“The queen said you need to officially ascend the throne to be granted the Font of Knowledge. If you’re willing to help us beat Ehit, we need you to become king so we can gain access to it.”
“Oh, don’t worry, I’ll go through the coronation ceremony. And then, I’ll immediately appoint someone else king.”
“Huh?”
“In fact, you can take over if you want, Meiru. That way, I won’t even have to explain what I know to you guys, Meiru can just do it instead. Plus, then my family won’t be exposed to any danger. It’s a win-win.”
“You idioooooooooooot!” Morgan and Nevrai shouted at the same time. That woke Albanor up, but not for long. He made a few cooing noises, then nuzzled against his mother and fell asleep once more. It was pretty impressive that he could sleep through all this, honestly. However, Selene still shot Morgan and Nevrai a warning glance. No more screaming would be tolerated. Her gaze had a surprising amount of pressure behind it, so the two of them immediately apologized.
In a more hushed voice, Meiru asked, “Umm, would I even be able to pass the coronation ceremony? Sveit-kun couldn’t.”
“That’s because he wasn’t appointed by the previous king. That’s one of the requirements the magic circle looks for.”
In other words, if Alfard took the throne, then immediately appointed Sveit the next king, Sveit would likely be able to pass the trial. Though there hadn’t ever been a precedent of someone who’d failed succeeding at a later date, so Alfard wasn’t a hundred percent sure.
“The magic circle does check to see if you have the qualities of a ruler, but it’s not looking for anything too special. A king is a single person, but a single person cannot protect a country on their own. To be a king, you must be someone others are willing to support.”
Basically, the magic circle made sure the candidate wouldn’t become a dictator. For example, it checked to see if the previous ruler had been coerced or brainwashed in some way to appoint someone as their successor, and whether or not that successor held any ill will toward their country.
“In the first place, I’d planned to let myself get found after a year or so and then appoint my brother the official successor.”
“R-Really?” Morgan asked, and Alfard nodded.
“The reason I hid was because Selene was pregnant. It’d be pretty hard to keep a pregnant woman safe when there are assassins after her, right?”
“That...makes sense.”
“Besides, I figured that after a year, my brother would work up the resolve to try to become king himself. He’s a stubborn guy, but a hard worker as well.”
Alfard had figured that after a year of fruitless searching, the vampire kingdom would finally think to try looking in the dangerous swamps within their territory. Instead, it had taken them a full two years, and it hadn’t even been the vampires who’d found him, but Miledi and the others.
“I thought my family might disown me for abandoning my royal duties, so I figured that was what had happened, and that they’d found a way to get the people to accept a king who hadn’t cleared the coronation ceremony.”
“Umm, Your Highness, normally, people wouldn’t assume you’d taken your wife to the most dangerous place in the country to keep her safe.”
“I mean, this is me we’re talking about.”
“Ngh, I hate that you have a point. Why didn’t anyone think of that sooner?”
Of course, all of the vampire nobles had been in a panic because they’d lost their king and their crown prince, so they hadn’t been thinking straight. Miledi thought back to how haggard Sveit and Anya had looked and smiled sadly, while Alfard simply shrugged.
“Anyway, the point is that it doesn’t matter even if the magic circle doesn’t accept you. We’ll just tell the people Meiru managed to clear it. If they don’t find out, the truth won’t matter. Plus, that’ll put us all in the same boat.”
Alfard was literally trying to rope people into running a con.
Morgan and Nevrai shook their heads, saying things like, “Aaah, His Highness is about to do something crazy again!” and “But it always works out in the end, so I can’t even argue back!”
Apparently, despite his spontaneous nature, Alfard always managed to make sure things worked out in the end.
“Hell, the whole reason I was searching for Meiru was so I could find proof of dad’s secret relationship and use it as blackmail—I mean, use it to convince him to pick someone else.”
“Y-You just said blackmail, didn’t you?! You were gonna blackmail your own father?! Selene-san, please say something to him!”
“It’s amazing how ruthless Al-sama is to his enemies.”
“It’s no use. Selene-san’s blind when it comes to him. These two are a dangerous couple!”
While Miledi hung her head in despair, Meiru gave Alfard a thoughtful look.
“I assume you wanted to use me to blackmail your dad into picking a different successor? But you already knew my mother’s name, so did you not hear that from my dad directly?”
“Oh yeah, I should tell you the whole story.”
Apparently, Alfard had long suspected his father had once had an affair with a non-vampire woman. Alesand had been quite the skilled painter in his youth. He’d originally been very far down the line of succession and hadn’t expected to ever become king, so he’d gone on a trip around the world to find inspiration for his art. But then there was some trouble with the royal family, and he ended up next in line for the throne. After becoming king, he stopped painting entirely...and when asked why, he would always say that he’d run out of things he wished to draw. However, Alfard had been sharp enough to know his dad was lying. Moreover, he’d asked his mom about the real reason she’d acted rather suspicious, which got him thinking.
“Dad never really cared all that much about blood purity and stuff. Every time the other nobles asked him to be more active about preaching the values of blood purity, he’d always brush them off. That was around the time I started suspecting he might have had a non-vampire lover.”
Alfard himself had fallen for a human woman, which was what got him thinking in that direction.
“I became sure of it when I told dad about Selene.”
After he’d tried and failed thrice to persuade Alesand, Alfard had taken a risk and told his dad about Selene. He figured a scandal that big would convince his dad to rescind his declaration.
“I thought he might disown me then and there, but all dad said was, ‘I see.’ And, of course, he still kept me as his successor. In fact, I think he smiled a little when I told him. He was probably thinking ‘like father, like son’ or something. That was when I knew he’d probably fallen in love with someone from another race as well, and also when I started wondering whether or not he might have an illegitimate child. Unfortunately, Morgan and Nevrai went missing when I sent them to look for that child, and my attempts to find them failed.”
“Hold on. Did you go looking for us personally, Your Highness?”
“Obviously. It was my selfishness that exposed you guys to danger. Besides, there was no way I was gonna abandon my friends.”