Howard's face became slightly gloomy, but he did not immediately express the questions in his heart.
"Mrs. Federman, let me in first!" he said.
Mrs. Federman nodded and stepped aside. Howard then led the pale boy Julian into the room with his waist bent.
This room is really small and depressing. Broken furniture and various sundries are stacked on top of each other like building blocks, occupying almost every inch of space in the room.
When Howard was a child, he used to climb up and down here and hide and seek with his companions. It was a carefree experience.
But now, it is difficult for him to find a place to stay here.
He closed the door and asked Mrs. Federman:
"If I remember correctly, church taxes have always been collected through the royal government's tax system. How could the Light Church itself send people to the town to collect taxes?"
Mrs. Federman asked back: "Howard, when you came here, did you pay attention to the notice posted on the roadside?"
Howard shook his head: "It's too dark to see clearly."
"That is a new notice jointly issued by the royal government and the church," Mrs. Federman sighed and said, "it says that from now on, the church tax will be separated from the kingdom's tax system and will be levied by the Church of Light on its own.
"
"Why?" Howard frowned slightly.
"Those are all decisions made by adults. How can I, a textile worker, understand that?" Mrs. Federman spread her hands helplessly, "If you ask me, who should I ask?"
Howard stopped talking.
He narrowed his eyes slightly and began to think about why the kingdom made such a decision.
After all, according to common sense, integrating the church tax and the kingdom's tax system into one, as before, is the most efficient measure.
Collecting church tax alone will obviously waste a lot of manpower and material resources, and it is also more likely to cause errors and omissions.
Just when Howard was deeply confused by this, he inadvertently remembered a few words that Allen mentioned before:
"Her Majesty the Queen initially did not agree with Archbishop Arcelga's proposal to increase church taxes, because it would inevitably arouse the resentment of the nouveau riche and common people against the Kingdom's officialdom."
"Her Majesty the Queen is recently trying to reduce the influence of the Church of Light in the Kingdom of Braden. She wants to establish unique authority for herself."
"..."
So... the reason why Her Majesty the Queen made such a decision is that she hopes to transfer the direct pressure from taxpayers, as well as all the contradictions involved, directly to the Light Church itself?
Howard was thoughtful.
"Alan is right," he thought to himself, "the current situation is much more complicated than I thought."
Then he turned his head and asked Mrs. Federman: "But... the tax levied by the Church of Light is 15% of a person's financial income. Julian is only five years old and has no financial income, how can he be involved?
What about him?"
"Is that so?" Mrs. Federman said in surprise, "That's really what the law says?"
"That's right." Howard nodded.
"Then I'm not sure," Mrs. Federman scratched her head, "Anyway, last time, the knights of the Church of Light collected a tax from every person they saw, whether it was an old man or a child.
They haven't let them go. Alas, they are important people serving the goddess, how can we dare to question them?"
"Really?" Howard was a little unconvinced, "Can they really do such a thing?"
"It's absolutely true," Mrs. Federman said with certainty. "They came and left in a hurry on horseback. They shouted all the way and seemed to be in a hurry. When they saw us, they would only hurry.
We pay taxes, but other than that we don't say a word.
"As for whether we have any financial income, they won't ask at all."
Howard stopped talking.
Through Mrs. Federman's words, Howard quickly figured out what was going on.
Unlike the Royal Government, the Church of Light does not have sufficient financial, material and specialized personnel to collect taxes nationwide.
In order to deal with this problem, Archbishop Yaconelga had to send the Knights of the Church of Light to collect taxes across the country instead of government workers.
Obviously, the Knights of the Church of Light have no experience in this matter, coupled with the lack of manpower, it is impossible to personally investigate the population and income of each family, which leads them to adopt this kind of "taxation on sight"
"The simple and crude way of doing things.
And the extra money levied may very well end up in the pockets of those knights themselves.
Unknowingly, a sentence Allen once said echoed in Howard's mind again:
"Every seemingly simple government order has a heavy price behind it."
Looking at Mrs. Federman's haggard face, Howard sighed silently.
The so-called "change in the way of collecting church tax" seems to be just a power game between the Queen and the Archbishop, but behind this invisible war, ordinary people are silently becoming innocent victims.
Especially the Federmans, who gave birth to eight children and had to pay the taxes of ten people in total. This was obviously a devastating blow to their family.
No wonder they wanted to send away five-year-old Julian quietly.
"Howard, do you think I'm really willing to let Julian leave my side?" It seemed that Howard's question just now stimulated her emotions. Mrs. Federman suddenly couldn't help but burst into tears again, and said with a tearful voice,
"I raised him with one meal at a time... I sewed clothes for him, washed his diapers for him... In this way, even if I raise a dog, he should have feelings... What's more, he is still my biological son...
…”
Howard reached out and patted her back gently.
Julian raised his head and looked at his mother with blank eyes, while holding tightly on the hem of Howard's clothes with both hands, as if doing so could bring him a sense of security.
"Mrs. Federman, you don't need to send your son away," Howard said softly, "Don't worry, just leave this matter to me and I will take care of it."
"You...can you?" Mrs. Federman looked at him with doubtful eyes, "Don't be brave! If you offend the knights of the Church of Light, how will I explain to your mother?"
"Don't worry. Although I'm not very powerful now, I'm at least a magician. I can barely squeeze into the upper class." A relaxed smile appeared on Howard's face. "I think... if I go to talk to them, they
It should give me some face."
Hearing the words "magician" and "high society," Mrs. Federman finally burst into laughter, as if she had finally found confidence.
"Look, our Howard has finally made his mark," she said sincerely, "Oh, I really envy your mother... If my Julian can be half as good as yours in the future, I will be satisfied."
"Actually, there are people in the Mage Tower who are much better than me..." Howard smiled sheepishly after hearing Mrs. Federman's compliment.
Afterwards, Howard said "goodbye" to Mrs. Federman, opened the door, turned and stepped into the deep night.
"What would Alan do if he were here?" he thought to himself.
At this time, the confident smile could no longer be seen on Howard's face.
He had to admit that he actually had no confidence at all.