Path of The Dragonborn

"You're crazy...you...you..." Duke Helmut struggled to sit up with this weak body, but he couldn't match the tyrannical will of other parts of the body, and he was finally making unnecessary efforts. Then fell gently on the bed, "You are ruining the El Barrea family..."

"It's obviously you, father," Juss said coldly, "You directly attacked his territory publicly without evidence... this kind of thing—"

"Evidence?" Helmut laughed feebly. "Our El Barea family, how could we possibly need that-"

"Don't say it is the house of the Duke of El Barrea, even the royal family cannot turn a suspect into a fact without evidence for no reason." Heliga's voice came from outside, "The Duke... Oh, no, it's the ex-duke, are you the emperor far away from the sky, you have been arrogant in the southern part of the empire for a long time, and you have forgotten who you are?"

"You..." Duke Helmut smiled without anger, "Okay... It looks like you bewitched Euses and did such a frenzied thing. You actually took advantage of the opportunity of Rufas's absence to unite with the regular army. Usurping power with foreign enemies—"

"I do admit about the United Regular Army." Heliga nodded and interrupted Helmut directly, "but the foreign enemy..." Heliga deliberately pondered for a few seconds, "I thought, this Apart from the regular army, those who participated in the incident were Her Royal Highness. Are you referring to the Royal Highness as your "foreign enemy"? "

"Hall...His Royal Highness is just being bewitched by you!" said Duke Helmut, "Do you know that Oloklos Fortress is the only pass on the road leading to the imperial capital on the Canyon Road-you are so clear Regardless of your majesty’s safety--"

"If that's the case, it is entirely possible for the regular army to take advantage of the night to carry out a large-scale mass bombing of the fortress of Oloklos... In this way, the fortress of Oloklos would become ruins?" Heliga sneered. He didn’t pay attention to Helmut at all. “But he didn’t... he still made a detailed plan as much as possible. Now the fortress of Oloklos is more severely damaged in the north and west, but in the need to guard against the Republic The south... hardly any loss."

"Even so...what's the guilty of deceiving my duke directly into house arrest?"

"Um... Regarding this matter, when the civil war is over, when His Majesty the Emperor examines this matter, you can completely accuse Me to His Majesty Ukent." Heliga said innocently, "I just don't know if your Majesty will just because The simple concept of right and wrong is the wrong choice between the young hero in the civil war and the old nobleman who always makes him unconscious."

"You...you..." Helmut was furious again.

"Father." Euses was obviously a little bit unable to watch his father being bullied by Heliga again and again. He took the stubbornness and said in a very sincere tone: "Don't you see it yet? After that incident , The Alliance of Nobles has directly given up on our support! That kind of attitude is clearly that it no longer regards us as allies... And I don’t believe that your heart is not clear. After all your arrogance and anger have subsided, how can you Maybe you still think that such a thing is reasonable and correct?"

"The Hunting Corps has brought a very accurate report. Can it be judged wrong on this point?" Helmut furiously, "Uss, I already knew you were left out by me and resented me-- I won’t mention this, but I really didn’t expect that you would mistakenly question my judgment of the form. The list of supplies, and the completely consistent confession provided by the hunters under separate inquiry--"

"About this matter...I have some say." Heliga said softly, "Look at this." He handed Juss a document, and after reading it patiently, Juss showed a slight expression. Moved, then quietly put the thing in front of Helmut's eyes.

"This..." After seeing the above, Helmut was panicked in an instant-his hand could not move, so Euses steadily placed the confession in front of him for him to read. "It's impossible... at the time it was obviously..."

The hunting regiments like "Ned Hogg" are downright mercenaries, and there is no honor to speak of. When someone bids a higher price for them, it is not impossible to let them abandon your former employer. "Heliga said calmly, "I used a special method to ask some things from the hunters-the confession given to you at that time was that someone paid a higher price to make them deliberately lie. For you. The purpose is naturally to induce you to make wrong judgments. Of course, I think, although I have always felt that you do not have the ability to control a quarter of the empire, but being able to occupy such a high position all the time, it should always show that you are not a stupid idiot. Under normal circumstances, it should not be because of this. One reason is to make such a wrong judgment. But the fact is, you don’t know why, you did it—and then you made a big mistake. "

"..." Helmut's face was ashen.

The above confession probably wrote-deliberately distorted intelligence, so that the Duke of Helmut tended to think that Keldic was about to abandon the legal ruler of Kruchen State and turned into the arms of the regular army. Helmut thought of his actions at the time, and he couldn't help feeling a little strange. But this confession was clearly printed with a red and black handprint-which meant that this was the highest certification that the Duke's Mansion could make, and it was higher than the information he had received at the time.

"As the saying goes, those who are able to do more work-this sentence further explains that the high-ranking actually bears more responsibilities." Heilijia continued, "A high-ranking duke must have a lot more than ordinary The outstanding quality of the leader is sufficient. What about you? When I was young, you and I did not know, but since I was sensible, what impression did you leave on the local aristocrats in the surrounding area? You are unreasonable, short-sighted, and indiscriminate regardless of regional development. Increase taxes and set up trade barriers to restrict the development of the surrounding areas. In order to fight the expansion of the reformists, we will do our best to make the surrounding people deeply affected. At the same time, I am very indifferent to your biological son Juss. I heard that you once wanted to arrest the son of Mayor Regnitz of Class VII while internship."

"..." Hearing this, even Uses did not care that Heliga was reprimanding his father-because of these circumstances, he felt very embarrassed.

"Of course, power brings some tolerance. For these things, someone will always take responsibility for you, so that you, who really need to be responsible for this, will not be punished. But this time, no one else can do this. You were the master of military power in Kruchen State at that time. When you gave this order, it meant that you fully understood the meaning of this and assumed responsibility for it-former Duke of Helmut, you told me, The imperial nobles blatantly attacked their territories and massacred their people. According to imperial traditions and laws, what should they do?"

"..." Helmut couldn't help but think about it--soon, his lips turned pale.

"A better ending, depriving of the title, being beaten as a commoner, imprisoned...Worse, maybe you will be directly charged with treason. Then he will be sentenced to death." Heliga curled his lips, and Helmut didn't dare. Said, he said it for Helmut, "No matter which one it is, it means that the glory of the Al Barrea family will be destroyed... Your eldest son Lufas sees this very clearly, even if it is him, I didn't dare to ride this muddy water this time. Do you know why now?"

"I...I..." Helmut struggled to say something, but was helpless.

Before that, he always thought that the evidence provided by the hunters was true. But today, just now, I was ruthlessly deprived of this illusion, and what came with it was an endless abyss of terror.

He committed a crime that not only violated the imperial laws, imperial traditions, and may even violate the creed of the Qi Yao Church—an anti-humanity person is destined to be cast aside by the current society.

Those things Heliga said-at this point, why didn't he understand?

"You should already know." Heliga continued, "The Capuya family in the suburbs of the imperial capital lost their territory and was abolished just because of their credulity. They had to become air pirates and wandered for several years until they were lucky. He was pardoned by Liber. The nobles who instigated the Hundred Days War in the early days of Prime Minister Osborne were also nooses. No matter who did something wrong, they would have to pay the price. The Capua family paid a lot. Nian’s reputation and dignity, as well as the hard life of having had the last meal but not the next, and the nobles of the main warrior faction paid the price of their lives-then, what about you?

"I have to say, you are really lucky." Heliga took out another piece of paper, "Let's take a look now... If this matter is handled in the normal way, then all your crimes over the years will probably be Reconciliation together. Expropriation and brutality caused the people to lose their livelihood; for their own selfishness, they disregarded the laws of the empire and frustrated with the local nobles; violated the armaments law, arbitrarily expanded their armaments, and attempted to participate in a coup rebellion; violated the honor and traditions of the empire and attacked civilians and caused small towns The destruction of Kel Dick-these four crimes, how many lives do you think you can be sent to the gallows?

"But, you have a very good son-he figured this out and did a lot for you, and he can finally avoid this situation. It's a matter of extortion and embarrassment to the local nobles, my father and the "Swordsman of Light" The local aristocrats represented can see Juss’s face, with little or no investigation, the crime is reduced by one; the crime of expanding armaments and inciting civil war and rebellion is inexcusable, but the four major elites are involved in this matter. Besides, Duke Kane is the real leader. If the aristocratic faction wins a complete victory, this crime is of course not counted, but if the regular army can turn defeat into victory, he is naturally responsible for the majority, and the crime that can be converted to you can also be counted. Decrease one level; As for the destruction of Keldic, Uss reacted quickly and received severely injured patients, resulting in the destruction of the town, but no deaths. It can be reduced by one more—again. In addition, the hunting regiment admits that it was instigated by others and misled your judgment, so you can also attribute part of the blame to them.

"For all the above matters, the relevant parties have agreed to give valid proof of responsibility, including me, the generals of the regular army, the local nobles, and Her Royal Highness Alfin-so if you convert them one by one, you should be abolished and retain the title. Life, imprisonment for life. But first, your son Usis is the one who made the greatest contribution, so that the El Barea family will not be cut off; second, Your Majesty Ukent is kind, and you should also know that ——If His Royal Highness Alfin and I are both willing to intercede for you, maybe he will also look at you for your honorable status and advanced age after all, and will not let you taste the pain of prison, but just order House arrest at home. But Euses will not throw you into the backyard and fend for himself-he will take care of you and honor you, although you will no longer have the power of the duke, but at least you can enjoy the glory of food and clothing. Wealth and wealth. Think about the Capua family, think about the executed nobles, what are you still dissatisfied with? You made a much more serious mistake than them, but the result was much better than them. If you Keep stunned, and sooner or later you will fall into a fate that no one can save. And to be honest... Your Excellency Helmut. Even if we don’t think about you directly, let you fend for yourself-you think such a big Kruchin In the state, who would dare to let Juss, a powerful competitor of the future new duke, be responsible for a small sinner? They don’t serve you, but they can serve him and Rufas in the future. Popular nobility. Who will mourn you? Your Excellency Helmut?"

"..." There was a long silence. Duke Helmut listened to Heliga's long analysis, his face first flushed, then pale, and finally returned to an inexplicable calm.

Helmut, who closed his eyes tightly, seemed to be ten years old when he opened his eyes again.

"Oh..." He sighed long, and there was no more irony and indifference towards Euses in his eyes, "I...what am I..."

"Father... what he said is true." Juss said beside him at this time. "The El Barrea family... until now, still retains the last hope. But under this premise It is also a great opportunity to restore order and prosperity here as soon as possible. If your majesty can see such a change, he might really treat you with tolerance as he said."

"I know. All the questions you asked before, I will tell you later. Without reservation." Helmut's tone was surprisingly calm at this time, "It's just now... it can quiet me a little bit. For a while?"

Heliga and Juss looked at each other, nodded tacitly, and left their small rooms. Helmut raised one of his arms with difficulty, and looked at the hands that were once powerful but now feels aging.

"I... to the end..."