Feeling the calluses on the old man's hands and looking at his tears, Rick felt sad in his heart, and he quickly patted the old man's back and comforted him: "I'm sorry, it's my fault, I'm... I don't know that this will happen."

The mayor of Vinton Town looked at Rick who was smiling at him in surprise and asked tremblingly: "Sir, you mean..."

"Don't call me Lord, you are the mayor, my elder. Just call me my name and Kyle." Rick helped the old man who was trying to kneel down.

"How can you do it? You are a noble master. How can we civilians be so ignorant?" After that, the old man took the civilian courtesy in panic.

Alas... Rick sighed. The etiquette system in this world is very harsh. Most civilians have long been ready to serve the nobles for life. Many civilians have collided with the nobles and were beaten to death from time to time. Even if they suffer grievances, they dare not speak out.

"So, let's not talk about this anymore. Please lead the way for me, the mayor." Rick replied and said politely.

The young man's eyes were very clear, his words and deeds were very natural, unlike a hypocrite who deliberately dressed up as a good person. His tone was also very kind, and he did not have the arrogant airs of a nobleman at all. Maybe we really misunderstood him... The old man seemed to see hope and smiled with relief, "Sir, please follow me."

Rick clicked, followed the old man, and looked around.

The old man smiled bitterly and deliberately slowed down. It seemed that the two of them were standing in the same line. In fact, he was half a step slower than Rick and fell slightly behind.

Rick was stared hard by almost all the residents of Vinton Town along the way. He was like a beast locked in a cage. He was maliciously watched by many people, and they did not dare to come over and be presumptuous.

It was expected that Rick was hated by the locals. Because he did not know and did not come to Vinton Town to report as soon as possible, the high taxes ordered by the previous lord could not be modified. As time went by, the money flowed into Rick's pocket without knowing it, which naturally made the local residents unacceptable, and immediately equated Rick and the Fatty Lord.

I am innocent!! The ignorant is not guilty!! Rick, who felt the needle on his back, wanted to shout out, but he must retain the demeanor of the lord at this moment and had to pretend to be calm.

Vinton is just a small town. Although it is not as prosperous as the Sanctuary, the historic ancient buildings and the pattern facing the sea and backed by the forest are still refreshing, but the dissatisfaction on everyone's face is awesome.

"Sir Allia. This is your manor." The old man smiled kindly, pointed ahead, and said kindly like his grandfather.

Looking in the direction the old man pointed, Rick unconsciously opened his mouth wide.

This is simply an oversized villa!

On the hill behind the town, a small castle stood firmly there. From the appearance, Rick could see at a glance that the stone used in the castle was extremely hard and costly. From the perspective of the area, the garden behind his manor was ten times larger than that of ordinary families. If Vinton Town was divided into ten pieces, Rick's home would occupy one of them.

"Is this made for me?" Rick asked in surprise.

The old man smiled, but his expression was a little dim, "This is left by the previous lord, and it is yours now."

Rick nodded suddenly and said to himself: "How much wealth does that guy have to plunder to build a castle in this town..."

"Since the adults have arrived, I will send someone to clean your manor thoroughly later. And arrange a special servant to serve you." The old man looked at Rick and smiled.

"No. There is no hurry to do this for the time being, take me around again." Rick won't stay here. After the matter is resolved, he will go back to the Sky Academy to be the boss.

"Yes." The old man lowered his head and answered Rick one by one. He became a tour guide and answered his doubts one by one.

Ten meters behind the two, following the huge army, they watched Rick from a distance, wanting to see what this guy with a human face and a beast-hearted person looks like.

Rick couldn't explain it clearly now, and didn't care about the crowd following behind. The old man knew that he couldn't drive him away alone, so he could only pretend that he had not found anything and continued to introduce Rick to Vinton Town.

After visiting most of the town, Rick found that the living conditions of the residents here looked good on the surface, but because of the high taxes, they could not raise the passion for labor at all. The originally intact buildings slowly decayed in the wind and rain, and no one would repair them, so the entire Wendun Town looked lifeless.

This is my territory, let me lead them to have a better life again... If Rick doesn't do anything for his people, the guilt in his heart will always be with him.

"This is my old home and a place for office work." The old man pointed to a long-standing low house in front of him and said.

Alas, it is also the mayor's home, how could it be so dilapidated... When Rick thinks of his castle-like manor, he feels extremely guilty.

"This unscrupulous guy is finally here." A girl with a single ponytail walked out of the mayor's house. She was wearing a cool vest and knee-to-knee leather shorts. Her skin was healthy wheat color. The first impression she gave was lively and cheerful, but she spoke very rudely.

"It's over, why did the mayor's daughter come out? What if this guy is also a lustful beast?"

"It's really over. She is so perfect and so agile. She is the goddess in my heart. That kid must have been fascinated by her."

"No!! I have been in love with her for eighteen years and haven't had time to confess my love!"

"Bah, have you started to have a crush on her since your womb?"

...

There was no shortage of young men in the crowd following behind. When they saw the girl meet Rick, they suddenly became anxious.

The old man frowned and said angrily: "Irregular guy! How do I teach you normally? I can't come and apologize to the adults."

The girl turned her head disdainfully and glanced at Rick secretly, and suddenly she was faded.

"Yayayaya...Kyle, is it you?"

"Hello. Miller, long time no see." Rick's gentlemanly smile was all over. He owed his body gracefully and gave the noble courtesy.

"what happened?"

"Miss Miller seems to know this guy?"

"It's over, I'm going to fight that bastard!"

“…”

"Hey. Isn't anyone stopping me?"

The group of passionate young men were far away from Rick, and it was unclear why Miller's expression was so strange.

The mayor of Vinton Town frowned and asked in confusion: "Miller, do you know Lord Allya?"

"Ah?" Miller was stunned, staring at Rick foolishly, at a loss.

Rick smiled and explained to the old man: "I happened to meet Miss Miller on my way from the Principality of Light to the Cato Empire, so I walked with her for a while."

"Grandpa, do you remember that I ran away from home to take the Samsung mercenary exam? I ran away and looked for a unicorn, but I met a robber on the way. Kyle saved me, otherwise your granddaughter would come back." After saying that, Miller secretly glanced at Rick and smiled happily.

"Sir," the old man was about to kneel on the ground again, and Rick quickly helped him up, "Thank you for saving my granddaughter. I really don't know how to repay the old man."

"It's been so long. Don't take it to heart." Rick smiled.

The old man thanked him a few times, and then said to Miller in a stern tone: "Don't you apologize to the adults yet?"

Miller was stunned and quickly gave Rick a civilian courtesy. He bent over and said, "I'm sorry, Kyle, I've spoken too much just now."

"It's okay," Rick glanced around, glanced at the crowd behind, and said, "I've been walking around almost. I have something to discuss with the mayor."

The old man nodded and made a call. "Sir, why not sit at my house. Although it is a bit simple, it is quite quiet."

Rick nodded, smiled politely at Miller, and walked towards the mayor's house.

"Miller, why don't you hurry to make tea? Take out the bag of tea your father brought from the Lion Empire." The old man urged quickly.

"Okay." Miller agreed cheerfully and ran back home alone.

Looking at the girl's agile back, Rick smiled and said, "Miss Miller is still so lively and active."

The old man sighed, and although the expression on his face was helpless, he could not find that he actually doted on his granddaughter very much. "She has loved to cause trouble since she was a child and has caused trouble for the town a lot. She asked her to stay here honestly and find a good family to marry, but she refused. How dangerous it would be for a girl to be a hunter."

Rick nodded, and while walking, he chatted casually with the old man about homework.

The crowd following Rick and saw that he and the mayor returned home, they parted in disagreement.

When he walked into the mayor's home, Rick felt very ordinary and could not see any valuable furniture or items. After looking at the old man's simple dress, he understood why the mayor was so loved by the people.

Rick and the old man faced each other and sat down around a wooden round table. Miller held two cups of tea and handed it to Kyle and his grandfather.

The girl and Rick smiled at each other, and the old man frowned and said, "Miller, I have something to talk about with the adults. What are you, a girl, who stays here?"

"You guys are talking, I don't interrupt, I just want to hear Kyle tell you what's going on." Miller blinked his watery eyes. Although he didn't get along with Rick, she believed that this young and promising man would not be a bastard who maliciously plundered the people's wealth.

"You..." Seeing that the girl was disobedient again, the old man angrily wanted to drive her away, but Rick said with a smile: "It's okay, let Miss Miller stay here."

The girl pouted and smiled proudly at her grandfather. The old man sighed. Rick said so, so he naturally couldn't say anything else.

After siping out the tea in the cup, although Rick is quite good at drinking now, he can't find any tricks about this tea ceremony. After smelling the rich aroma of tea, the bitterness and sweetness stimulating his taste buds. Rick pretended to be very enjoyable and said intoxicatedly: "Good tea."

The old man looked embarrassed and said a little apologetically: "Sir, this is the best tea that my son brought back from the mainland, but for the adults, it may only be coarse tea."

"Where are you?" Rick put down his teacup and said seriously: "Master, let's talk about the serious matter."

The old man was shocked and nodded silently. Miller stood behind Rick and focused his energy.

"First of all, I am very sorry for Vinton Town. I just obtained the title of Knight and didn't know much about the nobles and territory, so this kind of thing that everyone doesn't want to see." Rick said honestly: "I am a student of the Mingx Higher College. I have been busy completing the tasks assigned by the college, so I have never been here. Later, I heard about the bad behavior of the lord in Vinton Town before, so I hurried over."

The old man suddenly realized that the young man in front of him was still a student and had just obtained the title. He did not deliberately delay time and exploit the wealth of the residents of Vinton Town, but was completely unaware of it.

"Minx College?" Miller thought about it carefully and asked in surprise: "Kyle, do you say you are studying in the top colleges in the mainland?"

Rick smiled and nodded, the girl immediately looked envious and asked quickly: "Is that college in the Holy Capital? By the way, it seems that it can still float in the air? It's so magical, I thought it was just a legend."

"I'll tell you in detail later," Rick looked at the old man and continued, "Master, have the taxes collected accurately recorded? It's best that every fund flows can be found wherever it goes."

"Sir, please wait." The old man stood up and left, and soon brought a thick booklet. "All kinds of books are filled with the warehouse, and the adults can't finish reading it for a while. This is the general ledger of Wendun Town, which organizes and summarizes the circulation of taxes."

Rick flipped through casually, looking at the dense numbers on it, he couldn't help feeling his head wide. After closing the account book, Rick asked directly: "How much is the tax this year?"

The old man sighed, "Every family basically needs to pay one to two gold coins a year, which does not include other taxes."

Rick has no idea about one or two gold coins. If he knew that the total annual income of ordinary people does not exceed five gold coins, he would definitely be petrified on the spot.

"What do other taxes mean?" Rick asked in confusion.

The old man smiled bitterly and said dejectedly: "This is the rule set by the previous lord. I have to do morning exercises every morning, which is called training everyone's physical fitness. However, the time is set very early and I have to get up before dawn. Both adults and children are treated equally. If I am late, I will be fined a silver coin."

"There is still this?" Rick was amused and crying for a moment.

"Not only that, if the lights are not turned off after the specified time at night, a silver coin will still be fined. There are many strange regulations, all for grabbing money from the people." The old man sighed helplessly.

"Now the previous lord is still dead, why do the residents of Vinton Town still abide by the regulations he promulgated?" Rick asked in confusion.

"The Lord doesn't know. Everyone overthrew the brutal rule of the previous lord. Although these punitive taxes became decorations, the two major heads of food tax and income tax were still not resolved." The old man explained seriously: "In order to prevent local rebellion, or the lord's power threatened the royal power, almost every territory will send a supervisor from the sacred capital. They are only responsible to the Finance Minister and are selfless. The tax plan issued by the previous lord must be implemented. By the end of the year, the supervisory commission will check the account books, and once the tax money is paid less, it will be reported to the sacred capital, and then sternly warn us that the violation of the empire's lord law forces us to continue to pay high tax money, otherwise we will be punished." (To be continued)
Chapter completed!