In the imperial capital of the Aolei Empire, a student from the Art Academy sued the recently celebrated Landon Grand Duke. The accusation was even more explosive: he claimed that the Grand Duke had stolen his title, that he himself was the true heir of the Landon Family.
The other party was merely a lowborn wandering knight.
Logically, since the Noble Faction and the Imperial Family had gone this far, their next step should have been to manipulate public opinion through every kind of rhetoric and rally the masses to Flander's camp.
In fact, they had indeed tried.
But they had failed.
The Steam Faction intervened.
They merely wanted to test Lu Xingshi, not truly force him into rebellion. Besides, they had only recently promoted Lu Xingshi. If they kept reversing themselves like this, it would affect the Empire.
Thus, although the matter spread widely, most people merely treated it as a spectacle.
No one took any extreme action, and hardly anyone supported Flander.
After all, no one was stupid. If it had been the theft of some nominal baronial title, they might have believed it.
But stealing a ducal title? The man even possessed an entire duchy. How exactly had the other party stolen it? There was not a shred of logic in that.
Thus, Flander became a colossal joke, dragging even the Imperial Arbitration Court into the mess.
However, this farcical case was soon brought to trial.
Lu Xingshi did not attend. Only the Butler came, though the Butler was no longer a Butler—he was now a Cabinet minister of the Landon Duchy.
As for the other three territorial officials, they had become the Minister of Military Affairs, Minister of Finance, and Minister of Justice.
With these four as the core, the Landon Duchy's power structure had taken