Chapter 983 Friction Between The Plebeians And The n.o.bles
Suffering through charisma problems again, Lith shook his head with a smile. Ignoring the many gazes on him, he asked the twin ponytail girl, "So… you were about to state the reason for chaos."
"Yes!" The girl nodded her head. The mechanic and the baker turned to look at her. "As far as I can tell, it all started roughly two centuries ago with the a.s.sa.s.sination of Viscount Koch. Initially, everyone thought it was done by some enemy faction, but all of Viscount Koch"s enemies openly stated they didn"t do it. Not only that, they even made announcements of rewarding the person who did it."
"Hm… interesting…" Lith said and tried to recall information about Viscount Koch. The mechanic and baker did the same thing, but couldn"t recall anything.
"Who"s Viscount Koch?" The mechanic asked. There were a lot of Knights, Dames, Barons, and Viscounts, Marquises. Remembering everyone"s name was a ha.s.sle, so the common people did not even care enough to know the names of the Counts, let alone the rest in the bottom hierarchy.
The girl intwined her fingers with one of her ponytails and said, "Viscount Koch"s Clan: Clan Koch, fell directly under the Royal Family"s rule. They were also one of the only few clans that got the chance to visit the revered Royal Castle during the Royal Banquet. They were promoted to their status there for their contribution in promoting culture, arts, education, and bringing economic prosperity through trade ventures, agriculture, and research on latest technologies."
"What?" Lith thought. "Weren"t people promoted due to their strength?"
It would be unsightly of him to let these thoughts out even in a disguise. As a Prince, he felt he had neglected a lot of things. Lucy never stated that a lot of thought was put before promoting the clans, now he could understand why she was so busy prior to the banquet.
"Their promotion led to a lot of grievances among the clan"s peers."
"Why?" The baker asked.
"Hehe," the girl grinned, showing her sparkling teeth. "Clan Koch made use of their connections and put a lot of people from other Baron and Viscount houses to work. They asked everyone for a little help over multiple years and it eventually compounded and brought greater benefits. In the end, members of their own clan barely worked. You can figure out the rest from here."
"Ah… so it"s like that," the baker understood.
The mechanic sneered and said, "It"s just like taking one coin from a billion people and becoming a billionaire over time."
"You can say so," the girl nodded. "Anyway, despite having many enemies, Viscount Koch was not killed by some n.o.ble. The killer was actually a plebe from Nightingale."
"What?" The mechanic and the baker were surprised. Lith, not so much.
"Yes. An investigation was made and it was found out that Viscount Koch had killed the a.s.sa.s.sin"s family over some land deeds within Evernight City. The commoner"s houses were demolished and a luxury shop was made in its place since it was close to the Market District."
Evernight City was one of the world"s most expensive cities. For even an inch of land, people would not hesitate to kill each other.
"Sssss…" the baker gasped and the mechanic spat at his side.
"For some land, they did such a vile thing."
Lith was once again not surprised by the developments. It was he who instructed Hecate to find a person that has a valid reason to hate the n.o.bility. She naturally didn"t disappoint.
The person who a.s.sa.s.sinated Viscount Koch was strong enough to fight him one-on-one, but weak against the entire clan. He thus never made a move before and kept to himself.
With Hecate"s help, the situation was different. Viscount Koch was brought to an open place and that gave a chance to the commoner to kill him.
"What was next?" Lith asked suddenly, interested in knowing more.
"The commoner"s courage inspired many plebeians. Even though Her Majesty has handed out a set condition for anyone to become a n.o.ble, it"s still very hard. Not everyone has the heaven-defying talent of cultivation like those of the n.o.ble houses," the ponytail girl said with some resentment.
Lith stayed quiet and didn"t respond to that.
"But it matters not. The plebeians around the continent have come to a conclusion to fight the n.o.bility and take their place. All the bottled up hatred is soon going to erupt. They have really done us bad."
The conversation eventually turned into one of ranting. Lith silently took his leave and left the three people to see the topic of protests.
Some people were protesting due to taxes being doubled within a century, some for high inflation, some for straight torture they suffered through, and some for discrimination.
Lith selected one of the protest groups that was recruiting for an upcoming a.s.sa.s.sination of a Viscount.
People weren"t even hiding their dissatisfaction and the n.o.ble houses could only send their spies among them, gather information, and avoid meeting their ire.
It would be one thing if it was a small group, but for some reason, the fire had spread everywhere and all the plebes were coming together to fight against the n.o.bility.
No statements from the Royal Family further steeled their resolve to fight.
As for the n.o.bles, they were wondering how to deal with this.
If it was some other race, they could kill them. But it was their own and killing a majority would definitely result in a strong reaction from the Royal Family. Hence, they were quiet for now and let the people do what they wanted to do.
"Name, powers, background. Please put your hand on this while answering," a young boy sat on a chair near a loud protest and said.
ƈοm Papers were scattered on his desk, which were apparently applications, and there was a small transparent crystal ball acting as paper weight and holding the pages in place.
Lith held the crystal and said, "Frey Woods, Saint Rank, adventurer."
The crystal ball glowed with a blue light. The boy nodded in approval and asked, "Now state whether you"re a spy of some n.o.ble family or not."
"I am not," Lith said truthfully, making the ball glow blue.
"Are you a n.o.ble?"
"No."
"Do you have ill intentions against any of the plebes you see protesting there?"
"No."
"Alright. Welcome to the team then. People call me Pastor, so you can do that too. You can join the protest there and wait for a while. The leader will soon hand out information for the upcoming mission."
"Is it happening soon?"
"Yes." Pastor smiled. "Isn"t it amazing?"
Lith didn"t respond to that and walked over to the protestors.
His tall stature was enough to gather glances, and his charismatic deamour and handsome face kept them affixed on himself.
"A new joinee?" A burly vampire with short hair scratched his hair and asked.
"h.e.l.lo~! I"m Jane. Are you a new joinee?" A pet.i.te girl swiftly closed in on Lith and greeted with a wave.
Lith smiled politely and said, "Yes."
"Oh very good!" The girl caught Lith"s arm and hugged it. "I was looking for a partner, would you team up with me?"
Her almond eyes had an innocent charm to them, captivating the onlookers.
Lith politely shook her hand away and smiled, not answering her. He went to stand beside the burly vampire and maintained a stoic expression.
The girl clicked her tongue while the onlookers thanked Lith in their hearts and went to chase the pet.i.te girl.
Such cheap situations were a common sight among the plebes. In the n.o.ble society, such things happened too, but they did it in a more sophisticated manner.
Once again Lith saw the difference between the two cla.s.ses in society. He let his eyes be half closed and let out a little bit of his regal aura, scaring the people and restricting them from approaching him.
The leader of the group arrived at the scene. He was an average looking blonde-haired vampire with an average build. There was nothing impressive about him, except for his purple suit which made him appear like a pimp.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you all for gathering here. Time is of essence, so I"ll get to it straight. We will be attacking Viscount Ferdinand"s house. Our goal is to kill him along with his three brothers."
As he finished his short speech, someone raised their hand and asked, "Excuse me… although it"s not important, I wanted to ask why are we killing Viscount Ferdinand and his brothers?"
The leader"s expression twisted and he answered, "I dare not recall the horrors me and my family have been through. But I"ll still let you all know since we are one team now."
The leader then did a short speech of his past trauma.
It could be summarized as: Viscount Ferdinand and his father were good friends. They both fell in love with the same woman. The woman chose the leader"s father. Viscount Ferdinand was angry. He used force, but failed. Then resorted to cultivating hard and with the help of various pills, treasures, and fortuitous encounters, had his cultivation raised and became a Viscount after killing the previous clan.
Viscount Ferdinand then killed the leader"s father. Took his mother and locked himself in a room with her. He forced himself on her for the many years of rejection he faced, then went ahead and hunted the people a.s.sociated with her and the ones who had looked down on him before.
"Sigh… the world really isn"t rainbows and sunshine. From my perspective it has been really peaceful, but reality is far from different."