Successorship Pt 1

This chapter's song is: Advice by Taemin! Please listen to this, it's amazing.

Sylvia's POV:

When you are a noble, it's natural for you to get engaged at a young age. Not many people have any problems with it and if they do, well then there's a law in this country where if you're being forced into marriage then you can seek refuge in the temple and they sort it out for you.

However, that's only for medium and low nobles up until a Count. For nobles higher than a Marquis, the Royal family takes care of it seeing as they have a bigger role in this kingdom.

The royal family is a broad term for who actually sorts out what. For unwanted marriages and family disputes to people with the status of a grand duke or higher, the King or Queen will deal with it. But for unwanted marriages and family disputes for anyone of a duke or lower, they shove it all to the Crown Princess. This can either mean the firstborn daughter of the royal family or... the Crown Prince's fiancee...

Family disputes can include fights over inheritance, divorces over affairs and illegitimate children.

In case you still don't understand the hint, I'm currently sitting in the lounge room in the Palace, listening to the daughter of a duke bawl her eyes out about her situation.

"Please help me your highness, my sister is trying to take over my family and sell me off in marriage," she weeps. I rub my temples as I sigh. To think that wanting to sleep in the morning after the Royale Debutante was this hard.

To explain, I was hoisted out of my bed and thrown into the carriage with Lillian, saying that I'm urgently needed at the palace. I didn't even have time for breakfast because I was trying to brush my hair and change clothes at the same time. I got ready in 3 minutes and 11 seconds, a new world record.

"Please breathe miss..." I drag on the miss in order for her to say her name.

"Rosetta... Rosetta Dalen Peremin, I'm the first daughter of Duke Peremin," she introduced herself finally after an hour of crying.

As I've said before, there is only one archduke currently in this country, two grand duke and there are three current Dukes. The colours representing the different dukedoms make up the colours of the Royal emblem.

Grand Duke Kagamine used to be the fourth duke of this country. It was Scilla, Kagamine, Calitos and Peremin. Silver, Gold, Emerald and Rubellite which is a pink gemstone.

Since Rin's family became a Grand Duke's family, they are no longer part of the four dukedoms. This naturally means that the other greedy nobles are looking to gain a higher title.

To explain a little about the social structure here:

In every kingdom, there is a certain way you can identify if someone is of a duke's status or higher. In our kingdom, we each have a specific colour and gemstone to our name. Our gemstone is actually Aquamarine which is a light blue gemstone. I think the reason why our gemstone is Aquamarine is that it's the lightest blue gem that stems a bit from silver. There aren't exactly many known silver gems.

However, once I officially marry Ace, my family will be promoted to a Grand Duke and our emblem will just be Silver, the same as Rin and Len's family which is just Gold.

The Royal family has no specific colour but their gemstone is a diamond because it is transparent and can actually show all the colours when light travels through it.

It's a sort of symbolism to show that they are the light to all the houses and they are the reason why the houses have their colours.

Our kingdom discerns our nobility with gemstone, Eccellia does the same thing but with flowers and I think Froslia does the same thing but with animals. For example, the symbol of the Froslian Royal family is a snow dragon. They engrave and embroider everything of theirs with their family animal.

I don't know what classing system Drogoria has, but I'll find out later.

Anyways, as I've said before, Hefelia's dukedoms can be identified by their family gemstones and colours. Since this is a fantasy world, your hair colour can be any colour of the rainbow and then some. Rosetta here has blonde hair with tints of pink. The pink shows the colours of Peremin just like my silver hair shows I'm from Scilla.

Now, onto the Peremins. As far as I know, the Peremin family head has just passed away two weeks ago and now there's infighting on successorship.

"Okay, please explain further," I say as I grab a pen and paper.

"My father has just passed away. I was so distraught by his death that I was crying throughout his funeral. But then, my sister ruined his funeral by claiming that she was the rightful heir to the dukedom. My mother was so weak from my father dying that she couldn't cope with my sister ruining his funeral, she fell ill," she says tearfully.

"But if you're her older sister then wouldn't you be the next heir?" I ask.

"No, not exactly. You see, in the Peremin family, we decide our heirs from the pigment in our hair and eyes. Whoever has the deeper pink in our hair and eyes would succeed the dukedom. My sister has very pink hair and eyes, so she was naturally one of the contenders to the throne. However, my brother also has pink hair and he's a male so the family is split into two."

"Okay, I see. I shall schedule a visit to the Peremin household soon, here's what I need you to do before that..." I whisper a few instructions before sending her on her way. When I finally heard her footsteps leave, I slump in my chair.

Fights over successorship are ugly matters. Just one greedy person can ruin everything a family has built and worked for.

I sigh as I look at my paper with different notes on it. Rosetta's story sounds like a typical successorship problem but I couldn't storm Peremin just yet. There were things I needed to find out first and I need to schedule a visit to Peremin 3 days in advance as part of noble etiquette.

As I sigh loudly, I hear the door open again.

"Anything you left here Rosetta?" I ask as I continue to stare at the ceiling. There was no answer.

"Rosetta?" I call again. The footsteps grew closer towards me and I look forward in confusion, there was no one there. Suddenly, two arms slid around my neck as a head appeared on my shoulder.

I half-smile at the identity of this intruder, running my hand through his hair.

"How are you, Ace?" I ask.

"It seems you like my hair more than me," he says.

"Well, it is a good stress reliever, like petting a dog. And I do have some stress that needs relieving," I say.

"Oh, what could possibly ail your poor mind my dearest fiancee?" He asks as he sits in the chair next to me.

"Oh you know, just another successorship fight, nothing new with these nobles," I say,

"I thought you said successorship fights can be entertaining."

"Not when I'm the one who has to sort everything out. It'd be much simpler if the people didn't cry and fight and argue over everything I say when I'm just trying to split the inheritance and leave," I complain.

"I can only imagine how hard it would be," he chuckles as he grabs a grape from the table.

"It is, and don't even get me started on illegitimate children. That just complicates things even more because 90% of the time, the children were born from common mothers so even if I can fight to give them some sort of inheritance, I'd be outmatched if I suggest they inherit the title since many noble families want a pure noble heir."

"Does that happen all the time?" He asks.

"It can differ. Last year I had to deal with Maquis Sharlet and his illegitimate child. The greedy bastard didn't want to pay child support or care for the kid and his noble mistress didn't want him either! I had to threaten to confiscate some of his lands if he didn't leave aside at least 10% of his wealth for that child's inheritance," I rant.

"And then there was another illegitimate child case six months ago with that Viscount Tuper! When his father died, he realised he had a younger brother! The old man was 60! He had an illegitimate child at 53 when his legitimate son was 34! The poor boy went through so much at only 7 when his greedy commoner mother wanted him to take over the household. I had to separate him from his mother in order to stop her from brainwashing him!"

"Oh my, and where's the boy now?" Ace asks.

"I put him in the temple's care for now. I'm trying to find a suitable place for him to live in but all his commoner families say they have their own children to care for already and he'd be a burden, his nobler families say that having him would be a stain on their family name. I even asked the boy what he wanted and he just wanted to be with his mother again," I say, quieter than my rant from before.

"And did he?"

"Not a chance in hell. That woman was a pure gold digger. As soon as I mentioned that there'd be no way he'd ever inherit any sort of title, she disowned him. I then punished her according to the child abandonment law and now she's spending the next three years in hard labour in the countryside, it killed me to have to explain to the boy that his mother abandoned him because of something as stupid as that."

"Is the boy still in the temple?"

"Yep, though I've asked Aiden to take him in as an apprentice or something at the Magic Tower. I heard the boy can cook so he may become the Tower's chef or something," I say.

"Do you think that the law should be changed so illegitimate children can inherit titles?" Ace asks.

"No, anything but that."

"Oh, and why not? I thought you didn't mind a half-commoner succeeding a title," Ace raises his brows.

"I have no problem with it. But seeing as almost all of the nobles who do have a problem with it, the law would soon be changed back because of the resistance. Having the illegitimate child clause in the succession laws already deters nobles from having any illegitimate children because they wouldn't want to pay for that child." I explain.

"If we made a law saying that illegitimate children can inherit titles, it would put their lives in danger by the actual heirs who want to get rid of them and vice versa, I've seen my fair share of overly ambitious illegitimate children who wish to do anything for the title," I say, thinking back to when I had to execute that illegitimate daughter of a Baron who was so greedy for the title that she schemed to kill her legitimate sister when she was only 6.

"So, how are you going to solve this problem?" Ace asks.

"For starters, I need to pass an official order as the crown princess in order to meddle in their affairs, then I need to issue a warrant which says that I can investigate the matter at hand without any limitations, and finally I need to ask a member of the actual royal family for permission to change the inheritance according to my judgement," I say as I list all the procedures that I have to do in order to even get started on the problem.

"That last one will be quite tricky, I think most of the royal family is busy," Ace feigns in ignorance.

"Come on Ace, don't make this harder than it needs to be," I say.

"I think the general rule in this world is give and take, what can you offer to me in exchange for my permission," he leans closer.

I lean closer towards his face. "Hmm, what would you like?"

Ace shrugs his shoulders. I'm so done with him teasing me. Ima do something that he'll never expect.

I grab his collar and kiss him on the cheek. His expression was priceless.

"Didn't expect that, did you. Oh my my my, how can the future king of this country be so flustered over a simple ki-"

Ace grabbed the back of my neck and pushed me towards him. By the time I processed what was happening, I realised Ace was kissing me.

My mind crashed. As Ace's lips moved away, I could see his very smug face.

"You'll get there someday, but not quite today," he says as he wipes his bottom lips. I could feel steam coming out of my ears as my face heated up.

Ace chuckled at me but I was still trying to reboot my mind. It wasn't until someone knocked on the door that I snapped back to reality.

"Your highness, there you are! You still have work to do!" Mason says as he walks in.

"All in good time Mason," Ace says as he stretches his arms.

"Oh, how are you miss Sylvia?" Mason asks me.

"Mm," I reply back, my hand touching my lips.

"Miss Sylvia?"

"Leave her for now Mason, she must still be tired from her Crown Princess work, let's let her rest," Ace lies.

"Oh, yes, okay. Let's go now your highness, there's still a mountain of paperwork to do!" Mason says as he ushers Ace out of the room after saying goodbye to me.

"He... kissed me..." I say out loud to myself. "On the lips... He kissed me... On the lips... On the lips... He kissed me... My first kiss..."

Finally some bloody progress with this couple! Next chapter is Sylvia's brother, look forward to it!