The hastily prepared succession ceremony ended in an even more hurried manner, bringing unspeakable panic and chaos.
The new Emperor died during the succession ceremony, an event unprecedented since the founding of the Soma Alliance, lending a surreal color to the entire affair.
But no matter how surreal, it must ultimately return to reality, and the biggest reality problem is: what to do next?
A kingdom cannot go a day without a ruler. The Prince is dead, so who should succeed the throne next?
According to the law, the Prince’s offspring should inherit, but the Prince was good at everything except one thing – he wasn’t a philanderer.
The Prince was overly devoted to political tactics, carefully accumulating political capital through diligent work and achievents, unlike the flirtatious princes of so smaller kingdoms. As a result, at thirty years old, he had only one child, a five-and-a-half-year-old girl.
Five and a half years old? And a girl?!
These are practically two major denials.
At five and a half, she is too young to shoulder the responsibility of ruling the Alliance, and a girl inheriting the throne to beco Empress is even more contrary to consensus.
Thus, the successor must be chosen among the Prince’s brothers, of whom the Second Prince is the most likely candidate.
Aside from age, the Second Prince’s abilities aren’t weaker than the Prince’s; if he were to be elected, there would be no negative impact.
However... considering the Prince died in such a mysterious manner during the succession ceremony, nine tis out of ten, he was murdered. From the angle of the biggest beneficiary, the Second Prince beca the suspect – thus, his succession would not fully convince the people.
Then there’s the Third Prince.
But the Third Prince has always been frail and cannot even stand, how could he inherit the throne?
Overlooking the Third Prince, the Fourth Prince enters the picture.
However, upon closer consideration, the Fourth Prince also has a high suspicion of murdering the Prince. After all, the Second Prince’s benefits are too obvious; if one were smart, they wouldn’t act this way, thereby further suggesting the Fourth Prince is suspicious.
And to further, the Fifth Prince, Sixth Prince, and other Royal Family mbers, all beco suspects. Whoever is elected cannot truly convince the public.
In fact, Soma Alliance law describes such circumstances – this falls under a succession scenario where there’s a malicious assassination event, thus halting the sequential succession to avoid potential suspects from being elected.
Upon halting the sequential succession, the law should guide the Court Council to discuss electing a new successor.
However, two years ago, Alliance Emperor Peter Romanov disbanded the Court Council due to "national treasury financial concerns," so presently there’s no Court Council responsible.
Due to Peter Romanov’s high prestige, the Court Council was always an institution of little use, and its disbandnt didn’t trigger protests. Who knew it would now create a stalemate – no one knows how to elect a successor.
This statent can also an: everyone has their thod of electing a successor and wants to use their thod to elect themselves.
The outco is that all successors refuse to concede to each other, leading private armies under their banners to fight, forces clashing, turning Shaya into a battlefield.
The upper echelon flipped the sky, and the lower layers were affected, the entire atmosphere of Shaya plunged into chaos. Prices skyrocketed, bakers reacted the fastest, with bread prices soaring three tis in just half a morning. Then, the panic spread from bakers to craftsn, rchants, coachn, and everyone else, turning Shaya into chaos within half a day.
And this is far from over; the panic spread from Shaya to surrounding areas, infecting the entire Soma Alliance with growing instability.
It’s worth ntioning during this process, the Sika Kingdom didn’t seize the chance to make any moves.
On one hand, the Sika Kingdom recently suffered a defeat and urgently needs to recuperate. On the other hand, the Alliance’s borders, along with military stationed at dozens of special guarding zones, remain orderly – even if the Sika Kingdom wanted to make moves, they probably couldn’t.
Lastly, Sika actually enjoys seeing Soma Alliance in such turmoil, as its chaos helps overshadow them, allowing for their developnt. If they rashly intervene, they might cause the Soma Alliance to sense a crisis, temporarily set aside conflict, and unite, which wouldn’t be ideal.
In such an environnt, the chaotic day in Soma Alliance’s Southern Capital Xia Ya quickly drew to a close, the sky darkened.
...
Night.
Inside the reception area of Shaya City, Richard’s residence courtyard.
Richard was in the study, doing the final touches on the "dium and Long-term Research Plan." Occasionally, he glanced out the window, faintly hearing killing and explosion sounds from the street.
Clearly, the darkness hadn’t lessened the chaos, but rather greatly intensified it – with the Prince dead, the Minister of Ceremony who presided over the succession ceremony was identified as having murder suspicions, thrown into prison, and tortured to death. Many others involved in the succession ceremony were then purged, impacting the reception area.
Admittedly, neither the Minister of Ceremony nor the batch of people who made the greatest effort during the succession ceremony would murder the Prince. However, other princes’ forces wouldn’t consider this; they just sought a reason to clear obstacles.
After clearing the Prince’s residual forces, the remaining princely forces entered a phase of mutual confrontation, either launching large-scale offensives, or going all out on defense, or forming alliances and rivalries from afar – trying any possible thod to defeat opponents and win ultimate victory.
Richard wasn’t too concerned with these matters; he was more worried about the materials in the Royal Library.
Speaking of which, only a few hours remain until the deadline promised by Alliance Emperor Peter Romanov – surely he won’t default, right? If so, he might need to consider going to the Royal Library himself.
With this thought, Richard finished the final touches on the "dium and Long-term Research Plan," laid down the quill, and tapped on the table.
"Tap, tap..."
Wondering whether to sneakily "retrieve the item" or do it openly? Or perhaps notifying Oscar, to have him accompany and demonstrate he only wishes to fulfill the contract, without extra malice?
"Knock, knock, knock."
Soft knocking sounds at the door, recognizing the sound as a Servant, not Bi Bi.
"Co in!" Richard responded.
Sure enough, the next mont a Servant entered, reporting: "Sir, Lord Oscar has arrived, wishing to visit you."
Oscar ca... visiting... could it be delivering things, sparing him the trip?
Richard looked at the Servant, simply saying: "Lead to see Mr. Oscar."
"Yes, sir." The Servant led quickly out.
...
Reviews
All reviews (0)