The Kind Lord Lich

The Kind Lord Lich

The undead generally did not accept the allegiance of the living. To most undead, living people were either food or experimental materials.

Among undead creatures, only oddities like Vampires would fall in love with their food. That was also why Vampires did not get along well with other undead.

It was like how normal people found it hard to accept someone marrying a roast chicken. Usually, it was a case of, "I respect your kink, but please stay away from me."

And mortal lovers of Vampires either became Vampires themselves or were burned at the stake as Vampires.

Interracial love on this continent rarely ended well.

Even true love ended up so miserably, let alone a relationship between superior and subordinate. More often than not, it was either a lich enslaving humans or a necromancer binding a lich by contract.

Amber Xiu had no such intentions. After pioneering the path of Mutated Skeletons, his need for human remains had greatly decreased. Simulated Soul technology had completely replaced uncontrollable human souls, so Amber Xiu did not need to raise humans as lab rats.

What he needed was money.

Mortals normally could not possibly seek refuge with an evil creature like a lich, but Alchemy City was suffering an economic crisis unseen in a century. Large numbers of Freemen were fleeing because their Lords had imposed a Tax Increase, and Amber Xiu intended to take this opportunity to recruit some mortals.

Business was nowhere near as profitable as collecting taxes. Even the poorest Lord in Alchemy City was richer than Amber Xiu.

Behind Amber Xiu's Ancient Castle lay vast stretches of fertile land. Once cultivated, it could easily support three to five thousand people.

This was a one-off deal between the Alchemist Council and Amber Xiu: two magic potion formulas in exchange for permanent ownership of the land and permanent tax exemption. However, it could not be inherited or gifted. If Amber Xiu was ever reduced to ashes by a Paladin and had his Phylactery destroyed, the land would automatically be reclaimed.

Tax exemption alone would save Amber Xiu a huge amount in costs. Other Lords collected eighty percent in taxes, while he could charge only sixty percent.

Rules existed to be broken. Hurting others at a loss felt good for a moment; hurting others at a loss forever felt good forever. Blame the economic crisis—living people were becoming a lich's subjects.

After Amber Xiu's moral interrogation, Raul finally became convinced that he had encountered a wise ruler unseen in ages. Lord Lich only collected sixty percent in taxes. What kind of saint was that?

If this news spread, tens of thousands of Freemen would likely flood into this Lord Lich's territory. Those human Lords would probably form an army to crusade against this merciful Lord Lich.

In Raul's imagination, Amber Xiu sat at the negotiation table and said to those noble Lords in a deep voice, "Humans, please treat your fellow kind well."

Because of this mercy, Raul became even more certain that he had misunderstood Amber Xiu. Filled with remorse and a desire to atone, Raul prepared to do everything he could to help Amber Xiu recruit other fleeing Freemen.

Only Isabelle felt that something was off. The siblings seemed to have completely fallen into a trap designed by this lich.

But that did not seem quite right either. The siblings entering this lich's territory had merely been an accident. No matter how formidable the lich was, he would not use Divination on two insignificant mortals.

Isabelle had never imagined that a lich could lack money, because he could clearly just go rob someone.

It was not strange for a lich to rob human Lords of money and people. There had once been a lich who hated humans and cast an enhanced Poison Cloud Technique, causing millions to die after contracting a plague.

It would have been stranger if an evil creature did not attack humans.

That was precisely why Isabelle found it strange no matter how she thought about it. She felt that Amber Xiu must be concealing something, but that was not a question a mere alchemy apprentice could solve.

About another day later, Raul returned, this time bringing back ten living people.

When they saw Amber Xiu, their legs went weak with fear, and several immediately turned around and ran.

Fortunately, Raul controlled the Mutated Skeletons to stop them. Some cursed Raul for being a human traitor serving a lich, while others wept and begged for mercy, claiming they had eighty-year-old mothers above them and eight-year-old children below.

This was when Amber Xiu's foresight showed itself. Once they were given Tranquility Potion, the screams that rivaled Ghouls singing opera quickly vanished.

Calm was the prerequisite for communication. Only then did Raul drop the bombshell of Amber Xiu's sixty-percent tax rate. As expected, it tempted them all.

Only sixty percent in taxes? Was this Lord Lich an angel in disguise?

Even before the Tax Increase, they had already needed to hand over eighty percent. Now it had been raised outrageously to ninety percent, and they were even being made to pay two years of taxes in advance.

That was why they could no longer endure it and chose to flee.

But while people could run, their homes could not. The property these fleeing Freemen left behind in their territories would certainly be confiscated in full by their Lords.

Between selling themselves into slavery and losing their property, or simply losing their property, most of them had no real choice.

And once they lost everything, even Freemen with useful skills could easily starve to death. This Tax Increase was not the reckless act of a single Lord—all vassals of the Alchemist Council had been affected. They did not even know where they could flee to.

Now, they seemed to have another choice.

Seeking refuge with a lich—before this, even considering it for half a second would have been disrespectful to their own race. But now that they could barely keep their lives, to hell with race. Following Lord Lich meant there would be meat to eat.

After receiving Amber Xiu's guarantee and inspecting the surroundings of the Ancient Castle, these fleeing Freemen all decided to pledge themselves to Amber Xiu and become his subjects.

Amber Xiu knew that more than half his plan had succeeded. These dozen or so people would soon help establish his image as a benevolent Lord Lich and attract more Freemen to join him.

Amber Xiu appointed Isabelle as Head Maid and arranged for these people to stay in the Ancient Castle for the time being.

Amber Xiu, meanwhile, had no choice but to temporarily set aside his undead experiments and head to Alchemy City itself to make purchases. The Freemen could not all live in Amber Xiu's castle. They needed places to build new homes, cultivate fields, and raise livestock.

But as refugees, they had brought at most a small dagger and a little loose change. They could not exactly carry houses with them while fleeing, so they had nothing. Amber Xiu needed to prepare everything for them.

Of course, it would not be free. It would be rented.

Tools, seeds, livestock—there were established practices for leasing all of them, and the rent depended entirely on the Lord's mood. Benevolent Lords lowered the interest to attract new Freemen, while cruel Lords raised it to the limit, preferably driving tenant farmers to sell their sons and daughters and turn from Freemen into slaves.

There was no saying who was right or wrong in these practices. Benevolent Lords had been slaughtered along with their entire families by their subjects, while cruel Lords did not necessarily fail to die peacefully of old age.

This was a world where whoever had the bigger fist had the greater claim to reason.

Amber Xiu had too many things to buy, and the unit prices were not high. Using teleportation delivery would waste far too much on shipping, so it was more cost-effective to order in person and spend some time hiring a carriage to bring everything back.

However, he needed to change his appearance before going to Alchemy City. Otherwise, it would cause unnecessary trouble.

Amber Xiu stood before a huge mirror and cast a Transformation Spell on himself.

Amber Xiu changed from a terrifying skeleton into a handsome young man with black hair and black eyes.

It was exactly what he had looked like before he crossed over.

(End of Chapter)