As one would expect from a ceremony taking place only hours after the death of previous king, the coronation ceremony was hastily put together. Madison only needed the nobles to attend, so they were the only ones she had brought to the royal palace. For some, it took force, but most realized that resistance wasn’t a really an option. It took only a few hours to get all the families she wanted rounded up and ready to receive her message. There was a healthily sized mob of commoners watching from outside the castle walls.

Both Demon and human soldiers stood watch, keeping anyone that tried to get in out. The told the city folk that the queen would address them at a future date and tried to disperse the crowd, but their words fell on deaf ears. It seemed that the people wanted to see their king—or at least, what remained of him.

Protests were only natural in Madison’s eyes. Many people had seen her kill the king with her own two hands. Even if the people who watched her due it was mostly loyal, the news would get out sooner than later—if it hadn’t already. After they learned the truth, people would see her as a power-hungry traitor and want her off the throne.

It didn’t matter if there were rebellions though. The only thing that could actually stand as a threat to her reign were The Adamantites, the Guild’s absolute strongest members. If one of them came during the early days of her rule, it would be trouble… but that was unlikely. The rank was notorious for its inactive members, and none of them would care enough about a small, unimportant country like Barnock to do anything. As such, that left only the inhabitants of Barnock to worry about, and Madison was confident that she could deal with any rebellion swiftly and efficiently. She was, after all, an ability user.

Madison was in a makeup room getting ready when a servant knocked on the door.

Her response was brief, “Come in.”

A servant with a menacing look on her face and an arm behind her back, “Good to see you, your majesty.”

“Make it brief, what’s your intent?” The Princess was filing her nails, seemingly indifferent to her guest.

“You murdered the king!” The servant brandished a knife, “That man gave me a home!”

Madison didn’t even look up at her aggressor, “Murder is a bit harsh, no? I think he would have been happy with what I did—knowing that there were no casualties on either side.” She sighed, “But I suppose its unfair to expect someone like you to understand that. If you’re going to try to assassinate me, make it quick. I don’t have all day.”

The servant charged at the would-be queen with vigor. Her knife was a long and very sharp butcher’s knife. With a stabbing motion, she ran the blade through Madison’s chest, slipping it between the ribcage and into the heart.

“Impressive resolve, I guess.” Madison was bleeding profusely, but her tone remained disinterested and her breathing unchanged, “You’ll make a good thrall.” She grabbed the servant’s hand with impossible strength and a snapping sound came from their wrist, probably as a result of broken bones. “So two options, really. A merciful death or a painful one. Which one will it be?”

The servant, unable to escape the princess’ grasp, answered with a punch to the face.

“Very well then. We’ll go with immolation.” She snapped her finger and in an instant, the servant was at the epicenter of a violent inferno, “This is my late sister’s spell. It wasn’t meant for use on humans, but it does the job quite well nonetheless, don’t you agree?”

The servant was on the floor, writhing in agony. Her skin was starting to blacken as it tore itself apart at the seams. It took a full, excruciating minute of terrorized screaming before death finally came.

“I’ll take that as a yes then.” The princess pulled the knife from her chest and cast a spell. It began repairing itself with at a frightening speed. After that, she washed off the blood with some water and put on a different dress.

After she finished fixing her makeup, she stooped down to the dried husk of a corpse below and put her hand on its forehead. “Rise,” she said. With that, the corpse whirred into motion. Its movements were clumsy and rigid, but with some effort, the creature stumbled onto its feet and stood. “Your body is too destroyed to do anything useful for me, go to the Blight Lord and have him cannibalize you. I’ve put his location into your memories, so you should be able to find him without trouble.”

With a robotic gait, the thrall left the room. Madison also left the room but went in a separate direction—toward the throne room, where the coronation would be taking place.