Chapter 324 - The Hearing 3
Chapter 324: The Hearing 3
The Imperial Parliament, which symbolized the interests of the Baroque noble, was created when the Empire occupied neighboring countries and expanded its power.
The war for conquest continued to rise and win, but it increased the exhaustion of the Baroque Empire.
As a result, the Baroque imperatives had no other choice but to seek the support and assistance from the noble, and as a result, the power of nobles increased.
And the number of nobles increased significantly with the nobles merging their kingdoms or duchy.
And accordingly, the nobles had demanded the establishment of a parliament to preserve their powers and interests.
For the first time, the Imperial family strongly opposed the establishment of the parliament, as it was available only to the republican system of governing.
However, as the nobles cut off their support, the Baroque fell down financially and the war of conquest began to wobble.
Eventually, the Imperial family held back their greed and accepted the terms for the establishment of the parliament.
It was difficult in the beginning.
Once established, the powers and functions of the parliament gradually increased over time.
One of its powers and functions was to hold a hearing.
The summoning of the Imperial Parliament was usually with high ranking officials who committed crimes such as corruption, but if an imperial law was violated, then even the Emperor could be called in.
If serious violations of the law were done, even the Imperial family cannot avoid the summoning, and it was an indispensable role for the nobles under the Emperor to go for the hearing even the high and mighty Emperor too.
And this time, the hearing for the Emperor was done with an attendant.
The representative was Count Voltas, the right hand of the Emperor.
After seeing him as the attendant, Marquis Albain of the Imperial parliament asked, “You have come. How are the prince’s and the other children?”
“No one is looking good.”
“Really? That is such a saddening incident.”
Rather than just sweet politeness, Albain was sincerely feeling bad. It was because he had a lot of hopes from the youngest prince, Martel.
“To have such misfortunes happen in the house… Your Majesty must be so bothered with all.”
‘If you think so, then tilt over to our side.’
Voltas grumbled to himself.
However, he couldn’t just spew such words to the man.
The eldest of the Parliament, Marquis Albain, was very famous for his personality.
Even though he wanted to, Voltas couldn’t say those words.
‘Well, even so, it doesn’t matter as long as he doesn’t side with noblemen.’
Marquis Albain was neutral.
Compared to his title of Marquis, his estate was rather small with just 500 soldiers.
Most of all, the Gigant was just one, he wasn’t even able to reach the military power of even a Baron.
Nevertheless, he was respected by both the nobles of the Emperor and the noblemen.
Marquis Albain wasn’t the one to use swords or magic, but the one with literary beauty, whose estate was run by a prestigious school so the nobles from home and abroad try to enroll their kids.
The knowledge, age, and political neutrality helped him become the presiding chairman of the Imperial Parliament.
“Everyone is gathered. Before opening, I will take a moment of prayer in hopes of the well-being of the Empire and for the comfort of the children of the Imperial family.”
At the words of the presiding chairman, everyone clasped their hands.
“El Kassel, the lord of heaven, a foolish child who is given by you and Goddess Belize has descended. Please come to our nation to…”
Marquis Albain, who had said the prayers, declared the opening of the hearing immediately after the prayer.
“Then, we will start the hearing on the unauthorized intervention in the Holy Empire. First, we will listen to Viscount Mager who has requested their hearing.”
The man made his appearance after obeying the words of Marquis Albain and took his place.
He was the man, the retainer of Marquis Mayers, and the one who received the seal.
“My respected nobles of the empire. I am very sorry for taking this position here. However, it was inevitable to since we need to keep the nation’s laws and the Empire stable and prosperous.”
“Don’t drag it, Viscount Mager, proceed quickly and make it clear!”
“If the evidence isn’t clear, you will have to take responsibility for this!”
Emperor’s nobles barked like wild dogs on Mager.
It was an intent to block the noblemen’s advances.
And as they began to do that, the noblemen too didn’t stand still.
“Are you threatening us right now?”
“Marquis Maglev! Isn’t your child a member of the Knights of Guard, is he not involved in this?”
All the nobles in the hall began to point at one another raising their voice. No one was willing to back down.
“Count Stark, how is your troop doing? There is a rumor going around saying that main members of your troops were sold to the army of the Holy Empire, was it a good deal?”
“Where did you hear such rumors, or are you making them?! Do you wish to die by my sword?”
“Haha. You think I will be afraid of your clumsy slashes?”
“This man! Come out right away! I am challenging you to a duel!”
“Did you ask me to come out knowing that it won’t be allowed in here?!”
When the parliament capital turned noisy, Marquis Albain knocked hard on the board next to him.
Tang! Tang!
“Everyone, please calm down! Just because you are nobles doesn’t mean you can act like this?! How can you people act in such a way and expect the hearing to continue?”
At the stern voice of the chairman, everyone went back to their seats.
When the situation seemed to have settled down, Albain gestured Viscount Mager to continue.
“Thank you, sire. Yes… as you all know, the reason I have asked for a hearing is that His Majesty sent soldiers without the consent of the Imperial Parliament into a civil war of the Holy Arthenia Empire.”
“Those words! Couldn’t it just be that the mercenary units were plain misunderstood?!”
“Proof, give me proof!”
Once again, the Emperor’s nobles began to shout on top of their heads.
As a result, Marquis Mayers who was watching it all from behind, nodded his head looking at Viscount Mager.
Viscount Mager, who called the guard presented a box as an evidence.
“I too first thought that it could be false and didn’t believe it. But the stories I heard were so detailed that I had to send in an investigation team to Alvera in secret.”
According to Viscount Mager, the investigation team found some surprising evidence.
In the box which he opened, were the torn knights uniforms and weapons.
“These uniforms and weapons were found in Eisenberg, where there was a siege between the Holy Empire and the Conrad kingdom. This is the evidence that our soldiers intervened in the civil war.”
“What nonsense!”
“That can’t be trusted! That much, anyone can manipulate!”
As expected, the nobles of the Emperor began to refute.
In fact, the amount of evidence wasn’t enough.
Because, just as the nobles of Emperor said, that much can be manipulated.
Moreover, it was plain common for the soldiers of another nation to use our Empire’s uniform and weapons to secretly cause pain.
“This is a conspiracy of the noblemen!”
“Exactly! We will never accept it!”
Listening to the opposition of the Emperor, Marquis Mayers gestured something with his hand and a second evidence was provided.
And before long, into the parliament, much larger boxes than before entered.
Inside the box were parts of the Gigants, all broken and destroyed.
“The evidence from Alvera, the last city in the Conrad kingdom which resisted.”
“And the reason for this to be submitted as evidence?”
When asked by Marquis Albain, Viscount Mager explained in detail.
“There are the core parts of Hector, the new Gigant developed by Imperial Magic tower. And from what I know, the Hectors are only distributed to the Knights of Guard, so how did they enter the rebel capital, Alvera?”
At his statement, the hall once again turned noisy, but this time, the evidence couldn’t be denied.
As he had said, the Gigants were short in supply and were only given to the Knights of Guard.
When the nobles made the flustered expression, Marquis Mayers seemed rather elated.
‘Hu hu hu. They probably never thought that it would come out as evidence. Because they never even thought about this.’
The parts were suddenly delivered to his mansion in the capital, just the day before.
It was very unexpected for both Marquis Mayers and Aslan.
Who the hell would give them that gift?
He asked the man who delivered it, but the man said that he was given a little money but had no idea who sent it.
‘Maybe a member of the Emperor’s nobles who is dissatisfied with him.’
There was a person whom he managed to guess, but he couldn’t fix anything without any clear evidence.
If the character he thought of was certain, then the intention was clear. It was an intent to push the empire and the Imperial Parliament.
However, from Mayers’s point of view, the act wasn’t understated.
He had the ambition to resurrect the destroyed Milton region and make it a power that would deal on par with the Baroque Empire.
‘Kay then, what are you going to do, Emperor’s dogs?’
Marquis Mayers looked forward and smiled, and the noblemen raised their voices.
“This is a definite evidence!”
“Would you all want to say that this too is a false one?”
“Uh hu! Be quiet men, quiet!”
When the noblemen were coming up, Marquis Albain put down the noblemen to silence and asked Count Voltas.
“Is there anything that the Majesty’s attendant would like to say about this?”
Count Voltas had gone stiff for a moment and then opened his mouth.
“In fact, we hadn’t revealed this since it was a secret, but something had happened at the Imperial Magic Tower six months ago. Some of the wizards sneaked into the magic tower and stole out the new Gigants.”
“So what your words mean is, the parts of the Gigants which were found in the Holy Empire were the ones stolen then?” Asked Albain.
“Yes, that is what I think of this.”
The men of the Emperor were sweating with the fact that they could take a breath when they heard Voltas’s response, and all struck out at once.
“No, such a terrible thing!”
“There was such a rebellion going on in the Imperial Magic Tower! We need to find out the men behind it and deal with them!”
“Yes! Yes!”
Marquis Mayers laughed at the natural-looking excuse from Count Voltas.
‘The Gigants from the Imperial Magic Tower, that too, the whole new Gigant from the tower? That is such an embarrassing thing to say, a whole new level of low.’
The Imperial Magic Tower was operated by the Imperial family fund.
In fact, it could be regarded as the Emperor’s personal magic tower.
As such, only those who were loyal to the Emperor rather than having extraordinary abilities were included in it.
In addition, the security of the Imperial Magic Tower was tightly managed by the Central Army.
And how could such a newly developed Gigant get taken away by a traitor from the inside?
“At least make something we can even believe!”
“Such nonsense! Are you looking down on us! You think we are fools?”
Unlike the noblemen, who were barking loudly, Marquis Mayers sat still.
He never expected Voltas to act so shamelessly, but he did expect that Voltas would deny every evidence shown.
‘Huh! He is someone who knows no shame. I will see as to how long you will be able to keep your face like that.’
There was one more final blow which Marquis Mayers still had to give.
It was a number of documents that were given along with Hector’s parts.
The documents were written in a dwarf language, and letters held the transaction of the Emperor and entourages to and from Duke Ferrierd.
Aslan too said that it was real.
Some of the documents were handwritten evidence which were lost right before his escape.
‘But, if we use all the evidence on the very first day, the effect of the hearing will fall down.’
To get a definite effect, it was best to use them when everything goes silent.
So, Mayers quietly watched noblemen and the Emperor’s nobles were fighting.
And that was how the first day of hearing had passed.