Eglantine’s question didn’t surprise me; she despised war above all else. Ferdinand had predicted what she would ask and prepared a response for me, so I mentally repeated what we had discussed during our preliminary meeting.
“Even now, I consider it best for someone among the royal family to become the next Zent. I would rather we avoid disputes where we can. But more than a year has passed since the means to obtain the Grutrissheit was unearthed, and even now, not a single one of you has acquired it.”
Ferdinand glared at me.
Ngh... I get it, okay? Eglantine is the closest to the Grutrissheit, since she was born with all the elements. Saying it outright just feels mean, though.
Besides, everyone understood without me having to say it. I returned my focus to Eglantine and gestured for her to respond.
“No, we have not,” she said. “But only because we agreed the Zent would adopt you. We were going to obtain it through you.”
“In other words,” Ferdinand interjected, “you planned to have someone outside the royal family obtain the Grutrissheit. Back then, I really did think it best for the royal family to secure it... but never in my wildest dreams had it entered my head that you were all so lazy, greedy, and selfish.”
“Excuse me?!” Sylvester exclaimed, snapping out of the stupor my rampage had inspired.
Ferdinand merely smiled and continued. The script he’d written for me had sounded provocative enough, but his remarks were just plain hostile. Gone was his surface-level politeness; he was treating the royals like incompetent fools. I couldn’t help but blink in surprise.
“I conveyed what was necessary for the royal family to obtain the Grutrissheit without causing discord. I also accepted the royal decree to go to Ahrensbach to prove I did not intend to incite a rebellion. And yet...” Ferdinand paused, and a broad smile spread across his face. “Even with the information I provided, all of you decided to claim the Grutrissheit through Rozemyne rather than acquire it yourselves. She had promised to defend Ehrenfest in my stead only for you to force her into a nightmarish engagement for the sake of adopting her. King Trauerqual, can you imagine how I felt upon hearing that? I agreed to leave Ehrenfest to protect it, but you put the entire duchy in danger in my absence. Take a moment to consider my reaction.”
Ferdinand was focused not on Eglantine, who had asked the question to begin with, but on Trauerqual. The king hung his head, his lips pressed tightly together.
“Lord Ferdinand,” Magdalena interjected. “Even under these circumstances, you are being far too rude. You sit before the Zent.”
Trauerqual shook his head. “You may not know this, Magdalena, as you are excluded from socializing... but I really have demanded a lot from this man.”
“Then I spoke out of turn. My apologies.”
“King Trauerqual, might I ask what those demands were?” Sylvester inquired, having been denied entrance to that fateful meeting. “As his elder brother and Aub Ehrenfest, I think I have the right to know.”
The king looked at Ferdinand, engaged in some kind of mental debate, then slowly shook his head. “In return for accepting my demands, Lord Ferdinand asked that I never repeat them. I do not intend to violate that now. I shan’t anger him or the Divine Avatar of Mestionora more than I already have.”
Ferdinand nodded, looking somewhat relieved. “To answer your question, Lady Eglantine, I think some internal disputes are preferable to the royals continuing to sit on their hands as the country crumbles around them, knowing full well how to obtain the Grutrissheit.”
“I see...”
“That said... if you would rather preserve the royal family’s claim to the throne, there are some methods you could use. The assigned Zent could simply ensure their children obtain more complete Books of Mestionora than any of the other candidates.”
In other words, the royals could actually start putting in the work. Eglantine daintily and quizzically cocked her head.
“I would consider it best for the royal family to strive to produce future Zents,” I said. “Though I intend to fix Yurgenschmidt’s distorted government and publicize how to obtain the Book of Mestionora, members of the former royal family need not vanish from the stage.”
“Could you elaborate on what you mean by ‘distorted government’?” Ferdinand asked, prompting me to continue.
I explained how Zents across history had slowly warped the process of ascending to the throne. The royals must not have known in the slightest; the palace’s library contained only the documents their forebears had taken with them when they first moved away from the holy land.
Sigiswald looked as though he’d just been struck by lightning, but he quickly returned to his senses. “O avatar of Mestionora, I understand now that the gods wish to dismantle the royal family. It would be my honor to become the next Zent and restore the old ways, as per the wishes of the divine.”
Ferdinand raised an eyebrow.
Anastasius gave the first prince a look of concern. “Brother, you—”
“People all across the country expect me to become the next Zent,” Sigiswald continued, interrupting his brother’s plea with a calm smile. “Thus, there is no one better suited to the task. Do you not agree, Anastasius?”
The second prince fell silent and cast his eyes down, having lost the will to speak. Sigiswald must have interpreted that as acquiescence because he returned to addressing me with a wider smile.
“Though I will conform to the old ways, the blame for this invasion lies primarily with Ahrensbach. I do not agree with the royal family bearing the full weight of the burden.”
“Brother!” Anastasius cried.
“Certainly, the Sovereign knight commander’s betrayal created this mess, but it was Ehrenfest and Dunkelfelger who sprang into action to stop him. Does the fault not lie with those of Ahrensbach who failed to vanquish the Lanzenavians in their duchy? Should they not be punished before anyone in the royal family?”
Sigiswald punctuated his argument with a sharp look at Ferdinand, not even trying to be subtle. He genuinely seemed to believe that Ferdinand was to blame for not controlling Detlinde and forestalling the invasion. I could tell that he was used to ordering others around and didn’t expect anyone to challenge his word as the first prince. His life up until this point—his experiences and the way he was raised—had given him that mindset.