The resemblance between the woman in the crowd and Theresa was clear enough. The facial features among other things were what let William know. Skin colors weren’t extremely useful for determining parentage, as almost any gevai skin color could come from any two gevai.
Lady Bennett continued with her obviously prepared speech, “What qualifies you to claim the title of Eternal King? The real Eternal King is just that- Eternal- and he will come to destroy you!”
“I see you are woefully uninformed. The former Eternal King is dead and never coming back.” Of course, there was no way she should have known that. William hadn’t exactly publicly announced that before this point, even if some people suspected.
“You- he’ll have your tongue cut out for such blasphemy?”
William raised an eyebrow, ‘Will that be before or after he destroys me? I had heard you were a shrewd woman, but clearly everyone was mistaken. All it takes for you to be thrown off is your poisoned wine getting lost...”
“What-”
“What poison?” William waved his hand. “The evidence, please.”
Lorelei pulled out a bottle, “The poison in this bottle of wine you brought and placed in the wine cellar. Just a drop was killing rats.”
“You have no proof I brought poisoned wine. You just wish to frame me.” Lady Bennett held her head up high and kept her words steady.
Lorelei shook her head, “Many people here know it is the truth. Do you think that just because you were in a specific man’s bed once that you can get away with anything?”
The crowd had backed away from the two women as their words grew more intense. “I bore a child for the Eternal King! I’m not like you, just some slut trying to gain power by sleeping with a fledgling lord!”
Lorelei’s expression turned neutral, but her eyes burned with a fiery rage, “What did you call me? I know you entered the beds of at least a dozen lords before him, and half that since his death. Do you want me to start listing names?”
Lady Bennett crossed her arms in front of her. “Hmph! More slander. Just what one would expect from a fake weakling of an eternal king and his slut.”
In a flash, Lorelei had grabbed Lady Bennet by her neck. “You dare use your tongue to speak such words about the king in his presence? Now then, I guess I’ll continue by naming the ones that are here. Maybe they’ll grace your bed again.” Lorelei listed off of the name of three lords, all of who paled in differing manners according to their skin color. “Now then, I will give you one chance to apologize, slut.”
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Lady Bennett looked calm, “You don’t dare do anything to me, bitch!” Then she spit on Lorelei’s face.
Lorelei wiped the spit off of her face onto her hand, and then onto Lady Bennett’s dress. “Strange last words.” Then she grabbed Lady Bennett’s tongue and ripped it out. With a short chant she tossed the tongue up into the air and reduced it to ash with a flashy ball of fire.
Lorelei’s leaned in to whisper something into Lady Bennett’s ear, but nobody could hear what it was over her gargled screaming. As guards came to drag Lady Bennett out of the grand hall, William projected his voice, “Now then, I trust there will be no more interruptions? I know many of you have other business to get back to.”
The ceremony continued with the steward placing the crown on William’s head and proclaiming him king. Nobody else interrupted. Though they might keep their lives if they did so, they wouldn’t be guaranteed much more.
Even the northern lords attending caused no trouble. There was no point in them trying anything more, as they wouldn’t be able to easily kill William… and anything that wasn’t quick would result in them being assaulted from all sides. Some of them were around merely to take another look at a young lord they had only vaguely seen at a grand council once. None of them were so invested in causing trouble that they would risk their own life… except the one who had run up earlier.
After the ceremony, there was a banquet. Everyone wished for a chance to meet the new king and get in his good graces. William was polite and exchanged a few sentences with everyone, Even so, it took hours to briefly meet everyone. Everyone had a request of some kind, be it changes in taxes or land after the war or some other thing. Some of the lords even offered William their daughters as concubines or mistresses. William merely politely put off every form of request. There were a few things he actually considered, but he certainly wasn’t going to make such decisions during a banquet. A number of the lords on his side were sensible and moderate in their view of humans, with moderate being about as pro-human as gevai got. Those were the ones William already had closer relations with, and not just people coming along for the ride.
A recurring question was whether the former Eternal King was truly gone forever. This was a more common question among merchants or others, as most of the lords in his camp already knew. However, today was the first announcement of the sort that was in any way public. That was already part of the plan, it had just come up in a different manner than William intended.
The Eternal King- or perhaps the Demon King- having suffered his final death was information that would spread like wildfire, true or not. The humans already had thought that when William had killed him, but the fragments had still technically been around. Now, there were not even pieces of him that could could claim his spot.
Perhaps not all of the gevai would believe he was gone, but as time went on and nobody showed up to claim the contrary, it would become more convincing as time passed. William expected some people to show up claiming to be him… but if he killed them in single combat, he would have legitimacy through strength. There would still be much more fighting in the future.