"Cough cough cough... What a joke... They're committing treason! You bastard, Illa!"
Caligula coughed, his face pale from exhaustion caused by Mana's overexertion... while his comrades and soldiers who had fled with him were in far worse shape.
Some of the weaker nobles had already fallen to the ground, their faces ashen, and died... This was partly due to Mana's exhaustion from running away day and night, and partly due to the wounds on her body.
Most of the team members suffered serious injuries.
Only Caligula is relatively clean. After all, looking at his appearance and considering how long he has been active in the Empire, it makes sense... As a [professional], Caligula can be considered one of the top in the Empire.
If ranked in terms of card game mechanics, then Caligula is actually one of the few SSRs in the Empire.
...
From the moment Ulrichila's strategy began, nobles, including Caligula, were branded as rebels, and a special force of governors and mages was hunting them down.
The nobles who were besieged and killed were naturally members of the former noble faction... The noble faction, led by Caligula, which once occupied half of the empire, finally met such an end.
All of this was caused by Yinla's departure... It would be no exaggeration to say that the aristocratic faction existed solely because of Yinla; the balance that the two sides had maintained was beneficial to all three parties.
However, due to the actions of a foolish subordinate, things eventually turned out this way...
Illa was forced to leave, which must have been painful for her; Isabel endured the division of the empire, which must have been painful for her; Caligula was exiled to the border, which must have been painful for him as well... At least, that's what Caligula thought.
"Damn it! Why did I end up looking like this!"
Caligula cursed and yelled, no longer able to maintain the slightest bit of his usual elegance, and his noise kept the resting nobles from sleeping... Under such circumstances, the former concept of hierarchy had disappeared.
Who listens to whose orders, who obeys whose commands... In the midst of fleeing, that kind of thing no longer exists!
"Shut up! Caligula! If you hadn't driven Illa away, how could we have ended up like this?!"
Hearing the nobleman's angry curses, Caligula's face twisted even more. He grabbed the man's collar, veins bulging on his face, and warned him, word by word: "Count Chinon Lars, watch your attitude!"
In response to Caligula's words, Count Lars grabbed Caligula by the collar and mocked him, saying, "I'm a duke now, you fool!"
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Yes, the former Earl of Chinon Lars has been promoted to Duke because he responded to Isabella's policy of "land for title"... Logically speaking, this is actually very beneficial.
Because the imperial nobility is actually very similar to VIP levels, the higher the nobility, the better the benefits in all aspects, such as bonuses to military merits. So it only takes about five or six years to earn back the cost of the land... and after that it will seem more and more profitable.
It would have been better if this hadn't been mentioned, because once it was, Caligula became even angrier.
Caligula released the other man's collar, then grabbed his neck and lifted him high. Watching the man's face turn red and his hands flailing wildly, he stared intently into the man's terrified eyes.
"Duke Chinon Lars... well, duke! But why are you, the duke, acting like a dead dog? If it weren't for all of you fools being so obsessed with titles, things wouldn't have turned out this way!"
At Caligula's call, the soldiers around him, belatedly realizing what was happening, nervously raised their weapons and aimed them at Caligula... only to be met with even more of Caligula's troops pointing their weapons at him.
The atmosphere became tense.
"If His Highness hadn't received such a large amount of grain as a result, how could Ulrichila have so readily accepted the serfs and commoners in our territory, and how could he have so readily given up his territory? You are all fools! Fools!"
!
Caligula cursed angrily, looking at the other person whose face had turned a deep purplish-red. He angrily threw the other person to the ground, and seeing the other person coughing incessantly, he glanced at the other nobles around him who were keeping their eyes downcast.
“I’ve said it before, Yimra may be a bastard, but he’s a worthwhile bastard! What are you thinking? Do you think we can do whatever we want just because he’s gone?”
Caligula mocked these nobles, always the one who annoyed Illa, but his "annoyance" was very limited... enough to make Illa feel uncomfortable, but not enough to make him flip the table.
However, this group of self-righteous and arrogant individuals ruined everything.
"Hey, stop talking about that! Caligula! You're going to join the Duchy now, aren't you?!"
Caligula calmed himself down slightly at the words of the shouting nobleman, glanced at him, and said, "We have no other way to go but this. We still have a chance to make a comeback."
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