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“Collecting taxes is one thing, but protection fees? You really have a way with words,” Bronze Dragon retorted.

Lisa countered defiantly, “Taxes are supposed to fund infrastructure, public welfare and job creation. Since they’re not doing that, it’s a protection fee. Who knows it better, you or me?”

Negris suddenly remembered Lisa’s former status as a high priestess. Indeed, she was in a better position to judge, so he reluctantly corrected himself, “Okay, okay, protection fee. But why do they need to collect protection fees from us?”

Lisa shot him a triumphant glance, “It’s not just us they’re collecting from. They’ve collected from every household nearby. We are just more influential, so they’ve sent more people to us.”

“How many people are there?” Negris soon saw for himself. About fifty knights arrogantly blocked the main thoroughfare from Goddess of Beauty City to the docks.

“They’ve sent only this few people to collect the protection fee?” Negris was surprised.

Sofia, who had just arrived, added, “It’s quite decent. When they came to the Oasis, they only sent twenty knights. They were shouted down by Lord Naeli.”

“Did they also try to tax you in the Oasis?” Negris was astonished.

Sofia shook her head, “No, they didn’t in the end. First, it was too far away. Second, they didn’t want to start a conflict with Lord Naeli. So, they let it go. It’s different with the Goddess of Beauty City. Although it’s also quite far, we can take a boat downstream, which is much faster.”

Negris scratched his head, “I’m not worried about that. What I worry about most is that they’ll block the river. This will certainly ruin the business in Goddess of Beauty City. Have you consulted Chairman Silver Coin? He has experience in this. What does he suggest?”

The Silver Knights’ base is not far from the river. They could easily dispatch a team to block the river, essentially cutting off Goddess of Beauty City’s customer flow.

“Chairman Silver Coin suggests that we draw the enemy into our circle of interest and form a community of mutual benefit. He suggests that we try to concede a portion of the profits to make them our representatives. After all, the Silver Knights have more connections than us, rather than simply paying taxes,” said Lisa.

“Ah, that’s a good idea. Use the Silver Knights’ connections to expand our customer flow. That’s much better than simply collecting and paying taxes. It’s a win-win. Let’s do that. Bring them over. Ummm, what’s that guy up to?” Negris asked, suddenly puzzled.

One of the knights from the Silver Knights, seemingly bored, suddenly ran from their ranks and galloped his horse into the paddy fields. Ripe rice ears about to be harvested were trampled into the mud by the horse’s hooves, splashing mud everywhere.

The knight laughed loudly, controlling his horse to prance forward again, shouting, “Watch my horse skills!”

Just as the horse was about to leap a second time, a beam of light shone on the knight. It flashed and the knight vanished from the horse’s saddle, leaving only a pair of feet. The horse felt lighter and turned its head to find its master was gone.

The Purple Skeleton Titans nearby were shouting in familiarity. “Don’t grab them, leave one for me, the third one from the left is mine.”

“One, two, four, five, seven, where’s three?”

“Three follows right after two, can’t you count?”

Ange held his sickle, Little Zombie charging headfirst, Little Angel flapping its wings, leading a group of Titans towards the Silver Knights.

“Ah….” Negris sighed, “Okay, no need to choose now. Let’s eliminate the enemy.” Saying that, he flashed a dragon-like glare, gritted his teeth, and with a roar, ran on his little claws towards them.

The knights were first startled by the Holy Light Flash, then by the Titans. Before they could react, they were overwhelmed.

It was not until a week later that Terek, the God’s Knight of the Silver Knights, learned of the disappearance of this group.

The past few months have been tough for Terek. Their only goblin airship had defected and, before leaving, dropped a magic crystal bomb on their camp. Luckily, he was not in the command post at the time, and only a few guards were killed.

However, he also seized the opportunity to ask the curia for a lot of supplies and funding, so he didn’t lose out too much. The real trouble came when the Fallen Angel ran to Dark City.

That was a huge problem. The Silver Knights were established to counter Dark City and were ill-prepared to fight an enemy like the Fallen Angel. They even feared facing the Fallen Angel because of potential corruption.

Admittedly, the curia had set up the Fallen Knights to comfort those corrupted by the Power of Fall and were probably researching ways to remove the Power of Fall. But the problem was that this would disrupt the organizational structure of the Silver Knights. Once you became a Fallen Knight, you might never return.

The Silver Knights had now become a burdensome interest group. Although they hadn’t achieved much, the curia still had to fund them. Otherwise, the Undead of Dark City might create chaos, slaughtering villages and such.

Rogge had sworn that they had never marched out in large numbers to slaughter humans since they came to Dark City. Regrettably, he couldn’t confront the Silver Knights about it.

To avoid Shamara’s attention, the Silver Knights proactively retreated, far from Dark City, and moved south of the East River. Several orders from the curia demanding they hunt down Shamara were all delayed by Terek under the pretext of serious officer injuries.