Succession can now be dismissed as "I'm immortal".
The main point was to gain religious legitimacy for political power. The nobles revere spirits and use their spirit connections to shore up their power; Euphie went over their head, harking back to the founding of the country.
Most monarchies aren't 'absolute' even in name, and the ones that are, still aren't in reality. A likely outcome to your scenario is that the monarch gets ganked and replaced by some new monarch, either a strong noble or a puppet agreeable to the other power players.
The system is already "an...
Why do you think Anis should have won? She's good, but so is Euphie. "Genius young lady" is Euphie.
Besides, I think she cheated -- I think Euphie's "combine, become" was her becoming a spirit contractor right in the middle of the battle. Thus the panel-cut to Lumi.
Oh, on the Futaribeya tangent: yeah, I think it got muddled. As I've said elsewhere, I didn't need to see them being explicit, but it would have been nice to have some clarity as to what was going on. Was Sakurako getting sexual satisfaction? Were they just bonded friends with one-sided...
Glad to see some old Eri-haters recanting. :)
Author: "The sky was blue."
Readers: "What did she mean by this??? Was it green??
I jest! Though I'm also reminded of RPG writer Rebecca Borgstrom, who had a reputation for being hard to understand mostly because readers kept assuming her weird...
It doesn't have to last forever. It just has to last 50-60 years. :p
More seriously... look, the two of them are already practically soulbonded in every way except sex. Eri has always put Fuyuki above her actual boyfriends. Getting laid with senpai did not divert Fuyuki's feelings at all...