Chapter 314: Siblingship Responsibilities
Iondora imperial family, within itself, was run with a unique, not found anywhere else, ’balance’.
There were four big powers in the palace. Three if you ask which ones actually mattered, and two if you asked why.
The most obvious one was the lineage and full imperial influence of the Iondora Imperial Family. Who had full control over it? Correct. The Emperor.
The man whose portrait hung in every administrative building, whose signature authorized taxes and executions, whose violet eyes had watched decades of courtiers dance their desperate dances.
Zircon Iondora, author of his own mythology, believed himself the sun around which his court orbited. This belief was, like many beliefs held by emperors, simultaneously true and irrelevant.
The second, not that obvious but big enough to be impossible to ignore at this point, was Angela Iondora’s influence and power. Again, she wasn’t called La Vixenette Princesse for no reason.
Her grip on people, her knowledge of what everyone wanted, her control and manipulation over them all... it was all impressive. Revealed after the scandal she let spread that resulted in her imprisonment, because of course she had let it spread and Angela did not make mistakes.
The third, the one who used to be the second before the reveal of Angela’s power and influence, was Concubine Vera’s Leclerc Ducal Family.
This power had also replaced the Empress’ Beaumont Ducal Family power in the past the moment she passed. Yes. The Beaumont Ducal Family, Damon and Angela’s maternal family.
So, what do you think was the fourth power in the imperial family?
Correct.
It was Damon June Iondora.
Not the answer you thought? Well, it wouldn’t be the answer anyone would think either.
Not the replaced-in-rank Beaumont Ducal Family’s power, but just Damon June Iondora. Just the Crown Prince. The "just" doing extraordinary heavy lifting here, the diminutive that contained multitudes, the particle that concealed an empire.
Like Angela, Damon of course had his own power and influence too. Of course, not as sophisticated. Not as spread thin into all aspects of society, but more... unique.
Where Angela was web-like, sticky, interconnected, visible only when you were already caught, Damon was load-bearing. Invisible until removed, at which point everything collapsed.
The Crown Prince... Damon, was like the twin power of the Emperor. He was like the other emperor. No. It was as if there were two empires that were the same empire, but one of which ruled completely by him.
The metaphor buckled, failed to contain the reality of two sovereignties occupying identical coordinates, superimposed like images in a defective stereoscope, producing depth through contradiction.
Yes, true, that this was only possible because he was the son of the emperor and all. This grip upon the throne that was unquestionable, even before he became the emperor himself, and even with the literal emperor still there and taking full control, was only because of his status as the crown prince.
But you know the difference, right?
The difference between a crown prince who ruled because that was his destiny, because he was inheriting his father’s order and rule, and was most expected to be the emperor one day...
...And a man who was respected and feared as he was also the emperor of the same empire that had the same ministers, the same aides, the same military, and the same people.
An emperor ruling in the same yet alternate dimension, adjacent yet wholly united empire.
To expand on this, ministers would regard Zircon’s order as ministers to emperors would. But immediately looked at Damon’s reaction and subtle direction to check if there was something that needed to be adjusted or changed.
This double-take of power that confirmed whether this was real, was this permitted, would I survive this, was common nowadays. They would still comply to Zircon’s specific order, but they’d also know that regarding Damon’s preference was as important.
Was it appropriate to say Damon was the shadow emperor, controlling from the dark, and Zircon had become his puppet?
Yes. But not really. Zircon still had the reins, completely. But was it influenced? Nobody knew. Likely not. Because was Damon the kind who would need to influence his own father to get what he wanted? No.
Influence implied effort, implied negotiation, implied that the other party’s will required consideration. Damon simply... existed in parallel. He did what he wanted. And even the emperor, his father, unconsciously coexisted with that.
Damon Iondora had been the emperor for a long time now. But Zircon, also still the emperor, didn’t notice.
No one noticed.
Yes.
No one realized how strong Damon’s grip was upon the empire already, even just as a crown prince. The performance of difficulty, of instability, of the monster they feared, it was curated.
Each murdered maid, each public tantrum, each violence constructed the shelter within which his real power operated, invisible and unchallenged.
So, that was why, despite already having this much grasp upon the empire, he was still going to get assassination attempts from the ignorant parties.
Like his step-mother’s family power’s party. The Leclercs, poor things, playing their games of succession, positioning their Vera, promoting their Reginald, never understanding that the throne was already occupied by two and they were petitioning at the wrong court.
Not like it’d do anything to him, though.
So, what did this have to do with Zircon Iondora’s assassination?
It was everything to do with his assassination.
Four powers. Three that mattered. The Emperor, Damon, and Angela. But two if you asked why. Because without Angela and Damon, the empire and the emperor in adjacent might not have that much power and influence anymore.
Zircon and Vera still believed they had their powers. They still did. But it didn’t matter anymore. It hadn’t mattered for a long time now. Damon just made sure they didn’t know. His performance was the key that concealed the functional necessity.
That was why to both Damon and Angela, the life or death of Zircon Iondora... never mattered.
The empire they had built in parallel would persist, the ministers would continue their double-takes, the orders would flow from sources that official geography could not locate.
So.
At this point, you’d understand that in this world, only the two of them were able to kill the emperor, or decide whether killing him was necessary or not, right?
One time, it might. An hour later, it no longer did. The privilege of absolute power was in the option, after all.
The continuous present tense of capability that made murder unnecessary and therefore possible, decorative and therefore real, available and therefore, perhaps, already exercised, already concluded, already confessed in the space between "it wasn’t me" and "so it must be him/her."
But.
"Alright, we’re accusing each other now. Do we agree that none of us did it?" Angela deadpannedly asked.
"I really thought it was you. That’s wild," Damon said, flat.
"Then... who?" Cecilia asked.
If the two of them genuinely thought the other was the culprit, then none of them was.
"Cecilia, honestly, if it wasn’t one of us, it should be you," Damon narrowed his eyes at her.
"Alright, what is the motive?" Cecilia rolled her eyes at him.
"Since you can assume that one of us might have an unknown motive you can’t possibly guess, so can we," Angela shrugged. "Who else can match us here?"
"You know what? Alright. I get it," Cecilia threw her hands up.
"None of your husbands did it?" Angela asked carefully.
Upon hearing the word ’husbands’, Damon inserted himself into the conversation immediately. "Husbands? Did I... Did I mishear—"
"No, Oathran was with me the whole time. Arkai won’t do it. Eastiel is busy warring with the Delaniv—" Cecilia’s voice continued, listing alibis.
"CECILIA?! HUSBANDS?!" Damon stood up abruptly.
Ah.
The crown prince who had literally controlled an empire with his performative whims had finally discovered that his sister’s friend had been constructing a harem.
"What even these bastards—how dare one share a lady—"
"Brother calm down. She loves them all."
"I love them all."
Cecilia and Angela synced, speaking from different positions and investments.
"Wha—"
"Sit down."
"Wait. Oathran is the name of the Dragon Lor—and Eastiel... Edengold?" Damon’s mind collapsed. Not just a regular harem, but a harem of legendary figures without his knowledge or permission, and without the basic siblingship courtesy of informing him that the game had expanded to include dragons?!
"CECILIA!"
"You’re not my/her dad!"
Cecilia and Angela yelled at the same time, the pronouns sliding and overlapping once more.
"BUT I’M HER BROTHE—TECHNICALLY IN EXTENSION—"
"YOU’RE NOT, SHUT UP!"
...
...
...
"Can we go back to your father’s murder, please?"
"DID THAT BASTARD ARKAI DAWNORO CORRUPTED YOU, CECILIA?!"
"AH, SHUT UP!"