LUCIA

Chapter 12 Northern Territory (3)

The Northern territory had been under the control of the Taran nobles for an uncountable number of years, to the point that their reign had become unshakable. It was an unwritten rule that even the emperor could not interfere with the North's activities. With such power, the Taran nobles could have seceded to form an independent country, but they had not revolted against the emperor even once.

Most of the population saw the Duke of Taran as the North's King. Even so, the duke's rank only reached the level of the emperor's vassal. Even without orders, the North paid their taxes; when at war, they were the first to fight in the front lines; additionally, they were the ones to take care of the conflicts with the borderland barbarians. If the emperor were to rub the North the wrong way, the duke could possibly shout for secession, causing a great headache. Not all past generations of emperors held the same opinion, but as long as the emperor had a bit of wisdom, he would know the best option was to leave the North to its own devices.

The Taran family had always defended their position as the rulers of the North. They did not interfere with the politics in the capital one bit; they only focused on the problems related to the North. However, that trend had begun to change the slightest bit seven years ago.

The previous Northern Duke had suffered an abrupt death, and the current duke had been conferred the position at the mere age of 18. As soon as he had become the new duke, he'd had to leave his Northern territory and become the vanguard of the various wars occurring throughout the empire.

Duke Taran's military achievements had swept through the battlefields. His art of war had made the heavens and the earth tremble. Knights from other units, who got a chance to fight alongside the duke, had become his loyal followers regardless of who their original masters were.

While Duke Taran had been earning military merit, the Northern territory had been peaceful. The North had been a distance away from the war. No matter how much havoc Duke Taran had caused, the North suffered no consequences.

Hugo never received a formal test to see whether he was qualified to rule over the vast Northern land. He was young and had left the Northern territory on its own for a long time. People had begun to suspect that his only talent was in the art of war, and that his qualification as a ruler was nonexistent. Those were the voices of the ones discontent with the way Duke Taran ruled his territory.

In other territories, the dukes would impose taxes onto the counts of various regions. When the regions paid their imposed taxes, the counts would be given the authority to rule their land as they saw fit.

However, the Northern territory was governed differently. The Taran family controlled all its regions with minute detail. That included everything from taxes to the everyday laws concerning all the citizens. Each past generation of dukes of the Taran family forbade any form of tyranny in any of their regions. The commoners in the Northern territory lived peaceful lives, but many nobles of the North believed that the duke had unfairly stolen their governing rights from them.

The nobles living a safe distance away from the barbarian borderlands felt the duke's military powers were unnecessary to their lives. Those regions, as well as other nobles living closer to the capital, had formed ties and mocked the duke together. They had planned to submit a formal request to the emperor for a secession from the Northern territory, to formally become an independent territory in the Empire. That wasn't all; they had secretly increased the taxes behind Duke Taran's back, and had made a secret fund that would be used for their own private military units.

But those people had made a fatal mistake. They didn't understand the duke's true personality at all.

"Uugh..."