Chapter 125: - 125: What Is His

Chapter 125: Chapter 125: What Is His

"You slept together."

The room went silent.

Trevor lowered his glass, his dark purple eyes closing in resignation.

Dax stared at Lucas with genuine offense. He was sure that Lucas knew all the details and this was nothing more than a method to get revenge on Dax’s commentary.

"We shared a tent," Dax said, a pale brow raised.

Lucas tilted his head, a faint smile forming at the corners of his mouth. "And slept."

"During military deployments," Dax insisted.

"I did not say otherwise."

Chris’s mouth curved immediately.

Sebastian lowered his gaze to the contract before anyone noticed how close he was to laughing, while beside him Nero became suspiciously motionless.

Trevor sighed.

"Lucas is doing this because Dax laughed at him earlier."

"I laughed at the situation," Dax objected.

"You laughed at me being told to produce another child at fifty-three."

"That was the situation."

Lucas smiled pleasantly.

Dax stared at him for another second before apparently deciding that continuing would only make matters worse.

For once, he was correct. ℯℯ𝘭.

Chris patted his forearm. "You’ll survive."

Nero leaned slightly toward Sebastian.

"So they only—"

Sebastian put a hand over Nero’s wrist beneath the table.

"No."

Nero looked at him.

"Not one question."

The disappointment in those violet eyes was impressive. He clearly had an idea of how to escalate things and make Dax suffer.

Across the table, Trevor noticed and pointed toward the contract.

"Work."

Even Zion, who had looked delighted by the sudden historical revelation, reluctantly lowered his attention to the documents.

Lucas allowed the silence to settle before returning to the point he had been making.

"The relationship between our families is old. Sebastian marrying Nero formalizes part of something that already exists; it does not create Sahan influence over Fitzgeralt from nothing."

The atmosphere sobered.

Sirius nodded toward the senior constitutional adviser.

"That distinction should appear in the explanatory memorandum. We are regulating a new legal relationship, not responding to a new political alliance."

The lawyer made a note.

Trevor pulled the succession draft closer.

"And while we are eliminating unnecessary complications, I want this written clearly now. Sebastian Vale of Fitzgeralt inherits Fitzgeralt regardless of his mate and spouse."

Sebastian looked toward his father.

There was no hesitation in Trevor’s expression.

The Grand Duchy of Fitzgeralt had always been Sebastian’s inheritance, not merely a title waiting for someone convenient enough to receive it. He had been raised for its military command, educated in its internal administration, and placed beside Trevor in enough operational decisions that replacing him now would have meant discarding decades of deliberate preparation because Parliament disliked the man he intended to marry.

Trevor tapped the relevant clause.

"Not a reduced version of Fitzgeralt. Not the title without military authority. The grand duchy as it exists when I pass it to him."

One of the Palatine lawyers glanced toward Sirius.

The emperor nodded.

"That is my position as well."

Nero’s fingers closed briefly around Sebastian’s hand beneath the table.

Sebastian returned the pressure once.

Lucas opened the next succession document.

"And D’Argente passes to Dean."

That produced considerably less tension.

The Duchy D’Argente came through Lucas’s adoptive mother, Serathine, and unlike Fitzgeralt, carried none of the unusual military sovereignty that had consumed most of their afternoon.

Sebastian had never expected to hold both indefinitely.

Dean receiving D’Argente also kept Lucas’s inheritance within their direct family without unnecessarily stacking another significant Palatine title onto Sebastian after he became Grand Duke and Nero’s consort.

The senior lawyer adjusted his glasses.

"So the succession structure is explicitly divided between the brothers."

"Yes," Lucas said. "Sebastian succeeds Trevor in Fitzgeralt. Dean succeeds me in D’Argente."

"And neither marriage alters those lines," Sirius added.

The lawyer began editing.

Sebastian skimmed the new wording as it appeared on the central display.

It was almost irritating how simple it looked after hours of discussion.

Fitzgeralt to Sebastian.

D’Argente to Dean.

Their spouses gained no independent rights over either territory.

Any future succession after Sebastian and Dean would be governed by the respective duchies’ laws and whatever arrangements each brother eventually made for his own children.

Nero leaned toward the display.

"What happens if Dean becomes Emperor Consort of Alamina before inheriting D’Argente?"

Lucas glanced at him.

"D’Argente is an ordinary hereditary duchy. Residence and administration can be delegated far more easily, and Dean can appoint a permanent steward if necessary. It doesn’t command an autonomous military structure."

"So no constitutional crisis."

"Not one requiring this many lawyers."

One of the lawyers looked faintly offended.

Dax noticed.

His amusement returned.

Sebastian saw it coming.

"Don’t."

Dax smiled but remained silent.

Trevor scrolled farther down the draft.

"The important part is preventing Parliament from treating Sebastian’s marriage as grounds to alter Fitzgeralt’s succession."

Sirius folded his hands.

"They will not."

His tone removed any ambiguity.

"Parliament is entitled to review the constitutional safeguards because Fitzgeralt’s military authority intersects with Palatine sovereignty. It is not entitled to decide that Trevor’s heir becomes inconvenient and therefore disposable."

Sebastian leaned back slightly.

That was the heart of it.

The rest—residence rules, military recusals, foreign-crown protections, children, property, security access—could be solved with enough clauses and enough very expensive lawyers.

His inheritance itself was no longer under discussion.

Nero looked at him.

Sebastian caught the expression immediately.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"That face never means nothing."

Nero lowered his voice.

"You keep what is yours."

Sebastian’s irritation softened.

"Yes."

Nero’s thumb moved once over his knuckles.

"And Dean keeps what is his."

"Yes."

For perhaps the first time that afternoon, the arrangement sounded uncomplicated.

Across the table, Lucas had already begun arguing with one of the lawyers over a badly phrased residence clause, Trevor was adding notes beside the military section, Sirius and Zion were reviewing Palatine’s obligations, and Dax had finally returned to Saha’s legal draft instead of provoking everyone around him.

Chris caught Sebastian looking across the room.

His mouth curved faintly.

They were back to work.

Which, after the previous ten minutes, was probably the greatest constitutional achievement of the day.