Ch.143Governance (2)

“Let me see the Governor right now!!”

“What is the matter?”

“What’s with these ill-mannered commoners?!”

The native nobles and churches were furious with the governor and administrators Claude had dispatched to manage the territory he had acquired.

They were simply doing their jobs according to their orders and the manuals they had studied, working as they always did in Lotharing to establish administrative control over the territory. However, their actions greatly provoked the nobles and churches of Caroling.

Eventually, the disgruntled nobles and clergy, accompanied by their guards, headed to the Governor’s Palace in Lutetia. An administrator who happened to be passing by found himself bombarded with their questions.

“How dare you enter my domain and conduct surveys without permission?!”

“That’s not all! The secular ruler dares to encroach upon heaven’s domain! Demanding loyalty, of all things?”

The surveys the nobles mentioned referred to the administrators’ efforts to determine the exact area of available farmland and population counts to prevent tax evasion and strengthen administrative control, as well as to investigate important resources. The clergy’s complaint about loyalty demands referred to the notification that secular law took precedence over church law.

Such measures are essential for a state to function properly, but naturally, the existing privileged classes would never welcome them.

While they might tolerate individuals wandering around, having outside forces freely roaming their domains without permission was not just uncomfortable but alarming enough to cause panic. Similarly, for religious circles who believed that heaven’s law was more important than earthly law, the demand to comply with secular law was an enormous humiliation.

“Pardon?”

“Pardon?! I’ve explained everything already!!”

“But… what exactly is the problem?”

“…What?”

However, the administrator dispatched from Dijon couldn’t sympathize with the Carolingian forces at all.

That was inevitable. This administrator had completed four years of public administration studies at Dijon University.

According to what he had learned over those four years, the administrators they were cursing—his colleagues—were doing exactly what they should be doing. How could one create a unified nation if one couldn’t assess the country’s capabilities and if people everywhere refused to obey the law?

A country that cannot properly project administrative power over its territory will soon perish. This was proven by history and is the motto of Dijon University’s Public Administration Department, as demonstrated by Caroling and the Empire today.

“Aren’t these things that obviously need to be done?”

“Y-you…!”

“How dare you speak with that mouth!”

Naturally, this mindset completely failed to consider the nobles and clergy who would be subject to administrative control.

No matter how efficient a system might be, when dealing with people, one must consider their feelings. If administration is judged solely by statistics, documents, letters, and numbers, things cannot possibly work properly.

However, considering such emotions when crafting policy is the job of those higher up.

If the administrative branch is a great machine, and high-ranking officials are the ones who operate that machine, then this administrator is merely a cog or component of that machine.

How could a mere component consider emotions?

“Y-you…! We don’t need someone like you! Take us to the Governor immediately!!”

“If you wish to meet the Governor, you must make an appointment in advance.”

“What nonsense is that?! I said take us to the Governor right now!!”

“…The Governor has numerous appointments scheduled in 10-minute intervals to stabilize Caroling. Meetings without prior appointment would disrupt that schedule—ack!!”

“You bastard!!”

The nobles and clergy had no further business with the administrator.

Their guards exercised physical force to teach a lesson to the impertinent commoner administrator, while the nobles and clergy passed by, looking at the administrator being “educated” as if viewing something filthy.

“What do you think you’re doing?!”

Such violent behavior naturally provoked the soldiers guarding the Governor’s Palace.

Until just a moment ago, the soldier had been standing quietly at the gate, observing them from an outsider’s perspective, but sudden violence, especially right in front of the Governor’s Palace, was something he could not possibly ignore.

“What are we doing? We’re educating this lowly commoner who dared to insult those of noble blood and followers of God.”

“Perfect timing! Hey, show us the way to the Governor immediately.”

“Excuse me?”

The soldier clearly heard the words with both ears, but he greatly doubted whether they had misspoken or if there was something wrong with his hearing.

The soldiers stationed at the Governor’s Palace were all directly dispatched from Dijon, and they had never experienced anything like this while serving in Dijon.

The administrator had only said what needed to be said—was that something deserving of a beating? Especially in front of the Governor’s Palace?

The soldier didn’t think the administrator had done anything wrong, and above all, he couldn’t understand these outsiders giving orders to him, a direct subordinate of the Governor, as if it were natural. Even if there was a difference in social status, the chain of command was an entirely different matter.

“Are you deaf?! I said take us to the Governor right now!!”

“…First, please tell me your name and position. I cannot take unverified individuals directly to the Governor—”

“These frustrating fools!!”

“—…ugh!”

The nobles and clergy treated the soldier no differently than they had the administrator. They exercised physical force against the soldier just as they had done moments before.

The problem was that, unlike the administrator, the soldier was physically trained and armed.

*Slash!*

“Aaaaargh!!”

“Everyone out! Arrest all these bastards!!”

The noble who had thrown a punch at the soldier was cut by the soldier’s sword—a shallow wound, but enough to spray blood—and the soldier who had been punched shouted loudly, calling for backup.

Soon, an alarm bell rang loudly from above the gate, announcing an emergency, and before long, the nobles and clergy who had caused this disturbance were all arrested and detained by the soldiers who came rushing out.

Until just moments ago, they had freely exercised force when displeased, but now with swords at their throats, they showed no such inclination.

……….

‘What is this now?’

According to an urgent letter just sent by the governor dispatched to Lutetia, dozens of nobles and clergy had caused a disturbance at the Governor’s Palace and been imprisoned.

At first, Claude’s heart sank when he heard they were nobles and clergy… but who were these guys?

He had thought that nobles and clergy from all over Caroling had united and come to Lutetia in force, but that wasn’t the case.

‘What should I do?’

Most of the nobles arrested for causing the disturbance were so insignificant in power that Claude had simply swallowed them whole rather than subcontracting them to vassals, and some didn’t even have domains.

But the clergy were different.

Unlike the church territories in Lotharing that Claude had completely crushed and politically neutered, the church territories in Caroling were not only intact but extremely powerful.

Moreover, since most of the church territories incorporated into the Kingdom of Lotharing had been made direct vassals of Claude rather than being subcontracted to other vassals, if they all united in response, it could create quite a troublesome situation.

‘If I just follow the law… hmm, this looks a bit dangerous.’

Of course, no matter how large and annoying they might be, he couldn’t just turn a blind eye.

Not only had they lynched his precious slaves… no, administrators who received the country’s salary, but they had also attempted to use force against soldiers. This was definitely not something he could overlook.

Sigh, and this happened so soon after the banquet ended.

Given the size of the arrested nobles’ group, some of them were surely connected to nobles who had attended the banquet, and since the punishment according to law was quite harsh by noble standards, complaints were certain to arise.

‘Ah, I’ll just follow the law.’

“Hey, bring me paper and pen. I’m going to write a reply to the governor of Lutetia.”

But it would be quite ridiculous not to apply the codified law when it existed.

Above all, punishing according to the law rather than being swayed by personal emotions would generate the least gossip.

They think it’s harsh? I can’t break the law that I personally created, can I? If they didn’t like it, they shouldn’t have broken the law.

With that thought, Claude wrote an order to the governor of Lutetia and the judge he had dispatched there, demanding that the nobles and clergy who caused the disturbance be punished according to the law. Anticipating resistance from the nobles and clergy, he mobilized the intelligence department to monitor domestic forces, but the unrest Claude had expected did not materialize.

The nobles who had attended the banquet had come to understand Claude’s commitment to the law very well during their three-day stay in Dijon.

Construction sites built to meet building safety regulations, laws specifying carriage sizes and widths for road safety that unified them into three main types, laws prohibiting the leakage of factory technology, regulations for garbage and waste disposal that all citizens of Dijon had to follow—everything the nobles saw in Dijon during the banquet period had at least one related law. It was truly a scene of madness.

From the nobles’ perspective, no one dared to tell Claude—a madman who created laws for even the most trivial matters and led by example in observing them—that the punishments written in the law were too severe.