After Becoming The Tyrant CH 188 Extra 4: The World You Want Part III

The reporter did not expect that what would be released today would be a private letter from Pureland I himself regarding the bloody reformation.

In this way, it was not difficult to understand why the museum displayed "The King and His City" and "The Dragon and the Rose" in the colonnade of statues. In history, Pureland I had many titles. The ones that were more commonly mentioned today include "King of the World" and "Lord of Glory". However, he also had another title that was not honorable——

"Oathbreaker".

Oathbreaker, this title was related to the Great Reformation. In September of that year, when the Great Reformation took place, a total of 270 Legrand nobles were executed on the guillotine in the square in front of the Rose Palace. Among them, there were no less than 100 knights who had participated in the battle against the Holy Army and had achieved military exploits.

This event later became known as "Bloody September."

Bloody September caused a sensation in the entire world of knights at that time.

The Middle Ages were the age of knights. The knight system and code of chivalry were powerful ethical concepts that dominated people's minds and hearts. They were the crown of the entire social system at that time. It could even be said that at that time all countries belonged to the "kingdom of knights". There was a sworn relationship between the monarch and the knights. The monarch granted the knights land, and the knights swore allegiance to the monarch. Except for the fact that when the Holy See was not yet destroyed, the Pope could terminate the oath of allegiance between the monarch and the knight with the "Excommunication Order", it was generally considered unbreakable by default.

However, Pureland I reneged on this oath he had made with the nobles during his coronation ceremony.

He gradually took back military, fiefdom and other powers from the hands of the knight class. From a moral perspective alone, this approach of Pureland I would undoubtedly have been condemned at the time. Because of this, the old nobles headed by local lords united to denounce the King's "oath-breaking" behavior.

King Pureland I suppressed the riot forcefully, and the conservative knights involved were executed one by one.

Shortly after the completion of the bloody reformation, King Pureland I died of illness, leaving a brand-new empire in the hands of the son of General Johan the Defender. However, public opinion's criticism of King Pureland I did not end with his death. People believed that this was the biggest stain in the emperor's life. He shamefully betrayed the knights who were loyal to him and killed the imperial heroes when he should not have.

Some people even believed that the death of Pureland I was a punishment of fate for "breaking his oath".

However, there were also different voices that believed that Pureland I actually wanted to promote the new economic system reform through relatively gentle means at the beginning. The occurrence of Bloody September was an accident. It was not that Pureland I did not want to reconcile with the conservatives, but the conflict between the two sides was so intense that it got out of hand. Pureland I had no choice but to execute the knights who had followed him——the evidence was that after those knights were executed, Pureland I did not harm their families, and even provided covert protection.

The key point of the two arguments, was Pureland I forced to execute so many knights? Or was it intentional?

——It seemed that as long as this was confirmed, it could be concluded whether Pureland I was a treacherous, cold-blooded monarch.

Now, the answer was before the people's eyes.

On the yellowed paper was the sharp handwriting of Pureland I, and through the handwriting, the monarch's calm and ruthless voice seemed to echo in people's ears:

“…When we completely take back the jurisdiction of the Lord’s Court, they will realize what we want to do.

Get our guns and cannons ready... Everything is expendable, everything is discardable.

The age of the castle is over."

Bloody Reformation, Bloody September.

All came from the will of Pureland I himself.

………………

In a villa not far from St. Wyth Cathedral.

The King, wearing a classical ruffled shirt, was sitting on a stone chair in the flower pavilion, reading a copy of "The General History of Legrand". The sunlight shone through the dark green leaves and fell on him in patches. He still looked the same as when he was crowned in St. Wyth Cathedral, as if time had stopped for the King.

"In 1433, the Holy Army of the Sea invaded the southeast of Legrand. In order to ensure the victory of the overall battle, General Sheehan ordered the Iron Rose Cavalry to strategically retreat and guard the Kriya Mountains, remaining behind alone in the city of Bubas to bear the anger of the people."

The King looked at this paragraph in silence for a long time, and smiled silently.

He turned the page, skipping the period of time he was familiar with, and looked at the history after the eighteenth century.

After the gate of hell could be opened, the King did not return to hell immediately, but stayed in the human world for more than ten years. It was not until Legrand's transition from the Middle Ages to the Industrial Age was completed that he returned to hell with the Devil. However, as the authority of "royal power" itself, the King could still know what happened to Legrand during the period when Legrand's royal power was still flourishing.

Until new changes occurred and the social strata changed again, just as the prophecy said, "The earth will turn over like a pottery jar, and those at the bottom will rise to the top". After the 18th century, a new revolution occurred. Common people demanded to become the masters of the country. The monarchs of many countries were guillotined, and the royal power withdrew from the stage of history.

If according to the original destiny, the moment when the royal power was abandoned by the people, it would be the death of the King.

As the embodiment of the royal authority, the "death" of the King was different from the death of a mortal. All the power he possessed would be stripped away, leaving only his soul that would soon dissipate between heaven and earth. This was why it was said that "the King had nothing but his country." In the original contract signed between the Devil and the King, the Devil served the King, and the price the King paid was his soul.

During the battle between the King and Theolde, he almost died and disappeared from the world. It was the Devil who arrived in time to activate the contract.

Even so, according to his original destiny, after kingship became a thing of human history, the King would still not end well.

The turning point of fate laid in the original covenant between the Rose family and hell——the Old Covenant of Hell.

Hell symbolized the chaos and fighting in the world, which made it powerful and allowed it to be destroyed. The lords of hell could never muster an army to attack the gods, for once they did fire would rain down from the sky and burn them to the ground. The first demons were destined to fight endlessly because of their inner greed and evil. In order to resolve this situation, hell and the dragon slayers formed an alliance. The two parties signed an old treaty, and the Blackstone Royal City was built on the beach.

And at that time, the one who was pushed to the throne by the demons of hell was the King.

It was precisely because of this Old Covenant of Hell that the King was not only the king of earth, but also the king of hell.

When the kingship of the human world became a thing of the past in the fire of new changes, the kingship of hell still existed, and the King survived as the "King of Hell".

However, the King in hell had no way of knowing what happened to the human world from then on.

In the eighteenth century, the flames of revolution swept across the land, and class changes were as rapid as the emergence of new technologies. "Democracy" and "equality" replaced monarchy, and monarchs and aristocrats became a thing of the past. The population on the land was growing rapidly, and what pleased the King was that in this wave of reform, Legrand's royal family took the initiative to hand over power to the people and withdrew from the political stage.

The dragon slayer did not become a dragon.

A dragon slayer would always be a dragon slayer.

"In 1712, the Legrand royal family announced that they would hand over their power to the people, returning it to the people. The first democratic country in history was born."

A rose petal was blown by the wind and fell on the page of the book.

Just as the King was about to reach out to brush it away, a pale hand reached down from behind and pinched the rose petal up. Immediately afterwards, the Devil's pale and cold cheek pressed close to the King's ear. He stood behind the stone chair and leaned over to see what the King was looking at. After seeing "the birth of the first democratic country in history", the Devil sneered.

"You did a good job teaching them how to kill you."

There was a hint of complaint in his tone.

In the eighteenth century, the Legrand royal family took the initiative to end its rule over Legrand. The disappearance of the royal power in the human world ultimately had an impact on the King who was in hell. The King slept for nearly a hundred years. 

And as the Devil said, the King himself taught his people how to kill him.

After the bloody reformation, with the King's power and status at the time, he could have wrapped the reformation in a moral layer, and he could also have guided the direction of public opinion after the reformation was completed. He could have strengthened his control over thought at that time and ingrained the feudal dynasty into people's minds.

But he didn't.

He allowed the people to criticize him, and allowed the seed he planted personally that "once the system did not meet the needs of reality, it should be destroyed" to take root and sprout in humanism and rationalism. It finally grew into a towering tree in the 18th century. "A dragon slayer will always be a dragon slayer" became the motto of the Rose family, and the hanging sword was passed down from generation to generation...

He paved a road to death for himself.

Everything could be sacrificed, everything could be discarded.

——In this "everything", including himself.

The Devil walked around to stand in front of the King and took away the book he was reading.

The King leaned back on the cold bench and raised his head slightly. The Devil's face was half hidden in the shadows, and his pale and cold face carried a trace of malicious arrogance unique to hell creatures——this was his knight, his contractor, and now he belonged to his knight.

There was nothing wrong with that.

This season, roses were in full bloom.

The dark green leaves and scarlet flowers were as gorgeous as a fantastical dream. Under the mottled shadows, the monarch owned by the devil and his hell knight kissed naturally. The wind stirred the rose bushes, making a whistling sound, and the deep breathing died out between the interlocked figures. In a certain moment, the King's ice-blue pupils were printed with the image of the black-haired Devil.

"Actually, I have never regretted it."

He said suddenly.

"No regrets?"

The Devil asked, their foreheads pressed so close they were the only two people left in the world.

"None."

The destiny he assumed, every decision he made, the ending he wrote for himself… including the original contract, the oath signed by the monarch who lost all his people and the devil who was deprived of his name.

The Devil clasped the King's hand, and he said no more.

They were born lonely, but after they met, they seemed not so lonely anymore.

History books fell around them, just like the long years they had walked together.

……………………

After the personal letter of Pureland I was displayed, it really caused an uproar.

On the Internet, different views on Pureland I triggered a debate. Was Pureland I's personal qualities good or bad? What kind of image did he play in history and in the eyes of people at that time? Did Pureland I’s “oath-breaking” behavior need to be criticized?

A series of questions emerged, and almost every moment someone was arguing about this topic.

Against this background, Legrand National TV launched a special program and invited Professor Holland, the dean of the History Department of Legrand First College. He possessed a badge printed with swords and roses, which indicated his identity as a "Member of the Legrand Strategic Observation Bureau"——compared to this long and strange name, there was a simpler title:

The Hanging Sword.

"Before I get to the topic, I want to mention someone first."

Facing the host, Professor Holland smiled gently and looked at the audience in front of the TV.

“Sheehan Rolandst."

The host showed a look of understanding.

Sheehan Rolandst, the general of the Iron Rose Cavalry in 1433, the southeast commander in the early stages of the resistance to the Holy Army, and the decision-maker of Bubas' retreat. For nearly four hundred years after the end of the Holy Army movement, the image of General Sheehan in the people's minds had always been "a cowardly traitor" and "the sinner who caused the fall of southeastern Legrand."

It was not until the end of the 18th century, after Legrand had calmed down from the turmoil of the change of regime, that a branch of the Rose family, the Hanging Swords of the History Department of the First College, presided over the political rehabilitation of General Sheehan.

In that political rehabilitation, the Hanging Swords conducted research on the strength comparison between Legrand and the Holy Army at that time, Bubas's defensive capabilities, the marching speed of the Holy Army of the Sea, etc., and concluded the "humiliating fall" which had always defined the Bubas Retreat——as not a retreat out of General Sheehan's own cowardice, but a strategic retreat out of the benefit of the entire war situation.

The most important point in the rehabilitation work was:

At that time, although King Pureland I stripped Sheehan Rolandst's title and position, Sheehan Rolandst was still registered as the first general of the Iron Rose Cavalry in the royal family's secret files, and it was never erased, nor was there a time indicated of his resignation.

This meant that, at the time, General Sheehan was not guilty, at least in Pureland I's view.

Many clues combined to point to one fact:

Sheehan Rolandst's retreat at Bubas was permitted by the King himself, and possibly even ordered by him. The reason why Sheehan Rolandst remained in Bubas was because he wanted to quell public anger with his own death.

What finally confirmed this view was that in the first half of the eighteenth century, after the confidentiality period had passed, the Rose family disclosed relevant military strategic files and relevant records of the then Head of the Households——the King had sent a secret letter to General Sheehan.

"To this day, some people still think that General Sheehan's choice is difficult to understand." Professor Holland said eloquently, "Why is this? This is because they are not familiar with this part of history, and they are not familiar with the urban population, organizational capabilities, and military forces’ ability to act at that time… these necessary conditions are all unfamiliar to them. If we look at the choices made at that time from the perspective of the production-level social system of the 21st century, we naturally wonder why the city residents must be abandoned, why not take them away?"

"But to judge people from medieval backgrounds by twenty-first century standards is an injustice in itself."

"You mean, if you don't look at the background of the era in which historical figures lived, it's impossible to evaluate their actions?" the host asked.

"Yes." Old Professor Holland nodded slightly, "I think it is very important for our descendants to not have the 'arrogance of latecomers' when looking back on history. This is the problem with General Sheehan, and the same goes for the issue with Pureland I.”

"After a long period of development, the deep-rooted chivalry system in the Middle Ages had become another tumor that hindered Legrand's progress after the Holy See. Under the chivalry system, the knight class and the serf class were in opposition. By the fifteenth century, under the feudal serfdom, the lack of free labor had become an obstacle to the development of industry and commerce. The local lords' courts were full of abuses... So for a monarch who wanted to usher in Legrand's prosperity, it was destined he would destroy this old system."

"This was the fundamental reason for the bloody reformation, but Bloody September had other more direct reasons."

"What we need to understand is that during the Holy Army movement, the reason why the nobles at that time followed Pureland I to fight against the Holy See was that they saw the situation of the old nobles of Bressi under the Holy Empire. They knew that once Legrand was destroyed, their fate would be even worse. After the end of the Holy Army Movement and the establishment of the Legrand State Church, these nobles discovered that the new doctrine supported the development of industry and commerce and prevented them from unlimited exploitation of serfs. They were naturally resistant to these changes and even hoped that the state religion would return to the old teachings. For this reason, they must take other actions."

"Pureland I's understanding of the military power of the nobility was very clear. He knew that if he wanted to shake the chivalry system, he must first destroy the military cornerstone on which this system relied. Therefore, he made preparations in advance and used new hot weapons to teach the knights who stuck to cold weapons a far-reaching lesson."

"Bloody September, on the surface, was a battle of breach of contract, but in fact it was a desperate struggle between the old class and the new system to maintain their privileges."

At the end of the interview, Professor Holland concluded:

"Retreating does not necessarily mean being cowardly. Breaking a promise does not necessarily mean being perfidious."

"Limited by the political, economic, ideological and cultural conditions of the special era, people at that time were often unable to comprehensively and objectively evaluate the people and events at that time. Many tragedies resulted from this, and great souls often died bearing stigma. However, the responsibility of historians lies in this——"

"The times misunderstand heroes, but history returns glory."

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After Becoming The Tyrant CH 191 Extra 7: A Soul's Autobiography Part I

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After Becoming The Tyrant CH 189 Extra 5: The World You Want Part IV