Opportunity always came with danger, but Marcus, the Empire's chancellor, had long since grown accustomed to finding opportunities of his own amid chaos.
At that moment, he hovered above the center of the square, maintaining his gravity domain while his mind raced through ways to turn this sudden crisis into leverage to cement his power.
First, under the pretext of "putting down the Demon King Cult's rebellion," he could implicate the noble families that usually opposed him, then slap them with charges of "secretly colluding with the Demon King Cult." That would give him every justification to crush his rivals and confiscate their lands and assets.
Second, Crown Prince Finn had performed abysmally during this incident. First, a condemned prisoner had publicly argued him into speechlessness, and then he had panicked when the explosion occurred.
Once the subsequent investigation uncovered that steward's exact identity, if he really was more than an ordinary man and had taken control of the Crown Prince...
Then, after the Crown Prince overthrew the emperor, Marcus could join forces with the other nobles to depose Finn outright and take that seat as the Empire's regent.
But if that steward really was just an ordinary man, Marcus could still use Finn's disgraceful performance to tighten his hold over him, making him depend even more on his reliable chancellor.
As long as he handled everything properly in the end, he could still wield the Empire's true power from behind the scenes as the minister assisting the throne.
At that thought, a smug smile crept onto Marcus's lips.
He had already begun imagining himself seated upon the pinnacle of power, looking down over the assembled ministers.
"Hm?"
Just then, a fierce attack suddenly shot up from below.
Marcus snapped back to his senses and twisted aside to dodge it.