Edward heard the words clear-cut, the plan of gathering information on the conspirators but something else was missing from the details. The details so the Regional lord himself.
"Royas, I think you forgot to tell me about the lord. Why can I allow him to be killed? Is it just because he is in control of the young lady? Well, what is the name of the lord?"
Edward arrayed his doubts to Royas, he did not know anything about the lord, how did he factor into the work of the conspirators?
"Well..."
Royas squinted his eyes and leaned back on his chair, he looked relaxed for the first time.
"I see, it is now something normal. How bad is it?"
"Far worse than you imagine. My name is Harley Malvid. There is a good list of his scandals, some are normal like kidnapping and threatening, but they can easily be managed. Some of these things are... well if the rumour spreads... I can't see anyone respecting him not even his own self."
"Well, what did he do? Slavery? He might be hanged for that or Raping women?"
"Using bodies of dead women for pleasure..."
"He what?!"
"It includes many, recent digging into the bodies of fresh women who have been sent to his secret dorms. A news agency agent got the whiff of him. The rumour is already out in news areas, we asked not to get into any scandals, so he took the hint and stopped those things."
Royas took a big sigh, he put his hands on his face from embarrassment was the things he just said, Edward had quite in shock as well.
"Well, That did I just hear, I have heard and seen much more desensitizing things but this makes me feel more anxious. Ooof..."
Edward had his hands on his forehead as well, both Edward and Royas were definitely in the mood to talk about this topic anymore.
The awkward silence took upon the room as the two recovered their peace of mind.
"What are his other points? His relationship with the people? His taxing schemes and working with a church? What does he do to the people he doesn't like?"
Edward further enquired about Harley, to change the mood of the situation.
"The way he operates? Let's see."
Royas took another slot of paper from his lower drawers and took a good look at them before saying anything else.
"As, a person he has no heir, his only wife died due to smallpox. He never got married after that. He placed a chandelier in the town tavern in her name. Although, I can't explain his liking for dead women even now."
Royas took a small break and began speaking again.
"I want to learn His methods of functioning are quite difficult to understand, they are full of good and bad things. Quite human... I'd say."
"?"
"The tax system he implemented is quite good for people's welfare, taxing the people based on income divisions. The lower income class gets some amount of rations handed to them every week."
"I see, it might be good on the public's side but how are things with the 'important people'?"
"As you can expect, the Public's welfare schemes are good and all but the big merchants and smaller royal families have seen taxed seriously high. They are really not happy about that. He barely covers the amount of revenue needed to be sent to the central government and even bugs for their funds."
"How is he a regional lord? He should have been thrown out very early if his deals were like these."
"Public support. He earns the complete support of his people, any small stain can vanish in a second, he talks in support of religious freedom and really pushed for lowering taxes on churches. He was really untouchable in terms of public likability."
"Did he start the religious freedom part, before he got connected to the church or after?"
It was crucial detail, small points like these could become the root of a larger conspiracy theory that things utter chaos.
"Before that, he has seen religious oppression, his grandfather was forced to give up his religion and assume a common surname. He has gained a lot of sympathy due to that too, he might be the most liked lord among the people he rules."
"That man, he is sure a passionate guy, I think he has gone too old for his things, his mind isn't in the right place. He is looking for something to love at his age, hungry for attention."
"Maybe that's what pushed him so far... To the church, I mean? A wish for salvation before death to meet his wife in heaven. Words like these would have lured a man like him. "
"I don't care about his past or his future, what I've come to know is his death won't favour us in any way. The taxes and higher-ups might be happy but the public of the lower section will never accept your puppet rulers. Getting him killed and not being able to show priest Zoticus as a culprit might push in his favour."
" Your right, but it's not like we haven't replaced a loved ruler with puppets in the past. We can still do it today, all it needs is a little deception."
"?!"
The two were alerted by a sudden knock was made on the door.
"Commander, The clothes requested by you have arrived."
A voice from the other side delivered the information,
"Please come in." Saying this Royas got up from his seat and continued.
"It looks like our conversation is over, Mr Edward. It's time to get to work."
A lady dressed like a nurse earlier held a white dress in his hands.
"Edward your disguise is here. I've been keeping you for a long time. It's time you need to leave and save the Lord's life."
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Volume 5 ends.