143: Governor and City Lord's Mansion

"Your Majesty, in this case, there will only be one Sky Knight in the Royal Capital!

If something unexpected happens and this Sky Knight is dispatched, you will have no one to guard you. Is that not too dangerous?"

Arthur looked over upon hearing this and realized that this Earl was likely from Duke Bilan's faction.

However, that wasn't important. Arthur had long anticipated that this decision would be met with resistance, as it affected the interests of various nobles.

Arthur's rebuttal was simple:

"Regarding the issue of only one Sky Knight in the Royal Capital, there's no need for you all to worry, because in these past two days, Legend Elwin has brought me two more Sky Knights!

Macio, Hageer, come out and greet everyone!"

These two were, of course, summoned by Arthur two days prior, specifically to counter such a situation and silence the other nobles.

As soon as Arthur finished speaking, two Sky Knights, whom the nobles had never seen before, appeared in the imperial court and first bowed to Arthur:

"Your Majesty!"

Then they turned around, presenting their appearance to all the nobles.

The Royal Family actually had two more Sky Knights, and they didn't know about it!

The nobles present were all stunned by this news!

The Earl who had outwardly expressed concern but secretly tried to obstruct, seeing that things had come to this, had nothing more to say and could only bow and utter:

"It turns out Your Majesty had arrangements long ago; I was overly concerned!"

"Not at all, you are also concerned about the safety of the Kingdom!'

Do any of you still have questions about this decision!"

After dealing with that Earl, Arthur turned his gaze back to the crowd.

Now, the others couldn't find any more reasons to object and could only implicitly accept Arthur's decision.

Seeing this, Arthur continued:

"Good, since there's no problem with this decision, then I presume none of you have any questions about the subsequent City Lord issue either!"

In fact, the Royal Family had previously dispatched many members to establish City Lord's Mansions in cities with populations over 30,000 within the Kingdom.

They also possessed certain administrative and conscription rights.

However, because the City Lord's Mansions were established in the cities of various lords, they were often severely suppressed by these lords.

When the Kate Kingdom was first established three hundred years ago, the City Lord's Mansion still had some use, but after several centuries, it had long become a mere formality.

Now, Arthur's reintroduction of the City Lord's Mansion was a disguised way to weaken the power of the lords, which was akin to cutting flesh from them, so naturally, they were unwilling.

Soon, someone else raised an objection:

"Your Majesty, the City Lord's Mansion system has been abandoned for a long time. Restarting it now, who knows how much manpower and resources it will consume? Is it not somewhat unworthy?"

Arthur looked over upon hearing this and found it was another Earl from Duke Bilan's faction.

It made sense; the nobles in the Lionheart Kingdom were currently divided into three factions.

The Royalist faction, those who supported the Royal Family, were too few to count.

The three factions were the Neutral faction, Duke Gryphon's faction, and Duke Bilan's faction.

Duke Gryphon had a familial relationship with Arthur, and they would not oppose Arthur unless they were truly provoked.

Neutral nobles generally wouldn't stick their necks out, so only the nobles under Duke Bilan's faction spoke up first.

Arthur didn't have a good reason to counter this Earl's obstruction, but he was determined to implement this, so he could only reply forcefully:

"I have my own arrangements for the issues of manpower and resources. The City Lord's Mansion system existed before, and it's a very normal thing for me to revive it now, wouldn't you say?"

As Arthur spoke, Macio and Hageer, the two Sky Knights still standing in the imperial court, directly released their Aura.

It pressed down on the Earl, who was only an Earth Knight.

An ordinary Earth Knight would be very uncomfortable under the Aura pressure of a single Sky Knight.

Now, with two Sky Knights attacking simultaneously, the Earl immediately broke out in a cold sweat and began to tremble all over.

Only when he was about to collapse and fall to the ground did Arthur raise his hand to stop Macio and Hageer.

Previously, Arthur had always discussed matters politely with the nobles, making them believe he was a reasonable person.

Now that Arthur suddenly became assertive, everyone realized that the Sky Knights under Arthur were not to be trifled with, and he was also a dictatorial person.

Seeing this, the other nobles didn't bother to say anything more. After all, if you said another word, Arthur would just use his Sky Knights to pressure you!

You'd still make a fool of yourself, so what's the point?

After a while, the Earl, who had been almost crushed to the ground by the Sky Knights' Aura pressure, finally recovered. At this moment, his expression was terrified, and he quickly echoed:

"Everything Your Majesty says is right!"

And so, another decision was implemented by Arthur.

Although it was outwardly implemented, Arthur could imagine that during its actual execution, those nobles would definitely obstruct the City Lord's Mansion system.

After all, no one wanted an additional person in their territory who could restrain them.

Arthur had long anticipated this, so in his City Lord's Mansion plan,

the people he sent out to be City Lords were at least Peak Gold Knights.

Moreover, those Peak Gold Knights could only be City Lords in Viscount territories.

Because Viscounts generally only possessed the strength of Gold Knights.

For Earls and Marquises who possessed the strength of Earth Knights, Arthur dispatched people whose strength was at least that of an Earth Knight to be City Lords in their cities.

This way, even if they wanted to pull any tricks, they wouldn't be able to.

If even the strength of an Earth Knight couldn't resolve the trouble, those City Lords could request support from Governors who possessed the strength of Sky Knights, making it foolproof!

After all, as long as one has enough strength, all troubles can be solved.

In the imperial court, with the suppressed Earl as a precedent, no one objected to anything Arthur said afterward.

After all, even if you objected, he would still enforce it, so what's the point?

Of course, this was also related to the fact that the matters Arthur explained afterward were less crucial.

If Arthur had proposed a plan to reduce noble territories, the nobles below would immediately erupt.

Even with Sky Knights suppressing them, they would still object, as that was the land they relied on for survival.

So Arthur was not in a hurry; the time for major actions would come once he had complete control of the Kingdom.

This court session was Arthur's first since his succession, and due to the multitude of matters, it lasted for half a day.

When the court session ended, Arthur's decisions also spread throughout the nation.

Through these decisions, everyone knew that Arthur intended to take concrete actions.

However, these actions were based on the loss of noble interests, so many people were watching Arthur's moves.

They watched how he would snatch food from the tiger's mouth among the many nobles.

On the other side, Arthur's plan was also proceeding in an orderly manner.