Chapter 110: No More Caution
In a private room in the royal palace, two young men were seated opposite each other around a grand meeting table. This room is the Council Room, the place where the King holds his Privy Council with his advisors: the Court Wizard Lord Benedict Morgan, the Prime Minister Lord Alister Grayson, the Industry Advisor Lord Julian Moore, the Steward Lord Alexander De Clare, the Military Advisor Lord Henry Marshall, and the Spymaster Lord Lucius Black.
Aside from them, there were two chairs for Queen Margaret and Queen Janette, but no third chair for Lady Shuhya, the King’s third, yet most powerful, wife.
As these seats were reserved only for the top brass of the Empire, not just anyone could sit in their place. But right where Lord Alexander and Lord Lucius would sit, their firstborn sons occupied their seats—namely, Richard Marshall and Edmond Black. The two were set to inherit their fathers’ positions; unlike the rest, where the competition was fierce over their house positions, those two were the first to secure themselves one way or the other. Richard, the only son of his father, while Edmond did fully resolve the inheritance by winning a family competition. Aside from them, even the Crown Prince, Prince Liam, isn’t the most apparent heir just yet, especially with the rise of the other two princes, Adam and Thomas, sons of Queen Janette.
Nothing was as expected in the Royal Palace. The power shifts inside its walls would stir storms on the outside, and even though everyone and everything in this place looked exquisite and elegant, they were nothing but rabid dogs that would gnaw on each other the moment they smelled weakness.
Part of the reason why Edmond and Richard were here was for that reason. A weakness has been exposed, one that can be fatal to everyone, and it felt like needles poking through their hearts at the moment.
To those who follow him, Crown Prince Liam is an incredible young man. While his mother is the first Queen, someone with strong backing and position in the palace, he is her only son, and he keeps himself in power despite having four other half-siblings from the second Queen.
The eldest son of the King was the late Prince Charles, who died a few years back due to an unfortunate accident. As he was Queen Janette’s eldest, she made everything revolve around him and managed to birth three other siblings, two boys and a girl, whom she tied together with marriages in powerful families to support Prince Charles. The Moore’s daughter was supposed to be the Crown Prince’s betrothed, while other houses like House Morgan and two other noble houses were tied in the affair.
And the rest is known: Vivian was to be the Princess Consort because of that old alliance. Prince Liam never cancelled the marriage, which was to his advantage like no other, but in the last year in the academy, he started dating Matilda instead of Vivian, whom he coldly ignored.
Still, Prince Liam had the apparent heirs of the great houses in his pocket and the position of Crown Prince as his rightful title, since he is currently the eldest male prince. While Queen Janette tried her best to shift all the support Prince Charles had to Prince Adam, the latter was too young and hadn’t even entered the academy just yet, whereas Prince Liam had displayed many achievements so far.
It has even reached the point where Prince Liam started assisting the Bureau of Security and the Royal Knights in catching traitors and insurgents, especially the group that was discovered lately that had its roots extending deep among members of the nobility.
With every achievement, the Prince’s faction became more powerful and reeled in many nobles to its cause. Rather than doing something really big and remarkable, Prince Liam’s idea was to create a network of small favours to keep a steady supply of small achievements, which eventually led to his current-day activities.