Bounty Mercenary Group
Chapter 31 - 31 31 A Day in the Life of the Mayor

31: Chapter 31: A Day in the Life of the Mayor 31: Chapter 31: A Day in the Life of the Mayor Before the sun unveiled the black world, a servant slipped away silently in dark robes.

Just as when he had arrived, his movements were quick and agile, leaving no one to know exactly what had transpired that night.

Those in the know were bribed with Gold Coins, keeping quiet, leaving others in fear of not knowing what might happen under the veil of the night.

Fear of the unknown always led to worrying about something terrible happening.

So, there was always a dim light burning through the night in the watchman’s hut, but it could not fully illuminate the darkness.

Hence, people always prayed that misfortune would not come to them.

On this continent, a religion rose under the Emperor’s support, that was the Church of Holy Light.

The town mayor, after a wild night of pleasure, was almost drained of energy.

However, even so, he still arrived at his private chapel, dark circles under his eyes.

No matter what happened during the day or night, when the sun rose, he was always on time, kneeling before the golden hourglass of the holy light.

The sunlight streamed evenly through the colorful glass, illuminating the golden hourglass.

The mayor had spent a lot of money to hire a famous engineer to build this chapel.

Every year, the money he spent on his faith reached unimaginable amounts for most people.

He only hoped to prove his devotion in this way, hoping that the holy light would protect him.

In his view, faith was merely a tool for protection; when he needed it, he would donate dirty gold coins earned from unknown sources to the church.

The Church, which served the holy light, always needed money to keep its operation among people.

For the monks or preachers in the church, although faith was rooted in their hearts, people like the mayor were always corrupting their purity.

They are not forcibly converting these preachers with guns and knives.

The indulgence in worldly pleasures is enough to make the clergy fall.

Gold Coins are the lever to move human souls, all because of them, they seem to have a magical power, always deeply attracting people.

However, in the doctrine of holy light, only demons would use gold coins.

The preachers, in the name of guarding sins, solicit people’s sins, bring them to the holy light to ask for purification.

Those purified gold coins were indeed never used again, but this was only true for hypocritical preachers.

The mountains of gold coins were left in the cellar, unattended until the “robbers” took away these treasures and offered them to the demons.

Then through demonic temptation, the gold coins were cycled back into the hands of the people.

As for who those robbers were… their courageous holy knights would tell all, with faces of determination, that they all used black veils to cover their faces.

Therefore, they didn’t see, in other words, they don’t know if the ‘masked robber’ could be one of them.

But even though this was already a secret known to all, the mayor still hoped that in the future, he would be able to present more ‘sins’ to the holy light for baptism.

He knelt down in order, looking in the direction of the sun’s light, praying devoutly.

If the holy light could really protect him, no matter how many Gold Coins, he would be willing to pay, and if the holy light were a little more generous, granting him a longer life.

“If I could live for twenty more years in my youth, I’ll give my mother’s dowries to you!”

Mumbling to himself, he finished today’s prayer, stood up, flipped the golden hourglass, and started his new day.

In the bright sunlight, he would first go to his breakfast table and eat a ‘simple’ breakfast to purify his soul.

Of course, his breakfast was only simple compared to the Emperor’s breakfast.

Then, he would start working, which was his main duty as the mayor of the town.

His focus, however, was not on the fact that the town’s public well had been contaminated, and a new one needed to be dug.

In his eyes, the job of a mayor was to be buried in accounts.

All businesses in the town needed to hand over one-tenth of their daily turnover, and the Mercenary Guild – one-twelfth, plus an additional one-third of the mercenaries’ income.

This is a complex job that requires patience.

If it wasn’t done properly, then the mayor’s following day would be very unsettling.

Only when yesterday’s accounts were all sorted out, would he finally relax, praising the Emperor’s wisdom towards the account book.

Just taking one-tenth of these lowly citizens’ turnover was a great kindness.

And they still had the audacity to complain!

Those ungrateful wretches!

After making his calculations, he added an extra stroke to the hundreds column of the total.

How to handle these extras was the job of the tax official, not something he, as mayor, should do.

Nonetheless, he diligently completed his daily work.

After his extravagant lunch, which was second only to the Emperor’s, he began his ambiguous relationship with his maids.

Alcohol could easily make people lose self-control.

In the doctrine of the holy light, followers of the holy light were absolutely forbidden to drink alcohol.

The mayor had his own twisted logic for this.

Since no one knew what happened when he prayed daily in the chapel, if no one knew he got drunk, how could that be regarded as drinking?

This was his dissolute life.

Despite the Church of the Holy Light’s publicity associating him with goodness and loyalty, he was still the most devoted follower of the holy light.

He was so selfless, contributing all, his meager salary.

Only those citizens who were blinded and silenced by money, and those who only believed in demons, would question his faith.

Anyone not offering their sinful Gold Coins to the Church of Holy Light were influenced by demons, deserving to be strapped to the burning stake.

If it weren’t for the Emperor’s mercy and generosity, they all should have been burned long ago.

That was the private view of those preachers towards ordinary citizens.

When the Church of the Holy Light and the Empire coexisted and constituted the cornerstone of maintaining the Empire’s stability, no one dared to question the holy light.

They could choose between the burning stake or the gallows, these miserable wretches.

But for nobles or scholars, they had a better choice, that was…the guillotine!