Gawain met the Prince in the guest room. Rebecca was also there as Gawain took her along so that she would get more exposure.
Edmund Moen was the most highly regarded son of Anzu's King Francis II. Gawain had not known the Prince before, but he specifically turned to Heidi and Viscount Andrew for this journey to the capital to catch up on information of the royal family, so he learned quite a lot about the royal family.
Francis II was already of old age, but he had a few children. Besides his young son Edmund Moen, he only had another son and a daughter. Among them, the eldest son Wales was extremely mediocre, timid, and guileless. He had been a cause of worry for the old king for a long time. For the first half of his life, he was the only son of the old king, so Wales had been the crown prince for 17 years. But later on, Francis II had a son in his old age. An adored concubine gave birth to a pair of twins for him. They were Princess Veronica Moen and Prince Edmund Moen.
Compared to his mediocre eldest son, Wales, the twins were outstanding, showing extreme talent at a very young age. They were highly praised by their court teachers for both their martial arts and intellect. The old king, who had been worried about his heir, was saved. Almost without hesitation, he rescinded his eldest son's status as crown prince and prepared to transfer the right to succeed the throne to his new children.
No one from the court or from the people had any objections to this, and even Prince Wales accepted the arrangement indifferently.
The inheritance of the Anzu throne was not limited by gender, but Edmund Moen in the end became the crown prince, not by the old king's decision, but because Princess Veronica announced early on that she was going to give up the right to inherit the throne, and she joined the Church of the Holy Light, becoming a nun in the Glory Cathedral (she had risen to a high priest in the meantime), which had obviously been planned in advance. The old king naturally gave his daughter his blessings and sent her to the church. Soon after, he made Edmund the crown prince, and thus the succession of the Anzu royal household was completed in a fairly calm manner.
Many people thought that Princess Veronica's 'conversion' was actually a chess-like move from the royal family. With this method, the king of Anzu would have inserted people from the royal bloodline as high-ranking members within the independent Church of the Holy Light. Moreover, a princess who gave up the throne and devoted herself to the Holy Light was indeed a character that the church could not turn away regardless of its symbolic significance or in the context of what they would stand to gain from it. But at the same time, there were also contrasting opinions that considered this to be a sign of the increase in the influence of the Holy Light church and the erosion of the royal family's power.
There were many people on both sides, but in Gawain's opinion, they should belong to the Strategic Fooyou
Gawain was not interested in the power moves of the royal household. Or perhaps he had not reached a level at which he could have any opinion on this matter, so he was only focused on the young person before him.
Edmund Moen was a handsome man with both the soldierly yet refined, scholarly air about him. His manners were almost good enough to be textbook examples. Upon meeting, he only gave a brief greeting. Gawain muttered to Rebecca, "Did you see that? Watch and learn. Stop always thinking about throwing large fireballs at people."
Rebecca wanted to remind her ancestor that it was he who was urging her to use a fireball just a while ago, but she kept quiet as she was afraid of taking a beating.
Edmund wore an appropriate, thoughtful smile. "I hope you will feel comfortable staying here. If the chamberlain and the maidservants are not doing a good job, you can just tell Butler James."
"Rest assured. There is nothing more comfortable than staying in my own home." Gawain sat down on a high-back chair. "You have kept this place up pretty well. It's almost the same as it was seven hundred years ago… You even restored my favorite tea set. That's great. Have a seat, don't stand on ceremony."
"Preserving the hero's former residence is to safeguard our honor," Edmund said curiously and respectfully, "You might find this funny, but I grew up listening to your stories. I even collected a set of replicas, weapons and armor you used back in the day. I imagined that one day I could be a pioneer like you too, protecting the people… Unfortunately, regardless if I'm the crown prince or the king, I can't simply do whatever I want."
Gawain looked the Prince up and down several times until the Prince fidgeted awkwardly and said, "Is there anything wrong with the way I look?"
"Relax. You don't have to talk to me like I'm some old-fashioned old man," Gawain waved his hand. "I died 700 years ago, but I was thirty-five years old when I died. That is not much older than you."
Edmund gave an awkward expression. "Um, you're right. I can't help but add those seven hundred years to your age…"
"Surely there will be some generational gap after that 700 years," Gawain chuckled. "For example, we talked in a much more straightforward manner back in the day than people do now. We would get on with the main topic of discussion after a fight or a drink, people nowadays have to babble about their pleasantries before getting to the point."
Edmund was stunned for a moment, and he suddenly laughed as though he had a weight off his mind. "I knew it. You won't be as difficult to talk to as my father thought. He even kept reminding me that I should pay attention to etiquette, and I told him too much of these nonsense would annoy people."
"See. This is the style of talking that I like." Gawain nodded. "Well, let's get to the point then. Your reason for coming to see me today is to sound out information from me, right?"
"… That is a little too straightforward…"
"That's just the way we ancients are." Gawain waved his hand, thinking that those guys who had been dead for hundreds of years would not jump out of the grave to come and beat him up. At least, he was the only human to be able to do that, so he could say whatever he liked. "So you don't have to try to hide it. Your old man sent you here to get information on what my motives are coming out of my grave so suddenly, right?"
Edmund shrugged. "This is not what my father meant. He is very careful. Even if he wanted to learn about your motives, he won't do such a reckless thing as sending me to meet you. I came here of my own intention. And I… Indeed, I am curious about your purpose of coming here."
Gawain motioned for him to continue.
"You have been awake for so long. You must have known that many things have changed in these seven hundred years, especially… what happened a hundred years ago," Edmund said, glancing at Rebecca, "Are you here because of interest in the Cecil Clan? "
"This question is too vague. I definitely came in the interest of the Cecil Clan, but the question should be which aspect of it did I come for?" Gawain looked to the Prince. "From my point of view, there are many things that I can bring up in the interest of the Cecil Clan. The most obvious one being Cecil Clan's succession to the title of duke and the southern lands. That is a huge topic for debate, isn't it?"
Edmund froze for a moment. He seemed unsure whether Gawain was being serious or not, but he forced a smile and replied, "Your title and lands were inherited by your descendants after you died. Following that, your descendant violated the law of the kingdom and could no longer continue to retain their titles and lands. This is all according to the kingdom's laws… "
Gawain adjusted his posture, leaned toward Edmund, and gave an ambiguous smile as he said, "Yes, but according to the law, my heirs can only inherit my title and lands after I die. If I am alive, only my eldest son can take on a title that is one lower than mine and have the limited 'Right to act as representative' (See note in next paragraph). And all Cecil descendants apart from the eldest son will only have noble status but not have any legal rights to act as a substitute. Obviously, I'm alive now, and nothing in Anzu's law mentions, for the case of a resurrected person, when a right to succession should come into effect or become invalid, and how the conflicts that arise during the failure period should be dealt with."
(Right to act as representative, in Anzu's law, refers to the right of a qualified noble heir to act in the name of the clan, giving him the privileges and at the same time the responsibility for any risk of the undertaking.)
Edmund: "?!"
Gawain spread open his hand. "So in the first place, the succession is invalid. A hundred years ago, Grumman should not have been a marquis, nor should he have any legal rights to represent the Cecil Clan. You only took something from someone who was not even the right successor."
Rebecca looked at his ancestor, dumbstruck. She never thought that one could actually perform such a maneuver. Meanwhile, Amber, who was eavesdropping with her ear against the wall, turned and gave Sir Byron a look. "He's good! He's even more shameless than me! "
Prince Edmund's expression was almost on the verge of cracking. He twitched at the corner of his mouth. After some time, he finally said, "But when the law was enacted, who would have thought that you would come back to life…. Besides, you did die once."
"That is why when you're talking to me, put aside those logic and rules. They have become invalid the moment I opened my coffin," Gawain laughed. "Of course, I did not come in vengeance for the lands and titles taken from my descendants. I know what that good-for-nothing descendant did a hundred years ago. If I was there, I would have whipped him to death too. The decision from the royal family was not wrong, and I have no intention of overthrowing it. I just want to let you know that if I really wanted to nitpick over the kingdom's laws in the interest of the Cecil Clan, there would be many ways for me to do that because there's just a large part of the law that revolves around whether I died or not."
"Okay, okay, I understand." Edmund raised his hands in surrender. "You were saying that people 700 years ago were straightforward and not good at beating about the bush, but it seems now that you are even harder to deal with than my debate instructor."
"I have not only been through the early uncivilized years of Anzu, I have also experienced the Gondor Empire when it was at its peak, so don't underestimate an ancient from 700 years ago." Gawain curled his lips. "In uncivilized times, we can be savages that devour through feathers and raw meat, and in civilized times, we can give a wine 36 names, each name accompanied by a sonnet."
"… This is indeed impressive," Edmund submitted. "Can we then discuss in detail about what you are going to talk to my father about at noon tomorrow…"
Gawain nodded, thinking that this was just as he had expected. As compared to the meeting they would have in front of the public the next day, the real talks was actually taking place today…