Chapter 106
Crown Prince Selection.
It had been briefly overshadowed by Arendtert’s engagement scandal, but soon the competition for the position of Crown Prince would begin.
The moment all princes were engaged, the selection automatically commenced.
In the previous life, even after Arendtert became engaged and later married, Euclid hadn’t taken a partner. Thus Arendtert became Crown Prince with overwhelming support.
But things were different this time.
Now that both princes were engaged, the selection would begin shortly.
The method of the Crown Prince Selection was simple. The prince with the most total votes would win, and those votes were divided into two categories: the Noble Council’s votes and the monster-hunting votes.
The Noble Council’s votes were determined by an internal vote among the nobles. The prince who received the most council votes won that portion.
Because the vote took place while the princes were away on a monster hunt, the hunt and the council vote occurred simultaneously.
The princes traveled to the Shastir Gorge to hunt monsters, and the one who hunted more monsters won that category. However, since the Maw of Shastir and the monsters’ base had vanished this year, another region would be chosen.
The final tally for each prince was the sum of the two scores.
But if, by some chance, the results were tied…
In that case, the High Priest, the Emperor, and the Empress each cast a deciding vote.
Thus, the Crown Prince Selection seemed simple, yet was full of hurdles to overcome.
“Your Highness will win more than a majority of the Noble Council’s votes.”
Gerard spoke with conviction. At his confident words, Euclid silently nodded. Gerard smiled at the prince’s cautious reaction.
* * *
“Crown Prince Selection?”
Elenia’s eyes widened as she sat propped up on her bed. She looked at Isidor and Sylaria and asked,
“Don’t tell me it already started?”
“It will begin within a few days.”
Sylaria answered with a gentle smile. After the meeting with Gerard, Euclid had begun preparations to depart for the monster hunt.
Every day he went to the training grounds, making thorough preparations alongside Morris.
“To think you’ll become the Crown Princess, Sister. It feels strange.”
“It’s too soon to say that. Nothing has been decided yet.”
“But His Highness the First Prince will become Crown Prince.”
Elenia said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Exchanging a glance with Isidor, she continued,
“Public opinion is overwhelmingly in His Highness’s favor. Right, Isidor?”
“The Second Prince is in such a state that he’ll struggle even to keep his current position as a prince, let alone become Crown Prince.”
Isidor replied with a gentle smile. As he said, Arendtert’s public standing worsened by the day. It had been revealed that the period when he claimed to miss Sylaria so desperately happened to overlap with the time he had taken Grizelle as a mistress.
At the time, his words had served as a perfect performance to elicit sympathy. But now that his hidden deeds had been exposed, it had become the worst possible move.
“I wonder how Grizelle is doing.”
Elenia murmured softly. Having nearly been poisoned by Grizelle, she had only recently begun to regain her strength, and Isidor was visiting partly for that reason.
Until last week, she didn’t even have the energy to hold a conversation this comfortably.
Sylaria quietly simmered with anger as she watched her younger sister, still unable to rise easily from bed. Grizelle had insisted she had done nothing wrong.
Would she dare say such things in front of Elenia, who was suffering like this?
But Grizelle would never see Elenia again. She was confined in the Second Prince’s Palace.
“Grizelle should have gone to prison. But the punishment she received won’t be any better than a prison.”
Sylaria said as she held her sister’s hand.
“Because Grizelle is living in her own personal hell.”
“Even though she became His Highness the Second Prince’s fiancée?”
Elenia looked puzzled, as if her sister’s reply made no sense. Sylaria smiled meaningfully.
“There’s no hell worse than that.”
She could swear to it without seeing it.
What had once been Grizelle’s ambition and desire, the position of the Second Prince’s fiancée…
Would now become her noose.
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