Your late father was neither exceptional nor bad as a ruler: he was not unfair; he had a penchant for temporarily raising taxes to support public works projects; he discontinued his father's traditions of spending royal treasury gold on excesses of wine, women, opium, and pointless "border wars" with nations separated from the British Empire's homeland by the sea. Had he followed a great king, he would look useless by comparison. Having followed a terrible king, he was a comfortingly
sane ruler. The battlecaster-led colonization under his rule of the African lands to the south has been efficient without being brutal, though the expedition to Cathay led to some idiot captain offending the national pride of some Cathayan battlecasters, "Jade Demons," who sunk his command ship without leaving the shore and sent the rest of the fleet home in shame. Other than that incident, there'd been little to complain about under your father's rule. You like to think that was as true for all classes as it was for you and the other nobles, though you admit you honestly aren't sure.
You find yourself unwilling to think about why you actually stabbed him.
... Wait...
You
probe yourself mentally by thinking about specific circumstances before or after. You recall going to talk to him about a messenger from... from...
You have a godsdamned mental block in your mind. Your reluctance to think about the circumstances of the king's death wasn't just because you killed your father. But any mind-altering Arts Arcane are highly illegal... the royal library has information on them as a matter of historical importance, but not even the royal family is legally permitted to use them.
This is almost as disconcerting as his death itself.