THE DESTINY OF THE SUN AND THE MOON
CHAPTER 45 - RAPAT EMPIRE PART III

Everyone in the room seemed very surprised when they read the papers the waiter had just shared with them. Exactly, the contents of the papers contained the palace's financial statements and also evidence of embezzlement of funds that occurred in the Northern region of the Eilidh Empire which was the territory of Duke Curt which was given by the Emperor as in return for Duke Curt's work, an aide and the right-hand man of Emperor Horus.

Although there is nothing suspicious about the tax report in the North, it is clear that there is evidence of evasion of tax funds distributed to the Duke Curt Residence. Meaning, Duke Curt himself has manipulated the financial reports in the North to get the budget money from the palace which instead flows to the Duke Curt Residence and also pay taxes are quite cheap.

"Isn't this so outrageous?" The fuming Duke Erickson.

Indeed, he was already suspicious of the financial management of the Northern region. The North itself is known to have fertile land for their agriculture. In fact they always have a bountiful harvest and also quality. But somehow he heard that the people in the Northern region there are only a few noble families who live prosperous, while the ordinary people there are still in poverty. Even though with the budget of the palace channeled, the abundant harvest and also the cheap taxes should be the lives of people in the North region was prosperous.

Duke Erickson himself investigated it, but from every recognition of the poor people, the majority of them are farmers, they claim to live with sufficiency, it's just that when Duke Erickson came there they had just run out of money because they had been partying to celebrate their harvest party.

All those people answered the same thing, But Duke Erickson himself found out that they were lying and seemed to be hiding something. However, Duke Erickson tried to dig up more information, the results were still nil and because he did not want to force them to tell the truth, duke Erickson finally gave up the investigation.

"Not to mention there, there were worker violations and also reports of threats made by Duke Curt to all workers and people in the North. It's not a small matter...." Castor said to the nobles.

Everyone refocused on the report paper they were holding.

Empress Ivona covered her mouth with an extremely incredulous look then looked towards the Emperor, "This is a lie.... It's a very cruel offense. This is a serious matter Your Majesty!"

Empress Ivona gasped to see the Emperor, who was just staring at the paper flat, as the Emperor did not feel the slightest surprise about the problem of workers' violations and rights violations that occurred in the North.

'Didn't she know.....? Fucking monsters....' Empress Ivona thought as she turned her face away and bit her lower lip.

Blaze who saw that also secretly clenched his hands. He knew that the Emperor himself knew this, because many slaves of the Emperor's mistresses came from the North, and, and the one who supplied those women was of course Duke Curt.

"This is a lie, Your Majesty! You yourself know that the North is very prosperous! The people there are very happy and we always party to celebrate our bountiful harvest! This is really information that wants to slander me!" Shouted Duke Curt.

Silence was instantaneous, until the Emperor opened his voice, "The Northern Region is indeed prosperous. I go there often to make sure. No poverty, hunger, misery and rights abuses took place there"

As soon as the nobles nodded in agreement, they had indeed been to the North to find that in all the people in the North region had large houses. Every way down the road, they all saw huge buildings along the road in the Northern region. So there's no way they're stuck in poverty like the one in this report.

But a soft laugh was heard, and the voice came from Prince Blaze.

"What's so funny, Prince Blaze?" Asked the Emperor who was looking at him sharply.

"Pffts... Ahahahah... Sorry Your Highness... I couldn't help but laugh" replied Blaze, who was still laughing and moved into his chair, and he began to walk slowly towards the people brought by Sir Felix.

"Yes... Offences are very difficult to dismantle because they are stubborn enough to tell the truth. But...."

With a quick movement, Blaze instantly pulled

the hand of a male servant, and the arm of the male servant, showed the wound so many times that it was in the hand of the servant.

"Look at this, all these servants and people have the same wounds that this servant has!" Blaze exclaimed in a loud voice.

The maid lowered her head, she looked very frightened but Empress Ivona smiled gently at her.

"Just calm down, no one will hurt you here. Do you have the same injuries as that male servant?" The Empress asked in such a gentle and soothing voice.

The waiter's cry finally broke. The woman's maid then grabbed her long uniform arm and showed an incision wound that still looked wet.

"Y-yes, Your Majesty... Hiks... We have been so tormented all this time! Not only got a small salary, but we were also tortured just because of a small problem... Or we don't even do hikss.... A mistake! But we are always in torment... By Duke... The duchess... And the worst is... From Miss Bella!!!" The female servant cried.

Everyone looked surprised, even the Empress was surprised by the female servant's confession. He did not expect that Bella, who is the fiancee of the Second Son of Helios, was involved here.

Another maid cried and fell to her knees, "Yang... Hix.... Noble... We are always threatened with death... Hikss if it leaks this... Moreover... Hix... Miss Bella's hobby is our torturer... The servants themselves.... He whipped us with a whip... Slash us with a sword, knife or scissors.... Slapped us with a thorny ring... Hix... And even gave our greetings burns from the hot lead.... JUST FOR FUN!!!!"

"CLOSED YOUR MOUTH, WAITER!! YOU CAN ACCUSE MY SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER! SHE IS A GOOD DAUGHTER!" Shouted Duke Curt in anger.

Suddenly the other servants began to cry and prostrate, "Hiks.... Please release us from this suffering, Your Majesty.... Hicks..."

A man in shabby commoner clothes raised his tear-jerking face, "We... Hix... On the arrival of Lord Duke Erickson.... We fear His Majesty... We were threatened with murder if we leaked this! The young girls in our area were all taken away... We don't know where they all went.... One of them is my daughter.... We were threatened.... Will be killed...."

Another man said, "We people who work as farmers only get a very small salary... Not even enough for our lives to buy daily food.... Our big house is just an empty building with nothing.... We sleep under worn cloth as a base.... We are in poverty Your Majesty!!!"

A female servant opened her voice again, "We.... Feeling that I can't stand it... Hix... Any more.... We even dared to show the wounds that were all over our bodies.... It was the result of the Duke family's torture.... Hix.... Hix... Please save us, Your Majesty... Please save us.... We don't want to be tortured by Miss Bella.... He's very cruel.... He often tortured us... Hix... We beg you to save us...."

"That's impossible.... Bella can't possibly do something cruel like this. They just make it up!" Said Helios who had been silent.

He was seen reacting when the name Bella was mentioned, it made Castor sigh tired.

"He's really been blinded by love..." Castor Mumbled.

Blaze fell silent, and stepped closer to the seat occupied by Helios.

Helios frowned as Blaze approached her without daring, "What are you doing exactly, Blaze? You've made this mess even inciting the Crown Prince to make all this shit, aren't you aware of the mistake"

BURRR!!!!!

Helios had not finished saying so, Blaze suddenly hit the face of his second brother so hard that it made Helios fall from the chair and bounce far away.

Everyone widened their eyes when they saw the incident, including Arthur and Dereck who also did not think that Blaze I did that while Castor was smiling with satisfaction because the thing he wanted to do since it was already in the vice by Blaze.

"Is that blow enough to resuscitate your working brain, Brother Helios?" Blaze asked in such an angry tone, he also stared coldly at Helios. "Or is it not enough? Take it easy, I'll hit you until your brain is working properly"