Senator Kohana was in his carriage, headed home after the short Senate meeting with the king, and his mind was not at rest.
Memories of the recently concluded Senate meeting with the King kept replaying in his mind over and over again.
Especially the part of him getting put down by the king through his wit and skills in public conversations. It made him upset.
His trivial thoughts, however, were focused on Senator Subaru, with whom he had fallen in love, most likely because of her charisma.
Despite all the odds, he was determined to take her to be his wife, even though several other nobles had tried and failed.
It seemed she was not interested in settling down to start a family just yet, and he wondered when she would be, given the fact that she was approaching her thirties and was not getting any younger.
The memories of her wit and charisma, which were powerful enough to even keep the king on edge during the meeting, stuck in his mind.
He thought he was getting too old to fall in love (given that he was in his mid-thirties) until he fell for Subaru.
But she wasn't the factor that bothered him the most—it was the king.
He was never a supporter of Atsushi Watanabe becoming king, and whenever he saw the King exercise his ruling authority in the throne room or at the round table, it made him mad.
You see, he was a working senator under the previous king, Renju Watanabe, and was an avid supporter of his.
He was also the subordinate who saw the King as his mentor and close friend, and due to their close relationship, he was easily promoted from an average noble to a senator without adhering to the formal process.
He found favor in the eyes of the old king and had always been a strong follower.
Many openly speculated that he would become the next king, given the fact that the old Renju Watanabe was seen as his close friend and mentor.
Kohana allowed these theories and rumours to get to his head and gradually became too ambitious, forgetting that it would be the wish of any dying old king to keep his dynasty in possession of the throne for as long as possible.
Eventually, like every old king, he fell sick, and everyone knew it would lead to his death. So when the time came for him to make his decision on who would be the acting ruler and eventually the next King in Kohana's presence, he chose his son instead, Prince Atsushi Watanabe.
Kohana was so angry that he left the room the moment he heard this and went into seclusion.
Eventually, the dying king called for him, and he went to him believing he had finally changed his mind, only to meet the King asking him to support his son when he becomes the ruler.
Kohana was strongly against Prince Atsushi becoming king, not just because of his ambitions but because he saw no leadership qualities in him whatsoever.
Prince Atsushi had little to no experience in politics and was mostly apathetic to the matters arising, instead preferring to shut himself up in the Royal Library for several hours until his guardian would physically drag him away to do other things.
He may know how to absolve political matters, but his lack of experience was what stood out and disqualified him.
Other senators were not in support of this, mainly those who were close to Kohana, mostly in the hopes of a major promotion once he became king. So they were not in support of this either.
That was why they made up their minds to frustrate Atsushi's leadership once he came into power.
Eventually, King Renju Watanabe died, and Atsushi Watanabe, his son, was made king. Initially not intending to change the senators his father had chosen to be part of the governing body, he kept their positions intact for the moment.
Kohana and his colleagues took advantage of this and decided to exploit the young king's naivete in multiple ways.
But what they did not take into account was the fact that the young King also had experienced supporters who stood by his father's decision to make him king and would therefore stand against anyone willing to oppose it in any way.
It was thanks to these supporters that the corrupt practices of many members of the Senate were exposed. And as a result of this, most of Kohana's followers were expelled from the Senate.
This was what reduced the members of the senate from a group of over twenty to only eight in number until the king appointed nobles as acting senators until further notice, which made them twelve in number.
All this was why he never supported the new king and merely tolerated him. He believed if there was anybody qualified to be the new king, it should be himself and nobody else.
For several years he had this resentment towards the King but could not act on it as his followers would easily expose him at the slightest hint of disloyalty, which might get him expelled from the Senate.
Even though that was highly unlikely given his philanthropic persona bought by the masses, he still had to be careful and figure out a subtle way to overthrow the current king without a direct assault on the throne.
It was then that it occurred to him.
"Stop!" he commanded the carriage rider, who drew back the reins of the horses, bringing the vehicle to a stop as soon as he could.
"What is it, Master?" asked the rider.
"Head back to the Royal Province at once," he commanded.
"But sir, we are already halfway back to your home," said the rider, looking back at his master.
"I will not be repeating myself, slave!" Kohana said.
The slave simply bowed his head and redirected the horses to the opposite side of the road, heading back to the Royal Province.
Senator Kohana smiled mischievously as he stared at the sky as if admiring the rising sun at the brightening horizon.
"This might work," he thought, "it just might..."
......
(Author's Note: This begins a new volume of this project, and I'm very excited about it. Thank you all so much for being a part of it, and I hope you enjoy it.
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