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Marquis Marshall of the Florece Kingdom was on his way to the King’s private chambers, having been summoned by King Philip.
When summoned personally by a noble within the kingdom, they are often called to the private chambers rather than the audience hall, so he felt no particular suspicion.
Rather, he was excited, wondering if he would be entrusted with some honorable task, as he was often assigned special duties.
At this moment, Marquis Marshall had completely forgotten about the disturbance in Eiren’s town.
To Marquis Marshall, the commotion caused by an adventurer in a provincial city was merely on that scale.
Thus, he was drawn in, like a pathetic ant trapped in a sundew.
At King Philip’s words, Marquis Marshall’s mind went blank.
“Wh-what…?”
“Oh dear. Younger than I am, and your hearing is already failing?”
As Marquis Marshall stood dumbfounded, Philip threw in a joke.
Naturally, the person being joked about had no余裕 to react to such a jest.
“What exactly do you mean?”
“There’s nothing to be done. The Marshall family will have its rights as a peer noble revoked for some time. As for the rest, consider the confiscation of your assets a mercy, and reflect upon your actions thoroughly.”
Philip repeated the same thing with a composed expression, watching the pale Marquis Marshall.
He thought to himself that such a person would never reflect, but he did not voice it.
He made it a practice not to say things that were meaningless.
“Wh-wh-what, why!”
It was such an unexpected turn of events for Marquis Marshall that he could not help but raise his voice, despite his interlocutor being the King.
“You’re being loud. You don’t need to shout to be heard,”
Philip said, covering one ear theatrically and making a pained expression.
“There’s no ‘why.’ You can’t just extort money from adventurers and expect no consequences, can you?”
Marquis Marshall had not expected the King to bring up this topic, but he suddenly recalled some information.
“Could it be… it was from the start?”
He had heard that Prince Renard, King Philip’s grandson, was heading to Eiren’s town.
However, his arrival was supposed to be much later.
That was precisely why he had authorized the deployment of the regular army to hasten the resolution.
However, if he had been sent from the beginning to investigate this matter, it would be a different story.
Upon receiving the military orders, they should have used teleportation magic to dispatch a small, elite force immediately.
Marquis Marshall realized this was something he could have thought of instantly.
The reason Marquis Marshall hadn’t realized this was that he hadn’t expected the King to know about the tax issue from the start.
Since things had gone well until now, he thought they would go well this time too.
Still, one question arose.
Things had gone well until now.
Why was it that the King suddenly managed to obtain this information?
Of course, he knew the King used ‘
He knew that he himself had signed the order form for the military.
Realizing he could no longer escape, Marquis Marshall asked what he was wondering.
“How did you find out?”
What he wanted to know was how they had learned about the recent disturbance.
Similar incidents were happening all over the place, so it was hard to believe the King would single out this information and realize the tax fraud.
He could only assume someone else had told him.
“I would like to say I have sources everywhere… but this time, it’s not from them.”
Philip provided the information to Marquis Marshall, who didn’t even try to struggle pathetically from the start.
Of course, it wasn’t out of concern for Marquis Marshall.
He expected that information to spread from him.
This was entirely King Philip’s political intention.
“Then…?”
“It’s information I received through Alec,”
Philip shrugged and said it casually.
It was already known throughout the Florece Kingdom that Alec held the position of Prime Minister in Razek Amamiya.
Furthermore, his daughter, Floria, sat on the throne as Queen.
There had been various schemes recently, aiming for the power she possessed, and those individuals’ disappointment was still fresh in memory.
Marquis Marshall was one of them.
In fact, it would be rarer for a noble of the Florece Kingdom *not* to have been involved in that power struggle.
It could only be described as magnificent how their intentions had been thwarted.
Naturally, one could not easily interfere with a queen of a nation.
Moreover, it was widely rumored that the country was under the protection of a god.
After all, the Amamiya Tower itself was said to be managed by divine hands, so such assumptions were natural.
While it was nominally announced that gods did not directly interfere in politics, no one believed it.
For other nations on the continent, Razek Amamiya had, for now, become a presence that they could only maintain a policy of non-interference towards.
Be that as it may, Marquis Marshall tilted his head at the involvement of the former Prince Alec in this matter.
“Why would Razek Amamiya be involved in this?”
“Don’t misunderstand. It’s not that they were involved as a nation. I was simply informed as an individual.”
“…Alec knew about this matter?”
“That’s right… Is that all? I can’t afford to take up any more of your time.”
Philip said, abruptly cutting off the conversation.
He had no intention of revealing that the god himself had come to this country.
Marquis Marshall, now facing punishment, could not pursue the matter further.
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At King Philip’s words, the important figures present, with one exception, wore expressions of astonishment.
The declaration Philip made on the spot was completely unexpected to them.
The only one who remained calm was Maxim, the Crown Prince and Philip’s son.
“Could you… say that one more time?”
Overwhelmed by the situation, one of the important figures blurted out.
Philip slowly repeated his earlier statement.
“I said that I will abdicate the throne of King to take responsibility for this incident.”
The sudden announcement visibly flustered the important figures.
The fact that only Crown Prince Maxim remained calm was not because he had been forewarned, but due to a certain certainty.
“Do you want to see your new great-grandchild that soon?”
“Of course!”
At the words of Crown Prince Maxim and King Philip, the clamoring meeting room fell silent.
Immediately after, sighs could be heard from various corners.
The important figures were well aware of King Philip’s doting affection for his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
“A new great-grandchild?”
One of the important figures tilted his head.
They had not heard any news that Floria, Philip’s granddaughter, or her spouse, was pregnant.
After all, a great-grandchild of Philip would be a candidate for King three generations down the line.
Currently, the prince who would likely become King three generations from now was growing up well, so unless something extraordinary happened, that prince would be King.
However, in a world where child mortality rates were relatively high, one could not afford to be careless.
“It’s that I heard Floria is expecting a child.”
Upon hearing this, the important figures all nodded in understanding.
Floria was no longer officially associated with the Florece Kingdom, so she had slipped their minds.
“I see. So you intend to abdicate using this incident as a reason, because you wish to see your great-grandchild soon.”
Philip nodded with a serious expression at the blunt statement.
“It’s the ideal reason, isn’t it? If the current penalties are too light, there’s a possibility we won’t be able to placate the adventurers.”
This incident had revealed the involvement of multiple peer nobles.
Punishing all of them would have had repercussions that were too significant, so they could not impose severe penalties like stripping their titles.
There was a possibility that the adventurers would leave the Florece Kingdom.
This was something they absolutely could not afford, so by having the King himself take responsibility, they could demonstrate the Royal Family’s will to both the adventurers and the nobles.
Watching the important figures begin to seriously discuss the matter after hearing Philip’s words, Philip nodded with satisfaction.
This long story will conclude next time.
This story is not over yet lol.
I will end it with a little more on Philip’s abdication and what happened to Kousuke and the others.
By the way, someone has perfectly predicted the developments so far in their impressions > < ...Was it that easy to understand? lol Since I had already pre-scheduled the post when I received the impressions, I decided to upload it as is without any changes lol.
