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Vol 06 Chapter 191: Lezado I

「Hmm, it’s close to soy sauce but slightly different… Well, this isn’t bad either…」

I dipped the sashimi in garum and brought it to my mouth. Garum is a seasoning made from fermented fish.

The taste is similar to soy sauce… but there’s something distinctly different about it. Still, if you think of it as garum rather than a soy sauce substitute, it’s quite delicious.

「But… while it’s common to eat raw fish, I’ve never heard of eating raw octopus. At first, I thought it was gross, but it’s surprisingly good.」

Alexios dipped a piece of octopus tentacle in garum and brought it to his mouth.

Damn you! You’re hogging all the delicious parts of the tentacles for yourself.

「Personally, I prefer carpaccio over garum.」

「Really? Well, I suppose it depends on the person…」

I like both. If you asked me to choose between soy sauce and carpaccio, I’d pick soy sauce. But if it’s between garum and carpaccio, I’d have to think about it.

◇

I was currently in Lezado. I came here to oversee various administrative directives that I had left to Alexios, until now I had only read the reports but it was time to see things with my own eyes.

Now, I was dining with Alexios. The reason we’re eating sashimi is because Alexios suggested,

「Your Majesty, would you like to try raw fish?」

In the southern coastal region of the Adernian Peninsula, sea fish is a common ingredient, and it’s common to eat it raw.

Although Alexios is not Adernian but Pofenian… Pofenians are people closely related to the sea.

It’s not unusual for them to be accustomed to eating raw fish.

That said, the only people who eat raw fish are the ones living in coastal areas.

Since fish spoils easily, it can’t be transported inland. Dried fish can be transported and traded in large quantities, but fresh fish is not.

Therefore, people in King Rosais’ Country, like Julia and Tetra, don’t eat raw fish. Those two would surely wrinkle their noses at the thought.

Incidentally, both of them love fish. As I mentioned earlier, dried fish is widely distributed, and they often eat river fish.

It’s not that they dislike fish, but the fact that it’s raw is the issue.

Adernians have very few cultural dislikes when it comes to food.

Alexios probably wanted to surprise me, someone from the inland. However, my Japanese soul is blazing inside my heart. Raw fish? Bring it on.

The reason we’re using garum is that while we were eating carpaccio, I mentioned soy sauce. Alexios got interested and said there was something similar. I had high hopes that it might actually be soy sauce…

But considering I haven’t even seen soybeans, there is no way they would have soy sauce.

「So, let’s discuss the progress of the reforms.」

After chewing the last piece, I said to Alexios.

◇

「First, the main task… We’ve achieved legal and tax equality between first-class and second-class citizens.」

In Lezado, citizens were divided into first-class and second-class based on whether they paid a high head tax or not. Their political system until now was a complete plutocracy1.

However, in our country, all plebeians, nobles, patricians, and royalty are equal under the law. Nobles, patricians, and royalty may have some tax exemption privileges in their estates, but these are very limited.

The taxes paid are mainly the same. Therefore, it was necessary to implement a similar tax system in Lezado.

However, there were two obstacles to this.

First, the registration of residents. Up until now, second-class citizens were not subject to taxation, so their population was not accurately recorded.

Occasionally, rough surveys were conducted for national census purposes to estimate the population. But to collect taxes, their numbers need to be precise.

Second, resistance from the residents. For first-class citizens, this change means that their political privileges will be removed, making them equal to second-class citizens. The tax system in King Rosais’ Country is not a fixed amount but a proportional system. Thus, the wealthier you are, the more taxes you pay.

Lezado’s custom was basically ‘If you want rights, pay for them’, for the people accustomed to this our system must be pretty infuriating.

Additionally, it was not a pleasant prospect for second-class citizens either. In Lezado, second-class citizens had no rights but were also exempt from taxes. However, the tax system of King Rosais’ Country imposes taxes equally on all citizens.

They would have to start paying taxes that they had never needed to pay before.

Therefore, I expected the tax reform to take a considerable amount of time… but it seems to have succeeded smoothly.

「The major merchants, who could have been obstacles to the reforms, fled the country or became nobles of our country after the last war. Only small and medium merchants remain. For them, the fixed amount tax system was quite burdensome. So, they accepted the new system readily.」

「And the second-class citizens?」

「Well… the tax reform doesn’t affect them in the first place.」

According to Alexios, all second-class citizens were either tenant farmers, laborers, or beggars. If they don’t own land, they aren’t subject to land tax, and if they don’t engage in business, they aren’t subject to sales tax.

It seems I’ve been thinking from the perspective of King Rosais’ Country. In our country, the majority of subjects are plebeian landowners.

So, I thought most of Lezado’s second-class citizens might at least own small plots of land. It seems that Lezado has a significant disparity between the rich and the poor.

「However, there is one problem. That is conscription.」

In King Rosais’ Country, there are three main types of taxes.

One is the sales tax, where the country collects 5% of the sales revenue. Another is the land lease fee, which is essentially a land tax, amounting to 10% of the income generated from the land. And lastly, conscription.

However, unlike the first two, conscription in Lezado is difficult. From the perspective of the conquered people of Lezado, they have no obligation to participate in my wars.

Of course, Lezado’s security and the merchants’ ability to conduct business safely are thanks to me. Lezado hasn’t been plundered by Pofenia and continues to exist because of me. And it was I who saved many Lezado citizens from being captured as slaves.

The people of Lezado understand this. But they aren’t loyal enough to accept being asked to die for their king.

Even if they logically understand the importance of conscription, they can’t emotionally accept it. And there’s no point in drafting unmotivated soldiers into a war.

If they were Adernians, this wouldn’t be an issue.

For Adernians, conscription is considered the most honorable tax. Paying money to be exempt from conscription is seen as something only cowards do.

This mindset is common. In fact, in our country, both the wealthy and the poor Adernians, despite differences in equipment, respond to conscription.

Even the patricians send their sons to war, though they are treated as centurions or higher.

Refusal to serve in the military only happens when people protest against the country regarding their rights or the safety of their lives and property.

Among Adernians, there’s a widespread belief in serving the country or authority that protects their lives, property, and land from the ravages of war.

Therefore, the Adernians in the lands I’ve annexed or conquered willingly respond to conscription, whether or not they swear loyalty to me.

As farmers who are also soldiers living on the Adernian Peninsula, where all countries are military states and wars occur year-round, Adernians see war as something to face head-on, not something to flee from.

Well, if they had no time to farm and were constantly engulfed in wars resulting in numerous deaths, it would be a different story.

Adernians have a collectivist mentality.

In contrast, the residents of Lezado—more precisely, the Kirisians—are individualistic. More accurately, they are diasporic.

Despite their pride in their ethnicity, Kirisians tend to migrate easily when their homeland is in crisis. Perhaps this is because they have never experienced being united under a single country, leading to the idea that being Kirisian and the country are unrelated.

Unbound by country or land, they board ships, catch the wind in their sails, and venture into the open sea. This is both the charm and the flaw of the Kirisians.

While there’s room for debate on which ethnicity is superior, from my perspective as a ruler, there’s no ethnicity more troublesome than the Kirisians.

So… It’s unlikely that such individualistic people as the Kirisians would respond to conscription.

「However, we cannot avoid implementing conscription… Now that it’s a directly governed territory, we can’t introduce a conscription exemption tax either…」

The strength of King Rosais’ Country lies in its conscription system. We can organize a large army instantly and cheaply in times of war. That’s our country’s strength.

Introducing a conscription exemption tax could undermine that strength.

However, we can’t make an exception just for Lezado.

「I’ve given it some thought… While the residents of Lezado may not have loyalty to King Rosais’ Country or Your Majesty, they do love their city and harbor a deep hatred for the Pofenians. They might not be useful as heavy infantry, but they could be very effective as rowers and marines on triremes and quinqueremes. Could we not specialize Lezado as a naval force and exempt them from land conscription?」

…Hmm, that could work. The sea needs to be constantly patrolled due to pirates, so it’s not as if their deployment would be less frequent than on land.

Moreover, the residents of Lezado would likely be more motivated if they were conscripted to defend the territorial waters and trade zones of Lezado and fight ‘the hated Pofenians’ than to fight wars for the expansion of my territory.

Conversely, the Adernians, unlike the Kirisians, would probably be useless at sea. Most Adernians are likely the type who would say ‘People don’t float on water’.

Additionally, there is the advantage that rowers on triremes don’t require special weapons or skills. In our country, the principle is to bring your own weapons for war. Second-class citizens who don’t have weapons and can’t afford to buy them, and the residents of Lezado who have never fought, should be able to contribute reasonably well like this.

Furthermore, they are likely more accustomed to naval battles than land battles. Yes, let’s proceed with that plan.

「Thank you, Your Majesty. This will allow us to complete the tax reforms.」

So, how are the political reforms going?

「That’s where we’re facing difficulties…」

TN1: A plutocracy is a form of government or society where the wealthy have control or influence over decision-making.