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After that little incident I was finally given the respect I was due by the imperial nobility because those that saw themselves as my betters had their eyes opened and those that plotting against me seemed to curb their desires unfortunately there were exceptions third prince Stephen and second prince Alexander although prince Alexander was not intentionally trying to work against me it was his presence that caused it.

Second prince Alexander wanted to recruit me to his faction in his fight for the throne so that he can claim to indirectly have the support of his sister Princess Margaret who currently is the unofficial candidate for the throne and the only one that has the high pontiff's support and I was engaged to Melissa Verde of the Verde family who is currently the only imperial noble family that has a viable connection with both the Beast Empire and the Elven Aristocracy as all others are just desperate hangers on the most important key element was the fact I was forming a faction of unaffiliated imperial nobles that could bolster his faction.

The third prince Stephen was against me for all the aforementioned reasons for why prince Alexander wanted me as he believed that imperial nobility should have any power and the fact I a common noble rose to power was an affront to him and the empire as he saw that as me breaking the status quo which would lead instability throughout the empire at least that is what he claimed the real reason was that Anastasia Walker was my mistress and was going to be my concubine which was the whole reason he was fighting for the throne and why he was so invested in the military and when he heard that she finally accepted a husband he immediately had this confirmed then enrolled as soon as he could using the second prince as an excuse how do I know this it is because I heard it from Anastasia herself.

Princess Margaret is currently acting as a neutral party in all of this as she can not take sides one way or the other as she has no interest in acquiring the throne as she has her goal set on becoming a goddess and would need to abdicate it once she became one after she ascends anyway but doing so without producing an heir would cause trouble in the line of succession leading to civil war if she did conceive an heir she would greatly weakened directly following it's birth which is likely when the gods and their apostles would strike in order to remove her as a potential threat to their continued existence as gods don't trust indigenous demigods from usurping power from them to become gods.

It feels needless to say that I have some how acquired host of new problems just breathing and only seemed to create more through inaction meaning I need to further increase my power base affective immediately otherwise I will be stuck in a war of political intrigue and the the longer I wait the less likely are my chances of survival.