Chapter 18: Fluvia Learns about Taxes

“… and so I’m a little concerned that Sir Bol – that I might be obstructed a little in this endeavor.”

– is how Sir Edgar finished telling his tale.

Hm… so there was that kind of power-play going on.

It seems our current Steward is bullying our future Steward.

Although it’s just Sir Edgar’s side of the story, hearing him somewhat vent his frustrations about being suppressed in our Household, well…

Unfortunately, his story confirmed a lot of my suspicions.

But to use the young genius of the Stewards Academy as a scapegoat – should I be impressed, or appalled?

“To be honest, I was hesitating to mention it. I dislike the idea of using it as an excuse for why I might fail, but at the same time, if my position is the only reason why this contract is unable to get as much traction as we hoped…”

Sir Edgar seems truly frustrated that he had to resort to tattling to me about Bolther.

A young genius known for his intellect has a lot of pride, after all.

Well then…

This is an unexpected problem.

If Sir Edgar isn’t suffering from a persecution complex – which, from the gossip I’d heard from Beth about how he’s supposed to be a complete dunce I think there’s a strong support for his story – then our business with the House of Healing might be obstructed by Bolther.

I feel like he shouldn’t be that foolish to obstruct a deal that both Father and the Queen have their eyes on, but if Bolther truly has some brain damage then I suppose there’s always that chance.

As I was digesting this bit of information, Sir Edgar spoke up again.

“… There is also… something else…”

Oh, just come out with it already.

I can’t support or oppose anything if you don’t talk!

I don’t say that, but I’m thinking it very strongly.

Bringing in information piece by piece like this makes it very difficult to see the big picture, you know?

But it seems like THIS topic is a little bit more sensitive than Sir Edgar’s personal circumstances, since he’s furrowing his brows like that.

Finally, he takes a large breath and says,

“… I want to take this opportunity and use your support to investigate a case of embezzlement within the Dellarose Earldom.”

“This kind of thing… You are aware my influence would be rather small in something that serious.”

What is he thinking – ah, that’s right.

He’s being strongly suppressed by Bolther, so the influence of the 5-year-old daughter of the House is probably the only help he would be able to get.

Truly desperate enough to ‘even borrow the help of a cat’, isn’t it?

Although I’m human enough.

I sigh a bit.

“Hm… Well, I understand that, circumstances as they are, it would be far more effective for you to use my influence. However, did you not think that you could move as you liked with my influence without needing to inform a 5-year-old?”

I feel a bit of wicked glee, teasing him like that, but Sir Edgar didn’t even rise to the bait, just giving me a dull look and saying,

“Please don’t underestimate me. I’m not foolish enough to assume you wouldn’t notice, nor am I short-sighted enough not to understand the benefits of requesting your support.”

A-are~? Somehow, I feel like normally you wouldn’t think those things about a 5-year-old… although when I review the things we’ve been discussing, I suppose it can’t be helped that he’s already seeing me as something other than a 5-year-old.

Sir Edgar sighs a little and continues,

“Besides, as a Steward, even a Steward Apprentice, any movements I take should be reported to the Household’s Head. Normally, I would inform Sir Bolther or the Lord Earl and request permission to investigate, but things being as they are, that isn’t something I can do. I think that, at the very least, since I’m able to report to a member of the Lord Earl’s family, I should do so.”

… Isn’t this guy a considerably good find?

I’d want to thank Bolther if that idiot weren’t trying to bury such good potential for whatever idiotic reasons he’s thinking about.

I mean, for a person who takes this much pride in his work to be slandered about, it’s already a wonder that he’s willing to work for the good of the Dellarose House instead of becoming bitter and rebellious.

Hm. I’m becoming more and more confused about the meaning of that Fluvia Sensor.

Shouldn’t this guy be a potentially dangerous factor for Fluvia?

Well, whatever.

I leave the superfluous thoughts and lean forward in my chair, crossing my legs.

“Alright then. If you’ve prepared yourself to request my support, then I assume you’ve prepared a case to gain it.”

Without even a shred of hesitation, Sir Edgar brought out a sheaf of parchments.

Spreading them on the low table in front of me, he introduced them, saying,

“When I was informed I would become a Steward Apprentice, as you would expect, I thoroughly investigated the state of the Dellarose Earldom. Of course, only as much as one would be able to from official documents within the Capital.”

Tapping the parchments on the table, he continued.

“These are the official tax records for the Dellarose Earldom that are made available to nationally approved civil servants. Although they are not as detailed as the ones for the Royal Reserve, they were enough for me to notice an abnormality. Is Lady Fluvia aware how taxes are calculated?”

I’m FIVE.

“No, I am not aware. Please explain.”

“In territories not directly under the Royal Family, which would be territories like our Earldom, taxes are gathered as 50% of judicial fines paid to the Household, a tax on land based on the size of the territory, 10% of the sales taxes collected by the Guilds, as well as 20% of the property taxes that were gathered by the Household.”

Wait a sec.

“Sales and property taxes? How are those calculated?”

“For sales tax, the Royal Guilds will dictate a percentage of the cost of each type of product, and the territory’s Guild Auditors will directly collect the taxes annually from every store registered to the Guilds. The Household then take 10% of the taxes from the Guilds. As for property tax, the Household will send tax collectors to each registered town of the territory to perform an audit and calculate 10% of the assets of each household.”

“So the Royal Guilds are a national institution, but there are subsidiary Guilds in each territory who police the business within the territory?”

“Correct.”

“Then, you said ‘stores registered to the Guilds’, and ‘town registered to the territory’. What if it was a store or town not registered to the Guilds or the territory?”

“Guilds also conduct inspections of quality of the products in their audit, as well as providing guidelines for what makes quality goods and services, and what is considered as fair prices for said goods and services. Businesses who bear the crests of the Guilds are essentially guaranteed by the Guilds to have both integrity and excellence.”

Ah. I see. Naturally people would prefer to shop or conduct business with a store that has a Guild’s guarantee.

Conversely, if a store did not have the Guilds’ guarantee, then you’d be wondering what was wrong with them, huh?

I suppose in this time of plenty, tax evasion isn’t done due to not having enough to pay the tax but due to stinginess or shady practices.

Although there are most likely exceptions.

“As for unregistered towns, if discovered, the tax for land fees is much higher and the Household is under no military obligations to protect them from bandits and wild animals, nor are they under obligations to provide aid and relief in a calamity.”

Fumu.

So the taxes directly from the citizens are sales and property tax. The taxes from the towns go to the land fees. And all judicial fines go to the Household.

The Royal Reserve then collects all the taxes as percentages of these taxes from the Household.

I suppose the Household has some autonomy over what is counted as property for the property taxes. The Governors of the towns might levy a tax on the townspeople to make up for the land fee.

Un. There are still some questions I have, like where do the costs for the security for each town come from, or exactly how is the tax-collecting done, or what is done about the territories of minor nobles within our territory, but that’s good enough for now.

“And so, the problem I have is this.”

Bringing the lecture on taxes to a close, Sir Edgar leaned forward and pointed out the last line on one of the papers.

“The full sum of the taxes needed to be paid, is it? So what is…”

My words trail off as I compared the value of the full sum across all ten pages laid out on the table.

Ten pages. Each one representing a different year.

I then flick my eyes upwards on the pages, gauging the differences in the land fees across the years.

“… Sir Edgar. Why are the differences among the full sum across these 10 years the same as the differences in the land fees across these 10 years?”

I look up to see Sir Edgar with a delighted expression.

Is it because I also noticed the abnormality?

He quickly composes himself and says,

“The reason I’m not confident enough to go directly to the Lord Earl is because, in truth, it would be very easy to write it off as a coincidence. However, whether it’s a work-derived illness or my own personal issues, whenever the numbers are too clean I find it suspicious.”

I agree.

This is far too suspicious.

Although the individual numbers for every itemized tax is different from year to year… it’s far too suspicious for the difference in the full sum to be the exact difference of the land fee for 10 years.

A year here or there, or even 2 years in a row could be a coincidence, but for 10 years straight?

“Even if it were due to our rumored lack of progress, for there not to be any decreases let alone increases in the sum over a 10 year period …”

Of course I’m talking about the full sum minus the land fee.

How did no one notice this?

Although you can clearly see that the full sums are all suspiciously within a several hundred valins of each other throughout the entire ten years, I suppose if you weren’t paying attention – no, rather it’s likely that you wouldn’t notice it if all ten years weren’t laying in front of you.

None of the numbers are exactly the same, after all, and whoever’s in charge of cross-checking the list at the Royal Reserve probably only took note that the numbers were somewhat the same this year as the previous year.

For the (supposedly) non-productive Dellarose Earldom, similar numbers may not be unexpected.

This … is problematic.

How so?

Embezzlement, obviously, is a major problem, but this is really, TRULY problematic because of whom we’ll have to be going after.

Due to the checks and balances that are (most likely) taken in order to prevent embezzlement, to make everything except the land fees equal all 10 years and remain undetected… this is someone higher up in the line of the Dellarose Reserve.

Rather, there is likely several ‘someone higher up’s colluding together.

There’s also the fact that … this should be something the Dellarose Steward should have caught.

Before the taxes and report go to the Royal Reserve, the Steward signs off on it, after all.

There’s Bolther’s signature there.

But Bolther hasn’t reported anything about it.

This is…

If I’m optimistic, I’d just say he went senile and didn’t notice, however I’m not that optimistic.

Although, should I be somewhat grateful?

In a way this kind of shows that Sir Edgar, who diligently did his research before he even set foot in the Earldom and immediately noticed the abnormalities, is suited to be a Steward.

My desire to keep him on board, Fluvia Sensor be damned, is growing.

However, not only can Sir Edgar not report it to Bolther, but he is being pressured to the point that the only person he could bring this up to is the 5-year-old daughter.

We are at quite the disadvantage.

Now then, how should we handle this?