Chapter 542 — Obstruction

"Fewer than one in ten," Duke Boyu said, recalling the number of those who had handed in notes, and shook his head. "Mostly nobles far from the Royal Thoroughfare whose lands are not wealthy to begin with, and landless royal nobles. These have little to worry about in wealth or privilege, but they fear losing the Crown's protection. They said they would be willing to learn more about our new policies in private."

"One in ten..." Victoria gave a cold snort, though it carried deep helplessness. "That is quite a lot, actually."

That the Northern Queen should also meet with helplessness—this moved Boyu deeply.

"Just as we expected, difficulties abound," he sighed, and said to Victoria, "We have adjusted the areas the reforms touch as much as possible, removed the clauses that would most affect the landed nobles, and still we met with such fierce resistance. Counting the meetings of yesterday and the day before, three full days of discussion, and the clauses passed number a mere five, and all of them inconsequential..."

"I said from the beginning that no amount of adjustment would change the result—taking one gold coin from those people's pockets and taking a hundred are no different, because they are unwilling to lose even a single copper," Victoria shook her head. "You want to build factories on their land, build roads, appoint officials—this strikes at their very foundation."

Wales Morne, who had not spoken all this while, suddenly spoke: "At least we can begin with the Crown's own domains—and with part of your lands."

"Ours..." Boyu gave a faint bitter smile. "We personally understand the necessity of this, but the marquises, counts, and viscounts under our names will hardly think so... Even with our own push, the difficulty of carrying out reform within the duchy remains immense."

Fiefs divided and ruling themselves, each a kingdom of its own.

Victoria Wilde suddenly recalled what Gao Yang had said to her before she left the Southern Region, when he appraised the kingdom's noble system—that very sentence—and she thought of the Southern Region's system of "new nobles."

The counts and viscounts over there... did not have such power.

She shook her head, cast some unpleasant associations aside, and looked at Wales. "That you support these new policies so strongly surprises me. I had not originally counted the Crown's own domains in my considerations."

"I know. This is your way of showing the Moen family..." Welsh shook his head, pressing the words "one last measure of respect" back down into his heart. "I can see the meaning behind these new policies. I know they will benefit this country."

"And yet those who opposed them at the council, who resisted, who refused to take a stance—did they truly fail to see it either?" Victoria's gaze drifted across the empty long hall as she spoke slowly. "Even if they cannot see the value of the new factories, the new merchant guilds, the schools for commoners, surely they can at least see the rise of Cecil... and still they oppose, still they refuse to take a stance."

Baiyu Franklin sighed. "It is not that they cannot see what such measures would do for the kingdom. They simply will not pay out of their own interests for it. Their thinking is very simple: why can it not be someone else, why can the factories not be built on someone else's lands—yes, everyone is thinking exactly that."

"Look on the bright side," Victoria said suddenly in a quiet voice after a moment of silence. "At least the matter of the new king's coronation won it support."

Baiyu Franklin showed a faintly mocking smile. "Indeed. Compared with building a factory on their lands, getting them to back the king really is a small thing."

Having said this, the Duke of the West, clearly in low spirits, rose to his feet. He looked toward the exit of the long hall, and after several seconds of silence spoke slowly: "The town council proposal is very likely to fail. This reform is too radical—we can postpone it, and the schools as well, we can postpone those too—but the new factories we must have, at any cost we must have them, or we shall forever have our throats gripped by the Cecil folk."

Baiyu Franklin departed.

Victoria watched the Duke of the West's retreating figure and for a long while said nothing.

Welsh Moen's voice broke the silence in the hall: "Duchess Wilder, did Duke Gao Yang Cecil truly state to you that day that he had no interest in the Ansu throne?"

Victoria nodded. "He did indeed say so."

"Oh..." Welsh Moen nodded placidly, then slowly rose as well. "Then I shall take my leave first. Please, make yourself at home."

At last only Victoria remained in the long hall.

The Queen of the North gazed at this empty place, at this place that not long ago had been filled with clamor and contention, and stood there for a long, long time.

A sigh, faint as though it might not exist at all, rose in the long hall, and amid the swirling snowflakes her figure vanished beside the throne.

The snowflakes wrought of condensed magic drifted apart and scattered, and the last few crystalline flakes settled upon the portrait of Francis II hanging behind the throne, melted into water, and slowly dripped down.