"But history proves that centralization is not a reasonable way to rule," Viscount Weisz-Berg lowered his voice, "and the war for the throne sixteen years ago is enough to prove it. ”

"I agree with you, young man. Daisily Pombo nodded, but then grinned again: "But what was the state of the empire then, and now?" he asked himself: "Now, the whole continent is in a state of strife, and everyone wants to recreate the glory of the empire, elves, orcs, werewolves, Tekawa, Karenlai, as well as the half-elves and northern barbarians in the field of Felder, do you think it is necessary for us to worry about the problems within the kingdom at this time?"

"This political struggle was not provoked by us, Marquis Daisili. Weisz-Burst couldn't help but say: "We didn't do anything, yes, we didn't do anything, we were the victims, and there is now a small village left in our family domain that has been passed down for generations." ”

"What the hell did we do wrong?" said Wills-Burst, "I didn't even know I was doing wrong, I didn't know... My father, for the sake of His Majesty's cause, fell in the Orc War three years ago, for the sake of what we were... Yes, the former 'covenant', I and my family have no regrets!"

"I am even ready to remain loyal to His Majesty and fight for his cause and the honor of my family for the rest of my life. He drank the wine from his glass in one gulp, "But... But—" he was too excited to get the next words out of his mind.

"Yes, yes, I know, I know. Daisily Pombo nodded repeatedly, wrinkles piling up on his face, "But... We have lost in this struggle, and we have to admit it, admit our failure, and then find out the reasons for our failure and strengthen ourselves. ”

"Have we failed?" said Weisz-Burst, "no, we have not failed, and the pursuit of honor is eternal—" he looked up at Daisily Pombo and said:

"You're right, the Alan Continent is full of strife at the moment, we shouldn't be entangled in the interior of the kingdom, there are more honors outside for us to fight. ”

"I'm glad you think so, young man. Daisily Pombo glanced at Bipp, who was frowning next to him, "Merchants are constantly seeking more rights for themselves... But I have every reason to believe that Your Majesty will certainly not like the big merchants to control the political situation in the Kingdom, and His Majesty's statement at the end of today's meeting is enough to illustrate this point. ”

"Well," Weiz-Brew furrowed, "I don't really understand. ”

Sir Bipp watched calmly as the two men spoke, and Daisily Pombo looked at him at his last words, but he still did not say anything.

Daisily Pombo had to look at Weiz Bursther again, "Your Majesty is obviously not as protective of the merchant community as we think, and the most fundamental reason for his maintenance of commercial trade is nothing more than thinking about the future of the entire kingdom... You can't deny that strong trade and a strong manufacturing system help increase national power. ”

With an incredulous look on his face, Weiz Burst smiled and explained:

"I've been told this before, but I don't care... I probably had the same expression on my face back then as you do now. He shrugged, as if he didn't care what Weidz-Burst's mind was thinking, "I'm just trying to figure it out now... It's not too late. ”

"But..."

"Don't want to rob me. Daisily Pombo interrupted Woz-Burst, "You listen quietly first." He tilted his head and drank the whole glass of wine, stood up and skillfully found the wine bottle in the wine cabinet in the study, and said: "The reform of the kingdom is relatively late compared to other countries, the old empire was early at the beginning of the orc war under the leadership of the old Duke Nick to carry out commercial reform, and many of our reform systems are imitating the old empire..."

"No, it should be said that during the period of the puppet Emperor Barit, the old empire was already working on reforms, and no one accepted his reforms at that time, and even now, no one accepts his reforms, but I believe that history will prove that his choice was correct. ”

"The merchants of Kru Territory originated a hundred years ago, and the prosperous period should be counted from fifty years ago, and the first to trade in the ocean was none other than the caravans established by the royal family. Only then did the aristocracy imitate the royal family for trade routes... In the last twenty or thirty years, it was necessary to sell the territory to the nobles and join the unknown ocean trade. ”

"We've been ignoring one issue... That is, most of the merchants of the kingdom were formerly members of us, and as I said earlier, these merchants had the same illustrious families as we did, and they had the blood of the ancient nobility, but they made a change..."

At this point, Daisily Pombo paused and frowned,

Because, he found that his language was a little too confusing. The other two may have kept in mind the admonition to 'don't steal the words,' or they may have pondered his words and did not interject when he stopped.

After two or three minutes, Daisily Pombo spoke again: "Let's start with the very beginning of the Territory's commercial reforms... At that time, there was a conflict that is still fresh in people's minds!"

"And today, I went out of my way to look through the archives of the conflict at that time, and everything recorded in the archives verified my suspicions..."He walked to the window of the study, leaning against the window edge and staring at the two people next to the fireplace, "We only know that His Majesty at that time stripped forty-six people of their noble titles and hanged them on Lao Sang outside the city..."

"Among them is my robe-robed brother!" interrupted Weisz-Burst, uncontrollably, "and many of my friends were later killed, either in the conflict or in the war of the nobility, and most were assassinated. ”

"Yes! Yes! It was a bad memory, and for the next two years, I still didn't want to recall what happened. Daisily Pombo let out a sigh of relief and said, "But do you know how many of the merchants died in that conflict?"

"They deserve it!"

"Yes, maybe. Daisily Pombo chuckled under his breath, "According to the archives, the merchant group died twice as many as we did at that time, more than half of them died in secret assassinations, and countless wealthy civilians were secretly executed by local governments!"

"Is there such a thing?" said Weisz-Burst, apparently a little unconvinced.

Daisily Pombo held his glass high and explained, "The handiwork of the police department, to be precise, is the operation planned by Don Wright. ”

"But we didn't hear anything. "Weiz Brew is unbelievable.

"No, we knew it early on, but we chose to ignore it because we didn't have the heart to care about our opponents at the time. Daisily Pombo explained again: "If you still keep the family's intelligence files from a few years ago, you might as well take them out and look at them, and you will find that what I said is true." ”

"What do you want to say?" asked Weisz-Burst, frowning.

"I just wanted to tell you that His Majesty is not on the side of the merchants, everything he has done in the past... This includes commercial reforms, local realm reforms, the abolition of the Covenant of the Ancestors, and the introduction of the New Law, not because of the merchants. Daisily Pombo grimaced, "This is very important!"

"You're trying to tell me that we shouldn't have treated merchants as enemies in the first place?" Weiz Burst's fist in his left hand creaked, and the whole person was in a state of explosion, "My brothers, friends, their efforts are worthless?"

"Your Majesty often says that there are always contradictions in reform. Sir Bipp's ten-year tenure as Foreign Officer at Kavalburg was not as simple as it seemed, and he stood up, "I figured out what I needed to do next." ”

"You understand?" said Daisily-Pombo.

"Your Majesty certainly does not want the rights of merchants to be overly inflated, and I will suppress the rights of merchants on the premise of supporting Your Majesty's reforms, and unite with various ministries to introduce laws to restrict their business activities as soon as possible. Sir Bipp still looked at Daisily Pombo with a respectful expression, "The Kingdom's new law limits the power of the nobles, and we can introduce another law to limit the power of the merchants. ”

"Good idea!" said Viscount Weisz-Burst, who was struck by Sir Bipp's suggestion, "Didn't Your Majesty say that he would attend the quarterly meeting of the nobles of the castle?

"It's the end of February, isn't a month too hasty?" said Sir Bipp, who was not in a hurry, and liked to plan things before he carried them out.

"I'm still too slow for a month. ”

Daisili-Pombo calmly watched the conversation between the two, his gaze lingering on Sir Bishop for a few seconds, and then he said with a flash of jealousy in his eyes: "A wonderful note, I am sure that His Majesty will be interested in your plan. ”

"Hopefully. Sir Bipp smiled modestly, "I've been thinking about a question this afternoon... What should we do after the Covenant is annulled?" he looked at Weiz Burst, "will you choose to remain loyal to His Majesty?" or will you..."

"The Covenant," Weids-Burst muttered, shrugging his shoulders back in his chair in a somewhat decadent manner, "many of us have followed the Reagan family since nomadic generations, and the value of our existence lies in our allegiance to the Reagan family and to the Empire. ”

"And now, the Empire has fallen, and His Majesty has forsaken us!" he said, looking at Sir Bipp, "what can you do now? to be a lord of the manor, or to rebel?"

"Revolt only pollutes what little honor we have left. "Continue to be loyal to Your Majesty?" continued to fight for honor, but—" he shook his head, "Your Majesty has not given us the opportunity to be loyal to him. ”

Daisily Pombo came up from the window, sat down next to the fireplace and said, "Great opportunities, young man, the troubled continent needs you to make a difference... As long as you can put down your body and start at the bottom. ”

"The Marquis de Daisiri is right, Viscount Weiz. Sir Bipp subconsciously continued, "I've been thinking about this this afternoon, too... Now that the covenant has been broken, we should not waste time on it. With a cautious expression on his face, the old knight subconsciously looked left and right, and said:

"Actually, I used to think about this question back when His Majesty implemented the business reform, after all, I have several sons, and I have to think about their future... The existence of the Covenant allows us to obtain a good position in the kingdom's ministries and armies, and the abolition of the Covenant does not mean that we have no chance of continuing to be loyal to Your Majesty. ”

"As I combed through the information this afternoon, I found that there were countless positions available to us in the kingdom's ministries and armies... In fact, His Majesty has discussed this issue many times, and in the case of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry itself does not even have enough officials to send a high-level mission. ”

"Wait!" Weiz Burstt understood, "you want us to apply for low-ranking officials, to take exams with civilians, to compete with civilians?"

"What's not to do?" Daisily Pombo glared at Weiz Burst, "unless you want to stay on your estate for the rest of your life and walk your dog and drink every day." ”

"That's not what you said before, you promised us. Weiz Brew frowned.

"That's the wrong choice and the wrong promise that my stupidity and short-sightedness made me, and you're going to make me apologize for it?" Daicily Pombo's voice was a little cold, but more helpless, "Times are changing, young people, we must change with it... I believe that I have just made it clear that His Majesty's abrogation of the covenant was not intended to strike at the power of the traditional aristocracy, but only to adapt to the present era. ”

"If we don't change, we will become a second empire, and when the rebellion of the Eluk Lords first starts, can you imagine that the empire will fall because of it? ”

"You've changed a lot all at once. Weiss Burst looked at Daisily Pombo in surprise, and he quietly looked at Sir Bipp, played with the empty wine glass in his hand, and said, "Well... Actually, I was thinking about the questions you're talking about a year ago..."

Daisily Pombo was stunned when he heard this, and showed a more surprised expression than Weiz Burst, and Weisz Burstt continued: "Because I suddenly found that there are not many contradictions between us and the group of merchants, and most of the conflicts erupt from jealousy, yes, we are jealous of the wealth that the merchants have, so we use the power in our hands to spare no effort to fight them, and shape them into a group of mercenary and despicable villains. ”

"Actually, we took the wrong path from the beginning, and we should not suppress them, but learn to control them, and control them to become the power in our hands. He was helpless, "Your Majesty obviously thinks further than us, and he preemptively controls the power of the merchant in his own hands. ”