The privileges of the nobility were something that everyone wanted in the old Elta Empire. It can be said that as long as you are born into this world with the title of nobility, it is proper that the "uterus lottery" has won the jackpot.

First of all, aristocrats generally have the right of tax exemption or tax deduction for operating a certain trade. Under normal circumstances, this aristocrat generally does not choose to enter the industry directly, but chooses one or a group of merchants and workshop owners to form a guild of trades, collects membership fees smaller than taxes, and becomes a vampire of the country and the people with peace of mind.

But on the other hand, this kind of laziness, which is more despicable than running it yourself, ends up being more popular with Elta's merchants and workshop owners. Because of the patronage of the nobility, the bureaucrats who came to oppress them became less unscrupulous - of course, it was not without the collusion of the nobility and the bureaucracy, but on the whole, the aristocracy would always think that the properties under his protection were his own fiefdoms, and in contrast, the dues were equal to the taxes of his fiefdoms - especially the lower ranks, and the nobles who were the vast majority in numbers would agree with this more strongly, and it would be more troublesome for the bureaucrats to work on oil.

Secondly, the nobility enjoyed more or less corresponding fiefs. This "many" can be put on the heads of the royal family that has divided the entire northern zone; As for the few, there are still many noble magicians in this country who only have two footprints under their feet as their fiefdoms.

Of course, the most important thing is the administrative and criminal immunity enjoyed by the aristocracy. Leaving aside the privileges in the hands of some nobles, which are so extreme that they can't kill or pay for their lives, even if the other party does not have such privileges, the result of commoners sending ordinary nobles and their own cases to the law enforcement agencies of the Elta Empire with a very low sense of presence is usually limited to a "predictable" range.

Being able to enjoy so many privileges can understand why so many people are obsessed with being among the nobles, and it is even more understandable why the last nobles who have already enjoyed privileges are reluctant to let go......

"Our aristocracy is the power and glory that we have gained from the supreme glory of the Charles, the Siravia family." Finnmere touched the ground with his cane, and when he stood up, he used the brass bottom of his cane to make a circle on the marble floor tiles. This is the most high-sounding statement. In fact, both you and my ancestors are heroes who have helped a certain big man ascend to the throne of the imperial capital, and they deserve to be shared by the people on the throne! ”

These remarks can be described as "extremely reactionary". However, Nona, who is also a nobleman, did not take his presumptuous remarks seriously at all - those who have studied history a little on the Elta continent know very well that no one has stipulated that the Siravia family must inherit the legal system, let alone stipulate that the authority of the Siravia family is granted by the true gods, and the Siravia family was just a royal prince with a fief before taking over the baton of the Elta Empire - to be able to ascend to the throne in the troubled times is completely dependent on the full assistance of a group of military nobles.

The organization that one person can personally govern will not exceed one tribe at most. So what can we rely on to win the hearts and minds of the people, add strength to our own struggle for hegemony, and maintain stability in peacetime?

For rulers who are unable to achieve true centralization, the best option is, of course, aristocracy. This "advanced system", which was invented at an unknown time and place, has sustained countless nations on this planet that have been born and died for a short or long period of time.

But on the other hand, the longer a dynasty exists, the more "nobles" it inevitably produces. What happens when the number of privileged people exceeds the reasonable threshold that society itself has been given? The inevitable Malthusian trap will naturally swallow up all the unreasonable, and by the way, swallow up some of the reasonable things, so that everything starts again.

Of course, this problem is not undiscovered by the emperor, but the aristocracy has probably "effectively controlled" his country at this time - the big landlords, the big bureaucrats, the big nobles, as long as the three are combined, the king will have a headache. At this time, there is only one way to weaken this nobleman:

Use other nobles to "drive the tiger and devour the wolf". This plan is definitely feasible and has a high success rate. But the fallen wolf will naturally become the nourishment of the tiger, and the little tiger will be raised into the big tiger...... As for what the big tiger will watch after devouring the nobles smaller than him? Presumably hesitating, the king who wants to sacrifice this trick must also think deeply in front of the candle in a cold sweat before actually making a move.

But if you don't give noble status to those who make meritorious contributions and those who contribute, then who can contribute to the king's country? It is ironic that a king who is unwilling to share even the slightest bit of power will eventually perish sooner than the former.

And the current Emperor of Elta, Doniva Siravia, whether he is such a stingy king or not, at least in the eyes of Count Finnmere, he is this kind of person, this kind of stingy person who should have given him authority under one person, but did not let him get his wish.

"It's useless for you to say that." Nona helplessly watched the old man, who was more than a generation older than her, lose his temper in front of her like a child who couldn't get a toy, "I'll just say it." Count Finmere, I'm about to give up. What about winning his favor? People from another world won't let you and me get what we want. ”

"It can't be!" Fenmere hysterically tapped his cane in the circle, "Doniva, the son of the vixen, have you forgotten who helped him gain a foothold in Cierta?" And now you want to directly disappoint the nobles? Wouldn't he think about the profits and losses, and wonder if there would be someone to help him govern the country in the future? ”

"That's your own delusion." Nona got up completely impatiently, "Doniva now has tens of millions of mud legs under control with the help of people from another world, so what's the use of asking you to be a bad old man?" Or to put it mildly, in the eyes of him and people from another world, you and I have long been no different from mud legs. ”

As soon as Nona's words fell, she heard the cane in Count Finnmere's hand be struck by him, almost cracking the marble stone bricks under his feet: "You last descendant of the Viscount, who is nothing but beauty, has come to my abode only to inform me—to inform me of your failures, and your reasons for giving up?" Not only that, but you still want to 'convince' me to give up? ”

"That's true." Viscount Nona spread her hands, "If you can't accept the facts, and you still want to use the old empire to try to overwhelm and convince me, it will be in vain." Can't you see that the people of the other world are determined to turn the Elta Empire into a 'national country' completely? ”

"That's ...... Definitely going to fail! The bottom of Earl Finmere's staff was still tapping against the ground unconvinced, as if to make up for his weakness, "No one has ever believed in mud legs, those coarse, vile, cunning wastes!" Are you also going to be enlightened by the way of people from another world? ”

"But before, they did defeat us." Nona pushed her hair behind her ears and gave Count Finnmere a playful look. "Isn't that enough? Then who do you think Cierta relied on to defeat the Church of the Two Moons? Is it yours? The Earl of Finnmere? ”

"Well, that's a matter for the people of the other world, isn't it?" Of course, Finnmir will not give up so easily, "The conflict between Sielta and the center objectively exists, but with the Bilunar Church...... None, nothing to do! All in all, it was the people of the other world who wanted to fall out with the Twin Moons Church themselves! What does it have to do with His Majesty Doniva's acquisition of national power? ”

"All I can say is that it all started because of the Church of the Two Moons," Nona had gotten up to leave, her last words of advice to the man in the way of friendship. "They opened the portal for the Elta Empire to plunder resources on their behalf, which means that they are the main messengers, and the Elta Empire is the direct perpetrator, so do you still expect the people of the other world not to do anything to the Double Moon Church, do you think it is possible? Emperor Charles and his forces, who are already like glue with the Church of the Two Moons, will the people of the other world break up in detail, and then not investigate the culprit behind them? ”

"Elta, yes, Elta!" First, Fenmere couldn't tolerate young people with lower titles and ages than him yelling at him, and secondly, he couldn't tolerate the substantial collapse of Elta's empire and aristocracy, "The Church of the Two Moons, yes, the Church of the Two Moons!" No matter what the external environment is, Elta, who has lost her nobility, will not be able to continue to survive! Viscount Nona, if you can't wait, you won't be able to wait for the final victory! ”

Victory? Nona smiled contemptuously as she walked out of the somewhat cluttered garden of the Earl of Finnmere, ignoring the hysterical roars that came from behind her. She was fed up with being a tool of the aristocracy to win someone's love for the fact and the past - to be honest, she didn't love Doniva in the first place. He pretended to like him, but he was just for the same absurd goal of "following the instructions of the big man and finding an opportunity to make him change his mind and abandon the absurd system of the people's rule."

As she walked out the door, Nona opened a piece of letterhead in her handbag, and after a few glances at Doniva's handwriting on it, she tore it to shreds, allowing it to dance in the cold winter wind and gradually merge with the snow.

"You and Miss Bezesala, to tell you the truth, I can't tell which one I prefer. You're all excellent, indistinguishable, and fascinating......"

Although the letterhead had been torn apart, the words that Doniva had written on it now appeared before Nona's eyes as if the Emperor himself had narrated it to his face.

"She has something for me, but so do you. Commoners who struggle on their own strength and wisdom are charming, and nobles like you who are dignified and well-mannered. ”

But the marriage of the king of a country is naturally the focus of the whole country. Even if I decide to completely decentralize power in the near future, I think it will not be a small amount of attention. I'm afraid that the people of the new empire will still celebrate my wedding day with the new queen as a holiday, and celebrate it with the usual customs. ”

During her time with Doniva, Viscount Nona also learned a lot of new things, which became an opportunity for her to gradually break away from the closed social circle of the aristocracy.

"The emperor must be responsible for his people first, and only then for himself. Even if power is 'irresponsibly' transferred to the people, the emperor is still a symbol of the state and has an impact on his own people. Then it's easy to answer the question in front of me, Nona, do you understand that? ”

"'Hey, you know what? The one who married the emperor was a commoner! ’。 Or 'Hey, as expected, it's a nobleman who marries the emperor!' ’？ Doniva, who had crouched in front of the desk, looked up at the blazing stove in front of him, and wrote his heart in white with his pen in white. The people of Elta have just woken up from their pain and sorrow, and what do they need? It's hope. ”

Generally speaking, the scope of the emperor's marriage is basically locked into the subset of the "nobility" and the true subset. This is the same as the awarding of nobles and titles, which is a method of encircling domestic powers, using blood thicker than water as a bond between powers and the basis of a community of interests.

But again, there is a risk of further decentralization of power and diminishing the emperor's presence. But if you don't, it will inevitably lead to the dissatisfaction of the nobility, with a more difficult to guess consequence - if you find a nobleman's daughter to marry the queen, then the scope of jealousy will be greatly reduced, and it will sound more justified. But if you are looking for the golden phoenix that flew out of the common people's homes to make the main palace, not only the nobles will attack it en masse, but even the vast number of imperial subjects will begin to wonder, is this emperor not good? Are you so fascinated by the vixen that you don't know the general situation?

The family tragedy of his father, Emperor Charles, can be said to be the product of the first and then the former. If he does not become the king of a country, then what wife to marry, what concubine to take, what red flag to erect and what colored flags to pour are naturally not related to the big matter of the aristocratic social circle. But fate put him in a position above the 10,000 people in the Elta Empire, so what would the nobles say about his marriage? Presumably, everything that will happen next is also a matter of course.

It wasn't that Doniva couldn't understand the cause and effect of this happening—but in the end, he couldn't forgive his father. In his view, the power struggle was not a reason for his father to succumb to external pressure and cause family tragedy: in other words, he wanted to prove to his father that he could make the royal family free to choose what he loved in his own way—even if he sacrificed himself, he had to prove it to his father, and to everyone else in the world.

"They want to see a new Elta, not to feel the stench of the old times in me while I promise to build a 'people's Elta'. So I'm going to choose Bezesala, who is from a civilian background, as my only companion, not your ......."

Thinking of the conclusion that had become a fait accompli, Nona's tears were about to slide down the corners of her eyes.

"We all have to make sacrifices for the sake of the future. If you can't take the hardest step, I can't guarantee that someone will take it. ”