Quickly, everyone found themselves to be tongue tied. What else could they say when the queen consort made such a threat? And yet to give up so soon felt wrong, Duke Doug Maximus decided to speak up, damn the consequences!
"Queen mother.." he started in a subservient voice as he stood up, "I apologize for speaking up. It is not my intention to question your authority but we were all under the impression that we would be discussing how the crown prince and princess have decided to overturn everything and establish a new form of leadership that we are unfamiliar with." He looked around, glancing at the those that remained. "We are royal relatives and we support them in their course to develop Eldoria, however we are feeling left out.
Of all the ministerial positions that have been assigned, we got none. Even this ministry of defense does not fall under the stewardship of one of our own."
"You want to hand over armies to you all." Roland cut in, raising his eyebrows. His voice held a threat within that delivered his suspicions to the other royal relatives quite clearly.
mbers of the royal family with armies to command were unsettled royals. In the old days when a king made such a move, it often resulted in soone usurping the throne. The battles were never ending because they all had a bit of power.
What king would sleep comfortably at night knowing that he had a brother or cousin with an army of ten thousand ard n and money to finance and feed it?
"Your words make curious your grace." Sigrid smiled unnaturally. Her eyes were very chilling and they warned him to tread carefully. "I seem to recall a certain royal relative that raised an army and rebelled this year. What are your intentions your grace?"
Between Roland’s angry eyes, Sigrid’s chilling ones and the Queen consort’s disappointing ones, Doug felt the urge to bite his own tongue.
"I was just making an example I do not an that I want to raise an army to rebel." Doug nervously said.
"You are not satisfied. Unsatisfied n tend to have the worst ideas. Hunger can drive them to steal that which does not belong to them." Roland said cryptically.
In his words was a hidden accusation: You seem to have great ambitions.
Lord Doug who was sweating profusely now looked around, hoping that soone else would chi in and save him from the ss of words he had vomited out but nonody did. They further averted their eyes from his, leaving him holding a ticking bomb alone.
The Queen consort’s laughter suddenly sounded in the room, drawing all eyes from Doug to her. "I bet you wish that you did not intervene and stopped from bringing this family to order." She said.
Doug sat down and folded his arms. He was feeling regret for standing up for a bunch of cowards. He had misspoken but in the end, the point he was trying to make was for their sake. How could they hung him out to dry?
"May I say sothing grandmother?" Roland asked.
"Of course child." She answered. It would give her a mont to sip so tea and clear up her throat.
Roland stood up and looked at his relatives. "I have assigned these positions to the people that are best suited for them. I have no intentions of giving you all positions of power just because you were born in the right family.
That said, there are so positions that were reserved for so of you. I am going to make it clear that when you go to work, you will be a servant of the people, not a mber of the royal family.
Anybody that uses their identity as a royal to abuse their post will be fired imdiately. When your face ends up on the news, with your na being dragged through the mud for corruption of any kind, I will not step in to save you."
He ignored the delight in the eyes and gestured at the herald to hand in the docunt he had co with.
"When I read your na, stand up and receive a docunt from the herald. It has all the information on the positions you will be assigned and the duties expected of you. For your information, Sigrid and I are teachers. It is not a must for everyone here to hold a position of power.
There are other noble callings that you can undertake like a doctor, a nurse, a teacher, a prosecutor, an ergency responder, a researcher. Other professions include architects. We are rebuilding Eldoria, we need talented people in that field. We need inventors, counselors, diplomats, judges, police n and won." He looked at them, one by one, hoping that his ssage would get across.
"Even if you choose to be a singer like the three beauties or an actor, actress, poet, author....whatever you wish, I will not stop you. It is my hope that as Eldoria changes, you all change and dispose of your old way of thinking."
"You should listen to him." Sigrid pitched in. "The dorian royal family was almost entirely wiped out by a society of mages in the dark. The regent that has power today is soone else.
Half of the people that were loyal to the forr emperor have been removed from their positions. To be a royal is to have a target on your back from enemies inside and outside. If you are greedy for every position of power that target becos bigger because the words tyrants start to travel.
The people withdraw their love and support and then you wake up under siege with people cheering your downfall. Dynasties change all the ti...today you may be royal and tomorrow you will not be. It is important to have a usable skill as a backup."
So of the royals had beco pale, others seed unbothered and half were listening keenly.
Roland stepped in and said firmly, "I intend to bestow so positions of power on commoners. We are going to introduce a royal examination. The rewards for the top three every year will include money rewards, positions in the governnt and tax breaks. I am ntioning this because I do not want to hear about this greed for ministerial positions or other positions ever again. If anybody wants to climb the ladder, they should study hard and take the royal exam like everyone else."
After that, he read the nas of ten people that would be granted positions in the governnt. Only two were ministers. Lowell Maximus was a minister for sport, tourism and heritage.
Es Maximus was a minister for won and gender equality. Others were made deputy pri ministers, permanent secretaries and national security advisors.
Roland took his seat and gestured for the Queen consort to continue. Her first order was for them all to clap for the crown prince and princess and then...she called Es’s na and pointed her in the direction of the servant with an envelope. "Elowin Thorin is a wonderful match for you. He is also a mage so we are guaranteed to have a generation of Maximus mages."
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