No one liked the Imperial Council, but there were many ways to dislike it, and the heart that couldn't get in was full of resentment, and when they entered, they repeatedly questioned why they wanted to come in. m.

This aristocratic assembly, which was once formed to collect taxes and levy troops, has gradually become the highest power unit of the empire after three hundred years of evolution, integrating a series of powers such as administration, law enforcement, legislation, and decision-making.

Hundreds of nobles with "political privileges" gathered together, tearing each other and fighting for every piece of fat flesh or bone.

Her advantages are known to everyone, clear and correct codes, teamwork, and orderly... In a sense, the reason why an empire is an empire is that the imperial parliament can accurately carry out every order of the emperor.

Her disadvantages are well known, corruption, old-fashioned, rigid, and inefficient... This authority, which condenses all the real power of the empire except for the emperor himself, rejects all changes and occupies every position;

So much so that every councillor who goes to the family tree can find which chair belongs to his family in the parliament.

For this power monster, let alone passing a controversial law, even changing the position of a certain chair or changing it to a new chair may cause monstrous waves, and several or even dozens of ancient families will fight openly and secretly.

Wise as Brandon I, bold as the "Dragon Empress", shrewd as Eckhart II... They are helpless against this power monster, and can only make a fuss about their own imperial cabinet.

This was true for the Emperor, and even more so for Metternigliopold, the Minister of the Seals.

Every time he walked into this "sacred temple", he felt like he was squeezed into the pigsty of his hometown in the East Sacraland countryside, where countless piglets were calling and yelling, and then he planted his head in the trough and gulped down pig food mixed with okara and all kinds of unnamed coarse grains.

Every time he talked to them, Metternich felt like he was talking to a bunch of stupid piglets, and he seemed to be getting more and more stupid every day as the Lord of the Seals, who had to talk to them constantly.

From the beginning of the entire "Imperial Capital Offensive and Defensive War" to the present, these imperial capital nobles have almost exposed their timidity, cowardice, untrustworthiness, and cold-bloodedness and ruthlessness.

When pleading, I can't wait to kneel, I don't need help to drive people away, and when the situation is tense, I quickly order people to "fulfill their obligations", and turn their faces faster than turning books.

In the absence of the emperor, they really seem to regard themselves as the rulers of the empire, and they really think that without the authority of the emperor, they can also command these princes who hold military power to bow down to them and obey their orders.

Glancing at the two motions at hand, "the Duke of Elems should be forbidden to control the important city defense facilities of the imperial capital with his army", and "the permission to reject the use of important military materials and granaries in the imperial capital by the Byrne legion", Metternich felt speechless for a while.

If we didn't hand over those fortifications to Archduke Yuli Wirtz, who was loyal to the Empire, would we still have to entrust them to the nobles' own private soldiers?

Or did they think that by controlling logistics, they would be able to control Byrne's legions, and that these knights from the south were so hungry that they didn't dare to allow their soldiers to loot in the streets, or even capture granaries?

Shaking his head, the tired Minister of the Seals was awakened by the noise buzzing in his ears, dragging him back from his contemplation to reality.

The familiar quarrels and loud shouts annoyed him, and they were the same noise that had been around his ears since he was a young man in politics.

"We must order them, control them, and limit them!"

In the buzzing noise of the main hall of the Heavenly Dome Palace, a drooping old voice suddenly stood out, and its loud voice was on par with that of a young man:

"Honorable Lords and humble servants of the Holy Cross, I don't need the guards outside the gate to tell me that a band of robbers and villains has appeared in our great capital, for I see the Byons and the Elemands coming!"

"These southern lords, and their mountain people and serfs, have made our great Golovin, the embodiment of civilization and nobility, their stone fortresses and earth-wood shacks, showing their rudeness and barbarism!"

"Yes. I know that there must be people who are in a hurry to argue for them! Well, come on, let's talk all day and all night about what kind of barbarism they have committed!"

The old nobleman's hair, gray eyebrows, and wrinkled face spat splashed, and his rickety waist and withered arms swayed up and down with his excited words:

"But before we can do that, we must first order them and make their soldiers obey their innately commanded mission;"

"We must control them, so that these savage and rough people will know to submit to civilization;"

"We must limit their movements so that the great Golovin is not destroyed by barbarism!"

As his tough words blurted out one by one, the hall erupted in cheers one after another, shouts and applause, opposition and applause.

Until a new voice joins in.

"It's a crime!"

A young nobleman suddenly interrupted the cheer and stood up with bloodshot dark circles and a dull face: "Honorable Lords, we cannot ignore the important fact that these brave warriors from Ellemont and Byrne have defended our imperial capital, Golovin!"

"Think about it, if it weren't for them, would we still be sitting here so safely and talking about the future of the Empire, and without their bravery, wouldn't the Azorean elves storm our city, burn and plunder?!"

"It's they who protect us, it's we who need them, not the flip!"

"And what is this honorable lord doing just now, he doesn't trust them! he doesn't trust the brave Knights of Byrne and the brave Elemont warriors who have protected us!"

"Therefore, I want to give your Excellency a suggestion, look at the top of your head, and see that this Heavenly Dome Palace where we are located does not belong to Saklan, she belongs to the great Sakran Empire!"

"It is the great kingdom of Sackland, Lothair, Byrne, Ellemont, Arles, Poy, and Eberten, and I suspect that your Excellency's prejudiced and narrow mind cannot even accommodate so many names!"

Listening to the excited cheers behind him and the same rushing boos, the bloodless young nobleman clenched his fists excitedly, so that there was a hint of madness in his expression:

"The great kingdom that makes up the empire is not only Saklan, our emperor is not only the emperor of the Saklan, our great and civilized imperial parliament is naturally also the parliament of the whole empire, not only Saklan!"

"If our honorable Excellency doesn't think so, then ask him to lead his family and servants to the front line to fight the Azorean elves!

As the young man's "categorical" words fell, the old nobleman, who was foaming at the mouth with anger, stood up trembling again: "So in the opinion of this young gentleman, these barbaric soldiers should be connived at to loot and destroy our city?"

"On the contrary, we should reflect on what caused these brave people to use this dishonorable way to obtain what is rightfully theirs!"

"Then we should give them the fortifications of the city, all our possessions to them, and the last copper plate of the poor to be taken away, and grovel to them and beg them to protect our city?"

"False! Our rigid and narrow-minded Excellency does not seem to realize that it is not only our duty to protect the great imperial capital from harm, but also their obligation!"

"Duty? I wonder how the young gentleman is going to convince these savage and rough soldiers and men to do their duty?"

"Although the answer is obvious, I know that Your Excellency's narrow-minded mind will never be able to take this into account, that is, we should accept them and let them become us!"

"Accept them?"

"Yes, accept the establishment of a few temporary special seats in the Imperial Diet, and let the honorable Grand Duke of Elemand and the commander of the Byrne Legion, the Earl of Fort Mountain Rock, participate in the deliberations of the Council!"

"So that we can bring their army under our control, let the council control their army, manage their logistics and every soldier, and make them truly loyal to the Empire!"

"That's right, that's the point of today!" the young nobleman trembled slightly, "We can no longer look at them with the old eyes, on the contrary, we should use more appropriate countermeasures to let them take the initiative to join us!"

"You're going to get a bunch of Gentiles into the council?!"

"They are not foreigners, they are part of a great empire!"

"They are savages, they are rough savages!"

"And your Excellency, you and your family are being defended by these barbarians!"

"How could you expect them to obey the orders of the council?!"

"How dare you question the loyalty of these warriors to the Empire?!"

"You're breaking the traditions of the Empire!"

"You're splitting the empire!"

"You ......"

"You ......"

.................. The quarrels, cheers, roars, sighs, and rebuttals that shook the entire hall... The noise came and went, and no matter how hoarse the official in charge of the order of the council tried to maintain order, there was not the slightest change in sight.

Everyone is arguing for their own purposes, everyone is asserting their ideas, and everyone is refuting proposals that are different from what they think, or that do not serve their own interests......

In the end, it doesn't matter what was being discussed at the beginning or what the topic was, because everyone didn't care anymore, what everyone cared about was whether their interests could be served, protected, or at least not lost in today's quarrel.

Metternich, the minister of the Seals sitting in the seat, watched from the sidelines with cold eyes, and even had a little "schadenfreude" looking at the ** official who had already blushed and his voice hoarse, and was still doing the useless work of "maintaining order".

When His Majesty Conrad returned, it was almost time for him to step down from his post, and the task of managing this terrible pigsty would fall to the shoulders of this young man.

Well, let him go through more experience first, and it should be regarded as a warm-up before taking office.

Metternich thought "maliciously".

"Knock! knock!"

At this moment, a sudden slamming of the door interrupted Metternich's musings and the quarrel in the main hall.

"Knock! knock!"

There was another continuous slamming of the door, and the dead hall erupted in a stormy roar again.

"What's going on?!"

"Who the hell has the audacity to interrupt us while the meeting is going on?!"

"What about the guards, what about the guards outside the door, pull them apart and explain this problem, otherwise they will be stripped of their military status and title!"

"Go get the royal guards and arrest this daring maniac!"

"Severe punishment, this kind of behavior must be severely punished, otherwise where is the majesty of the empire?!"

"Knock! knock!"

Amid the cacophony, the thoughtful Lord of the Seals slowly got up, left his seat, and walked in the direction of the gate.

"Knock !!!"

With a loud bang, the main entrance of the main hall of the Heavenly Dome Palace was slammed open.

The two figures, one tall and one short, knocked the royal guards to the ground who wanted to step forward to stop them;

And on the stairs behind them, there were no less than a dozen heavily armed legionnaires.

Archduke Ully Wirtz of Ellemont, Count of Hill Rock Castle Guy Angot.

The Duke of Ellemont, dressed in a black coat, walked vigorously, and his extremely proud and solemn expression flashed in his silver-gray pupils.

Standing beside him, the burly Earl of Mountain Rock Castle followed closely as his bodyguards.

The moment the two figures appeared, the quarrel in the hall stopped abruptly again, with a trace of fear and uneasiness, disgruntled but not daring to express their eyes, like waves in their pace, the predecessors separated, and none dared to stop their steps.

Until the elder who had walked towards them and stopped.

"This is the Imperial Parliament, and we are discussing a number of important issues. Metternich, the Lord of the Seals, smiled and looked fearlessly at the two heavily armed legion commanders in front of him:

"Do you have any requests or proposals to appeal to the Parliament?"

"There was no request, just a very important piece of information. Yuli Wirtz said coldly:

"We have received news that the Battle of the Broken Mountains in the north has ended, and that Loren Turin, Duke of Byrne, is leading an elite army of knights south, reaching the hinterland of West Sackland. ”

"The Duke's army is small, but it still can't easily pass through the blockade of the Azorean elves. The Earl of Mountain Rock Fort smiled unabashedly mockingly: "That's right, it is the land that the rabbits can easily occupy and control because of the inaction of your lords. ”

"So please approve the opening of the Imperial Capital Gate, and prepare to receive Duke Byrne into the city!"