‘He came to secretly petition me to name him Her Majesty’s official heir at the coronation.’
Until now, the Duke of the East had established himself as the man of real power closest to royal authority by stealing away the crucial Lion Unit.
And judging by how he had even brought the justification that he possessed the Lion Unit in order to expend it.......
He was not demanding the throne immediately, leaving me a measure of face, but his political demand was clear: leave the position after Her Majesty vacant.
Even if he had not snuck in, he would surely have attended the coronation. He had likely intended to have an heir announced at the coronation and interfere in the selection.
When a monarch being crowned already had children, it was customary to name them the next heirs and hold a ceremony to pass titles on to them.
‘He had even prepared for a grand compromise with me, the Regent.’
I’m not going to become King right away, but I’ll be the next King.
With that logic, if Her Majesty were to die suddenly, the Duke of the East could seize the throne very easily without contesting me.
The question was whether a young Queen with many years ahead of her would die suddenly, but the Duke of the East’s influence appeared to reach from the nobles to the Privy Council.
If he chose assassination, it was not an entirely impossible assumption.
“Ha, ahahaha, ahahahaha. I cannot beat this.”
When I answered him calmly in response to the Duke of the East’s final show of force—‘Do you want to fight?’—he finally began laughing heartily.
“I would be honored.”
Unless he intended to assassinate Her Majesty, the Duke of the East was choosing a course that would bring him little political gain. Concerned by that possibility, I made a counterproposal.
It was not one he could simply refuse.
“I will think about it. You can give me that much time, can you not?”
“I would like your answer before the coronation. It is proper to make the announcement at the coronation.”
“Still, you are not seeking to claim the titles of Guardian of the Holy Land and Administrator of the Crossroads. Is that right?”
The authority was mine. What use were titles?
“Her Majesty is lonely. If she takes her cousin as an adopted daughter, she will surely devote ample attention to her as the kingdom’s new Princess.”
He changed the subject to make a point, so I changed the subject and made another point in return.
“Do you not think it cruel to take a nursing infant from her father?”
“If you have a son and let him inherit the Eastern Kingdom you will seize, while your daughter inherits this country, then you will be the royal father-in-law. What is cruel about that?”
He had pretended to seek the greater good, so I smothered him with an even greater good. At a loss for words, he hesitated before asking:
“Do you truly intend to send me on an eastern expedition?”
“If the justification is to expend the Lion Unit, there is nothing better. If not an eastern expedition, then you mean to expend them against rebels. If the Duke of the East lost the Lion Unit to mere rebels, that too would make you a laughingstock to the world.”
The Duke of the East was quite flustered, but he had fundamentally taken the wrong justification.
In truth, retaining or coaxing away the Lion Unit had been a show of force from the start.
I had thought that, in order to seize actual power, his strategy was a certain boldness: acting without thinking. But now that I saw it.......
It seemed he had simply done whatever he wanted.
He stood in a position where people had to interpret even his whims politically, saying, ‘The Duke must intend this.’ And so he had literally done whatever the fuck he pleased.
“Hmm.”
“At the coronation, based on this discussion, I will announce one of three things: the Lion Unit’s return, a succession arrangement through Her Majesty’s adopted daughter, or the Duke of the East’s departure on an eastern expedition. Well, then.”
“Lord Protector!”
“I will give you time to think about it. Consider it. Ah, and.......”
***
“What happened.......?”
“Should you not have cut him down!?”
Just from the Duke of the East’s face, flushed red and blue, it was possible to guess that the grand compromise had failed.
The blunt minds of his accompanying knights envisioned something different.
The Grand Duke of the North had only been the kingdom’s greatest prodigy ten or so years ago, when he was still an adolescent. Ever since losing one eye, he had avoided taking the vanguard and become a coward.
By confronting him head-on, they believed their lord could readily obtain what he wanted from him.
But since the Duke of the East’s expression was poor, they could not accept it and began making even more hard-line remarks.
“Do you think he is a man you can cut down?”
“You only held back because it was the Sanctuary, did you not?”
Among those who followed the Duke of the East, the more extreme ones wanted to depose the Regent, strike him down out of the blue with a mace, seize the regency, and gradually strip the Queen of her authority.
They feared that the North would turn against them, but they argued that the northern people revered strong warriors. With the Duke of the East’s martial strength, the North would submit easily.
The northern people would not serve someone who could die from a single blow of a mace.
They considered it the simplest way, and one that might not even split the kingdom.
‘Ignorant fools.’
But the Duke of the East ignored them.
“Be quiet.”
“Your Grace!”
The two knights were loyal enough to disregard their own lives, having volunteered for an operation that required only a few men to enter the royal citadel. But that made them short-sighted and radical.
Having followed him here at the risk of their lives, the Duke of the East could not dismiss them entirely.
He revealed the opinion he had long held about the prudent Grand Duke of the North.
“Do you think Dragon’s Eye is a nickname given for no reason?”
“He lost one eye, so he gets by with the remaining one....... Was it not merely a flattering phrase because he is a noble?”
“He can see the future.”
“Pardon?”
Only then were the two knights who had been egging him on dumbfounded into silence.
‘Tch. There is no way they would know.’
It would be hard to believe.
The Duke of the East had heard several prophecies from a witch of eastern nomad descent.
Even though her first prophecy had come true exactly, he had not completely trusted the witch.
Nevertheless, he had taken measures concerning the rest of her prophecies because he had not been without a lingering doubt.
Not only did the witch’s second prophecy—‘The King will draw his last breath the very moment he passes thirty years of age.’—come true, but she also got his private affairs right, though no one could have known them.
He had begun to fear it inwardly.
He had gone to find the witch and heard several more things from her. Her counsel had been as follows:
‘It would not be right to make an enemy of the Grand Duke of the North.’
‘Why is that?’
‘The Grand Duke of the North can see more distant affairs of the world than the likes of me, as well as the future. Dragon’s Eye is not merely an empty reputation.’
When he heard that, it truly did make sense.
The Grand Duke of the North bore the legitimate surname of the northern family, but as a member of a cadet branch, he had been no more than a knightly boy from a separate baronial house.
Yet after the Late King recognized his valor and promoted him, he had achieved countless military merits and risen at once to the family’s direct line.
Less than three years after being selected as a knight, he had been appointed to manage the North.
Under him, the North’s population had grown greatly and its soldiers had become strong and fierce. His accomplishments were endless.
He had lost an eye and his spouse, yet that very period marked the point when he began to display every quality of an excellent statesman and general.
Improvements to unheard-of systems and technologies, along with his political and military strategies for seizing key points that could become wartime strongholds—none of it was ordinary.
“If you will forgive my presumption, do you truly believe the witch’s prophecies?”
“The Grand Duke of the North’s achievements so far would be even more astonishing if one did not believe he was a man who knew what came next.”
As a provincial commander, a lord who was the king of his own region, the Grand Duke of the North’s abilities were extraordinary in every respect.
It was easier to think that he possessed transcendent abilities.
‘If his politics become more stable, those who oppose the Queen’s rule will diminish, leaving no opportunity except through extreme means. Rather than wait for that to be proven, take his side and secure a title and a promise.’
“A king ruled through a Regent cannot lend you his authority forever. If you compete for the throne, the nobles beneath him will not be your enemies.”
Instead of the prophecies and advice running through his mind, the Duke of the East used bold words to reassure his men.
But what if the Grand Duke of the North had known even these circumstances and thus acted so forcefully without seeking a political compromise?
He could not shake that suspicion.
‘If that is so, can he even read the path a sword will take in the immediate future, or something like that?’
‘I do not know swords, so I cannot speak rashly. But have you not felt something yourself?’
“......Hah.”
His subordinates had proposed the extraordinary policy of beating the Grand Duke of the North to death and seizing power, but even that was not easy.
The memory of crossing swords with him told him so.
‘If he knows every attack and strategy, how in the world can I face him?’
***
“It seems he has an adviser.”
The Duke of the East had detained the Lion Unit and even drawn the suspicion of the Late King, who had withdrawn from the front lines of politics.
I had assumed he was merely charging ahead without seeing even an inch before him, but this was becoming interesting.
It had gone very well, in that he had done no more than press a political demand based on the fact that Her Majesty had no official heir.
“If he accepts any one of these proposals, there will be no reason to clash with him for the time being.”
If he accepted even one of the three proposals, there would be no reason to conflict with him for some time. That would greatly help stabilize both the kingdom and the Regency government.
If I could not make him cooperate with Her Majesty, I could at least give him a pretext, send him on an external expedition, and expend him without causing disorder.
But.......
If that did not work, I would have to eliminate him by branding him a traitor to the state, for Her Majesty and for the country.
“Your Highness, what is the matter?”
“I apologize for the late hour. But I need you to do some work. Convene the Privy Council urgently.”
I immediately summoned the liaison officer on night duty at the royal citadel.
I intended to swiftly turn my meeting with the Duke of the East into a matter of state.
“......Do they think I’ll kill them all just because I summon them at night?”
I summoned them to arrive by dawn, yet while it was still dark, every minister who entered the Privy Council chamber had brought guards with him.
They must have thought I would kill them.
If I wanted to kill them, I could gather the Privy Council unarmed and strike their vital points with royal documents bound into books. There was no need to go to such lengths.
“What is the matter?”
“Do not be so guarded. I am not purging you, so have your attendants withdraw. The Minister of Justice has fled, so we can pin all the blame on him. Why are you so afraid?”
What timid people.
After urgently convening the Privy Council before dawn, even the Archbishop—who did not seem to need sleep—was nodding off while pretending to recite prayers with his eyes closed.
It was remarkable how he was plainly dozing while pretending to recite a prayer under his breath. No wonder he had become the bishop who oversaw the holy site, the Cathedral of the Chief Disciple’s Martyrdom Site.
“Wait just a little longer. If you are short on sleep, you may rest.”
The Foreign Minister, the Minister of the Interior, the former Minister of Military Affairs, the Archbishop, the Chief Justice of the Royal Court of Justice, the Director of the Royal Mint, the Administrative Officer, and the captain of the capital guard had been summoned.
At first, their faces were full of concern. Then they began to doze, yet they were still filled with fear.
The only one not afraid was the Archbishop, who mumbled to himself as he dozed.
“Your Grace, he says he will come.”
“It was an imposition, but I am grateful.”
The liaison officer had much to do.
“May I ask what this is about? Ah!?”
“Who is it? Hmm!?”
Behind the liaison officer stood the Duke of the East, whom I had spoken with in the Sanctuary late that night before sending him to his lodging.
“You have come?”
“How could I not?”
That the Duke of the East was cooperating to this extent was astonishing.
Calling him out after waking him at dawn was not proper etiquette.
Especially not for someone who deserved as much ceremony as the Duke of the East.
‘There’s surely some internal problem on the eastern side. Perhaps the rebellion isn’t as trivial as it appears?’
From the beginning, I had sensed something strange about how a robber holding a gun seemed to be begging for a thousand won. It seemed my feeling had been right.
This was no different from accepting the orders of the Regency government. He simply did not have the leeway to oppose it.
“The Duke of the East?”
The expressions of the Privy Council ministers who had kept one foot on the Duke of the East’s side—or had been sending word to him outright—were a work of art.
Even the Archbishop’s eyes went wide.
Then, despite having held a discussion with the Duke of the East in the Sanctuary only that night, I shook his hand and bowed at the waist as though I were seeing him for the first time.
“I am truly grateful that you came. I heard the eastern rebellion was severe.”
“Could a younger brother fail to attend his elder brother’s funeral?”
Aside from that, the Duke of the East’s shameless skill at shaking my hand and acting as though we had just met was rather impressive in its own way.