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From now on they won’t get a single copper?

“It’s what I came up with in recent days and it will certainly keep these warlords from poking around in our pockets! But….. Such an approach might thoroughly infuriate the Northwestern army. Our present strength is not enough, and if we have a falling out with them……” Philip hesitated in his next words: “I suddenly came down with this idea when I saw how you demonstrated your great magical powers….. This idea can work around the damn provisional decree!” The young man’s eye gleamed with light as he chuckled: “However, this idea of mine is only a legal loophole.”

Legal loophole?

Du Wei’s eyes sparkled with admiration because he liked the style!

“My Lord, did you forget your other identity? You are a mage!”

Phillip’s lip curled into a sly smile.

Du Wei was slightly stunned because he suddenly recalled a decree that held no importance to him!

Roland Empire, the preferential treatment clause for mages!

Due to the enormous powers wielded by a magician and their limited numbers, these individuals would always receive the best treatment and respect no matter where they went.

To showcase this point, the Empire even set up a preferential clause in the empire’s law!

It was mentioned before, a great emperor of old privately said: Other than the emperor himself, none is above the law; the only exception is a magician!

Among the special treatments granted to a magician, the first one is that they are not legally bound by ordinary laws! Even when a mage performs a horrendous act, only the magic union can punish these people.

For example: the occasion where Du Wei was abducted by Gandalf. The military and magic union had a lot of word battles, but eventually, the issue was tossed aside and forgotten.

In addition, another special treatment is the exception of taxes!

The Empire’s law expressly stated: all subjects of the Empire are to pay taxes; this is a citizen’s duty! For someone like Du Wei that is familiar with the law book, he is surprised to find that even the noble class is forced to pay taxes. Regarding this strange occurrence, Du Wei felt a hint of civilized culture.

While the only exceptions are the Mages! The law code expressly points out that magicians are the empire’s most valuable asset and has the privilege to not pay tax. No person shall impose tax on a magician; this includes the army and government!

Being a noble and someone that only recently became a magician, Du Wei’s brain had almost forgotten this rule existed. If not for Philip’s reminder just now, he may never have remembered it.

“The regretful part is your honor, you cannot enjoy this clause.” Philip smiled with pity: “You may be a magician, but you are a nobleman first with the title of a Duke! The law expressly states that your Duke status takes precedence. That is to say, you are a noble lord first before a magician, meaning you still have to pay taxes. That’s why even though Desa Province is your territory; you would still have to yield under that damn provisional decree.”

Du Wei began to laugh: “Continue to speak your mind Philip.”

“My Lord.” Phillips laughs in return: “Besides you, there are also other mages around us like Miss Vivian and Solskjaer, they are both qualified mages!”

“You mean……”

Phillips immediately explained his approach in detail: “My lord, looking at it from the view of the imperial law, the Desa Province as a whole is your private property. This point is protected under the empire’s law, but because of your noble status, you cannot enjoy the benefits of a magician. In fact, if you look through history itself, there has never been a noble lord with a double identity of a magician, you are the only special case. My approach to this is: If you trust Miss Vivian and Solskjaer, I can draw up a document declaring the transfer of some agricultural properties to the two. Of course, this transfer is a gift with no strings attached. This way around, the future revenue from these lands will no longer be taxed. When the Northwestern Army comes around to ask for money, you can just say they are owned by magicians and the revenue you received is minuscule.”

This really is an excellent solution!

Du Wei’s mind was immediately swayed by this loophole.

Towards Vivian and Solskjaer, he would of course trust them, this is especially true towards little Vivian…… Inwardly, Du Wei already considers Vivian his!

My personal inclination leans toward Miss Vivian.” Phillip’s laugh was a little odd because everyone already knew of Du Wei’s love affair with the little lady. Nevertheless, Philip still presented a point that can draw attention: “My idea is not flawless because once the property is transferred; the land then belongs to the beneficiary. If by then someone wants to go against you and send someone for assasination….. In other words, if the person holding the property dies and there are no heirs to succeed the property, then the land would naturally revert back to the empire. Miss Vivian is an eighth rank magician; I believe no one would be crazy enough to go after her head….. My lord, once you marry the lady, then the property can then be transferred back to your name in the future.”

The last sentence caused Du Wei to unintentionally leak out a small smile.

Marriage…… Hmm, the matter still needs to wait, after all, their age is still too young at the moment.

However, the little lass seems to growing up a lot lately, especially in the middle……..

Pressing down his dirty thoughts, Du Wei quickly made a coughing sound to get back on track: “This method may be an exploit on a loophole, but it’s too obvious. Those guys over at the Northwestern Army aren’t idiots. Even though they can’t nominally fault us for doing it, but this is akin to showing them our real intent.”

Philip slightly bowed: “My Lord, I am your aide, so I can only offer advice. In the end, the final decision still falls on you.”

Taking in a deep breath, Du Wei stood up and walked back and forth in the room. Only by making up his mind did he shake his head: “The idea is good but we simply don’t have the strength to have a falling out with the Northwestern Army. However, once we our foot is firmly rooted in this place, it won’t be too late to use this method.”

Du Wei then smiled bitterly: “Until we can stand up to the Northwestern Army, we must drag it out as long as possible when they come for money. If we can’t, then just pay them.” Speaking up to here, Du Wei couldn’t stop himself from swearing: “Fuck it, just consider it protection money.”

His words may sound pretty, but Du Wei understands full well how firmly rooted the Northwestern Army is.

Not going to cover it up with pretty words, but did that General Totoro really come here today to ask for money? For a vast army like the Northwestern Corp, their wealth should be vastly superior to Du Wei’s Desa Province, so why would they care about a single term’s revenue? If he had to guess their true intent, these people are here today to test Du Wei’s attitude!

If Du Wei acted submissively, then everything is good. If Du Wei’s was acting tough and refuses to cooperate, then what awaits Du Wei is the vengeance from the Northwestern Army! Don’t forget, both of the previous lords put up a strong front and suffered miserably at the hands of these warlords!

Right now he still doesn’t have the asset to put up a challenge. In the short term, the best way to go about it is to play a fool and bide for time.

Understanding this principle, Du Wei soon came up with an idea. Penning a thank you letter, he had someone rushed it to the Northwestern Army’s camp stationed at the border of the Nuling Province.

The letter was addressed to the head of the Army, General Rugaard. Using the tone of noblemen, he wrote some humble greeting words to start it off before saying a newcomer like him still needed the Northwestern Army’s helping hand if he wished to stay here. Aside from this, Du Wei also deliberately presented a request in the letter: he hoped the Northwestern Army would help him pressure Governor Bohan in returning the stolen funds. Du Wei clearly stated he is not lacking money and that he only wanted to defend his dignity. Finally, the last part stated that if the Northwestern Army would help him, he would be willing to donate it all as a tribute to the troops stationed at the border.

Using this letter, Du Wei tried his best to portray himself as a clueless and rash lord. He doesn’t expect a single letter is enough to blind the bosses in the Northwestern Army, but if it can deflect their focus away from him or a good while then his goal is achieved.

Once the letter was sent out, not a single news came back for a long time like it was completely ignored. As for that army head General Rugaard, he seems to have no interest in Du Wei. Although it is not unusual for the main head of a battle corp to distance themselves from the local officials, the fact that he never even met Du Wei has left many to speculate what was going on.

Can it be that he looked down on Du Wei and is intentionally putting on airs? Doesn’t seem to be it……

The winter season of the year 960 of the Roland Empire is finally here. The Northwest’s winter is much colder than the south, but after stockpiling enough food for winter, the cold no longer seemed so terrifying.

And within several months, Longbottom used his old connections to purchase large amounts of cattle and winter wears from the local native prairie tribes. Like this, every soldier is able to stay warm in the winter this year.

Construction of the new capital city is mostly complete with many of the urban areas fully operational. Unlike before, there are always tens of thousands of citizens staying here and to achieve all this, Du Wei already expended 6 million gold coins. Even if there is a continuous flow of income from his business in the capital, Du Wei is starting to feel a bit of financial pressure.

After all, Desa Province still doesn’t look like it can be self-sufficient in its current state. For now, he can only use his own private fund to do all this, but this is not a long term solution.

How to make money in this barren Province is the main problem Du Wei needs to solve. When it came to business, Du Wei would never invest in something that only takes without giving back!

Just as the New Year was about to arrive, a surprise guest came to visit.

Lister Household’s warrior, Dadaneier led a massive cargo fleet with him and came to Anglia City.

To be able to reunite with this friend of his, Du Wei would of course happy. Running out to meet him, the two gave each other a warm greeting hug.

“God, Dadaneier, you finally came!” Du Wei laughed as he looked at this old friend: “I thought you forgotten about me!”