…Abolish the magic tax? The single largest source of revenue we can collect from the trading company?
Alberto felt dizzy for a moment.
I’ve been had!
There was only one reason he had so foolishly given Sungjin an opening.
The assassin organization known as the Breath of Kaya was practically a sore spot no northern lord dared touch.
Even now, opinions remained divided over who should truly bear responsibility for the Ortona Civil War. The republican faction, which had been growing rapidly at the time, had repeatedly clashed with the monarchy, steadily feeding the flames of conflict. Added to that were the competing interests of the kingdoms surrounding Ortona, creating an intricate chain of cause and effect.
Yet even amid such a tangled political landscape, there had been one decisive moment.
The successive assassinations of important royalist figures, including two princesses of the royal family.
Those incidents transformed a political divide that had still possessed some possibility of reconciliation into a bloodstained rift that could never be closed.
The circumstances surrounding the princesses’ deaths remained a subject of debate among historians even now. Some claimed the radical republicans had been responsible, others pointed to rival factions within the royal family, and more than a few argued that foreign powers had interfered.
But there was one fact none of them denied.
Every one…