God of Systems: Maker of Heroes and Villains - Chapter 203

Chapter 203: Join My Side, Keith.

“Rumors you say… may I know what you’ve learnt from the rumors please?”

The prince smiled and shook his head, “Introductions first.”

Keith nodded and introduced himself while his team followed his example. Once everyone had done doing their part, it was the prince’s turn.

“As you might have all known, I am the third prince and I was named Mathew Kazak the eighth but you can call me Prince Mathew. I have a total of twenty six siblings and ten of them have the right to the throne. As for the rest, they have no other choice but to support the others.” he said and glanced at Amelia.

“Would you like to do that honors and tell your friends about how succession works and a brief summary of my whole competition?”

Amelia nodded and turned to look at her friends, “Okay so succession is succession. Whoever does well during the succession wars will become the official heir to the throne while the other nine candidates will get various nobility titles or will get married off to someone powerful.

The succession wars have multiple areas in which the candidates should compete in. One is personal strength, be it mental or physical. There’s also their military might, status, their expertise in strategy, business and multiple other things.

As for Prince Mathew’s competition, I believe that with the current state of affairs, he does not have a high probability of winning this race. The first prince’s military might is extremely strong and the royal army has pledged their lives to him.

The… second prince…” she said and hesitated for a second before taking a deep breath.

She then put on a straight face and continued, “The second prince has officially married more than twenty ladies, all of whom were from various noble families. Thanks to this, he has a huge military might too as he can ask for assistance whenever he wants and these families will help him.

And since he took the approach of making connections, he has a wide network of businesses where he profits from and when considering his status as a son in law for multiple noble families, I would say that his chances are higher than the first prince.

The third prince has a small group of royal knights under his command, but the numbers and quality pale in comparison to the first prince. He also has one wife and two concubines but the come from smaller noble families except for his wife who’s from a Dukedom.

As for his concubines, one is from a county and the other from a Viscounty. He’s talented in arts, but it will not play a huge role in helping him ascend to the throne. He also barely showed himself to the public so he won’t get the support of the people either.”

Keith’s eyes were focused on the table in front of him but in reality, he was looking at the system screen that showed Mathew’s thoughts.

‘He’s not angry but pleased huh?’ he thought as he kept ears open to Amelia’s lecture.

“The fourth princess… she’s the best among the candidates when it comes to the art of making money and she used to be a friend of mine in the past. As far as I can say, she’ll do anything she can to make money and losing the succession equivalent to losing everything she has built so far.

They’re not allowed to borrow money from the royal treasury, which means that she’s the strongest when it comes to financial aspect and I’m sure that she’ll hire thousands of people to make her own army apart from the few royal knights that she already has under her.

She has enough resources to train these people so her chances are also high.

This is also where things change a little. The first four kids were all conceived by one of the queens but the next three are children of concubines so they have no right to the throne. The eighth prince is mostly a scholar but he has the second biggest squadron of royal soldiers and knights after the first prince.

He also has multiple businesses that generate money for him and the one thing that gives him an edge against the others at this moment is the fact that he’s still unmarried. The two grand dukes of our empire would rather have their daughters as wives instead of concubines.”

“Wait, what about the second prince then? You don’t us that he married a lot of women from the noble families.” Caleb asked as he grabbed a cookie.

Amelia nodded, “Yes, but it’s mostly the ladies from the dukedoms and Marquisates. Both the grand dukes refused the marriage proposal when he went to them and for clear reasons.” she said and did not elaborate on the reasons.

Instead, she hummed as she tapped on a table a few times, “Hmm… other than the eighth prince, I’d say that the rest have a very low chance. Three of them have spent most of their lives on debauchery and barely focused on important things while the last two are too young.

While they might have potential, they didn’t get enough time to build a foothold for themselves. Though I must say, the information I have is outdated and I do not have a clear understanding of the current state of matters within the palace.”

Mathew clapped his hands as he smiled widely, “It’s good to know that you haven’t changed much, Lady Amelia. Your directness is something I’ve always admired and you’re right for the most part. My sister, the fourth princess has been trying to get two of the grand dukes’ sons to marry her.

She’s taken a step that I never expected her to take and well, it looks like her plans are progressing well. As for the eighth prince, the situation is quite opposite. My sister is aggressively trying to get those two guys to marry her while both the grand dukes are fighting for my brother’s hand.

Though, he’s only allowed to choose one and the other grand duke will most probably go to my eldest brother. It’s a pity but you’re right. I don’t think I stand a chance during the succession and this is the main reason why I decided to call you guys here.”

He looked at Keith and then glanced at the maid that was standing at the door, “Bring the dinner in once it’s ready.”

As the maid walked out, he shifted his gaze back to Keith, “Most nobles have managed to get the support of various people from the church and this will directly impact the strength of the second prince.

That idiot doesn’t know this but while he was goofing around with girls, I’ve been keeping an eye on various things that have been happening within our empire.”

He paused for a second and took a sip of his tea before continuing, “And I’ve come to a conclusion that the only way to make a difference is to have a small group of awakened people that are extremely strong. This way, I’ll be able to focus all my resources on them.

Almost no one knows this but I’ll place all my cards on the table for you guys to see. I have the most simple yet complicated information network in this entire continent. It’s the most efficient one when compared to the others.

My business might look small on the outside but I have a few secret businesses that I run. I’m the only one in this empire who has access to the camphor oil. I have managed to get access to the island where these trees grow, thanks to my connections with the Art Church.

The demand for it is high and I can easily make a 1000% profit just by buying this from the church and selling it all to the nobles.”

He then smirked at he looked at Keith, “One barrel of thirty liters costs me two chrons to buy and I sell it for 25 to 22 chrons each. There’s been rumors that you’ve undergone a second awakening, which means that there’s a chance for you to know how much of this oil is needed for just one awakening.

If you guys join my side, I promise you guys nobility titles based on how well you do and it will range from Duke or Duchess to Viscount or Viscountess.

And if there’s anything you need, feel free to tell me and I’ll do my best to help you with it. But before that, I’d like to see if the rumors were correct.”

Keith nodded and snapped his fingers, producing a small flame.

“What rumors did you hear by the way?” he asked as he manipulated the flame to look like the prince in front of him and then added, “Also, when will your sister join us?”

“When I give my guards a sign to let her in. She’s probably outside but this discussion just isn’t for her so until we’re done with the important talks, she’ll stay out.

As for the rumors, it is said that you can shoot out a huge amount of flames and that’s all there is to it. It looks like the rumors were slightly wrong…”

“No they’re right. I can shoot a bunch of flames but I have a huge amount of control over what I do. Which means that I’m very versatile.” Keith said as the flame that was the shape of the prince, transformed into a bird and then into a large sword.

The fire poofed after a second, but that was more than enough for the prince to learn about how Keith’s flame control worked.

“That’s great, so let’s get to the important part. Will you join my side? I’ve showed you all my cards and I plan on bringing in a few others in too.”