Chapter 20 – The New Duke and Duchess Evenhart

  Sifu:

  I was outside the mansion, ihrone room of the castle. The room was filled with the legacies, soldiers, and nobles residing in our vilge. Lady Margaery sat ohrone.

  "I sent the dot to the capital a few days ago. Soon, there will be an official reition of the heir Nathan Evenhart, and an envoy will e to firm," the Duchess announced.

  The people felt a sense of relief. No one wanted another war, especially oh our own people.

  "Are you sure this will calm things down?" asked Legacy Samantha.

  "It will... unfortunately, it will," said Lady Katherianding beside the throne.

  We've just added another heir into the mix. While we've quelled those who doubted having a female heir, we've merely divided the problem further. Who will the line of succession favor now? Will it be young Nathan or young Chloe? Those like the Wolves might still try to force a marriage... and worse. We may have just created another heir that aernal family could try to cim, someone even allied with the Wolves.

  If someoside our inner circle mao marry one of the two, we could face a serious problem sih are in the line of succession. Aernal family that marries in could want to test. Without an officially defined heir by the patriarch, the problem grows. Lady Chloe ied by being the only heir, but the bance of power shifts if the other heir is a male.

  None of us would dare attempt to divide ourselves, but the presence of two heirs could even fragment the Wolves' fa... the more divided we are, the worse it will be. The Wolves wanted Chloe to gain power. They inteo marry her to seize the Duke's title, but now there's nothing to stop another family in their fa with a daughter from doing the same and g Lord Nathan.

  We are weak and still rec. If we were at our peak, they would never dare attempt such a thing. We've lost our two best warriors, who were also excellent mages. Lord Ethan was a great offensive lightning mage, and Lord Erich was a great defensive earth mage. They plemented each other's weakhey were worth a thousand otlefield... even I couldn't defeat them if they used magic.

  Our queen may be skilled with a fused ice element, but we still lost two excellent mages, not to mentioher legacy family members... much of our army is gone.

  "Sorry to ask, but how does this help us? We've calmed the fa's nerves but added another person to the dispute," I said.

  "None of us here would dare to divide anization; our families have lived in this castle for turies," said Yusuf.

  The others looked at me, not uanding what I meant.

  Think more long-term, children...

  "He means another Nikous Wolves..." said Lady Margaery from the throne.

  Everyouro her.

  "At this moment, I hate to admit it, but we are still weak in numbers despite our power. They stayed out of the war and suffered no losses, while we... lost people we loved... and powerful ones. Sifu fears the Wolves' fa could split," Lady Margaery expined.

  The legacies stared at her.

  "I don't uand, how his fa split?" asked Samantha.

  "It's simple. Nikous's pn has always been to marry Chloe; there always o be an Evenhart ohrone. No one is crazy enough to ge that. The problem now is we have Nathan, who is a boy. Nikous no longer has the excuse of marrying the 'weak' heir to guide the regiohere's a male heir. With Nathan in the picture, what do you think will happen to the fa? They used the argument of marrying Chloe to trol the heir, but now there could be a division," Lady Margaery expined.

  Yusuf seemed to think.

  "What do you mean by division?"

  "The faight tih the same argument, but they could switch from trolling oo another," Lady Margaery said.

  "I uand... if that happens, Nikous is out of the running. He himself created a fa that supports the idea of marrying ao gain power... but now he may have created his own enemies," Yusuf said.

  "He gathered men who could steal his power. This fa was united in the goal of usurping power by marrying Chloe... but now they might ignore Nikous and try to marry Nathan to some heir they trol," Lady Katherine added.

  The legacies began to ponder.

  "There will be a dispute among them. Things will get worse... Nikous won't accept beirayed, and they'll destroy each other, and worse, they'll destroy part of our territory," Hugo said.

  Yusuf ughed and said, "Part of me would love to let them kill each other, but they'll do it by f their men to fight in our peaceful nds. There will be bloodshed, and such a war will further ruin our territory in crisis. How many roads will be paralyzed? How many crops will be attacked? How many rivers will be polluted? They'll destroy farms, vilges, and anything else in their path."

  Just as we were beginning to recover from one war... here es another.

  "Do we ask the kingdom for help to intervene? Although I think this fa will bme 'bandits'," Bonnie suggested.

  "NO! No intervention from the kingdom! I don't want them on my nd!" Margaery shouted.

  Everyone fell silent and serious.

  She took a deep breath.

  "We don't have a strong enough army to tain this, and our ey is still fragile. After losing so many water ah mages, we've lost our ability to create fertile soils and manage rge-scale crops with artificial rain... without many mages, we're having to do this manually. It's too early to risk an internal war that will only make things worse, and I definitely don't want to involve the kingdom," the queen said.

  Everyone looked down, refleg.

  "Then give the order and activate the Evenhart Legacy. Let's kill them," Hugo said.

  She raised her hand to stop him from speaking.

  "We 't solve things that way. I don't want to bee the tyrant who kills anyone who disagrees with me. We'll leave assassinations as a st resort... but don't think it will be easy. They have an army along with those families, and Nikous is protected by those soldiers. The problem is, we 't just go around killing him without a reason, or it will attract the kingdom's attention if suddenly all the nobles who disagreed with us died in 'acts'. Remember, these nobles also evade our choices, and the kingdom trols information on their whereabouts."

  "What do we do then? We 't assassihem due to the big show they've put on, which would draw too much attention, we 't move an army without increasing our crisis, and we 't let a possible dispute over the marriage of these two heirs happen," Hugo said.

  Margaery gave a small smile.

  "I thought of something that will solve all our problems. It will end the issue of those who think having a female heir is weak, it will end the problem of the marriage war over Chloe, and it will end the future problem of the marriage war over Nathan," Margaery said.

  Everyone looked fused.

  "And what magical solution is that?" Yusuf asked.

  "I will be marrying Chloe... to someone from a great and powerful noble family," she said.

  "Marrying? Weren't you against that sort of thing? And who would be worthy of the little princess?"

  Margaery smiled and cpped her hands. "I will be marrying our two heirs. Our Chloe and our Nathan will be husband and wife, and from today they will be Duke and Duchess. They will be like a single heir in a union that has never occurred in this family. By marrying the two heirs, I am resolving all the problems of their marriage disputes and sileng any argument for war. With this move, I will calm the lesser nobles outside anization while we save our precious time rec the authority of this nd aing us out of the mage loss crisis," the queen said.

  Everyoarted to think, and some looked at Lady Katherine, who seemed to agree.

  "Are you sure? They are cousins..." Bonnie asked.

  "And is that forbidden?" Margaery asked.

  Samantha let out a small ugh. "So everything was resolved with a marriage? In the end, this whole problem started because of a marriage and ended with one," Samantha said, ughing.

  "Why not marry them to some child from the vilge?" Bonnie asked.

  Margaery sighed. "If it was to save our family, I would marry Nathan to you, Bonnie..." Lady Margaery said.

  "Margie!" Lady Katherine excimed.

  Lady Margaery gave a small cough. "It was just a joke..."

  She averted her eyes from Lady Katherine.

  "But we couldn't just marry the heirs to anyone. We had to marry them to a h a name of greater impact. It had to be a noble whose name would silence all our oppos questioning the family marrying them. So I thought... they both have a great surname, why not?" she said, ughing.

  The legacies seemed to uand.

  Iing... marrying the boy to the girl. This will strengthen us and ehat no one from outside es to harm them in this dispute and still keep anization hidden.

  "And how did the two lovebirds react to this news?" Samantha asked.

  "We haven't told them yet, and I'll keep it that way. We have a lot to do, and I'm not ready to deal with my daughter yet... I'd rather torture someohan sole a sad child who thinks they're the worst person in the world."

  The discussion tinued about our moves.

  "I'm happy with this news; I focus on increasing our treasury aiating exports," Lionel said, ughing.

  We were getting ready to leave.

  "Now that this war will be stopped, I finally walk around peacefully," Hugo said, remembering when he was captured and tortured.

  It seems the little idiot who used to run away from my training has learo fend for himself.

  "It's not official yet. An envoy from the capital will e here to cheathan's lineage and personally firm the e with Katie and me. After that, the argument for marriage that kept that fa standing will crumble."

  We headed towards the exit.

  "I 't wait to go out and start killing bandits again. It's been a while since I've had any fun, old man," Yusuf said, patting me on the shoulder.

  "I don't know about you, but I've been having a lot of fun," I replied with a smile.

  "Really? You spend all day training a child. Aren't you itg to fight against real warriors?" he asked, ughing as he walked away.

  If he only knew what that boy is like... a true gem, a ureasure. I've never seen a child train so hard and have such determination. I'd rather train him until the st day of my life to unlock all the potential in his body.

  I left the throne room grinning from ear to ear.

  I've given the boy some rest, but I'll think of ways to make the training even tougher. Let's see how he ha.