Chapter 462 – The Royal Family’s Dilemma 2

Chapter 462 – The Royal Family’s Dilemma 2
After much effort, Rupert Walter finally asked the petitioning southern nobles to please him and fled the place with a thick stack of petitions.

Half an hour later, he appeared at the royal palace and entered straight into the royal palace’s council chamber.

“Ah, Rupert, everyone is waiting for you.”

His Majesty the King, who was sitting on the main seat, greeted him.

The Minister of Finance, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Military Affairs, the Head of Intelligence, the Chief of the Palace, the Chief of Intelligence, and other important officials in the center of the kingdom’s government were already seated in their seats.

And sitting on the right hand side of King Rodney was none other than Her Royal Highness Princess Catherine.

“Excuse me, Your Majesty the King, Your Highness the Princess, and your colleagues, I am on my way ……”

Before his words fell, all the ministers in the seats showed a heartfelt expression.

Earl Morin, who was the head of intelligence, said, “Lord Palace Minister, everyone understands, and truth be told, I came in today with makeup and disguise.”

“Alas, I was all set to dig a tunnel from my home.”

“Truly, it’s time to cure these lawless fellows.”

“There are quite a few meritorious families in there who made great achievements in the establishment of the kingdom, oh, do you dare to go and cure them?”

The others also started to complain.

“Ahem!” Princess Catherine cleared her throat and the crowd quieted down.

“Ministers, the purpose of today’s meeting, the first topic is to discuss how to pacify the lost nobles in the south.”

The princess blushed a little as she spoke, similar meetings had been held several times, but every time, she couldn’t come up with a thorough plan.

The direct cause of this situation was because the kingdom’s army had not completely defeated Giles in the south.

As the commander-in-chief of the counter-insurgency army, she felt that she had a great responsibility attached to it.

At the beginning of the meeting, firstly, the finance minister explained the current situation to all of them with worry: “Your Majesty, Princess, all ministers, according to the previous plan, we should allocate one million silver guilders per year to build armor and weapons, train knights, and stockpile food and grass for the next counter-insurgency, but after the arrival of these southern aristocrats, we have to squeeze out a portion of all expenditures to maintain a decent life for them, including the military expenses. However, after the arrival of these southern nobles, we had to squeeze out a portion of all expenditures to maintain a decent life for them, of which 150,000 was diverted from the military expenses, and if we continue like this, it will greatly delay the progress of our counter-insurgency. The other thing is that …… in previous years, the King’s Collar’s annual income could probably be around 5 million silver guilders, but this year’s harvest everywhere is not good, I expect the income can only be between 4 million and 4.5 million, if we don’t compress the expenditure a bit, we can only borrow from the private sector.”

(Note: Silver Shield, the circulating currency of the Kingdom of Aldo, named after the shield pattern printed on it, one silver shield contains 23~25 grams of silver)
Is the situation so dire, the ministers who had just been informed of the situation frowned.

“Your Majesty!”

Count Saliford Reynolds, Minister of Foreign Affairs, suggested, “The situation is such that decisive measures should be taken.”

The crowd gathered their eyes on Reynolds.

“Take a few of the guys who jumped the most and strip them of their titles of nobility, then imprison the others and lower their living privileges until we recover the lands in the south before sending them back.”

Sir Benito Lacerda, the head of the Kingdom’s Heraldry Court, immediately expressed his opposition, “It is very dishonorable to use such harsh means to deal with those old and noble families, and His Majesty will be criticized by the nobles of the country, and it will also be spread abroad and become a black material for attacking Aldo.”

“Then what do you say?”

“In short, we can’t treat these families harshly, their ancestors were all meritorious to the kingdom, and in this rebellion, even if they didn’t get the credit, they got the hard work.”

“Alas, it would have been better if they had just died when their territories were captured.”

“What are you talking about?”

The crowd bickered and didn’t discuss the matter.

A thumping sound came from the king banging on the table, and the crowd looked at their monarch in unison.

Rodney frowned and said, “Gentlemen, truth be told, I am prepared for it to take generations to recover the south.” “What?”

Princess Catherine stood up, this “preparation” of her father was the first time even she knew about it.

“Your Majesty!” She exclaimed excitedly.

Rodney ordered his daughter, “Sit down, Catherine.”

The princess sat down reluctantly; it would be nothing short of a shame for her if she really could not recover the South during her father’s reign.

The king turned to the Earl of Merlin, who was in charge of intelligence, and signaled him to speak.

The Earl nodded and explained to the crowd, “According to the information we have now, there is a mysterious force behind Giles that supports him, and all the unheard of strange things that happened during the rebellion are related to this force.”

The mysterious fire in the granary, the assassination of the admiral by his own loyal servant, the fireballs that appeared out of thin air during the invasion of Westport, the rebel soldiers whose strength exceeded that of the knights and were even more brazen, and the rudimentary leather armor that possessed protection comparable to that of metal armor ……

Earl Merlin recounted each of these things, and in fact, everyone here was a high-ranking member of the kingdom, and everyone knew one or two of them.

“The news passed back from our informants in the rebel army also proved that there are indeed some mysterious individuals in the rebel army, but their public identity is that of the church’s clerics.”

“Weird, only this word can be used to describe it, the strangeness of this force is beyond our knowledge, beyond common sense, we can’t even guess what other strange things it can get up to, for this force and the people who represent it, I can only call it for the time being …… “

“magic, and …… wizards!”

“After all, there is no more suitable word to call them.”

Earl Merlin’s words silenced the crowd, fear came from the unknown, and they were faced with the greatest unknown in the history of mankind …… or at least in the history of Aldo.

Magic, wizards, things that existed only in legends, but not on their side, out of sight, out of mind.

The king knocked on the table and admonished the crowd, “We can only proceed to the next step after figuring out what kind of existence we are fighting against, if we rush into action without even knowing the true identity of the enemy, sooner or later we will suffer a big loss and lose more power and honor.”

He glanced at Catherine, who lowered her head.

“Your Majesty!” The Minister of War suggested, “Doesn’t the Holy See hate sorcerer-type contraptions the most? Can we ask for their help.”

“Hmph!” The king said disdainfully, “The Holy See itself is still fretting about the Horned Bay. And ……”

“We can’t give the Holy See a chance to meddle in Aldo’s domestic affairs either.”

Earl Merlin said, “As a matter of fact, judging from the intelligence from all sides, it is also highly likely that the things that have happened in Horned Bay in recent years have this force involved behind them.”

This is also too arrogant, the crowd was surprised in their hearts, Aldo is a big country, the Holy See is even more of an existence that makes the continent tremble when it stomps its foot, what force dares to touch the asses of the two lions at the same time.

But for now, it seems that at least Aldo is getting dusted by it. Thinking of this, a wave of frustration ran through the hearts of the people.

“Because I decided to understand them and touch them ……”

The king said in a deep voice.

“Even to learn them and own them if necessary.”

The Lord’s words sent a wave of surprise through the ministers.

Manipulating witchcraft was a taboo of all times, especially with the existence of the Church as a presence.

(End of chapter)