"Wait."
Olmedo called after Annan as he tried to slip away. "You dodged the people of Breeze City and came all the way to the City Lord's Mansion without telling me why."
Annan suppressed his fear of the Elf Mentor. "I need money and people."
"What?"
"I need aid and Subjects."
"Your Magic Film has earned nearly as much in the past few days as Breeze City collects in Tax Revenue in a month. Just now, I was discussing a bill to tax Magic Film with the tax officers..."
"Tax..."
The word alone made Annan's heart ache.
"It's a necessary step, Annan. You wouldn't want Magic Film taxed heavily in other Towns, would you? We should establish the tax rate in Breeze City and send the bill to the Royal Capital. Once it passes, Towns across the Kingdom will have to follow the rate we set."
"What rate?"
"The basic tax rate for Theaters is a low 10% to 20%. Magic Film falls under that."
Annan could live with that.
"Which is all the more reason you should help me."
Annan began listing the ways he had been caught up in the conspiracy: "locked in the Dungeon," "forced to kill five Ratfolk on my own," "uncovered the Ratfolk conspiracy," and so on—
Building a Territory was a bottomless pit. A thousand Gold Coins could clear land for a Village, ten thousand could build a Town, a hundred thousand could make a Town virtually impregnable, and a million could establish a city—or, with a little more, build a small Mage Tower. With ten million, one could start thinking about raising a basic floating island.
Annan had only a handful of ways to make money, while the money he needed was beyond counting.
It was shameless to ask outright, perhaps, but there