Otto found a comfortable position to lean back in on the carriage and started asking questions once more.
“Mr.
Philin, speaking of which, what exact year is it this year?”
Philin looked at Otto, a trace of unconcealable bewilderment flashing in his eyes.
How could this lord appear so knowledgeable yet not even know what year it was?
But how could the mental processes of a grand aristocrat be something a mere merchant like him could fathom?
“In reply to Lord Otto, this is the year 506 after the Lord.”
506?
Otto quickly ran through his historical knowledge in his mind.
“Given that the protagonist is familiar with the world map, and now displays familiarity with history, it seems the protagonist is hardly an ordinary student.”
If he remembered correctly, at this point in time, King Arthur should have finished gathering all the Knights of the Round Table.
Otto nodded slightly toward Philin: “Well, sorry to trouble you, Mr.
Philin.”
“Oh, how could you say that, Lord Otto!
Being able to answer your questions is my honor!”
The carriage bumped along the dirt road, and Otto chatted idly with Philin like this.
After about more than half an hour, the caravan finally slowly came to a stop.
The southwesternmost tip of Britain, the pride of Cornwall—Tintagel Castle had arrived.
Otto poked his head out to examine this fortress, which appeared unimaginably grand in the eyes of the locals.
How should he put it?
The castle was indeed large, but in the eyes of Otto, who was accustomed to modern skyscrapers and ancient infrastructural miracles, this was about as impressive as a large village-town junction.
The entire castle was built relying on the precipitous mountain terrain, with five tall towers standing in a pentagonal shape atop the peak.
The dark gray stone city walls were covered with the traces of time and moss.
Right in the center was a cylindrical main keep nearly sixty meters high, along with a church spire standing out from the rest and piercing the sky.
But considering this was a product built in a region of backward productivity and backward rule, it made people feel quite impressive.
Just as Otto was appreciating the medieval scenery, a commotion broke out at the city gate.
A battered wooden sign stood at the entrance to the city, with the price of the city entry fee written on it in crooked lettering.
Relying on the language package attached to the system, Otto barely managed to recognize what it said: “Pedestrians ten pence, horses five pence, cargo to be negotiated.”
Yet at this moment, four guards wearing leather armor and holding spears were stopping a traveler leading a horse, demanding twenty-five pence out of nowhere.
“Pedestrians ten pence, horses five pence, on what grounds are you charging me twenty-five?” The traveler protested with a flushed face.
“Nonsense!
You’re leading a horse, and the horse stepped on the mud of our Tintagel—doesn’t mud cost money?
Cut the crap, scram if you don’t have money!” The guard arrogantly struck the ground with his spear shaft.
This was clearly blatant profiteering.
In an era where heaven was high and the emperor far away, this kind of operation—relying on the mountains to eat from the mountains, relying on the city gates to eat from the city gates—was far too common.
And you want to lodge a complaint?
Beating a dog still requires looking at its owner; these few guards dared to act so blatantly because they clearly had a knight or lord in charge of public security backing them up.
Acting on the principle that avoiding trouble is better than courting it, Otto figured he would just watch it as a show.
However, the system clearly was not willing to let Otto be a quiet, handsome man.
[Ding!
Triggered side quest: ‘How can one suffer a loss?’]
[Quest Details: As a kind, righteous, and noble transmigrator, how can you stand by and watch a fellow merchant caravan be slaughtered like fat sheep?
Go on, exercise your eloquence, use your tongue-fu to make those fellows ahead understand what consumer rights and protection laws are, and get them to change it back to the normal price!]
[Quest Reward: 320 gold coins.]
Otto’s eyelids twitched violently.
System, do you have some kind of misunderstanding about me?
I ran all this way, and you’re really using me as a partner of justice, aren’t you?!
But looking at the reward of “320 gold coins,” Otto sighed silently in his heart.
There was no help for it; the reward was just too generous.
By this time, the caravan had already arrived at the city gate.
Philin was clearly an old hand, deeply versed in the principle that kings are easy to deal with while minor imps are hard to handle.
He first approached with a face full of smiles, acting ingratiatingly toward the four guards, and casually tried to slip a few copper coins into the hand of the lead guard.
The lead guard weighed the coins in his hand, let out a cold snort, and cast a sideways glance at the wagons filled to the brim at the back of the caravan.
“Oh, this boss is quite sensible, but I’m just doing my official duty here.” The guard cleared his throat pretentiously.
“Your caravan isn’t small in scale.
I don’t think we need to count them one by one—let’s just collect fourteen hundred pence from you, which is seven gold pence or seventy silver pence.”
Hearing this figure, Philin’s expression instantly turned as ugly as if he had swallowed a fly.
Although he was quite wealthy and even had ten heads to exchange for money, this kind of matter wasn’t about whether he had the money or not; it was about how uncomfortable it felt to be ripped off.
Otto, meanwhile, had figured out the local pricing: twenty copper pence equaled one silver pence, and ten silver pence equaled one gold pence.
Seven gold pence—this was outright robbery!
But an arm cannot twist a thigh.
Philin gritted his teeth, his hand already moving toward the money pouch at his waist.
Right at this moment, the curtain of the carriage was yanked open.
Otto tidied up that flamboyant purple coat of his and stepped out of the carriage with composure.
He straightened his posture and walked toward the four guards with a smile.
“His—!”
The instant the four guards saw Otto clearly, they simultaneously drew in a sharp breath, making another indelible contribution to the Earth’s greenhouse effect.
What did they see?
This fabric!
This tailoring!
This skin as fair as a peeled egg!
And that face so handsome it made one forget the very existence of heaven and earth, paired with that compassionate gaze as if looking down upon a group of ants!
Most crucially, this blond youth had a sword hanging from his waist!
Although it looked quite ordinary and couldn’t compare to an aristocratic lord’s ornate longsword, in an era where even an iron pot counted as a family heirloom, a straight sword without a trace of rust was simply a symbol of power in the eyes of these bumpkin guards!
At the very least, this had to be an earl’s heir; at most, who knows, maybe it was a royal family member traveling incognito!
“This…
this lord, do you have any instructions?” The lead guard swallowed a mouthful of saliva, his arrogant momentum instantly withering away, and even his waist bent by half an inch unconsciously.
Philin and the caravan members were also dumbfounded.
What was Otto going to do?
Was he going to draw his sword and hack down the city gate?
But facts clearly were not like that.
Otto gently clapped his hands and began to speak fluently.
“To be frank, I always thought Tintagel was a fortress filled with honor.” Otto’s voice wasn’t loud, but it could be heard clearly at the quiet city gate.
“But I didn’t expect the arithmetic skills here to be so regrettable.”
He paused for two seconds, his dark green eyes sweeping over the four of them:
“According to the text on that wooden sign, our group of over ten people, three freight wagons, and three horses should cost at most four hundred pence.
This extra one thousand pence—is it a new tax added by the lord of Tintagel while dreaming last night, or is it…”
Otto’s palm pressed gently against the hilt of the dull blade, his tone turning cold: “Did the mathematics of you few get taught by a curly-haired baboon?”
As soon as these words came out, Guard A’s expression turned alternately green and pale.
If it had been a commoner daring to speak like this, he would have long since thrust a spear through them, but the master before him had the four giant words ‘You can’t afford to provoke this’ written all over his body.
“Th…
this lord, you don’t understand.” Guard A braced himself and stammered in explanation, “Re…
recently there are many bandits outside, and orders came down from above to collect a public security management fee…”
“Oh?
A public security management fee?” Otto raised an eyebrow feignedly, then stepped closer by one step.
“Then that’s strange.
As far as I know, even during the wartime commercial taxes of the great King Arthur, it never reached such an astonishing proportion.
Could it be that the tax laws of Cornwall have already superseded the royal law of Britain?”
“Oh?
So familiar with different laws and taxes across various eras?
Hmm, it seems the protagonist is no ordinary person.”
Labeling people—the ultimate trump card in modern debates.
When dealing with such medieval bottom-feeders, as long as you infinitely elevate the issue, they will collapse on their own.
Guard A was dizzy from being hit by this big label and waved his hands repeatedly: “No, no, no!
My lord, you’ve misunderstood!
We didn’t mean that at all!
We calculated wrong, we calculated wrong!
It’s 285 pence!
Not a single copper coin more will be collected!”
Otto slowly released his grip on the sword handle and nodded with satisfaction: “Knowing one’s errors and being able to change is still a virtue worthy of praise.”
With that, he turned back to look at Philin, who had long since been stunned: “Pay up, Mr.
Philin, it’s time for us to enter the city.”
Philin awoke as if from a dream, hastily and flusteredly counting out the corresponding coins and handing them over.
He followed behind Otto, walking through the city gate with his head held high like a proud penguin.
“Philin: Coo-coo quack-quack!”
[Ding!
Side quest completed.]
[Reward: 320 gold coins has been distributed.]
Listening to the heavenly system prompt ringing in his mind, Otto flashed a V-sign in his heart.