Everyone was shocked by his words, especially Metropolitan Oulophin of Cherson.
"What is His Highness doing? What does he mean?" The Metropolitan, dressed in a greyish-white clerical robe, felt both anger and fear, but dared not show it directly.
Instead, he watched Manuel with concern, wondering what he would do next.
However, to his surprise, Manuel quickly lowered his arms, said nothing more, and turned to leave.
In contrast, Raus, in the dock, stared dumbfounded at Manuel, who was preparing to exit.
A moment later, he cursed him unwillingly, "You tyrant!"
Upon hearing the shout, Manuel turned back with a gentle smile and retorted with a mocking tone, "Tyrant? I worked so hard to find a solution acceptable to everyone, and not only were you dissatisfied, but you actively rebelled?
You think I'll become a tyrant once I'm in power, do you? Haha, hahahaha!"
He couldn't help but burst into laughter, "If this counts as being a tyrant, then which monarch in all of Europe isn't a tyrant?
Since you believe I'm a tyrant no matter what I do, then I'll show you now what a true tyrant looks like!"
Finally, he emphasized, "You chose this, traitors!"
With that, he left the trial without looking back, followed by most of the onlookers who had grasped the situation, leaving only the bewildered and despondent in place, unsure of what to do next.
The aftermath of the Grand Trial was quickly decided.
The execution time was set for the evening of the next day: at noon on that weekend, which was mid-April, the 20 rebellious nobles would be executed by cannon fire; other secondary offenders would be sentenced to deprivation of property and exile to North Tauris; those confirmed to have been coerced would be pardoned, with no further action taken against them.
After reviewing the trial report, Manuel chuckled to himself with a hint of helplessness, "Still too lenient."
In order to re-establish order and consolidate his rule as quickly as possible, he ultimately instructed Arno to conduct a fair trial, rather than resorting to extreme measures directly.
There were precedents for this in Roman history, such as the famous "Bulgar Slayer" Basil II.
Everyone knows that he ordered one eye to be removed from all captured Bulgarian soldiers at the Battle of Kleidion, but few know that after completely reconquering Bulgaria, he appeased the local nobles, rebuilt infrastructure, and comforted the people.
"Alright, now there are only two or three things left," Manuel thought with a bitter smile before going to bed that night.
"The handling of Isaac is also something that must be faced sooner or later."
At noon the next day, after adjusting his firearm, Manuel put on casual clothes and, unbeknownst to his father, quietly arranged for all the palace staff to be his subordinates.
He then had the confined Isaac brought to the temporary palace, believing he would finally resolve the problems Isaac had caused.
Upon seeing his younger brother again, Manuel ordered the guards to temporarily release him.
Isaac's confinement had not been long, and given his special status as royalty, his body had not suffered any excessive retaliation.
On the contrary, because he no longer had to worry about his precarious regime, he looked even better than a week ago.
This was the first time Manuel had seen his younger brother since the civil war, and for a moment, neither brother knew what to say.
After a while, Manuel coldly asked him, "Isaac, do you understand what you've done?"
"I hastily rebelled and failed." Isaac dared not meet his brother's questioning gaze, his eyes darting evasively.
"Why? When did it start?" he continued to press him.
Isaac lowered his head and recounted the full story, "The initial spark was five years ago, when I had a small fire in my heart because of certain events, and then by chance—no, they must have been prepared and intentionally sought me out—I got involved with those nobles.
At first, it was just learning state affairs, then three years ago, I gradually became involved in the Principality's politics, making small moves behind the scenes.
Later, probably not long after the Crimean War began, they finally told me their true intentions.
I agreed, and the first few attempts failed.
It should have ended there, but it escalated into what happened recently.
"As for the reason," Isaac paused, "it was probably a childhood delusion, feeling that I shouldn't be beneath others, and at least I should try to leave my name and deeds thoroughly recorded for posterity, just like you, brother, once said you wanted to be a monarch like Basil II, didn't you?
Later, I probably guessed their intentions, but the situation was such that I went along with it."
Manuel sighed.
He largely knew the answers to these questions in his heart, but hearing them directly from his brother's mouth still left him with a painful emptiness.
"Just for such a trivial reason?" he retorted.
"Did you not suspect they were using you?"
"As I just said, I had a feeling, but I still accepted it." Isaac lowered his head even further.
"Because I wanted to be like you, brother."
Manuel didn't know what to say for a moment.
He wanted to scold him loudly, but he knew Isaac was telling the truth.
During the search of Isaac's residence after the civil war, Manuel was surprised to find in the report that his brother had secretly compiled a private collection of Manuel's sayings, although many of them were Manuel's wild pronouncements from childhood.
This left Manuel at a loss for what to do.
After a moment, he half-angrily, half-distressedly ordered his guards to restrain Isaac, while taking his pistol from the table and immediately pointing it at Isaac's forehead, scolding him: "Enough! Do you know what you're saying?! Nonsense, don't say such unwise things in front of me again!"
Isaac did not try to resist, but closed his eyes.
This made Manuel's left hand, holding the pistol, tremble imperceptibly.
After a long pause, he moved the pistol away from Isaac's forehead, put it back in its place, and coldly changed the subject, trying to bring an end to this abrupt encounter.
"This weekend, the rebels who supported you will be executed by cannon fire.
I will persuade Father to let you be there to witness their fate.
After that, you will go to a monastery to live out your days; the monastery will provide you with anything you need then.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, this should be one of our last few meetings."
Facing Manuel's final decision, Isaac's legs involuntarily weakened, and then he knelt down and cried, "Thank you, brother."