Hakai no Miko

Michena, who was about to graduate, finally returned to me, and the first thing she did was lay flat.

"I don't know you as a new lord and have no disrespect...!

As if they were sinners brought out during the judgment, the Ethereal Horse and Shemr laughed bitterly when they exaggerated too much to Michena, who lay flat without shame or outspoken ears and even repeated words of apology.

But if you look from Michena, a lord is the ruler who holds the right to his own life and death. It's a little whim, and it's not weird to be killed. Not to mention the fact that the Ethereal Horse is thought to be an invader who could have followed the ferocious Zoans.

Michena is gladly confused because such a vicious ruler is about to go badly (and freshly) against herself, the daughter of a shitty civilian.

It was Shemr who helped the truly troubled Ethereal Horse. Initially, I looked at the confusion of the Ethereal Horse with a bitter laugh, but after all this time it became frustrating even though it was unlikely that it would come to light.

"Come on. Soma, there's something you need to know!

To Shemr, who rounds out his grump, that was a little too much, I thought, but Michena, the one who was told, from being flat, rises up like a deflected spring was freed, into an upright immobilized posture.

"Yes! Lord, ask me anything!

As for Michena, it was more natural to be told these high-pressure things than to be badly (and often).

The Ethereal Horse, who understands that it is not a good thing to get out poorly after a nagging, says in a great tone when he strains his chest a little.

"Uhm. Okay, let's just..."

But soon I'll recap that this isn't my character, and change my tone.

"- Rough and good, so tell me about the city's financial situation or something"

Behind you can hear Shemr whining, "This, heck," but ignore it.

First, what Ethereal Horse wanted to get her hands on was a grasp of the funds.

The most important strategic simulation game once played by Aoi Horse was funding. Whether it was hiring soldiers, strengthening equipment or pioneering land, we needed funding first and foremost.

And that won't change in real life.

Whatever you do, it costs money. That's why I had to figure out as quickly as possible how much money was available and how free I could be.

But neither did Ethereal Horse think that he, who was just a high school student, could easily understand his financial situation. But I don't think it's a good idea to leave it to someone because it's difficult.

How much tax revenue there is, how much spending there is and what property is handled.

We thought we should make some effort to get a sense of the city's finances, because that's good enough for us to start with.

But even that was a sweet idea, the Ethereal Horse will know.

First, the Ethereal Horse, peering into the documents Michena had opened and showed him, frowned.

Something like an alphabetical writing body sidelined on the left is probably a letter in this world. But I didn't know what the columns of symbols lined up to the right of that letter were.

"... what is this?

"Yes, the taxes collected here, this one spends, the far right side rolls over"

Michena answers the Ethereal Horse with a finger to the symbol, but that was not the answer the Ethereal Horse was looking for.

"No, it's not, it's a symbol that lines up here all the time, like a whirlpool or a little double line."

"Numbers?

The Ethereal Horse was just honestly surprised, as opposed to Michena, who looked so strange as to say why she would interrogate such obvious things.

"This is the number. - How old is this, by the way?

The Ethereal Horse pointed to a number like this whirlpool.

"It's a thousand. That's one, two, three, four, five. So, five thousand. Next -" Michena points to a symbol that crosses three sticks. "- This is a hundred, so three, so three hundred. It'll all be five thousand and three hundred."

"Huh. I see..."

To Michena's explanation, the Ethereal Horse was just admirable and baffling. I didn't know what to say. Furthermore, Michena will present the documents one after the other.

"Here is a record of tax revenues for each village in the territory. For example, this is a tax paid by the village of Kobo. In order from the top, wheat, barley, people -"

"Are you a person?!"

The Ethereal Horse was surprised when the unsatisfactory words popped up.

What if something like an evil deputy who gets a daughter if he can't pay his annual contribution, which is often seen in a period play, is actually happening?

"Yes, the size of this village allows us to put twenty-five men out as labourers a year. But most of the time, instead of going to labor, we deliver wool and textiles."

It's not just money and goods, it's taxes even on labor. From the point of view of the Ethereal Horse who grew up in modern Japan, where payment by money was the norm, that was a bit of a surprise.

However, while Aoima has completely forgotten, among the "rental (so) vulgar (so)/miscellaneous (so)" tax regimes learned in Japanese history classes in middle school, miscellaneous (so) is precisely the tax that imposed labor, and such taxes are by no means uncommon.

Even then, Michena didn't make a single disgusting face to the amateur round-up question of the Ethereal Horse, and she taught me cordially, but finance is still not something that amateurs can understand overnight.

Especially, what made the Ethereal Horse an addition was that we didn't know the value of the money and things in this world. If you look at the books, you can see how many thousands of silver coins are left, how much wheat is stockpiled, but you can't imagine how much that's worth to the Ethereal Horse.

I tried to convert it to modern Japanese money a few times, but it didn't work either, which is exactly how you are doing.

"I was thinking a little sweet..."

Exactly, the Ethereal Horse couldn't help but be so blurred.

After all, it seems better to trust and delegate to the finance officials than to poorly amateur oneself.

Michena called out to the pale horse, who was distracted by the thought of that.

"Lord, are you listening?

"... Oh, I'm sorry. I'm listening."

He was a pale horse who almost gave up, but because Michena is explaining it to me, I re-engage her that he would be rude if he didn't make any effort to understand.

As I ink ahead of the conical pointy of the thin tree stick, I take my own note of the explanation I just received from Michena and summarize it. And every time a question arose, I questioned Michena about it each time.

"This is wheat taken from the village as a tax, right?

First point to the wheat column collected from the village, then move your fingers to the wheat column entering the city.

"Have you brought less into the city than you took from the village?

"It was a bag that was taken from the village, and it was the platform that brought it into the city."

To Michena's explanation, the Ethereal Horse was confused.

"Huh? Same wheat, right? Why do you count bags and platforms?

…… Isn't that natural?

Wheat taken from the village was bagged, and the unit when counting this is "bagged". However, when transporting this bag of wheat to the city, a luggage truck is used, so the unit changes to a "table" at that time.

"Wow...... I can't believe it's the same wheat, but it varies from place to unit"

The mood I had just put in was going to crack and break. But still, I manage to squeeze my temper and keep asking questions.

"By the way, how many bags is one worth?

"Holmeer's law says roughly twenty bags per car."

"Uh... twenty bags per car, number of units..."

Michena watched with a gentle grin as she counted the numbers so hard.

Initially, I just thought he was a horrible person who would use this boy as a fierce Zoan as a limb. But as we have been having conversations to explain the city's finances in this way, it has become clear that he is a very calm person, rather than a horrible one.

Besides, I also like how the former Lords were throwing their finances round to the officials, while they were trying so hard to understand the financial situation when they didn't know.

"This letter, Ko M. Ghita. So, this is, like, 10,000, so..."

He still seemed to be painstakingly putting together what he taught. I was wondering how you put it together, Michena, peering into the hand, writes something like graffiti that doesn't make sense. Probably trying to remember it with pictures and symbols, to the point where you don't know the letters. That appearance made Michena smile when a child who didn't seem desperate to do adult imitations.

Until the Ethereal Horse says the next word...

"Is that it? It's kind of incorrect to calculate..."

Michena was sober.

But the Ethereal Horse, who doesn't notice how Michena looks like that and doesn't seem convinced with his neck clenched, writes something on the paper again.

"After all, it doesn't fit"

Michena sweated slightly.

In fact, Michena had been taught beforehand by the lead treasurer that tax revenues and expenses were strange. But before I cut that out of this one, I didn't expect to see it pointed out by the Ethereal Horse.

Michena hurriedly tells the lead treasurer that she had been included.

"My former lord, His Royal Highness King Vritas, instructed me to report taxes to the King's capital to make your own entertainment expenses..."

The Ethereal Horse was convinced, along with a bitter laugh.

When I dropped this city, I only looked at each other once, but when I think of that fat, fat Vritas face, I don't know about it.

He was a pale horse who was briefed on the contents of the book newly given by Michena, but after a while he tilted his neck again.

"Is that it? I knew it wouldn't fit, right?

"Huh?"

Michena raised her bare voice.

◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

It was Michena who returned from the lord's office to her usual place of work, but there was still something in her breasts that she did not interpret.

That's the story of the boy who became a lord saying the calculations didn't fit. Immediately after that, a black-haired Zoan came who wanted to talk to the lord, so the story became obnoxious, but the lord's mouth at that time didn't seem very lying or false.

But it's also hard to imagine that someone who can't read or write has found a miscalculation in that meantime.

Inside such a chest, Moya Moya remained, and the refreshing Michena thoughtlessly removed the calculator board and a few stones from the shelf.

This calculation board is one that digs a number of grooves into a single plate. On the head of each groove are written letters that mean one, ten, hundred, thousand, and ten thousand. And a few stones is a round stone that has been polished to be just ten in line in the groove of one of these calculators.

This is an instrument used when calculating, with several stones on or removed from the groove.

At first, Michena was also doing calculations to cross noses. But in time, its nose will stop too, and its face will gradually become something serious. That too, over time, now his face went blue and he finally began to sweat cold.

"The calculations don't fit..."

Michena started wandering around the room holding her head. No matter how many times you recalculate, the amount you took as a tax does not match the amount you have previously reported to the Wang Capital.

"Duh, why?! Why?!"

Michena was optimistic that the wheat on the books would naturally have some opening in its quantity when it had just been collected from the village and housed in the city warehouse.

Yes, Michena was getting high for a reason.

As a matter of fact, in the process of calculating it, it remains that quantities such as wheat and wool and textiles collected as taxes will be reduced.

Let's assume that five bags and half of wheat were paid for as a tax. However, only five bags are actually listed as taxes. This is because in this day and age the units of counting wheat are "bags," so any quantity less than that is removed from the calculation. Furthermore, when this is carried into the city in a luggage, it is now counted by the number of luggage cars, and bags of wheat that are less than one luggage are removed from the calculation again.

As a result, wheat eventually housed in the city warehouse was roughly 10% less than the quantity of wheat first delivered from the villages.

So where does that removed wheat go?

It was customary for finance officers to fit into their pockets as a service, and it was also a valuable source of income for finance officials.

Initially, the Ethereal Horse pointed out that Michena thought it would be.

But in the calculations I've made, the amount that I can't explain has disappeared somewhere. You can't afford a government official if you're so massive.

Deciding that this was just out of his hands, Michena hurried to the office of the lead tax officer.

"Suddenly, what happened?

The lead treasurer looks to his surprise, even though Michena, who gave herself to the new lord, has changed her blood phase.

"Actually, the new lord pointed out that there was something wrong with the amount of wheat I collected..."

The lead treasurer, who was anxious to see what kind of failure he had made, shrugged back at that.

"You've already explained. By order of His Highness Vritas..."

"Even if we put that in, we still don't have the income and expenditure right!

The lead treasurer, told in a cover of his own words, snorted slightly, but quickly rounded out his displeasure and discarded it.

"Do what's stupid. By the time you enter the city warehouse from the village, you will know it will be slightly reduced."

"That's not the extent! A tremendous amount..."

Then, the lead treasurer laughs in dismay.

"There can't be such a stupid thing. You were borne by the new lord. Can the King of the Beast, who cannot read or write, calculate, etc."

"Well, that's..."

Michena, who is denied from her head what she says, manages to get the lead treasurer to believe her. She communicates her interaction with the Ethereal Horse somewhat exaggerated.

"That new lord only got a glimpse of the books, and this is how he pointed out the difference in calculations with his dad! It's true! Really, in no time, Dad!

If that's what they say, the lead treasurer would be surprised.

"Did you take the calculator board?

"Uh... no. Well, there was no calculator."

As soon as possible, the lead treasurer laughs with his nose like he made a fool of himself.

"Totally. Tell me the joke's off. You don't have a calculation board, so how do you calculate it? Ridiculous."

"So, but really..."

The lead treasurer is furious with Michena.

"Come on, man! I have a banquet with my colleagues from now on! Don't bother me.

That's how the lead treasurer, who kicked Michena out of the office, shook her neck small and sighed, as he told her to do.

"... at all. I sweated cold, wondering if they found out."

It is a rare fact that Vritas, the king's brother, who was a former lord, was misusing the tax for his own entertainment expenses.

But that wasn't all.

If a man like Vritus stood above him, he would imitate him. In other words, even the officials rode Vritas' butthorses and misappropriated taxes.

"Absolutely. That kid won't even go down..."

I guess I have the soul guts to see how this one comes out with some crazy hat.

The embezzlement of officials, including the lead treasurer, has taken great care not to expose such things as deciding which taxes each one of his or her peers will put his or her hands on. Moreover, this time the lead treasurer was so fortunate that Vritas had been taken prisoner that he had tampered with the books so that all the portions he had been embezzling were also entertainment expenses that Vritas had squandered.

This would not even realize that there was embezzlement, as opposed to evidence of embezzlement, if those who were so familiar with finance did not take the time to do so. Not to mention the King of the Beast, who can't even read and write, who can't possibly tell just from a light look at the books.

Those new lords seem to be successfully deceiving and using the beasts, but don't think humans can deceive as well, the lead tax officer mocked (bruised).

But I was a little concerned that Michena had changed her blood phase so much.

Until the promised time anyway, there is still room. In his spare time, the lead treasurer decided to try to do the calculations using the calculation board.

At first, he was the lead treasurer who was doing the calculations for crossing noses, but after a while, he also stopped that nose, and his face became more and more serious. That too, over time, now his face went blue and he finally began to sweat cold.

"The calculations are not right......!