“Enough is enough!”
The angry voice of one of the participants resounded in the specially prepared venue.
The angry voice was from a noble of the Northern Town.
As if in agreement with the noble, those sitting around him also raised their voices, saying, “That’s right, that’s right.”
However, those who were subjected to the abuse had an expression as if nothing was happening.
They didn’t seem to be bothered at all.
They were currently in a meeting room of a facility in the Northern Town.
In that room, an explanation was being given about the conditions presented by Razek Amamiya this time around.
However, it seemed that they could not hold back their impatience during the explanation, and the angry voice from earlier resounded.
In the first place, this matter was planned by the Northern Town to extract some concessions from Razek Amamiya.
The nobles of the Northern Town had gathered because their fate was at stake.
Although there are nobles from the lower ranks to the upper ranks, most of those in the lower ranks have not come.
Conversely, those in the higher ranks were more gathered.
This was only natural, as their future fate depended on this meeting.
One noble raised his angry voice because, since the start of this meeting, the attendees from Razek Amamiya’s side had been calmly explaining the conditions.
The attendees from the Northern Town, who had expected even the slightest improvement, were enraged by the utter lack of any improvement.
However, from Razek Amamiya’s side, it was nothing short of a mistaken outrage.
In the first place, Razek Amamiya’s side understood this meeting to be for explaining the purpose, not for negotiating conditions.
It was the Northern Town’s side that had mistakenly assumed that the conditions would be eased in this meeting.
The representative of Razek Amamiya waited for the commotion to subside before speaking again.
“There seems to be some misunderstanding, but I am here as the representative of Queen Floria. Therefore, please consider it the Queen’s opinion that we have no intention of changing the conditions.”
The representative paused after saying so.
Lucas, confirming this, asked on behalf of everyone.
“After cutting off us higher-ups, how do you plan to govern this town?”
“How, you ask?”
In response to the representative’s question, a heckle flew out, as if asking if they didn’t even understand that much.
Lucas raised his right hand to quell the heckling.
“After all, we have governed this town for many years. Do you think you can govern it properly by excluding us?”
“Of course.”
The representative answered Lucas’s direct question immediately.
At their confident expression, the venue fell silent, forgetting to heckle.
“Why do you think it won’t go well in the first place?”
“What?”
“Re-governing a town that is already well-governed takes a lot of effort and time. At worst, it could even lead to rebellion. However, don’t you think it’s surprisingly less troublesome to rebuild a town that is not being governed well?”
The representative of Razek Amamiya said this with a smile.
This representative was clearly stating that the current governance of the Northern Town was not going well.
At their frankness, even the usual hecklers were speechless.
“You’re saying the governance of this town isn’t going well?”
Lucas, who had not expected to be told this so directly, asked while suppressing his anger.
“I would like to ask you instead. How do you think the governance is going well when the common people are so dissatisfied?”
“What are you saying?”
The venue buzzed with the unexpected direction of the question.
This was understandable.
To them, the town’s residents were merely people who worked according to their instructions and had nothing to do with the town’s governance.
They held the belief that they themselves were the ones governing the town.
Even Lucas, who had a relatively good understanding of the current situation in the town, had this kind of mindset, so it was no wonder the others did.
“To Razek Amamiya, the people are the foundation of the nation and an irreplaceable existence. Your existence, which disregards that existence, is, frankly speaking, nothing but a hindrance to us.”
There was no one left to refute the representative, who had stated this clearly.
The members of the Northern Town’s upper echelon gathered here probably understood at this point.
That their values were completely incompatible with Razek Amamiya’s.
Razek Amamiya had been treating them as if they didn’t exist from the start.
There were no people gathered here who would easily back down after being told this.
After all, they were people who had lived by sucking up the sweet spoils.
“What do you mean we are a hindrance!”
“That’s right! We created this forum for discussion, so what is this attitude!”
The venue became noisy again.
However, this time, there was no sign of the commotion subsiding.
If they backed down now, their positions would be definitively lost.
They would fight desperately because they instinctively knew this.
The representative of Razek Amamiya, perhaps having anticipated this from the beginning, showed no change in expression.
“Then, is it safe to say that the discussion is over?”
To the representative who said this with a cool expression, Lucas replied with a bitter smile.
“There’s nothing more that can be done.”
“Is that so? Then, we shall excuse ourselves.”
The representative said so and stood up.
Those who had accompanied them also stood up.
As the representative, who seemed to be about to leave the room with curses being hurled at them, was about to leave, they said something that caught their attention.
“You may blame us, but I believe you should take a good look at your own feet.”
Finally, the representative said, “Then, with this,” and left the place completely this time.
***
Listening to the commotion in the venue behind them, the representative of Razek Amamiya muttered to the other members.
“I wish they had realized it, but it was impossible after all.”
“Is it as Queen Floria predicted?”
Razek Amamiya had expected this kind of situation to occur from the beginning.
However, it was only one of several predicted patterns.
Of course, Queen Floria had not predicted all of them; her capable retainers had conceived them.
Among them, the pattern they least wanted to happen had occurred.
It was the pattern they least wanted to happen, yet it was predicted to be the most likely to occur.
“I wish those people would consider our last words, but… it’s probably impossible.”
The representative murmured, with a bitter smile.
“At this point, they seem to have nothing on their minds but themselves. Perhaps only the lord will realize it.”
“Ah, he will probably realize it. Whether he can handle it alone is another matter.”
“It’s a shame that the well-intentioned advice will be wasted.”
At those words, the representative shrugged.
“It can’t be helped. If they struggle here, there might still be a way… well, probably not.”
The representative’s statement was made after giving up on the Northern Town’s upper echelon.
***
Amidst the unsettled venue, Lucas was deep in thought.
He was bothered by the words the representative of Razek Amamiya had left behind.
“Look at your feet… What does that mean?”
Only his attendant heard his muttering amidst the noisy venue.
“It’s probably not literal feet, but what could it mean?”
“It felt like he was addressing everyone here, rather than me personally.”
“I felt so too.”
“Then, what are the feet of those gathered here…? Perhaps, no, it can’t be…”
Lucas realized something, but immediately denied it.
There had been no sign of such a thing, not even a fragment, until now.
However, the growing anxiety could not erase the thought.
Bad premonitions tend to come true.
A few days after the discussion on this day, Lucas’s worst prediction became a reality.
To all the higher-ups who had been basking in the sweet spoils until now.
What Lucas’s bad premonition was will be revealed in the next chapter.
*Today, while reviewing the setting of the story, I found some discrepancies.
In Chapter 19, Episode 6, I stated that the conditions for the evolution of the North Tower were solely based on normal points, but in Chapter 17, Episode 3, the condition was described as “
I have corrected Chapter 19, Episode 6, so please confirm.*
