NOVEL FROG Chapter 709 – Tavern Gossip
“Gossips are a surprisingly fruitful source of information, for a discerning agent. Once the wheat was sorted out from the chaff, the kernels of truth contained within often hinted at various things people were uncomfortable to speak openly about, but was definitely taking place.” - Yliz Kalas Eluvreli, Death’s Hand agent and instructor.
“Ale’s at two cups to the silver!? That’s daylight robbery, I say, Myani. Are yer prices fer real or do ye take me fer a dundering drunk!?” scolded a middle-aged townsman drinking at the tavern when he heard the price charged for his order. “It was three cups to the silver just bloody last week! How do you even jack the price up so much so quickly!?”
“Ma’s been trying to keep the price the same all this while, Rube, but that ain’t working out no more. Wheat’s gone nearly double in price to last year, and just this past weekend, there’s the new tax hike going, sure you’ve heard of it too, no?” asked the tavern’s waitress with an exasperated, if patient look on her face. Clearly it was not the first time she gave the explanation to a patron. “We’ve been running nearly even for the past year, we can’t afford to keep the prices the same no more.”
“Fuck the nobles! They keep raising our taxes and what do they give us in turn!?” yelled another half-drunk patron of the tavern upon overhearing the conversation.
“Hey, now, mate. We won’t have you be badmouthing good Earl Hevia, you hear?” interjected another group of patrons from another nearby table. “We only had this one tax hike for the past decade, that’s already a blessing! Me cousin married someone in Viscount Compton’s lands and she said they’ve gotten three tax hikes in the same time! We’re already blessed with a good one here!”
“Hear, Hear!” yelled out the rest of the people on the last man’s table. The drunk that yelled to fuck the nobles went awfully quiet under their resistance and went back to quietly nursing his drink instead.
“If ya ask me the ones who need to get buggered are the ones further up! Our lord’s forced to raise taxes because they kept getting asked for more and more tributes every year! Mah niece works at the Lord’s mansion and said so!” added a middle-aged woman nursing a large mug of ale. There were two other such mugs, empty, on her table. “It’s them no-good kings and emprahs that just keep taking our money without giving anything back!”
“Hush, woman! Do you want the Emperor’s guard to descend upon us or something!?” yelled another man in the tavern with a rather outraged tone. “The walls have ears and they always keep it open for seditious talk!”
“Oh, shut yer trap, Gromit. I’ve seen ya since ya were still soiling yer diapers!” yelled the middle-aged woman back. “If them guards be takin’ people in for talking the truth then they’d have to be taking in a whole shit load of people from all over already. Ain’t got the room for that, ah bet ya!”
“Ol’ Muriel’s be speakin’ true, lad,” added another patron in agreement. “Thing’s ‘ve been pretty shitty since our previous emperor came to da throne, and just as we thought we’d get a decent one next, they had to exile him and put up his useless wastrel of a brother up instead! This place’s going down the shitter, say I!”
Before long most of the tavern devolved to a loud, noisy debate – it was pretty civil, all considered, with nobody throwing a punch or food at each other yet – about the virtues, or lack thereof, of the recent emperors of the empire. Those uninvolved in the debate quietly moved to the tables further away from the main cluster where everything was happening.
Aideen’s group happened to be seated in one of the tables further away from the debate in that same tavern, having kept their ears open all the while despite outwardly ignoring the incident. The drunken – and not-so-drunk – townspeople spoke more than loud enough even for Celia or Aideen to hear them clearly, much less for the other four.
In their minds, they categorized the rumors, gossip, and other information they caught from the debate and shelved them in order of importance. Things involving nobles, taxes, and other such matters were more important, though they would need corroboration to be certain. Just from what the townspeople said – and the reaction of others around them – it was easy enough to get the general gist of the situation, though.
Apparently frequent tax hikes were happening all over the Empire, often for otherwise small, irrelevant things, and that in turn caused prices to increase all around. Combined with the deteriorating security conditions Aideen had seen on the main roads, and smaller villages dying off, all that combined to make life more difficult for the average imperial citizen.
From the rumors and gossip it was also possible to come to the conclusion that the local lord – one Earl Hevia – had done their damndest to relieve the pressure on the people, compared to his fellow nobles, by taking on most of the burden himself rather than raising taxes he collected off his people. Other nobles were clearly less scrupulous, judging from the discussion.
There was clear dissatisfaction, but not that much anger or desperation yet. People complained about prices rising due to the worsening conditions, but they were still able to survive under those problems regardless. Whether it was because they still had some confidence in the Empire due to its long history or if they were just hardy people, Aideen had no idea.
What she knew was that the Empire would likely endure for another few generations given the conditions, and would probably be an unknown factor by the time she managed to prepare enough to find a city. She was as of yet uncertain when that would be, but it was likely that the Empire will still be something she needed to put into consideration at that time.
Which made Kino’s offer to stay and keep watch over the situation in the north more of a blessing.
