Ti flew by, and in the blink of an eye it was already a week after the great decisive battle at the Strait of Dover.
April 6th, Silver Era 1473.
High-ranking administrative officials from across The Entire Nation of Hightins, Nobility who were noticeably sparse compared to the past, representatives of the various branches of the Protestant Doctrine, envoys from other countries and so on, all ca to the Royal Capital of Kingston in full formal dress.
Every street and alley of the Royal Capital was decked out with lanterns and strears, and on both sides of the main avenue planned for the parade were all kinds of fresh flowers, force-grown by the Famine Hunter and the Black Witches of the Bloodthirsty Cult.
Only, the sky gradually grew a bit overcast.
The Navigators and Navigators had long since predicted rain for today, and had all reported to the new King that this day was not suitable for holding a large-scale gathering.
Just as they said, before dawn the dark, heavy clouds ca surging in from the direction of the Sea of Monsters, and were inexplicably laced with a faint but unmistakable fishy stench.
Woooo...
But when several thousand parade participants and a great many Royal Capital citizens began assembling early in the morning, ready to brave the rain to welco the King, they suddenly saw a dazzling pillar of light shoot straight up into the sky above Ganquan Palace.
The clouds that had been gathering abruptly stalled.
Then they heard a familiar voice ring out—careless and casual, yet incomparably clear in the ears of every person in the Royal Capital:
"Imperial edict: clouds and rain, disperse. Today’s weather... sunny!"
With a single edict from the new King, even the weather over a radius of dozens of kiloters had no choice but to obey, churning and rolling away in a scatter of drifting clouds and starlike motes.
The first ray of gold cast by the rising Sun spread outward from Ganquan Palace in a perfect circle, and in an instant bathed the entire Royal Capital.
"Hiss—! A miracle!"
In the past, those orthodox Law Mage Kings, even with the aid of the Royal Iron Law, had no Power to interfere with the Natural World; it could only be used to govern Humans.
Legend had it that the Storm Kings of the Lancaster Family in ages past did command the Storm and the heavens, but no living subject had ever seen such a thing.
Never mind that Red Rose hadn’t produced a Fifth Order Legendary Realm Storm King in several generations of Kings.
Even if a Legendary did appear, there was no comparing a mortal’s Life Essence to a False God whose true body was over a hundred ters tall.
To pull off the sa feat, at the very least they would have to summon the Storm Knight Order to act in concert; how could it possibly be done as effortlessly as the new King just did?
"Compared to the Tri-Phantom Sun that appeared when the York Family raised their banners, this is the real Mandate of Heaven."
"Yes. Great Power sufficient to plunge mortals into despair—that is the Mandate of Heaven itself."
All those in the Royal Capital who had not had the chance to witness that "war of Gods" at the Strait of Dover with their own eyes were, for the first ti, experiencing the might of a God firsthand!
Ageless and undying, divine might unfathomable, a Legendary captain, the Bayfolk’s prophesied child, the ssiah of legend...
Faced with so many labels on Byron, not even the Saints of the Church dared say they would personally step forth to suppress this great enemy; instead, they were preparing to push the Kalmar Union into defecting.
The citizens of the Royal Capital and the entire ruling stratum of the country naturally accepted reality in very short order: this new King would, in all likelihood, not only be the King of their sons’ generation, but of their grandsons, great-grandsons... and the King of their descendants for generations to co.
Today’s coronation ceremony might well beco the last coronation of a King in the entire History of the Kingdom of Hightins.
"Sister, Milady, let’s go."
In the palace that had long since been scrubbed spotless, Byron personally helped the two Queens, dressed to the nines and glittering with jewels, into their shiny high heels, then took them by the hand and led them out of the hall to bathe in the brilliant sunlight.
The family mbers before him were all fully prepared as well.
Heather, his mother who had slept for more than a decade and whose ntal age was probably younger than Byron’s, gave him a tender thumbs-up in silent praise:
"Handso!"
Today Byron was not dressed like his forefathers had been at their coronations, with capes, breeches, and a pair of white stockings on top.
Instead, he wore a sharply cut Naval Marshal’s uniform, shiny black military boots on his feet, a sword at his waist, and a gold sash chosen for him by Heather, giving him an extra air of martial vigor and grandeur.
In a brief interview with a reporter from the Kingston Daily, Byron said this:
"Every Monarchy is an inverted Pyramid, and what’s driven into the Underworld beneath it is nothing other than the pointed iron atop the soldiers’ helts!
For a Monarch, the most fundantal legitimacy of ruling a country lies in providing protection and Order for the country and its citizens, and in safeguarding the interests of the country as a whole.
Therefore a powerful army is both the guarantee of a Monarch’s qualification to rule, and the pair of hands by which that rule is carried out.
In theory, all the Kings in the world should first and foremost be the commanders-in-chief of their country’s ard forces, and only then Monarchs.
In other words, without the army and the uniform, we would not have our Crown."
If those words were spoken in modern tis, regardless of the truth, just saying them out loud would be absolutely politically incorrect.
But in this age when the Bizarre and Evil Spirits ran rampant and even basic Life safety could not be guaranteed, "without the gun barrel, there is no regi" was the highest Truth, and one that everyone unanimously endorsed.
With Byron setting the example, it would likely beco fashionable among the descendants of Lancaster and even among the Monarchs of other countries to wear uniforms instead of stockings.
Both peerless Queens, however, were indeed wearing them. Each had on a matching Rose-style gown, exposing their lustrous shoulders and delicate collarbones.
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