Chapter 423: The Heir

Chapter 423: Chapter 423: The Heir

The doors closed behind Gerard, leaving the council room considerably quieter than it had been for the last half hour.

Marius remained seated.

He had watched Gerard threaten everyone within reach, deny actions they had already traced back to his private communication network, and then leave believing Arik had finally backed down.

Perhaps that was the most dangerous thing about Gerard.

He could mistake survival for victory with remarkable consistency.

Across the room, Arik still stood by the windows. Snow moved slowly across the inner gardens beyond the glass, softening the roofs of the administrative buildings and gathering along the bare branches below.

Mezos had already reopened the security file on Gerard’s departure.

Severin returned to his chair without commenting on the fact that he had spent the morning physically delivering a foreign monarch to a meeting.

Cassian picked up his coffee.

Marius looked toward Arik.

"You asked me earlier how I would feel about becoming king."

Arik turned.

"I did."

"The answer is no."

Cassian glanced toward him with mild interest.

Marius leaned back and exhaled slowly.

"I know Lirya too well to think you can place me on the throne and have the country accept it simply because I have been holding half the government together for fifteen years."

"You would have support," Arik said.

"From you."

"That tends to be useful."

"It would also make me look like the adviser who conspired with Nuria to kill his king and steal his crown."

Arik’s expression suggested that description did not trouble him nearly enough.

Marius continued before he could say so.

"Gerard is loved."

Severin’s brows rose.

"He is."

Marius looked toward him.

"You have met the private Gerard. Most Liryans have not. They see the king who attends military commemorations, remembers enough provincial names to appear interested, funds public festivals and gives speeches about national independence. They do not see the man screaming at his staff because another country has better roads."

Cassian’s mouth twitched.

"An unfortunate weakness."

"Gerard is very good at making every success look personal, and every failure belong to someone beneath him. I helped maintain that for years because I believed protecting the monarchy protected Lirya."

Mezos looked up from his tablet.

"And replacing him with yourself would make you look like the ultimate failure of that loyalty."

"Exactly."

Arik crossed the room and sat again.

"So you have another proposal."

Marius reached for the leather folder he had brought earlier but had not opened while Gerard was present.

"There is someone with a legitimate claim."

He placed a photograph on the table.

The young man in it appeared to be around twenty-five, perhaps a little older, with light brown hair falling untidily across his forehead and a pleasant expression bordering on vacant. He was dressed expensively, but without taste, in a coat whose embroidery competed badly with the patterned waistcoat beneath it.

Cassian studied the image.

"He looks useless."

"He has worked very hard to."

That earned everyone’s attention.

Marius folded his hands.

"Gerard had two older brothers. Between them, there were three sons. This is Prince Lucien Ravel, the youngest and the only one still alive."

Mezos’s gaze sharpened.

"What happened to the others?"

"One died in a riding accident at twenty-one. The other from an overdose three years later."

"You believe Gerard killed them."

"I believe anyone close enough to the throne who looked capable made Gerard nervous."

Marius tapped the photograph.

"Lucien understood that before I did."

Arik picked it up.

"What is he actually like?"

"Far more intelligent than his uncle believes. Good with economics, very good with languages, patient enough to listen before speaking, and cautious to the point that it sometimes becomes infuriating."

Cassian smiled.

"And the idiot performance?"

"Started when he was sixteen."

Marius remembered it too clearly.

Lucien deliberately failing an administrative examination after scoring near-perfectly on the preliminary version. Pretending not to understand budget structures he had corrected privately the week before. Spending too much money on clothes, developing an exaggerated interest in horse racing, and allowing gossip columns to describe him as charming but hopeless.

Marius had helped.

He had redirected tutors, altered reports, and made sure Gerard regularly received enough evidence of Lucien’s incompetence to stop regarding his nephew as dangerous.

"He has spent almost ten years surviving by convincing Gerard he would never be capable of replacing him."

Arik turned the photograph slightly.

"Can he?"

"Not yet."

That was the problem.

Marius leaned forward.

"He has studied governance privately, but Gerard never allowed him meaningful responsibility. If the king dies tomorrow, Lucien has the strongest blood claim and none of the practical experience required to control the country afterward."

"You want to bring him here," Severin said.

"Yes."

Marius looked at Arik.

"I want you to take him into Nuria and teach him to rule."

Arik was silent.

Marius continued.

"He can work with Cyran. Sit through parliamentary sessions. Study how your ministries function, how provincial administration works, how your treasury is being rebuilt. Cassian can teach him more about surviving court politics than anyone alive, and you..."

Arik raised an eyebrow.

"You want me teaching restraint?"

"I want you teaching authority."

Cassian laughed quietly.

"That distinction may save the boy."

Arik ignored him.

"If Gerard notices what we are doing, Lucien becomes a target."

"Which is why we give Gerard the explanation himself."

That interested Arik immediately.

Marius opened another file.

"The marriage rumor."

Mezos looked toward him.

Marius continued.

"The story has already damaged Gerard internationally. He fabricated a political marriage involving the Empress Consort’s sister, and the evidence leads directly back to his private network. Release it."

"All of it?" Severin asked.

"Enough."

Marius looked at Arik.

"Expose the origin, the creditor-state media coordination, and Gerard’s role in pushing the story. Make it embarrassing enough that he needs to repair relations with Nuria publicly."

Cassian understood first.

"And his nephew becomes the apology."

"Exactly."

Arik’s mouth curved slowly.

"Gerard sends Lucien to Nuria."

"Officially, to represent Lirya and restore diplomatic relations after his uncle’s mistake. Perhaps a governance exchange. Perhaps temporary service with the Liryan embassy while studying Nurian institutions."

"While privately," Mezos said, "we prepare him to take the throne."

Marius nodded.

Arik looked down at Lucien’s photograph again.

"If Gerard dies before he finishes?"

"Then Lucien returns with Nurian support and a legitimate blood claim."

"And if Gerard lives long enough to realize what we are doing?"

Marius gave him a tired smile.

"You already told Mezos to make sure he does not reach Lirya."

Silence settled briefly around the table.

Fair point.

Arik placed the photograph down.

"I want to meet Lucien before promising him anything."

He reached for his comm. "Mezos, postpone the assassination, but keep Gerard under surveillance."