The royal storm over the choice of an heir to the throne

As time passed, Cleopatra VII grew up to be a 16-year-old princess.

The king was so fond of Cleopatra VII that he gave her a special birthday dinner to celebrate.

On the day of her 16th birthday, the palace was decorated with decorations and Cleopatra VII, dressed in her birthday dress made by the King, was running around the palace with joy!

The kitchen already smelled of all kinds of delicacies, and before long, all kinds of exquisite dishes were on the table.

The King, Queen Cleopatra VI, Princess Cleopatra VII, Princess Arsinoe IV, Prince Ptolemy XIII and Prince Ptolemy XIV gathered around a table to enjoy the delicacies together.

The King presented Cleopatra VII with a mysterious birthday gift, which she opened with surprise and joy and curiosity, her eyes transfixed by the radiance of the dazzling seven-coloured gems! "Father, thank you! This is the most beautiful crown I have ever seen! Will you put the crown on my head?" Cleopatra VII looked at the dazzling jewel-set crown in her hands and happily asked the king to place it on her.

"My dear little princess, you are welcome! This is the first crown I ever gave your mother, and it is only fitting that you should have it on this day when you turn sixteen!" The king said as he put the crown on her and looked at her with delight. "You look even more beautiful than your mother when you wear the crown!"

Cleopatra VI dined in silence as her daughter, Arsinoe IV, saw the crown on Cleopatra VII's head and a strong jealousy welled up in her heart! She said with some displeasure, "Father, that crown is worth a great deal of money, a treasure only fit for a queen to wear, you should have given her to my mother now Queen Cleopatra VI, why did you give her such a valuable crown as a birthday present?"

"Arsinoe, I gave you a beautiful crown for your birthday too, have you forgotten? This crown is indeed fit only for a queen! And Cleopatra VII will inherit the throne and run the country after my death! It is fitting that the crown fit for a queen should be given to her now! For today I especially propose to say that Princess Cleopatra VII will succeed to the throne after my death!" The King looked at Arsinoe and announced, "I feel that my health has become somewhat overwhelmed, and I have therefore made a will that Cleopatra VII and Ptolemy XIII will succeed me to the throne together after my death when they are married!"

"It is only natural that Ptolemy XIII should inherit the throne! By what right does Cleopatra VII have the right to the throne?" Alcinoy said unconvincingly.

"Because she is the daughter of the Queen, who told me of her strange dreams before she left the palace, and her dreams and the meteor shower I saw at the birth of Cleopatra VII prove that Cleopatra VII is the reincarnation of the gods, and that Cleopatra VII is the most suitable person to inherit the throne, both in terms of lineage and divine instructions! " The king said solemnly in order to convince everyone present.

"I am also a princess and I am also entitled to the throne, so why did you choose Cleopatra VII as the heir and not me?" Alcinoy felt aggrieved and her tone was mixed with exasperation and defiance: "My mother is the current queen and I am the real princess! And she, Cleopatra VII, is nothing but a motherless bastard! She has no right to inherit the throne!"

"Don't talk nonsense! Cleopatra VII's mother was a true queen of noble birth, who retired to practice because she was unwell, and it was for this reason that your mother had the chance to become queen, and I treated my two queens' children fairly. The throne! Cleopatra VII is the only Egyptian-speaking member of the Ptolemaic dynasty who has mastered ten languages, and she is a very social and popular person ...", said the King, complimenting his daughter Cleopatra. The king could not help praising his daughter, Cleopatra VII. The king thought to himself, "If her mother had been around, she would have been proud to have such a daughter!"

Alcinoy covered his ears and said, "I don't want to hear it! You are too biased, Father! ..." she said, leaving the table and running angrily to her room.

All the rest dined in silence, when Cleopatra VII suddenly asked a question, "Father, I am your daughter and Ptolemy XIII is your son, is it appropriate for me to marry him?"

The king smiled and said to Cleopatra VII: "Our imperial family of the Ptolemaic dynasty has ruled Egypt for nearly three centuries. It may seem incredible that we have our own rule in our family that a sister marries her brother, but in the history of our family's and the royal families of the surrounding countries, it was not uncommon for royal pharaohs to marry close relatives in order to keep the bloodline pure and the divinity alive. Your marriage to Ptolemy XIII will ensure the purity of the royal bloodline so that our Ptolemaic imperial family will continue to be pure and divine in order to run the country ..."

Seeing that neither her own daughter nor her sons seemed satisfied with the king's decision, Cleopatra VI asked carefully, "My dear king, does the matter of the heir to the throne require any more serious consideration?"

Hearing the Queen's words, the King said with certainty, "My mind is made up! The will has been made! Although the matter of the heir to the throne is not to everyone's satisfaction, I will not change it any more! Well, that's enough talk about the heir to the throne for today, after the meal we can dance and sing and relax, today I have to play the flute properly ...." The king took a large sip of his wine and said while he was in the mood for it.