The Holy Grail of Eris - Vol. 4 Ch. 14 - The Silent Ladies' Party

[Cowboy_From_Hell]

Damn, 80 pages! That was a splendid reading.

 

[Ruhrpottpatriot]

@stretch22

Hello fellow autists! Don't over do it, people won't read lengthy walls of text.

You mean people won't read text the length of a short newspaper comment because their attention span has been reduced to 240 characters? Thanks Mark! Thanks Jack! Thanks Donald!

The plot devices used in this chap are all over the place

They are not. Compared to literature classics like Buddenbrocks, War and Peace or Anna Karenina, all of which are absolute must reads (I can't stress that enough) if you like this manga, are way heavier on the plot device and historical knowledge side.

 

[mechpolaris]

I love the O'Brian fam now. Really nice to see allies instead of 24/7 enemies if they are not romantic interests or the usual best friend

Guess Scarlet power is not enough for everything

 

[imadoathing]

guess you gotta remember scarlet's used to talking from a high position in the kingdom, works great in public but has very little weight in small groups.

 

[xaeci]

Thank you for the chapter!

 

[eminyan]

jesus the cover art

 

[MissT]

What a beast of a chapter! Thank you for the update!!!

 

[llde]

@Ruhrpottpatriot

Don't confuse power and authority.
Most women hadn't authority, but in history there were a lot of women with power in high society, sometimes overshadowing through connections the powers of men.
An example of this is the Ottoman Empire where during circa hunderd year period the empire was controlled by the sultan mother and concubines often with a lot of infighting between factions, despite the authority was still belonging to the sultan.
This was maybe the most extreme example, but not the only one.
Women often partecipated in consipracies to benefit themselves or the family as whole, when not directly masterminding them. This is an act of power.
Now in classic nobilty systems, the power and status of the family strictly link the power of a woman and her connections. More a family had power more women (but also men) had the possibility to make connections to increase their power and use them.

However it must be said that even if women had informal power in high society, a sort of shadow tribunal like this is basically impossible, unless under control of someone with proper authority, as it can be saw as a way to slander the monarch authority.
But this is a fantasy setting (and for now seems wuite well built) so it's good, until it remain coherent.

 

[eminyan]

this one was def a loss, but i like that this isn't some op mc bs like it usually is with villainess'. u dont get proper public speaking skills, be able to sway a crowd nonetheless sway an audience in a small room who are all out to lynch u, and i like that these situations are accurate for a girl who is naive and plans to grow. sometimes villainess' literally will have a temper tantrum but be praised in the story or "get what they want" but society never works like that and truth is being confident isn't all there is to it

@Ruhrpottpatriot yep agree with @llde - a simple example is the salons that women hosted in the 18th century which helped nobles form connections and speak about revolutionary action - or women who rallied other women together to contribute to war resources for wars against napolean iirc
tldr authority doesn't always equate to power esp when it comes to social circles

 

[HiAndHello]

This story remains a breath of fresh air . Thanks for the Chapter

 

[shionlee]

ahhh i think im gonna love this aunty ksksksks

that said, scary bitches keep appearing one after another, poor constance

 

[Simpleton]

Lol OP Aunty goes BRRRR on the proceedings XD

 

[Hocbobby]

I can't wait for the war-arc to come when this kingdom crumble to dust due to the hyper conspiracy and under-court culture

 

[Salfaro]

Kind of funny how my first thought looking at the colored cover picture was "who's that lady with the weird smile on the right?", and then she comes bursting in at the end of the chapter.

 

[ixixiixxv]

Great, plot armor, hoping too high I guess.

 

[Ruhrpottpatriot]

@llde @eminyan
Yet that's not what is displayed in this chapter. What we see is Deborah's unveiled threat (to use the guards), something she can only do because she is a countess in her own right. In your examples there would've been no need hold this "tribunal" at all. A whisper in the street followed by some anonymous letters to Connie's family. Use the family name to plant the right rumours. That would've been how women back then could've used their influence to get rid of their adversaries.
That won't give you the ability to double a persons debts, however. Even back then nobles and even the king were subject to courts (the rights and duties of the nobility is one of the main things in the magna carta after all, not the modern interpretation of everybody's rights) and doubling a debt by just throwing a rumour around won't stand up against even the lightest of court scrutiny, especially if the person going against the newly found debt is a person of equal or higher social standing operating in the open because, guess what, people tend to believe openly voiced statements by persons in high positions more easily than rumours from the backstreet (where they have to come from unless you want to be directly linked to the plot, which they cannot allow to happen).

An example of this is the Ottoman Empire where during circa hunderd year period the empire was controlled by the sultan mother and concubines often with a lot of infighting between factions, despite the authority was still belonging to the sultan.

While this has happened quite often in history, even to Luis XIV, aka Mr. L'état c'est moi, this was far from the norm. You also can't use the Ottoman analogy to a world clearly set in a western European setting. Here the balance of power is far more complicated because so many nobles had seigneuries in multiple countries serving different nobles and kings to different degree (e.g the Rulers of Prussia at one point were subject to both the Polish King and the Holy Roman Emperor at the same time).

Women often partecipated in consipracies to benefit themselves or the family as whole, when not directly masterminding them.

Why is it that women always get the scheming role? Men were as good and most of the time even better (because you know, more participated at it) than women. The fact is, that throughout modern European history, women got the short end of the stick. Again: Yes there were women with authority (e.g. Catherine the Great, Victoria) or with power (Luise von Preußen), but they weren't common, as much as some want to believe it. People have watched too many episodes of Vikings and Barbarians...

 

[crossfortune]

I really liked how Scarlet's mega huge gazonka tits took up a solid 1/5th of the page of her being really shocked

 

[FgoSegul]

That o’brian girl is kinda thicc compared to most of the women we’ve seen at least going by her facial design

 

[Yomitachiacc]

Wow the start of this chapter is garbage, signs a single page contract in blood without even looking at it.

 

[Kutabarie]

Damn girl you really signed a blood pact without even reading it! I liked that she admitted she was stupid in her decision though.