After the residents of Iya Town had their hometown occupied by troops from the Empire of Fars, they quickly learned what it meant to be burdened by countless taxes.
Naiman, the administrative officer, was a relatively conscientious official. He had originally intended to play along and scrape together a sum of money to persuade these people to leave. At the same time, he had not forgotten to send messages to nearby cities, hoping they would dispatch troops to drive off these "invaders."
But he had not expected that, after entering Iya Town, this Farsian Knight Order would seize batches of able-bodied young men and declare that they would be taken back to the Empire of Fars.
Naiman could only brace himself and try to persuade them otherwise. To his surprise, the Knight Order's commander was quite reasonable, saying that the young men could be redeemed with a poll tax.
And the tax was not high—just one drachma per person.
The Black Phoenix Dynasty's drachma differed from the currencies of Fars, Byron, and Inglima. Its base currency made no distinction between gold and silver; all coins were alloyed from both metals, with denominations determined by their proportions.
Roughly 3.2 drachmas equaled one flor.
The Black Phoenix Dynasty also had paper currency, with denominations and purchasing power equivalent to its gold-and-silver coins. However, Charlotte stated that he did not want banknotes, only gold-and-silver drachmas.
Naturally, the residents of Iya Town refused to let the Farsians take away their sons, fathers, brothers, and husbands. They eagerly paid the taxes and redeemed those able-bodied men.
After collecting the first tax payment, Charlotte began rounding up children throughout the city. Naiman had dealt with him once before and knew that Charlotte was not truly "cruel," so he came again to plead for the poor children.