The Crown's Seduction-Chapter 376: Line of Succession

Ahmed casually sipped on the fresh blood on his cup as he let a wide smile form on his lips. He was currently alone with his thoughts, and right now, all he could think about was the fact that he was about to become king.

He was utterly unchallenged now. No one from the royal family had a claim to the throne aside from Raul, and only the firstborn son of the king or a pureblood vampire son had claims according to Valcrez’s Law. Since all of Arturo’s still living offspring were not pureblood vampires, the only ones left were purebloods from powerful clans such as their Clan.

With Haman dead, only Milo, Exordium Leona’s pureblooded son from the Braun Clan, was left. But since the man had no intentions for the crown, he wouldn’t pose a threat to Ahmed’s claim no matter how much he tried.

The Braun Clan had an unshakeable loyalty to the Ichor Clan for years. They wouldn’t simply accept the current status quo in terms of him being crowned king. But they would fight him for all that they were worth if only to not lose their current standing in the court and the kingdom at large.

Well, unfortunately for them, they already had too many supporters riding with them for this exact moment.

"Ah, you finally came, Lady Eva," Ahmed casually greeted. "I hope your journey went well?."

"It was pleasant enough," Eva casually replied as she sat on the nearest empty chair. "Where is Lady Sage?"

"She will be here momentarily," he stated. "There were still a few... creases on the plan ahead. She’s making sure that everything will go down smoothly later on."

Indeed, his mother was currently doing some last minute talks with some of the court officials to see where their loyalties truly lay. They needed to have at least fifty percent of the majority vote later on once they fielded their proposal, and they didn’t need the vote to fall through right at the very last step of their plans.

"I see," she replied, her eyes narrow with suspicion. "Shall we wait for her then?" fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com

"There is no need. We can start our discussion with just the two of us," Ahmed smiled. "So, with King Nikolai dead, and King Raul imprisoned, Valcrez needs a new king to sit on its throne. I’m sure we both know how such a topic is currently hotly debated among us."

"So it would seem," Eva tersely replied. "What are you implying?"

"For one, I’m merely stating that for the kingdom to survive, a strong leader should be the one to take the throne," Ahmed explained with a soft smirk. "With no apparent heirs from the Ichor Clan to take the throne, the line of succession is currently broken."

It was exactly the one situation that he had been working to achieve. There was simply no way for him to slot himself into the line for the throne without getting rid of all the possible candidates for succession. And with Nikolai and Raul now out of the way, he now had a straight shot at truly claiming what was rightfully his.

"You’re playing your hand for the crown then," Eva stated without even so much as a second thought. "You want to be the one to fill in the gap."

"I haven’t said anything of the sort," he easily declared despite his wants being clear in his eyes. "Still, if that’s what it looks like, then yes, that’s exactly what might happen later. Of course, I want your support should it happen."

Eva blinked at him in deep thought. Clearly, she was trying to see if there was more to what he said prior. Unfortunately for her, that was all he really had to say to her. Although...

"If anything, how about something to sweeten the deal?" he eagerly offered with a slimy smile. "Once I become king, you will be the benefactor of the new rule. Your clan will be greatly rewarded, and those that might have wronged your clan now will be investigated for any sort of wrongdoing that they may have done under Nikolai’s rule."

"I... So you say..."

She fell further into deep thought, seemingly thinking over his offer far more than anyone would ever do so. Despite this, Ahmed couldn’t help but smirk at what he was seeing. There was no way that she would ever say no to such a deal, especially after everything that had happened.

"You guarantee that those involved in killing Haman would be persecuted?" she carefully asked.

"That and more," Ahmed responded with a faint smile as he leaned forward. "There will be nothing standing in the way between you and your justice. Just support my claim later during the meeting, and I shall see to all of your issues with the old rule once I’ve established power."

Eva opened her mouth to speak, but she quickly closed in favor of letting out a small sigh. Then, she looked him in the eye and gave him a nod.

"Very well. So long as you can guarantee those terms, then you will have my support," she firmly stated.

Ahmed grinned as he replied, "Excellent. I’ll make sure you won’t regret this."

"Then in that case, I should go ahead and make some talks of my own," Eva said as she stood up with a soft frown. "I better make sure to cover all of our bases instead of simply waiting here for the meeting to pass."

"No, that won’t be necessary."

Ahmed’s voice quickly carried through the room, stopping Eva before she could stand up from her seat. Watching her turn around, he gave her a knowing smirk as he casually lounged on his seat without a care in the world.

"Everything’s going according to plan," he smugly explained. "I know for a fact that there will be no one to challenge the claims, let alone even attempt to stop us from doing anything we could ever want."

Indeed, there was nothing anyone could do now. He all but had the majority of the votes he needed for later. Now, all he had to do was play to the crowd and let nature run its course.