"Like the emperor has ordered, we should send Lord Leonhart to the palace where he must ask for his heinousness's forgiveness & accept the punishment. By doing that, we will definitely be able to solve this with no violence."

"Good... But how do you plan to solve the upcoming civil war....?" asked the Duke in a heavy tone.

"Milord..." The man's expression changed from a happy one to a shocked one within seconds after hearing the words civil war.

"Yes."

"Civil War."

"Don't tell me you guys are dumb enough to think that nothing like that would happen, judging from the current situation in our region."

"But Lord, we are importing enough food & supplies to keep the region in its shape and maintain the army." Replied another man with grey hair.

"But for how long...?" asked a man probably in his thirties. He was the youngest present in the room beside Leon.

"What do you mean, how long? We have survived hundreds of years like this & we will survive for another hundred years."

"Only in your dreams." said the Duke in a sharp tone. These people, who were his so-called advisors, were fairly useless in accounting major tasks. They only knew how to sleep & waste time doing nothing. The faith in the 100-year-old system would not work at this point cause no one was accepting it anymore.

"You." said Heinrich, pointing towards the man who was boasting about the 100 year survival. "Tell Leon, what was the contract?"

"Yes Lord, but does he want to know?" asked the man with a sly smile. It was not the first time he was ordered to do something similar to this and knew very well what the result would be. Leon would promptly deny & would leave the room.

"You want to know, right?"

"Yes." said James, nodding his head to the duke's words. He had not heard about the contract or anything like that & if it had significant upon the duchy, then it was worth knowing & could also significantly change the plan of revival or simply he just didn't want to face the angry duke. Yeah, the latter part is true.

"What?" asked the man with a shocked expression. His expectation was denied within an instance.

"Just explain." said the Duke once again with the same cold tone as before.

"Yes Lord. So the contact named Trinity was signed between the states when the empire was formed 200 years ago. And the rules were quite simple as Esper's were put in-charge of security, Arlet's were for Economy & Carlston were for Food supplies. And the same is going on till this day."

James nodded, saying nothing as it was the very basic of what he had also seen in the library, but what was so important that Heinrich wanted him to know by asking this dude.

"So, was there any pricing things were written in that contract?" asked James to that guy.

"No, there was nothing like that written on it, but pricing system was done by the Late Emperor upon agreement with three dukes."

"Was the price fixed, or it was told to increase overtime?"

"It was told to increase by overlooking the current state of the empire & under direct authority of the Emperor."

"Then how are the prices got so astronomical? Didn't you guys oppose?"

"We did... But their reasoning was fairly plausible."

"Like how?"

"Inflation, work labor, transportation, taxes." Replied the man politely. He was surprised that the worthless son of the duke was asking valid questions about the matter.

"And you guys didn't think about doing anything to that?" asked James. These guys knew prices were increasing & was impossible to keep up with it. Still, they did nothing to solve the matter or to become self-reliant.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"What can we do? If we tried to do anything else, then it will breach the contract."

"And..."

"It can lead to war." It was a common sense among the people that nobody could break the rules implemented by the emperor except themselves. And trinity was one of them & if it broke, then there would be severe consequences.

"So you guys are telling me that all of you are doing nothing & letting your people die cause you fear breaking a contract." Asked James with a surprised expression.

These people's actions were dumber than he ever thought. They know it was hurting them, still nothing was ever done. They kept importing food, gold & debt kept increasing. Then taxes among common people increased to only pay the interest, leaving the entire sum alone. This duchy was in ruins from the very beginning.

The man tried to say something but couldn't as it was a fairly logical thing, but they couldn't possibly fight against the emperor. Thousands would die, saving the hundreds, which would never get approved by the commoners. And what if even they die? Nothing was ever going to happen to them, cause they were nobles, directly sent by the God.

"We can't do anything cause it will be a direct declaration of disaccord with the Royal family & other dukes which can lead to a major conflict. We will lose thousands of man just to save few people who are not even worth the effort." said another man with greenish-white colored hair, wearing a white-colored suit.

Hearing the words, a faint smile appeared on James's face, which didn't go unnoticed by anyone. Each & everyone in the whole wide world was same. No one wanted to provoke the powerful cause it would be bad for them & let innocent die. Politicians, billionaires & these people, there was no difference between them.

It was like saying those people were sacrificed for the greater good.

Soon James' face turned into an angry one as he slammed his left fist on the table where duke was sitting, which shocked everyone.

"Worth the effort, huh... They don't matter, cause they are weak. How about you put yourself in their shoes & think for a minute about what you will do if I said the exact thing to you & your family. Huh? Tell me?" shouted Leon with a face full of hatred & agony.

Still, the duke did nothing to stop him. He just sat there with a shocked expression. And just like him, everyone in the room was shocked beyond belief. That man was Leonhart who never cared about anyone else besides his own well-being, but now he was caring about mere commoners. It had to be a Joke right?

Seeing no response from anyone, James spoke once again, hitting his fist on to the table as his anger got the best of him.

"This is the exact fucking reason a civil war is coming & if you guys won't do anything, then all of you will be hanged in the city square by the people. Mark my words, it will happen. You will all die." Said Leon coldly, which sent shivered down the spine of everyone, including the duke, which should be impossible judging from the circumstances, but his reasoning & words were accurate about the matter and there was no conclusive argument to counter it.

"Leon, calm down." said Heinrich, grabbing Leon's hand. He who never gave a damn about the world was now caring about it, which was a thing to be proud of for him as a father, but it didn't quite match his character. He was more suspicious than before about what had happened to him but didn't out voice his thought as it was neither right time nor place.

Feeling the touch of someone in his hand, James realised what he just did. Once again, his anger got the best of him & the result was all the people present were now looking at him with fearful gazes. Still, he was not wrong about even a one bit thing. These people would definitely die if a civil war broke out. Just like French revolution in 1793 - 1794, where over 17,000 nobles were killed just for existing. Even kids were not left alone by the angry mob during the Reign of Terror. It was a horrific thing to even read, let alone experience it.

And James couldn't let that happen as the number of commoners increased over 90% compared to nobles & if they wanted, it would be a matter of days before the entire empire would be in ruins, which was not a good sign for his new & quiet life. Some drastic changes had to implemented & now was the time to do it.

"I am sorry." said James with a little bow & moved his hand away from the table. But his expression didn't return to the old one, as it was now a face devoid of any emotions. Certainly looking like some evil tyrant, which didn't help the hearts of the group to calm down, cause they were also not sure about what that man could do at any moment.

"So What do you guys think now? What should we do now to counter this issue & as it holds more significance than saying sorry to that moron?" asked Heinrich in an indifferent tone as before. Things were getting dicey & he had ignored the matter long enough.

"We sho-uld increase our import from the others & take good care of people. It will solve the issue & then we can say sorry to Emperor." replied the man with white hair & everyone followed him saying yes.

"For How long? How long do you think we can ignore this crisis? How long you want to stay us in debt? Tell me Harold, you are the oldest & wisest among all present here, tell me how long can we ignore this?"

To this question from the Duke, the man named Harold had no answer. He knew the civil war would be inevitable if something was not done soon enough, but what more they could even do except delay the impending doom? Were they really doomed from the start or recent changes had made the situation worse? His brain was now flooded with countless questions.

Getting no response from the group, Heinrich spoke once again with a sigh, as these people were really a bunch of good-for-nothing idiots.

"As you guys are fairly useless in coming up with any valid solutions, so I have a plan to discuss which can solve the matter."

"Please Lord..." said all them in unison, as to know the what the grand plan was to solve the incoming disaster.