Okay, sorry this took so long, but I got roped into painting someone's room, and things have been stuck in limbo because of that - so-and-so needs their room ready so they can stop sleeping on the couch, etc...
Oh, and MD's servers crapping the bed, too. Argh.
So, as I mentioned in my previous post about bastard daughters and nobility... Yeah, that's kinda got me scratching my head a bit as well, so I'm gonna do a bit of deconstruction here.
As some of you have implied, rulers actually
have been assassinated in the past for
lesser offenses than this. In fact, I would even say that this is outright foolish and idiotic move for a ruler to make. Which leads me to believe that it's one of three things.
- The King actually is this foolish.
- Someone, likely the church, has some kind of leverage on him.
- The Saintess pulled some kind of mind-whammy on him.
Number 3 doesn't seem likely.
While Anna (The Saintess) seems to be confused about the scenario not playing out as it does in the game she played, she doesn't seem quite that desperate. But I wouldn't rule out her involvement entirely.
Now, I know ya'll are thinking, "But why would the Spirits make Anna the Saintess if she was going to do that?" Well, I don't think the Spirits are
quite as aligned with humanity here as you might be thinking. They're more interested in the world as a whole, and not just a couple of human nations. So if this is the case, then I believe it's a matter of someone being given enough rope to hang themselves. If this girl really does go down the wrong path, then she's very likely to cause all the people who are problematic to come out of the woodwork and side with her.
And once she falls out of grace, she'll wind up taking those people down with her. It'd be a very sad and sucktastic way for her to go, but it'd be par for the course as far as parables go. Hopefully, for her sake it will be evident that she really didn't realize the impact she was having and get off with a relative slap on the wrist - probably getting stripped of her noble status.
And really, seeing as how she has been absolutely heedless of noble etiquette, combined with her thinking this world is just a game, it is a very strong possibility that does not know the havoc she's wreaking.
Number 2 is probable.
Skimming earlier chapters, I was reminded that there was a plot to kill Rachel's dark spirit familiar. And after Priest Alois blew the whole thing wide open, any further investigation into the matter was hushed up by the church, stating that they'd handle the matter privately. They put a smokescreen on the whole thing by coming out with a proclamation about dark spirits and how they'd take no action against Rachel.
Which means there is very likely something going on in the background.
Poor Anna is just an unwitting pawn in this scenario. And given how easily she goes off trying to "play the game", I strongly suspect that the Church will attempt to use her as a marionette to influence politics to their favor.
Not that I believe she's confided with anyone about the whole "game" thing, but I suspect that people in the church have noticed that it's very easy to direct her with a few suggestions. All they'll have to say is that something is for the good of the people and the righteous thing to do, and then she'll be off on her mission as the hero of the story.
Number 1 strikes me as being the most likely.
This King seems to be a very ruthless sort, and his primary goal is to court popularity among the common folk. Which is actually pretty smart. If you're popular among the people you rule, then you're better able to spin the news however you like.
However.
We saw early on that there is still strife in the nation. Enough that the Crown Prince has made it his personal mission to help the citizens in his nation that are destitute once he becomes King.
That said... Popularity only takes you so far. This is what calls his actual wisdom into question for me.
As has been mentioned in the comments, there is the questionable wisdom of putting a girl who goes begging for favors into place as the future queen of their nation. Even if Anna won't have any actually delegated powers to her, being a King's Consort has it's own defacto political power. Having such a weak personality who'd go to anyone to get what
she wants for herself... yeah. That wouldn't fill me with any confidence at all.
In terms of realpolitik, someone like that would be far too easily swayed by bad actors. And if this King was truly wise? He would have seen that she'd be a liability the moment she went before him to ask for the Crown Prince's hand. Not unless Anna demonstrated that she had something more to offer than just being The Saintess.
But it has been specifically stated that he would prefer her to be the "Mother of the Nation". Which means that it's more than just a symbolic thing. He knows and understands that whatever she does is going to have an impact on their nation.
Also, we know that her sole leverage against the King has been that if she isn't given what she wants, then she'll go to the neighboring kingdom instead. It's obvious that the Crown Prince's informant heard the entire audience session, so it's not like there was any backroom deals being worked out. (At least, not that we know of, but I don't believe this is the case.)
Furthermore, there's the slap in the face that this involves.
The Noble Rank of the Rachel's family is "Marquess". And that's a pretty big fucking deal. While a Marquess is second to the highest Noble Rank of "Duke" (unless they have Grand Dukes or Archdukes), they are always entrusted with an incredibly important role: border territories.
What this means is that your family is implicitly entrusted not just with defending a portion of your nation's border,
but also receiving diplomats from neighboring nations. I cannot express how critical of a position this is. If you're a Marquess, you're wearing two hats - one as a military commander, and another as a diplomat.
What this means is that the daughter of a Marquess is absolutely perfect as a choice for a future King's Consort, and doubly so for one whose family has done nothing but shown unswerving loyalty and faith to the reigning sovereign.
But Anna, on the other hand, comes from a Baron's family. And we heard from the Teacher in Rachel's class that the title of Baron is the lowest ranked of the noble titles that are hereditary.
To put this into perspective, the typical noble ranks go like this, in order from lowest to highest:
Baron, Count/Earle, Marquess, Duke.
Baronets and Viscounts are subservient ranks and are typically not hereditary and not landed. Archdukes, on the other hand, are a higher level than dukes, but are typically only seen in empires where a prince needs a noble title in order to have the emperor delegate rulership of a region to them.
Anyhow, what this means is that Anna is trying to punch WAAAYYYY above her weight-class here by competing against a Marquess's daughter. Counts or Earles would typically be considered the bare minimum. Baronal families would need some very unique circumstances to even be considered for a marriage to the Crown Prince.
With this in mind, I feel that there are two ideal solutions.
One would be to betroth Anna to either the Second or Third Princes. Putting a girl with a personality like this as the future King's Consort is way too risky. She has absolutely no education in statesmanship - she can't even exercise proper etiquette! Putting her with one of the other two princes will limit whatever damage she might do while "keeping her in the family".
The other would be to let her go to that neighboring kingdom, but with a quid pro quo in place. For one thing, it's not like these two nations are on bad terms with each other. After all, the King married
their princess, and
she is the mother of the Crown Prince. It would be absolutely ridiculous - insulting, even - to say you don't have any political relations with your neighboring country in a case like this, even if there has been some bad blood in the past.
As for the quid pro quo? That would be that any daughters she has be sent back to be perspective brides for the next generation of royal princes. It would a perfectly fair trade - their neighbors get a Saintess, and in return any girls that have the potential to become another Saintess go back to them.
And it would be perfectly sensible make this into a traditional "Hostage Swapping" deal, as this was the traditional meaning of the word "hostage" - you, as a host, take in a hostage while sending them one of your own as a hostage. In return, the hostages are cared for as if they were you own family because their well-being is your assurance that whatever dealings you have with their family are upfront and straightforward.
It also helps that these daughters would likely be blood relations to Crown Prince's mother - very likely her nieces or grandnieces.
And these are just the most obvious solutions to me.
But the fact that this King doesn't seem to be entertaining any of these options... Like the old saw that was derived from Shakespear's tragedy, Hamlet, goes,
"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark."
