press these merchants to get a statement.’

You can’t keep your mouth shut or spread false information just because you’re doing cross-validation.

You can’t take it away because you don’t know.

Waiting for some useful information to come out.

‘I think it’s worth sitting and staring at for an hour.’

I carefully read two statements that stood out.

[I don’t know the details. However, there was a time when Count Vliette’s eldest son got drunk and slightly leaked that the route to get his Fog of Fall Mist was the Mage Tower.]

[I once heard Count Vliette’s eldest son say at a drinking party, “If it’s not enough, send someone to the Mage Tower to bring more.”]

I asked a few questions, leaving only two people with matching statements.

“This drinking party, when was it?”

The two answered almost simultaneously.

“It was right after the New Year’s Festival last year.”

“It was not long after the New Year’s festival last year.”

After separating the two into different rooms and interrogating them, the answers were consistent.

If so, it’s worth digging deeper.

‘That day, Breck Vliette seems to have answered the secret question by drinking alcohol in the fog of Fall.’

My heart thumped.

If it really was the mage tower that supplied the fog of Fall.

‘If we clearly reveal it with evidence, we can destroy the Mage Tower.’

It was able to deal a huge blow to the Duke of Gelon, who almost ruled the Mage Tower.

‘But how does the Magic Tower deal with Fog of Fall? Wait for a sec…’

There was something on my mind.

“Luke. Instead of sending them directly to the Great Temple, detain them separately in the basement.”

I got up and went to Daniel.