I, who was eager to retire, became an Imperial General.

Chapter 41 You're the one who's in charge!

John, seeing the lukewarm water on the table, didn't mind. He picked up his teacup, took a sip, then gestured for Ernest to sit down. He then smiled and began chatting with Ernest.
"By the way, Chief Ernest, I just saw quite a few villagers who seemed to be injured. What happened? Would you mind telling me about it?"

"Ah, it's nothing. We just got into a fight while fighting for water. These things happen all the time, sir. You don't need to worry about it."

Ernest chuckled dryly as he spoke.

Although he is an old man, he was not stupid at all, having traveled all over the country in his youth.

The war is not over yet, and who knows if the Allied forces will attack again.

If he were to reveal the Allied forces' information to the Empire at this time, and the Allied forces were to reclaim Walden Territory, wouldn't he be accused of colluding with the Empire?

At that time, not only him, but all 86 people in Shidong Village, plus the village dogs, will not survive.

The wisdom that time has bestowed upon him has made him deeply aware that he cannot blindly take sides, or he might be beheaded.

Therefore, when John asked about it, Ernest made up his mind that no matter what John asked, he had to insist that it was caused by the villagers fighting amongst themselves.

How could people from an entire village fight like this over water?
What you're saying really isn't very convincing.

John realized that Ernest didn't seem to be telling him the truth, but seeing Ernest's nervous demeanor, he knew that if he pressed him for answers, he would probably only frighten Ernest more and get little useful information out of him.

Therefore, he didn't ask any more questions, but instead feigned a pained expression and sighed:

"Sigh, we're all from the same village, why fight like this over a little water? What if someone gets killed? How about this, after we finish investigating the other villages, I'll send a few engineers to drill a new well for Shidong Village. Then the villagers won't fight over water anymore!"

"Thank you for your kindness, sir!"

"No need to be so polite. This is what I should do. After all, I was specially appointed by the imperial high command to govern Longyan Territory. If I don't do this well, I will be punished later. Even for the sake of merit, I have to do a good job, right?"

John waved his hand, then, under Ernest's thoughtful gaze, asked:

“Speaking of which, Mayor Ernest, would you mind telling me about your village’s tax situation? I’m a little curious about the kingdom’s policies.”

"Furthermore, only by understanding the kingdom's policies can we make better improvements so that everyone can live a happier life!"

Taxes?

This kind of thing is easy to find out by asking around. Talking about this shouldn't be considered having an affair with the empire, right?

After Ernest considered the matter in his mind and felt that there should be no problem, he did not pretend to be stupid. Instead, he carefully explained to John the types of taxes that Stone Village had previously had to pay to the local nobles.

Besides the mandatory land tax and seed tax, which make up the bulk of the tax burden, there are also fishery tax, logging tax, and various other small taxes that the villagers of Shidong Village have to pay during festivals. In total, there are eleven different taxes.

As John listened to Ernest's description of the types and contents of taxes, his expression remained unchanged, but his scalp began to tingle involuntarily.

Through his calculations, he gradually discovered a truth that terrified him.

That is, if we calculate based on each household having three members, then under the burden of these eleven heavy taxes issued by the kingdom...

And this does not include production reductions caused by natural disasters, assuming that no one in the family gets sick.

After paying these eleven taxes, the remaining food rations were barely enough to keep the villagers of Shidong Village from starving to death.

In the event of natural disasters or man-made calamities, the villagers would have no choice but to mortgage their children to nobles as servants in order to obtain loans to make a living.

However, according to Ernest's description, although the debt was issued by local nobles, the interest rate was usurious, with nine out of ten times the interest being returned.

Furthermore, if the debt is not repaid within the specified time, the children they used as collateral will be forcibly branded as slaves, becoming beings that can be killed at will by nobles.

Even before asking, I knew that in this game world, which was based on the medieval setting of my previous life, the nobles would be unprecedentedly cruel in their exploitation of the common people.

But after truly learning about the realities of ordinary people's lives from Ernest, John fell silent.

Especially after hearing Ernest proudly say, "Our Stone Village is alright, unlike other villages where people have starved to death," his emotions became even more complicated.

But he didn't refute it, he just smiled and agreed with Ernest: "Yes, Stone Village is great, and it will get even better in the future."

At that moment, John suddenly felt that the Allied forces he had always longed to join were no longer so attractive to him.

However, with the Allied forces' rapidly developing magical technology and the various military equipment secretly developed by different countries, the empire, which only focuses on individual soldier training and has a large number of corrupt nobles within its ranks, is in a different situation.

After Dormammu, the last pillar of the Empire, fell, he was destined to meet his doom.

This is an inevitable result of development policies and the country's internal structure.

If he were the emperor of the empire, or if he had royal blood, then he could legitimately propose reforms to put the empire on the right track.

Unfortunately, he was just a lowly warrant officer.

No matter how many military achievements he made, in the eyes of the empire's nobles, he was nothing more than a lucky peasant.

They are not qualified to sit in the God's cabinet at all, let alone participate in the reform of national policies.

Unless, of course, he encounters a powerful nobleman who strongly supports his reforms.

But John knew very well that this was impossible.

After all, there are only individuals who betray their class, not classes that betray their class.

To expect someone of noble birth to take the lead in betraying the class to which the nobles belong is nothing short of delusion.

Thinking of this, John suddenly lost interest in continuing his conversation with Ernest.

He felt like having a smoke.

However, at that moment, the sound of hurried footsteps outside the courtyard caught his attention.

Immediately afterwards, a voice that sounded somewhat familiar to John entered his ears:

"Grandpa, Grandpa, look what I got! It's canned food, and it's even canned meat!"

"I just said a few nice things you taught me to those Imperial dogs, praised their loyalty, and they happily rewarded me with a can of food, unopened, haha..."

At the gate of the courtyard, Mike, holding two cans of food, ran in excitedly, eager to share the good news with his grandfather as soon as possible.

However, when his gaze fell upon the figure sitting with his grandfather Ernest, the smile on his face instantly froze, and then countless beads of cold sweat began to slide down his forehead.

"!"

At this moment, Ernest also snapped out of his daze, and his old face instantly became incredibly interesting.

Looking at Hao Dasun, who was holding a can of food and standing frozen at the door like a statue, I saw him.

He wanted nothing more than to cut that idiot's tongue off right then and there.

Don't fucking call me grandpa, you're the grandpa!

You little brat, you must have been born just to harm our Shidong Village!
It's over, it's all over now!
Ernest was covered in cold sweat, and just as he was trembling and about to kneel down to apologize to John for his foolish remarks,

John, who was sitting in the chair, suddenly laughed, and then, to Ernest's astonishment, spoke:

"Well said, but remember, you can't do that in front of people next time. After all, being alive is the most important thing. If you lose your life, nothing else matters, right?"

John slowly stood up, then went to Mike, whose face was filled with panic, and patted the hedgehog-like head.

Then, without doing anything else, he quickly walked out of the village under the questioning gazes of the grandfather and grandson.

……

(End of this chapter)