Queen Maker (10)
Days later, I sat at my desk staring at a single blank sheet of paper.
The decision and all preliminary preparations were finished. I was simply envisioning the consequences before committing them to writing.
Until now, I had never directly turned my blade against the imperial administration itself.
The North had possessed a clear pretext for rebellion. Kayan had been a matter of persuasion. Gartrina involved diplomatic correspondence. Perlin had been a simple audience. Even the crown prince had received nothing more than a meeting.
I had arranged everything so the edge of the blade always pointed elsewhere.
The moment I laid hands on the imperial administration, I would cross the line.
Once that line was crossed, the border lords whose loyalty to the empire ran deep would waver. No matter how strong I was or how firmly I controlled the military, I could not deal with every one of them scattered across the realm.
That was why I had hesitated to cross it until now.
Yet if I intended to claim the throne, crossing this line was only a matter of time.
Reclaiming the throne would take at least several months. In that interval, Perlin and the crown prince would attempt something. The result would be a messy, muddy struggle.
Therefore, even if it meant overreaching politically, I would move quickly.
I would bind their limbs and control every variable. Then, step by step, I would build the road to the throne.
The backlash would be mine to bear.
“Haa……”
I exhaled slowly.
If I could not even manage this much, I should never have spoken of replacing the throne in the first place.
I picked up the pen and began writing the order on the blank page.
While I wrote line by line, the sound of the library door opening reached my ears.
Creak—
The princess entered.
I set the pen down for a moment and rose to greet her.
“Welcome, Your Highness.”
“Good morning, Arsens.”
It had become an ordinary morning by now.
The princess was heading toward her usual seat when she noticed my desk and paused.
“Your desk is empty today.”
“It will soon become busy.”
She looked at me and asked,
“Is this related to the authority over the imperial conference you requested from me yesterday?”
“Yes.”
“……You will be quite busy.”
Wearing a worried expression, the princess began her work. I finished drafting the order and summoned my adjutant.
“Adjutant Raylin.”
Raylin, who had been waiting outside the library door, entered at once.
“Yes, General.”
“We will be busy from today onward.”
I spread the three orders in a row across the desk. Raylin scanned them in a single glance.
“Take them.”
The first order reorganized the command authority of the Capital Guard and the Imperial Guard.
“……General. Even the Imperial Guard?”
“Yes.”
“That falls under the crown prince’s direct authority.”
“By custom, yes. However, the Imperial Guard was originally the emperor’s military force. While His Majesty remains bedridden, it must serve the entire imperial family, not function as the crown prince’s private army.”
“But……”
“Of course, given time, authority will naturally shift back toward the crown prince. Still, even for a short while, we must seize the crown prince’s means of armed force.”
The second order transferred partial approval authority within the Palace Ministry to the princess.
“This…… lies outside the military’s jurisdiction.”
“I know.”
“The Palace Ministry concerns internal imperial affairs.”
“That is why it is issued under the princess’s name. The formal structure remains intact. With Kayan in place, it will not be rejected.”
“……Understood.”
The third document was the summons for the imperial conference. Raylin drew a short breath.
“You intend to convene it yourself, General.”
“I am borrowing the princess’s authority.”
Raylin fell silent for a moment. She accepted the third order and neatly organized the documents.
“General.”
“Speak.”
“If you proceed with all of this simultaneously, the backlash will be considerable.”
“It will.”
“The military is solid enough that it poses no issue, but the political sphere will see unrest.”
“I know.”
“Will you still proceed?”
I paused with the pen in hand.
“Time is the variable. I must quickly bind the crown prince and Perlin. That is all that matters.”
She asked one more question—the first time she had ever inquired about me personally.
“General…… will you be all right?”
“I will be.”
The moment the crown prince and Perlin were bound, protests from the border lords would begin arriving, and political attacks within the capital would intensify in earnest.
If the princess ascended after enduring that trial to the end, we would succeed. If not, I would have no choice but to mobilize the military for a true armed rebellion.
Chaos would accelerate.
Yet unlike the past, when I had controlled only the military, I now possessed a measure of political ground. This level of risk was manageable.
“Understood. I will proceed.”
Raylin bowed her head while holding the three orders.
“As quickly as possible. Submit any matters requiring your approval without delay.”
“Yes.”
She left the reception room. I stared into the empty space above my now-bare desk for a moment.
This was the first time I had made a move without certainty. Even so, I felt no fear.
#
At that same moment, three gears began turning simultaneously within the capital.
An order of transfer arrived at the office of the Capital Guard commander at the northern gate.
The commander read the order once, then twice, and only on the third reading did he slowly rise from his seat. He gathered his seal and sword and placed them on the adjacent desk.
The handover was brief. There was no protest. The order had promised ample compensation, and refusing General Berhardt’s military command was impossible.
Next, the order reached the Imperial Guard headquarters. Even with some forces dispatched to the North, the Guard’s scale remained substantial.
The order stated that the Imperial Guard would be placed under temporary control for the purpose of reorganizing authority.
The Guard commander stared at the document for a long time without speaking. Still, he possessed no grounds for refusal. The crown prince was not yet emperor, and the fact that the crown prince had controlled them until now had been a matter of custom.
At the Palace Ministry’s chief steward’s office, notice of the changed approval line arrived. Part of the documents that had previously gone directly to the crown prince would now pass through the princess’s name.
Because the chief steward of the Palace Ministry was Kayan, the matter was handled smoothly.
Finally, the summons for the imperial conference was issued—not in the crown prince’s name, but in the princess’s.
The moment the summons reached the officials, the same murmur spread through every corner of the capital.
“……The princess has convened the imperial conference?”
No one in this generation of the capital had ever heard of the princess directly summoning the imperial conference.
“This is……”
A few quick-witted individuals began to grasp the direction of events. Tension settled over the capital.
#
The crown prince’s office.
Leon Nathaniel entered his office around evening. As usual, he picked up his pen to handle the approval documents.
Yet the number of documents on his desk was less than half the usual amount.
“……?”
A servant placed several reports on the desk. The crown prince read the first one.
It reported that part of the Palace Ministry’s approval line had been transferred to the princess.
“When did this begin?”
“This morning.”
“On whose initiative?”
“Her Highness the Princess and General Berhardt.”
The crown prince unfolded the next page.
It concerned the reorganization of command authority over the Capital Guard and the Imperial Guard. Authority over troop deployment had been placed under temporary control.
The crown prince’s hand trembled slightly.
“Even the Imperial Guard.”
“Yes, Your Highness. The stated reason is the restoration of the Guard’s original duties.”
The final page.
The crown prince’s hand stopped at the edge of the report.
The summons for the imperial conference. Two days later, in the Grand Conference Hall of the capital. The agenda concerned the safety of the imperial family and an investigation into Perlin Claire. The convener was Princess Luen.
“This is……”
The crown prince slowly set the report down on the desk.
The authority he had believed remained in his hands had vanished within a few hours—without a single word of notice.
Since when has it been like this?
In two days, the imperial conference would convene.
Without his name or consent, and with Perlin’s name included in the agenda.
It had only been possible because of the princess’s legitimacy, General Berhardt’s military power, and the rapidly growing number of people supporting them.
The crown prince’s gaze left the report and drifted to another spot on the desk.
The remains of a broken sword lay there—the one General Berhardt had shattered that day. The crown prince had kept the fragments in that exact spot ever since.
They were cold.
He toyed with the broken sword for a long time. Then he tried to summon Perlin.
“Call for Perlin.”
“Your Highness, Lady Perlin Claire is currently in the communications room. It will take some time.”
“……Communications?”
“Yes. I heard it is with the Tower Master.”
The crown prince’s hand stopped.
The Tower Master was a card Perlin had cherished deeply. Under normal circumstances, her contacting him without informing the crown prince would have been displeasing, but there was no time to dwell on it now.
Still, the fact that she had played this card without prior notice weighed heavily on him. It felt as though even Perlin had begun walking her own path.
“……”
Today, Arsens Berhardt’s hand had broken not a sword, but the crown prince’s authority. He wondered what would break next.
The throne.
At the thought, Leon Nathaniel gripped the broken sword fragments with sudden force. Blood seeped from his palm, yet he felt no pain.
“Luen……”
The imperial conference Luen had summoned felt like the date of his own execution. From this moment on, that time drew steadily closer.
He had to struggle with everything he possessed in the short time remaining. He could not accept a quiet execution.
He would gather every card he had left in order to survive.