Chapter 375 — Gathering in the Shadows

"Yes—forced oaths, forced allegiance, nearly all noble privileges revoked, and even the power to levy taxes and administer fiefs handed over to the so-called second-tier Government Hall," Green said with a grave look. "According to our spies' reports, all the Kande knights were compelled to accept these unjust terms. They seem to have tried to resist—it is said that just east of Cecil Territory those brave and noble knights chose to draw their swords in defense of glorious tradition, and the sounds of battle even carried into the city—but afterward they were all suppressed by force..."

"Truly an inconceivable course of action," Count Horsman exclaimed with some exaggeration. "Is this the true face of that resurrected ancient hero? He is simply destroying the very foundation on which this glorious kingdom survives... In that land downstream of the White Water River, tradition and order are about to vanish utterly!?"

"He is destroying what he himself built in years past—of that there is no doubt," Green said with a stern face. "The honor of the nobility is being trampled underfoot. By violence and by means that bewitch the hearts of men, he forces those of noble blood to bow beneath his rule—and yet the vast majority still do not know his true face, especially in some parts of the eastern and northern Southlands, where the locals still regard Gawain Cecil as a pioneering hero of radiant glory."

"Everyone has heard his legend of pioneering, but that is a story seven hundred years old—who knows how many times it has been distorted and exaggerated. Now that he has truly been resurrected, it is time we saw the truth," Count Horsman set the ruby ornament on the table and spoke with solemn earnestness. "Mr. Green, my advisor, we must take action—we cannot let this behavior, which destroys tradition and law, continue any further."

Green gave the old-line noble before him a long, deep look. The man's words were earnest to the point of moving, but as a chief of intelligence skilled at seeing through people's hearts, he knew very well what the truth was: it was simply that the new machinery in the mines had lately been breaking down frequently, that the territory's alchemists and apothecaries had been departing one after another, and that the ore market was firmly controlled by Viscount Leslie of Tanzan Town. It was these visible losses that had made the count increasingly unable to sit still.

The count had already reaped enormous wealth from the stolen arcane network technology, but the nobility's demand for wealth is never satisfied; so long as a single gold coin remains in their sight that they can see yet does not belong to them, they will never cease reaching for it. Now Count Horsman had seen mountains of gold coins—and had also seen a weakness in that ancient duke that could be attacked. It was likely hard for his mind to stay calm any longer.

Yet as the intelligence advisor trusted by the Horsman family, Green would not expose his master's true thoughts; he would only offer a well-judged reminder: "My lord count, allow me to remind you—after all, he is a founding hero, and a duke besides, even if for now he is a duke in title only."

"Yes, a duke, a founding hero—but once he begins to undermine the foundational order of this kingdom, his titles and his halo will dim," Karlov Horsman laughed. "This country belongs, in the end, to all the radiant bloodlines. The Southlands have dozens of landed nobles great and small. Mr. Green, guess what those landed nobles will do once they learn of Gawain Cecil's destruction of traditional law and order—and of the threat he poses?"

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