Charlotte very much wanted to go to Strasbourg to see Anne, but Duke Mecklen's Territory had mountains of administrative affairs. It took him a full month of nonstop work just to barely sort out all the large and small matters throughout the territory.
He had never felt it before. After all, the cities he had ruled in the past were either under temporary administration, in a state of war, or completely empty save for a group of Labyrinth Guardians. There had never been this much bullshit.
After becoming Duke Charlotte Mecklen, he had only spent a few days in his territory. At the time, everything was waiting to be rebuilt, and the cities had all ground to a halt because of the war.
If Yannis Hadrian were still alive, he would surely have said, "My Black Phoenix has already been destroyed. What the fuck is there left to say?"
After clearing out every gang in Duke Mecklen's Territory, public order visibly improved, and commerce immediately became more active. Duke Mecklen's Territory recovered its vitality even faster than Charlotte had expected, even creating a siphoning effect on the free territories of the New Continent Council.
In this world and era, society was still relatively primitive and feudal. A state's functions were completely different from those of a modern nation. Taxes were mainly used to sustain the extravagant expenditures of the royal family and nobility, with a portion spent on maintaining military forces to suppress opposition. There was nothing left after that.
The idea of using taxes for national welfare had not even emerged in the early days of capitalism, let alone in a feudal society based on the enfeoffment of nobles.
The Empire of Fars's greatest fiscal expenditure was supporting the Knights of its nobles!
Well, Charlotte had never granted any