I Possessed a Game Where I Die If I Don’t Clear the Tower - Chapter 18

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 18. Perfectly Ordinary
How did I find out?
I learned it when you took on the recruitment quest.
I know you founded the Golden Fleece Trading Company to search for a certain object, that the object is a sacred relic of the Golden Scales, that it’s hidden in The Tower, and that a High Priestess of all people has been lurking in the Adventurer Guild working as a secretary.
‘…I can’t answer like that.’
Camilia didn’t bother straining her mind to conjure up a plausible excuse or pretext.
Instead, she smiled with the meaningful, scheming air befitting a wicked sorcerer lord who had lived for over a thousand years.
“Does it matter?”
As if she’d expected exactly this, Netanel Fragma let out a groan.
“Well now… if I answer that it does matter, you’ll surely price your response at an exorbitant rate, won’t you?”
“I can’t offer cheap what’s obviously worth a fortune. That’s how commerce works.”
Netanel Fragma twisted her lips and spoke with blatant sarcasm.
“Ah, how very true. In all my years, I wonder if I’ll ever meet someone who negotiates better than you, my lord.”
At the same moment, the system window chimed and updated.
[Netanel Fragma’s affection has increased.]
-Negotiations with the lord are no trivial matter! +2
So honest, your affection gauge, even when your mouth complains, Netanel.
‘Then I can press forward as planned.’
Camilia continued, feigning composure.
“I have no intention of working you for free. If you serve for five years, I’ll grant you a five-year access permit, a three-year tax exemption, and one land transaction deed as compensation.”
Nidst is no ordinary city.
It is the world’s only manageable dungeon city.
It was the most stable source of mana stones and a production center for monster byproducts, and it was also a hub of luxury consumption where the blind gold scattered by adventurers overflowed.
You’re granting permission to establish a branch of a trading company in such a city and to operate freely for at least five years?
Any merchant would have to accept the terms unconditionally, whatever they were.
Even the Golden Fleece Trading Company, ranked among the continent’s top ten merchant guilds, was no exception.
Yet instead of accepting immediately, Netanel Fragma began to fret.
“It’s a sweet offer, but it’s so sweet it frightens me a little. No matter how good the terms, if you change your mind, isn’t everything void?”
“If you wish, I’ll have a contract drawn up and notarized by the Golden Scales.”
“My, you trust me too much? What if I play tricks with the contract?”
“Someone who would do that could never become a High Priestess of the Golden Scales. Nor could they become the head of one of the continent’s top ten merchant guilds.”
Netanel Fragma answered with a gentle smile.
“You keep saying such irresistibly sweet things that my heart keeps wavering. Whatever shall I do…?”
Despite the playful tone, the gaze Netanel Fragma fixed upon Camilia was as cold and calculating as a weight upon a scale being measured.
Camilia didn’t shy away from that gaze but met it directly.
Then, as if the mind-reading buff had activated, the complex emotions radiating from Netanel Fragma flowed into her consciousness.
【Tsk, no wonder she’s a monster who’s lived a thousand years—utterly unreadable. Just how far ahead does she see, and where does the planning truly begin? Could it have started back when we contracted at the Adventurer Guild…?】
Calling her employer a monster.
But otherwise, there was nothing wrong with the assessment.
Camilia had been planning to exploit Netanel Fragma’s background meticulously ever since she brought her into the party.
I didn’t feel the slightest twinge of conscience. If one of my colleagues possessed one of the continent’s ten greatest trading companies, shouldn’t I make use of it? Why wouldn’t I?
Since the Golden Scales operates according to strict principles, as long as the contract was drafted properly, there was no risk of loss.
‘I never expected to have a contract thrust upon me so abruptly, but what can I do? If plans always fell into place perfectly, that would be far stranger.’
Considering Netanel Fragma’s temperament, she would certainly grow suspicious.
But it was better than getting bogged down in city administration and falling behind on dungeon conquest.
‘If I can’t reach the top of The Tower within five years, living itself becomes meaningless—I can’t afford to be picky about such things.’
I decided to quickly ease Netanel Fragma’s concerns.
“Very well. If you truly object, I’ll sound out other trading companies instead. Zehar Al Rashid, perhaps the Star Sand Merchant Guild….”
“No, no, wait a moment, my lord! I haven’t even given you my answer yet!?”
Netanel Fragma cut me off with an exaggerated expression of surprise.
“You’re canceling just because I made a little fuss? That hurts my feelings. And not just any company—the Star Sand Merchant Guild? There’s no race as fickle and untrustworthy as the cold-blooded ones.”
I answered with my eyes instead. ‘So?’
Netanel Fragma grumbled about why I was in such a hurry, but answered readily enough.
“…If you honor all the conditions you’ve mentioned, while it’s impossible immediately, I can bring everyone we need within a month. A five-year contract is naturally possible as well. But is that sufficient for you?”
“Sufficient? I’m not sure what you mean by that.”
“What do I mean? A tax system that looks like it hasn’t been reformed in centuries, ledgers without any proper structure, an administrative hierarchy where corruption is harder to avoid than to commit—are you satisfied with merely managing things as they are, is that what I’m saying.”
Zehar Al Rashid’s gaze upon Netanel Fragma was ice-cold.
The priest, whom he already disliked, kept telling Camilia what to do, and it clearly put him in a foul mood.
My lord, stop favoring the priest so much, Inseok.
I thought this to myself and patted the back of Zehar Al Rashid’s hand gently as a sign to be patient, then spoke.
“If I find something objectionable, is there a way to resolve it?”
“It’s difficult, complex, and time-consuming, but there is one method that, in the long term, would be most profitable.”
“You mean to rebuild the foundation entirely.”
“What else can we do with something this broken?”
Netanel Fragma glanced at the ledgers brought out to pressure the Head Maid and the Mayor, then spoke.
“If the Territory were vast with great distances between villages, perhaps it would be different, but in a domain so small you can tour it all in a day’s ride on horseback, why collect a poll tax? Instead of wasting time on that, lower the transit and market taxes to grow commerce, and levy taxes only on cloth and grain….”
Sensing the explanation would grow lengthy, I hastily cut him off.
“I understand what you’re trying to say. That’s enough.”
“My lord, please don’t do that and just listen. The current tax system has problems….”
“I understand. You want to abolish the poll tax and increase indirect taxes to reduce tax resistance while improving collection efficiency, yes?”
Netanel Fragma’s eyes widened as round as gold coins.
I responded flatly.
“Am I wrong?”
“Ah, no. You… truly understand?”
Of course I understand.
Poll taxes bad. Indirect taxes good.
For someone from the modern era, this is common knowledge.
‘It’s true that indirect taxation is the optimal system for city-states, just as Netanel Fragma said.’
While it might be different for a vast domain where administrative reach doesn’t extend evenly, Nidst was a small Territory bordering on a city-state.
Surrounded by walls, with strict management of gates and ports, smuggling and illegal entry were difficult to perpetrate.
It was simply more economical to station a few tax collectors at the checkpoints and harbors—the gateways and ports where goods flowed—and levy tariffs and transaction fees on every transaction, rather than trudging from house to house counting heads and squeezing taxes from the populace.
‘Besides, this aligns perfectly with the city management build I was planning to implement. It should work out well.’
Since the system needed to be overhauled from the ground up, the practical administrators would certainly have their hands full, but if Netanel Fragma and the Golden Fleece Trading Company were willing to handle it themselves, there was no reason to refuse.
“I suppose you could say I didn’t understand it properly. You’re free to implement reforms as you see fit. I’ll permit it as long as you don’t later claim the work is too much and abandon your post.”
“…You understand, and you’re granting permission as well?”
“Did you think I was merely speaking in jest?”
Netanel Fragma, who had seemed somewhat flustered, suddenly startled and raised her voice.
“No, of course not! If you grant permission, then naturally it’s my responsibility to see it through. But… are you truly certain? You’re really certain about not collecting the head tax?”
Camilia nodded in response rather than speaking.
Netanel Fragma was genuinely astonished.
‘She’s actually permitting this? Truly?’
The head tax was no ordinary levy. It was a symbol of the lord’s absolute authority—proof that they were the master of the territory and its people.
Nobles wouldn’t bat an eye when commoners or serfs killed their own children because the head tax was too burdensome, dismissing it with remarks like ‘they should have worked harder.’
Even when one managed to instill the concept of indirect taxation, nobles would stubbornly insist, ‘Then why not just collect both the head tax and indirect taxes?’
A transaction meant surrendering what was yours in exchange for something of equal value, and even if one had to relinquish some authority to gain wealth, they would dismiss such reasoning as ‘merchant’s arithmetic’ and ignore it entirely.
It wasn’t wrong, either. A noble was one who collected and protected, not one who haggled and calculated.
But for the lord of Nidst—called the most ancient of all nobles—to renounce the head tax?
‘And she grasped both the vision and the core principle of my territorial management proposal in an instant.’
Not some seasoned administrator or merchant, but the lord herself!
‘Does economic sense simply develop naturally after living a thousand years? No, that can’t be it. Over the past thousand years, she’s never paid a single coin in taxes or engaged in commerce.’
As impossible events unfolded one after another, reality felt like a dream.
‘When I infiltrated Nidst, I was even prepared for martyrdom if things went wrong….’
Yet the lord she actually met was far different from the rumors.
Terrifying, yes, but also rational.
Though she could crush and dominate him as easily as one might handle a monster, she always offered fair compensation and proposed transactions.
She even openly disclosed the fact that her physical condition was abnormal, trusting without question that he would honor their contract.
Though she had shamelessly requested a delay in payment, she never acted in violation of the Golden Scales’ code.
When seeking advice or delegating tasks, she guaranteed fair compensation and autonomy.
‘Though that doesn’t mean she’s rational about everything….’
One only had to look at how she was tormenting the Knight Order’s commander about making a maid into a knight.
There was some mad scheme in her mind that no one else could comprehend.
The way she had handled the Mayor and the Head Maid was the same—seemingly rational yet utterly unconventional.
Perhaps that’s why, whenever she looked at Camilia, her curiosity only grew.
She simply couldn’t tear her eyes away.
‘What on earth is this person…?’
Camilia, who had been reading every thought in Netanel Fragma’s mind through mind-reading, found it absurd and answered silently.
‘What am I? Just an ordinary transmigrator who happens to be decent at gaming.’

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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