Published: August 15, 2025
I wrote a letter to the town mayor of Hasse and handed it to a messenger. It wouldn’t even take half a day, so by the day after tomorrow, before I head to the small temple, it should have arrived. I just hope that after reading the letter and understanding the situation, they’ll behave quietly—though who knows what will actually happen.
“Is it really okay to just leave it as it is?”
“For now, we have no choice but to leave it be. Simply expelling him by force would be easy enough, but the important thing is what comes after.”
The high priest, having decided to leave the mayor alone, said as much.
Using noble authority, it would be easy to capture a small fry like the mayor or even physically behead him. But considering the future of the town of Hasse, simply getting rid of the mayor would not be sufficient.
“Isn’t it better to expel a small fry who does bad things?”
“Rosemine, what exactly do you mean by ‘bad things’?”
“Well, selling orphans, bribing the former head priest and civil officials with... uh, money and goods...”
As I counted them on my fingers, the high priest raised an eyebrow in surprise.
“That’s not necessarily something bad, is it?”
“Huh?”
Taken aback by those unexpected words, I blinked. We both looked at each other in puzzlement, tilting our heads.
“Those who take care of orphans hold ownership over them. Whether to sell them or not is the mayor’s decision. And giving gifts to nobles to get favors is only natural, isn’t it? Even Benno brought a gift when he first met me. Trying to make a good impression is only to be expected.”
Apparently, owning orphans because one cares for them and giving bribes are considered normal, and don’t fall under the category of wrongdoing.
“Oh? Then... what bad things did the mayor actually do?”
“Not obeying my orders as a noble, and trying to stand up without permission to oppose our decisions—that’s what.”
Even if the mayor committed some small-scale corruption or sold orphans, if it benefited the town, he would be a good mayor from the townspeople’s point of view. The money earned from selling orphans would not be questioned as his own. Rather, if that money could enrich the town, the people of Hasse would support the mayor.
Currently, Hasse has several hundred, or about a thousand including rural folks gathered at the Winter Hall, and a few orphans. The ones who should be protected are the townspeople, but if we protect the orphans by forcefully pushing out the mayor, we will become the ones despised, said the high priest with a cool expression.
These unexpected words made my heart give an uncomfortable thud. I never thought that saving orphans from being sold would be considered a bad thing.
“So, in other words, to the people of Hasse, we are the villains?”
“At this moment, yes. You’ve taken orphans who were supposed to be sold to nobles without permission and placed them in the small temple, cherishing only a few orphans and not the taxpaying residents.”
The high priest calmly continued, “Unlike when you were a blue shrine maiden apprentice funding everything yourself, now as the daughter of the lord, you live off the taxes of your subjects. Do you not understand who you must value—orphans or taxpayers?”
Since I was starting a printing business, I needed people who had no other jobs, and orphanages were very convenient for that. So I thought of building orphanages across the land to develop the printing business, and I believed I had permission from the lord.
“The lord’s permission was given because it was judged that taxes could be collected from those who hadn’t paid before. It’s not just out of mercy.”
A chill went down my neck. Faced with my own naivety and narrow perspective, another pillar of my common sense collapsed, and I felt like crying.
“I never thought our perceptions of wrongdoing would be so different. That small fry will be a good teaching tool for you. Create and nurture opposition to the mayor, isolate him.”