Chapter 348 - 348 Talks Of Succession

After his sudden and violent test of his loyalty to Mrazivý, followed by the subsequent apology from her brother and sister who had set it up, Marcus sat back down, and put a hand on Mrazivý's shoulder.

He could tell she was a moment away from snapping, and while he could not blame her, now was not the time.

'At the first sign of trouble with my little sister, I shadowed her for two days in my ghost form, and investigated her friends, and took care of her biggest bully. I can understand where they are coming from, so try not to be too mad. Okay Mraz?' Marcus said to Mrazivý via his telepathy to try to calm her down a bit.

And luckily it seemed to have worked well, since she took a deep breath, before seriously looking at her brother and sister, and said, "I get why you did it, but please never do something like that again."

Having handled things calmly, Mrazivý surprised all of her siblings once again.

They were expecting her to start yelling, or maybe even to storm off but she had taken things quite well considering.

'It looks like that spirit has had a more profound effect on her than I thought.' Frostine thought as she saw how composed Mrazivý seemed thanks to Marcus' support.

Clearing her throat to get everyone's attention the sixth princess Maya, who had been pretty disinterested in the whole affair up to this point said, "Well now that the opening ceremony is done, can we get onto the main reason we all gathered here today. We need to talk about who is going to be the next ruler of the kingdom. A week ago, father told all of us that he is going to be announcing his heir at the kingdom's meeting."

Getting to the point that she had come here for, Maya was ready to get down to business and really had no interest in Marcus and Mrazivý's relationship.

"Yeah, Maya is right. We need to figure this out especially since Soith was recently disowned for trying to bring in assassins to kill James. Now we all gathered here because we are going to support James, right?" Braylen said, being another disinterested party to Marcus and Mrazivý's situation and being here for the talks of succession.

"I agree James is now technically the first prince since Soith is gone, and he is the natural choice to be the next king. He is strong, charismatic, and the people love him since his mobile sky knights have saved them from monsters, bandits, and even famine. There is no doubt that he is the best choice." Rhys said throwing out his support for his brother as well.

However, before things went any further, the person in question James raised his hand to gather attention towards himself and said, "While I thank you all for your support, I have actually already told father that I have no interest in becoming the next king. My place is out in the field helping people from the front lines. My sky knights need me to be their leader, and the citizens of this kingdom need the sky knights."

After he said this Maya and Braylen who were James' staunchest supporters stood up and looked at him with incredulous expressions.

"What do you mean James? Do you really not plan to take the throne? That means that Reigen is likely to become the next king, and while he is not as bad as Soith was, his ideas for the kingdom, could lead it to ruin." Maya said not wanting to believe that James would not take the throne.

"James if you do not take the throne, it is the people that you want to protect who will suffer. You know that Reigen is pro noble and with him as king, it is the commoners that will hurt the most. If he became king, the common people would slowly become more like slaves, and it is likely we would lose the support of the adventures guild under his rule. I know that he wants to make the kingdom more cohesive, but we all know that his plans are just too radical to work. I mean just look at the kingdom to the south. They have similar policies to what Reigen wants in place, and they are on the brink of a civil war." Rhys said trying to convince James not to cede his right to the throne.

Still James seemed stalwart in his position to not seek the throne, but to quell his sibling's worry said, "It is as you say. If Reigen became king, he would try to implement laws and polices that turned the common citizens into serfs and give more power to the nobles. He thinks that the freedom of our people has made us weaker, and that if everyone moved as a cohesive unit the kingdom would prosper. And while I do understand where he is coming from, I cannot agree with him. Nevertheless, I still have no intention of becoming king, but I have told our father who I think would be best to lead us. So, if you all were planning to support me, I would ask that you lend your influence to Frostine. I believe that she will be an excellent queen."

Having said that James gestured towards Frostine who was raising her head high and looking towards her siblings for support.

"I will back Frostine." Mrazivý said with no hesitation.

Naturally if her closest sister wanted to become the queen, she would give all of her support even if she was the least influential royal present.

"Very well if James will not be king, then Frostine is the next best choice. I will also support you in taking the crown." Maya said, getting on board the Frostine train.

Then one by one the other siblings that had come to support James agreed to switch over to Frostine.

"I thank all of you for your support. I believe that if we all work together, we can truly allow this kingdom to continue to flourish and grow to even greater heights." Frostine said after all of her siblings had given her their support.

Each one of them held their own positions in the kingdom and having them on her side made her bid to be the next ruler all that much stronger.

"Now there is only one person left who has not given me their support. Marcus what about you? Will you also back me to become the next ruler of Borealia?" Frostine said surprising Marcus who had refrained from entering the discussion so far.

He considered himself an outsider to this part of the meeting and had the opportunity present itself he would have politely left.

Yet now all eyes were on him, when he had not been expecting to have any input on who would be the next ruler.

"Let me ask you. Do you want my support as a Baronetess or a spirit?" Marcus said wanting to know in what capacity Frostine was looking for him to back her.

"Both of course." Frostine said without any hesitation.

She already could tell that Marcus was strong and having him on her side would be useful since she knew how much her father valued him.

"I will not support you publicly. I do not wish to get involved with the politics of this kingdom any more than I have to.. However, so long as Mrazivý is on your side, know that I am always behind her."