It took two weeks for the House of Blue Bloods to react.
Count Highlands and those close to him were arrested during these two weeks. Elizabeth pardoned low-ranking soldiers and only arrested high-ranking officers.
There was no resistance.
First of all, there were 10,000 cavalry present, and another 100,000 army was coming, so any resistance was futile. Second, the Count never wanted to defect and join rebels; as a noble, he had an interest in keeping this system going, so any suggestion that he was rebelling was dubious.
The House of Blue Blood was enraged by what happened; even if Count Highlands let in some rebels, they wouldn't permit Elizabeth to arrest a noble titleholder.
They immediately passed a resolution that mandated the release of Count Highlands.
Except for Dukes, every noble voted in favor of resolutions, even women titleholders who gained power due to Elizabeth's efforts.
This time, she was enraged; she didn't expect to lose the vote of even women titleholders.
She didn't want to repeal the resolution with a decree; they had gone through that route before, and everyone hated it. That would destabilize the entire country; one day, the king repeals a law, and a few days later, the House of Blue Bloods passes the same law.
For countries, uncertainty is one of the worst things that can happen.
So, in compliance with the latest resolution, Elizabeth let Count out of prison.
She won't ignore properly passed laws. Laws are the glue that holds the kingdom together; the day she ignores a law would be the day the kingdom ends. That is, unless she uses brute force to keep the kingdom together, as a vampire, she has that power.
But she still didn't use brute force, as it would surely cause a lot of bloodshed.
Still, she refused to withdraw royal troops from the land of Count Highlands. She passed a decree requiring royal forces to remain and 'eliminate rebel forces.'
It was a message to the House of Blue Bloods, a compromise. She would let the Count go, but they must accept royal troops staying.
As she expected, the House of Blue Bloods ended the matter there. With this, she managed to set another very helpful precedent; even though she failed to keep a noble titleholder in jail, she managed to set a precedent of royal forces remaining in a noble's land.
Soon, she took 10,000 cavalry and 95,000 royal troops and left, leaving 5,000 to remain and 'maintain order.'
After a few days of rest, the royal inspectors also departed to the south again.
…
South is much poorer than other areas of the country. The main reason is said to be that they were the last region to be conquered by the Blue Bloods Kingdom.
For years, they have been receiving the short end of the stick from the Blue Bloods Kingdom, being taxed the same but receiving far less of the royal money back.
Lara watched as the cities became progressively poorer and the people's clothes became raglike.
Their destination was the land of Marquis Ball.
Marquis Ball was among the strongest nobles in the south, with nearly 30,000,000 people living in his territory.
The 200 royal inspectors would be nowhere near enough even to cover the entire land of Marquis Ball, let alone the whole south; in any case, the first group of inspectors was here to report how much resources were needed.
The Marquis himself is in the royal capital, with his son, Martin Ball, being the de facto ruler of the territory.
After arriving, Marquis's servants treated them respectfully and placed them in guest rooms. After resting for a week, the task began.
This time, the royal forces brought many more guards, borrowing 20,000 troops from the national army.
The guards were placed in the garrison provided by the Marquis. Food for this many people costs money; the royal government will later provide funds to cover the cost.
The marquis gave each of the 200 inspectors sent by Elizabeth a guide and, along with 20 guards from James, started making their way to all the cities to observe the situation.
Normally, 20 guards are not enough for a trade group, but without any valuable cargo, no bandit would attack them. Bandits want money and never attack an armed group that doesn't carry anything.
As for the 200 sent by Marquis Swordland, they remained in guest rooms; Elizabeth doesn't trust them, so she ordered James not to use them.
…
Lara looked at the wooden city walls; it was a far cry compared to cities near the capital.
When she entered the city, she started moving straight to the north. This was where the poorest lived; the rich lived on the south side of the city, segregated by walls from the rest of the city.
On the way there, she witnessed dead people on the streets. It was extremely shocking and eye-opening; everyone knows that allowing the dead to remain on the streets is a recipe for disaster.
They should at least bury them to avoid disease.
But the gut punch came when she saw many children coming around the corpses with a knife and starting to cut! Lara watched with horror as they began eating human meat!
She thought she had a strong personality and could tolerate everything, but seeing this scene, she could only throw up all her breakfast. The guards around her were also shocked and stopped the children.
The children looked confused, asking, "Why are you stopping us from eating?"
Immediately, Lara left the city's north and entered the south to see Baron Woodcastle.
Baron Woodcastle was the man responsible for this land.
The south of the city, separated by a stone wall, was clean; people walked around in good quality clothes; she saw many in silk clothes.
The difference was so stark that she felt like what she saw before was just a dream.
Reaching a luxurious mansion, she went in and soon was brought to a room with a clean-shaven man sitting and drinking tea.
The man looked at her and smiled, "I heard you are the new royal inspector?"
Lara bowed. In any case, the man in front of her is a titleholder, while she is a commoner. She could not be rude, no matter what.
"Yes, Baron. I have visited the north of the city and witnessed cannibalism! I want an explanation!" she said with a strong tone. Even if the man is a noble, she wants a good explanation.
Honestly, she can't imagine a good excuse for that; no matter what, people in the south of the city are walking in silk clothes, so surely they have some food to feed those poor people?
Baron sipped his tea and started talking with a pained expression, "Honorable royal inspector, the recent droughts have destroyed all of our crops; we don't have food to give to our people! There is no wild animal around to hunt, either. Why not use the human meat to prevent starvation?" he asked with eyes full of pain.
Just then, a knock came.
"Come in," the baron said.
Servants came, carried a massive iron plate containing a full-size roasted boar, and placed it on the table. Many other servants brought other food and placed it on the table.
The baron nodded happily, "Honorable inspector, Please sit and enjoy this wild boar."
Lara was completely speechless. The man had just said there was nothing to hunt but then brought a wild boar.
Baron started eating without waiting for her.
"Didn't you say there is nothing to hunt?" Lara asked.
Baron chewed for a while, then swallowed, wiped his mouth, and started talking with pity, "This is our last wild boar! We roasted it for you!"
Lara was outraged; this was clearly a show of force to the royal inspectors.
Angry, with her strong body, she overturned the table.
The baron was astonished to see a commoner dared to do such a thing, "What are you doing?" he asked.
"Those children have nothing to eat, but you eat a whole wild boar?" she shouted.
"Guards, come and arrest her!" the baron shouted, looking with vicious eyes.
The baron had a standing army of 300 trained troops, so the 20 guards Lara brought were no opponents; they were arrested shortly after.
"I am a royal inspector! How dare you arrest me?" Lara asked.
The baron looked with contempt and said jokingly, "Wait, honorable royal inspector! You are a woman? My apologies! I was deceived by your looks and thought you were a man! I will arrange a special room to imprison you!"
As a blacksmith, Lara was big and sturdy, and the baron clearly saw this as an opportunity to mock.
…
The news of Lara's arrest was soon transmitted to James.
As soon as he heard it, he became outraged! He wanted to gather 2,000 troops from the garrison to show the baron a lesson but was stopped by Martin Ball, son of Marquis Ball.
Martin Ball said he would bring Lara back.
James refused. He didn't want to just bring Lara back; he wanted to teach the nobles a lesson about what would happen if they disobeyed the royal court.
But Martin Ball clearly indicated he wouldn't allow James to touch Baron Woodcastle.
James was troubled.
Marquis Ball is this area's overlord but not the strongest marquis in the south; there are five other marquises here, too. Marquis Ball is the most friendly to the royal court among the five.
If he acts rashly, he might provoke a rebellion. Until now, the royal court has completely let the South do whatever it wants; as long as the nobles in the South paid taxes, nothing else mattered.
As a result, the royal court has very little influence over the South. Marquis Ball alone has a 200,000-strong elite standing army, with thousands of smaller nobles throughout the South; James's 20,000 guards cannot do much.
With no choice left, he agreed.
…
After a day, Marquis brought Lara back to the guest rooms; she was clearly beaten.
She said that they beat her after they arrested her.
Enraged that the nobles dared do this, James sent a letter to the royal court reporting everything that happened. He stopped sending any of the royal inspectors out; in this situation, force is the only thing that can ensure compliance.
…
After a few weeks, the letter reached Elizabeth, who was, just like James, completely outraged.
She immediately called the House of Blue Bloods to discuss the matter.
Elizabeth argued that assaulting royal inspectors was a rebellion that required royal forces to be stationed in the south. The House of Blue Bloods was not buying it, but it didn't stop it.
Elizabeth was surprised to see them not really fighting it as she expected. She shouldn't have been surprised if she knew the South well.
Using royal troops to tame the South was impossible, and all the nobles wanted to see her try and fail. The royal army was 3,000,000, and it would cost a ton to provide their food on land that took two weeks with a fast horse and six months on foot.
In simple words, the South was so far away that the Blue Bloods Kingdom had to be happy that they were paying taxes; the royal court could not maintain sufficient control over it simply because of physical distance.
Nobles believed that insisting on taming the South would bankrupt the king.
It was a money pit.
A few marquises from the South contested it, but most nobles maintained a neutral position, and the proposal passed with dukes in favor.
Soon, a royal army of 2,000,000 was assembled and marched to the south. Their goal is a long-term stay there to 'maintain order'.