0. So when it comes to precedent, that is the situation. Yes, I see...
1. Burning the midnight oil, are we? Such zeal.
2. Ah, Hubert! What are you doing here at this hour?
3. Up to your usual intrigues behind Edelgard's back?
4. I would thank you not to make such blind and rude [cdb]assumptions when you lack any basis for them.
5. Well... Yes, I suppose I was making assumptions. You have my apologies.
6. Not at all. I am, in truth, up to my "usual intrigues," [cdb]so your amends are quite unnecessary.
7. Oh, all right, then. Hold a moment, you were?
8. In any event, what are you reading with such [cdb]vigorous intent?
9. Listen to me, Hubert. I—
10. A book of past judicial precedent, is it? Ah, and [cdb]specifically concerning the prosecution of nobles.
11. Yes. I have a mind to settle matters with my father.
12. The letter of the law considers rebellion a capital [cdb]crime. But practically speaking, that is not the case.
13. Members of the nobility are especially likely to be [cdb]granted clemency, and all the more so in recent years.
14. Yes, they expiate their guilt by surrendering peerage, [cdb]providing assets and information, and leaning on [cdb]the strength of their past meritorious deeds.
15. In short, the nobility make full use of every excuse [cdb]available to hold tight to their miserable lives.
16. One could pluck off their arms and legs and leave [cdb]them to fester in the dankest of prisons, and they [cdb]would still come wriggling back to the surface.
17. So long as they are permitted to live, that is.
18. Like with the former Marquis Vestra?
19. That one did not serve his emperor properly and [cdb]acted in a manner easily construed as treasonous.
20. This is incontrovertible fact.
21. Go on.
22. Sadly, he resisted arrest and lost his life in the [cdb]unfortunate incident that ensued.
23. His guilt or innocence on the matter of treason will [cdb]remain forever shrouded in mystery.
24. That sounds like a careful bit of sophistry to me. It appears to anyone with half a mind that you [cdb]thought him guilty and had him executed.
25. As a noble, he should have been judged in public as [cdb]is right and proper, no?
26. And remind me again whose father escaped while the [cdb]law attempted to do just that?
27. So long as they are permitted to live, the noble [cdb]creature struggles desperately to continue doing so.
28. Such is ever their nature.
29. Which is precisely why I am investigating precedent. In order to block any means by which my father [cdb]could escape justice.
30. I will not allow him to stage a comeback. I will see [cdb]my father properly judged for his crimes.
31. And that is exactly why I am investigating precedent. Once my father is recaptured, I seek for him to never [cdb]again know the taste of freedom.
32. I will not allow him to stage a comeback. I will see [cdb]my father properly judged for his crimes.
33. And if he were to raise an army, I would have no [cdb]choice but to lay him low upon the battlefield.
34. But could you if matters came to that? I wonder...
35. It is not a question of can or cannot—the man will be [cdb]dealt with, and by my hand.
36. I could never forgive myself otherwise.
37. Not as the inheritor of the title of Duke Aegir, nor as [cdb]the one to succeed him as prime minister.
38. It is for Her Majesty to decide such things.
39. However, if it proves to be in Her Majesty's interest, I suspect this resolve of yours will be most welcome.