The Crown Prince (Taegi AU)

Chapter 12

"The two masters may be unaware, but even small places like this need to pay taxes." The man who was standing on the side spoke up with a face that looked like he was about to spit out all his frustrations and anger, "It didn't use to be so bad before. The taxes used to be low and only certain prosperous businesses needed to pay them but a few years ago, the government officials came by and started threatening us. They started taking taxes from everyone no matter how small their business was."

Yoongi was quite amused to hear this since, he as the crown prince, had no idea that he had given such an order.

Old Lao's face had lost all its color as he heard the man, he immediately stood up and tried his best to shut the man up, "It is to be expected! To be expected! The capital needs money to protect us. Who are we to judge?!"

Yoongi stepped forward and interfered, "Young man, who told you about these so-called taxes?"

"Wasn't it Old Lao himself who informed us? If it hadn't been for him, we would've all been unaware of such wrongdoings."

The man called Old Lao was dripping with cold sweat all over his forehead. he was praying in his mind for this man to shut up. Didn't he know that talking too much would lead to cutting short his own lifeline?!

Fooling the common people was easy but fooling these two elites was another story. To pull out ten gold coins over a chicken, they looked to be from noble birth, would they not find out the truth?!

Taehyung was just getting invested in this spicy story. He held onto Yoongi's hand and stopped him from moving forward.

The crown prince needed to remember that he was still in his disguise. Making a move in that monk attire was really not the brightest idea.

"Old Lao, how long have you been paying taxes?" Taehyung asked with an amused smile. 

Old Lao's soul had seemed to leave his body. He was as good as a dead man now. A dead man who wouldn't even be getting a grave to bury himself in.

"A-a few months ago" He gulped

"A few months?! Why are you lying? Hasn't it been a few years?" The man really seemed to want to drag Old Lao down as he unknowingly dug up a trap for him. It was a pity that Old Lao had considered this man a friend. This man was a daily customer and would be seen gambling from time to time so it came as no shock that the two came to have a good relationship, but now that things had turned out this way, Old Lao regretted not choking this man to death.

Taehyung, "A few years?"

Yoongi, "I don't think there were any taxes on gambling unless it was in a famous gambling house."

Gambling houses were the real deal. It was a place where all rich gamblers would go to squander off their money. Poor people had no entry in such places. The customers there were all rich and were looking for some excitement in life. The gambling there would get so crazy that sometimes people would gamble on their lives. It was a place that dealt with thousands of gold coins and seeing as how much income is created, it was only natural that the capital couldn't shut it down. 

They couldn't shut it down because of the money involved so they found an alternative and decided to profit from it hence heavy taxes were placed on gambling houses. The taxes paid by these big businesses were in no manner considered little.

Although there were taxes placed on the big gambling houses, as long as Yoongi knew, there were no taxes taken from these Street gamblers. Their business was just too small for the capital to put them in their eyes.

With the case being as such, it was clear that someone was lying to these people and coveting their money and the question remained: Who was the liar?