Chapter 516: Tax Reform 1
TL: Rui88
Hansel Abbott hummed a little tune, leaving his office with a light step.
Someone from the Lord’s mansion had just come by to announce that Count Grayman was summoning the heads of the Administration Council’s departments for a meeting.
Hansel’s mood had been quite good recently.
Last month, Count Gerd Rodney, an heir to the throne, had come to Lakeheart Town to discuss business with his current boss, Paul Grayman, on behalf of the royal family. He had initially asked Hansel to make the introductions for him. Fortunately, the two counts had concluded their talks to everyone’s satisfaction, and Gerd Rodney had left a special letter to thank him. This left Hansel feeling incredibly flattered; after all, Gerd Rodney was quite high up in the line of royal succession.
As for why Count Gerd had sought Hansel for the introduction, it was because Sir Hansel Abbott, in addition to his position as the Director of Agriculture for the Alda Administration Council, held another title: the Royal Representative to the Northwest Bay.
Hansel had once been deeply proud of this title, but now he was slowly beginning to understand its true nature. This so-called Royal Commissioner was most likely a position created by Her Highness, the Grand Princess Catherine, during the rebellion of the Crystal Shine City Guard. She had nowhere to place the noble scions from various families who had fled Crystal Shine to voluntarily “serve” in her army. So, she invented the title of Royal Commissioner and kicked them out to all corners of the kingdom, just to get them out of her sight.
Otherwise, why… why… had he not been paid a single copper coin in salary to this day?
Otherwise, why did the head of the intelligence department back in Crystal Shine, who was nominally the superior of all the Royal Commissioners, always give him a cold and indifferent look whenever they met?
Alas, if he had truly been a talent valued by Her Highness Princess Catherine, he would have been kept in the army and given a post back then, like his old classmate, Matthew.After the war to quell the rebellion ended, Matthew had even used that experience to catch the eye of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who helped him secure an enviable position.
Meanwhile, he was still left out in the cold in the Northwest Bay.
At this thought, a sense of frustration welled up in Hansel’s heart, and his steps were no longer so light. He quickly shook his head, casting the unpleasant memories from his mind.
His thoughts returned to Count Gerd Rodney. As the king’s nephew, he was theoretically His Majesty the King’s second-in-line to the throne…second only to his own father.
The current king of Ordo had only two daughters, and there was no precedent in Ordo’s history for a woman to inherit the throne. Therefore, the crown was likely to fall to His Majesty the King’s younger brother. Gerd was the eldest son of the king’s brother, so barring any unforeseen circumstances, the crown would most likely end up on Gerd’s head.
The reason he was called the second-in-line was that if something were to happen to Gerd’s father, the crown would pass directly to him.
It should have been that simple, but the existence of Princess Catherine introduced a variable into the process. When Hansel was still in the royal capital, Crystal Shine, there were rumors that the king greatly wished for his outstanding eldest daughter to inherit the throne.
Would the king change centuries of tradition for his daughter? If His Majesty had such intentions, would the nobles accept his arrangements?
Hansel shook his head again, driving these thoughts from his mind. Regardless of whether His Majesty had such plans, or what the nobles thought, it was not the place of a minor noble like him, one with half-“lowly” blood, exiled to a frontier region, to have a say.
His desire to return to the royal capital, Crystal Shine, was no longer as fervent as it once had been. In Lakeheart Town, he was a respected director in the Administration Council, one of the top officials appointed by the lord. But back in Crystal Shine, he would immediately revert to his former, unbearable status, becoming the shame of the Ordo nobility.
If it had been when he first arrived over four years ago, the sight of Alda would have filled him with a great sense of disparity. But the Alda of today, no, the entire Northwest Bay, had undergone a world-shaking transformation.
Yes, this was still the kingdom’s frontier, but it had become the kingdom’s “wealthy” frontier.
Look at the wide, straight avenue before him, which ran through Lakeheart Town from north to south. It was paved with smooth, flat stone slabs of uniform size.
Except for the royal capital, Crystal Shine, Hansel had never seen such streets in any other city in the kingdom. The streets in those other cities were mostly dirt; the better ones might have a layer of gravel, but they would become muddy and impassable whenever it rained.
The sanitation was even worse. On the streets of other cities, one could see almost every kind of rubbish, even the excrement of people and animals. Walking down the street, one had to endure or get used to those indescribable smells.
But on the streets of Lakeheart Town, the Administration Council had established a special agency to manage street sanitation. They hired people to clean them daily and enacted laws to severely punish those who violated public hygiene. Under these various strong measures, it was no exaggeration to say that the cleanliness of Lakeheart Town’s streets was the best in all of Ordo. In this respect, even the royal capital, Crystal Shine, could not compare.
On roads like these, countless cargo carriages formed a ceaseless river. The traffic was so heavy that the Administration Council had to establish what outsiders considered to be very complex traffic rules. The Department of Public Safety even dispatched personnel to stand guard at various intersections, using a set of standardized hand signals to direct passing vehicles on how to proceed.
Lakeheart Town was now a prosperous city, and not a stagnant prosperity, but one that was trending towards ever-greater affluence. The city’s manufacturing was strong; new workshops and buildings sprang up every day, and people came from the surrounding areas and even farther away to make a living.
Of course, the bustle of the main north-south thoroughfare was mainly concentrated in the new district on the southern shore of Lake Weiss. Here in Lakeheart Town…the real Lakeheart Town, the small island surrounded by the lake’s water…this section was still quite open.
This was because it had been designated as an administrative district. The original low-lying residential houses had been replaced by one Administration Council office building after another. The original residents had also been relocated to the new district and compensated with beautiful new buildings.
As the Administration Council grew in scale, the important departments, such as the Department of Industry, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Commerce, and so on, all had their own independent office areas or buildings.
The Department of Agriculture, which Hansel was in charge of, for example, was housed in a three-storey building, the entirety of which belonged to them.
Because all the departments were concentrated on one small island and were not far from each other, officials could stroll down the street during their breaks and casually discuss work with people they met from other departments. It was extremely convenient.
AN: I’m very sorry for the late update; I had a lot to do last night. And then in the early hours of the morning, my child came down with a fever, and everything became chaotic.