Chapter 121: The Plan - I

Lucius looked at Gabriel and Lita for a moment before beginning to speak.

"As we know that Viscount Drew is going to leave our territory and that will result in our tax agreements on trade being terminated. And if those are terminated, most of the trade would come to a halt in our territory.

But Viscount Drew himself is going to let the Merchants operate without the tax for the time being. This would not only allow him to attract more merchants to his territory, he may even get them to build their branches there.

If he does that, even if he raises his tax in the future, he will keep it less than our territory, letting the merchants and other businessmen stay attached to his territory. We cannot lower our taxes as that would mean, draining our coffers.

Viscount Drew can afford something like this, but we can't. Plus, even if we really do that the problem is the passage of the merchants themselves. Viscount Drew's territory is to the east of ours and has a majority of the roads that go to the rest of the kingdom.

While there are other roundabout ways we can use to transport goods and the merchants can come through, it would also mean letting them pass through other noble's territories.

This would only lead to the merchants being taxed in multiple lands and thus by the time they come to our land, the cost of their goods would increase once more. This will shorten our margin of profit by another chunk which we do not want." Lucius stated.

The pair of husband and wife listened to Lucius' words carefully as he built an image in their mind. This gave them an idea of where they were currently and how the situation would need to be changed.

"Now, since Viscount Drew has decided to do something like this, there must be some assurance that he would have. We do not know what it is as of now, but there should be a hidden backing for him.

Since he is also losing our protection, there is a greater chance of the merchants being attacked in their territory. And once that happens the merchants would be less reluctant to trade there. But I'm quite sure this would not happen.

We already have an example of the bandits from the last time. They were set up by none other than the Viscount to cause trouble for us. But this is also smart on his end as this can work as a solution to other bandits.

If there are already bandits in a certain region, the other bandits will be less inclined to rob on the same route. Unless of course, they want conflict which will also act as a control method. 

They may even want to join up with those bandits making a bigger group, which would still help the viscount as he would then be able to eliminate those groups. What Viscount Drew is doing is making his own enemy to prevent others from being his. 

Of course, since we killed all of his fake bandits there is a likely chance he will make more of them and spread them out around the edges of his territory. We will need to keep an eye out for them, but if our current plan goes well, he may not have time to do anything else.

You see, Keith Drew the son of the viscount, is currently in a life or death situation." Lucius explained.

"Life or Death situation? We know about that, but how would that help?" Gabriel asked.

"We simply need to keep the viscount occupied with the state of his son for the time being. We can also spread the rumor that his son was cursed by someone as he is currently undergoing a strange transformation that is not related to his gift.

The healers of Dowland city have already assessed his condition and are unable to find any cure. The Viscount will probably have to ask the Church of Alana for help and we all know how that will go." Lucius replied.

As soon as Gabriel heard this, his eyes went wide.

"OF COURSE! If he wants the church's help, he will need to pay a tithe. And if Keith's condition is really as severe as you say it is, then he may need to pay the same level of Tithe as we paid for when you were injured." Gabriel replied.

"Exactly, that should cost him quite a bit and should slow down his work. But on the other hand, if he really does have someone supporting him in the dark, he may go to them for help. While this would help him get out of this situation early, it will also give us the chance to figure out who else is involved." Lucius said.

Gabriel and Lita nodded their head in understanding and couldn't help but feel that their son had really gained cleverness that was not seen previously. The blessing of Etara was still not gone!

"Now comes the part about Baron Harrels." Lucius added.

"That's scum! I don't know when he became so brave as to act against you. If it were not for him, there is no way his daughter would have acted like that. He must have been secretly encouraging all this." Lita said, feeling furious again.

Lucius simply looked at her calmly and let her speak her mind. He knew that nothing Lita actually said was right as it was his own work due to which Bethany had acted against him. If he had not used Enraged, there was a great chance she would have not lost her cool and would have kept calm.

Gabriel did not speak anything but the hint of anger could also be seen on his face. It was likely that if Baron Harrels was here and he was given the chance, Gabriel would have cut apart the man, limb from limb.

Baron Harrels was not even a warrior, thus it was quite likely to happen as well.