Chapter 132 - Aurelian’s Move

Chapter 132: 132 - Aurelian’s Move

The name made everything fit together far too easily. Adrien remembered that night at Oathday with uncomfortable clarity, above all the moment he finally escaped the ballroom after hours surrounded by nobles who kept approaching him, watching him and dragging him into conversations he had no interest in.

He had stepped onto one of the palace balconies simply to breathe for a few minutes, and Aurelian was already standing there. The First Heir had spoken calmly, almost casually, though several pieces of that conversation had stayed with Adrien ever since.

Aurelian had talked about noble houses forgetting their duties, drifting away from the Crown and doing things they had no right to do. At the time Adrien understood the warning without knowing how far the man intended to carry it.

There had been something else too, harder still to forget. Aurelian had spoken about becoming King as though it were not an ambition but a scheduled event, with the certainty of somebody describing tomorrow’s sunrise.

One day Osric would no longer sit on the throne, Aurelian would take his place, and his father would be moved away from royal affairs and sent somewhere distant enough to stop interfering.

Adrien had never forgotten that confidence, and now the main branch of House Montferrand had fallen through an investigation ordered personally by the First Heir. The link was too plain to overlook, and only one reading made sense to him. ’So Aurelian has started moving.’

The Arquenay affair might have been the first push. One of the Ten Great Houses had been exposed, Gaspard had fallen, and the Crown had been forced to admit that a family at that level had been operating far outside what should have been tolerated.

Once one Great House was caught, investigating the others became far easier to justify.

If Arquenay had hidden things, why not Montferrand?

And if Montferrand had done the same, why stop with them?

Adrien could follow the logic. Aurelian now had grounds to look closely at every powerful house drifting from the Crown, even where Osric would normally block that interference. Every successful investigation weakened the old balance and strengthened Aurelian’s position, and it stripped authority from his father without forcing him to challenge the man openly.

Evelyne rested one hand against the table, thinking through what Vikir had told them, and she seemed to have arrived somewhere similar. "The First Heir. Aurelian, then."

Adrien looked toward her. "You sound like you know him fairly well."

"I’ve known what he’s like for a long time. Even as a child, he was ambitious."

Her expression grew more serious before she continued. "He listens when something is useful, but he won’t follow another person’s judgment simply because they outrank him. If he believes obeying someone means betraying what he wants, he’ll choose himself every time."

Adrien stayed quiet a moment, since that described the man from the balcony precisely.

"Seems like he wants something," Evelyne continued, "and from what Vikir just told us, he’s getting closer to it."

Adrien’s attention drifted to the garden beyond the pavilion. His mother had reached essentially the same conclusion without ever hearing Aurelian’s exact words that night.

The Crown was what Aurelian wanted, and removing troublesome Great Houses did more than tidy the kingdom.

It tore influence away from people who might oppose him later, showed that the current King had failed to control his own nobles, and made Aurelian look more and more like the man actually holding order together.

Montferrand was another step, and Adrien had no idea how many more were coming. If several Great Houses had truly helped bring Clairmont down, Aurelian might already have more names waiting behind that one.

For now Clairmont needed to do nothing. Acting without the full picture would only pull them into royal politics before they understood the game, though having the information still counted for something.

Vikir straightened as the conversation wound down. His breathing had finally evened out, even if the ride back to Greymoor still showed all over him. "That’s everything I know for now. I only came back because I thought the matter was urgent enough that you should hear it immediately. Forgive me for interrupting."

"You didn’t interrupt anything important."

Adrien took in the sweat still visible near Vikir’s hairline and the exhaustion he was hiding poorly. "Take the rest of the day off, Vikir. You look exhausted."

Vikir seemed briefly surprised before bowing his head. "That’s very kind of you, my lord. I’ll do that."

He excused himself and left the garden at a far slower pace than he had arrived. Ariane had stayed quiet through most of the discussion, though once Vikir vanished between the hedges she turned to Evelyne.

"So another Great House has fallen now... Was Montferrand one of the houses that blamed Father?"

Evelyne’s expression shifted, and for a moment the subject seemed to carry her back several years. "Possibly, sweetheart. There were many houses involved in what happened to us, and more than a few of them were among the strongest families in the kingdom."

She paused before going on. "Even though we were all Valleroy, that never meant every house was our friend. Some saw Clairmont as an enemy long before your father was accused."

Ariane nodded, her face more serious now.

Evelyne picked up her tea again without drinking from it. "The situation is changing. That’s good for us, but it’s still worth remembering who stood against this family when we were weakest."

Adrien said nothing, because his thoughts had already moved elsewhere. Only days earlier he had met Margaret on the road after the Crown came to collect Marcus’s men.

When he asked what she was doing so far from the capital, her answer had been simple: passing the time.

Adrien had noticed how odd it was for the Third Princess to be in that region, though he let it go because she plainly had no intention of explaining further.

Now Montferrand had fallen nearby, the Crown had been investigating them for some time, and Aurelian had ordered the whole operation personally. Margaret had not been passing the time at all.

She had lied to him deliberately, and Adrien could no longer file that away as a small detail. He looked down at the formal Aetherion invitation still lying near his hand, though his attention had left it entirely, because one question had pushed everything else out of his head.

’Why did Margaret lie to me?’