"You can't keep killing merchants like this, Vaan," Astoria stepped forward to speak, fearing Vaan would kill more. "Merchants are needed to continue the extensive network of exchange of goods and knowledge across the seven witch kingdoms."

"If you kill them, you won't be able to use them to develop Sunpeak Town," Astoria stated.

"We don't need all of them alive. We'll only need to keep the ones we deem useful. As for the useless ones, we don't need them," Vaan spoke for the merchants to hear, but he didn't intend to kill too many of them.

He just wanted to scare them.

After all, as Astoria said, merchants played a vital role in the extensive network of exchange of goods and knowledge between the seven witch kingdoms. They were responsible for bringing in rare supplies of goods that may not be found in the Kingdom of Black Rose.

Killing too many could cause a problem in the economy and affect the development of Sunpeak Town.

"Considering what these merchants have done in Sunpeak Town, what does the Lord of Sunpeak Town have to say regarding their punishment?" Vaan casually asked Aeliana.

"Aggressive price raising of sellable goods, unlawful manipulation of the market, extortion, willfully instilling unrest and disturbing public order, disrespecting local authority I would say their crimes are punishable by death several times over," Aeliana stated.

She stared at the merchants with an evil grin to intimidate them, playing along with Vaan's ploy after sensing what he was trying to achieve.

"However, we can't execute them all, can we?" Vaan continued with a seemingly exaggerated expression. Then, he asked, "What should we do then? How should we punish them without killing them, Lord Aeliana?"

"As the Lord of Sunpeak Town, I can waive the death penalty," Aeliana casually said. Then, she made a money gesture with her fingers and added, "However, they must fork out their wealth to buy back their life. And if they want to conduct business in Sunpeak Town, I suppose a fifty percent yearly tax on their revenue for ten years would be justified."

"Even fifty years would be justified, so ten years sounds pretty fair to me," Vaan nodded in agreement before turning back to the witch merchants. "Well? Do you want to pay for your life? Or do you want to die?"

"You want to tax fifty percent of our revenue for ten years, and we also have to pay a downpayment to buy back our lives?" The witch merchants almost puke blood after hearing the extreme conditions.

It was not a fifty percent tax on their profit, but their revenue!

If the production or acquisition of their goods and wares cost anywhere close to fifty percent of their sales revenue, it would mean they would earn next to nothing due to tax!

Although they could do business elsewhere to avoid the hefty tax in Sunpeak Town, they still had to pay a downpayment for their lives!

The other party did not mention how much of their wealth they had to fork out for that! If it was everything, they might just be better off dead!

After all, even if they could live, their life onward would be no different from a slave's.

"Why don't you just go and rob instead?" a witch merchant asked frustratingly, deciding to risk it all. Even if she ended up killed, she had to negotiate more acceptable terms.

However, Vaan's following reply left her speechless.

"Aren't we doing that right now?" he said.

Ultimately, the witch merchants decided that living difficult lives was still better than dying. So long as they were alive, there was still the hope of things taking a turn for the better.

After the witch merchants accepted Aeliana's harsh conditions, they soon discovered the buying price for their lives was far greater than they could afford.

Even if they forked out all their wealth, they could not pay it all off at once. As such, they all gained enormous debts.

The only good news was that they did not have to fork out all their wealth to pay a deposit straight up. Instead, they were allowed to keep their wealth in order to run their business in Sunpeak Town, paying off their enormous debts slowly.

To ensure the witch merchants did not run away, Vaan had Aeliana cast a binding contract magic on their hearts and force them to accept the contract of guaranteed repayment.

As such, even if the witch merchants traveled to other witch kingdoms to acquire goods, they had to return to Sunpeak Town to conduct business and pay off their debts. Otherwise, the spell on their hearts would activate, causing their mana rings to explode and kill them.

Furthermore, if they even had the slightest intent to dispel the contract magic, the spell would also activate pre-emptively to kill them.

To guarantee the witch merchant would become devoted to working and paying off their debts, Vaan threw them some bait by promising to extend their lifespans during the repayment of their debts.

Their lifespans would not expire before their debts were fully paid. And if they fully repaid their debts, Vaan would help them advance to the High Witch rank, greatly extending their lifespan.

Of course, the price for Vaan's help in their advancement would be adding more debt to their name.

In order to prove his capability, Vaan picked out the most cooperative witch merchant and had her form her third mana ring with the support of mana stones supplied by him.

The witch merchant easily formed her third mana ring and advanced to Early-stage High Witch within fifteen minutes, thanks to Vaan's assistance and guidance.

After he saw how Jergag assisted Hester in her High Witch advancement, he devised his own method to help witches advance.

He could use Kinetic Energy Manipulation powered by his Demigod-rank dragon soul to reduce the strength of the repelling force in the witch's heart, which ultimately lowered the difficulty of forming the mana ring.

After the others saw the witch merchant advance to the High Witch rank smoothly with an issue, all forms of ill feelings for Vaan disappeared without a trace.

Even if they gathered all the resources required for their advancement on their own, there was no guarantee that they successfully advance to the High Witch rank.

However, if they worked hard to repay their debts, they would be given the opportunity to advance to the High Witch rank risk-free at the expense of increasing their debt.

The witch merchants were no longer afraid of the exorbitant debt. In fact, they feared not having any debts to repay instead. It would mean no opportunity to receive Vaan's assistance and advance risk-free.

"With this, we've secured the funds needed to develop the central town area and Sunpeak Town overall. At the same time, we've gained some useful slavesI mean, subordinates," Vaan mentioned to Aeliana and the others.

"Yeah" Solana glanced at the obedient witch merchants kneeling on the ground.

After receiving hard flogging of the stick and being shown the heavenly carrot, the witch merchants became devoted to the cause of making money to repay their debts and getting on Vaan's good side.

To them, he was like the chicken that laid golden eggs.