章 4: Two Great Noble Factions
Hearing Makai's words, all the family members had an expression of surprise that they couldn't hide.
Although almost everyone in the Collins family instinctively felt a repulsion towards Makai due to him not having a third surname, no one had ever tried to make things difficult for him before and didn't even keep in touch with him.
They didn't know much about Makai.
For as long as they can remember, Makai was raised by Butler Jonathan and grew up among the bastard children or those who are the children of castle servants, and by the time he came to know his status and position in the family at the age of 5, he was already had begun to mature when he began to practice his sword with the aim of becoming a mighty Knight.
Since then, Makai had isolated himself from everyone and only knew how to spend his time practicing with a wooden sword in the training grounds.
At the age of 10, he was sent to study at the Knights Academy of the Royal Capital and it was only in the last few days that he had returned for a banquet celebrating his 15th birthday and graduation to be held last night.
"Looks like spending the last five years studying at the Knight Academy wasn't a waste..." That was the thought of most of the members present after hearing Makai's words.
However, without them realizing it, the look of contempt in his eyes was no longer clearly visible as before. In a large aristocratic family like a Duke's family, it was not enough just to have strength to earn everyone's respect, but also to have a broad vision of the world, especially when it comes to military matters.
"In times of war, is every hole a trench?" Initially, Duke Marvin had no expectations of hearing what his youngest son Makai had to say, however, the more he listened, the more surprised he was and he couldn't help but mutter to himself upon first hearing such a saying of war.
"Hahaha." While Duke Marvin was still stunned trying to understand the meaning of such a saying, a loud laugh reverberated through the room catching everyone's attention.
The one laughing is a strong man of fair skin and short black hair. His name is Elmer Collins, the fifth brother of Duke Marvin.
Elmer is one of the main generals of the Collins family commanding a powerful elite cavalry. He was wearing a set of silver-blue armor and his black eyes gleamed with satisfaction as he reached out his right hand and gave Makai a few small pats on his left shoulder as he said, "Good, very good. Young, did I like that saying. Although I don't understand exactly what it means, still sounds as: As much as the enemy reinforces its borders, once at war, there will always be a weak point."
Hearing his fifth uncle's words and feeling his strong hand on his left shoulder, Makai felt ashamed and a little guilty as he had shamelessly used a saying he had read in a book during his work at the library when he was still on Earth. To be honest, not even he himself knew the exact meaning of such a saying, but it seemed that his fifth uncle had found a good answer.
Of course, Makai wouldn't admit it and, without any embarrassment, he looked at the strong man sitting to his left and said, "No wonder the fifth uncle is considered one of the Starfall Kingdom's greatest generals, his wisdom is as great in military matters as his fame."
"Hahaha. Boy, I didn't know that spending five years at the Knights Academy of the Royal Capital studying and training with those old men would make you have a mouth with such sweet words..."
"Looks that the little boy who only knew how to train with a sword grew up and has become a man now."
Seeing this scene, Ferdinand had an ugly expression: "It's like my fifth uncle is saying... This fourth bastard brother of mine is not only a sword maniac, but he also doesn't seem like someone easy to manipulate..."
After grinding his teeth and thinking to himself, Ferdinand put on his elegant smile and asked Makai aloud, "The fourth brother's words are truly wise and I long to be enlightened by your great vision..."
"If we can't go to war at the moment, how does the fourth brother think we can get merit? Don't tell me it is through administrative methods, for we are an aristocratic family of the Right Party and not the Left Party."
All the Collins family members simultaneously looked at Makai waiting for his answer. Now that Ferdinand asked, they were curious to know if Makai really had a broad worldview or if he just had a little knowledge of military matters.
In the Starfall Kingdom, there is a great hierarchy that divides the layers of power among the nobles. In addition to the Court Nobles below the Hereditary and Meritorious Nobles, there are also two major factions that separate them into the Left Party headed by the Minister of Finance, and the Right Party headed by the Minister of Military Affairs.
While the Left Party rules through administrative methods that boost the economy of the entire Kingdom, the Right Party aims only at the expansion of military troops, wars, conquests, and an iron fist government.
The Collins family ancestors have always been involved in military affairs and, before the War of Kings took place, the Kingdom of Starfall had gone many years without seeing the color of the flames of war and the Collins family was in decay when the hereditary title of Baron was passed for Marvin Collins.
When it seemed that there was no hope left for the Collins family to achieve military merits and promote their status within the realm, Marvin Collins saw the light when the flames of the War of Kings reached the north of the realm and, like a great hungry lion, he embraced the war and brought the family's glory to an unprecedented height during the last 10 years of the War of Kings.
For the past 100 years, everyone within the Starfall Kingdom looked to the Collins family as a war-mad family and did not possess the qualifications to be members of the Left Party. Even their cities within the Crimson Duchy were built as military forts and their rulers were all generals.
The most notorious person in the family in recent years is Sabrina Collins who craves war so much that the first group of bandits she discovers within the Crimson Duchy would soon be exterminated by her. If the territories of other neighboring nobles allowed it, she would gladly lead her Crimson Tigress Cavalry to exterminate them.
A family like this full of madmen who yearn for war would be seen as a joke if they suddenly announced outside that they would be joining the Left Party, so Ferdinand had a confident smile when he asked such a question, as he believed his father would not be willing to have any relationship with the Left Party and if Makai had such thoughts, he would be seen as a big joke in front of everyone in this hall.
Seeing his older brother's self-righteous smile, Makai felt a slight distaste, but decided to play along when he said, "The older brother is truly wise and managed to deduce exactly what I think."
Hearing that Makai truly believed that the Collins family was about to join the Left Party, Ferdinand was taken aback, but very quickly he chuckled contentedly at the thought that he would finally see his younger brother make a fool of himself.
"The fourth brother means that the father is about to join the Left Party and will use us four brothers to see who will perform better in administrative governance?" Ferdinand couldn't help but increase his tone as if he were afraid someone wouldn't hear him.
Many family members couldn't help but shake their heads in disapproval at the thought that Makai was stupid, as this is a military family, and the government within the duchy is run by iron laws. The commoners must work and the military are the ones who administer them. There are no subjects such as chambers of commerce, hotels, taverns, and other establishments that are not related to military affairs.
Within the Crimson Duchy, each city is a stronghold.
As for agriculture, clothing, and other materials, everything is produced within the duchy, as its territory is very large and its resources are more than enough for the duchy to be self-sufficient. This is one of the main advantages of a hereditary and meritorious noble, as they have territories where they rule with their own laws.
However, nobles with their own territories were not yet exempt from taxes that had to be paid each year to the kingdom and they had to obey the king's decree to go to war when necessary, otherwise, it would be seen as an act of rebellion.
As everyone looked at Makai with expressions that they were looking at an ignorant young man, no one noticed that Duke Marvin had a strange glint in his eyes.
As the Duke who is in charge of everything that happens within his own territory, many still didn't realize it, but Marvin Collins was aware that after 100 years of extracting the main metal ores for the forging of military equipment like armor and swords, this method could no longer continue as it was, for like these ores, there are still many resources that are not renewable and the duchy could not continue to be self-sufficient for much longer.
Aware of this, Marvin made a difficult decision that needed to be announced today. He knew that this decision might not be easily accepted among family members and that it would go against the will of his ancestors. However, if it had been up to his ancestors, the Collins family would have fallen into the War of Kings and he is now the main pillar of that family and had to be the one to make the tough decisions or the family situation could be even more complicated in the future.
After much thought, he came up with a long-term plan where the main executors would be his four children and was about to announce it, however, unexpectedly, the conversation was heading where he wanted to go.
At that moment, he has some anticipation for his son Makai's next words and watched him with interest.
"Elder brother, you are right, but you are also wrong. As everyone knows, there is not only the way of war to get merit, otherwise, the Left Party nobles would never get merit, right?" Makai took the opportunity to clear his throat when he asked a rhetorical question.
At the same time, everyone seemed to agree with his words. If it were only possible to get merit through wars, Left Party nobles would have no room for promotions, because they get merit only through their administrative performances. If Right Party nobles are seen as war-mad nobles, the Left Party nobles are seen as scholars.
Seeing that everyone was in agreement, Makai continued, "What I think Father can assign us to earn merits is by using exactly the same methods used by the Left Party nobles..."
"We must expand and open our doors so that commerce is implemented within our duchy, otherwise, what do you think will happen when our resources run out?"
"What if there are no wars in the next 100 years?"
"This wouldn't be following the same path as our ancestors before the War of Kings came to our door?"
Silence!
Suddenly, everyone seemed suffocated and could barely breathe as they heard Makai's words.
They all had spent so many years living in comfort that they had forgotten such an important detail and it turned out to be the same as what happened in the generations before Duke Marvin Collins succeeded the Baron and be promoted to Duke.
Even the fifth uncle, Elmer Collins, who was already beginning to regret praising his nephew so openly earlier, was sweating right now. He couldn't help but turn his head to look at his big brother sitting in the main seat and seeing how Marvin had a happy smile, only now did he realize that his brother was already aware of this detail and Makai seemed to have anticipated the Duke's intention.
However, Ferdinand had not realized this as he was very focused on Makai, thinking of ways to make him look foolish, and continued to question, "So the fourth brother means that our father really intends to join the Left Party?"
Looking at his older brother who couldn't put on that fake smile anymore and had a sour expression on his face, Makai was feeling good as he said, "Of course not. Does the older brother think that by adopting the methods used by scholars, we also have to join the Left Party?"
"That's not the case?" Ferdinand was confused, as everyone knew that those territories that use the administrative methods of the scholars must be members of the Left Party and the military must just continue to use the iron-fisted methods and live mainly from wars.
Hearing this question, Makai could not judge him as a fool, after all, he knew aristocratic laws very well. While it is true that each noble who owns a territory can rule with their own laws, this is not entirely true, as there were some iron laws laid down by the realm that could not be violated.
For example, the Crimson Duke is a hereditary title that must be passed to one of his sons that the Duke sees fit, but which will usually be passed to one of the sons with one of his three principal wives and he could not pass the title to another family, sell it or whatever method it was, for that is an iron law of the realm. Likewise, nobles belonging to the Left and Right Parties could not coexist in the same territory, only territories ruled by the royal family itself were allowed to do so, as this is an iron law established by the second king of Starfall with the aim that the royal family had greater power over their subjects.
When Makai processed such knowledge in the memory of his predecessor, he had to admit that the second king, Charles Kaiser II, was indeed a brilliant man for using such an intelligent method, as it prevents the military from developing and being dependent only of war.
Throughout the many years of the Starfall Kingdom, many great military families fell into the annals of history during the years of peace, after all, no one can live only depending on war.
Makai looked intently at all of his family members who were waiting for his answer and then looked at his father who was looking at him with a strange gleam in his eyes. He didn't know his father's thoughts, but he seemed to guess something after seeing him like that and thought to himself, "It seems that the father has already noticed this problem too..."
Looking again at his older brother, Makai continued, "That's not the case, big brother. We, the military, can also promote our own chamber of commerce. Think about it..."
"What can the king do if each military duchy creates its own chamber of commerce and cooperates with each other?"
Silence!
This time, everyone was too shocked to utter a single word. They didn't expect Makai to be so crazy to utter such bold words.
While they were stunned, they started to wonder, and very quickly they all had the same thoughts, "Yes, what could the king do if all the military cooperated with each other?" Their hearts pounded at the thought of such a scenario.
Although the Starfall Kingdom is seen as a kingdom, its territory is as large as that of some empires. The entire large central area of the realm is managed by the royal family, whether they are of main bloodline or collateral bloodlines, they rule over a vast territory far greater than any duchy.
This central territory ruled by the royal family, did not have these restrictions of Left Party and Right Party, they were a very powerful unit, and their accumulated resources in more than a thousand years since their founding is a great wealth that most nobles could only guess, but never assert how much wealth had been amassed.
Around this central territory, as if well designed, are the territories of duchies in all directions, each occupying a parcel of land of equal size. Altogether, there are eight duchies, in which four duchies are territories belonging to the Left Party and the remaining four are belonging to the Right Party.
Furthermore, the duchies of the same party did not share borders with each other. For example, the Crimson Duchy is in the southwest, and in its northeast is the border with the central territory of the kingdom.
In the eastern to southeastern regions of the Crimson Duchy are the borders with the Southern Duchy controlled by the Russell family, a family of the Left Party.
In the northern region of the Crimson Duchy is the border with the Duchy of the West controlled by the Barth family, also a Left Party family, the same family from which Ferdinand Barth Collins' mother belongs.
The entire Starfall Kingdom is like a big pizza, where 1/3 of each slice is a duchy owned by one faction and the entire central region is where members of the royal family rule.
Such a method of territorial distribution was also applied by the second king, Charles Kaiser II, so that the royal family's control over them was even greater.
It seemed like the second king had already anticipated thoughts like Makai's now where military duchies could ally to go against this iron law of parties coexisting outside the core area and Makai's suggestion that military duchies should cooperate did not seem very viable.
Thinking about it, Ferdinand smiled coldly and believing had found a loophole where Makai should not have a solution, he said, "Fourth brother, your words can not only be seen as an act of rebellion, but too, there is no possibility of forming an alliance between the military duchies, as our territories are separated by the duchies of the Left Party..."
"What do you have to say about this?"
Many family members also seemed to agree with Ferdinand's words and expected Makai to respond.
"Elder brother, how could this be seen as rebellion when we are just looking for a way to survive? Or should we just wait and continue to perish in the annals of history as many military families?"
Hearing this, Ferdinand frowned and didn't know what to say. The family members also looked divided as they also agreed with Makai's words.
Makai didn't wait for an answer and continued, "As for the matter of cooperating between the military and the duchies of the Left Party among us, it's quite simple..."
"Big brother, what do the Left Party nobles most possess that we military can't compare?"
Hearing such a question, Ferdinand didn't even hesitate to answer, "Everyone knows it's wealth. Some Left Party nobles are so luxurious that they have their castles built of jade and we military can't compare to their wealth."
Makai nodded in agreement and continued, "Now, dear brother. What else do the military have that the Left Party nobles don't?"
Unconsciously, Ferdinand replied, "Of course we have powerful armies and the strongest Knights in the realm. In addition, we have blacksmiths, equipment..." Arriving here, Ferdinand lost the strength in his voice, and finally he seemed to have realized Makai's purpose in asking such questions and he couldn't help but look stunned as he asked, "What the fourth brother means is... We must ally with the Left Party nobles to cooperate in crossing their borders while we sell military equipment for them?"
Ferdinand looked incredulous, he never expected that his younger brother, whom he despises the most, would actually have such thoughts, "It seems that I greatly underestimated this younger brother of mine..." He couldn't help repeating these same thoughts each time Makai spoke.
"The elder brother is really wise. I believe the best way to gain merit without war at this time is to seek cooperation not only with the military, but also to bring the Left Party to our side..."
"Does anyone here think the Left Party nobles would turn down this big offer to get military equipment?" Makai asked with a confident smile.
The Collins family members had expressions that they were looking at a cunning old fox, they did not expect the direction of this Family Council's conversation to go as far as it has now. They had even forgotten that Makai was a bastard and there wasn't the slightest trace of contempt anymore in his eyes as they reflected the words they heard.
Within all the members present, there was not a single insignificant person, each of them held high military positions within the family and managed their due territories within the Crimson Duchy granted by Duke Marvin as, territory of Count, Viscount, and Baron. They are people who don't get involved in matters related to commerce, but they have a great worldview and knew very well what Makai's words implied.
Clearly, Left Party nobles would not refuse such cooperation with the military, for despite possessing great wealth, they were not allowed to develop armies and could only have at most a few dozen Knights as a noble escort, as this was also a iron law established by the royal family.
"However, such a big subject as this, someone should have thought of it before, right?" This time, it was Jason, his second brother, who asked.
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