23 Cleaning House

The next morning, Earl George was met with a group of soldiers outside the place where he was staying. He opened the door and asked what they wanted.

"His majesty requests your presence", the lead soldier said.

Earl George looked out at the group of soldiers in front of him. Then he asked, "And if I refuse to go? I am an Earl."

"His majesty requests your presence", the soldier repeated.

George saw there was no way that he would be able to escape. He understood that this was a request that he could not refuse.

"Could he have found out about our plot", he thought to himself. "That shouldn't have been possible. We made sure there were no spies in the house."

Earl George was "escorted" to the castle. Once he was there, he discovered that all of the other nobles were there as well. Seeing this, he started to relax a bit. Perhaps Roland didn't discover the plot after all and just wanted to speak with all of them. Still, he could not suppress the trepidation that was building up inside him."

"Take off your God's Stone of Retaliation", the lead soldier said.

"Why should I do that?", Earl George questioned angrily. "You have no right to take it away."

"You will not be needing it", the soldier said. "It will be returned when you leave."

Earl George had a sinking feeling in his heart. But he had no choice but to hand it over.

After he entered the hall, he went to where the rest of the nobles were. After everyone had arrived, Roland entered along with his two wives.

"I would like to speak with everyone", Roland announced. "As you have heard, humanity must make full use of its resources in order to be able to defeat the demons. It is not just resources like iron and coal; land is a resource. And most importantly human capital is a resource."

"Human capital", the various nobles thought to themselves. "What is that?"

"I can see from the confused looks on your faces that you do not know what I am talking about. And therein lies the problem. To put in frankly, you all are incompetent. You cannot manage your resources optimally so I must do it for you", Roland said.

Earl George felt a sudden surge of dread. He said, "is this it, are you planning on revoking our feudal privileges now?"

"Yes", said Roland. "Your lands belong to me."

The hall erupted in pandemonium. Everyone knew this was coming, they didn't think it would be so soon.

"Silence!", demanded Roland. "You all shall have other opportunities. If you work within the system, then you can obtain great wealth, more than you have right now. My promises in the speech yesterday were true. In the future, even the common people can live like kings. Even though the gap between you and commoners will shrink, you will be better off than you are now. Take advantage of this chance."

"You can start a factory to make chairs. When people buy those chairs, you will earn money. Then, you can hire more workers which will make even more chairs. Then you will earn even more money. Then, you can use that money to build another factory which will let you produce even more chairs. Soon, you will be producing thousands of chairs a month and selling them to people all across the kingdom and eventually the world. You will become very wealth. Much more wealthy than you are now. The rise of industry will lead to the rise of the super wealthy. Join me and you will have the chance to become wealthier than you can ever imagine." Inside, Roland noted that even if they do become successful, he was making it seem much easier than it actually is and exaggerating the profits. After all, he wouldn't allow any of them to become a monopoly.

"You expect us to become merchants. We are nobles. We will not dirty ourselves with such base tasks. We will never agree!", yelled Earl George.

"Your consent is irrelevant", Roland said. "Step aside or be crushed by the wheels or progress. Resistance is futile."

"I shall surrender", Earl George said. As long as he could get away now and survive, there would always be a chance later.

All the other nobles echoed Earl George's words. Roland appeared amused.

"I know many of you are lying", Roland said. "I will ascertain the truth by asking some questions."

Terror suddenly seized Earl George's heart. He had heard rumors about the questioning in the Eastern Region. Initially he had dismissed those rumors as absurd. But now, could it actually be happening. "The witches", he exclaimed. "They can tell the truth of what we say." Earl George had a look of horror on his face.

Several nobles knelt down and said, "I will never rebel against you, King Roland, regardless of what you do. You may take my lands and titles and even though I will not be happy, I will accept it."

Nightingale pointed at several people. "You may leave", she said. The selected nobles quickly ran away as fast as they could and the guards let them out.

"Damn traitors", said Earl George. "It's now or never men. We've been caught so the only way is forward. Seize the king!"

The remaining nobles all took out their weapons and charged at Roland. "As long as we get him, we can survive", Earl George yelled.

Then, Anna took action. A curtain of fire separated Roland from the nobles. The fire then formed a web and surrounded them. Lastly, the net closed in on them. One baron attempted to charge through the fire. He was immediately cut apart by Anna's fire and burned. The other nobles began screaming in fear as the fire approached.

The nobles got down on their knees are started begging for forgiveness.

"For the crime of high treason, I sentence you to death", said Roland. The fire surrounded the rebels and burned them all, leaving not even ashes behind.

"That was cleaner than last time", Roland remarked.