He felt like he was about to cry.
"A-a a b-Bed!" Scratch that, this guy was crying right now.
Three months in the outskirts. Three months of sleeping on nothing but hard cardboard and steel sheet had made him fully aware of the luxuries he had been privy to back in his previous world. As they say, one does not know the value of things until deprived of them.
The room didn't matter, taking a bath didn't matter, the clothes didn't matter, not even the food placed for him on the table matter. The only thing that mattered to Ashoka right now was the white, comfortable-looking bed in front of him.
He leapt like a cat, diving towards the bed from almost halfway across the room. Only the soft embrace of the fluffed up blanket awaited him.
"Am I dead..." Words escaped his mouth as he sank into the bed
Something about "analyzing the rules of the crown" And "preparing for the nightmare" Appeared at the back of his head. Nah, fuck that...
He snuggled deeper into the blanket, curling up like a cat. "Because I feel like I'm in heaven..."
This guy slept all day. Afternoon turned into night, and night turned into morning.
Ashoka only woke up from his slumber when the first rays of sunshine passed through the window, hitting his face.
Faahhhh... That was also when he realized how much he fucked up.
"A day wasted just like that." He sighed, once again having the urge to scream at himself. He quickly got up from the bed, even if his body protest, and started looking around in his room.
Soon, he found a stack of paper and a metal lined quill along with some some ink bottles. It took him half an hour to figure out how everything worked. It turns out you could only use a quill on slanted surfaces!
"And now, to the fun part." It was time to study. Oh how much he hated doing that. He quickly wrote the rules that were written on the pillar, those that were important to him in this nightmare.
["For once a day, the King's word is the absolute law in the land of Casamir."]
Ashoka rumaged through his memories, trying to remember what he had found out using his ability. Information quickly appeared in his head.
He divided the rules of the crown, those he had written down, into two categories. The first was "power to the kings" And the second one was the "inheritance" rules.
This first rule was of the first kind. In simple terms, it gave the king authority to create "smaller" rules. Every day, the king had the authority to proclaim a single law. This law was also permanent, just like the rules of the crown, and was also on the same strength as them. But, of course, their were limitations. One of them being that they couldn't interfere with the already established original rules of the crown in any way, otherwise, the law would be considered null.
This was also why there was almost no way that he could find where he would be stealing the crown without any bloodshed.
["From the moment of establishment, the king will sense intent that threatens him and his kingdom."]
Danger premonition. This was basically what it meant. As long as someone planned and subsequently acted on doing anything that harmed the king or his kingdom, the crown will directly inform the king of it and the approximate time period in which the event will occur.
When Ashoka had first read it, he had been quiet frankly horrified, thinking he was already detected and about to be sent to the gallows to be hanged. He was even prepared to use his mystical eloquence powers to gaslight himself into thinking he wasn't conspiring against the crown. Of course, all that worry was for naught when he found out about the priority sequence list.
In that list was the priority high alert system. If an element from the priority sequence list was considered dangerous enough, the crown will initiate a priority danger alert, overriding all other danger alert to favour that one in particular. Luckily, instead of him, it was the defiled ichor of the Sin-bearer that was on the priority high alert.
If he was in story right now, this would definitely be considered plot armour, but Ashoka didn't care as he could only thank the heavens for his incredible luck.
["The essence of the crown is truly unveiled once the king matches its intent."]
This rule was the one that gave Eldrin the power of distortion. He still remembered that smug look on that brat's face when he had realised what was done.
In simple term, with accords to the level of favourability the king recieved from the crown, the crown in return would provide the beyonder powers of the black emperor pathway up to a certain sequence. Eldrin's favourablity was "mild to favourable" Which in turn, provided him powers equivalent of a mentor of disorder.
The crown would also "distort" The awakened level of the king to a quasi rank one above their original. This "level up" was provided to the king irrespective of their favourability. From what he had gathered, Eldrin, who was previously an ordinary kid, had his level distorted to that of a dormant human with essence control.
Essence control... A strange idea suddenly formed in his mind.
It should work if I play my cards right, and it would give me an overwhelming advantage as a sleeper...
Alright, on to the next rule!
["The mantle of the crown rests upon the king's head for as long as they live."]
Ashoka face twisted into a grimace reading that line. This, this was the thing that was knawing at his insides. With a sigh, he moved onto the next rule.
["The crown is strict in its succession. Only those officially from the Royal bloodline and those formally chosen by the crown can be the contenders who have the right to inherit it."]
Now this was what he needed to analyse. From what information he got, the first thing he realised was that the "inheritance" Was actually something the crown itself had directly inforced.
For most of the rules, the crown only acted as an honorary object used to mark the one to wear it with the title of the king. Other than that, it was mostly passive, not even involving itself in the law making process. But the one thing that it did involve itself heavily in was the inheritance process.
The "king", with the power of the pillar, could do all sorts of things. As the ruler of his kingdom, almost everything was possible, yet the one thing that he couldn't do was actually deciding his own heir. This was an unchangeable rule even for the mighty king, a twisted manifestation of the hierarchy authority of the black emperor uniqueness.
Using some strange criteria Ashoka didn't know, and assisted by the pillar, the crown, after the death of the previous king, would assign one of the "contender" as the true heir, passing on the mantle of the crown to them. In the case that there was no contender alive, the crown would instead assign a random family in a 150 km radius of the pillar as the "Royal bloodline", turning those from it into the contenders.
Another thing was that only those who were publicly and officially recognized to be from the king's family were allowed to be contenders for the crown, so there couldn't be a bastard son of the king or the princes who would magically inherit the crown in an unexpected plot twist
Now there was also the times when the crown would pick a special individual not from the Royal bloodline to be a contender. In fact, Ashoka was one of them. He guessed that being the one and only beyonder of the lawyer pathway and being a quasi proxy to the nation of disorder would have created enough convergence effect to directly turn him into one the heirs of the crown.
Now he just had to find out what that criteria was, as that might be the key to successfully taking the crown for himself. But, perhaps due to his innate ability being sealed, he had been unable to glimpse that particular secret, though he doubted it would take him long to figure it out.
Now some smartasses might have thought of just killing all the other contenders to become the sole heir to the crown, and for those people, there was the last rule of the crown.
["Even amongst royalty, treachery against the crown is prohibited. Even if successful, the worse of crimes entail the worst of punishments."]
This rule insured that any attempts by the contenders to harm the king or the other contenders in an attempt to seize the crown would result in an eventual failure and harsh punishment.
Even if the perpetrators somehow succeeded in eliminating the king and all the contenders, the crown would make sure that that person would loose their eligibility to inherit the crown, instead, a new Royal bloodline will be chosen by the crown.
Of course, almost everyone knew this tidbit about the crowns inheritance. But what Ashoka found out was even more detailed, mainly concerning the process of picking the new Royal Family incase of a successful coup.
When the king is killed, the first thing that happens is that the crown would leave the King's Head, becoming illusory and untouchable to almost everyone. In this state, in a matter of a few seconds, the crown will choose the next Royal Family and pick the "king" from among the members of that family. With that done, the crown will then forsake the one to betray the crown of his eligibility to inherit the crown, and imparting harsh punishment on the guilty, and only after all that, will the mantle of the crown be passed onto the next king.
This was how the crown was transferred. Now, he just needed to find a way to exploit it.
He still wanted to find out how the crown could detect a coup in progress. He knew there were limit to its surveillance ability, unlike what almost everyone seemed to think, believing it to be some omniscient power.
The crown couldn't even stop a corrupted devil from breaking it's rules, how could it possibly be awa-knowing?Just the fact that it had an apparatus for a scenario of a successful coup was proof enough. There were holes in its surveillance and now, he just had find out where.
With a deep sigh, Ashoka pushed his chair from the desk, silently gazing at his notes.
"This is what I have to deal with..." He slumped on his chair as another deep sigh escaped his mouth. He noted that he had been doing that a lot recently.
In the next second, a cool and soothing sensation of something dissolving into his soul washed over his entire body as he felt his potion slowly digesting bit by bit.
"Huh? I guess studying the law is also a form of acting." Ashoka muttered to himself.
Another revision later, he took the pages in his hand and attempted to burn the corner using his spirituality. After some time, he finally succeeded.
"This trick sure is useful, I don't even need to learn how to create a fire." He mused, watching as the pages silently turned to ash, scattering in the wind.
After taking a long awaited and refreshing bath, he changed into some new clothes.
Just then, he felt commotion brewing outside his room as he heard someone knocking at Eldrin's room's door. The rubber-necker inside him suddenly awoke as he moved near his door.
Opening the door and taking a look outside, he asked one of the guards stationed outside; "Did something happen?"
"Prince Oswald is back. His majesty asked to be informed of his arrival as soon as possible, hence the running around." The soldier replied. Ashoka frowned at the last part.
"Is it because of the farmer's case yesterday?" He asked the guard, just then, a hand covered his mouth to silence him.
"Shh-! We're not supposed to talk about that!" the guard said in a hushed whisper.
" What?!" Ashoka asked, confused.
"You seriously don't know? His majesty has ordered everyone not to discuss yesterday's court case openly, especially to the prince himself!" The guard was almost screaming at this point.
So we're keeping it a secret from him, huh? Ashoka thought to himself.
Just then, the sound of heavy footsteps resounded from the end of the corrider, causing both him and the guard to freeze, turning their head towards the source of the noise.
There, he saw the figure of a man, slowly walking towards the king's chamber. His stature was tall and proud, yet his gaze hazy. A deep frown creased his brow as if suffering a severe headache while a hideous burn scar marred his left cheek. His face...his face—
His face was that of the second prince, and so was his presence, the presence of an ascended, though much weaker.
This was the twin brother of prince Gaius, the third prince.
He was prince Oswald, or Ascended Oswald.
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[A/N: sorry this chapter was mostly info dumps and exposition and all :\]