Emperor of Steel

Luke, who was concerned about the dark clouds that he had seen earlier, asked Hudson to see if there were any disturbances in the Libiya Kingdom.

A few days later, Hudson submitted his report on the matter.

“There was nothing more than the conscript soldiers rebelling and their suppression?”

“Yes. There was something that happened on the Baroque Empire’s side—an assassination attempt on the Emperor.”

According to Hudson, the rebels in Baroque had secretly set up huge amounts of gunpowder and flame magic circle on the road where Emperor Rudolf led his army.

Rudolf was an opponent, who was difficult to kill with a sword or poison. That was why they tried to blow his entire army away along with him.

“However, it was said that the attempt had failed because of Marquis Kepler, the Meister of Baroque Imperial Magic Tower, who managed to find it.”

“That is a shame. But, aren’t the rebels in the Baroque supposed to be the peasants? Do they even have the ability to set up traps of that size?”

In the Baroque Empire, it was believed that the Libiya Kingdom and the Volga Republic were secretly supplying gunpowder and wizards, so did the intelligence department of Symphonia judge that.

“I see. You can go back.”

After sending out Hudson, Luke called for Belfair.

It wasn’t because he didn’t believe in Argos, but he needed to cross-check the information and get more detailed facts.

“There is nothing unusual about the Libiya Kingdom. The same as what the Intelligence chief reported. Instead, there was a story that the public sentiment is shaking as the war is going longer than expected.”

“Hmm, I see…”

“Rather than that, Your Majesty, are you going to make the parliament?” Belfair asked carefully.

Since he was a demon, he didn’t really worry about the political issues surrounding the kingdom.

However, he couldn’t help but care about it as his master’s position could be influenced.

“There are lots of things that need to be done in the nation. I can’t handle all the matters alone. I need people to take care of it.”

“But, can you completely trust those nobles?”

After Mayers’s death at Reynold’s hands, the nobles of Milton surrendered to Luke and asked him to be the new king.

That was how the Symphonia Kingdom was born, and more than half of the nobles were from the former Milton Kingdom.

When the parliament got created, there was a great amount of belief that they would try to influence the legislation and internal affairs of the state.

The power of the kingdom would be passed to the nobles.

“Belfair, do you really think that I’ll go ahead with the decision without any thought?”

“Then… Ah! You are going to turn the nobles into slaves. If you do that, they will be near your feet as loyal puppets.”

Belfair clapped his hands as if he understood Luke’s intention.

However, Luke’s expression didn’t change.

“Even if we don’t turn them into that, I can do as much as I want to make sure that the parliament doesn’t head their way. No, I can say with confidence that things will change without their knowledge.”

“Huh? How is that?”

Luke had a sneaky smile and looked at Belfair, who still didn’t understand it.

“You will understand once you see it. Anyway, how is the movement of the nobles?”

When Count Joon got the permission for the establishment of the parliament, nobles of the former Milton Kingdom quickly began to build their own forces with Count Joon as their head.

Their official name was, ‘Symphonia’s Nobility League’. However, in short, the people called it the Noblemen.

And it was a fact that in the beginning, most of the noblemen were the nobles in the Baroque Empire.

However, the optimistic nobles, who were hopeful of gaining power, faced an unexpected obstacle.

It was because Luke had placed a limit on the number of seats in the parliament.

In the Baroque Empire, there was no limit to the number of seats.

Whether it was the noble in the capital or a local lord, anyone who had the will and reason to attend could appear in the parliament.

It was because the parliament was the place for the nobles.

However, Luke didn’t allow the attendance of the nobles with official positions, or those with military power and limited the number of seats to 300.

Moreover, not all 300 seats were given to the nobles.

Limiting it to 125 seats for the royal office members and 50 to the neutral nobles, who supported the royal family in secret, and only 125 were given to the nobles.

The nobles initially opposed it. However, they didn’t continue their opposition.

It was because they were all concentrating on taking the seat rather than trying to increase the number of the seats.

In the case of Count Joon, he agreed to the limited seats from the very beginning.

‘They know that coming out entirely would turn difficult.’

He knew that power wasn’t divided evenly even among the rich.

As Luke predicted, Joon was a very ambitious man.

He was attempting to use the limited number of seats to solidify his strength and order within the noblemen.

Even if he didn’t like Luke and his nobles, Joon wanted to pay attention to the noblemen and avoid any internal struggle within.

In the end, Luke was able to make the parliament that he wanted because of it.

“But, Your Majesty, the neutrals?”

Belfair didn’t know about it, so he asked.

There were nobles in the Symphonia Kingdom that expressed their political neutrality.

However, there weren’t enough numbers to fill the 50 seats, and they didn’t even have the major number of seats like the royals or the noblemen.

“Huh, they have fewer seats, but the neutrals will be the ones to lead the parliament.”

“That is because with the neutrals’ support we can win the voting… But, can the neutral nobles with small numbers even fill up the seats and do their work?”

Due to the devastating wars, almost all of the nobles who were considered to be neutral had disappeared from the Symphonia Kingdom.

Advocating themselves as the neutrals, they would keep jumping on both sides.

So, even though they spoke about being neutral, the nobles either belonged to the royalist side or noblemen side.

“Huhuhu, well, what about that?”

Luke, who had a picture painted in his head, smiled contently.

However, Belfair, who didn’t know about it, only tilted his head.