20: New Leadership

Bradford’s View

A group of palace guards had arrived along with a rather fancy carriage.

“Um… what do you mean I’m to become the new royal apothecary?”

“The new queen insists you are the only one qualified.”

“She said you’d recognize the name of Yamuna.”

“I treated a very ill lady named Yamuna. Has something happened to her? She disappeared a while ago.”

“She’s the new queen.”

“... I’m afraid I have a hard time believing this. Could you explain how this all happened? I may have been a bit out of the loop on current events. I’m busy making pills all the time.” 

“The former king saw her wandering the market and fell in love at first sight. He ran out to her and promptly got beaten up.”

“Hah! That was a wondrous sight!”

“Did the guards not protect him?”

“Actually, one of the guards killed him.”

“The other guards all killed the traitor though.” 

“That doesn’t explain how Yamuna became queen.”

“Well, um…”

“It was a council vote. The arguments went on for weeks, and finally they decided to make her queen.”

“That makes no sense.”

“Don’t ask me, I’m just a guard. I know fuck-all about politics.”

“This is why you never get promoted, Greg. None of the main houses are willing to let one of the other houses run things. They all wanted the old king gone, but none had enough support to take over. So they proposed putting in someone with no connections to any house.”

“That doesn’t explain why they chose her.”

“She has the mark of the phoenix.” 

“Oh! I see! Why haven’t they announced that yet? Having the queen bear the mark of the phoenix is a good omen!” 

“The announcement is planned for next month, during the Lunar festival. You’d know already, if you paid attention during briefings!”

“She had no mark when I treated her.” 

“You’ll have to ask her about it if you want to know.”

“He can’t just ask the queen!”

“If he’s the royal apothecary, of course he can. He’ll be in charge of monitoring her health!”

“Oh, right.”

…

Mr. Melborn’s view

“I’m sorry sir, we failed to save the king.” 

“It’s fine. We weren’t expecting an attack from one of his own personal guards. He hand picked those people himself.”

“Why didn’t you try to take the throne for yourself?” 

“I don’t have enough support. There’s too many families against me. Getting this woman with the phoenix mark to be supported as queen was enough of a challenge as it is. We’ll just have to convince her to take someone we trust as a husband, and then he’ll become king.”

“Likely, all the other families are plotting the same thing.”

“Yes.”

“How many died in this reorganization?”

“273 corpses so far.”

“Do we know what they were all after?”

“Too many different factions to be sure. However, I believe most of them were aiming to kill or capture the new queen.”

“Damn, just installed and already we’re having trouble keeping her alive. The fates must be crazy, placing the mark of the phoenix on her.”

“We did manage to over hear her say that the mark only appeared after being treated for illness by a doctor.” 

“Could the doctor have made the mark appear on purpose? Is this some new plot? Who is this man?!”

“I’m not sure, but he should soon become the new royal apothecary. We’ll begin investigating as soon as possible.” 

“Good, we can’t afford any more unknown variables. Really wasn’t expecting his own guard to betray him.”

“Do you believe in the phoenix mark myth?”

“Frankly, I don’t know what to believe. I’d assumed it was just a myth and that no such mark existed. However, she displayed it for everyone to see at the council meeting. Supposedly, anyone with the mark is blessed by the heavens, and destined to rule. Whether this claim is true or not, that mark was a beautiful thing.”

“You sound envious.”

“Hey, if I could get a tattoo that awesome on my back, I’d do it in a heartbeat! It looked amazing! It glowed! It shimmered!”

“... Please stop looking at me like a puppy begging for food. I can’t find you someone capable of making that tattoo. Only an expert cultivator could do such a thing, and they’d have to be an expert in a rare field I’ve not even heard of.”

“Maybe if I found a master painter…”

***Author Note***

Bradford got a 20 on how well his fame is doing! Then a 20 on how important the person he helped is… a few rolls later and… a 1 on how romantic the new person’s ascension to power is? … I think I just rolled a rebellion and takeover of the kingdom. >_< Only 12 for violence level, so it was pretty fast, with few casualties… but seriously? A 2 for old king’s popularity level? No wonder the takeover was so easy.

P.S. this could have weird effects on the power of the kingdom. The queen might be weak now, but there’s no way she’ll stay weak with Bradford caring for her.