Nexer Palace, in the House of Lords.
There was heavy rain outside, thunder roared, lightning dazzled, and a scene of the end coming, and all the members of the noble council in Rentat had gathered in the semi-circular hall, with a white hair cover and a black cloak.
If it weren't for the great power of natural lightning, the strong people below the Golden Knight would not dare to brave the lightning and thunder to fly quickly, I am afraid that there would be a rare scene of all the people in the noble council, and at this time, it was only an hour before King Feltis and Prince Patrick were summoned by the Lord.
Of course, those nobles who could not make it also knew what happened from their spokespersons and allies in Rentat through remote contact methods, and conveyed their opinions.
At this moment, they were unprecedentedly grateful to the "Alinge Telephone and Telegraph Company", although the "cable telephone" they promoted was still in a state of loss due to the complex and heavy infrastructure construction, and was still limited to the capitals of Rentat and several other counties, with an installed capacity of less than 500 doors, but in this weather, it was a rare communication channel for the nobles who could not arrange and use expensive teleportation arrays.
"How could His Highness the Prince be called by the Lord?" Count Haisong took a hot bath in the lounge of the House of Lords, changed his clothes and hair cover, and then got rid of the shock and unthinkable state, wearing a white paper flower on his chest, while sitting in the first row, asking James, Duke of Peforth, Duke Russell, and Viscount Harrison, who hurried after notifying the Magic Council.
The four of them were the leaders of the enlightened faction except for Prince Patrick, and at this time, they had to communicate well in advance and not engage in internal strife, otherwise they would easily lose confidence in their nobles.
Duke James also wore a white headband in the House of Lords to cover his bald head, and he said gloomily: "I don't know, it was already like this when Russell and I rushed to Nexer Palace. We have examined His Highness the Prince's body and found no abnormalities, it is indeed excessive grief that has caused the already weak body to collapse, and I don't think anyone will be able to assassinate him under the protection of His Excellency Ketonia."
"Heart of Time" Ketonia is one of the two epic knights in the Kingdom of Holm, and no more than five knights in the whole world can reach the legendary level three, he and Rudolf II belong to this rank, as for the epic knights who have reached the peak of legends, except for Prince Dracula, the prince of the abyss, the lord of the first level of hell and other "monsters", there is only one among humans, the head of the Knights Templar, a member of the Cardinal Order, St. Melmos.
It is said that there will be no assassination under the protection of Ketonia, but there is no certainty on James' face.
"Your Excellency Ketonia is a hero in the Dawn War, an epic knight who worked with the former king to defeat the rule of the magical empire in the Holm region, but he is already very old and is about to reach the end of his life, and there will be more things to consider and arrange than ordinary people." Duke Russell said expressionlessly, "He is not as able to quietly observe the situation like His Excellency Winston of the Sorenfinn family."
Winston "Nightwalker" is another epic knight of the Holm Kingdom, and currently rotates guarding the colonies won by the Kingdom in several xenoplane spaces.
Viscount Harrison sneered: "Anyway, I don't believe that His Highness the Prince will die of excessive grief for His Majesty the King."
Harrison, Haisong and others knew that Patrick had been in the position of crown prince for thirty or forty years, and it was inevitable that he would have a conflict with the king's rights, and the relationship between the two sides had long been discordant, especially after their ideas were very different.
"Things have come to this point, we need to get rid of the sadness and do two things, one is to secretly ask the mage of the Magic Council to investigate the truth about the prince's death and take the initiative for the future, and the other is to start a backup plan to fully support David on the throne." After Count Haisong calmed down, his blue eyes became sharp again.
Patrick had been in poor health, and they enlightened nobles had long been prepared for his death before the king, so they were at a loss after a short period of panic.
Although he had died in an adventure, under his influence, the great knight David was completely enlightened in his daily life or territorial matters, and in the eyes of Duke James and others, he was the most suitable candidate among the royal family.
"Okay." Duke James nodded heavily, his mouth kept opening and closing, and conveyed the results of the discussion to the other enlightened nobles.
After a while, the Speaker of the House of Lords, "The King's Griffin" Rex, wearing a black cloak and a white hair cover, walked in, followed by a black-haired man with a warm smile and a bland smile, his silver-gray eyes clearly told everyone that he was a member of the Hoffenberg family.
"Gordon!" Count Haisong and other enlightened nobles stared at each other.
Duke James's face was ugly as if he was about to drip water: "Didn't he declare that he would serve the Lord for life? Didn't he quit the Knights of the Sword of Truth and went to the holy city of Reims to join the Knights Templar?"
"A level eight heavenly knight who is less than fifty years old, the torn sword ......" Duke Russell and Viscount Harrison said to themselves with solemn expressions.
The entire hall suddenly sounded a commotion, and other nobles, whether enlightened or conservative, couldn't help but talk to each other, this Count Gordon was a genius and outlier of the Hoffenberg family, he became a knight of the sky at the age of thirty-five, and was appointed by King Feltis as the deputy head of the Knights of the Sword of Truth, with high hopes, but he was a devout believer, and at the age of forty, he went to the holy city of Reims and joined the Knights Templar.
His kinship with King Feltis is much more distant than that of David, but the rank of the Sky Knight is enough to make his succession soar, almost in the first order like David, and although the Hoffenberg family is not prosperous, most of them are either more estranged by blood or not knights, and it is difficult to compete with these two people, or they have entered the path of magic and automatically give up their qualifications.
Duke James and others initially thought that Rex would lean towards his nephew, Alex, who had just stimulated the bloodline of the "Sword of Truth", and when the time came, whether it was the strength of the knight or the distance of the blood relationship, David would succeed to the throne without suspense.
The sound of the hammer hitting in front of him sounded crisply, and the hall of the noble council suddenly became quiet.
Rex drew a cross on his chest and said with a mournful face: "Our great King His Majesty Feltis and His Royal Highness Crown Prince Patrick were called by the Lord one after another an hour ago, let us observe a moment of silence for them, and bless them to receive the Lord's favor on the Heavenly Mountain."
James and the others all stood up, drawing crosses and lowering their heads, and the atmosphere was quiet and mournful.
Five minutes later, Rex, the speaker of the House of Lords, motioned for everyone to sit down, his eyes toughened: "Since he is the first heir to the kingdom, His Royal Highness Crown Prince Patrick has also been called by the Lord and has no heirs, so according to the code, our House of Lords will elect a crown prince, and the selection criteria will be based on the order of succession and the blessing of the Lord."
The so-called "blessing of the Lord" means that the cardinal presides over the succession ceremony.
Rex did not let the nobles speak, but first pointed to Gordon next to him and said: "The royal family of Holm has suffered such a blow, and it is a time of turmoil, so Count Gordon is determined to put his family first, ask for the Lord's understanding, withdraw from the Knights Templar, and return through the church's teleportation array. He is a level eight heavenly knight, in his prime, and a pure 'Sword of Truth' bloodline, I propose that he inherit the throne, please raise your hands and vote."
"Wait a minute." James stood up and said in a loud voice, "In this case, according to the code, the consent of more than two-thirds of the members of the council must be agreed, and the nine dukes have no objection, and the elected person can inherit the throne, Speaker Rex, is that so?"
Rex looked at James with gloomy eyes: "Yes, no, when the other elected candidates cannot get more than one-fifth of the votes, the remaining one does not need to meet this condition, and in an emergency, the person who gets more than half of the votes can directly obtain the inheritance, I believe it is an emergency now, and the throne cannot be vacant for a long time."
"Whether it is an emergency or not, you don't have the final say, everyone needs to vote. Now, I have elected Earl David, who is closer to His Majesty the King, and is far ahead of Earl Gordon in terms of succession order, and he is a great knight, which has stimulated the power of the bloodline."
James did not take the stage to speak, but looked around at the other nobles directly on the spot, "I don't think any member of parliament will oppose the order of succession, right? Who made the demonstration first, so when his son and grandson inherit the title, can other more powerful candidates in the family also invoke this example and snatch the title?"
This is the basis for the noble class not to collapse, which nobleman does not want to leave the title to his direct heir? If you are strong, you can snatch it, and the family has long been assassinating and fighting each other!
Of course, this is one of the reasons why they are attached to the church, an independent and strong church can ensure that no one relies on strength to ignore the law.
A conservative nobleman stood up and saluted everyone very gracefully: "According to Article 7, Paragraph 6 of the Inheritance Part of the Code, 'Bloodline ability is the foundation of noble status, and strong strength can be used as a reference for the order of succession', I won't say much about the specific calculation method.
"Moreover, Earl David's father was a magician, and we have to consider whether he can receive the Lord's blessing."
Concise and concise, it completely dismantled James' attack.
Count Haisong stood up with a quill pen, also bowed gracefully, and then said: "The father is a magician, it does not mean that the son is not a devout believer, Earl David has never missed a service, often donates to the church, and everyone knows his piety, I believe that the Lord will be able to see and tolerate. There are many magicians in the Night Watch team who have repented and taken refuge, aren't they? And Earl Gordon once joined the Knights Templar, and in the future, it is hard for me to believe that he will put the interests of the Kingdom of Holm and everyone's interests first, this is not blasphemy against the Lord, but a confusion between divine power and royal power."
At this time, he didn't care about tactfulness and nakedly opposed the divine power and the royal power.
Gordon raised his hand and smiled: "Guess is not evidence, I believe I will look at the issue of nobility from the shoes of King Holm, not the identity of a Templar."
Enlightened and conservative nobles stood up one after another to express their opinions, and finally, Rex said: "Next, please vote, please raise your hand in favor of Earl David."
The sparse arms are raised, which seems to be a small number, but it is a third of them, and the enlightened faction is smaller than the conservatives, but they are more united.
This made Rex frown, unable to use the first special clause, after thinking about it, he continued to moderate the topic: "Please approve of Count Gordon's raise of hand."
With his arms outstretched and seeing that more than half of it was not a problem, Rex began to think about how to pass the state of emergency motion.
Suddenly, the raising of the arm stopped, stopping nearly halfway, Rex looked at Duke Sorenfinn in astonishment, and shook his head when he saw him with a black mustache, saying that he would not support a candidate with too strong church colors, and as a major leader of the conservative faction, his attitude directly affected a large part of the nobility.
Duke James laughed: "Speaker Rex, it looks like we are going to have a long discussion and consultation."
With Duke Sorrenfinn's hesitation, he was sure to get Gordon out through mediation.
Rex fell silent, looked at the mallet in his hand, and suddenly, he raised his head: "I propose another candidate."
He originally wanted to make Duke Sorenfinn and others agree to his proposal through the urgent situation, but their stubbornness was beyond imagination and they could only use alternatives.
"Who? Who has a higher order of succession than Earl David and Earl Gordon?" Duke Russell expressed his opposition.
Rex said calmly: "Countess Violet Natasha Owit, inspired by the 'Sword of Truth' bloodline, has a kinship with His Majesty the King and His Royal Highness the Prince more than Earl David, and she is also a heavenly knight and a devout believer, and can receive the blessings of the church."
Sweat, almost 4,000 words, a little late, sorry, sorry.
(End of this chapter)