Chapter 116: Between the King & Queen: Fight of Giants

Alexander kept staring at his wife, she stared back at him too.

Park had watched enough powerful people on television in his old life to recognise a fight that didn’t need shouting... Alexander usually said what he wanted and everyone around him adjusted their plans.

The Chancellor was the only one in this house who didn’t adjust.

Park suddenly understood how these two could occupy some of the highest offices in the Empire without either becoming the other’s fancy political accessory.

’They really are the King and Queen of this house.’

The King merely had the misfortune of marrying a Queen who could tell him to S.T.F.U.

The Chancellor looked away first and turned back to Park, apparently done with the argument.

"Now. Tell me about your role."

Park almost laughed from pure relief.

He gave her the simple version, enough to explain the part without turning whole thing into an acting recap, and eventually the conversation drifted toward the reason she’d been so busy.

"How did the princess thing actually end?" Park asked. "The news made it sound like half the government was preparing for civil war because she wants to act."

"Not half," Aveline said.

The Chancellor looked thoughtful. "A third, perhaps."

Park stared but she smiled and said: "I’m joking."

Alexander made a sound into his glass that suggested he wasn’t happy with the whole princess thing and her tantrum for acting.

"In the end," the Chancellor continued, "the Dowager intervened and told the Council and Cabinet to leave her granddaughter alone."

Park waited.

"And?"

"And nothing."

"That’s it?"

Aveline nodded and shrugged . "Pretty much."

Park looked between them. "One old lady walked in and ended the whole argument?"

Alexander turned his head, Aveline saw him and corrected Park first.

"The Dowager isn’t simply an old lady. Officially, she holds considerably less executive authority than Father or the Emperor. Influence is different."

"So unofficially?"

Aveline glanced at Alexander.

That alone answered half the question, the Chancellor smiled behind one hand.

Alexander set his glass down. "Her Majesty the Dowager has spent decades interfering in matters that no longer belongs to her office."

"Interfering?" the Chancellor repeated.

"Yes."

"She expressed an opinion."

"She ordered ministers to abandon a Cabinet position."

"And they agreed."

"They folded."

Park looked at Aveline but Aveline gave him the tiniest shrug.

Park finally understood.

The Dowager was one of those old monsters whose official position sounded ceremonial until the sect masters started kneeling. Her probably influence had no measurable limit, and every idiot who mistook her age for weakness disappeared from the story after three Chapters.

’So basically Grandma wins.’ He wisely kept that thought inside.

"The Cabinet exists to govern," Alexander had already continued, "not to change direction whenever the Emperor’s mother decides one of her grandchildren is unhappy."

"The Emperor agreed with her," the Chancellor said.

"After she cornered him."

"He old enough, Alexander. Stop describing him like a kidnapped schoolboy."

Emmie snorted.

Aveline covered her face.

Park bit the inside of his cheek. ’This family is fucking amazing.’

"So," Park said once he trusted himself again, "the Dowager is basically the most influential person in the Empire."

Aveline nodded. "That’s fair."

"And Mother is probably second."

The Chancellor laughed immediately. "Absolutely not."

Park looked at her. "How not?"

"The Emperor exists."

"Sure."

"Your father exists."

Park glanced at Alexander.

’Big mistake.’

The man was already looking at him.

Park continued anyway, although somewhere inside his head a small employee had begun screaming. "You’re Royal Chancellor and Lord President of the Privy Council. Everyone says the Privy Council ultimately answers only to the Dowager herself."

"Rumours say many things," the Chancellor said, though she was clearly enjoying this now.

Park went one, cluelessly expressing his logic: "The same Dowager who can tell the Cabinet to sit down and apparently make the Emperor decide arguing with his mother isn’t worth ruining dinner."

Aveline’s mouth twitched.

Park kept going. "And you’re president of the Council people keep calling her enforcers and executioners, so if she’s number one in the empire and you’re basically running the people who make sure number one gets listened to..."

"Park." Alexander’s voice cut across him, Park stopped: "That’s enough."

For two seconds, the good-son instinct told him to nod and move on but then the System panel from earlier that day surfaced in his mind.

Cold blue text had appeared as his Golden Pen Royalty mission information reward:¹

[Information:The Prime Minister has begun using intermediaries to influence entertainment-industry personnel connected to your current agency.

PM’s Objective: Prevent Host’s career from advancing beyond The City series.]

Park had dismissed the panel at the time.

MJ had been in front of him and he’d had a deal to make, songs to think about and too many things happening at once.

He hadn’t dismissed what it meant... his father was bribing people.

He had moved beyond arguing with Park, refusing to support him and making sure no audition returned back at him. He was now starting to spending money and using people behind the scenes to make sure Park’s career went nowhere.

During the ride home, another question had started bothering him.

How many times had Alexander done it before?

Park didn’t know.

The old Park had spent years auditioning, failing, being passed over, wondering what he lacked, wondering whether his face really was a curse, whether he simply wasn’t good enough, whether all those promises that ended in polite rejection had been his own failures.

But they hadn’t been... that poor bastard had gone home blaming himself for doors his own father had quietly locked.

Park looked at Alexander differently.

Being angry didn’t make the man any less terrifying. If Alexander decided to walk over and physically put him in his place, Park suspected all sixty-three points of his Physical Strength would file for resignation at once.

And power?

Forget it.

Alexander Bennett could probably destroy Park’s little newborn career before breakfast if he ever found the right lever.

Park had spent his first days here thinking he might avoid this fight by staying respectful, remaining quiet and hoping that if he stopped poking Alexander, Alexander would eventually stop poking him back.

Apparently, the old Park had tried some version of that for sixteen years.

It hadn’t worked.

So what exactly was Park preserving by continuing it?

Starting a screaming match with Alexander would have been suicide, but keeping his head down had gotten the old Park nowhere.

Park was done being convenient.

He looked away from Alexander and toward the Chancellor again.

"If what I said is wrong, Mother can correct me."

Alexander stepped forward at once.

The Chancellor stopped smiling and studied Park more carefully.

Everyone in the room knew what he had just done.

"You seem to have mistaken your mother’s patience for permission to speak however you like in my house," Alexander said.

Park’s stomach tightened.

The Chancellor rose before he could answer, and Alexander stopped a few steps away.

"This is my house too."

Her voice remained quiet.

Alexander stared at her: "You are encouraging him."

"No. I’m preventing you from treating him like a punching bag or stress ball because the Cabinet irritated you."

Park glanced at her.

She had noticed that too.

"You don’t know what you’re talking about," Alexander said.

"I’ve been married to you for twenty-four years."

"Then you should know better."

"I do. That’s precisely why I’m saying it." The Chancellor’s hand settled briefly on his shoulder, and somehow that small touch carried more weight than the hug had.

It felt protective and deliberate.

Her affection had surprised him. Her willingness to stand between him and Alexander meant even more. Something might have changed while she was gone.

Perhaps she knew something, or she’d finally become tired of watching Alexander take pieces out of him?

The old Park might simply have never given her much room to stand beside him. He’d spent years assuming every kindness carried some hidden insult.

Park didn’t know.

For once, he was willing to leave it there.

The Chancellor squeezed his shoulder once and sat back down.

Alexander remained standing, his anger obvious, and nobody could mistake who still ran this house. The Chancellor was simply the only person willing to oppose him without looking away.

And weirdly, Park felt better.

Alexander still frightened him but with the Chancellor beside him, he felt less alone.

NX Arc suddenly mattered even more too. If Alexander could simply order the agency to throw him out, Park suspected he would’ve done it already.

Instead, he’d gone through intermediaries, bribes and quiet pressure.

Whatever wall stood between NX and the Prime Minister’s direct reach, Park planned to glue his ass to it.

He needed the agency, he needed his own money, his own people, influence and a name big enough that sabotaging Nathaniel Park eventually became more troublesome than leaving him alone.

Until then, if Mother wanted to stand between him and Alexander inside these walls, Park wasn’t stupid enough to reject free armour because family politics were complicated.

If she had her own agenda, they could use each other.

Park immediately grimaced inside his head.

’That sounded terrible.’

His eyes slipped toward the Chancellor beside him again, unfortunately landing exactly where they had landed when he entered.

’Nope.’ Park looked away before she caught him a second time.

Then he noticed the faint smile already sitting on her lips.

The succubus theory quietly added mind-reading to her list of abilities.

Fuck.

She’d caught him again.