Fear

Opening his eyes, Martin smiled when he touched the two sleeping beside him. These two were his favorites.

Covering them with blankets, he wanted to close his eyes and sleep again.

"Isn't it rude to wake them up?" someone said mockingly.

"That's not funny!" said a female voice.

Martin suddenly opened his eyes wide! He is in his private room; nobody can enter!

Looking over, he didn't see anything; it was pitch black.

He shouted, "Guards!"

Even though nobody is allowed in, ten of his best and most loyal guards are always outside.

The best time to kill a man is when he sleeps. Martin is not without enemies.

He has internal enemies, like his useless brother or other nobles.

The South isn't as united as it seems.

Against royal power, they unite, but when royal power is not present, they start fighting among themselves.

He is the biggest villain in the fight between the royals and the South; it is possible that some nobles want to present his head to the royals as a way to make amends. So, he has been even more careful.

Still, all his preparations seem useless, as there are clearly other people in the room.

Tonight is a cloudy night with no moon, and all fires are out. There is no source of light.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"I'm Elizabeth I, the king of bluebloods," she said.

Martin stared into the darkness as he listened. Then, he laughed out loud.

It was bizarre. In the middle of the night, in his bedroom, someone broke in and said she was King Elizabeth. It's either she is crazy, or she thinks he is crazy.

After laughing for twenty seconds, he came to himself and asked, "Why is your honor here, and how did you enter? Why are all lights out?" Usually, there are fires outside, so it won't be so dark, even on cloudy nights.

"I put the fires out!" the woman who claimed to be King Elizabeth said.

"I ask, you answer! What gave you the courage to disrespect my inspectors?" she asked.

This question was on point; only higher-ups know of the inspectors. This was enough evidence that the woman at least knew what she was talking about.

Sneakily moving his hand toward the dagger on the table near the bed, Martin said, "That was accidental! It wasn't me who did it, and we nobles collectively punished the baron who did it!" He didn't lie; they fined that baron just in case the situation was unfavorable, to dump all faults on the baron.

"So, it was accidental? Didn't you gather troops to attack royal guards?" Elizabeth asked.

"That was a military exercise! It was not for attacking anyone! It was that murderer James who attacked us for no reason!" said Martin.

"What is going on, my pickle!" one of the women woke up.

"Shut up!" Martin shouted in embarrassment.

"Low class!" Alex IV commented as he heard what they labeled him.

"Those two are guests! Stay silent!" Martin shouted, warning the two women.

Anyone who can, by his own effort, snatch power from his father with his own effort wouldn't be too dumb.

Even though he is a playboy who likes to sleep with women, he can see that his guards don't respond; that means these two people are strong. Even if he doesn't believe the woman is Elizabeth I, he would play along to see if there is a way out.

As for his knife, that is for the last result; even though he believes he has very little chance against people who can remove all his guards, he would still not go down without a fight.

Elizabeth sighed. She felt everything would have been much easier if everyone spoke honestly; now, she has to go around and interrogate people.

"I give you one more opportunity! Tell the truth, and I'll forgive you! If you lie, I will kill you when I find the truth!" Elizabeth spoke ruthlessly.

She doesn't like killing people, but for criminal liars, she can make exceptions. She could never be a king if she was too merciful. She is kind toward the weak and ordinary people but doesn't need to be too careful in front of these nobles, who are even more of a vampire than she is.

Martin felt a terrifying killing intent.

He experienced many deadly situations in his fight for power from his brother, but in none of those did he feel so close to death. Once, he was shot with an arrow in the chest; he barely managed to survive. But even that wasn't so terrifying as just this bloodlust he felt now.

What is bloodlust? All humans and animals have instincts; for animals, their instincts are much more powerful. But humans still have instinct; it is greatly diluted, but it is still there.

One would feel danger from the surroundings.

So, when vampires think of killing someone, the bloodlust they send will be picked up by human instinct and scare them away. The stronger the vampire, the bigger the fear. In extreme cases, such as Alex III, the bloodlust alone is enough to make someone's heart explode.

Thinking quickly in his mind, Martin decided to tell all he knew!

In any case, this strange woman can easily uncover the truth with some investigation, so there is nothing to hide.

He told everything to Elizabeth with detail. From the beginning, when they beat Lara, to when they wanted to chase James to the central lands.

Elizabeth nodded; she could tell that Martin was telling the truth.

"She forgave you, but what about me?" Alex IV reminded.

Martin, of course, didn't see him, but the voice alone made him sweat coldly on his forehead.

Elizabeth shook her head, "No, I don't like to use loopholes to trick people! Let's let him live!"

Alex IV shook his head, "You are so boring!" In his opinion, it would have been funny if they used a loophole and tortured him to death.

This is his first meeting with Elizabeth, the first vampire his daddy made after tens of thousands of years, so he doesn't want to leave too bad of an impression. Therefore, he kept shaking his head but didn't kill Martin.

A moment later, both disappeared as if nothing happened.

...

Now, knowing the truth, Elizabeth was conflicted.

On the one hand, the nobles beat her royal inspectors; on the other, it was James who attacked first. After some thought, she decided to punish both.

She wrote an order in which she removed the titles of all southern nobles who helped the rebellion, and on the other, she promoted James to minister. Yes, she promoted him.

The House of Blue Blood still has to confirm him, so he won't be able to take office for a while.

Why is this a punishment? It indicates a loss of trust from Elizabeth.

Is a minister powerful? Yes, but they are far away from the king. James's former position was a trusted confidant of the king, which in rank is lower than a minister but has much more power.

Elizabeth cannot formally punish James; his punishment would be an admission of guilt. Even if she knows James did wrong, she must promote him as a reward. After all, to the outside world, James was the brave warrior who fought the 'insurrectionist' southern nobles.

As for removing nobles from their positions, she doesn't have this power at all. She will have to press this hard, using their rebellion to argue this is an exceptional situation.

There is little chance that the House of Blue Bloods will go along with it; in fact, there is close to 0 chance. But, if she can win over just a few marquises from the north, who hate Southerners, along with dukes and a few female counts, she can get to 40%.

With 40%, she can delay any resolution by months.

Not all marquises are members of the House of Blue Bloods, and not all members are marquises. The House of Blue Bloods is restricted to the nobility; even knights are nobility and, therefore, can be members in theory.

In practice, it's difficult for weaker nobles to become members without strong backing.

Elizabeth and her dukes have been working hard to get a few female titleholders into the House of Blue Bloods.

It is doubtful whether the hatred of northern nobles is strong enough to persuade them to support the measure; Elizabeth may have to compromise quite a bit to get their vote. But it's not hopeless.

She sent her orders to all nobles.

As for how she did it ...

Of course, she did it personally. She doesn't want any more war; the only way to prevent war is by showing her amazing personal power as a 'supernatural being'.

Nobody would dare rebel or think of making trouble if they knew Elizabeth could catch them at any time.

She moved at night, going to where they slept and arrested them.

She appointed Martin as provisional leader of the entire southern lands.

The successors of removed nobles would be selected according to the laws. That would mean a lot of female titleholders!

The laws stipulate the most senior child would become the successor. Because of the short time the order has been in effect, at least for now, nearly all noble titleholders are still male, with a few women here and there.

But, now, with many vacancies, the transition to equal right of succession has accelerated greatly.

Elizabeth doesn't expect the situation of the South to change that much because of the change, at least not in a short time.

Even if they are women, they are still Southern nobles; one must not mistakenly believe women are less evil than men. Women can be as much evil as men.

Women being titleholders is generally good for women's status in society, but commoners are still slaves of nobles.

"A step in the right direction!" Elizabeth sighed and nodded to herself.

Because she arrested basically every noble in the South, they didn't even have time to start rebelling again; even if they wanted to, who were they going to fight? No army could stop Elizabeth.

All records of births of nobles are recorded in many different places, and all are eventually brought to the capital.

Acting according to Elizabeth's orders, Martin found the correct successor and officiated them as the new titleholders. There were cases where the most senior male successor wanted to take over despite a more senior female sibling.

Martin caught those and punished them severely to curry favor with Elizabeth.

As a result of these incidents, the South became the region with the most female rulers in history.

As for how much real power they will have or what effect they leave behind, those are to be seen. None of them were trained in their childhood to become rulers, so they were not prepared for it; it's possible that many of them would be manipulated by their relatives.

There were some other cases that outraged many.

In general, female children of nobles are seen as a tool to make political connections via marriage. But marriage doesn't disqualify the most senior child from holding the title.

So, after the death of their fathers, many married noble ladies suddenly became titleholders.

For example, Count Sand's daughter was married to Martin.

She has been in Ball territory for many years. But now, she has suddenly become Count Sand.

This absolutely outraged the Sand family, as they would see this as a takeover by the Ball family. Many in the Sand family didn't recognize her despite the royal order and recognized the most senior son as the new Count.

Those issues are, however, for later. One cannot solve everything at once. Elizabeth would pay attention and punish those who disobey royal orders.