Sinister, Cunning, and Willing to Do Anything

What was a noble? Ask a hundred times and you would get a hundred answers, but they all came down to much the same words.

Sinister, cunning, and willing to sacrifice anything for gain.

Every noble shared the same traits: they hated losing what was theirs, and they loved seeing others fall on hard times.

They wanted their families to prosper forever.

A century ago, the Empire's nobles might have watched their own blood march off out of loyalty to the Emperor. Even if they died fighting in the South, their families would have called it an honor.

But... that had been more than a hundred years ago.

The Empire's nobles envied the Count Clayton Family. None of them could produce so many heirs.

Every child of the direct bloodline was precious.

Yet most of the Empire's nobles had now sent one of those children south, into a glorious campaign to avenge the Emperor.

They wanted vengeance. They wanted glory. They also wanted their children to return in triumph, alive.

So this was no ordinary war. It was a political struggle between the Empire's nobles and the nobles and clergy loyal to Dawn.

Political struggles were never decided on the surface. Nor would victory be settled by noble knights killing one another in duels.

Nobles had gathered in the Imperial Capital, anxious over the news from the South and the duel challenges arriving one after another.

"Do those damned fools still live a thousand years in the past? Do they think knights' duels can decide the war between Dawn and the Light, or shake the Empire's resolve to take revenge?"

"Ridiculous. Gentlemen, let's show those relics who belong in coffins what the Empire can do."

"Goffman? Heh!"

"Viscount Isaacson, he's looking down on you."

A count tossed a duel challenge