King Sigmund flew into a thunderous rage over Karl and the Princess's divorce, declaring that effective immediately, Karl would be stripped of all Nobility titles and honors, deprived of his Viscount title, and have every royal fief reclaimed.
In legal terms, he was no longer a Lord, no longer a noble, and had even been formally erased from the royal lineage, reduced to a "commoner" without any privileges. At the same time, the Princess's marriage contract was unilaterally declared void, restoring her unmarried status as though that marriage had never existed, all to wash away the "betrayal" suffered by the royal family.
To support this political strangulation, the Finance Department and the merchant guilds jointly issued a series of sanctions. Any caravan bound for Carnford would have its license revoked; border checkpoints would impose a total embargo on Carnford, forbidding the entry of grain and iron goods. Banks throughout the kingdom were ordered to freeze all assets under Karl's name, in an attempt to cut off his funding.
Yet though these sanctions appeared imposing to outsiders, they were really no more than scratching an itch through a boot.
Against a powerful figure like Karl, who commanded heavy forces and had effectively formed an independent warlord power, such an economic blockade was feeble and powerless. Carnford possessed its own mines and armories, with an extremely strong capacity for self-sufficiency.
Moreover, in the eyes of sharp-nosed, profit-driven merchants, the royal family's economic sanctions order was nothing but a scrap of waste paper.
When profits reached three hundred percent, merchants would dare commit any crime—even risk being hanged.
Now, the trade routes leading to Carnford had not only failed to break off, but instead displayed a strange kind of "underground prosperity."
On the surface, every major merchant guild issued statements claiming it would