POV

The king of the kingdom of Mainz(de facto protagonist)

"Let's meet with the first prince," I said.

Without looking at me, she said, "I would not recommend doing that."

"Why is that," I asked her.

"As I told you before, the nobles here are highly hostile to you. They would prefer for you not to come near you. Of course, they would be polite to you as you are a king, but you will probably feel the venom coming from their gazes."

"Do they hate me that much?"

"They do. As you cleaned up your country and killed many corrupt officials in your country, many of whom were aristocrats, you killed many relatives of the nobles here. You also broke the unwritten rules of the nobility."

I didn't think that killing a noble would cause such harmful consequences. But, of course, there were some internal problems, and some barons rebelled, but I killed them all. The other nobles must have seen that I was serious, due to which they did not rebel. After I attacked Galicia, I killed many nobles there, too, as I needed land to give to my military.

Maybe the solution to every problem is not killing, and I should become a bit more compassionate. But it worked like a charm, though, in preventing people from rebelling. It also won the hearts of the ordinary people as I killed their corrupt overlord and freed them from their harsh lives, or so the propaganda claims.

"Well, I do want to gauge the personality of the first prince as I want to see whether he is an idiot, as the rumors and you say or if he is just pretending to be an idiot."

I think the first prince is an idiot as pretending not to be an idiot won't exactly gain him anything. If he were a brilliant person, he would have competed for the military. I want to gauge how much of an idiot he is and which noble is manipulating him behind the scenes, as that will be useful for my plans.

She nodded, and we started walking towards where most of the nobles were gathered. As we were walking there, some of the nobles recognized us and started shooting venomous gazes at me and telling the person next to them who I was.

"Prince Wilhelm, how are you doing," I politely asked him.

"I am doing fine, your majesty. But, unfortunately, I can't say that for the dead nobles in your country and the new nobility who make fools out of you," the first prince answered with a harsh tone.

This was obviously a provocation towards me. However, you won't answer to a provocation of a dead man walking, would you?

"I am very sorry for all the nobles who were killed in my country. However, they violated the law and must be dealt with accordingly, whether they are nobles or commoners. Their families sure are living well, though."

Many close family members of nobles who I killed went into exile here. Due to the bad finances of the country back then, I had confiscated all of the property of the noble, whether it be illegal or legal income. I even took all their family's money.

After saying this, I left the vicinity with the princess and left the ball.

Suddenly, she asked me, "Do you want to meet the emperor."