Meanwhile, in Ereno, the capital of the Norman Empire, inside the Upper House Hall of Westru Palace.
As he watched the ministers before him constantly shirk responsibility and invent all manner of excuses to obstruct him, a suppressed rage flashed through William's eyes, though helplessness outweighed it.
With no military authority in his hands and much of his political power stripped away, he, the Emperor, was little more than a figurehead.
Even though John had shattered the Allied Forces six times and even defeated the enemy's strongest commander of the younger generation, proving with facts just how wise William's decision had been to abandon the hereditary transfer of military power among nobles and expand promotions to commoners.
As long as they continued along his path, William had at least a fifty percent chance of extending the Empire's radiance across the entire Melgar Continent, perhaps even to the Otto Continent and Amika Continent beyond the ocean.
But in the end, he had still underestimated human greed and selfishness.
Once they saw that commoners might replace nobles, and that the monarch intended to delegate powers once exclusive to them to commoners.
These beings who styled themselves noble began doing everything in their power to prevent it.
They even dragged their ancestors' glory into it.
The thirteen heroes who had led the Empire onto its road of glory had all risen from humble origins. It was their character and perseverance that earned the gods' recognition, and in the name of justice, they had saved the Norman Empire from the abyss of the Evil God.
Only then had their descendants and followers become nobles adorned with honor.
Yet after merely a thousand years, these nobles descended from heroes had not only failed to preserve the courage and fairness recognized by the gods, but had