"What?" Duvas stood up in anger. "This can't be right! You can't just increase the taxes without telling us in advance... This is simply not fair!" The majordomo glanced at Kivamus with worry. "We also have to pay another full year's taxes in just eight more months! This... this is cruel!"

Kivamus tried hard not to show stress on his face. This... this might really bankrupt them. They didn't even have enough wheat to use as seeds, and they had just about used up all the smoked meat they had saved up to feed the villagers. The Rizako mushrooms might be used in a pinch, but ideally they needed to give another month to it so they could be harvested in a sustainable way. They had also captured nearly a dozen rabbits by now, but they needed to preserve them so they could start breeding the animals and find a way to get fur and meat regularly instead of killing them all in an emergency, which would barely feed even the manor residents for a day.

They did have a few chicken and even some sheep along with a couple of cows, but even killing all of them would probably not be enough to feed the whole village a single day, and it would destroy any hopes of finding as a sustainable way to get a variety in their diet, if they couldn't afford to buy more wheat and soon.

He took a deep breath. "Calm down, Duvas." Once the majordomo took his seat again, he looked at Ustaimo, not liking where this conversation was going. "So how much will it be now?"

Ustaimo opened the tax ledger once again to confirm it, before he replied, "At the new rate of taxes, it will be 1071 gold, and 9 silvers."

"1071 gold?" Duvas repeated angrily. "We can't pay anything close to that right now!" It only took a moment for his anger to deflate into depression. "We have gathered a good amount of coal by now, but it wouldn't nearly be enough to pay for the difference..."

Ustaimo shook his head reluctantly. "Count Ebirtas has told me to only take gold this time, since we don't need much coal - now that the winter is over. That's why we only brought a single wagon with us."

"But..." Duvas protested, "you always agreed to take some coal in exchange whenever we were short on gold in the past!"

The tax collector sighed. "It doesn't seem like Binpaaz is going to stop raiding our farms any time soon, so the Count needs that gold to prepare for that future, just in case. Filling our storage barns with coal in the approaching summer isn't going to help us deal with them."

"Our people are going to starve if we can't buy more wheat soon..." Duvas breathed. "We simply can't pay that much right now..."

Sir Tuilas, who had been listening passively until now, looked at them in bewilderment. "Can you really not pay even this much? Don't you have a whole village to tax for this?" He shrugged without waiting for an answer. "Still, it doesn't sound like it's something to worry that much about. Just give us some of your slaves along with what you have in gold, and I think you should be able to fill the shortfall easily."

Kivamus clenched his fists, but kept his mouth shut about his real opinion on this matter. This wasn't the time to let these people know that he didn't keep slaves here.

The knight looked at him with a contemplative eye for a moment. "Actually, I think I might be able to help you here. If you sell me the girl who served supper yesterday... uh, Syrene was her name I think - then I'll pay you a very good price for her on credit. You can use that credit to pay some of the taxes and I'll pay it in gold to Ustaimo after returning to Cinran. It's a win-win, isn't it?" Tuilas seemed to be lost in his own thoughts at the moment. "Ah, Syrene is a real beauty, isn't she?" He glanced at the inner door. "Where is she anyway? Haven't seen her since yesterday."

This audacious bastard! Kivamus gritted his teeth in silent fury, barely managing to control himself from ordering Tuilas to be thrown in jail immediately, consequences be damned.

Duvas looked at Kivamus with concern, while Ustaimo just looked nervous. "Uh... she's busy... with some personal work," the majordomo replied in a low voice.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

However, Tuilas seemed to have not noticed others' expressions, as he rubbed his smoothly shaven chin. "In fact, I'll go one better for you. I saw another real looker in the manor when I was out for a walk. I didn't approach her today since she was with other maids at the time, but I did ask her name from another servant. She is called Leah, I believe. If you sell both of these women to me, I'll give you a good package deal for them. It won't make you rich, but you'll be able to pay the taxes no doubt."

Kivamus was still just as angry as earlier, but hearing the knight wanting to buy the freed slave girl Leah - who lived with Cedoron now - actually made him pause and consider it for a moment. Not because he wanted to sell her, but because of a morbid curiosity to see what little specks and stains would be left of this brazen knight to send back to Cinran after the hulking blacksmith was done with him for daring to buy his girl.

Imagining that sight improved his mood a little, but he had no good thoughts left for the knight at this point - even if Tuilas' behaviour was likely the norm for this world's nobles, for whom acquiring a pretty slave or two on every trip of theirs was probably an everyday occurrence.

"None of the residents of this manor are for sale," he grunted. "No matter what price you offer. Just give us a few days to think about what to do about the taxes."

Sir Tuilas stared at him for a while. Probably realising that he wouldn't be returning with two new slave girls by his side without resorting to kidnapping them, he glared at Kivamus. "There is nothing to think about! I want to leave tomorrow morning, so you have until then to raise all the gold. I'm not returning with anything less than what you owe, no matter what." With that, the young knight stood up, and exited the manor hall again through the inner door, likely to rest in his room until lunch. As it had been instructed earlier, Tesyb followed him, so the knight would stay in his room instead of roaming around the manor house unsupervised.

With the infuriating knight out of the hall, Kivamus had to take a few minutes to calm himself, since he wasn't sure when was the last time he had gotten this angry. He would also have to make sure that Tuilas didn't try kidnapping anyone when leaving. He seemed more than capable of doing such a thing.

Trying his best to regain his composure, he looked at the tax collector again. "You have to understand our situation, Ustaimo! After the previous baron lost all the tax gold last autumn when he was killed on the road, we didn't even have enough gold remaining with us to pay the tax even at the older rate, so we had been thinking about asking for an extension just for that." He exhaled loudly. "We won't even have any gold left to buy food for ourselves right now if we pay you all the gold we have. And that was with the older tax rate. With this new rate of 25%... I simply don't see how we can pay you that much by tomorrow..."

Ustaimo shook his head. "There is nothing I can do about this, milord. A few weeks ago Baron Zoricus had suggested charging triple the usual interest rates from Tiranat for the delay in the taxes if you couldn't pay it this time. But he and the Count changed their minds after the latest Binpaazi raid, and now they want the gold immediately, one way or another."

"One way or another, huh...?" Kivamus muttered in a low voice. He didn't know when such a day would come, but there will come a day when nobody will be able to make such merciless demands from Tiranat by threatening them with force. He will make sure of it.

"Isn't there anything you can do to help us?" Duvas pleaded. "We have known each other for what, two decades now? Can't you just give us an extension of just another month? We might be able to sell more coal and raise enough gold by then."

Ustaimo sighed. "I realize that, but like I told you, it's simply not in my hands. I'm just here to verify your revenue ledger and calculate the taxes, and to count the gold we take back with us. Sir Tuilas and his guards are the one who are here to enforce the Count's demands, and they have been ordered to do whatever is necessary to bring back the gold. I simply don't have any power to stop them..."

Kivamus exhaled again, feeling the powerlessness of owning just a small village in front of behemoths like the Count of Cinran and his brothers in Ulriga who ran the duchy, and had whole armies to call upon to enforce their wills and get the gold they were owed. Zoricus already had pockets deep enough that he was willing to go to any lengths to capture Tiranat, while today just added another knight to the ever-growing list of nobles who wanted to see his village ruined. He sighed. Running and protecting his village wasn't going to get easy anytime soon.

"If you can't give us a month's extension," he asked, "at least give us a few days to think of a way. Don't we deserve that much?"