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"Ah, Your Eminence, I'm glad I caught you!" Emperor Iedolas Aldercapt looked up from his desk, only to narrowly avoid a mouthful of wine-red hair belonging to his least favorite chancellor as the man draped himself dramatically across his desk.
"What do you want, Izunia," he asked flatly. The presence of Ardyn Izunia led to immense irritation, more often than not, and Aldercapt was not in the right mood to deal with the man's theatrics at the moment.
"Have you not heard the rumors bouncing off the walls of the Keep? The nobles are nervous about the lack of heir to the throne, since your last remaining child died a few months back." He paused, then added as an afterthought, "My condolences, by the way."
Iedolas's forehead dropped into his hands at that. "Timaeus always was such a fool; I'm surprised he lived as long as he did. Never liked him much, anyway," he said, almost more to himself than to his unwanted guest. He continued, more assertively, "Any particular reason you bring this up?"
Chancellor Izunia perked up, looking somehow even more gleeful than usual. "Why, in fact, I do! You know that my dear Versty has been doing genetics research, right? He may be able to provide you with a replacement heir. I know you've been working with him on increasing your lifespan indefinitely, but since you haven't the general public of your plans, the court thinks that your bloodline, and therefore your reign, is in a very precarious position, indeed."
"Let me get this straight: you're asking me to go to your boyfriend's science lab and pick out a designer heir, who I'll never actually need?"
"For appearance's sake only, Your Radiance. When all of your work on immortality comes to fruition, the heir will never see a single drop of political power. They'd be purely there to keep overly ambitious noblemen from attempting to usurp the throne before your pursuit of eternal life succeeds. You can claim that they're a bastard of poor Timaeus, if it suits you," Ardyn soothed the irritated Emperor.
"Very well, then. When shall I meet with Research Chief Besithia, then?"
In the two weeks since his visit to Ghorovas Rift, the Emperor has only seen his newest heir twice, and, as far as he was concerned, that was still two times too many. Toddlers were loud, sticky, annoying little things. No amount of sunflower-yellow hair or chubby cheeks could endear such annoyances to him. But he had to deal with the obnoxious little mess-maker today: little Prompto Aldercapt needed to be introduced to the populace. What would have been the point of selecting the little monster if he wasn't going to perform his one purpose in life?
The one good thing about the whole debacle was the fact that Ardyn was immediately smitten with the boy, spending all of his seemingly boundless energy on entertaining the boy, instead of causing the emperor extra headaches. Even now, he was two steps behind the emperor, carrying the little prince on one hip, softly reassuring the nervous toddler.
As they approached the doors to the ceremonial chambers the press conference was to be held in, the trio slowed to readjust the order in which they'd enter. Iedolas tried to take Prompto from Ardyn, but the boy immediately clung harder to the man's flowing coat and started whimpering.
"Now, now, my boy. You need to be brave for your Uncle Ardyn. Let your grandfather hold you for a little bit. He and I need to talk to some fancy people with big, flashy cameras, and we need you to be quiet for now." Prompto nodded, big eyes laser-focused on the man.
"S'keem?" Prompto asked. Iedolas had no clue what that was supposed to mean. It didn't mean anything in any language he knew, at least.
Ardyn, though, seemed perfectly able to translate the boy's attempts at speech. "Yes, dear, you can have ice cream after we're done here. Now, go to your grandfather." Once placated with a promise of a sweet treat, Prompto happily leaned toward the Emperor, who gingerly shifted him to carry the boy on his own hip. Once the pair was settled, Ardyn entered the chamber, both Aldercapts following closely behind. As soon as they entered the room, cameras started flashing wildly.
"May I have your attention, please! His Imperial Majesty, Iedolas Aldercapt has an important announcement to make!"