Isekai Nonbiri Nouka

Chapter 853: Village Chief’s Weird Way of Thinking

I’ll think of new menus.

I will but I won’t forget my original purpose of coming to Village Five.

The tax collection problem that heats up in Village Five this fall.

The meeting is for countermeasures.

The place is the conference room at Youko’s mansion……it is being used as a warehouse? Then, the Japanese room…..not available?

What’s available then?

The reception room for welcoming nobles from other countries?

Let’s go there then.

-0-

The attendees are me, Village Five Acting Village Chief Youko, Village Five Military Affairs Head Hih, Village Five Internal Affairs Head Loch, and Village Five Intelligence Head Nana.

We could have held the meeting in Big Tree Village but I wanted to see how the harvest was going in Village Five so we decided to hold the meeting in Village Five.

「The desire to pay more taxes is something I understand……I understand? I think I understand but Village Five has its own financial resources and don’t really need to focus on the taxes from the residents.」

Youko explains the current situation.

To put it simply, the residents want to pay taxes.

However, Village Five doesn’t need more taxes.

The tax collectors, who stand in between them, are in trouble.

「Umu. We try to accept the taxes that the tax collectors collect but only to the point that……the tax collector’s mental or physical condition.」

I see.

I must confess, I’m having a hard time understanding the desire to pay taxes.

And it was also hard for me to understand why you don’t want to accept those taxes.

However, after she explained it to me, I understood.

The residents don’t want to pay taxes because they want to pay taxes.

The reason why they want to pay taxes is to make contributions to Village Five.

If they want to make contribution to Village Five, they should be able to participate in projects initiated by Village Five……

Not everyone who wishes to participate can participate though.

So, they are voicing their desire to be allowed to pay taxes.

And the side that doesn’t want to receive taxes is because they can’t spend it.

I thought we should just save what we can’t spend but it doesn’t work that way.

Although it is the right of the government to collect tax, it has an obligation to distribute the tax it has collected.

Yes, it is an obligation.

Taxes are not meant to enrich the personal pockets of government workers.

They are merely entrusted to administer the distribution of taxes collected from the residents.

Therefore, what is collected must be spent.

Of course, there is always the need to save for large scale projects.

Saving for disasters is also necessary.

However, the basic rule is that taxes collected must be spent.

That is taxation.

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「The money collected from the residents must be used to enrich the village and to further develop it. Village Chief and Youko-dono’s policy is excellent. Because of that, everyone wanted to contribute.」

Loch backed up Hih’s statement.

「Saving taxpayer’s money is what kills an economy. We have to spend it.」

But……Loch.

「We would like to use it more and more but we have already a well-established development plan up to the next five years……」

「We are already trying to spend the money on unscheduled housing construction for new residents, unscheduled road maintenance, unscheduled cleanups in Village Five, unscheduled guard empowerment, and even building forts and shelters in the forest to increase the survival rate of adventurers. However, money just keep pouring in.」

Youko says so with a distant look in her eyes.

「If money is accumulated, people will think of doing bad things but the members of the village council are all clean…… No one wants to do anything strange and get kicked out of the village so everyone’s careful with the money. They won’t dare waste any.」

Nana reported so.

Nana’s report was supposed to be a good one but she seemed a little disappointed.

I guess no one can afford to be dishonest.

「The reason money accumulates in Village Five is because all the taxes go to Village Five. Originally, it is necessary to pay half of the tax to the kingdom……」

Loch spreads some documents on the table.

Village Five is located within the Demon King’s Kingdom but it is treated as an independent force.

Therefore, it doesn’t have to pay taxes to the kingdom.

「If we can pay taxes to the Demon King’s Kingdom, it will solve a large part of our money problem……The question is, what will the kingdom do for the taxes paid by Village Five? Incidentally, I approached Randan-dono about this but he threatened me with tears saying that if we pay taxes, the Demon King’s Kingdom would surrender to Big Tree Village.」

Threatened with tears……wait, surrender?

Why would they do that?

「If they just receive tax and won’t do anything, it will lead to a rebellion. Normally, we would have the benefit of being able to rely on the military power of the kingdom but……the military forces of the kingdom will have a hard time exterminating the monsters and demon beasts north of Village Five. In addition, the defense of Village Five is already being led by the sword saint Pirika-dono. What’s more, there are spiderlings-dono around.」

Loch looked up and so did I. I saw several spiderlings at the ceiling beams.

You were at the meeting too.

「If we call a few kuros, we’ll be rock solid……even if things goes worst, Doraim-dono lives nearby……」

If you call Doraim, Grafaloon and Rasuti will be there too.

「In any case, considering the power of Big Tree Village and Village Five, the Demon King’s Kingdom would not find it worthwhile to dispatch an army. I told Randan-dono that we could just make it look like the kingdom was protecting us but he fled saying I shouldn’t think about nonsense because everything’s okay……」

I-I see.

W-well, don’t bully Randan too much.

Tiselle seems to be bothering Randan too.

「Ah, let’s postpone the money we save topic for now. Eventually, village chief will figure out how to spend them.」

Youko gives me a look as if saying I have to but that’s also the problem of Big Tree Village.

Ah, Nana.

It looks like you have something you want to say.

If you leave it to me, we’ll get more tax revenue?

Let’s leave aside the unscheduled income increase in Village Five due to the shrine and swan race.

Yeah.

Ehto, let’s go back to……

The tax collectors of Village Five having a hard time.

The cause of the problem is because people want to pay more taxes.

However, Village Five doesn’t want it.

Those who want to pay taxes want to contribute to the village.

Therefore, if we tell them that excessive tax payment is a nuisance to Village Five, it will be settled.

Their purpose is to contribute, not to interfere with the operation of Village Five.

However, that may save the tax collectors but it will not stop the residents from wanting to contribute to Village Five.

Besides, I don’t think it’s a good idea to disrespect those feelings.

Village Five should take that into consideration.

「That’s easy to say but, what should we do? Even if we add more projects, there will definitely be those who won’t be able to participate.」

Hey, Youko.

Don’t think too hard.

The point is that they want to contribute to Village Five so they want to pay taxes…..

I told her my idea.

Why don’t we do a cash grab?

-0-

The Village Five council, the tax collectors, will give wooden plate tickets to those who have paid their taxes correctly.

That ticket is a participation ticket.

One ticket will give you one chance.

You can spin a spinning lottery machine called garagara.

The ball will be released and the color where the ball stops determines whether you win or lose.

The odds of winning here are one to ten.

That’s 900 blanks and 100 hits.

A blank is obviously losing but it will still give you one medium copper coin.

Those who will get “hit” will advance to the next stage.

The next stage is cash grab!

You will be entitled to grab cash that is stored in big, medium, and small boxes!

The reason for multiple box sizes is because different races have different hand sizes.

Therefore, the main coins in the big box are small copper coins.

There were also a few medium and big copper coins.

In the medium box, there are mainly medium copper coins.

There were also a few big copper coins.

The small box mainly has big copper coins.

But there are a few silver coins too.

This is how it is arranged.

These are all Village Five money!

The size of your hand is measured to determine which box to try.

Then, all you have to do is grab cash!

The challenge is one hand use only.

You win by taking the money out of the box and placing it on the tray next to it.

The tray is connected to a slider coin calculator, which gives you the amount of money you win.

After that will be picking your last choice!

You can take this earned cash and go straight home!

Or, you can pay your tax!

If you pay your tax, your name will be posted along with the amount of money you won!

We have introduced this system.

-0-

「It’s very popular, right?」

Nana looked at the cash grab with dismay.

「Most of the cash grabbers choose to pay taxes……」

I guess it was a good idea to put it up.

They seem to be competing for the amount.

Fufufu.

We can return a small amount of tax money as a blank prize, they can win money and take it home, and if they pay taxes, the money in the box will not increase because it is Village Five’s money in the first place.

I think it’s a great idea if I may say so myself.

「However, this won’t reduce the number of people who are hunting the tax collectors, right?」

Tax collectors are instructed to give different colored tickets to those who want to pay more taxes.

Tickets with different color won’t have the blank prize, no take home prize, and the only option is to pay taxes.

It may not reduce the number of people who flood the tax collectors but it will reduce their need to run around.

In the meantime, I’ve issued a warning of not threatening or locking up tax collectors.

There shouldn’t be anything weird happening now.

「Right……」

Nana looked at the cash grab again and made a weird expression.

What’s wrong?

「Nothing. There shouldn’t be anything weird that happening but I think village chief’s way of thinking is weird.」

Hahaha.

I’ll take that as a compliment.

-0-

By the way, those tickets were made from the ticket machine for the swan race.

Since there is a serial number, it should be difficult to cheat.

Well, I think they should at least change the design every year.

「The wooden plate used for tickets is made by compressing wood chips, right? Isn’t it quite convenient?」

I guess so.

I thought it would save the trouble of painting with dye when making different color tickets.

Using new wood is wasteful too.

The mountain elves are jubilantly considering their uses.

-0-

Michael-san looking at the cash grab: Mou, village chief, mou, I told you to call me when you wanted to do something new…..

Michael-san seeing the tickets made from compressed wood chips: Ah, mou, it’s so hard, so hard that it has too many business opportunities

Resident who had a cash grab: Did you hear it? They said they found silver coins in the big box!

Village Chief, the culprit to put silver coins in the box: I put some in all boxes

Nana who has given up on many things: At least they are not gold. Yeah.

Escaping Tax Collector A: It’s not right to give out tickets unnecessarily, right?

Escaping Tax Collector B: Yeah

Escaping Tax Collector C: They’re after me for tickets but I’m no longer locked up so that’s good!

Village Five Civil Servant at a later date: Is the increase in revenue due to people paying taxes firmly in order to get tickets?

TN: Caught up with the raw again