Duke Golan-Elson suddenly raised his head, trying to find the person who had spoken earlier, but the other party had already vanished into the crowd. This stirred a trace of interest in him—for days now, he had been utterly fed up with these people's endless discussions and complaints.
At first, he had still held out hope for these Royalists, hoping they could topple that newly risen Count just as they had overthrown Anlek's rule. But he had soon been disappointed. From the beginning of the Second Black Rose War until its end, these people had argued endlessly without coming up with a single plan. In the end, it was the other party's mistress who had acted decisively, leaving Jandernel with a trail of corpses.
They were not even as useful as a woman.
Duke Golan-Elson sneered at these so-called old Royalists, but then he felt worried again. Tonigell's meteoric rise had not merely harmed the traditional Royalist faction. In truth, as the kingdom's highest local administrators—virtually rulers of their own territories—the kingdom's dukes felt a much more direct threat.
And he felt it more than anyone.
The son of the Duke of Lantorilan, Aiko, had been a staunch supporter of the Crown Princess during the Battle of Ambersell. Grand Duke Viero was That Princess's close relative, while Karasu stood above the fray and was even more deeply entangled with the Cardilosso Family. Among the southern lords, Anlek and Jandernel had now been politically and physically destroyed. The only remaining "enemy" of That Princess seemed to be him.
Moreover, Duke Golan-Elson disagreed with some of the Crown Princess's actions. Her threat had always hung over him like a thorn in his side.
He could see that these Royalists would never accomplish anything. They might represent the interests of certain people behind