The chief guard, named Arthur Foxhunter, was a noble from a baronial family.
In this dream world, there is one king and many noble families.
The first sons of noble families would inherit the title, while the other sons would usually be appointed to government and army positions.
The nobles have several ranks: Knights, which are the lowest noble rank. Their title is not hereditary, which means their sons would not inherit their knight titles. Knights usually preside over small villages. Knight ranks would be given to people who spent their lives serving the nobles.
Barons are the second rank of nobles; baron titles are hereditary for nine generations and usually rule small cities.
Those who have done great merit for powerful nobles or the king could receive baron rank.
If a baron family doesn't produce enough knights or fails to contribute to the satisfaction of the House of Blue Bloods, their baron title would be lost after nine generations.
The next rank is Viscount. Viscounts are already considered a higher-level noble, with medium to large cities as territory.
The Viscount rank is permanent, which means it can be inherited indefinitely. As a result, there is a limited number of viscount positions. New viscounts could only appear if a vacancy occurs or a higher noble or a king splits their territory to create a new viscount position.
Higher nobles are extremely resistant to splitting their territory, so it's nearly unheard of for a new viscount position to appear. As for who can become a viscount, there is no set condition; maybe if someone saved the king from certain death, the king would split their royal territory to promote them to Viscount. But it's improbable; the maximum extent of a king's favor will likely be a baron title, not a Viscount title.
The next rank is the rank of Count. A Count is a higher noble with a few big cities or even a province as their territory.
Count families have a deep history, going all the way back to the country's founding. There hasn't been a new count family for thousands of years.
Even second sons of count families usually become mayors of big cities. Counts have a birthright to be members of the House of Blue Bloods, the most powerful legislative body in the Blue Blood Kingdom.
The next rank of nobles is the Marquis.
Marquises usually control big provinces or even a few large provinces. There are fewer than 100 marquises in the world, each being a powerhouse with tens of thousands of professional soldiers on standby.
The Marquises are all descendants of key generals who founded the country.
The next rank is the rank of duke. Their territory is similar to marquises, with one addition: dukes are related to royal blood, usually being second sons of kings.
Dukes are unusual, as the position is not hereditary; instead, all dukes are appointed by kings.
The territory of dukes is considered part of the royal faction, as the king appoints them. There are around 20 dukes in the whole world.
The king is the most powerful man and the noblest blue blood.
The king alone controls 20% of the entire world's territory, not counting the territory of dukes. The king is a hereditary position with near-unlimited power.
The only check on their power is the House of Blue Bloods, which can sometimes overrule the king.
Each noble has complete autonomy.
A baron's territory is solely theirs; it's not like in some other medieval kingdoms where a baron's territory would also be considered part of a larger noble's.
Here, each noble, even a knight, is an absolute sovereign in their land. It's just that they all have pledges to send armies to support the king if necessary and must pay taxes to the king.
Nobles pay taxes to the king only; no higher nobles can demand taxes from lower nobles.
Only the king can tax others.
That's why higher nobles would never split territory; if they created other noble territories, they couldn't tax those they made. Instead, they would appoint mayors to other cities, keeping control of their land.
Blue Blood City is the capital of Blue Blood County, which means the city is ruled directly by the king.
Arthur, from the Foxhunter family, a baron family, getting the position of guard leader of one of the gates of the capital is already quite good for a baron family.
All positions in the capital are contested fiercely by all nobles from all over the country, as influence in the capital is very important to them.
This whole situation makes social progress from poor to rich nearly impossible. Marriage between commoners and nobles is frowned upon, so one way of social advancement, marriage, is mostly closed.
Commoners have a near-impossible road to becoming nobles. Commoners cannot own land or create companies. All commoners' properties ultimately belong to their lord.
This system of governance has caused a backward and terrible society that is hell for all but a few who call themselves 'blue bloods'.
"What?" Alex III turned around, annoyed.
"I changed my mind! Go and arrest him!" Arthur ordered his subordinates.
Alex didn't resist and let them arrest him.
After a while, they dragged him to the prison; of course, they only succeeded because he was letting them.
They closed the cage's door and left.
Looking around, Alex saw a tiny cage, 5x5 meters wide. There were more than 20 prisoners, mostly men, but also a few young boys.
The age of majority in the kingdom is 10 years old for boys and 7 for girls. Those ages are illogical, but what else could be expected from a backward society?
People in the prison looked at him, wearing bright white clothes.
"Why are you in prison?" Alex III asked in boredom. He had not talked to people for thousands of years, so talking with ants now seemed like an interesting and novel experience.
He always looked down on the people, so talking with ordinary people was a new experience for him.
A man with messy hair and dirty clothes came forward and said, "Where did you get those clothes from?"
Alex's clothes were made from the best materials, so these poor people started thinking of stealing them.
Alex III sighed; it was as he expected of low-class people.
"I stole them from some noble," Alex III answered honestly.
His clothes were destroyed, so when he left his refuge, he went to some noble, got white cloth, and sewed this set for himself.
The man with messy hair nodded and said, "I hunted deer in the lands of the Foxhunter family!"
Alex nodded and asked, "What's your name?"
The man said, "Mark."
"Good! You can ask for a wish from me," Alex III said.
Everyone in the cell looked doubtful; Alex was a prisoner like them, so how could he grant anyone else's wish? If he was so able, why couldn't he release himself from prison?
Mark, however, said his wish anyway, "I want to be the king!"
Everyone behind him laughed.
"Sure, I want to be your prime minister!"
another man with a long white beard said. "Hey, don't forget about me! I want to be a five-star general!"
"I want to be a Duke!"
"Why a duke? Make me the crown prince!"
Everyone joked and laughed.
Alex nodded and said, "I only grant Mark's wish, so the rest of you, shut up! Now, let's go, Mark! I'm going to make you king!"
The cell went silent, and the next moment, everyone exploded in laughter with no exception; even Mark himself laughed the loudest.
His wish was a joke; he didn't expect this insane prisoner in white clothes to really do it.
Rolling his eyes, Alex snapped his finger.
Everyone in the cell, except for Mark, exploded into a blood mist!
Alex could move at 1% of the speed of light; what he did just now was manipulate air pressure to make punches with speed unbelievable to humans.
Feeling warm liquid on his face, Mark looked back.
What he saw was red liquid but nothing else. There was no corpse.
"Where did they go?" he asked while wiping his face. Somehow, even though his back was to the explosion, his face was still splashed with the red liquid.
"They're dead! Now, come with me! I'm going to make you the king!" Alex III said.
"Wait! Who are you!?" Mark looked with extreme vigilance; he started to sense the smell of blood!
Alex III waved his hand, and both appeared in the royal palace the next moment.
"What? Guards!" King John X was interrupted while eating lunch and shouted as he saw Alex III and Mark standing there.
Soon, a few guards, all trained warriors, came.
Alex III stroked his very long beard and thought of the fastest way to crown Mark.
Nodding to himself, he disappeared for a few seconds and appeared again.
The room, which was empty, became full!
In just a few seconds, Alex III traveled throughout the world and brought here every single noble, from Baron to Duke!
It was noon, so most were eating lunch when they suddenly found themselves here.
"Look here!" Alex III stood in some high place.
"From today forward, this man, Mark I, is your new king." Alex III said with a flat voice.
Everyone just looked in confusion.
"You have ten seconds to say yes."
"10," he counted.
Most still looked in confusion.
"9."
A few nobles started talking to each other about what just happened.
"8."
Some started discussing some distant legend about powers beyond the ordinary.
"7."
"6."
"5."
"4."
"3."
"2."
"1."
Alex III counted to ten, but nobody said yes.
He sighed and snapped his fingers! All of the nearly 3,000 people present exploded into a mist of blood!
Mark, who witnessed it all, stared blankly. His mind could not process what had just happened.
Alex III disappeared for a few more seconds and brought another batch of people: The successors of nobles he just killed.
"You have 10 seconds to swear allegiance to your new king, Mark I! If not, you will be killed like your dads!" He said emotionlessly.
"Say yes if you want to survive," he warned.
In his previous snap, he killed the king, so his position is now vacant.
"10," Alex started to count.
The nobles looked at the pool of blood in horror. But most didn't say yes; instead, they tried running.
Out of around 3,000, fewer than 500 said yes.
"1," Alex counted, then snapped.
"Bang!" all those who didn't say yes exploded! Those who said yes and survived looked dumbfounded!
Alex III disappeared again, bringing the next batch of successors.
"Bow to your new king, Mark I! Say yes before I count to 1!"
"10," he started counting.
The surviving nobles from the previous round quickly explained where this pool of blood came from.
Before Alex counted to 10, everyone said yes.
Alex III nodded and said, "After today, respect your new king; otherwise, I will come back and snap you to death!" He said and disappeared.
Everyone looked blankly at their 'new king' Mark I, who was more frightened than any of them!