Hearing Ludwig's words, Maximilian froze. He let out a long breath and finally calmed down.
The ancestral teachings were right. I shouldn't lose my cool just to prove myself. As Maximilian thought this, he suddenly recalled something Franz had once said.
"Arguments are performed for others to see. Usually, the side with the louder voice and better acting wins. It's best not to reason with villains, because they'll drag you down to their level, then defeat you with their wealth of experience."
Maximilian vigorously slapped his own cheeks.
"If I can't treat everyone equally, what kind of ruler am I?"
At that moment, Alit said to the merchant, "Unless you can produce evidence proving that we broke it, this is a false accusation! False accusers are subject to the same punishment!"
"Shut up!"
Maximilian roared furiously. The very thought of Franz made his anger rise from nowhere. Franz had merely been born a few days earlier, yet he had taken everything that should have belonged to Maximilian, then cast him off to Naples as though tossing him alms.
He had clearly promised to make him King of Naples, yet kept pushing back the date of his coronation. If he had already become king, why would he have come here and encountered something like this?
Rage and resentment instantly devoured Maximilian's reason. But the moment he raised his hand, Ludwig seized it.
"Maximilian, what are you doing?"
Ludwig wore an incredulous expression. The brother he remembered had clearly been wise and noble. Could there be some curse upon the land of the infidels?
That had to be why he had fallen so low, why his noble and wise brother was behaving so abnormally.
Thinking this, Ludwig could not help blaming himself. He had clearly told his brother to carry that blessed