Rise of the Legendary Emperor

Chapter 169: Rational Conversation

The nobles saw a bunch of files appear in front of Don and started to float towards them.

"Read it"

He ordered them calmly when the files landed on their hands as the nobles slowly opened the files to read them.

When the nobles started to read the files, their eyes jumped out of the sockets. The old man, Davy Lamber's hands began to shake as he closed the file and looked at Don. On the other side, Manuel Demet seemed just like the old man, Davy Lambert, afraid and shocked.

"Your majesty, this is"

Leonard Burian opened his mouth as Don raised his hand and motioned him to stop.

"Spare me the 'this is not true', dialogue, Burian. If you ask me, the file has only the fraction of the shady shit you've all done till now"

Burian didn't dare speak any words and make him angry because he wasn't an idiot to anger a peak level grandmaster and he heard about the massacre during the war between Korrinth and Agoria.

After a few minutes, all the nobles closed the files and looked at him as they tried not to look too guilty by avoiding too much direct eye contact with him.

"From today, there will be no noble title in Emir, you all are just rich people, that's all"

The nobles in Emir expected this, still, they were startled to hear it from him. They would have opposed him or at least shown their disagreement if he didnt present the files that had all of their crimes and shady businesses.

"You can't do this"

Davy Lambert the old man threw the file in his direction and stood up. Arrora wanted to step forward and teach this old man some manners but Don stopped her with a wave of his hand.

The ex-nobles of Emir still remembered the scene in which he cut Massen's fingers with a glass shard and broke almost all the bones in Ryan's body.

After seeing the files, they didn't want anything but to return home safely with all their body parts intact, even the strongest family in Agoria, the Burian family head, Leonard had no guts to open his mouth. The families survived this long by not pissing off powerful people like Don because they knew that even if he slaughtered their families, the empire wouldn't give a damn about a little noble family in a backwater kingdom like Emir as the empire had their own problem to take care.

"What about this? I'll first talk, then if any of you have a disagreement, you can tell me, that way we can have a conversation like reasonable people"

They did not expect him to be so calm after Davy Lambert's outburst. No one had a clue what gave the old man the courage to act like that after seeing the file, everyone noticed the old man look terrified when he first laid eyes on the file. Some of them guessed that the only thing keeping him and his family safe after committing many crimes was his status as a noble in the kingdom, without that title they would just be like commoners and the biased law towards the nobles wouldn't save them.

The nobles from Agoria quickly nodded in agreement as the nobles of Emir, took a few moments before nodding. Davy Lambert growled and sat down 

"As you know, the laws and everything is very biased towards nobles, for example, you can kill one or two commoner for sport and pay a couple of coins to their family, that's just a pure bs, not justice "

Manuel Demet felt a cold chill in his spine as he continued

"So if there's no noble title, you can't use that to save you from the crimes and can't take whatever, whenever you want. You might think I'm doing this because I have something against the nobles"

"No shit"

The nobles thought to themselves

"And that's true, I do have a history with nobles, but I'm not going to root out all of you from my kingdom because of some nobles who I don't like. If I wanted to do that, I could have used the crimes on the file as a reason and rooted out all of you"

Everyone understood that by rooted out, he meant massacred all of you. Yet, they sighed inwards realizing he might not kill them.

"I called you here to ask your support, don't think I need your support, I'm just asking, if you support me, you can get richer and be like the nobles in the higher-ranked kingdoms, except, you wouldn't have the noble title"

They were surprised to hear him as they became curious to know what he was planning.

"For instance, I'm going to open high-end businesses in Sigalla, Mairis as well as in Emir and Agoria, the kind of business that attracts more rich people and opportunities for you to take advantage of "

Although they didn't have any idea about what kind of business he was talking, they grasped the fact that, if his business really did bring more wealthy people to their kingdom, there might be opportunities for them to exploit, just like he said. 

"Besides, if you give me your support, I will help you with some things too, like, send a great master to your aid when or if your men get into trouble in other kingdoms while transporting precious cargo, for example, as long as it's not slaves or illegal things "

He looked at Kwinten when he said as it meant for Lievens family, because he read that they were getting into some problems with bandits and thieves while escorting cargo's outside of Emir and since providing security was their main source of income, the recent events hurt their reputation and if they had a great master, it wouldn't have happened.

"Or I can get you a new connection to buy the ores from your mines for a better price or give you construction materials with a nice discount"

"Your majesty, if you don't mind me asking, how much discount are we talking?"

Jamie Pattyn asked as his instincts told him.

"How much do you want? don't be afraid, tell me"

Even though he was a little bit afraid, he mustered up his courage and decided to tell as it could end up being a huge benefit for his family if he made a deal with Don.

Thir...no, twenty, twenty percent"

"Done"

Jamie Pattyn couldn't believe what he just heard as he was completely surprised. Twenty percent off for the construction materials was a pretty sweet deal as it could boost the profits of their family business and he could even win Don's favor in the process. All he had to lose was the noble title and he and his family would prefer losing the title than their heads along with a nice discount that could have made their family business prosper.

"Plus, I can give you a chance to invest in my businesses, trust me when I open them, there will be many wealthy people on the line to get their hands on the pie but if you support me, I will give you the priority"

Arrora and Lord Clemo had never expected him to talk to them like this, they expected him to go to each and every noble family to drag out the ones who committed crimes and kill them. But he not only did not kill them, he was giving them opportunities to make more wealth.

"Lastly, this is the most important one, if you support me, I will forget about all the crimes you and your family have done to this day, you only have to pay a handsome amount to the people you've hurt in the process, except"

The nobles sighed in relief but noticing him looking at Davy Lambert and Manuel Pedra, they realized that the meeting isn't over yet.

"Walter Lambert and Pedra Demet, they will be punished, I'm not a saint but murdering innocent family, raping defenseless girls and poisoning another person for the sake of business, I can't let that happen in my kingdom"

He realized he sounded like some young master who the people would call as heroes. But he never did murder innocent people or rape girls. Though Yashira Venneste was not so innocent like the farmer's family, he couldn't allow the guilty go unpunished under his rule because if he let go of it, it would set a wrong example for everyone.

"You can't punish my son, Walter. What crime did he commit? Do you have any actual evidence for his crime other than the words of a peasant and the words on your file?"

The old man raised his voice as the other nobles stared at him and Don without batting an eye while Manuele Demet agreed with the old man by nodding.

Don snickered and shook his head

"I don't need evidence, I'll give you two options, first, you hand over Walter and his sons to me "

The veins started to pop on Davy's face as he continued

"Second, I'll send her to drag them to me and slaughter every one of you who stands the way"

Arrora didn't fail to show her grandmaster level by releasing the grandmaster level magical fluctuations as Manuel Demet started to sweat under his robes.

"You can either save them or your family, you can't do both"

Davy Lambert's gritted his teeth and opened his mouth as Don stopped him

"And if you say one more time what I can or can't do, I will chop off your body parts and send it to your wife, kids, and grandkids in a box"

Loren swallowed her saliva and felt the muscles tightening looking at the killing intent in his eyes.