NOVEL FROG Chapter 710 – Collecting “Donations”
“The idea that someone in a position of authority and power could foist off the financial burden of celebrations they made for their own ego and image to the people they ruled over is a common sign that tyranny and apathy has started to set in amongst the ruling caste of a nation.
Beware when you see such signs, of the common people being extorted, their lives made harder, if not impossible, all to satisfy the vanity of those who considered themselves above them. These are warning signs that turmoil might arrive to the nation in question sooner rather than later.
After all, rebellions had started over less.” - From a dissertation by Leigh Wainwrought, Sociology student at the Levain Institute for Higher Learning, circa 687 FP.
“Collection! Collection for the celebration of His Royal Highness Prince Cedric’s birth!” shouted a couple town guards who walked around with a large bag held open between their hands.
Aideen and the rest of her group, who were walking along the streets a distance away from the spectacle, watched somewhat curiously as the townspeople the guards passed tossed coins into the bag, often with scowls and frowns on their faces. The guards themselves looked embarrassed and wished as if a hole would open up for them to jump into, and a few of the townspeople also gave them sympathetic looks.
They had read and heard about all sorts of rulers that squeezed their people dry through high taxes or unforgiving fees and the like, but even for Aideen’s group something like what they were seeing there was a first. They had never read about a ruler that collected money from his people to celebrate things like that, at least in the books they owned.
That it happened in the streets of Levain, the capital city of the Empire, made it more telling. It suggested that either the Imperial treasure was in desperate straits to the point that they could not even afford to celebrate the birth of a prince, or that it was held by a personage of heretofore unparalleled miserliness. Neither bode well for the Empire as a whole.
Aideen noted that most of the people only tossed in copper coins, with a rare few – usually the well to do and minor nobles – tossing in silvers or the occasional gold coin. When the clearly embarrassed guards walked past them, the group followed suit and tossed in some copper coins each, and watched until the guards went far enough to leave their sight.
“That happen often around here?” asked Eilonwy to a nearby passerby after they were certain that the guards were too far away to hear the question.
“Quite,” replied the woman she asked rather curtly, clearly disappointed with the situation herself. “Just three months ago they were collecting to celebrate the Emperor taking in his fifteenth concubine. There was another princess born two months before that, and twins the month before that one. It’s endless, I swear.”
“People were pretty willing to contribute at first, but by now the novelty’s long gone by, hence what you saw just now,” added the woman with a scoff. “It’s an embarrassment to the name of the Empire, is what it is, and even those guards have the decency to be embarrassed even if they’re just doing their job, too. It’s what they get for putting up a useless wastrel up the throne!”
“Hush, now, dear,” said the man that was presumably the woman’s husband. “We’re not at home, not so loud,” he added. “Just because the Emperor has proven too incompetent to crack down on talk like that so far doesn’t mean he would always remain as incompetent, so I don’t want you to make a habit of speaking like that out loud with witnesses around.”
“Please do keep that outburst just now between us, if you could, Sir and Madames? It would be greatly appreciated,” said the man to Aideen and her group with a slightly bashful tone.
“Outburst? I don’t know what you’re speaking about, good Sir,” replied Aideen in kind, after which she exchanged nods with the man and they parted as the couple headed their own way.
“Definitely gotten bad when it’s like this in the Imperial capital too,” noted Celia as the group continued walking. They were in the fourth ring of the city, which was a region mostly populated with the middle class, merchants and business owners mostly. The poorer people lived in the outer fifth and sixth rings, while the rich and powerful – including the nobles – lived further within. “Also the first time I saw a ruler being that shameless, I think. Even in my home village the local landlord still had the decency to add a cow for the year’s end festivities even in the worst times.”
“Really not looking good for this Empire, all right,” said Áine in agreement. “To be honest, it would be hard to tell whether any turmoil caused by the Empire disintegrating upon itself would be beneficial or not to Aunt Aideen’s plans, though. If the Emperor happened to be an ass and was against the idea, this sort of Empire is not an adversary to scoff at.”
“If they were too busy trying to hold themselves together they’d be too busy finding trouble with others, but I actually wish that they could survive and better themselves,” replied Aideen with a shake of her head. “Anytime a nation this large crumbles, it is always the people that lived in it that suffer the worst consequences.”
“I don’t think we can exactly help them out, though Aunt Aideen,” pointed out Rhys. “If their internal affairs are already a mess like this, there’s usually only two paths they could take to recover. Either they enact sweeping reforms to cut down on corruption and inefficiencies, or more often, they find some neighbor to turn into a scapegoat for their ails and go to war.”
“I know, Rhys. I know. The only people that could save this Empire would be its own, and at the same time, its survival or downfall would also lay on their own hands,” said Aideen as she shook her head. “I just hope it didn’t come down to them or us.”
