Chapter 416

According to the mistake Mary made,

she should have died without a complete body, but because she still helped the Dukedom of Antica in some things, she was finally given a tomb.

But she was destined not to be buried in the cemetery of the Stranik family.

When Orson passed by, he just glanced at it.

And Lucius didn't even look at it.

He came to the stable and asked the servants to lead out two horses.

"Accompany me to walk around the territory."

"Okay." Orson nodded, rode behind Lucius, and kept a distance from him.

It was noon, and the two rode horses and strolled on the road, and finally came to a forest not far outside the city of Antica.

In this forest, there were rows of tombs, all engraved with the names of the guards.

"Orson, do you still remember this place?"

"Yeah." Orson nodded. "My father brought me here every year when I was little."

"This is where the guards who escorted my mother Margaret were buried. Later, their remains were collected and buried here."

"When you brought me here, you always told me to remember this hatred and avenge my mother when I grow up."

"Yes, I was afraid that I would not live to avenge Margaret, but thanks to you, Orson, you defeated the orcs and completely solved this disaster. Not only did you avenge Margaret, you also avenged the people who died in the orc invasion."

Lucius turned over and got off the horse, tied the horse to the side of the tree, and walked into the woods.

Orson did not leave.

At this moment, the sun shone into the woods through the trees, and countless beams of light hit the tombstones.

Lucius stroked the tombstones from beginning to end.

Finally, he stopped in front of a tombstone.

The three words Marcus were engraved on it.

There was a bunch of flowers in front of the tombstone.

It seemed that someone had just come to pay tribute.

"I remember, father, you said that Marcus was your captain of the guards. At that time, General Marcus was found tortured to death in a basement..."

"Yes, I believe he would rather die than reveal the secret of my children, otherwise you might not be here now." Lucius nodded, revealing a nostalgic look.

Seeing that they still had descendants paying tribute, his mood became cheerful.

Chapter 35: The Real Enemy (5K)

On the other side, Litt took Lena to stroll in the Dukedom of Antica.

Finally, the two of them wandered to the Lison Chamber of Commerce.

The reason was simple. Orson asked Litt to get along well with Lena, but Litt really didn't know how to get along well with this half-orc girl from the desert, so he had no choice but to ask for help from Cherylina.

"Sister Cherylina, good morning~" Litt took Lena into Cherylina's office.

"Well, good morning." Chelinina sat at the desk, looked at Lit at the door, and greeted her with a smile.

In the Lison Chamber of Commerce, there are two people who do not need to be notified to enter the Chamber of Commerce, that is, Orson and Lit.

Then, Chelinina saw the girl with big fox ears next to Lit.

"That... Lit, is this person next to you... a half-orc?"

In order to prevent being pointed at by others on the street, Lit took Lena out and deliberately asked her to wear a hood and cloak to cover her ears and tail.

When they arrived at the Chamber of Commerce and came to the door of Chelinina's office, Lena felt a little uncomfortable, so she took off her hood.

"Wow, this is the Chamber of Commerce for humans? You must be Sister Chelinina. When I listened to the big brother telling stories in the desert, I mentioned your name." Lena said this and came to Chelinina very familiarly.

"I heard from my elder brother that you are a very powerful businessman. You must be very rich, right?" Her eyes seemed to be twinkling with stars.

"Uh..." Hearing what the other party said, Chelinina was stunned for a moment.

"Well, sister Chelinina, the thing is this..." Lit hurriedly explained to Chelinina about Orson's acquaintance with Lena in the desert.

Of course, Lit did not say the part that Orson told Lit alone.

"Really? Orson is really powerful. He can just bring back a cute little girl in the desert. He is really worthy of him." Chelinina said this, looking like she was teasing Orson, with some jealousy in her tone.

However, there was no dissatisfaction in her eyes when she looked at Lena. On the contrary, such a cute girl is rare among humans, and it is difficult for people to dislike her.

"Okay, your name is Lena, right?"

"Yeah!" Lena nodded energetically.

"Since this is your first time in a human city, I might as well take you to visit the human market." Cherylina said, standing up.

"It just so happens that I have nothing to do today, so let's go around Antica City together. I will cover all your expenses today."

"Great! Thank you, Sister Cherylina!" Lena showed a pleasantly surprised look and nodded happily.

...

Orson and Lucius left the woods.

"For more than ten years, I have been thinking about revenge for them all the time." Lucius said, looking forward.

"Orson, do you know that eighteen years ago, in addition to the orcs, the empire also faced another problem?"

"Another problem?"

"Well, when the new emperor ascended the throne, there was also a fierce political movement."

"Father, are you talking about the monarchy movement?"

"Yeah." Lucius nodded.

The so-called imperial election movement means that the emperor and the dukes form an emperor-electing meeting, and the meeting votes to decide the candidates.

Of course, candidates are still selected from the royal family.

Although the imperial power will not fall away, if the monarchy system is really implemented, it is obvious that candidates for the throne will contact the Duke and ask the Duke to support them in coming to power.

This will inevitably be accompanied by power struggles and mutual strife, which can be said to have no benefit or progress for the development of the empire.

The only advantage may be that it can avoid the emergence of someone as stupid and incompetent as the previous emperor.

"But I remember that according to the records in the history books, the monarchy movement only lasted for three years. The reason was that the previous emperor was incompetent and the people were miserable. Under the pressure of the dukes, he was forced to pass the throne to the current emperor. , His Majesty the Emperor has shown very good abilities after taking the throne, so the monarchy movement has ended."

"That's where you fall short, Orson."

"You have indeed read a lot of books, but you must also know that books are made up by people after all, especially history books. Many things have been beautified and transformed and cannot be taken seriously."

"It was only twenty years ago that that incident happened. If you ask older citizens, they will have heard some rumors more or less." Lucius said this, explaining to Orson What happened that year: "When the new emperor came to the throne, because the inheritance law of designated heirs was still adopted, a lot of protests broke out in the royal areas. The most serious one, and the one that caused the most harm, was banditry. ”

"Maybe it was organized spontaneously and planned for a long time, or maybe it was instigated and supported by other dukes. The banditry was very serious at the time. The royal family had already spent a lot of effort to suppress the banditry. The city of Antica at that time was also It belongs to the direct jurisdiction of the royal family and is plagued by bandits. "

Orson couldn't help but look surprised when he heard the true situation from Lucius.

"So, father, when you were fighting, you faced not only orcs, but also humans?"

"Yeah." Lucius nodded. "The guards who were just buried in the woods were not killed by orcs, nor was Margaret. They all died at the hands of humans."

"We have avenged most of the people in the Duchy of Antica. Now, it's time to avenge ourselves, Orson."

"Maybe your parents also died from banditry that year."

"But father, the banditry problem has been subsided now, and there are no signs of large-scale banditry activities in the empire..."

"But the person who funded him back then is still alive and still in a high position." Lucius said this, his hands involuntarily tightened the reins, with a hint of anger in his tone.

"Father, could it be that the person you are talking about is..."

"Yeah." Lucius nodded. "That's him, Giovanni."

…

"The struggle between central and local power in the empire is a political issue that has lasted for thousands of years. Over the past thousand years, the empire has generally maintained a relatively stable political environment, but in some specific periods, the political environment of the empire has indeed changed." Lena and others wandered to a school for some unknown reason. She pricked up her ears and listened to the lectures at the school's classroom.

Chelinina and Liteuk were standing not far away.

The two knew that this was Lena's first time entering human society, and it was normal for her to feel novel about a place like school.

"Well, now, please share your thoughts on the issue of monarchy that we talked about in this class."

"Teacher, I think the elective monarchy is an unreasonable system. Its emergence will only make the power of the empire more and more divided. In this way, without an authoritative center, local power will become even more uncontrollable. Through election, The monarchs elected by the imperial system are bound to be more inclined to centralization, the electoral monarchy will eventually collapse, and the inheritance system will still become the emperor's appointment."

"This classmate is right. After all, the royal family is very large. Under the background of the electoral system, many members of the royal family who were not originally in the line of succession can also participate in the election. As long as they have the unanimous support of the dukes, they can even go against the emperor. My wish is at the pinnacle of power. The supreme emperor does not want to see it. People are selfish and want to leave the best to their children. Therefore, even if the electoral monarchy system is implemented, everyone will After the emperor comes to power, the first thing he thinks of will definitely be to abolish the electoral system.”

"So, students, what kind of people do you think would support the electoral monarchy?"

"I think the kind of duke who doesn't have a good relationship with the emperor will choose to support the elective monarchy."

"Most dukes should support it, right? After all, this also increases the connection between the duke and the emperor."

"Local representatives will definitely support the electoral system. Of course, if they are under pressure from the emperor, they probably won't support it."

Lena listened to these questions in confusion, and then walked back to Lite and Chelinina.

"What's going on, Lena, do you hear what's being said?"

"It seems to be talking about the political system, Lena, I don't understand it well..." Lena said, feeling a little disappointed.

"In our area, the most knowledgeable people in the tribe will teach the children, but most of them only teach us literacy and how to survive in the desert. At most, they teach us some stories. We don't have so much free time to discuss these. Issues beyond survival.”

"However, I feel that here, everyone can discuss many issues that have little to do with themselves..."

Hearing Lena's doubts, both Liteuk and Chelinina understood.

After all, the school Lena was attending was considered a wealthy school in Antica, and the school only let the three people in after Lite showed his ID.

"I don't know which teaching method is better, but if it were me, I would probably like being here with humans. After all, there are a lot of things I haven't heard of!" Lena quickly recovered after feeling lost for a while. Got the spirit.

"Let's go to the next place!"

…

On the other side, Giovanni returned to the Duchy of Napoli. This trip to Antica was fruitful, but after returning to the Duchy of Napoli, his mood instantly changed from happy to angry.

"That loser Lawrence!" Giovanni looked at the information sent and angrily tore the paper into pieces, then threw it into the fire.

"Why are things always so bad with Aragorn!"

Yes, Giovanni asked Lawrence to use the financial resources and means of the Aragon branch of the Silver Moon Chamber of Commerce to cut off Chelinina's most profitable textile industry.

Lawrence did as he was told. He bid with Chelinina, used his connections and means to purchase textile raw materials at high prices, and then stocked up in large quantities to strain Chelinina's supply chain.

Everything is going step by step and in an orderly manner.

Seeing that Chelinina's property in the Dukedom of Aragon was about to end, at this time the iron fist of Duke Leon of Aragon hit Lawrence on the head.

It is said that it is Leon, but in fact it is mainly due to his only son Manuel.

Manuel convinced Leon and made him realize that as the backbone of the Aragon region's economy, the textile industry of the Lissen Chamber of Commerce can bring a lot of business tax to the Aragon region every year, while the Silver Moon Chamber of Commerce is just a blood-sucking business. The borer offers little in return.

In the end, Leon listened to Manuel's suggestion and directly issued a ducal order to forcibly adjust the price of cotton. He also declared that the purchase of cotton at high prices in the market constituted unfair competition and forced the Silver Moon Chamber of Commerce to release the goods.

This move directly broke Lawrence's spine. After this incident, the Aragon branch of the Silver Moon Chamber of Commerce was in ruins, while the Lissen Chamber of Commerce slowed down by placing goods on the market through the Silver Moon Chamber of Commerce, and the scale was larger. It was even bigger than before.

In this series of actions, the most important thing is the letter Orson sent to Manuel.

As colleagues who both work in the student union, Orson and Manuel have a pretty good relationship. Under Akatsuki's affectionate and rational words, Manuel was persuaded by Orson and agreed to help Orson.

"Waste, what a waste!" Giovanni was so angry that

Stomp your feet.

When he confiscated the assets of the Lissen Chamber of Commerce, he took action too late and allowed the Lissen Chamber of Commerce to withdraw its capital from the Duchy of Naples in advance. The losses he caused to the Lissen Chamber of Commerce were only superficial.

Now he wanted to use Lawrence to break one of the legs of the Lissen Chamber of Commerce, but as a result, one of his ally's legs was broken.

The only thing to be thankful for now is that only the Silver Moon Chamber of Commerce will bear this loss.

At this time, Giovanni suddenly thought of something, and then looked at the butler beside him.