AFTER settling the quarrel in front of the village, the discussions move to Julius’s mansion, where the messenger sits across from Jasper with his armed men standing behind him. They aren’t getting off to a great start with Ratface leering after Canna’s butt as she prepares a pot of tea.
He makes me sick. Every instinct in my body screams that this guy is a pig!
The revolting messenger reluctantly stops checking out Canna’s behind to look at Jasper.
“You can’t just make a village without telling anyone. You must first go through His Lordship for permission. Furthermore, even our magnanimous lord will be angered if you obtain your villagers by kidnapping them from his other villages,” he says, trying to exert influence over the talks as he slurps the tea Canna prepared.
“Your grievances are valid as far as founding a village in this land without following proper procedure is concerned. However, we have not kidnapped people,” Jasper corrects him. “Villagers without properly functioning villages came here when we invited them.”
“Invited them, eh? Such a pretty young lady accepted your invitation? I wish I had your remarkable skills of persuasion,” the messenger drawls, leering after Canna with a lecherous smirk.
He’s absolutely disgusting! He’s a walking, talking embodiment of perversion!
Canna’s uncomfortable and frowning. Borrowing a word from my past life, this is grounds for a sexual harassment suit! He’s a skirt-chasing, sexual-harassing, perverted man in power!
Someone grabs my shoulder before I can take another step forward to bash in that sexual offender’s shiny, bald pate. I whip my head around to find Julius there. He’s grimly shaking his head, begging me not to.
I argue back with my eyes that we mustn’t let this monster go unpunished, but I lose to Julius’s powerful gaze…
I shift my attention back to Canna, who has turned her gaze my way as well. She smiles and shakes her head, telling me she’s all right.
The messenger and his lackeys can’t see us, but the residents of Elle Village can. Canna is trying to show me that she’s okay before I crispify Mr. Bald Ratface Messenger.
Stopped by both Julius and Canna, I purse my lips and overlook Baldy’s indiscretions this once. But the moment he tries anything funny, he’s done for!
“An important messenger such as yourself has much to do, I’m sure. Let’s cut straight to the chase. Didn’t you come here today to discuss how much our village is to pay in taxes?” Jasper asks, ending the small talk.
“Well, you aren’t wrong,” Baldy the Rat Messenger says arrogantly. “Why, the village I saw today is large and fruitful. Taking that into consideration, you need to pay this amount in crops…”
He scribbles down a number on a piece of paper he had on hand. Then he passes that quickly written note over to Jasper.
Jasper turns pale the second he looks at it. “Y-You want to take this much from us?! Impossible! We will starve to death!”
Seriously?! He wants that much?! Lemme take a look at that!
Julius and I circle behind Jasper and peek at the paper.
Just like Jasper said, he’s asking for a ridiculous amount. It doesn’t even take into account what will happen to the village if the weather turns sour and we have a bad harvest.
“Don’t be greedy. A village of this size won’t have any issue fulfilling this. Besides, this is the same land tax we charge all villages.” The foolish messenger laughs like a horse.
All of Gaea’s farming villages are dying because you bleed them dry with these nefarious taxes! Seething rage roils through me.
I knew it! My fist needs to break his nose! I take another step forward just for Julius to stop me again.
(Calm down, Elle.)
Julius’s voice echoes in my head. He’s using a type of telepathic magic that allows us to converse with our minds instead of our mouths.
Wow, I didn’t know Julius could use this class of magic. I always thought only Sereniel the Temptress was capable of this among the Four Grand Magi.
(Ooh! I hear your voice in my head! Is this your ability, Lord Julius?)
I hear Jasper speaking this time. Julius has his hands on both of our shoulders. Seems like that allows the three of us to converse mentally.
(Don’t stop me, Julius! I can’t allow him to get away with this tyranny! I’ll roast him, toast him, ghost him, then post him!)
(Don’t. I don’t want to draw attention over this. Jasper, you can accept these terms. We are at fault for establishing a village without following the rules. He has likely included our back taxes. I expected him to extort a more ridiculous number. I’m willing to turn a blind eye on this amount. We should be able to secure more food by increasing our farmland.)
(That’s a valid point… All right, Lord Julius. I will go ahead and accept the messenger’s terms now.)
Jasper sits up straight and returns his attention to the oblivious messenger. “Very well. It honestly won’t be easy for us to meet your demands, but we will strive to set aside this amount,” he concedes with a somber face.
“Oooh! You are quite the accomplished man!” the harebrained messenger rejoices with a pompous grin. “I like that you don’t drag things out. Now with your land tax settled at that number, we can move on to the matter of your unpaid taxes…”
“You want to take more than you already have?!” Jasper cries out despite trying to maintain his calm throughout the discussions.
He’s demanding more than that already outrageous amount?! I had totally assumed that the number included all our back taxes! Julius only gave the okay because he thought so, too. I look over at him to see his expression harden.
“Naturally. You were the ones who built a village this way, kidnapped people from other villages, and lived under the radar. Your village was fated to be razed to the ground if His Lordship wasn’t magnanimous.”
“We did not kidnap people against their wishes!”
“At any rate, you must have this amount of food ready for us by the end of next month.”
Ratface ignores Jasper’s outburst and thrusts another piece of paper at him. I peek at the content written there, which describes the amount of food Elle Village has to set aside from now on. No matter how you slice it, this isn’t something we can prepare in the span of one month.
“Clearly you jest? This is extortion. The amount you’re asking for is beyond anyone’s means!” Jasper argues.
The sexual harasser feigns a worried pout. “Is that so…? Well, if you insist it is beyond your means, we can just burn down the entire village and call it a day. Are you all right with that option?”
Like hell anyone would be all right with that! I’m too stunned for words. Jasper shares the same sentiment—he springs to his feet and closes the gap with the messenger.
“Are you sane, man?! Your demands are entirely unreasonable! We can’t do what we can’t do…!”
“Well, when you put it like that…we can approach this from a different angle. Come now, relax in your chair, the answer to your problems is easy. Oh, and can you get me another cup of tea?” Creepy McCreepy requests of Canna, turning the most loathsome, lecherous grin on her yet.
Jasper loudly clears his throat, redirecting the messenger’s randy gaze back to him. “What other angle is there?” he asks.
“There’s always another angle, my good man,” he sneers. “Yes, indeedy. Why, it’s simple. All you have to do is give me all the women in the village, and I will use my authority to halve next month’s payment for you. The caliber of fine-looking women in this village outdoes many in this province.” He hums and squeezes Canna’s butt.
“Ah!” Canna cries out in surprise, and the grinning bastard sniggers with his perverted face on full display.
I snap. I won’t forgive the jerk! How dare he touch someone from my village! How dare he treat women like cattle!
Did he suddenly shift his stance on this village during his temper tantrum earlier because he came up with a plan to make Canna his plaything?! Perverted sicko!