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