Chapter 769: The Ennoblement Faction

"Sir! Headquarters sent last month's briefing!"

Chick checks the wax seal, opens the document pouch, and begins to read.

Once head of the Military Intelligence Office and known as Peace Haven's king of intelligence, Chick learned long ago to let no report crack his composure.

His subordinates study his face, searching for some hint of how the news has affected him.

They find nothing.

Chick hands the report to his two deputies. "Read it."

Edmond, an intelligence adjutant at the Military Intelligence Office's Billie station, frowns. "This response is a farce. Is this really how headquarters handles its work?"

Gio, a deputy intelligence officer, bristles. "What is this supposed to mean?"

"Our supplies have been seized again and again. We yielded the first time."

"The second time, Lady Melissa dropped the matter out of respect for the duchess."

"How many times has this happened now?"

"Four times!"

"What is the excuse this time? Is he just borrowing them again?"

Chick takes back the report and crushes it with a burst of force. "What excuse do you think he will use this time? Go on. Guess."

Edmond sneers. "He will claim he bought them and hand us an IOU."

Gio shakes his head. "I think he will hide and wait for the duchess to save him."

Chick smiles. "Both wrong. He will flee to the Northern Mountain Front."

Hobson understands at once. "He is after the mixed legion!"

Gio scoffs, "Him? The mixed legion's soldiers are not fools. Why would they serve an idiot?"

Edmond corrects him. "An idiot who can grant noble titles."

Gio falls silent. He may operate abroad, but as an intelligence officer he still knows a great deal about affairs inside Peace Haven.

The ennoblement faction's ambitions are nothing new.

Some people raised the idea as early as Peace Haven's founding.

They believed Henwell should accept the late King Amir's terms, become a duke of the kingdom, and win noble titles for his followers.

Henwell clearly had no intention of accepting. Several disappointed followers left.

Peace Haven later held its ground during the first encirclement by three kingdoms.

Amir raised his offer, allowing Henwell to claim the title of grand duke and turn Peace Haven into a vassal state under Vorry.

Henwell refused again. He declared that he belonged to Vorry in life and death and would never divide the kingdom's territory.

A few more people left, but not many.

By then, everyone could see that Peace Haven might become a new kingdom.

To become the founding retainers and nobles of a new realm, what tempting honors those were!

Later, Henwell signed The Six Kings' Accord for Peace Haven, and the ennoblement faction grew even more excited.

Many began dreaming about their future.

Driven by that ambition, the ennoblement faction led by Meredith acquiesced to, and even aided, the struggle for the throne.

That led to the Battle of Cellarwine City.

Henwell did not launch an immediate purge afterward.

Over the next two years, however, he removed everyone who had taken part, openly or in secret.

Some were executed, some imprisoned, and many more dismissed or transferred.

Their current superior was caught up in the purge as well.

Chick, former director of Peace Haven's Military Intelligence Office, was implicated and transferred here.

After Edmond's quiet reminder, Gio says nothing more.

Chick simply pats both men on the shoulders. "You belong to Peace Haven's new generation. Noble titles hold little appeal for you."

"We old fellows are different. Many of us followed Henwell for wealth and glory."

"We wanted to make something of ourselves. We wanted to stand above ordinary men."

"Now I understand why Henwell paid such an enormous price to spread education throughout Peace Haven."

"You have been educated well. You have higher ideals and greater dreams."

"Peace Haven will need your generation to lead it from one summit to the next."

"We are remnants of an older age. The new age has no place for our kind of glory."

"Henwell is a great man. He never stops surprising us, and not one of us has ever truly seen through him."

The two deputies do not know what to say. They are afraid of upsetting this superior who is half mentor and half elder to them.

Chick continues, "You have met the Lord of Yinxin City, haven't you? Ruper was once one of us."

"We endured brutal training with Henwell at the Veil's secret base."

"Later, we were sent to Bloodhorn Arena and became young gladiators."

"Those of us here chose to leave with Henwell."

"Ruper, the best among us... and one other companion chose to stay and build their futures here."

"Ruper has done well. His title as Lord of Yinxin City is no Marquess of Nothing. He is a marquess formally ennobled by the kingdom."

"And the title is hereditary in perpetuity!"

"He is my age, only forty-three."

"With his ability, he may well become a duke within his lifetime."

"That should be everything Peace Haven's ennoblement faction dreams of."

"Yet more than once, while drinking with me, he has said that he envies me."

"Only over a drink can he finally lower his guard."

"He holds a high position, but enemies surround him. One careless step could destroy him and his entire family."

"We old comrades may not command everything in Peace Haven, but we still stand at the height of power."

"Apart from titles and a few meaningless privileges, our lives are hardly worse than Ruper's."

"My yearly dividends from Peace Haven's factories alone reach hundreds of thousands of gold coins, more than many nobles earn in a lifetime."

"I can drink with my old comrades until I am drunk, then lie down and sleep in the street."

"I never have to fear anyone inside Peace Haven."

"The worst that happens is someone reports us to our lord and he scolds us afterward. Our lives are never in danger."

"If we wanted, any country would grant us the title of marquess or something even higher."

"Henwell would not stop us from leaving, either!"

"But none of us wants to leave. Peace Haven is our home."

"Noble titles?"

"Isn't that just another way of dividing the family estate?"

"We cannot grant land as hereditary fiefs like other countries and reduce ourselves to a fragmented state."

"We must concentrate all our strength and drive Peace Haven to the summit, then higher still!"

"We will become an empire!"

"A highly centralized empire!"

"An empire capable of sweeping away every other power on the continent!"

"A Blood Hill Empire with Henwell as its only emperor and no nobles at all!"