Hesitation means desire, and desire means obtaining it! Iver had no intention of letting Minister Drost live much longer, so he immediately began to act.
Although Minister Drost had offended Meg... he had ultimately only turned himself in and had not yet been hanged outright.
Though the Arbitration Hall had contingency plans specifically for punishing knights and ministers who committed crimes—from stripping them of office, to stripping them of their titles, to revoking their honors and holding public trials—there was a complete procedure. They could not declare you guilty in the morning, skip interrogation and trial, and drag you out to be beheaded at noon.
The foundation of authoritarian power was the law.
Compared to a law that depended on the power of whoever held office, one that depended on "rules" was a much firmer foundation.
Otherwise, every time those in power changed, the strength of the extraordinary people throughout the country might fluctuate wildly.
But conversely, having a complete procedure also meant that the procedure might take a very long time. This period would be used by the Bureau of Supervision to investigate the other ministers and secretaries in the Ministry of Trade, uncover those connected to Minister Drost, and then follow the trail to find the person behind them.
Throughout this process, it was best for Minister Drost to remain alive, because only then could he report the other party and provide valuable testimony.
But this also gave the ministers who were friendly with him time to destroy the evidence. The inspectors were not clean either. There were certainly spies mixed among them.
Iver was worried that the more information Minister Drost sold, the more valuable he would become. It was possible that several "big-name" lords might preserve him for the sake of "greater benefits." He might even