Chapter 542 — Obstruction
Blade of Dawn · Page 3 of 4
"This is the first time I have seen you angry," Victoria said to Duke Boyu with a touch of feeling. "I thought you would never lose your temper on an occasion like this."
"I am indeed angry, but I am also in earnest," Boyu said, seated in his chair, weariness on his face. "This can sow confusion in some, and at least they will think it over a little more; and the others... at least one day they may bring some small contribution to the kingdom's treasury."
Victoria frowned. "How many were swayed?"
"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."