"By imperial decree!" The edict attendant accepted the command.
"By the clan decree!" The chief director of the imperial clan accepted the decree.
Deposing or appointing a Crown Prince was no ordinary matter. It required not only an imperial decree, but also a clan decree.
For this concerned not only affairs of state, but affairs of the imperial clan.
Yet neither the laws of the state nor the rules of the imperial clan could tolerate a rebel who plotted against his sovereign and father.
The ministers below were led by the chancellor. If anyone wished to oppose this decree deposing the Crown Prince, the chancellor should have taken the lead and argued his case. Yet the two earlier revelations had already crushed him. Barely able to save himself, how could he dare step forward?
Once the decree was issued, His Majesty held the Imperial Seal, his hand trembling slightly.
To others, this was a sovereign's inner struggle. Deposing the Crown Prince with his own hands, personally bringing his son's path to an end-of course he would struggle.
No one could have imagined that His Majesty was terrified.
For once he stamped the Imperial Seal, one thing would be proven: whether the remedy for "Karmic Misalignment" actually worked.
If it worked, everything remained under control.
If it failed, everything would spiral out of control.
It was because he could not command the Imperial Seal that he had needed the Crown Prince to govern as regent.
If he deposed the Crown Prince and still could not command the Imperial Seal, the realm of House Hong would likely be left battered by wind and rain.
At that point, the question would no longer be whether he could hold his throne, but whether his branch of the imperial clan could survive at all.
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