Ultragenic Warlord

Chapter 932: The Accidental King

The third official shrunk back. "Truly? But his majesty—no, how could his majesty be so petty? His majesty is generous and benevolent, and he wouldn't kill us just because of a few words!"

Despite the official's words, he refrained from speaking ill of Zhang Lie. Instead, he lowered his head, ate, and downed copious quantities of alcohol.

The older official shook his head. "Don't worry about it too much. His majesty is entirely focused on his master—he won't be listening in on us. The most important thing to his majesty at the moment is to further his relationship with his master, whom he hasn't seen for over two years. If he could, he'd spend every waking moment by his side."

The officials turned toward the throne, where indeed they found the king entirely focused on Zhang Lie.

"Master, please, try this dish! I had it specially prepared for you. I don't know what sort of dishes you like, so I had the imperial chefs make all the same dishes from two years ago..."

The officials' expressions turned rather strange as they watched their king pamper his master. The king hadn't yet married, had he?

Based on historical precedent, a king who had just ascended to the throne would frequently choose to crown a consort in order to secure his political standing, but the ninth prince hadn't needed to do so.

It was unnecessary—the court officials had all been brainwashed by Zhang Lie's mistmeld clam soulshard, and they wouldn't contest his rule.

Furthermore, the king wasn't just the king of the kingdom, but also the king of the realm. He was vested with power by the realm itself, and his rule was unshakable.

None of the officials had seemed to mind that the king didn't take a consort, but upon seeing how close the king seemed to be to his master, their minds were now swirling. Surely their king wasn't interested in men, was he...?

Regardless of their king's sexual inclinations, many of the officials were worried about the continuation and legitimacy of the royal line.

After the banquet, they promised themselves that they would remind the king of his need to appoint a consort.

After all, even a king of the realm couldn't escape the need to be married—in fact, such kings would be pressed more firmly toward marriage.

The official sighed. "Even if we speak badly of the king's master, it's likely he won't pay any attention to our words. He's just had a tremendous victory and been reunited with his master, so he's sure to be feeling exhilarated."

Of course, even so, the official didn't speak badly of the king's master. If any official were to speak badly of the king, the king would only smile wryly.

Compared to their previous king, the current one was rather more relaxed. He didn't mind if any of his officials were to criticize him behind closed doors, but if he heard a single disparaging remark about his master Zhang Lie, the king would immediately become incensed.

The young official asked, even more curious, "Just what caused the king to be so infatuated with his master?"

The older officials all chose to remain silent, and one even changed the topic.

"Shall we discuss something else instead...?"

Upon seeing the change in the officials' attitudes, the young official's curiosity grew without bound. He tugged on his uncle's sleeve.

Eventually, his uncle dragged him to one side. "Actually, his majesty shouldn't have ended up becoming the king of the realm."

The young official's eyes widened. "Uncle, what do you mean? The king shouldn't have become king...?"

The older official continued seriously, "Don't mention this to anyone, you hear? Even if the king himself doesn't mind, someone else surely will—and you might drag yourself into a whole slew of trouble."

The young official's eyes sparkled. "Uncle, could you elaborate? Did his majesty not want to become the king of the realm?"

The current king was a wise and virtuous one, and the world had grown prosperous under his rule. The inhabitants of the world had been able to recover from the crisis of the Jinghun clan, and their king had personally led the charge against the black spirits.

The young official frowned. He simply didn't understand what his uncle meant by his words.

Were there other candidates in the past? As far as the younger official could tell, there could be no better candidate to become king.

The older official sighed. "You misunderstand what I mean. The current king had been an inferior candidate, without the power to ascend to the throne—the only reason he's king now is because his master meddled. Without his master, the current king would be dead in the wilderness.

"While his majesty was still just the ninth prince, he was last among his brothers, and the least likely to become the king of the realm. The two princes who were thought most likely to ascend to the throne were the crown and second princes. The former is a lord in the east, and the latter is now deceased."

"How did the ninth prince end up as king, then?"

The older official replied, "His master snatched him the throne. If not for his master's appearance, all our lives would be different. What's more, the one who managed to stop the black spirits' invasion was his master as well."

The young official snuck a peek at Zhang Lie, his glance betraying his perturbed emotions.

The older official sighed. "While the king was still just the ninth prince, I expected that the crown prince would ascend. After all, the king's situation had been awkward and unfortunate—no one expected that the weak and powerless ninth prince would manage to become king."

If not for the fact that he had helped out the ninth prince once upon a time, he would likely have been stripped of his position as official himself.

In general, those officials who sided with failed candidates might not die, but they surely wouldn't receive the favor of the new king.

Most were stripped of their title and position, then forced to leave the capital, the heart of power. They could become magistrates of a province or town, but never again would they wield great authority.

The fact that the older official had survived the purge and remained at the capital was firstly because he hadn't been too closely tied to the crown prince, and secondly because he had helped the ninth prince while he was still a weakling.

After the ninth prince ascended to the throne, over eighty percent of the officials belonged to the crown prince's faction. Although Zhang Lie had brainwashed all those officials using his mistmeld clam soulshard, the ninth prince couldn't reasonably make use of them all.

In the end, the new king would have to cultivate his own officials; he found it rather awkward to make use of the brainwashed ones that Zhang Lie had handed him.

In order for there to be sufficient positions available for his new officials, the king of the realm had to decide which ones to strip of power and which ones to keep. After all, he could hardly remove everyone who had been brainwashed.

.

There were many officials in court who had been loyal to the past king for life. It did feel strange to have them brainwashed, but they were truly capable at what they did. If he were to replace all the officials immediately, the new officials would be unable to familiarize themselves with their responsibilities beforehand.

As a result, the king could only retire a few officials at a time, and he had cleaned out about half the former officials two years into his tenure. During this process, he had also grown used to several of the older officials...