Fire's Mage (Book One) Kyoko of Fire Country

Chapter Thirty-Three

Talia knew her temper was raising, it felt like her heart was tightening in her chest. She wanted to burn the papers in front of her, burn them and forget what she had read. The Merchant Guilds were demanding things from her, they were demanding they stop paying taxes.

Telling her that they were paying too much, which she highly doubted, most of them wore silk from the Silk Islands, lace hand spine from Frost Country, all of which cost more then her entire wardrobe put together. She doubted they'd be pleased if she told them to wait until Conner returned, the Mountain Tournament lasted a near month, then he'd have to travel back which would take him another month. So every year she was in charge for a near four months, almost the entire cold season.

Another thing they complained about was mission cost, like it was their right to hire the new generation of Warriors and Mages to do their work for them. Some of them didn't want to pay them at all, which made Talia fume more then the taxes.

Why was it, that she would rather deal with children then with adults? Because at least children were willing to be reasoned with, unlike the block heads she had to deal with, unlike the old days, they paid less taxes on transporting their wares and she was tempted to spiteful and show them just what their grandparents had to do to earn a living.

Picking up the mission list, she looked at the cost of D-rank missions, those who completed them never complained about the costs, even if some of them had to take extra missions apart from their team to make ends met.

Another thing that annoyed her was that they thought it was better to let those who couldn't work; starve to death on the streets. It didn't matter that those who had defended the village in the Second and Third Major Wars had missing limps, more scars then most care to count.

To these people they just weren't useful anymore. That's what pained her the most, she had seen seventeen years old with their lives ahead of them. Legs and arms missing, eyes wide and mouths open.

All because they weren't enough healers on hand, that was something she had changed after the Second Major War. All Mages were to be trained in the healing arts, had to be trained to the point of healing bones and organs.

Sighing, she tried to put her thoughts in order. It would have to be dealt with and dealt with soon. The taxes weren't going to removed, maybe it would have been considered if those from the Merchant Guilds wouldn't complain about what would happen if taxes were removed.

For one, she would make them pay for their children to go to the Academy. Their medical bills and medication, after all, only those who paid taxes got to access things paid with from the public's pocket.

So no, she wouldn't even entertain the thought.

And she would have to call a meeting soon, Rachael's investigation was uncovering those who thought they could get away with bribing the Academy. Not just the Academy, but the higher ups in the council and bribery was punishable by death in some countries.

Here it was a fine for first time offenders, but then prison time if the crime had been going for a few years. She would leave Rachael at it and check in with her later.

Looking up she wasn't surprised when Dominic walked into the room with a tray. She could always count on him to make sure she had something to eat, that she wasn't starving herself to finish her paperwork, or to answer letters from Leaders of other Villages.

"Dominic," Talia greeted she was glad that it was Alessia and Jed standing guard. As she much as she loved Catherine, Dania and Zack like they were her children, all of them were hotheads and would have gone and tracked down the names signed on the piece of paper in front of her.