Point-of-View: Aries Velenet

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"Alright, listen up! Thank you all for gathering here, there is an important matter to discuss. As you all know, we’ve been dealt a heavy blow to our forces recently, but we cannot lose heart over it! Instead, we must strive to improve as much as possible, to prevent an incident like that from happening again!" I declared resolutely.

Today’s the 2nd of Martius, 2016, the first month of the year, a little over two weeks had passed since the Royal castle was attacked. The capital had been in panic and unrest following that incident, with some of the Commoner slaves rebelling against the Nobles who had enslaved them.

I ramped up my efforts in investigating any wrongful enslavements and freeing the victims who were proven to have been enslaved under false pretenses. There are still a lot of slaves owned by many of the Nobles, but I’ve done all I can through legal means, there’s nothing more I can do to help them.

Nobles are permitted to enslave any Commoners who threaten or try to attack them, so the law stops me from freeing such slaves, along with any for whom I can’t find sufficient evidence to free. I’ve been working to try to convince the King to change that law, and effectively abolish slavery, but to no avail.

The new Crown Prince, Landis Dianus, has been getting in my way in that regard. He’s been supporting my efforts to free any wrongfully enslaved Commoners, but he hasn’t helped when it comes to my efforts to change the law.

Although, he did agree to help pass an amendment to that law that I suggested as a compromise...a Commoner may not be enslaved if they attack a Noble in self-defense, in a situation where the Noble attacked or provoked the Commoner first.

It’s not ideal, but it’s better than nothing. This probably isn’t a process that I can rush, it’s likely going to be a more gradual change...I suppose I should be grateful that there’s at least some progress for the better.

It’s not impossible that, eventually, we’ll succeed in abolishing slavery. One nation in the Dark Continent has already done so...the southmost nation in the continent, Zircon, they abolished slavery about ten years ago.

Following that change, there was a minor civil war incited by Nobles who were against that change, the war lasted two years and in the end, the rebels were wiped out. I’ve been to Zircon about six years ago, and I was amazed.

The relationship between Nobles and Commoners in the nation, while still a bit tense, was a lot more amicable that it is here. Commoners there don’t fear visiting their Royal capital the way our Commoners avoid Dianus like the plague, and Nobles don’t treat Commoners as far beneath them, at least not openly.

The nation of Agate, which is between Zircon and us here in Obsidian, has also taken strides in that direction. They haven’t abolished slavery, but they’ve passed many laws that favor Commoners when it comes to this matter.

Under their new laws, it’s effectively impossible to enslave Commoners who are free, and there are laws that prevent the abuse of those who are already enslaved. They’re likely taking a more gradual approach to it to avoid triggering a civil war like what happened in Zircon. Hm...maybe that’s why Prince Landis hasn’t been supporting any of the more drastic changes I’ve tried to make.

I’ve also suggested a law that’ll allow Commoners to leave the nation and visit the other nations in the continent, but that was turned down too. I did get an explanation as to why though...in the current state of our nation, it’s quite likely that every single Commoner will opt to leave if the option is presented to them.

And that’d be a disastrous outcome...to be frank, the vast majority of Nobles really aren’t cut out for manual labor. Monsters will likely proliferate and multiply out of control without Adventurers present to keep their numbers in check, all the farming and fishing villages will have no one to run them, and there’s also the fact that almost all the shops and stores in the capital are staffed with Commoners.

We do have a few small farms here in the capital where we grow a supply of the best ingredients and raise high quality livestock, but the ones who actually do the work in those farms are Commoners, not the Nobles who own them. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Yeah, now that I really think about it, that’s got to be why the Crown Prince has been going against any drastic changes in our laws that I’ve suggested, though I’m not completely convinced. He’s certainly a much better potential leader than the former Crown Prince Drakkar Dianus was, but I still get the feeling that there’s more to him than meets the eye.

My Instinct Skill allows me to sense when someone’s lying or hiding something, so deceiving me is next to impossible. That’s why it’s strange...the current Crown Prince, I don’t really sense any deceit from him, but there’s something unsettling about him.

My Skill only gives me a vague sense of that something when I’m around him, which I’ve never felt before...so as helpful as he’s been in my efforts to better our nation, I can’t bring myself to trust him.

There’s no question that I’m immensely relieved that he’s the Crown Prince now instead of that other idiot, and yet...there’s a part of me that feels like he could be a lot more dangerous.

Anyway, following the attack on the castle, powerful protective barriers have been placed both around the castle itself, and around the entire capital as well. We’ve also employed stricter security throughout the capital, in case there are any more enemies hiding out.

I’ve also gathered a group of Knights I can trust, and with official approval from the King, I’ve had the entire Knight Order investigated. And as a result of that investigation, quite of number of Knights have been suspended, fired, and even executed, depending on the severity of their crimes.

Some of them were members of high ranked Noble families, all of whom have turned against me. But they can’t do so openly, since my investigation was approved by the King himself.

I then shifted my attention to the Knight Academy, replacing many of the instructors who have been encouraging the disgusting behavior that had been infesting our ranks, with more honorable educators, retired Knights who genuinely upheld justice and integrity.

Moving forward following this purge of toxic elements within the Knighthood, the Knight Order should be a lot more just and righteous. I’ll be sure to oversee it to ensure that we don’t stray from this path...and hopefully, eventually the Nobles who oppose this change will get used to it.

There’s still a lot of work to be done, I’ll shoulder the responsibility of it all. But I can’t do it alone...which brings me to my current situation. I’d requested the presence of all active Knights in the courtyard of the training grounds we use, to make an announcement.

Specifically, that I was making a change to the hierarchy of the Knight Order. More specifically, I’m adding a new rank, one that’ll be below my rank of Commander but higher than the existing rank of Lieutenant.

The rank of Captain. The main reason for this is so that I can form an elite group of the best and most trustworthy Knights who will all report directly to me. Additionally, it’s also so that we can better organize our ranks.

The remaining Knights will be evenly divided into squads commanded by each Captain, based on rank. We were too disorganized as things were before, so I want the new and improved Knight Order to have more clarity in their tasks.

There will only be a small, fixed number of Captains, I haven’t decided on the exact number yet, but it won’t be much more than five. Each squad will have a different role to play...one to defend the capital itself, one to guard to castle, one to deal with outside threats, and so on.

I’ve just finished explaining all of that to the Knights who’ve gathered here, it’s about time to start wrapping this up now...

"Starting tomorrow, I’ll be holding a dueling competition to determine and narrow down the candidates for the rank of Captain, although combat ability will not be the sole factor I take into consideration, of course. Any and all who are interested may participate, regardless of your current rank!" I informed them, as I concluded my speech and added, "Now, then...does anyone have any questions?"

For now, I’ll put all my focus on this. The King fully expects me to hunt down Prince Rhyle and his sons afterwards, and I have no choice but to comply. I’ll just trust that they’re competent enough to avoid running into us...because if we do encounter them, they’ll undoubtedly fight back. And if it comes to that, we won’t come out of it unscathed...

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