#152: Hibiren Flowers And Recital (2) — The Archmage's Restaurant

“I’m sorry! I’ll remove it immediately!”

To cover up all their own crimes connected with Count Dedran, they made Count Dedran a disgrace to the nobility.

They did so with a united front, without any opposition between factions.

As a result, those above Count Dedran remained unscathed, but Count Dedran and his subordinates, marked as the sole culprits, were branded as filthy beings.

Duke Delian was the typical noble who didn’t regard non-nobles as people.

Therefore, he disliked the presence of something dirty in his midst.

“I didn’t recognize it for a moment because of the name Greek. Why does the Greek family acknowledge the daughter of their enemy as the Countess? Take action immediately…”

But Duke Delian didn’t point out that name just because it was dirty. Thus, Duke Delian slowly shook his head.

“That’s a matter for their family. There’s no need to meddle in such things. It’s not even our family’s concern.”

“Is that so?”

Count Michel couldn’t understand why Duke Delian mentioned Berna Greek. After all, he thought it was dirty, so he didn’t even say the name himself and made Michel read it instead.

Naturally, he thought it was an order to exclude her because he didn’t want to see her. That would have been easier to handle.

But it didn’t seem to mean that, so he didn’t know what to say and began to sweat internally.

Duke Delian looked at Count Michel with a frustrated expression, raised his hand, and casually pointed to the clock in the study.

“Why the clock… Ah!”

Count Michel wasn’t a fool. The Greek family and the clock. Once he made the connection, he finally understood Duke Delian’s true intention and rejoiced internally.

“Is that it? Then we need to soften up the current Count Greek, that young upstart.”

Duke Delian finally nodded with a satisfied expression.

“It’s not good to have filth mixed in, but the Greek family has enough value. They make clocks and have avoided the obligation to join a faction by directly offering profits to the Emperor. The Emperor gave them an edict allowing them not to belong to any faction for the time being due to complex circumstances.”

“That’s right. That’s why the other ducal families are leaving them alone for now.”

“But that is purely voluntary. The edict only stated they didn’t have to belong to a faction. So if the Greek family decides to find a faction normally, that edict will become null and void.”

“Indeed. Your foresight is truly vast, Your Grace.”

The Empire is a feudal system.

It is similar to the feudal systems of Asia on Earth but modified to create its own unique system.

The Emperor only manages the lands directly under his control.

The Empire’s land is so vast that it would be impossible for the Emperor to manage it all.

Therefore, lands other than the directly controlled territories are divided and governed by the great nobles.

The Dukes and Marquises of royal blood belong to these great nobles.

The Emperor imposes a set tax in exchange for distributing land to the great nobles.

The great nobles then redistribute these vast lands to local powerhouses within their faction, such as Counts, granting them ownership and governance of the territory.

This is what is referred to as a “lord” in this world.

Only those of Count rank or higher can become lords. And just as the great nobles pay taxes to the Emperor, the lords pay taxes to the great nobles.

In other words, taxes flow from the Empire’s people to the lord.

From the lord to the great noble.

And from the great noble to the Emperor.

The exception is nobles in the Emperor’s direct territories. In this case, taxes flow directly from the lord to the Emperor.

Of course, the lord takes a certain percentage of the taxes paid by the people.

The great nobles pay only a certain percentage of the taxes collected from numerous nobles to the Emperor.

Ultimately, taxes are the nobles’ source of income.

The Greek family originally served a Marquis of royal blood. But when that Marquis fell, the Emperor reclaimed his territory and redistributed it to the great nobles.

However, in the case of the Greek family, the ruling Count fell ill, and their small provincial city had little tax revenue. Therefore, the redistribution was postponed until the son grew up and inherited the title of Count.

In any case, Greek City was not an Imperial territory. It was land that had to belong to a great noble.

This is the core of the Empire’s feudal system.

Even after the Greek boy inherited the title of Count, the Emperor again postponed the redistribution of this land because of the clocks.

However, under Imperial Law, there is no excuse to prevent the Greek family from directly seeking a faction to join.

Since it is not an Imperial territory, it should naturally belong to one of the great nobles, and the Greek family should pay taxes to the noble they belong to.

But currently, those taxes are flowing directly to the Emperor.

Furthermore, with the clocks spreading across the continent, Duke Delian was displeased that the massive amount of money was going entirely to the Emperor.

“Isn’t it obvious why that guy chose to participate in the Concert? The Greek family, with their undistributed territory, is currently paying a large sum of taxes to the Emperor. They must be using the Concert to negotiate with a great noble or to explore the political scene for greater ambitions.”

Duke Delian interpreted the Greek family’s sudden appearance at the Concert, after not participating for so long, in this way.

“If it’s not that, then they’re either incredibly foolish or too naive.”

“They’re just an upstart… I don’t know what to make of it, but I’ll make arrangements for now.”

“Do that. Initially, it would be wise to offer them a lower tax rate than the Emperor’s. Guarantee their political activities as well. Start with the carrot. And later, if they prove useful, we’ll use them; if not, we’ll consider changing the lord of the territory.”

“Understood. I’ll proceed as instructed!”

The Greek family.

The lord of the undistributed territory participated in the Concert, showing their face in central politics.

This fact was conveyed to the other Dukes as well.

So it goes without saying that they all started thinking the same thing.

The issue of determining where the Greek family, whose territory distribution had been delayed due to the Emperor’s inexplicable protection, should originally pay taxes.

That issue was rapidly becoming a huge point of interest, especially because of the clocks.

Except to Duke Taemuran.

“Come here!”

“What’s with the ‘come here’?”

“I’ve made my grand entrance, so of course, you should come here.”

Rurin teleported into the elf’s clinic and boldly declared this.

Sereina was reading something in her and Elena’s cozy room inside the clinic when she looked at Rurin with a bewildered expression.

“What if you teleport into the place where Elena is treating someone? You’ll get in trouble with El.”

“Shut up! Do you think I’m an idiot? My sense of location is perfect. Perfect.”

“No? You are an idiot.”

Sereina scoffed at Rurin’s confident assertion and then exaggeratedly mouthed the word ‘i-diot’ once more.

Seeing that, Rurin raised her eyebrows and began pulling Sereina’s hair hard.

“Kyaaa!”

With Sereina’s scream, a big commotion soon erupted. Elena, startled, stopped her treatment and ran to the room, but upon seeing Rurin, she quietly shut the door and returned to the clinic. This is a secret between the two dragons.

-Screech!

-Ack!

“Just die!”

Screams and more screams. After a few short but intense minutes, the two dragons stopped, panting, and looked at each other.

Sereina’s hair was a tangled mess, while Rurin’s clothes were dragged down, leaving her shoulders exposed.

“Huff, huff.”

“Huff, huff, huff.”

Breathing heavily, the two dragons sat in the chairs in the room as if by agreement and began a staring contest.

“So, why did you come here alone? Showing up without El knowing, huh? Naughty girl, aren’t you? Should I tell on you? Hehe.”

“Screech! If you do that, I’ll really turn you into smoked dragon meat!”

Rurin shouted while adjusting her fallen clothes, and Sereina responded while tidying her hair.

“Oh my, that sounds delicious.”

“You wouldn’t taste good!”

And then the glaring contest resumed.

“So? If you don’t have any business, go back. I’m busy.”

But the outcome of this fight was decided by Sereina’s words. Rurin’s expression crumbled when she told her to go back.

The eyes that had been glaring at Sereina dropped to the floor, as if she wanted to dig a hole and disappear.

She had something she wanted to say, but her pride was hurt, so she couldn’t. With that exact expression, she hesitated for a long time until Sereina yawned, and she finally managed to say a word.

“There’s something like that.”

But the words she barely got out were nonsense. Sereina felt it wasn’t worth responding to and waved her hand dismissively.

“Then go back.”

Sereina turned her gaze away from Rurin.

Of course, Sereina quickly guessed why Rurin was acting like this. There was only one reason why this arrogant, fluffy young dragon was hesitating in front of her.

She must want advice about El. It was so obvious that even a passing dog could figure it out. But her attitude was like this.

What a ridiculous creature. Sereina thought about telling her that if she was so desperate, she should just throw her pride away, but decided to hold back.

Because Rurin’s expression was too funny.

Rurin, for her part, was dying inside.

Sereina’s words telling her to go back had already crushed her pride. So she had the urge to punch her and teleport away, but there was a desperate desire that suppressed that pride, so Rurin had no choice but to endure.

Clenching her fists tightly, biting her lip desperately, her eyes went from the floor to Sereina’s face, back and forth.

She looked like a dog that needed to pee and didn’t know what to do, and it was quite a sight.

To think that this ball of pride had been reduced to this, El must really be something.

Thinking that, Sereina crossed her legs and looked down at Rurin with a very arrogant expression, like a conqueror looking at the vanquished.

In the end, in any world, the thirsty one must dig the well. Rurin, whose eyes had been wandering, finally made a firm decision and looked directly at Sereina as she spoke.

“El.”

“El?”

“Uhhhh.”

“What’s with the ‘uhhh’? If you’ve got something to say, then say it. Go moan somewhere else.”

“So!”

“So what?”

“I want to do more, more, more!”

“What do you want to do more of?”

When Sereina asked with a sly smile, Rurin’s face rapidly turned red.

Previously, when she followed Sereina’s advice, it led to a kiss. Although Rurin, who wanted to be closer to El, really didn’t want to admit it, she had no choice but to seek out Sereina.

Her feelings for El were stronger than her pride, so Rurin came to ask how she could kiss El more often.

That’s how it is now.

She wants to do it often. But El is like a miser, rarely giving anything.

So what Rurin wants to know is how to get El to kiss her.

She always whines for hugs first, but the fatal flaw is that she can’t initiate a hug or kiss herself.

In a way, her not making the first move might increase her charm, but still, Rurin wants El to always show affection first. She’s shy about making the first move, and on top of that, she doesn’t know how to properly engage in physical affection, so she ends up being very passive.

Sereina, knowing that Rurin’s current behavior was practically a declaration of defeat, spoke with a face full of amusement.

“Aren’t you giving too much?”

“Huh?”

Rurin tilted her head and scurried up to Sereina, then denied it.

“What do you mean, give everything? I’m not giving anything.”

“So, what did you get by following my advice?”

“That was just luck! No, it had nothing to do with you! Besides, El ignored me and ran away, and it only made me more annoyed!”

“So, what was the result?”

“Kiki-kiss… Ah, no, it was something like that!”

Rurin couldn’t finish her sentence and quickly turned her head.

Oh, poor thing.

That’s exactly how Sereina felt. She was dying of laughter inside, even though her expression remained serious.