Outside of the castle, there were a great number of Gevai. William would not ask the lords to travel without personal guards, and northern lords certainly wouldn’t come without. With over a gross of lords attending and a minimum of a dozen guards or retainers each, the numbers added up quickly. In the grand scheme of things, however, there were still less than enough for a full army, even counting William’s own troops.

He kept only a company of troops at the castle, three gross of his best men. The rest were under Jordan’s command… and were currently occupied. Some of the northern lords had approached with armies of their own, but William had placed some spies in locations where they could provide sufficient warning to maneuver other forces as necessary.

It was still possible for Jordan’s forces to be outnumbered, but William didn’t worry about that. They would be fighting in terrain Jordan chose instead of invading enemy territory. They didn’t have to fight at a location determined by some other lord’s poor planning or intentionally abysmal fort placement. Combined with the excellent training of the troops and the skills of Jordan, he wasn’t concerned.

In other places of the country, armies found similar defensive positions. Having the lords all away from their armies was an opportunity to attack, but all of them had at least some form of commander they could leave in charge. With the advantage of communication speed, it was possible for them to handle themselves well enough.

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The throne room was packed, even with its great size. Besides the lords, there were several times as many rich merchants or others of import. Everyone who could wanted to be there to watch such an important event… even if many of them just wanted to see how it might fail.

William could hear them talking from his position outside the room. Not that they thought he could possibly hear their whispers mixed among all of the other nose, but he could. He still had to pick out a few things to listen to at once, but it was easy to eavesdrop on them.

William was glad that among the lords who supported them, even their hushed whispers were mostly positive. Of course, many of them were worried about that something might go wrong during the ceremony.

In turn, William wondered what would go wrong during the ceremony. Certainly some of those invited would disrupt it. Perhaps they would think themselves safe because of the promise or perhaps they would be sacrifices to make him cross a line.

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Special attention was paid to Lady Bennett, the demon lord’s former mistress. She wasn’t technically a lady in terms of official position, but she still managed to hold some status. So far, all she had done was whisper and make offhand remarks belittling William. If that was all she did, it would be of little consequence.

William looked down at his formal, kingly robes. Sadly, they’d had to be made more for form than function. They were too long, and the sleeves too voluminous. The gold inlay wasn’t part of a magical formation, but merely decorative. There were only the slightest bits of magic in the robes that weren’t for visual effect, making it sparkle and otherwise look impressive.

Then the time came. He was announced, and walked out of the side room onto the raised dais upon which the throne sat. One foot went in front of the other as he walked slowly and carefully toward his position, then sat facing out on the crowd. He sat up as straight as he could and tried to project of regal confidence, almost indifference, as if he wasn’t concerned about what was happening at all.

Then came the crown, carried on an elegant pillow. The crown bearer walked at a measured pace on the deep scarlet carpet that ran down the middle of the great hall. The crown itself was the same one used by the former Eternal King. It had survived for an untold number of years by virtue of being useless in battle. Thus, it stayed in the castle and was only brought out during coronations and other important occasions. Its only enchantments served to keep it from tarnishing, and other than that it was merely a chunk of gold, jewels, and symbolism.

It took an eternity for it to arrive at the dais, then one step at a time the crown bearer approached the throne. Next to the throne was the steward of the castle, waiting to receive the crown and place it on WIlliam’s head.

As the crown bearer reached the final step, a man burst from the front row of the crowd, charging toward the throne. He clutched a dagger in his hand. He reached the top of the dais and continued to run toward William. The two guards to either side of the throne had yet to react, even though he only had two more steps to move. Then… the man stumbled and fell at the same time as there was a great cracking noise that rang throughout the hall.

William looked down at the man with as dispassionate of a gaze as he could muster. Crushing the man’s knee and hand from a distance with ki and without movement was not a trivial task… but was much more visually impactful. Only now did William move, and all he did was slightly wave his hand, not even lifting it from the arm of the throne. “Remove him from the premises.”

If the trouble had stopped there, William would have been surprised. Out from somewhere hidden in the crowd a man shouted, “This violence is a violation of your promise of a truce!”

William laughed, mirthlessly but with a voice that rang throughout the hall. “This man clearly broke the terms of the truce first. Besides, I merely promised that I would not kill any who attended, regardless of their affiliation. As you can clearly see, I am a merciful and just king. He still has his life, as promised, even though he deserves death ten times over for assaulting the king.”

“What qualifies you to claim the title of Eternal King?” a woman’s voice came from the crowd.

William internally shook his head. Clearly he hadn’t yet done enough.