The Vastness of Magical Destiny

The Royal City was suffused with an atmosphere of sorrow and tension intertwined. His Majesty the King had passed away yesterday; the great Kasan Romanov, His Majesty the King, had finally reached the end of his glorious life and ascended to heaven. His prolonged coma, however, meant that he left not a word regarding the matters of his succession. Perhaps he thought he could awaken, perhaps he believed he had made adequate arrangements, but the workings of the world often do not comply with people’s wills and desires.

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In the Kingdom’s Parliament, a strong sense of confrontation filled the air. No one could have anticipated that selecting a successor from among His Majesty’s heirs could be so difficult, marking the start of an unprecedented complicated situation for the Romanov Dynasty.

According to common sense, the regent should be the undisputed choice for the next king, but what caused the nobles and gentlemen such a headache was that this time around there was a distinct lack of final legal authority; the King had verbally expressed to some noble ministers that His Highness Prince Hoffman should be the regent, but there was no decree in written form to officially proclaim this, sparking legal disputes. The King’s passing without ever awakening only muddled the controversy further, with some even questioning whether His Majesty meant Prince Hoffman as a temporary regent rather than his successor, otherwise, there wouldn’t be an absence of both a public announcement at the nobility’s council and a written decree solidifying it.

Komer sniffed the glacial lily petals in his hand, their faint strange scent rendering them unsuitable for perfume. Komer, however, enjoyed this uniqueness; things too commonplace only served to confuse.

The ongoing debate in the Parliament was expected by Komer. If significant contention arose, then the successor to the throne would need to win over two-thirds of the noble votes. Expecting the support of the Four Great Lords and the vast majority of the Great Aristocracy of the Royal City, Hoffman hadn’t anticipated the need to determine his fate in this manner. To his surprise, the Star Chamber Judges ruled by a vote of five to four that his regency, lacking written proof, was temporary and could not be used as grounds for his direct succession to the throne.

This verdict immediately stirred up a storm in Jazair City. The Middle and Small Aristocracy, already in support of Katya, united against Hoffman’s succession. Even among the Great Aristocracy, who were supporters of Hoffman, cracks began to show. The Star Chamber’s verdict made them aware of the intrusion of unexpected factors and realize that the contest for Royal Successors might not be a simple feud between siblings Katya and Hoffman. The complex web of forces behind them gave noble families, originally opposed to Katya out of sentiment, cause for hesitation, as they wondered about the potential consequences of their staunch opposition.

The fervent actions of merchants and financiers hinted to nobles closely associated with Mathew and Tez, the two influential ministers, about their inner inclinations. Nobles attempting to garner the support of the three great legions were met with firm resistance from Mathew, who clearly stated that the army would never interfere in the internal affairs of the Romanov Royal Family. This made the timid nobles sense the looming clouds of civil war. Some Great Aristocrats began to recruit private soldiers and slaves, menacingly declaring their intent to use blood to cleanse the filthy lands in the kingdom’s central-west, targeting the strongholds of the Middle and Small Aristocracy.

The intense disputes began soon after the burial of Kasan was arranged. Without the support of the Star Chamber, Hoffman was forced to rely on the vote of the nobles to determine if he could ascend directly to the throne. Even up to the last moment before the vote, Hoffman firmly believed he could easily win over the vast majority of the noble votes, for the combined votes of the Middle and Small Aristocracy and the Star Chamber Judges were far from reaching a third of the total votes.