Hearing Patrick's report, the king was pondering in the audience room.

'Hey, Patrick...'

'Yes, Your Majesty?

'It was indeed I who gave the order to attack. I also thought that Stein's men would take advantage of that and involve the other nobles. But don't you think this number is strange?

'It's only twenty families.

'What do you mean 'only'?　I told you to say something if you want to destroy them!

'No, Your Majesty told me to get over it, so I thought it would be okay to crush the ones coming at us.

'How much do they hate you?　You know?　There are 20 noblemen who are tempted by Stein, who has fallen to a commoner, and they're willing to go along with him, aren't they hated too much?　What did you do?

'I just took care of a spy who was sneaking around my territory.

'Why do they hate you so much for that?

'Also, the noblemen who sent the spies to our territory didn't sell any of our liquor or chess, did they?　I think I heard that the merchants left the territory because of that, but it's a trivial matter...''

'You idiot!　If the merchant disappears, you won't be able to manage the territory!

'That's none of my business.

'The royal family will have to manage the territory that was ruled by the crushed nobles.　Put yourself in my shoes!

'In any case, you're just going to add a bunch of new barons and leave it to them, aren't you?

'But still!　Do you know how many families have disappeared recently because of you?

'Well?　I don't really remember.

'About fifty!　Most of them were barons, but visons, counts, and marquises can't be helped since they're related to our family, but you're called the Grim Reaper by not only soldiers but nobles as well!

'Yeah!

'That's not ee!　That's enough!　Go home, and meet Sona before you leave.

'Yes, Your Majesty. Now if you'll excuse me.

After Patrick left, the King said to the troubled Prime Minister next to him,

'Hey, what should we do about this?

He murmured.

'Your Majesty, the number of nobles is decreasing too much. We don't have enough people to manage the territories under our direct control, and I think we should hurry up and entrust the territories to those who have the credit for the last annexation in the north.''

Right. Did you hear that?　I heard Patrick even used poison. How merciless can you be?'

'That's true, if you say it's like that man, but I heard that he kept the child alive as a slave, so I thought he was still warm-hearted.

'Hey, my daughter's place of marriage, my head is starting to hurt...'

'Can you tell His Highness Sonali to cancel the engagement?

'I can't, I'm in love with him!　If I say that, he's going to get the poison that Patrick used and put it in my food!

''Then I think it's best to give up. I think it would be more constructive to think of a way to control it better.

'Can you control it?　Can you control it?

'Well, that aside, I think it would be better to leave the old Westin territory to Count Snakes and make him a frontier count. The soldiers there are very strong, so they are perfect as a fighting force against the Empire.

'Or we could leave the mountainous regions to Abbott and have him protect the north and west. Those two families can exchange information smoothly.

'We'll just have to get through it by changing the titles and titles. It depends on how many knights and quarter-barons are changed to barons.

'Hurry up with the list of those who have done well. If we don't, the security situation could worsen.

'Immediately!