Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage Chapter 922: The Nearmarch Confederacy

CH922 The Nearmarch Confederacy

***

Information about the Nearmarch Confederacy silently passed through Alex’s mind.

According to official documents from the Confederacy itself, the Nearmarch Confederacy was formed from a defensive pact between seven Houses-cum-kingdoms, which later morphed into a stronger alliance to resist territorial aggression from the Virellian Empire and secure its position on the continent in the face of other Empires and major organisations.

With House Frost at the centre, Houses Maximillian, Winsor, Xander, Oda, Kroner, and Randell formed the seven kingdoms belonging to the Nearmarch Confederacy.

If House Frost was the ceremonial leader of the Confederacy, then House Maximillian led in military affairs, while House von Kroner led in wealth and technology.

The Confederacy ran what was essentially a bicameral parliamentary system of governance—a Kings’ Council and a Council of Lords.

As the name implied, the Kings’ Council was occupied by the seven monarchs of the seven kingdoms in the alliance, while the Council of Lords was made up of aristocrats from the kingdoms, selected by the monarchs to represent their respective kingdoms in the parliamentary chamber.

At its core, the reasoning behind and the operation of the Confederacy’s parliamentary system wasn’t too different from the parliamentary system of governance of Alex’s past life.

The Kings’ Council held the true power in the Confederacy. Essentially, only the agreements, decisions, and laws passed by the Kings’ Council became fully binding on everyone within the Nearmarch Confederacy.

However, since it was difficult—if not impossible—for the monarchs of each kingdom to sit constantly to deliberate and negotiate on behalf of their kingdoms within their council, a lesser council, the Council of Lords, was created to do so on behalf of the busy monarchs.

Each of the seven kingdoms had an equal number of councillors, or Lords, in the Council of Lords, each selected or appointed by the monarchs of their respective kingdoms. These Lords were often the ones referred to when speaking of a Nearmarch Councillor.

It was their job to deliberate and negotiate amongst themselves to create a proposal document, which was then placed before the Kings’ Council for voting and, if passed, signing into law or final approval for general adoption, thus saving the monarchs a lot of time.

Most of the time, the Kings’ Council very rarely deliberated on anything when a proposal from the Council of Lords was brought before them.

This was because the monarchs had been informed of the contents beforehand by their kingdom’s council members, or the monarchs simply trusted the council members from their kingdom not to screw them over.

After all, if they did, where were they going to go? If they could leave, could their House?

This was often the reason why councillors selected to represent the kingdoms in the lower Council of Lords were often aristocrats who were neither too weak to be ignored by their peers on the council nor too strong to gain something tangible by betraying the kingdom—for example, betraying the kingdom, or rather the current monarch, in the council to gain support from another kingdom to usurp the throne.

Essentially, there was an art to selecting the Lords to represent the kingdom.

With House Frost essentially reduced to one person, House Frost rarely took part in sessions of the Kings’ Council. However, vassals and retainers of the House selected Lords amongst themselves to represent the kingdom in sessions of the Council of Lords.

Surprisingly, the absence of House Frost from the Kings’ Council didn’t actually hamper the council’s sessions.

This was because House Frost didn’t usually vote in the council in the first place.

This situation was one of the things that perhaps separated the Nearmarch Confederacy’s parliament from the parliaments of Alex’s previous life—or at least, to the best of his knowledge.

In order to get the kingdoms to come together to form the alliance that was today the Nearmarch Confederacy, House Frost had to make many sacrifices across the board. One of them was their voting rights in the Kings’ Council.

Rather than voting rights in the Council, House Frost had veto rights which it could use to block a law, agreement, or decision from passing, but it couldn’t vote in favour of or against any proposal brought to the Kings’ Council from the Council of Lords.

At first glance, it seemed like a counterintuitive system to Alex, but the Confederates seemed to make it work.

Essentially, thanks to this system, it didn’t particularly matter if a House Frost monarch was present or not. After all, they didn’t vote on any matter—and thankfully, there had not been anything controversial enough during that time that Frost kingdom would have fought to block, even if they had had their monarch present.

Though he was curious, for Zora’s sake, about how the system actually worked and how much exposure or protection it offered the Frost Kingdom, Alex resisted the temptation to dive deeper into the practical operation of the Nearmarch Confederacy’s Kings’ Council. Instead, he remained focused on why he was investigating the Confederacy in the first place.

A possible clue into what Erman Machholt, Alric Wastelander, the unknown organisation, or any foreign power stood to gain from acting within the Confederacy.

The Confederacy had stood for centuries—close to a millennium—under constant threats of various kinds from the other major powers on the continent, particularly the Virellian Empire. But in all that time, there was no record of Houses under the Empire making independent moves against the alliance.

What could have changed in recent times that made the Confederacy a viable target—and to what benefit exactly?

Despite thinking about it, Alex couldn’t come up with an answer.

’Could it really be to claim Imperial power over two Empires? Possibly combine them into one larger Empire that could potentially sweep across the continent?’ Alex mused.

’I am missing something. I don’t have enough information,’ he concluded.

—

While Alex was lost in his thoughts, Udara and Alpha continued their discussion, with Haggleworth looking on like a silent observer.

"Which of the kingdoms are Alric Wastelander and Erman Machholt supporting?" Udara asked.

"Alric’s men have dispersed across Winsor and Oda, however, all indications point to him supporting House von Kroner. Erman, on the other hand, has approached elements of the Maximillian kingdom. I expect him to make plays for Xander and Randell," Alpha revealed.

"So, if both men’s plans go accordingly, then they will use the stronger von Kroner and Maximillian kingdoms to divide up the four weaker kingdoms," Udara mused aloud while looking at the magic table.

Alex also looked at the table behind her.

Maximillian and von Kroner had always used their military and economic strengths, respectively, to push the Confederacy towards their preferred direction on different matters. To survive, the other kingdoms had been forced to gather in a sub-bloc to pool their influence and resist the two great powers.

This became even more difficult to do without the presence of House Frost to keep the two in check.

’Though House Frost seemed to lack overt power, they had exerted a soft power over the alliance such that the more powerful alliance members respected their place and did not risk the unity of the alliance over their ambitions,’ Alex mused to himself.

’With the Frosts gone, von Kroner and Maximillian have slowly forgotten the spirit of the alliance and let their ambitions fester. Perhaps that is why Maximillian readily gave up their Crown Prince, Achilles, to the Order of Valour—for the sake of their ambition.

’Now that All-Might is a Banner Lord for the Order of Valour, the Maximillians must be finding it even more difficult to hold it in. All Erman needs is a little push.’

’Then again, perhaps even without Erman, with Alric already nudging the von Kroners, it might only be a matter of time before the balance breaks anyway.’

Alex sighed quietly to himself.

The clouds of war were already gathering across the continent.

’The problem is that when kingdoms and Empires go to war amongst or within themselves, it tends to trigger other restless elements elsewhere as well.’

Alex’s eyebrows furrowed deeply.

***