Chapter 202: Rushed Coronation
"Alright. I know that it is tradition to wait longer, in order to give our allies time to send ambassadors, but we will treat this as a delayed coronation on the original invitations.
As if the Traitor Prince had never set a trap for his own countrymen." Viscount Boscom declared.
The other Dagos Nobles needed some time to process this information. It was normally a week long huge event for a new King to be coronated. However, under the circumstances, it wouldn’t make sense to drag it out like that, even if their major cities weren’t surrounded by a Cygnia Army.
Finally, one after another, they fell to their knees and placed their hands over their hearts as the foreign Royals moved to the edge of the room.
"Long Live The King!" They chanted in unison, and then the new Duke of Albroles entered with the Royal Crown.
"It’s the crown! The actual crown. I thought it was lost?" Dominic heard some of the Nobles muttering.
The Second Prince winked at him, and Dominic understood what was going on.
He had killed the previous King, and taken the crown for himself, until such time as he approved of a new King of Dagos.
The Duke came forward and placed the King upon Viscount Boscom’s head, then bowed to the new King.
"From today forward, the reign of King Gustav the Ninth begins. Let the commons know, the new King declares a public holiday for the next five days." The new King declared.
The Nobles cheered, and King Gustav removed his outer coat, replacing it with Royal Robes suited to his new station.
Then, he made his way to the balcony, and motioned for the staff to light a packet of paper that was sitting by the fireplace.
Thick purple smoke began to billow out of the chimney, easily seen from anywhere in the city.
The first stop was the balcony near the throne room, for the Nobles who were not privy to the ceremony itself. Usually, that was due to space concerns, but today it was mostly the wives and children of the Nobles in attendance who first saw the new King greeting them before he moved to the main entrance of the Albroles Palace and waited for his advisors to begin the ceremony.
"Today is a glorious day for Dagos! King Gustav the Ninth has taken the throne." The chief advisor declared.
Then the new King stepped out onto the balcony, and Dominic tensed, prepared to block the first attack that came his way.
"Let me." Prince Alex whispered, stepping in front of Dominic.
It would be a much stronger statement to have the Prince of Cygnia protect the Dagos King from traitors than some Royal Advisor.
Predictably, the first attacks came from Albroles Palace Guards in the courtyard, who suddenly turned and fired arrows at the King. A King who simply raised his hand to stop the others from cutting them down where they stood.
They were more valuable alive for interrogation.
But to the Commoners standing further away, it looked like the King had stopped the arrows himself.
It wasn’t unheard of for Dagos Kings to have magic of some sort, but Viscount Boscom hadn’t studied as a mage, as it had fallen out of fashion a generation ago in the nation.
The two guards were quickly captured, and didn’t even try to resist as they were restrained.
Dominic knew that they would likely have a suicide pill on them, to escape torture. But it made a good show for the crowd that they were taken away alive and intact. A show of mercy by the new King.
"My people, I know that hard times have come to Dagos, famine, plagues, loss of trade, high taxes to pay for wars. But soon, that will begin to change.
The Crown has developed better relations with our neighbours than our predecessor, and we will soon have an announcement that will bring not only peace, but prosperity back to both the commoners and Nobles of Dagos." King Gustav declared.
That was a grand claim, but the words were being repeated through the crowd.
The King had a plan to deal with the shortages.
A plan that didn’t involve them paying more taxes to absent Nobles.
That was hard to believe, after all that they had been through. But if the new King said it during his initial speech, it should hold true for at least two years. That was the custom for all Kings before him.
From behind the King, Prince Alex slyly handed him a large bag.
Dominic wasn’t sure what that was about, then King Gustav opened the bag and began throwing silver coins into the front garden, while the commoners cheered and rushed forward to try to catch them.
It was absolute chaos, as he was throwing silver coins.
But, it was custom, and if the Cygnia Prince hadn’t handed him the bag, it would have been a smaller bag of copper coins that went ’to the poor’, as the tradition was officially a gesture of caring for the downtrodden.
The new King had a rather impressive throwing arm, Dominic had to admit. Some of the coins were making it more than twenty metres back into the crowd, so not only the group who rushed forward first were getting paid.
Dominic noticed that the King tucked the bag under his robes long before it was empty, likely saving some of the money to pay the Albroles Palace staff and guards.
It was clear by the response of the people and the state of hospitality in the Duke’s estate that there wasn’t any spare coin to go around.
The King returned into the Palace after a few minutes, and the Nobles followed him back to the throne room, which was being quickly renovated to suit the presence of a sitting King.
"Send out the announcements. I expect all Titled Nobles here within the month to swear fealty. We should know fairly soon which ones are still loyal to the crown, and which ones have chosen to rebel." The King declared.
There was definitely going to be a civil war, Dominic decided. Prince Kaizon and his faction wouldn’t tolerate a demand of that nature, or that the Royal Signet and Crown were in the hands of another.