32: New Plan (b)

Emilia frowned and crossed her arms. She asked Trojan, "What do you mean whether I trust you? You would not be here if I was even the slightest bit suspicious of your actions."

Trojan nodded and simply told her, "Well, in my opinion, the plan I have thought up is rather... unorthodox."

Emilia sighed, shifting her seating before she replied to Trojan. "The situation outside does not call for anything traditional or formal. The peasants are being unjustly violent and stubborn. Nothing we say will convince them to do anything close to stopping their rebellion."

"That is true," Trojan agreed. "I have tried to think up ways in which to resolve the situation peacefully, but unfortunately, it appears that it is impossible."

Emilia unfolded her arms before folding them again in a different order. She looked quite agitated and frustrated, not at Trojan, but at the peasants causing chaos outside. She said to Trojan, "I am sure most nobles know that eventually, the peasants are going to overrun all forms of nobility. No one is safe, not me, or them. It is much better for us to take action before that happens."

"It is entirely possible that the peasants are aiming to remove authority in Ether," Trojan commented. "I'd say that this was years in the making."

Starting from all the way back to the Great War, to the Calling Hunt, it was evident that authority and a form of government led to Ether's downfall. But people would argue that it was never the fault of the authority and that it was the fault of the people themselves. The Great War was fought between seven factions, and there was no proof that the leaders of each faction had wanted to fight the war, to begin with.

The Calling Hunt, an event burnt into the minds of every peasant in Ether. A town was trapped and a noble had decided to hunt those humans down as if they were game. It was an atrocious act that could not be forgiven. The peasants rightfully blamed the noble, but not only the noble but the rest of the government as well.

The act of one person dictated the way the peasants saw the whole group. To them, it was justified for they were the victim. However, when a noble was to be killed by a peasant, the rest of them claim innocence for a single person does not represent all of them. Playing the victim card, they justify their atrocious acts of violence against those in power.

In such a situation as the rebellion occurring against Trojan, who was to blame, assuming Trojan had been to one to set the town on fire? Without question, Trojan would have been the one to blame, and the only one to blame. However, to some, if not most of the peasants, they saw the entire government, the whole idea of nobility and royalty to be a fraud. They wanted to have more rights, so they did what they saw right, getting revenge by violent means.

In such a situation, from the viewpoint of any other noble, who was to blame? Surely, not all the blame went to Trojan. Some of it went to the peasants for choosing such violent means to solving their problems. It made them look idiotic and savage.

In such a situation, where Trojan was not the one to cause the commotion, where everything was started by a baseless rumour, who was at fault? Definitely not Trojan, not any of the nobility, blame could not be given to the person who had started the fire in the first place either if no one knew who the culprit was. The peasants were obviously in the wrong. They were after his life and had killed who knows how many people to try and get him out. To Trojan, they were the ones in the wrong, and he was in the right. The peasants were at fault for believing such a rumour and acting the way they did.

Sometimes, what is just and unjust becomes unclear.

"That is why something needs to be done," Emilia insisted. "I have tried contacting several other noble families, but I somehow doubt my messengers were able to reach their destination."

A thought struck Trojan. He had never thought about it before, but in the situation they were in, it somehow felt blatantly obvious. He asked her, "Where is your contracted mage?"

There was a pause from Emilia as she adjusted her posture once again. Trojan finally realised the truth. Emilia wanted him to solve the situation as quickly as possible not for her business to flourish again, but it was merely for her own safety.

"My family name has been declining recently," Emilia explained to Trojan. "In the end, there was no mage willing to work for me."

The reason why the peasants had yet to overrun all the nobles and even the Palace was because of the mages each household had contracted with. Every noble family had at least one contracted mage, even Trojan had a contracted mage. For a noble to not have a contracted mage, should the peasants find out, her property would be overrun in an instant, and she could be killed or worse.

Emilia was agitated, she was afraid.

"Why have you not contacted me sooner? I would have asked Domino to ensure your safety," Trojan asked.

"Look at you, acting like a loving husband," Emilia joked in an attempt to lighten the mood. "But as I said, I have tried sending messengers. For one, I did not know where you were staying at. For two, the messengers would not have been able to reach you even if I knew."

Trojan sat down, trying to think hard about how he could protect Emilia while also carrying out his new plan. There was some movement from Emilia as she adjusted the way she crossed her arms again.

"So it would be wonderful if you were able to solve this issue," Emilia told him. "Because I don't want to die just yet."