Come to another world and become a lord

Chancellor of the Exchequer Samuel Kinglist was a little old man who looked extremely shrewd. He was thin, with an angular face and a white goatee that was his distinctive feature.

When Carl went to the other party's residence, he was stopped by the gate guard as expected. Even after knowing his identity, the other party did not give him a good face. As he expected, he, a serf baron, was hardly recognized in the aristocratic circle of the capital. After a period of tug-of-war with the other party, he finally solved the problem with money.

Even after receiving the money, the guard still said with a sour face:

"I'll go and inform the adults, you wait~"

After a long while, he came out lazily and replied:

"Baron Karl Flandal of Rickburg~ Your Excellency invites you, please follow me~"

With a helpless look on his face, Carl was led into the room by the guard. Samuel's office was luxuriously decorated, with murals all over the walls and a map of the kingdom in front. Below the map was a large, finely carved table. Samuel sat behind the table, holding his chin with both hands. He was wearing gorgeous and exaggerated clothes and single-sided glasses, looking more like a businessman than an official. After seeing Carl, he immediately frowned:

"Baron Karl, well, I won't introduce myself. After all, we've already met in Rickburg. Please sit down~"

"It's an honor that Your Excellency still remembers me~" Carl bowed deeply and then sat down.

"So, why did you come to me?" Samuel asked unhappily.

"Of course I came here for Morton's matter."

"I've heard about this. You're robbing his territory, which is a big taboo in the kingdom. There's nothing to discuss."

"That's not the case," Karl said. "To be precise, it was Morton who started the war. He murdered Baron Henry and instigated others to usurp his daughter's inheritance rights... I just want to seek justice for him."

As he spoke, he took out the purse he had prepared in advance and placed it on the table.

Seeing the purse, Samuel frowned unconsciously:

"Baron Karl, what does this mean?"

"This is what Rick earned from trade in the past month..." Carl replied.

"One month's trade income? What are you going to give me?"

Samuel once again focused his eyes on the money bag. This small bag of money was all the trade income of Rick County, but he was not surprised. The North was poor, and the baron had just taken office. It was expected that he had no money in his pocket. He was so shabby, but he had the nerve to come here. Thinking of this, he laughed dumbly:

"Are you trying to bribe me with these? I'm telling you, you're committing a crime..."

He opened the bag as he spoke, and the moment the bag was opened, he paused in the middle of his words, and could not utter the word "sin".

In the purse he saw five gold bars, neatly stacked together.

He asked again uncertainly:

"What did you just say this is?"

"Fort Rick's trade revenue this month."

Carl said again that this was indeed the money he had earned from the perfume and wine trade during this period of time. Before coming to the capital, he exchanged them for gold bars for the convenience of carrying. Carl was not a fool and knew that there would be places where he would need to spend money to smooth things out when he came to the capital. However, this was another large expense. The four chambers of commerce still owed money to the mercenaries. The only thing to be thankful for was that they were not in a hurry to pay, but how would they deal with it in the future? I'm afraid I have to come up with more ways to make money to make up for these gaps. Looking at the golden bars on the table, he couldn't help but feel a little pain.

"Trading income, one month..." Samuel stared at the gold bars for a long time, then weighed them with his hands and said, "Pure gold?"

Carl nodded. Unlike the gold coins of the kingdom, although they were called gold coins, as circulating currency, their actual gold content was not high. But those in front of him were real pure gold.

"So many?" Samuel pursed his lips, then frowned and said again, "But I also said that officials accepting bribes in private is what Your Majesty hates the most."

Although he said that, his tone was obviously much softer than before.

"My Lord, this is not bribery."

"Oh?"

"This is necessary for you to successfully complete the work assigned by His Majesty. As the nation's finance minister, in order to be able to actually count the real financial situation in various places, you must inspect various places and take samples for statistics. Your Excellency, this is just a reference sample in order to make more accurate tax statistics." Carl said.

"Ah~ Yes, you are right, this is necessary for the job~" After hearing what Carl said, Samuel smiled instantly. As he spoke, he rewrapped the gold bars and stuffed them into his arms.

As the saying goes, strike while the iron is hot. Carl took the opportunity to take out a piece of parchment and handed it to Samuel:

"Sir, this is my people's forecast of the tax revenue for Rick Territory this year based on this month's trade profits. It will be at least 10 percentage points higher than in the past."

"Ah~ Let me see~" Samuel took the paper and studied it carefully, nodding as he read. "Well~ It seems that your business is much better than Morton's."

"This is mainly due to the recent perfume and spirits business. Later, I plan to set up more factories in Greven Valley and Seres County. By then, the tax revenue of the two places may not be as high as that of Rick County, but it will be similar, basically close to this figure." He continued.

"This is great news~" Samuel's eyes lit up after hearing his words.

He once again stared at the parchment and studied it carefully, then muttered to himself:

"Ah~ Just three baronies can contribute so much tax revenue. If His Majesty knew, he would be very happy~ I'm not saying that those so-called palace ministers, who say they are loyal to the emperor and love the country, are only thinking about how to evade taxes~ There are not many people as loyal as you in the kingdom."

As he spoke, he sighed, then changed the subject and said:

"It's just that ~ this Thresh Territory is a bit difficult to deal with ~"

Hearing his words, Karl couldn't help but frowned:

"I don't know what His Majesty's attitude is on this matter?"

Samuel licked his lips, then lowered his voice and said:

"I'll tell you the truth. His Majesty is on your side, but it's only limited to the ownership of the Graven Valley. You are right about this matter, and it makes sense. When the time comes, I will grant you the title of Viscount, and you will be the legitimate lord. But this Thres Territory... If I remember correctly, its lord seems to be a Baron named Iren?"

"Yes, he was involved in the murder of Baron Henry and has been executed," Carl replied.

"I don't care about these, but no matter what, those are the legal territories of Morgan County. This is unacceptable~" Samuel said while frowning.

"Is there really no way?" Carl asked.

Samuel curled his lips, sighed again and said:

"It's difficult~ Oh, it's a pity to collect these taxes. If His Majesty knew that this territory has to be returned to Morton, I guess even he would be sad~ You said that Morton, he has no good governance, and the people in the territory have to live a hard life~ Every time he collects taxes, it's because the harvest is not good this year, and the harvest is not good this year~ How can he feel embarrassed? It's a pity for those people to meet such a bad lord~"

"I have been to his castle, which is very grandly decorated. As for him, his clothes and food are all first-class," Carl replied.

Samuel said:

"That's right. He is arrogant and extravagant, while the people below are starving. How evil, how evil. How can such a man be worthy of being a count?"

He paused here, thought for a moment and continued:

"You know, the point is, you robbed other people's territory without any reason. This is related to the foundation of the country, and His Majesty can't cover it up."

"That is, if there is a suitable reason..." Carl muttered to himself.

"It can't be too far-fetched, it has to make sense~" Samuel added.

Think of a reason, but what reason should I think of? Karl's brain was working rapidly, and suddenly he seemed to have thought of something and asked:

"What if I want to buy territory from Morton?"

After hearing his words, Samuel's eyes lit up again, and then he shouted:

"That's fine, but since it's a sale, he must agree to it, or have agreed to it before. At least there must be proof!"

"Certificate?" Carl nodded thoughtfully, and a plan began to emerge in his mind.