Since the days of Condor. No, simply a long-standing tradition in human history.
Pay as little tax as possible. If possible, don’t pay any at all.
Skim off the money that ought to be paid and spend it elsewhere, then pretend otherwise.
Then squeeze the people dry to make up for the shortfall in taxes.
The saying “Whether you die by the blade or by taxes” didn’t come from nowhere.
The Founding Emperor had experienced this firsthand, so he paid a great deal of attention to it.
But it was also true that he had founded the nation with the help of the great families.
The irony was that he couldn’t simply raise his voice as he pleased.
‘Still, what needs to be done must be done.’
In truth, this might also be something the Fifth Prince’s side had subtly tossed out.
The Founding Emperor had gone into seclusion and was not coming out at all.
The Second Prince, who had become Crown Prince, had no notable heir.
Then, naturally, the right of succession would now pass to his younger brother.
For starters, the Third Prince had cut himself off from politics and refused to go anywhere near it.
He was the type to remain extremely quiet and simply do what he had to do from behind the scenes.
He might have suited being a prince, but he did not suit being Crown Prince.
By contrast, the Fourth Prince was an extremely powerful, unstoppable man.
The problem was that he was so rough that, outside of being a commander, he was utterly hopeless.
He, too, was a poor match for Crown Prince, and certainly for Emperor.
That meant the only one left was the Fifth Prince, Ishmael.
On that day, he had already moved most decisively and made his winning play.
He had eliminated everyone without mercy and clearly displayed charisma as well.
At present, the administration was, in effect, in the Fifth Prince’s grasp.
The problem was that, in terms of justification, he was still far from the line of succession.
This had not happened because of his lust for power; the Chancellor had tried to strike first.
That was all. He had shown no particular greed for power.
To prove that, he had even installed the Second Prince as Crown Prince.
The issue that arose here was that even if the Second Prince had no children, he still had two older brothers.
Older brothers who even shared the same mother. He could not dare to strike them.
From the Fifth Prince’s perspective, the road ahead was truly endless.
“These are the targets decided on by the Investigation Bureau and the Review Bureau. We’re raiding this place.”
But what if it was not he, but his older brother who struck him first?
Then he would have a reason to step forward, saying he had no choice.
“Chief? Isn’t this family a rather sensitive one?”
“What’s this? Team Leader One knows quite a bit.”
“There’s a guy I know well who comes from there. As far as I know, if you trace the connections up through a few degrees, there could be some trouble with His Highness the Fourth Prince… Are you sure this is all right?”
The current real power in the Empire was the Fifth Prince, but that was not all.
In the process, the Third Prince and Fourth Prince had also secured their own shares.
At least the Third Prince was quiet, but the Fourth Prince was anything but.
Everyone knew he was desperate to secure his own faction.
Wesley was tense because they were about to prune that branch in reverse.
“In my view, wouldn’t it be better to look into families that supported the Crown Prince—no, the Eighth Prince—or the Chancellor? In other words, dig a little deeper into the Merken family instead.”
A place that could be struck without issue, and where digging would almost certainly uncover problems.
Even if there were no problems, they were opponents who could do us no harm.
Sinclair seemed to think it was fairly reasonable as well, and nodded.
In truth, it was not as though I had not considered those two places.
With both the Seventh Prince and Eighth Prince eliminated, their forces were completely adrift.
The Fifth Prince had not eliminated every family that had supported the two of them.
But he could attach a reason at any time and shake them all down.
There was no better way to catch the Fifth Prince’s eye than to strike them.
By contrast, going after the Fourth Prince was, for the time being, akin to touching the Fifth Prince’s older brother.
If we made one mistake and got marked by that side, life would become difficult.
That was what Wesley and Sinclair were worried about.
“You’re talking nonsense.”
But I had taken all the political considerations into account as well.
“Team Leader One. This is a tax matter. No matter how much of a connection they have with His Highness the Fourth Prince, we can’t just let it pass. If we’re the Enforcement Bureau, then our duty is to bite into tax problems no matter who the opponent is, isn’t it?”
“That is true.”
“Then that’s settled. Once the Investigation Bureau and the Review Bureau reach their conclusion, we move immediately. Straight there, that very instant. We’ll be at their door almost at the same time the news reaches them.”
And even apart from politics, this was how it had to be done here.
There were positions where one had to turn a blind eye, and positions where one absolutely could not.
Here, fairness earned points. When it came to money, it had to be that way.
“Before His Majesty the Emperor brought down Condor. I remember how many people died because of taxes in those days. If you went even a little farther out, you saw countless people starving to death after paying taxes, or beaten to death because they couldn’t pay. To put it crudely, it was truly fucked up.”
“…”
“At the very least, when it comes to taxes, there must be no high and low. That is the purpose of our Enforcement Bureau’s existence, Team Leader One. Even if the opponent is His Highness the Fourth Prince, we cannot simply let it pass. If there is something suspicious, we dig into it and reveal the truth, and if it’s true, we collect the taxes. That’s all. Understood?”
“I will keep it in mind.”
And not long after, the Investigation Bureau and the Review Bureau produced their results.
They could begin enforcement. The amount skimmed off was considerable.
Now that permission had been granted, all that remained was to unleash the hounds.
They were the Emperor’s household troops, assigned to him by the Chancellor who no longer existed in this world.
It was not a battlefield overflowing with blood as it had been in the past, but that was fine.
To them, this work too would all be for the people of the Empire.
*
The Fifth Prince, Ishmael. He slowly took a sip of coffee.
“…So. What happened?”
“They had the honor of becoming the Enforcement Bureau’s first target. They apparently flew into a rage, saying this was their family and their territory, and how dare anyone barge in and rummage through it as they pleased. Their private soldiers actually moved as well.”
“The result is obvious.”
Half of the personnel belonging to the Enforcement Bureau were none other than former household troops of the Founding Emperor.
They were quite old now, but they were still the elite of the elite in the Empire.
Men who had, at most, caught a few thieves in their hometowns and stood guard?
They could probably reduce them to nothing in an instant and hang them from trees.
“Isn’t this family connected to His Highness the Fourth Prince? And everyone in the Empire knows His Highness the Fourth Prince has a rough temper. Touching them anyway is truly remarkable.”
“To be honest, I was surprised as well. The political situation has been completely overturned. I thought they would watch His Highness the Fourth Prince’s reaction, but to think they would carry out enforcement immediately.”
At the praise from those around Ishmael, one man stuck out his lower lip.
“Aren’t you all overestimating that fellow too much? No matter how connected that place is to His Highness the Fourth Prince, that’s all it is—a connection. They didn’t actually strike His Highness the Fourth Prince. If anything, he may simply be doing this to make his own name better known.”
The man was the Fifth Prince’s brother-in-law, Loud Mentus.
He was one of those who had accompanied Ishmael and carried out this affair.
If one were to name the foremost contributors, this man would certainly be among them.
“And on top of that, that bastard just had to do well in the east for no reason. Because of that, the achievements of our Fifth Prince, who suffered so much in the west, were diminished. Have you all forgotten?”
“Ahem. We know that, but it isn’t as though we can criticize him for having achieved merit.”
Even afterward, talk of Ethan came up whenever it seemed to be forgotten.
For Loud, that fact was extremely displeasing.
The Fourth Prince, whatever else he might be, was an imperial family member who had carried out the great undertaking with them.
To the Fifth Prince, he was an inconvenient older brother, but in any case, he was on the same side.
In such a situation, what was an attack against him supposed to mean?
“Your Highness.”
After the others withdrew and only the two of them remained, Loud opened his mouth.
“Could it be that His Highness the Crown Prince or His Highness the Third Prince has changed his mind?”
“What do you mean?”
“Isn’t it strange that they would suddenly act this way toward His Highness the Fourth Prince? He even carried out the undertaking alongside Your Highness, and some of his faction have been seated in important offices. Yet in this situation, the Enforcement Bureau goes out of its way to touch that side?”
Was the Second Prince, who had become Crown Prince, trying to bring down his younger brothers one by one?
Or had the Third Prince, even now, awakened to power and begun to move?
“That could be.”
Though he had always been a good second brother to his younger siblings.
Though Ishmael remembered his extremely quiet third brother.
Anyone could change before power. He had experienced that firsthand.
A father and son fell out. Brothers fought and killed one another.
It was difficult to believe that a pure heart could last.
“It might not be, either.”
Even so, they had spent years together. He had watched them for decades.
Above all, to view it as that kind of attack, it was too direct.
Everything was exposed. There was no hiding intent or anything of the sort.
“More importantly, Brother-in-law. What happened to the matter I told you to clean up?”
“Ah, that… Well, it is still being sorted out.”
If shaving off a little here and there from what had to be paid was only natural,
then there was also the matter of reaching out behind the scenes and fattening one’s pockets in all directions.
One could not climb higher by using only honest methods for one’s entire life.
Loud knew that well, too, and had been diligently carrying out matters behind the scenes.
“Until now, we were not in a position to be picky, so there was no problem. But things will be different from now on. Are we not climbing to a high place? Then the faults of the past will be very easy to see from below.”
“…”
“Hurry and shake them off before someone seizes them. If you were to slip because of something like that, how unfair would that be?”
One had to commit cruel deeds and still pretend to be clean without batting an eye.
It was hypocrisy the whole world knew about, but without even that, there was nothing to present to others.
What needed to be shaken off had to be shaken off. If he climbed higher, he would have to drop it.
“Why is there no answer, Brother-in-law?”
“Ah. Yes. I understand, Your Highness.”
To be honest, Loud felt a little. No, very wronged.
Everything the Fifth Prince was talking about had been for the Fifth Prince’s sake.
Did the gifts they had used to launch offensives everywhere simply spring from the ground?
To prepare that money, he had no choice but to enter dark places.
What he had taken for himself was merely the scraps produced in the process.
There was no problem at all with picking up and eating that much!
Other families did it too, knowingly or unknowingly. Tacitly, all of them did.
A clean and upright title earned by refusing to do it held no power whatsoever.
It was better to spend more in that time and buy people.
Just a little more, just a little more. Only until this matter is over. Let me eat only this much more.
Surely he would overlook it up to here. After all I have done for him.
Because I am his brother-in-law. Because he is my sister’s husband. That was what Loud thought.
“…”
Ishmael quietly looked at his brother-in-law.
At times, people made mistakes. Very great mistakes.
They thought that once they grasped power, that power would last forever.
In reality, it was like a mirage that might vanish at any moment.
Above all, if one missed it and let it fall into someone else’s grasp,
he could guarantee that the end would not be very pleasant.