Chapter 109
I’m translating the chapter in the required HTML format and preserving the game/system passages as styled blocks. I’m also keeping the glossary terms and speech register consistent while shaping the narration into natural English paragraphs.CHAPTER_TITLE: To Win My Favor, Gather Tribute
“Just be careful. There’s a risk that the positive event that was originally supposed to happen will be canceled too. This event will be a huge help in progressing Chapter 2, Twisted Sunset.”
“Huh!”
Ho-yeong sucked in the breath of relief he had just let out again.
A positive event? Right, there was a message like that. I thought it was the third item-draw chance and got all excited, but that wasn’t it. Then what the hell is it? It’s supposed to help a lot with Chapter 2, so I can’t miss it.
But the problem was that this positive event might be canceled.
“Did you choke on something?”
Daisy tilted her head at Ho-yeong, who had nearly gasped himself breathless.
Why did this bastard’s face somehow look so slick and smug? When he showed a proper, manly bearing, he had looked striking.
“I-It is nothing, Your Majesty. There is no need to worry abou-”
“I said I’m not worried about the likes of you! You’re a lump of muscle with no brains.”
Without meaning to, she snapped in irritation. For her, who did not know proper vulgar swearing, fool was an especially harsh insult.
“Sob, sob. How did you know? From the day I was born, I was so needlessly big that I caused my mother trouble, and because of that I was born a weak little runt.”
“What?”
What the hell, this is actually true?
Daisy’s pupils shook at the unintended insult to his dead mother.
“Sob… At birth I burdened the mother who gave me life, and as I grew up I burdened the sovereign of this nation, Her Majesty… I really must be a fool after all.”
Of course he was exaggerating to win Daisy’s sympathy, but he also felt genuinely sad thinking of his late mother.
“Sob…”
“Enough crying. Get up. My words were too harsh. I had no intention of dishonoring your mother, but I apologize.”
Ho-yeong deliberately sat down looking weak and drained.
Daisy, who had been watching him with a complicated expression, spoke again with renewed force.
“But your words were also too far when you kept badgering me for treasure just now. Do not drag in the duties between king and subject. Is it not a great discourtesy between person and person, even before ruler and vassal? Put yourself in my position. If you presented the treasured heirlooms of your family to me and I, instead of showing humility, said, ‘Then bring me more,’ how would you feel?”
Daisy was, in her own way, trying to reason with him in a perfectly sensible, logical manner.
She had originally intended to scold him more severely, but the unintended insult to his dead mother had greatly softened the blow.
“I…I do not know.”
“What? You don’t know?”
The queen looked incredulous.
“Fine. Then I’ll make you feel it yourself. I gave you two heirlooms from my own house, so you should hand over two heirlooms from yours.”
Out of sheer disbelief, she ended up sounding less like a queen and more like an ordinary married lady from next door.
Normally she would have said something like, “If words do not make it clear to you, then I shall teach you by example. Since I have bestowed upon you two royal treasures, you ought properly to present two heirlooms of your own house in tribute.” It would have carried all the grace and dignity of the crown.
“Why are you silent? Is receiving pleasant, but giving too painful?”
Seeing the Border Count remain silent, Daisy flared up again.
He had talked as if he would devote himself fully to loyalty, while bragging about laying down his life, and yet in the end he did not even bring in his taxes. He was just a miser.
“I only spoke by way of example. I had no intention of taking some trinket of your family’s anyway, but looking at you now, I’ve genuinely come to want it. No, I must have it.”
Warning! If Daisy’s anger rises any further, she may really seize an item from you. It would have been better to come prepared with tribute, even if you were in a hurry.
“I cannot present any.”
“What?! Why not! I was being generous in wanting to take you as a friend, and this is how you repay me by humiliating me?”
The queen roared in a fury so great she practically shook the room. She had accidentally spoken her true feelings.
“Outside, the guards-”
“There is nothing in my house that could even be called an heirloom.”
“What?”
Daisy, about to summon the guards and throw the Border Count out, froze in place.
“As I said before, my house was poor. I was not raised tending to the family treasures of an old lineage, but tending fodder in the fields.”
“Hmm?”
“So even if I wanted to present one, I have no heirloom to offer. Sob.”
Oddly enough, that applied to both Ho-yeong and Joren Tamer. They had both come from the countryside, after all.
“Ah.”
After landing a two-hit body blow of accidental family-insult trauma, the queen grew flustered.
“Th-then surely there is something you cherish most.”
“The things I cherish most are my younger siblings.”
“Th-then you can offer them to the kingdom. Like in the old tale of the Knight Montel Bontebius, who offered his younger brothers to the realm as knight cadets to Prince Karlshtain…”
“If Your Majesty desires it, I would offer my younger siblings to the kingdom, even as soldiers rather than knights. However, they are not in this world…”
Ho-yeong’s three younger sisters were not in this world but in real-life Korea.
Joren’s three younger sisters were not in this world either. They were in the world beyond.
“N-no, that is… ah.”
Triple kill!
With three consecutive family-insult body blows, the queen was rattled to the core.
“I was wrong. Somehow I feel like a tyrant now.”
Having lost all will to continue, Daisy let out a sigh so heavy it seemed to sink the floor.
Ally stat change notification. Daisy’s mental strength has fallen to its minimum value!
Anxious Evil Eye activated! Daisy is anxious that your guardian will come to despise her.
Ho-yeong thought he had his timing now and tried Edification again.
“It is all right, Your Majesty. You only said it without knowing, so please do not think too much of it. Even I feel that I was far too shameless.”
When the other person was discouraged, one could not press harder.
“I had intended to present the gifts and spoils I obtained in the Tamer territory to Your Majesty as tribute.”
“Tribute? Gifts from angels? You mean those supplies that fell straight out of the sky?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. Since they are goods from the territory entrusted to me by Your Majesty’s grace, they ought to be offered to the kingdom. I am deeply sorry that I was in such a hurry this time that I failed to bring the tribute with me.”
Daisy’s expression brightened a little.
So he had been thinking something so commendable. It must have taken a great deal of wealth to hold back all those monsters and rebuild the territory as well…
Edification has risen as well! Daisy’s conversion level increases slightly. Daisy considers it admirable that your guardian prepared tribute, especially goods that would help the kingdom.
Ohhh. So it turned out just like Baron Kihara advised before. Shame I didn’t actually bring anything this time, though.
Paradoxically, coming empty-handed this time had helped him.
“No. It is fortunate that you did not bring the tribute now. If you had arrived laden with it, I would not have been able to end the audience so easily.”
Ho-yeong did not quite understand Daisy’s words.
What does tribute have to do with a trial? I don’t really get it. If I say I don’t understand, will she get frustrated like during the trial earlier? She did snap at me for not understanding difficult words, sob sob. Still, I should ask. There’s nothing shameful about not knowing.
To govern a territory well, he needed to understand politics.
“Forgive me. I am ignorant of politics, and I failed to grasp the deeper meaning of Your Majesty’s words. I beg you to teach me.”
“What is there to apologize for? It is natural for a knight not to know politics. No, the less you know, the better. A soldier need only understand strategy and loyalty.”
Unexpectedly, Daisy did not seem to care at all.
“But since you are now a noble and a magistrate of the people, it would be best for you to acquire some political understanding. Suppose you had indeed presented that tribute this time. If I had received it before the audience, it would have been a stain upon me. It could have looked as though I had accepted a bribe from the Border Count and let him off without punishment. Do you understand?”
“I understand.”
There would definitely be people who would feel uncomfortable about that.
“Even if I had scolded or punished you, that too would have caused trouble. Do you know why?”
“Hmm… if the punishment were too light, it might look like a show of empty threats, I suppose. The troublemakers, no, the ones who enjoy slander, would have plenty to pick apart.”
Ho-yeong thought of a famous internet meme.
King: So this has nothing to do with the current treason allegations, right?
Border Count: Yes, it has nothing to do with them.
King: Good, then let’s keep working hard in loyalty.
“Exactly so. Then can you also guess what problem would arise if the punishment were too harsh?”
“If you accepted the bribe and then punished him severely anyway… everyone would think that was too much?”
“Indeed. What sort of tyrant would that be? A foolish ruler who accepts wealth and pardons crime might at least have sycophants swarming around him, but there would be no one who would follow a tyrant who takes the goods and still throws the giver away.”
Having seen plenty of such people, Ho-yeong nodded.
“But if I had refused the tribute from the beginning, what then? My strictness might stand out, but it would stain you. You would become the example of a bribe-bearer who came only to be kicked away.”
“Your Majesty. I was only preparing tribute, not trying to offer a bribe. I merely brought goods that would help the governance of the kingdom; there was nothing like luxuries among them at all.”
Ho-yeong tried to explain himself earnestly, but fortunately it was an unnecessary worry.
“Of course I know your sincerity. You do not know this, but if things had gone as originally planned, the audience would not have been held by me; it would have been handled by the heads of the various courts. In that case, as you said, you could have shown your loyalty through tribute. That is, unless you wanted to avoid scattering wealth to court officials tangled in conflicts of interest.”
“But since Your Majesty is the one holding the audience, the mere act of presenting wealth, whether as bribe or tribute, would be looked upon poorly. Because you and I are directly entangled in it.”
“Well seen. For those who twist a thing’s outer shell into its essence, you are easy prey.”
“Prey…? Did you mean pretext? Ah, I understand. You were matching ‘shell’ with ‘bite,’ so you used ‘prey.’ That is a very amusing joke. I enjoy wordplay like this too. Hahaha!”
It was not a polite laugh performed for courtesy’s sake, but a genuine burst of laughter.
Though Her Majesty now wore a question mark on her face.
I wasn’t joking. I was being serious.