The wind on the observation deck seemed to carry both the searing heat of the empire's ascent and the chill that would not dissolve in Sakura Haruno's heart.
She looked down at the orderly yet rigidly stratified world below. The copy of National Instruction in her hands felt like a branding iron, its heat making her heart race.
Toyotomi Yinglang's "reasoning" about "matching rights with responsibilities," "setting things right," and even "filial devotion through leaving home" was like a cold file, grinding her understanding of the past dozen years into fragments.
But one question lodged in her heart like a thorn. She raised her head and looked at the man's back, her voice carrying lingering confusion and fresh bewilderment:
"You've said so much about nobles being demoted, about having to earn merit to maintain their standing... but looking at your empire, there don't seem to be... many actual nobles right now? I heard Grand Duke Yutian mention it earlier. There seem to be only... a dozen or so?"
Toyotomi Yinglang turned around and nodded, his tone as level as ever. "Yes. There are fourteen registered noble houses with clearly defined titles and fiefs, including Yutian, the Grand Duke Zhenyuan. They were all among the first to follow me onto this continent, cutting their way through every obstacle and rendering outstanding service in opening up the land, suppressing rebellions, and establishing institutions. Shiya, one of the earliest 'Rifle Squad captains,' is now a 'knight' with a fief of several hundred mu and a small manor."
"Only a dozen or so..." Sakura Haruno murmured, making a quick calculation. Even if each of those dozen noble houses had several or a dozen children, they would barely total a hundred. Compared with a population of hundreds of thousands, that seemed... insignificant? Could they really