Sitting on the throne of Paraven, Charles often reflected on his past, most memorably when his father died when he was twelve years old.

That year was chaotic in the northern part of the empire, with twelve provinces declaring independence and soon agreeing to form an offensive and defensive alliance to fight the anger of the empire.

Calladan's predecessor, Harris III, as they are often called, was furious.

He could not bear such blatant betrayal and contempt, so a crusade army of several nobles was quickly assembled and headed for the North, and Charles's father was a member of this army.

His father was able to appear in such a team because of his father's father, who was also his grandfather.

He was a small landowner from Sebala. As a young man, he fought with his father, Harris II, in the snowy north, when the situation in the north of the empire was far worse than it is now. Everywhere they went, they had to send men to keep watch carefully, or every northerner would try to slit the throats of their southerners with their knives and forks.

Charles's grandfather was very sorry for this situation, he was a landowner from the south, and he could not understand the reason for the rebellion of the Yankees.

You must know that in the eyes of most southerners at that time, northerners were a group of bloodthirsty, ruthless, and ungrateful villains.

After three years of hard fighting, Harris II finally unified the north after paying tens of thousands of dinars. Many of the nobles of the time advised His Majesty Harris II to exterminate the Yankees, or to drive them all to the wasteland of the far north.

In their eyes, the Yankees are synonymous with barbarism and beastliness. They have lost so much in this war, and their only thought now is to vent their anger with the blood of this group of villains.

His Majesty Harris II, however, rejected their proposal, and in his tent he received representatives of the nobility from the north.

He looked at them and said something that was incredulous to all: "I forgive you, and the Empire will forgive you, lay down your arms, and return to your realm." ”

From then on, the reputation of King Xian spread throughout the Northern Regions. Until now, when people in the Northern Regions mention this emperor, they can't help but draw a cross on their chests and silently pray for him.

In the aftermath of this war, Charles' grandfather was rewarded by His Majesty Harris II for his bravery and was made a viscount, and his fief was in his native city of Seblo.

Perhaps because of the war, Harris the Camel, the son of Harris II, the former king of the empire, had an unquenchable hostility towards the northerners.

Believing that the northerners would not pose a threat to the empire only by completely impoverishing them, he heeded the advice of Count Macarius of Jepol to impose heavy taxes on the northerners.

At that time, the average southern farmer paid only a measly five cyptins a year, while the northern peasants paid as much as twenty-one septins. For the aristocracy, the family's annual income mainly depends on the output of the territory, and the land in the north is far more barren than in the south, coupled with the heavy taxes of the empire, which makes the nobles in the north miserable.

This is true of the aristocracy, let alone the commoners.

As a result, Northland has two more pronouns in the impression of southerners - hillbillies and bandits.

For many days, the common people who could not survive replaced their hoes and pitchforks with swords and longbows, and they wreaked havoc on every road and jungle in the north. It was only because of them that the Empire had lost tens of thousands of Septins in the Northlands.

However, this is only a drop in the bucket for the extravagant life of the Empire, which in the Northland receives dozens of times that number.

In order to consolidate his influence among the southern aristocracy, Harris III announced that the taxes in the south would be reduced to one-third of the original amount, which means that a southerner can now pay less than two septins a year. These burdens unloaded from the South were undoubtedly borne by the inhabitants of the North.

As a result, the long-pent-up resentment and hatred caused the northerners to explode, and they picked up hoes, rakes, and kitchen knives in their hands, and angrily attacked the governor's palace set up by the empire here.

If the officials sent by the Empire were not so arrogant, if the Empire people were not so poor and extravagant, if the Doge had not ordered the archers to shoot these angry people, perhaps things would have gone in the other direction.

But there are not so many ifs in the world, the northerners are living in more and more poverty, and under the deliberate guidance of the local aristocracy, they already hate the imperial people to an extent that there is no addition, and this bloody conflict has brought things to an irreparable point.

And so the war began again, and they held high the banner of freedom, sang loudly the war songs belonging to the ancestors of the north, killed all the officials appointed by the empire to the northland, and burned all the books and buildings related to the empire.

As soon as the news of the independence of the first province in the Northland broke, all the civilians, mercenaries, and even bandits and robbers who were wanted in the Northland joined the revolt with their own rations and weapons.

By the time the Imperial Raiders arrived in the North, the rebels numbered 30,000, more than twice as many as the Raiders.

But Harris III didn't care about this, in his eyes these people were not soldiers at all, but a mob at best. It wasn't just him who thought so, almost everyone in the team at the time thought so.

They had seen so many such riots that if they let the knights charge in their midst, or let the archers bathe them in a rain of arrows, they would soon be on their knees crying and begging for mercy.

However, they were defeated, and the defeat was complete, and no more than 500 of the 7,000-strong crusaders were able to return to their homeland alive. Charles's father died in what was supposed to be a victory. Countless others like his father followed the king for glory and wealth, only to find a cold death and endless fear.

Until now, it was impossible to understand how such a well-armed army could have been crushed by a mob, and we will never know the truth, and all the survivors of the battle were so secretive that people could not even mention a word about the Northlands in front of them.

Two months after Harris the Camel returned to the capital, he was ousted from his throne by angry nobles and populace, and his nephew, later Harris IV, proclaimed the throne.

Three months later he died in his hospital bed, and it is said that he saw death when he died, otherwise he would not have had such a frightened expression on his face.

In fact, it is precisely because of the existence of these people that magnificent history has been created. And the reason why that history left such a deep impression on Charles was that his family had been declining at a rapid rate since then.