Regressor Of The Fallen Family [EN]: Chapter 257

‘It was all planned. Everything was prepared from the start.’

Zac Juan’s hands shook, not just from fear, but anger. He was angry because he just understood: he was used as bait.

He knew it now, but it was too late to change anything.

Zac shouted, “Get out of my way!”

Nobles cried, “Lord Count! Where are you going?”

Zac yelled back, “I must command the soldiers outside!”

But he lied. He didn’t go to command soldiers.

“Rike!” Zac Juan called out, his voice sharp with panic. “Where’s Rike?”

“Here, Your Excellency!” Rike answered quickly.

“Gather the escort knights!” Zac ordered. “We are escaping!”

Rike stammered, “E-Escaping? Yes, Your Excellency! Right away!”

“I have to live,” he thought wildly. “Damn it, how did this happen to me?” He bit his lip so hard it bled, but he didn’t feel it. All he felt was deep regret, like a heavy weight in his chest.

Zac Juan had always been a noble, but not a very greedy one. He knew there were always stronger nobles, like hungry animals, ready to attack anyone who became too powerful. So, he was always careful.

Being careful had kept him alive through two civil wars. But then, the ‘hungry animals’ were gone. Zac Juan started to feel brave, thinking no one could hurt him anymore.

‘I forgot,’ he thought, his blood running cold. ‘The King ate all those predators himself.’ The King’s strange new rules were just ways to get rid of anyone who didn’t like him.

He couldn’t believe the King wanted to get rid of him just because he was in the King’s way.

‘I’m escaping!’ he thought. ‘To the Small Kingdom Alliance… no, the Empire! I’ll live quietly there.’ Luckily, he had saved some money. The jewels he carried would be enough to buy a good house in a big city in the Empire.

And then…

‘Let’s think after I survive.’

He had no more room to think.

*Tap tap tap* went the horses’ hooves. “Faster! Faster!” Zac Juan urged, trying to calm his racing heart.

Suddenly, a cold voice cut through the air. “Found him. Count Zac Juan.”

Zac Juan’s world spun.

The last thing he saw before darkness took him was a flash of silver, like a streak of wind.

*Thud.* A head landed on the ground. “Here is the head of the traitor, Zac Juan, Your Majesty,” Wicken announced.

“Hmph,” another voice said. “That quick fox always gets there first.”

Wicken ignored the complaining voice of his rival. He looked up at the young King.

“Well done, Duke Wicken,” The King nodded and smiled.

Wicken remembered when the King was just a brave young man who caused trouble. Now, the King was like a super-powerful being, much stronger than Wicken. The young man Wicken thought was just starting out had become the King, ruling the country.

The King had been a hero, ending the civil war. Then, people called him a traitor. Then, he became King again. And now, some called him a tyrant, a cruel ruler.

Now, the King was even starting a war, saying it was to lower taxes and help people. Everything the King did was so strange and unexpected that Wicken could never guess what he would do next. So, Wicken asked, “Your Majesty, is it really true you will lower taxes a lot for everyone?”

“Yes,” the King replied. “Last year was too hard. The people suffered too much.”

*But,* Wicken thought, *this is the same King who took so much tax to build his army! What will he do next?*

“So, you will limit the power of the nobles, and then…?” Wicken started to ask.

“Hey, idiot!” Luther interrupted. “Why are you asking so many questions? Just do what the King says!”

“Be quiet, fool,” Wicken snapped back. “Not everyone is as simple-minded as you.”

Wicken’s eyebrows tightened at Luther’s rude words, but he kept looking at the King.

Actually, since losing the civil war, Wicken had been wondering if he should leave the country. He was supposed to serve the Swordmaster, but the Swordmaster wasn’t always watching him. If Wicken really wanted to run away, he could. No one was fast enough to catch him, except maybe… ‘Oh,’ he thought, a small smile appearing on his face. ‘Except for the King.’ The idea was almost funny.

But Wicken stayed in the country because he didn’t really want anything else. What would he get by going to another country and becoming powerful again? Being super strong meant he could be a powerful noble anywhere, even in the Empire. So, he wasn’t excited about it. People don’t care much about things they can get easily.

So, Wicken wanted something to make him excited again, a new goal. Luckily, the young King seemed to understand what Wicken was thinking.

“Duke Wicken looks curious about what I will do next,” the King said.

“Yes,” Wicken replied. “Please tell me.”

Wicken was thin and looked tired. When he looked into the King’s bright red eyes, he saw his own serious face reflected there. He smiled a little to himself. Then, the King gave an answer Wicken didn’t expect.

“I must protect the people,” the King said clearly.

“Pardon?” Wicken asked, surprised.

“I will protect my family, my people, my country from all dangers, inside and outside,” the King continued. “Everything I do is for that reason.”

“But why…?” Wicken started to ask. Logan understood what Wicken didn’t say: *Weren’t the people of Juan County your people too?*

“It had to be done,” the King said simply.

“You are truly impossible to understand, Your Majesty,” Wicken said.

“?” The King looked confused.

Wicken found it even stranger to see the King look so confused.

This King had been a hero, then a traitor, then finally King again. People called him a tyrant because he took so much tax. And now, he was fighting a war to lower taxes, punishing the nobles under him, and saying he just wanted to protect the country.

If Wicken didn’t see the King’s steady, bright red eyes, he would think the King was crazy. But Wicken knew that some ‘crazy’ people in history became famous for great things.

People said he was crazy, but Wicken knew this king could be great.

If such a person were king, how many more changes would occur during his reign?

“At least it wouldn’t be boring.”

He chuckled, amused by the thought.

“Hee hee…” He felt the embers in his heart, which had been extinguished after the defeat in the civil war, begin to glow once more.

“Haha!”

“Skinny, have you suddenly gone mad…?” Wicken ignored his friend and, with a relieved smile, plunged his beloved sword, Transfixio, into the ground.

The sword, named ‘Pierce’ in the ancient tongue, seemed to represent his feelings as it pierced the inner castle’s stone floor and sank deeply.

“I, Wicken Kalia, pledge my loyalty to the King of McLaine.”

The king’s eyes wavered at the sudden action.

“What nonsense are you spouting, coming all this way?”

The king frowned. His friend’s silly words bothered him, but,

The king’s eyes softened a little. “I accept, Wicken. Welcome. I look forward to it.”

Wicken responded with a bright smile as the young king’s playful voice reached him.

The entire kingdom was abuzz after the battle that ended in a single day, no, a few hours.

“No, just looking at it, the difference in military strength was enormous. Why did those nobles revolt…?”

“I don’t know. They must have had some idea.”

“Have nobles being foolish ever been a once-or-twice thing? They were blinded by greed.”

People who thought they were smart didn’t know the real story. They laughed at the nobles who died, like Jacques Huan, calling them fools.

However, those who knew even a little of the inside story shuddered at the king’s terrifying scheme and kept their mouths shut.

In that atmosphere, Logan convened another Grand Council, summoning all the former nobles.

Logan, with a blank face, began to speak in a calm tone.

“The tax that the royal family collects from the territorial nobles will remain at 60% as before. However, the tax that the lords collect from the people will be limited to a maximum of 40%.”

A tax restriction that was 10% lower than when Jacques Huan had opposed it.

However, despite the shocking declaration, most of the nobles could only close their mouths and lower their heads.

The key figures among the nobles who had risen up, claiming that it undermined the foundations of feudalism, had all had their heads chopped off in Huan Castle.

Anyone who knew the value of their life could not possibly object…

“Your Majesty, the foundation of the kingdom is feudalism. I would like you to reconsider limiting the authority of the lords.”

(Logan thought to himself) ‘Where do these brave but silly people keep coming from?’

Logan, who had been looking around the Grand Council with a nonchalant expression, chuckled.

Payrun Esther, an old noble full of courage but unfortunately lacking in eyesight, took that laughter as a positive sign.

“Implementing policies that shake the foundations for the sake of immediate gain will eventually return as a major problem in the future.”

Of course, Payrun had not stepped forward like this because he was thoughtless.

He knew the king had just spilled a great deal of blood.

Others were afraid, but he thought that if the king spilled blood again at a time like this, no noble would ever speak frankly to the king in the Grand Council again.

That deep-seated king would surely take that into account.

Payrun had stepped forward with that calculation in mind.

There was also a desperate reason of his own.

‘If it’s 50%, fine, but at 40%, our family can’t even maintain the Knights. I’d rather hold out somehow than slowly wither away.’

Payrun was determined to persuade the king, making the most of his experienced old age.

Logan, who had been watching him, now with even his chuckles gone, spoke in a chilling voice.

“So, there are still rebel factions left.”

“……Yes!?”

Payrun finally came to his senses at the king’s chilling words.

But it was already too late.

“Take him away.”

The king gave a terrifying order in a calm tone, and immediately the knights who had been waiting approached and grabbed Payrun’s arms.

“Y-Your Majesty!? I, I was just giving my opinion! Ah, no, I’m sorry! A slip of the tongue, it was a slip of the tongue!”

Payrun quickly tried to correct his words.

He moved his tongue faster than ever in his decades of life as a noble, but,

“It’s noisy. Make him quiet.”

“Your Maj…?”

Thwack!

All that came back was the fist of a loyal knight.

Drag drag drag.

“Hnnn.”

“How could they do this…”

Pained groans erupted here and there, but no one could raise their voice openly.

It was right after the hard-line nobles, including Jacques Huan, had been swept away.

The only ones left were cautious people who did not easily step forward even when they thought the noble faction was advantageous, in other words, cowards, so of course there were no more nobles who opposed Logan’s decision.

The taxes for all territory residents are lowered to 40% or less.

The newly changed tax policy was quickly spread throughout the kingdom.

At first, the people were skeptical. However, after the royal supervisor dispatched to the territory announced it again, and the lord simply lowered his head without saying a word, they had no choice but to realize the changed reality.

Naturally, cheers erupted from all over the kingdom.

“Waaah!”

“Long live His Majesty the King!”

“Long live the McLaine Kingdom!”

The majority of the territory residents, even excluding the nightmarish last year, were used to paying 50% to 60% in taxes. As such, everyone who had cursed Logan and the royal family until last year was now busy praising him.

Moreover, the subsequent policies were also pleasing to the territory residents.

All people are under the protection of the royal family, so even lords are prohibited from arbitrarily mobilizing unpaid labor or engaging in exploitation.

Nobles who extort property from the people by means other than the fixed tax will be severely punished, regardless of their position.

These were just policies to block the lords’ illegal extortion following the tax reduction policy, but this was also enough to be cheered by the people.

As a result, before they knew it, even the nightmarish memories of last year had been glorified.

“He went to extremes to drive out the bad nobles.”

“That’s right, that’s right. He was the one who overthrew the tyrant and became king in the first place, but we were too hasty.”

Smiles began to bloom one by one on the faces of the people of the McLaine Kingdom, who were truly enjoying a livable world.