“A world that should have been rich and beautiful, what a pity, the war…”
Galador’s expression was somewhat emotional.
But Lois saw it as somewhat fake in her eyes.
This War Apostle had witnessed countless wars firsthand, seen planets destroyed by war by the hundreds.
Would he be moved by this?
Moved my ass!
Indeed, Galador himself didn’t keep up the pretense for long—he hadn’t really been pretending, he was merely reflecting, “If Rage Owl Star were still in its heyday, I’m confident I could have secured donations exceeding two billion Tax Currency from here.”
Speaking of which, he truly became melancholic, “Now, I can only scrape together two million.”
Lois listened on the side, without responding, indifferent.
Indeed, it had little to do with her.
She was a tax officer; as long as Rage Owl Star paid its taxes, that was all that mattered. Other issues like ‘donations’ to the Empire’s cause or the Sun Lord’s expeditions… what did they have to do with her?
In fact, she was rather annoyed by it all.
Four months ago, Galaraldo arrived at Dragonhawk Star Domain, visited the Star Domain Head, and then came to her Tax Fleet, starting to follow her around the entire Dragonhawk Star Domain.
She would collect taxes first; immediately afterwards, Galaraldo would seek out local notables for ‘donations.’
Those he sought included Star Sector leaders and Planetary Governors as administrative chiefs, as well as factions like the Empire Commerce Guild, State Church, and Mechanical Cult Guild. When desperate, he would even approach local magnates of various planets.
Generally, he could manage to raise some amount of money on each planet. This amount sometimes constituted half or even one-tenth of the Imperial Tax, and occasionally even exceeded the Imperial Tax, depending on the situation of the planet.
And Galador’s methods weren’t limited to mere persuasion.
The real gold and silver he demanded could amount to hundreds of millions or tens of billions of Tax Currency. The prestige of a Sun Lord, a War Apostle, might be great, but you can’t raise that kind of money just by trading on your face or your words.
Essentially, it’s still about power and… cunning.
He was officially authorized by the Empire; he could directly levy Imperial Tax within the Space Domain Government and Star Domain Government for the support of the Sun Lord’s expeditions.
The authority to directly commandeer Imperial Tax was immense. Consider this: under the Eastern Cosmos Domain to which Dragonhawk Star Domain belongs, there are 9 Star Domains, and under Dragonhawk Star Domain alone, there are 37 Star Sectors. ‘Tianma’ as a Star Sector has an average annual Imperial Tax quota of around 12 billion Tax Currency.
1 Tax Currency is equivalent under Empire standards to the total annual output of an adult in a standard Terra year.
From this perspective, one can imagine the enormous human and material resources at Galador’s disposal.
But this power was also limited, not absolute. He represented the will of the Sun Lord, no question, but the power of the Cosmos Domain Heads is also significant. They even have the one-person-one-vote power to elect an indeterminate number of representatives to enter into the Supreme Council of 13 of the Empire, representing the concentrated power of the Empire at a local level. They can veto the demands of a War Apostle, and when the needs of the two parties conflict, they may argue back and forth, with issues escalating to the Supreme Council of the Empire if not resolved.
Though backed by the greatest Sun Lord, airing all grievances before him would be quite unsightly, wouldn’t it?
This is where space for political bargaining and compromise exists.
Galador isn’t foolish; he has power but doesn’t abuse it recklessly.
For example, in the Eastern Cosmos Domain, the outcome of negotiations was that only 15% of the Imperial Tax would support the Sun Lord’s expeditions.
But what if that amount isn’t enough? Well, then he would go from one Star Sector to another, from planet to planet, to solicit donations.
And these methods weren’t necessarily ‘civilized.’
The Space Domain Government and Star Domain Government turned a blind eye to this, even providing assistance to a certain extent to prevent Galador from having further designs on the Imperial Tax. The Imperial Tax belongs to the Space and Star Domain Governments; if Galador takes too much, they have less to use. But the money he raises from various Star Sectors and planets affects those places directly, which is relatively acceptable to the Space and Star Domain Governments.
And Galador relies on this support to do some rather distasteful things.
For instance, if a Planetary Governor on a certain planet refuses his fundraising and doesn’t give extra revenue, he might back the Governor’s rivals or even rebels to replace the incumbent; he would promise some Empire World magnates to leverage his relationship with the Mechanical Cult Guild to prioritize them for life-extension surgeries; he could get his hands on some interstellar trade permits from the Empire Commerce Guild to sell to planetary merchants who lack qualifying rights but desire to engage in trade; he might even threaten some non-lifelong Star Sector Heads, implying that if they want to be reelected, they need to pay up…
The methods are myriad.
If it were just some underhanded tactics, some conspiracies, some political deals, well, that might be tolerable. But the problem is, many of his actions leave behind serious repercussions.
The worst kind create local unrest. Some planets were already somewhat unstable, or even if they were peaceful, became turbulent after his meddling. He may have received his so-called ‘donations,’ dusted off his pants and left, and typically the current Imperial Tax wouldn’t have any major issues.
But what about afterwards?
The planets are still there, still under the administration of their respective Star Sectors, Star Domains, and Cosmos Domains. Left with a mess, subsequent issues either need the various levels of government to clean up, or if they can’t handle it, even the next collection of Imperial Taxes will be affected.