What's an empire like?
It's pretty much the same as a kingdom, except there's an emperor instead of a king.
I see.
　I was expecting to see a huge military fortress or something like that because it is an empire, but if you ask me what the difference is between a kingdom and an empire, the only difference is whether the head of state is the king or the emperor. There's not much difference in terms of power either.
Yeah. As a country, it's more of a dictatorship than a kingdom, with no nobles involved.

　In the kingdom, there is a kind of parliament of nobles, and many things are decided by consensus. However, since the king (the royal family) makes the final decision, the kingdom is still an absolute monarchy.
　Nevertheless, if the king kicks out all of them, the nobles will be dissatisfied, and if that happens, some of them will defect. In the end, the king is just a chieftain of knights.
　So, unless it's a huge disadvantage to the royal family or something like that, it will be adopted.

　On the other hand, in the case of an empire, the emperor's decision is basically the only one that exists. There is an assembly of nobles, but it is more like an advisory body than a parliament, and they give their opinions before the emperor's decision is announced. It is up to the emperor to adopt or reject the opinions.
　If the emperor does not want to listen to the opinions from the outset, the decree will be issued without going through the advisory body. And this pattern is quite common, apparently.

　If the head of state is very competent, the empire is likely to develop more rapidly. The speed of decision-making and implementation is much faster.
　However, the fact that revolution is being discussed probably means that it goes without saying whether the current emperor is capable or not.
Is there a lot of dissatisfaction among the people if they are talking about revolution?
"Well, yes. Taxes have gotten heavier in the last few years. Of course, that alone won't lead to a revolution, but the direct cause is that and the fact that the nobles of the empire have been pocketing the taxes.
　It's easy to get frustrated when your hard-earned tax money is being used only for someone else's luxury. I remember that the French Revolution in the previous world was ultimately caused by this.
"And when it got out of hand, it was fine as long as you could escape to your kingdom, but now that there are restrictions on movement, you can't do that anymore, and that's the final push.
I see.
　I'm sure you've heard of it, but I've never seen it. Fortunately, I've never reached that point in my previous world or this world, but it's easy to imagine.

What's the point of us going in if we're restricted?
"It's only for the residents, not for pilgrims, travelers, or vendors. That's why we can come in with an open mind as vendors. Well, it cost a lot of money to get the permit.
　Camilo took out a piece of wood from his pocket and showed it to me. There is indeed something like that written on it. With this, I guess there is no problem in passing.
The only thing left to do is to make sure that people don't find out about your true purpose.
Something like that.
　Camilo says with a wink that doesn't look right no matter how many times you see it.
　We'll need to gather information, and we'll need to work differently than before. I thought about this as I looked out over the landscape.