Chapter 176 - Make Him Pay Too
"Erm… How much do I have to compensate, your Highness?" Porter asked nervously, not budging from his kneeling position.
His punishment should be lighter, right? Apart from being tricked by Vigo to join hands to seize and manage the prince's property, he had not done anything else that was untoward the prince.
"Ah…" Leon glanced Porter for a few breaths, asking, "How much do you think is appropriate for compensation?"
"This… Are you asking me, your Highness?" Porter asked with doubt and surprise. Was the prince really letting him decide the price?
Leon nodded.
Receiving the confirmation, Porter was immediately at a loss. It was a good thing, but he didn't know how he should answer. If he set a low price, the prince might become unhappy, but if he set too high, he would just be incurring additional losses.
Vigo's offense seemed quite heavy, but the prince only demanded 50% from Vigo then…
"How about… 20% of the Fischer Merchant Association's profits annually for ten years, your Highness?" Porter suggested carefully, testing the waters.
However, the prince's frown immediately caused him to panic. Was 20% too low!? Maybe it was! The kingdom imposes a 10% tax of all profits on foreign merchant-operated businesses, but since the event 17 years ago, they had not paid a single tax thereafter.
Its not that he didn't want to pay but the financial minister and the whole department were slaughtered by the Queen. There was no one to come collect the tax and no one to pay the tax to!
With no one managing the kingdom, it wasn't strange for the Capital experience an economic collapse.
If he included the tax debt in his repayment, the actual compensation amount to the prince wasn't actually much at all.
"Hahaha… I was joking, your Highness… I meant 30%... How does that sound?" Porter quickly added.
Leon frown deepened.
"40%! I won't go any higher than that, your Highness!" Porter stated firmly.
He almost sounded like a customer striking a bargain, except he wasn't buying anything but would still be losing money. A lot of money.
"Alright. Let's go with 40%. You have been kneeling for some time. You may rise now." Leon agreed with a peculiar smile after snapping out of his train of thoughts.
While Porter was thinking his initial prices were too little, Leon thought it was too much.
Leon already secured a 50% annual income from the Primrose. Althought it was a lot of money, the money doesn't flow into his coffers immediately. He was actually thinking an immediate payment of 200,000,000 Craws or so from Porter would suffice.
However, since Porter misunderstood his expression and offered such a high price, Leon would naturally not say no to extra money.
"Thank you, your Highness."
Porter heaved a sigh of relief after receiving the prince's agreement on the compensation amount. His stomach would have churned with regret if he knew the prince's true thoughts.
Moving on, it appeared that his sharpness had lost its edge in these past years of comfort in the Upper District; to make such a rookie mistake and be blinded by profit.
He should have noticed something was wrong when Oliver Lucretius rejected the cooperation. It was clear to him that Oliver Lucretius knew the prince prior and wanted their Primrose and Fischer merchant associations to ruin themselves.
"Your Highness, how will you deal with Sir Oliver Lucretius?" Porter raised his question. He couldn't stand Oliver's smug look on the side.
Oliver's expression froze. What was this person trying to do?
"Oh? Elaborate." Leon showed an intrigued expression.
"Despite knowing you were the owner of the prime location, he didn't stop us and allowed us to seize your property knowingly. Shouldn't he compensate your Highness in some way for his inaction?"
"You do have a point." Leon nodded, before asking, "What do you think, President Oliver?"
"Haiz… I admit, there was some selfish intentions in keeping my silence. Well... I wonder if your Highness will be satisfied with a single 200,000,000 Craws payment?" Oliver Lucretius sighed and cut straight to the point.
"En." Leon nodded.
Receiving Leon's answer, Oliver heaved another sigh. A single payment of 200,000,000 Craws was an insignificant compared to a recurring payment of 40% of the association's profits for ten years. Oliver considered it was a small price to pay for antagonizing his opponents.
"Hahaha, since that is the case. My Cromwell family isn't free from liability either, isn't that right, boy?" Dwight laughed, before shamelessly adding, "Gift the 7-Petal Frigid Agapanthus to the prince."
Watching the servants of the Cromwell family packing up the spirit herb for the prince, Vigo's face immediately went black. The spirit herb was still his. It will only belong to the Cromwell family if they accept his marriage proposal for his son.
At the same time, Vigo thought; others might not have known Leon's identity, but there was no way the Cromwell family didn't know either!
This was a premeditated scheme! The prince and the Cromwell family were in cahoots!
"Father, does this mean Lynne is my fiancée now?" Dade whispered.
"Shh! Don't be stupid. That shameless old thing didn't accept the marriage proposal, but still took our spirit herb. Even if he did, do you dare compete with the prince for his woman?" Vigo reprimanded in a hushed tone.
"Do you have something to say, Sir Vigo?" Dwight asked.
"No… I do not, Lord Dwight." Vigo said with a forced smile.
Right now, he just wants to get away from the prince and Cromwell family as soon as possible. These people were a pack of wolves.
Contrary to how others thought, Leon had not been unhappy that the Primrose Merchant Association had been keeping the spirit herb. That was an incorrect outlook.
He had scoured Extreme Misty Forest for seven days and knew the difficulty of finding one.
Unexpectedly, he went searching afar, only to find it within arm's reach. It should be said that Vigo had done him a great favor by finding it.
Thus, he was quite lenient and didn't directly expel the Primrose family from the kingdom.
"Well then, I will thank you for the gift and take my leave first. I wish to refine this spirit herb as soon as possible. Happy Birthday, Old man."
While he thought he was lenient, if other caughts news of it, they would have thought otherwise. 50% of a giant merchant association's profits was not a small amount of money.
"Hahaha… it's fine. Go."
Dwight didn't mind that Leon didn't stay for long and sent him off with a simple gesture.
Leon headed straight back to his courtyard for pill refining. The sooner his father awakens, the sooner he might find some answers and leave the kingdom affairs to his father.
…
Meanwhile, in the Wildlands, there was a situation taking place.
In the closest tribe to the Great Wall, the Skysilver Tribe, the beasts have begun growing restless and infighting has been growing.
"My king, the low-rank beasts have begun fighting among themselves in the tribe again." A beastkin with bear traits, reported in a subservient position.
Skysilver laid on his hill, unaffected by the news. He occupied the highest hill and overlooked the entire tribe. Fights were frequent among their race and throughout the tribe. Thus, he doesn't pay too much attention to the beast fighting.
As long as the beast don't kill each other in his tribe, they can fight as much as they want. Fights and competition on fellow beasts were what makes them stronger.
"Hm? You know such things are common among our beast race. There's no need to report such things to me." Skysilver replied lazily.
"Yes, I feel this one is worth paying attention to, my king. It was a fight between a fire-tailed tiger and a snow rabbit."
"What's there to pay attention to a fire-tailed tiger bullying a snow rabbit?" Skysilver had a trace of annoyance in his tone.
"My king, it wasn't the fire-tailed tiger bullying the snow rabbit. It was the snow rabbit bullying the fire-tailed tiger. Not only that, the snow rabbit displayed strength beyond the norm and proceeded to attack all other beasts in a frenzied manner without differentiating between friend and foe."
"Oh?" Skysilver finally frowned at the explanation of the bearkin. "Among the myriad beast races, the snow rabbits are one of the most timid and docile beasts. What could have caused it to become berserk? Go investigate the cause."
"Yes, my king." The bearkin obliged.
…
Great Wall.
Bam!
A sudden loud bang alarmed the garrisons.
"What was that?"
"I think we are being attacked!"
Bam!
The loud bang sounded again. The garrisons tried peering into the darkness of the night but could not see anything. A fire torch was tossed down the wall, illuminating a single bull-type beast ramming into the walls.
"It's a beast attack! Sound the alarms!"
"Dammit, I knew we couldn't trust the beasts!"
"Wait!" Another soldier stopped the others. "There's something strange about this beast. There's only one."
"Hmm? Now that you mention it, it's true."
Moooo! The bull-type beast bellowed and kicked up a dust for another charge.
Bam!
The repeated rams broke its horns and cracked its skull with blood beginning to gush out. However, the bull-type beasts seemed possessed and hell-bent on ramming into the wall as if it was trying to take down the wall, even at the cost of its life.
The soldiers on the wall were all confused by the behavior of the beast.
"What the hell is wrong with it? It is killing itself."
Bam! The frenzied beast continues to ram into the wall for a while, before…
Flop!
The bull-type beast dropped dead at the bottom of the wall.
"It's dead…"
"What should we do? This matter is so bizarre…"
The strangeness of the event left the soldiers perplexed. They weren't sure if the beast was crazy or it was a sacrificial move to ambush them when their head down to investigate.
"Inform the general.. He will know what to do."