System Change

They finally made it to one of the topics they needed to discuss before announcing to all of Astrus that it was going to be under new leadership. The new king or queen, or both, would play a part in how everyone felt about such changes.

“I believe that with Tevara and Tyler staying on and standing beside a new ruler, it will make the transition go much smoother,” Edward said. “Allowing the people to see leniency even with the former noble family will calm some nerves—especially to some of the noble houses. Do you agree, Diana?”

“Actually, I do,” the head of House Reeves said. “In fact, I can speak for myself as the head of a powerful house that seeing the two not only live, but also be kept in the fold, has certainly… what was it you said? Calmed my nerves? It has certainly done that.”

“And what about you, Mr. Barro?” Edward asked the man who had brought the two siblings in. “And please, have a seat and join this discussion.”

Finn bowed deeply to Edward and moved to take a seat beside Diana. The two siblings, still in somewhat of a trance, stayed where they wore, inactive. “I agree with Diana,” Finn said. “Allowing the two to not only live, but possibly thrive, will go a long way in easing the other noble houses into the situation. It will show that you are thoughtful about circumstance and will not unjustly eradicate whole families.”

Derek nodded along to what Finn said. He liked that. It reminded him of the term ‘guilty by association’ that would be tossed around a lot in his old world. Just because one apple was bad did not mean that all the other apples were, too. It was considered a fallacy for a reason. Though, it was good to quickly remove those bad apples, or actual guilty ones, as it was common for the ‘rot’ to spread.

He wasn’t around to see it, but Derek knew that Edwin had taken another approach when weeding out the bad actors in Cydaria. Instead of removing the bad apples, he burned down the entire trees. He wasn’t exactly certain of the timeline, but if Edwin had taken the time to go through each associated person one-by-one, their position would have been very unstable when Cydaria was attacked, and susceptible to attacks from within.

These decisions were another reason Derek refused all the chances to create bases, outposts, and towns back when the other system arrived at Earth. He’d turned the offers many times. It took all that time alone in the void for him to even get behind the possibility of being responsible for just a handful of people. And the number of people under his care was already at the limit of what he felt comfortable with.

“Good, good,” Edward said. “That’s good to hear.” After that, he turned his focus on everyone who was not from Astrus. “I have some ideas in mind, but I would like to get everyone else’s opinions on who shall be appointed leaders of this country.”

“I don’t think it matters all too much,” Derek was the first to reply. “As long as they are high-ranking people from Cydaria or Indria, it should work. They are going to be…” Derek looked at Finn and Diana, then shrugged and continued. “They are going to be nothing other than figureheads or… managers for now, right? The real decisions will be coming down from the top.” Just like Indria, he thought the last part, but did not speak it. Diana and Finn didn’t need to know that Indria was actually just a vassal kingdom like Astrus was about to become.

“That… is true,” Edward said. “But it’s possible that it won’t always be that way.”

“Then it’s simple,” Derek said.

“Oh?”

“You said you have some relatives who you consider good people, right? Cousins, if I recall correctly.”

“I do. They have lived simpler lives and prefer to stay out of politics,” Edward said.

“That’s good, then. That means that at least for this generation, if you appoint one of your cousins, you don’t have to worry about them going against your policies or anything like that. The perfect puppet politician,” Derek replied. “And… throw Sabrina in as the queen, and you have one person from Cydaria, one from Indria, and the two former royal siblings in place as the leadership of Astrus.”

“What?” Ryven choked out. “I don’t think we should consider making my daughter a queen. That’s… she is much too immature.”

“What does it matter?” Derek asked. “She’s got plenty of time remaining. She’ll learn. And like I said, she won’t actually be making any decisions.”

“That’s… not a bad idea.” Edwin, who had come along to watch how Edward performed and had mostly been quiet throughout everything spoke up. “And we could hold the marriage ceremony here at Icecrest… we should also do something about renaming the capital…”

“That would be perfect, actually,” Osian said. “We could gather the nobles from each nation—we could even invite those from Vallum. Then, we could have the ceremony here and start these upcoming peaceful times off with a big celebration. It is indeed not a bad idea.”

“But… Sabrina…” Ryven muttered again.

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“She will be thrilled, brother,” Osian slapped Ryven on his back. “You know as well as I do that Sabrina wants nothing more than to marry and have a big wedding. I’ve certainly heard you complain about her enough.”

“But she will outlive the king,” Ryven said.

“She will,” Osian said. “But she was very excited to marry a human, if you recall. They will have half-elf and half-human heirs. Who better to rule a country of our two allied kingdoms?”

“It may also help change the way Indria sees half-elves and other races in general,” Alanah spoke on the subject. She did have a lot of experience being a half-elf, after all. “That will be good for your kingdom.”

“What do you think of that, son?” Edwin turned to Edward and asked.

“Actually,” Edward smiled. “Sabrina and Robert was the combination that was at the top of my list. Robert was also the number one pick of suitable bachelors on the list that was made for Sabrina. Also, Robert is smart, and I believe he will make the most out of the situation.”

“And he will be happy with an arranged marriage?” Derek asked. He wondered how that all worked on this planet—or at least in Cydaria.

“There’s no reason he wouldn’t be,” Edward answered. “He has been waiting for quite some time. Actually, Robert is like Edgar, in a sense, or even Tara’s son that we met the other day. I believe that arranged marriage is the only way that he would marry. I certainly don’t think he’s one to go out and seek a relationship.”

“I see,” Derek said. “And he’s your cousin?”

“Once removed,” Edward replied. “He is one of my late uncle’s grandsons and a few years younger than Edgar.”

“I had my children very late, you see…” Edwin cut in. “In my early years, I was enamored by a certain somebody, and I chose to forgo marriage to chase after that person. In the end, she did not feel the same way, and I became a very old father.”

“I told you it was never going to work out,” Alanah said. “But you still showed up every week. Nobody likes a beggar, Edwin.”

Derek looked back and forth between the old king and Alanah. Now that would have made for an interesting pairing. Many things started to click with how the two treated one another.

“Great,” Edward said. “We will push for Sabrina to wed Robert when we go back. Hopefully, they have already met one another and have already hit it off. They will make the perfect pairing.”

“Now, what shall we do about the kingdom’s name? Will we leave it as Astrus and the capital as Icecrest? Or will we change it?” Edwin asked. He had brought up the naming of the city earlier.

“That’s simple, too,” Derek said, drawing everyone’s attention once again. “With a king from Cydaria and queen from Indria, and the fact that the kingdom was technically conquered by a Cydarian and Indrian combined force, it’s only right that you change the kingdom name to Indaria.”

“I like it,” Edwin said. “And we can change the capital city’s name to Indaria as well, just like we have in Cydaria.”

“No!” Derek said with force. “Absolutely not.”

“What?” Edwin asked. “Why not?”

“Because it’s lazy and confusing. When I talk about Cydaria, am I talking about the kingdom, city, or family? Your naming conventions in Cydaria are terrible. I don’t have any stake in any of this, but I’ll be damned if I let you do the same thing to another poor city. Honestly, I don’t know how you haven’t thought of this before.”

“Bahahaha,” Marrick bursted out laughing to Derek’s left. “I’ve always said the same thing. While House Sinclair’s biggest problem was being rash and being overly sensitive to minor slights, House Cydaria’s biggest failures were their naming sense and lack of noble oversight.”

“But you all have a bit of the same naming sense, don’t you?” Derek asked Marrick.

“How so?”

“Edwin… Edward… Edgar… Elouise…” he said. “Osian… Olivar… Orion… Frankly, I’m surprised Ryven got away without being named Oryven. He really lucked out in that sense. What was the former King of Indria’s name? Owen? Oscar? Otis?”

“Actually…” Across the table from Derek, Osian’s cheeks turned a blistering red in embarrassment. “Our father’s name was Braxian.”

“Oh…” Derek stared over at Osian, dumbfounded. “So this naming sense is something that just started with you, then?” Then he looked at Edwin. “What about your father?”

“My father’s name was Ethan, and my grandfather’s name was Eric,” he said smugly.

“Good to know… Edwin did it out of tradition… Osian did it out of ignorance or arrogance. I’ll have to remember that.”

“Uhem…” Edward cleared his throat. “Now that the history lesson is over, can we get back to topic? I am more than happy to change the name of the kingdom to Indaria after changing leadership. As for the name of this city, let’s keep some of the old with it and call it Crestfall. What do you think?”

“That’s too disparaging,” Osian said. “I would go with something like Cresthaven or Silvercrest—if you want to keep part of the old name.”

“I like Cresthaven,” Edward said. “Is everyone good with this change?”

Derek shrugged. As long as Robert—whoever he was—didn’t change his surname to Indaria, then move to Indaria in the Kingdom of Indaria, he was fine with whatever else they chose. Everyone else seemed to agree, too, as nobody spoke out against it.

“Great,” Edward said. “Now, on to the next thing. I believe we should introduce and enforce the same servant contracts in Indaria that we did in Indria. These contracts will be the bare minimum any servant can start at. In fact, after mulling it over, I believe we should do the same in Cydaria by stocking the City Buildings throughout the kingdom with said contracts.”

That seemed like a good idea to Derek. Supposedly, Astrus had a good deal of slaves. Introducing the contracts into the kingdom and banning slavery was always a good first step that he’d never argue against.

For the next while, Edward explained to Diana and Finn about the contracts and changes that were to be made in Indria. The two nobles easily agreed that the same thing should be done in Astrus—or Indaria. However, they were quick to point out that there would be quite a bit of resistance. Edward, however, was also quick to point out that those who resisted would be some of the first to be culled, and that the investigations he was planning on doing dealt with many unsavory things, such as that.

For the next couple of hours, the group talked about adjustments and changes that needed to be made in Astrus. Garrett arrived with the palace servants in the middle of the conversation, and Edward made sure to release each one from their servant contracts until they got everything changed. The servants were free to act as always after that.

Tevara and Tyler also finally broke out of their trances, and that made it all the more easy to remove the contracts and oaths from the servants. The two siblings were relieved to have been allowed the opportunity to serve the kingdom—but mostly, they were happy about not dying.

Soon enough, the time they had given to everyone to gather for the announcements arrived, and everyone stood. Derek quickly packed up his items—especially his beloved chair. Finally, it was time to see who chose to attend the gather, and who chose to run.

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