There was an official announcement that four of the royal family had perished due to unforeseen accidents. Of course, there wasn’t a single noble who actually believed that. It was basically an open secret that the first prince’s faction had assassinated them.
As expected, the first prince was crowned king, and at the same time, my father-in-law resigned as prime minister. The public reason he gave was that he wanted to tend to his wife who’d become frail after her brother’s passing. In reality, though, he was boycotting the sudden coronation of the first prince.
“Welcome, Duke Sevensworth,” one of the servants from the royal palace said as I exited the carriage.
In addition to leaving his government post, my father-in-law had also returned to the Sevensworth territory to relinquish his title. As a result, I became the new duke and Ana rose to the position of duchess. Usually there would be a large succession ceremony, but it was put off due to our family being in mourning, so I’d only inherited the title through official paperwork.
Now, my name had changed from Count Ginorious Simon Sevensworth to Duke Ginorious Sevensworth. Up until now, I’d been the head of House Simon while also being a member of the Sevensworths, but now I was head of the Sevensworth family too. In the situation where one was head of multiple houses, the individual only used the title of the house with the highest status. It made my signature a little easier now.
I was currently at the palace for a meeting between nobles. Though the Sevensworths had relinquished the position of prime minister, we still had an obligation to attend noble meetings, and now that I was the duke, I was the one to attend.
“Good day, Duke Sevensworth,” Lady Byron said to me in the hallway to the meeting room.
I returned the greeting and asked that she address me as she usually did. “Did you inherit status as well? I don’t think I heard anything about that,” I said.
“Oh, no, I’m here as a stand-in.”
One way of protesting the politics of the palace was by passing down one’s title; another was by sending a stand-in to official functions. Since Lady Byron was the only child of House Byron, it could only be her or her mother, and choosing the daughter sent a more powerful message since she was of lower standing. But then again, Lord Byron could return to represent his house at any time, so this method of protest still wasn’t as impactful as relinquishing his title entirely, since it still indicated a possibility of cooperation in the future.
“As I thought. There are a lot of young people here,” I observed.
“Did you expect anything different after what happened?” Lady Byron asked in a bitter tone.
Our houses weren’t the only ones protesting the recent events. The heads of the noble families in the fourth prince’s faction were all absent, with many wives sent in their husbands’ steads, and a lot of young people too. Most of the latter had likely received their house’s title in the same manner as I had. The neutral faction was a little better, with about a third of the actual family heads in attendance. The first prince’s faction had about eighty percent of the family heads present. It seemed he had their overall support; however, it was hard to hide the fact that his faction had become very weak due to it now consisting mainly of lesser nobles.
In my past life, countries with absolute monarchies usually wouldn’t be too destabilized when a king was assassinated as long as the next one was immediately crowned, but the position of king in this country was much weaker. The new king would be in trouble if he remained estranged from the majority of the greater noble houses.
“It seems that this country has finally reached a dangerous point,” Lady Byron said, speaking my thoughts out loud.
As Lady Byron and I continued our conversation, an announcement rang out across the room.
“His Majesty has arrived.”
Everyone bowed, and then the meeting began. Up until now, the first prince’s faction had remained entrenched in their policies in order to recover even a little from their disadvantageous position, but now it was the reverse. They’d become much more flexible and had even begun relenting on budget proposals they wouldn’t have agreed on before. The government was actually getting things done.
“Though I’ve become king, I’m still green. I don’t claim to have deep ties with any of my subjects, which is why, in an effort to deepen my bonds with all of you, I’d like to propose a law.”
His aide went on to explain the proposal. Essentially, he was taking hostages. In the first place, luring all the children of noble families to attend school in the royal capital via the promise of positions in the royal palace after graduation was already a form of taking them hostage. But that didn’t seem to be enough for our new king. Now he wanted to keep them at the palace, limiting their freedom to leave. Worse yet, this king would be able to specifically name who he wanted to take as his “wards.”
“The idea is to focus on young women with no children. It will be less of a burden to have them stay at the palace than the men, who typically shoulder more of the responsibilities in their houses. And since they’re younger, they should have fewer responsibilities in general. With no children, too, there will be no worry about separating a mother from her child,” the king said, answering a question from the crowd about how he would choose who was taken.
“Does this mean that you’re going to construct a new palace for them?” my elder brother from House Valvalier asked, a silent anger in his eyes.
He really doted on and loved his little sisters. There was no way he’d be on board with essentially offering them as concubines.
“There are no plans to create a new palace. We’ve been busy, so we’ve only been able to make space in one of the current palaces. Since it’d be poor form to have both the men and women staying in the same place, for now, we’re just having women stay. When everything’s ready, we’ll have a separate area for the men as well.”
Though this was what he said, nobody believed him for a minute. Since many royal members had passed away, there was ample room in their respective palaces. They should have been able to prepare rooms in the blink of an eye.
“However, I am without wife or fiancée. If a bond happens to deepen between me and one of the women, I will of course take responsibility and make her my queen,” the king said with a bright smile.
His eyes, though, couldn’t hide his true, ugly intentions.