“Don’t worry about this, Z,” Darling said, grateful that her tears had finally stopped and that she was calm again. “If I’ve learned nothing else in my life, it’s that we will get through it.” Eventually.

And compared to the whole Nylan scandal and some of his other traumas, this was mild. At least the gerents were afraid of him now. They were no longer laughing in his face.

They were still trying to depose him, but they weren’t laughing while they did it. That made all the difference…

Yeah, right.

“How do we fix this?” she asked.

“Hell if I know. At this point, I think the best thing for me to do is to keep my head down. At least then I can’t screw up anything else.”

“You’re not funny.”

“Really not trying to be.” He sighed. “I knew, given what Arturo had done to me and my reputation, that this would never be an easy transition. I always expected the gerents to protest my governorship and to mudsling to the point I contemplated murder.”

But what he’d never considered was coming to power after he executed his uncle… with his bare hands. And what that would do psychologically to the people who hated his uncle as much as he did, and with a lot less reason to do so.

He’d hoped to have at least some of the gerents back him, and he’d relied on the mistaken belief that the people would welcome him in after living under Arturo’s greedy fist.

However, after tonight, that wasn’t going to happen. So much for allaying the gerents’ fears.

Now, everything was so much more complicated than he’d ever anticipated. While he’d known Caronese people didn’t like him, their unreasoning animosity was slowly shredding what little confidence he had.

And that could ultimately tear the empire apart.

One match, and the gerents would now ignite the fires of rebellion against him.

I swear, Dad, I will protect the things you love most… That naïve promise haunted him.

“Maybe I should abdicate and let Drake take over.” Everyone loved his brother…

She pushed herself up to give him a scowl that resonated, ‘are you stupid?’ “You can’t. Drake’s not old enough to rule, and Ryn won’t take on guardianship for him. The rest of the gerents… they’re selfish bastards out for themselves. They don’t care how their decisions affect other people. You’re what this empire needs. Not them.”

Her loyalty touched him deeply, especially since he knew what she truly thought of the Cruel family and their elongated reign. Over the years, she’d ranted against all of them repeatedly. “The best thing that could happen for this empire would be a gas leak in the palace that took all of them out at once.”

Yeah, those words had been hard to swallow. But he’d more than understood her malice, and he’d never held it against her.

Still unsure of what would be best, he turned on the wall monitor. Immediately, it showed Giran being interviewed. Through his shifting vision, he saw that Giran’s eyes were blackened and his nose taped. There was a white bandage wrapped around his entire head. He looked awful.