Two days had passed since Nathan's quiet arrival in Kastoria's capital, and the morning of the third day arrived carrying an entirely different quality than those that had preceded it.
Today was the ceremony.
The occasion in which Ryuuji, entirely unaware of the political machinery his existence had set in motion—would be formally declared Heir to the Kastorian Throne before gods, nobles, and the assembled witnesses of an entire kingdom.
The castle had been building toward this moment since Nathan arrived, each day adding another layer of preparation to the one before it. But this morning the accumulated energy reached something close to its peak—maids and workers moving through the corridors with the focused urgency of people who understood that the last details carried disproportionate significance, that everything done in the final hours would be what people actually remembered.
