Chapter 45: Father-Daughter Conflict
Chapter 45 – Father-Daughter Conflict
Earl Morin pushed his flash of absurd thoughts out of his mind. Magic? How could that be possible?
The Church’s magi always used legends of evil witches and wizards to scare ordinary people, and they even set up a special Inquisition, and some magi even took a broken stone and pretended to probe here and there, saying that it was some kind of scouting for traces of magic and sorcery.
Because of their influence, the public are convinced of these claims, especially the bottom of the common people.
However, in the opinion of a few well-educated people, the claims of witches and wizards are just fabricated by the Church to expand its influence.
With the development of the times, a large number of mysterious phenomena have been rationally explained, such as the phenomenon of “ghost fire” in the graves, which used to be said by the Church to be the haunting of evil spirits, but later on, after the research of the alchemists, it was just a kind of substance called “phosphorus” that had a spontaneous combustion. Spontaneous combustion.
Because of the lies that were exposed, the Church was not kind to these scholars who were brave enough to explore the unknown, and many of them were labeled as witches and persecuted.
However, this did not stop people’s curiosity, and even within the Church there were some factions that advocated approaching and understanding the gods through exploring the unknown and studying nature, such as the famous “Council of the Magi”.
The church associated people or things that they could not explain with witchcraft or devilish activities, and utilized people’s fear to strengthen their dependence on the church. This belief has spread to a small extent in the circles of high-ranking nobles, believing that witches and magic are used to deceive fools and foolish women.
Count Morin himself thought so, but most of the nobles still held the attitude that they would rather believe it than not.
“Please ask Secretary Merlin to continue investigating this matter. But no matter what the truth is, the reality of the lack of food can never be changed.”
The king broke the silence in the study and stated the most pressing issue at the moment.
Catherine said with a furrowed brow, “Father, I have already ordered to raise provisions within the royal domain, but it will take a not-so-short period of time.”
“Even if we are able to raise some of the provisions, it will not be enough to support the army for a long expedition deep into the south.”
Rodney XVI fell into silence and said after a long time, “We can only buy from the lords who support the royal family.”
“The king should be self-sufficient” was an unwritten rule in this world.
Since the collapse of the ancient Bella Empire, new regimes, large and small, had been established in her territory.
The newly born nations were at war frequently, and the monarchs of these nations didn’t have as vast a territory to rule as the Bella Empire, and couldn’t afford to support a sizeable standing army with their wealth.
In order to meet their military needs, the nations generally resorted to two ways of maintaining their military strength.
The first was to keep only a small number of elite troops, such as the Knights of various names, and then conscript a large number of civilians to form a large army in times of war.
The second is to adopt the feudal system, the king will give land to the meritorious nobles, so that they will become the land lord, the great lord can divide the land in his own territory to his own vassals, the vassals can be divided into their own vassals, and so on layer by layer down to the knights of this class.
Lords have to rely on the income from their own territories to build up their military forces, and in times of war, they are obliged to respond to the Lord’s call and make their military forces available to the Lord’s use.
Correspondingly, the Lords had no obligation to pay taxes to the sovereign or only paid a token amount. The royal family of each country basically relied on the income from their own direct territories to meet their expenditure needs.
Therefore, as the king, Rodney XVI could summon the lords to lead troops to the king, but he had no authority to order the mobilization of the grain stocks on the lord’s land, of course, legally he could also force this order, but the result would surely be to force more lords to the side of the Jarls.
Catherine suggested, “Let the royal commissioners we sent before be in charge of communicating with the lords in their respective garrisons, and try to keep the price as low as possible.”
The king agreed, and Earl Morin led the way, the piece of the royal commissioner was handled by his intelligence system.
He pulled out a second scroll of paper and submitted it to the king and princess, reporting, “There is another important piece of information, after our investigation, there is indeed someone behind Giles.”
The king unfolded the paper scroll and read the intelligence together with the princess. Catherine naively said, “No wonder, a year ago he didn’t have sufficient strength, and a year later he raised the flag of rebellion with such confidence.”
The earl looked at the princess and said, “We analyzed that the forces supporting him might be ‘over there’.” As he said this, he pointed in the direction of the east. The princess glared at the earl, “Don’t talk nonsense without conclusive evidence!”
The Count bowed his head and responded, “Yes, Your Highness.”
The king suddenly said, “Don’t say that about Secretary Merlin, the relationship between countries is complicated, there are too many things that are done in front and behind the scenes.”
The princess wanted to say something: “But, father ……” but was unable to speak.
Rodney XVI lovingly glanced at his eldest daughter, this daughter is the greatest pride of his life, so young so outstanding, but she still needs to be more refined in politics.
He turned to the Earl of Morin and said “Well, Secretary Morin, today you go back to rest, this period of time hard work for you.”
“This is my responsibility, I dare not speak of hard work.” Earl Molin saluted and excused himself, exiting the study.
With only father and daughter left in the study, Rodney XVI stood up and slowly walked to the window.
The king turned his back to the princess and said, “Catherine, there is something I want to tell you.”
The princess waited quietly for her father’s next words, yet instead she heard news that shocked her beyond belief.
“I intend to marry your sister to Veblen.”
A silence fell over the study, the only sound heard was the pendulum of the floor clock off to the side, and for a moment Catherine was unable to say anything.
At last she managed to ask, “What …… is the reason for this?”
In fact, the princess’s heart was clear beyond words: the Duke of Vibranium was the strongest among the lords of the Kingdom’s Eastern Realm, and the strongest among the lords who were now watching from both ends and had not taken a stand in favor of either side.
The king did not answer, knowing that his daughter must have understood his intentions.
“Erin is only fifteen now, has she agreed to this herself?” The princess’s tone was suddenly sharp.
The king, still with his back to her, whispered, “Fifteen is not so young ……” without saying whether Catherine’s sister had consented or not.
“But that Veblen is almost fifty! And with that bad rap! I can’t believe you want to marry your own daughter to a man like that!”
The princess drew up her voice and almost shouted.
“Enough! My mind is made up! Stand down.”
The king turned around at once, glaring at his eldest daughter and sternly drinking, his eyes no longer loving as before, instead revealing a sense of determination.
Catherine read the meaning in her father’s eyes, she looked at him coldly and said, “As you wish! Your Majesty the King.”
She turned around and walked towards the outside, and with a loud bang, the door of the study was heavily fastened.
Rodney XVI stood in front of the window for a long time, he sighed, walked over to the desk and slumped into a chair.
This daughter was still too naive when it came to politics.
(End of chapter)