"Kahn requests an audience, My Lord Baron." The few remaining maidservants respectfully said to Rayshui.
"Hmm, let him in," Rayshui nodded slightly and said.
Although he was not sure who the other party was, since they had taken the initiative to come, it was natural to meet them.
As for whether it was an assassin...
Probably not, since he had no reason for anyone to want to kill him.
Even if it was an assassin, that wouldn't matter.
It was a good opportunity to see the strength of the young female knight, who, by the way, was named Alice.
"Ugh, what are you looking at?" Finding Rayshui's gaze constantly resting on her, Alice felt her whole body filled with strangeness. She stopped eating her black bread, and her legs beneath the table twisted uneasily.
"Aren't you afraid of being drugged by me, an evil and hypocritical noble?" Recalling Alice's words from yesterday, Rayshui said with a light laugh.
Was Alice a bit silly? She was very cautious about him yesterday but now she was eating bread he gave her.
"Ugh!" Realizing she was being reminded by Rayshui's words, Alice put down the bread and looked at Rayshui with a very vigilant expression, like a small wild cat in the night.
"I'm just kidding. You didn't seem full, so I'll give this to you," Rayshui handed his untouched black bread to Alice and said.
"Don't you want to eat?"
"I don't have much appetite," Rayshui said somewhat bitterly.
The bread was really hard and tasteless; Rayshui couldn't eat it.
He could only starve himself in the morning and wait until lunchtime for a proper meal. By then, the food should have arrived, right?
"Oh," Alice nodded awkwardly.
Nobles, as expected, were too extravagant.
Even though they had such delicious black bread to eat, they still claimed to have no appetite.
However... it seemed that the nobles in the royal capital only ate black bread in the morning... at most, with a glass of sheep's milk.
Rayshui didn't know what he was dissatisfied with.
"My Lord Baron, Kahn has arrived," the maid's voice sounded.
Rayshui raised his head and saw a muscular man in armor. Although his muscles were hidden by the armor, Rayshui could still see his explosive power. With Rayshui's small size, he probably couldn't withstand even one punch from him.
It better not be an actual assassination attempt...
Rayshui couldn't help but concentrate his energy.
However, what Rayshui didn't expect was...
"Thump!"
With such a sound, Kahn knelt directly on the ground, his head knocking on the floor, and his powerful fists turned into palms slapping the ground.
"Noble Lord Baron, I beg you..."
"Stand up and speak," Rayshui's face became unnatural.
Having only been to this world for a few weeks, he wasn't used to others kneeling and speaking to him.
...
Through Kahn's story, Rayshui learned that East Tower City was extremely poor.
To be precise, the common people were extremely poor, while the nobles lived luxuriously.
And the so-called nobles were themselves.
Why did this happen?
It was all thanks to the previous Baron Orton, who imposed all sorts of taxes to accumulate wealth.
There were various strange taxes, such as birth tax, singles tax, and marriage tax…
Most importantly, during the harvest season, the people of East Tower City had to give 90% of their harvested grain to the Baron's Manor and could only keep 10% for themselves.
No wonder the city looked miserable and the people were so weak.
Reducing taxes seemed urgent.
With such a high tax policy, the people of East Tower City would either starve to death or choose to move to other places.
Rayshui didn't know what the previous Baron Orton was thinking.
Didn't he know the importance of population?
However, upon thinking about Orton's way of thinking, it was reasonable that such a situation would occur.In Aoton's mind, the people in the city, those who were not nobles, were just commoners, slaves, livestock. They could be executed whenever and however he wanted.
"You're called Kahn, right?" Rayshui extended his index finger and tapped on the table, only speaking lightly after a long while.
"Yes, my lord Baron…" Kahn's body trembled slightly, as he probably could already guess the outcome.
All the nobles were the same.
He would most likely be ordered to be killed by this young nobleman in front of him.
Kahn's heart was bitter.
But he had to come! As a commoner and a warrior, he couldn't stand to see everyone in the city starve to death.
"…" Alice also looked at Rayshui, her eyes flickering. She wanted to see how Rayshui would respond.
In the dark, Rayshui gave Alice a different feeling compared to other nobles.
However, nobles are not to be trusted easily. Many of them appear courteous on the surface.
But…when faced with sensitive issues like tax collection, even the most courteous of nobles would reveal their true nature, right?
After all, the amount of taxes collected represented their income.
"Go gather the people of the city. I want to announce that some taxes will be abolished." Rayshui looked at Kahn and said this, under his astonished gaze.
