Blood Holy Scripture: True Ancestor Charlotte de Castel
Chapter 381: -133- The Oath of Nobles

Chapter 381: -133- The Oath of Nobles

Count Gaston’s cadenced voice sank into the tent like an Elemental Bomb, resonating in the hearts of the Northern nobles.

For a moment, silence reigned inside the tent, where only the changing expressions of the Northern nobles could be seen.

But soon, quiet was replaced by a growing murmur of conversation, which quickly turned into noisy discussions.

Undoubtedly, everything Gaston described had greatly exceeded the expectations of the Northern nobles, so much so that they were momentarily thrown into chaos.

Since the end of the Star Moon War, Castel had been too peaceful, so much so that even an extremely suspicious rebellion couldn’t make the Northern nobles vigilant.

As major taxpayers of the Bold Duchy and "partners" of the Royal Family in the Secret Silver Vein, the Northern nobles couldn’t imagine that the Royal Family would actually make a move against Castel.

Ridiculous, shocked, angry, doubtful, fearful...

A variety of expressions appeared on the faces of different nobles.

Charlotte observed all the expressions of the nobles, feeling not at all surprised.

Although the nobles of Castel had sworn loyalty to her, to be honest, up to this point it was still far from truly heartfelt.

They were more likely just following the inertia of family and history, clustering under the banner of the Castel family.

At most... add on the passable unity and deterrence that Charlotte had shown during the time after she took over the territory.

Such loyalty was not without a way out, and loyalty that has an exit is actually quite fragile.

Perhaps during the Legris Family rebellion, the Northern nobles, as colleagues, would indignantly gather around Charlotte, but when the conflict of the rebellion reached higher-ranking Lords, everything... changed.

Just as stipulated in the Holy Code, "the vassal of my vassal is not my vassal," as Lords of Bold, the Third Prince who had become the Bold Duke through marriage had no direct feudal obligation to the Northern nobles.

Charlotte was a vassal of the Third Prince, and the Northern nobles were vassals of Charlotte.

When the Northern nobles encountered the Third Prince, they were even only required to perform noble courtesies, not the monarchical homage as they would to Charlotte.

Feudal obligations were such, and so were contradictions.

In other words, when Charlotte, as a vassal of Bold, had a conflict with the Bold Duke, the contradiction generally wouldn’t extend to the next level.

In the human history of the Mireya world, wars between Lords and vassals were not uncommon.

After defeating a vassal, the Lord would mostly take back or reassign the vassal’s direct lands, but as for those Lower nobles beneath the vassal, unless there was a legitimate reason, they generally wouldn’t face retribution for participating in the rebellion.

Even in wars among vassals, as long as the nobles who were loyal to the vassal swore fealty immediately upon the victory of the higher-ranking Lord, the higher-ranking Lord had no right to harm the nobles who had come under their dominion.

The reason and rationale were simple, still "the vassal of my vassal is not my vassal."

Because previously these Lower nobles were "not my vassals" but "the vassals of my vassal," thus their participation in their vassal’s rebellion was reasonable and in accordance with the obligations stipulated by the Holy Code.

After the higher-ranking Lord triumphed and reclaimed the title, those who weren’t vassals became vassals, and as long as they swiftly swore allegiance to the new Lord, they were fulfilling the obligations of the Holy Code, and they shouldn’t continue to be held accountable for following the old Lord in the rebellion.

This clearly defined and segmented power and obligations made the relationship between vassal and Seigneur extremely delicate, especially when war erupted between a Seigneur and his Seigneur’s Seigneur.

According to the Holy Code, nobles could support their Seigneur in war against a higher-ranking Seigneur without concern for retaliation in the event of defeat.

In the context of the Castel rebellion, it meant that the Northern nobles could unreservedly side with Charlotte against the Third Prince.

But that was only in theory.

The Holy Code seemed to resolve the worries of small nobles in wars involving higher-ranking Lords, allowing them to stand by their direct Lords unabated, but in reality, this was not the case.

Precisely because the Holy Code protected the interests of small nobles, when a higher-ranking Lord went to war with a vassal, they often extended preferential treatment and various promises to the vassal’s underlings.

This led to a situation—

Following the decree of the Code, although the nobles could participate without worry in wars between their Lord and their Lord’s Lord, in reality, after such high-level wars, the small nobles often became the subject of bidding by both parties.

The ultimate result was that many small nobles did not actually join their direct Lords in battle but often remained neutral, hedging their bets and aiding whoever was most likely to win.

It could be said that this rule, which defined ownership of nobility across different classes, greatly constrained the central authority of the noble Feudal Lords and showcased the ingenuity of the Holy Royal Court in establishing the Holy Code.

Through this stringent noble system, the interests of the small nobles were protected, and it was difficult for Feudal Monarchs to achieve true centralization of power, even if they wielded immense Transcendent forces, they couldn’t threaten the Church’s foundational rule.