Volume 5 Chapter 12 (1/2)

Chapter 5 Episode 12

Editor: Starbuck11

One man looked up at the ceiling of his office while expressing his anguish.

No one knew how long he had spent in this state without moving since he had come home.

10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes. Or was it already 1 hour ?

Inside the man's chest, were full of indescribable conflicts and regrets.

This was the first time he felt a sense of weakness and emptiness.

(I wonder, where did I go wrong… We should still have had a little bit more time… Did we make a mistake somewhere ? Or was there no way to save this country from the beginning?)

When his father-in-law lost in the struggle for power against Duke Gerhardt, he never felt this hopeless even compared to his younger days when he had to stay indoor within his territory all the time.

”Please excuse me… Zeref-sama has come. Shall I let him in ?”

The knockings of the old butler brought back the Earl Bergston's consciousness to reality.

”Let him in… ”

Inside his heart, the feeling of wanting to meet and not wanting to meet intersected.

He directed his sight at the bundle of paper placed on the desk.

A few hours ago, that was the last trump card that could change the Rozeria Kingdom, but now, it was a garbage that had no purpose anymore. Just how much efforts and sacrifices did one had to make this mountain of papers that turned into uselessness, no one know the answer…

When he thought of that, the man didn't have the courage to look straight at the face of his brother-in-law who had trusted him sincerely.

Even when he knew that his relative was not someone who easily blamed others.

”Such a gloomy face you have there… Brother-in-law…”

Opening the door, Earl Zeref frowned his eyebrows the moment he saw his brother-in-law Earl Bergston.

”Well, I guess it can't be helped… Especially in this kind of situation…”

Earl Bergston replied with a deep sigh towards Earl Zeref who said those words while sitting down his obese body on the sofa.

”I heard it on my way here, that Her Majesty had collapsed after an urgent news arrived.”

Feeling surprised, Earl Zeref stared at his brother-in-law.

”That's right, she collapsed after she heard that a rebellion happened. Right now she's resting in her bedroom. For her, she also has a lot to worry about after all… But still, you're impressive to know about this matter, how did you know? There should've been a gag order for those who attended the meeting…”

In response to that question, Earl Zeref shrugged his shoulders.

It was easy to order people to keep quiet, but it was very difficult to execute such order. And such things were obvious for Earl Zeref who was good when it comes to gathering intelligence.

”There's no meaning on placing a gag order if, in the end, it would spread you know ? After all, even for a G.o.d, it was hard for him to keep someone's mouth shut. Especially now, when everybody was anxious about the country's future…”

In the first place,humans were a creature who liked rumors.

They would spread gossips like a ripple, from one person to another.

While in the same time interweaving truth and lies.

It was difficult to suppress such instincts with power.

”Something inevitable is it ?”

”Right…”

Earl Zeref replied to Earl Bergston with affirmation.

The two people stared at each other for a while.

After a long silence, Earl Bergston slowly opened his mouth. Right now, for him, it was not the time to worry about Lupis' health.

”I've wasted your good effort…. I'm very sorry…”

Earl Bergston deeply lowered his head toward Earl Zeref.

However, Earl Zeref only smiled at him calmly like usual.

”Don't worry too much, brother-in-law.”

”But !”

”It couldn't be helped. Since originally it was something with a low chance of a success…”

Earl Zeref expression didn't show any hint of indignation. From the bottom of his heart, this time's result was something that could not be helped.

(This guy… Or was it because I'm still too naive ?)

Seeing such att.i.tude from his brother-in-law, Earl Bergston directed his eyes on his desk once again.

This bundle of papers placed on the desk was packed with information on tax collection being done within the Rozeria Kingdom.

Who, when, where, how much money, and what kind of means was used to gather them.

And among that money, how much did they put into their own pocket and how much was handed over to the government. Everything was written in those bundle of papers.

Based on that information, Earl Bergston planned to purge the people who were part of the n.o.ble's faction.

Many of the country problems were caused by n.o.bles gathered under Gerhardt.

They were fanning up dissatisfaction toward Lupis, intervening in national defense, and pressuring the bureaucrats to delay state affairs.

Such actions taken separately might not cause a fatal injury, but those were things that could not be ignored either.

And malicious non-cooperative att.i.tude was far worse than being blatantly hostile because it was much harder to deal with.

Not to mention, Lupis' position and personality also makes it hard to respond.

The easiest solution to overcome this conundrum was to purge two or three non-cooperative houses with a low political power to make an example.

Having one's household being crushed was something that the n.o.bles most feared, but such fear was necessary to bind their heart and blunt their hostility.

Afterwards, one can use the soft method to bring the other n.o.bles closer.

There was not much difficulty when it comes to the reasons for the purging either.

When one carries a government on their shoulders, it was natural that lip service was not enough. Every house had one or two dark secrets behind it, where it was natural to call those hidden secrets criminal.

More or less if Lupis had the patience of bearing some pains with her absolute authority, doing the purging was not impossible.

But, Lupis tends to choose the calm and moderate responses, being unable to exercise her state power caused her to fail to achieve anything.

Thus Earl Bergston had only kept an eye while not taking any measures.

Until the day the other n.o.bles loosened their vigilance and exposed their violent fangs and ugly nature under the bright daylight.

”To be honest, I would be very lucky if all of that had gone well. After all, that plan was very difficult to do…”

Earl Zeref cuts his words and breathed out lightly.

The plan he was talking about was to eliminate the n.o.bles after grasping their hidden crimes. Under the state law, it was a legitimate move. But the timing was very difficult to execute.

The biggest problem was that those n.o.bles had used Lupis name for their own gains, and caused dissatisfaction amongst the citizenry.

The aim of those n.o.bles was a rebellion.