Chapter 344 — The Day of Allegiance
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 3
When a noble lineage belonging to the royal house was lawfully struck from the rolls, the Crown had the right to reclaim that lineage's holdings and bestow them upon another, and the lesser vassals who had once sworn allegiance to that noble were, under normal circumstances, expected to swear allegiance to their new lord. Yet this was not compulsory but rather a matter of "moral duty" and "custom." The king had no right to interfere with a vassal's vassals; thus whether the old lord's followers would serve the new master often came down to the new lord's own skill. In fact, whether one could make the previous lord's vassals swear fealty was precisely an important measure of a noble's sufficient strength and prestige—at least, that was so in Ansul.
The prestige of the name Gaoyang Cecil among knights was beyond doubt; his legendary personal strength and the present prospects of the new Cecil Territory were enough to make the old knights of Kant Territory bow and swear fealty. But before them lay one final test.
That test was whether they were willing to give up their old land privileges and submit to the new order of Cecil Territory.
The knights of Kant were no strangers to Cecil's order. Though traditional nobles were a somewhat sluggish lot, the Cecil family had in fact ruled Kant Territory for a full half year, and even the dullest would have noticed the changes seeping in. Those with a little more wit would dig deeper for the "legal grounds" behind those changes—after all, they had already guessed that the Cecil family would sooner or later become Kant's new master, and no one could help caring about what he would face in the future.
Once they learned of the present state of Cecil Territory's institutions, the Kant knights grew tense. But no matter how tense, what must be faced must still be faced: the king's investiture had become fact, and that Philip Xian, who had always handled Kant's affairs, brought word of the lord's summons.
The Kant knights answered the summons with uneasy hearts. On the seventh day of the Month of Revival, the "old knights" of Kant Territory, led by Wald Perrich—former chief knight to the Kant viscount—arrived at the Duke of Cecil's residence.
Everyone knew why they had gathered here today, so they had put on bright armor scrubbed clean and draped surcoats over it. These martial knights assembled somewhat uneasily in the hall of the lord's residence, exchanging low words with one another from time to time.
The chief subject of their discussion was those unbearable "new orders" of Cecil Territory, and how to press the new lord for the privileges they ought rightly to retain.
"I hear everything in Cecil Territory revolves around that 'Administrative Hall,' even tax collection and conscription," a young knight said to the companion beside him. "Land belongs to the nobles only in name, but in truth the holders of land have scarcely any rights left... they even have to follow the Administrative Hall's arrangements."
Another knight looked more troubled still: "They may take back all the fiefs. That Philip Xian said he has no fief of his own."
"They say fiefs will become 'domains,' and from now on we'll only draw annuities according to the size of our domains, with no other powers at all. Even villagers who want to go work in the city, or clear land and hunt, need only report to the Administrative Hall—no lord's permission required..."
A tall, lean knight knit his brows: "If we lose even the power to keep those commoners from running about, how are we to maintain order on the land? Give it time, and those mudfoots will likely not even bow to us anymore!"
The knights were full of worry. Someone whispered: "We should make our position clear. Duke Cecil is a great man, true enough, but his decrees are sheer folly—handing the order of the land to a pack of clerks bustling about in the Administrative Hall. It will go to chaos sooner or later!"