Chapter 55 - Fifty-Five ... The Viscount Who Bowed

Chapter 55: Chapter Fifty-Five ... The Viscount Who Bowed

Chapter Fifty-Five ... The Vassal Who Bowed

A feudal vassal was one who had been granted land in return for his loyalty.

That loyalty came bound up with all sorts of obligations: taxes, military service, submission to his lord’s law, and more. So it was only natural that every feudal lord in the Kingdom of Hubner dreamed of one day becoming a free, independent lord. And Avigne, head of one of the five great vassal houses under House Lupton, was one such ambitious feudal lord.

Lately, however, Avigne’s thinking had begun to change, little by little.

’Hm. This is no ordinary sight.’

Avigne muttered to himself as he looked at the pikemen lined up everywhere he turned. They were a formidable sight, elite soldiers of a kind rarely seen in any domain.

He had known ever since the last war that House Lupton was not to be taken lightly, but when on earth had it recovered this much strength? Avigne couldn’t begin to guess.

’And that place... the Hill Fort, was it?’

The corner of Avigne’s eye twitched as he thought of the newly built fortress. Crowds of merchants came and went along the waterway trading their wares, and at the market, still half empty but enormous in size, none other than the famous Lufen Company of the city league had opened a branch.

In short, it wasn’t a fortress anymore. It had become a center of trade, and the lord of Lupton would surely reap enormous commercial profits from it.

’No wonder he made such an absurd offer.’

When he had first received the lord’s proposal, he had scoffed at it. Abolishing feudal obligations that existed only in name? So the lord had finally grasped the situation and was tucking his tail between his legs before them. But once Avigne saw how things really stood, he realized that wasn’t it at all.

The lord was confident.

Confident that he could take their lands back whenever he liked, even after setting them loose like this.

’What am I supposed to do now...’

Avigne’s head was a tangle of thoughts.

The way things were going, there was no need for him to set himself against the lord the way the other vassals were doing.

As the saying went, a man ought to follow the tide.

Word had it that even the Papal See had invited the lord of Lupton. He was probably meant to play a major part in the new crusade being raised in the south.

And so...

’Opposing him would be suicide, in the end.’

The lord held the upper hand in both legitimacy and strength.

As time went on, the gap in power between the lord and his feudal vassals would only grow wider. Hadn’t Avigne seen it with his own eyes when he studied in the league cities of the northern Lombra peninsula?

The power of money.

Money called to money and drove progress ever faster. With it, the burghers of the cities had built up enormous military might. And the lord’s policies were plainly following in the burghers’ footsteps.

’The other fools will be glad their shackles are gone... but they have no idea this is the worst possible outcome. At this rate, the lands we hold won’t be worth a handful of dirt.’

It pained Avigne. In the wave of change bearing down on them, there was nothing he could do. Once the lord’s superior strength was beyond doubt, he would try to take back the lands he had released, and they would be utterly helpless to stop him.

But he couldn’t simply sit on his hands and do nothing.

Avigne resolved to do the best he could within the limits of what was possible.

The day of the summons, when the feudal vassals were to be received, had arrived.

The tension in the domain was higher than it had ever been. From the lowest soldier to the officials, everyone wore stern, serious faces from start to finish, like soldiers marching off to battle. The dignity of their lord was their own face. The people of the domain didn’t want the lord they served to be looked down on by the feudal vassals. And among them, no one felt that more strongly than Steward Vittorio.

"Are the lodgings for the feudal vassals all ready?"

"What about the pikemen’s positions?"

"Disarm every one of them, so they can’t get any other ideas."

"Have the cooks standing by as well. We need to show those fellows our lord’s dignity."

Steward Vittorio was at the front of it all, carefully checking every last detail.

’There’s no stopping him.’

Of course, Jan clicked his tongue at Steward Vittorio’s behavior, but he didn’t particularly try to stop him. This was simply how nobles were. If you didn’t show them splendor and strength, they looked down on you instead. He remembered, back in his past life when he had advised an emperor, often telling him to invite the nobles and hold lavish banquets. So, leaving Steward Vittorio to it, Jan went over to Treasurer Kohl.

"Everything looks very well prepared. Treasurer Kohl, is there anything else out of the ordinary?"

"Nothing in particular, my lord."

Treasurer Kohl shrugged at Jan’s question. Then something seemed to occur to him, and he clapped his hands.

"Ah! Some taxes came in. A hundred gold coins, as a land tax."

"Taxes? A land tax?"

"Yes, my lord."

Jan tilted his head at Treasurer Kohl’s words. The harvest season was long over, so a land tax out of nowhere made no sense.

"What, did one of the feudal vassals bring it or something? You’re really pushing the joke, Treasurer."

Imagining something that absurd, Jan let out a small laugh. But Treasurer Kohl’s reaction was not what he expected.

"Hm? How did you know, my lord? Did Avigne tell you himself first?"

"Avigne brought a land tax?"

Avigne.

In his past life, once House Lupton had been swallowed by House Franklin, Avigne was the feudal noble who had broken away and risen to become a great lord in his own right. A man that ambitious was paying a land tax at a time like this?

"Oh, it seems this wasn’t something agreed on beforehand, my lord."

Seeing the look on Jan’s face, Treasurer Kohl wrinkled his nose.

"He arrived before the other feudal vassals, toured the Hill Fort, and looked around the market. Then the next day he contacted me. He said he wished to pay a land tax and asked me to accept it."

"Oho?"

So he had seen the Hill Fort and the market.

He had probably been so startled by how prosperous it was that he’d decided to place his bet on Jan. The man read the currents of the times faster than expected. Then again, that was exactly why he had risen from a mere feudal noble to a great lord in Jan’s past life.

’As I change things, the future is twisting further and further out of shape. There’s no telling where it will lead.’

Jan couldn’t quite tell whether Avigne was bowing his head to him or simply trying to put him at ease. Judging by what he knew of the future, the latter seemed more likely than the former.

But that didn’t frighten him.

Hadn’t he dealt with this constantly in his past life?

Handling ambitious subordinates who might stab him in the back at the drop of a hat was nothing new to him.

Besides, if the man was capable on top of it all, that would only make him more useful to Jan.