I wonder if they hope that Shirley's death will cause another wolf lord rebellion on a grander scale so the prince would 100% be the next heir (whether the prince wants it or not). I'm also wondering if the princess is another reincarnated family member..
Some theories:
2.1. Unfortunately, Shirley is detained over valid (if false) pretenses. She's currently being investigated for the king's murder. My assumption is that Prince Marsh's faction want to expose the princess as the murderer AFTER she's taken an innocent life, therefore cementing her as a tyrant who needs to be removed from the throne.
2.1.1. There's also no way Caid would rebel knowing that Shirley is still alive and the princess could just kill her in retaliation. That might also be part of the reason Shirley "needs to" die, so that Caid has nothing holding him back and he can blindly side with the revolution. It's the same logic they employed when thinking that Ezador "had to" die for Caid to return to Reius (although he only did so because of Shirley's guilt, not his own).
2.2. Most likely, yes. I also think part of it has to do with Prince Marsh's ability as a leader, although this is purely conjecture. While the king were alive he would still keep the crown, so murdering the princess would put the prince in a position of questionable authority but still give time to earn his right on the throne until the king's natural passing. With the king dead, however, there's a chance that killing the princess just leads to a power vacuum that the other nobility (non-prince faction) will struggle over. Call the princess a tyrant and put the prince (unwillingly?) at the helm of the whole revolution, however....it's the same situation that Caid himself was in, and he has unequivocal control over Reius.
2.3. Noble politics is like 5d chess with multiversal time travel, so I really don't know here. My best guess would be that, at the end of the day, the prince's faction doesn't actually care about the prince or anybody around him, they only care about results, and this might be the plan with the 'best' results (also they already killed Ezador to get Caid to go back to Reius, so there's a non-zero chance Caid just tells them to go to hell if he finds out).
2.4. Because everybody else already drank the princess kool-aid. The ones who wanted to remove her were already trying, but the princess herself says over and over that she's so loved that she deserves and more or less gets everything she wants (Caid notwithstanding), which is gross but also something a very successful cult leader can say.
2.5. At this point, the prince's faction is probably just the anti-princess faction. It definitely sounds like they don't give a shit about his feelings and only want him in the throne because he's the lesser of two evils. Once he's in the throne, I'm sure any of his supporters would gladly take the crown from him given the chance.
OMG, thanks so much!!
This really helped 'cause my head kinda spun a bit w/this chapter
So,
1.
The assassins during the ball wasn't set up by the princess, but was actually meant FOR the princess, BY the prince faction. MC unintentionally thwarted a plan that could've ended the brat's madness
2.
The prince faction instead, decided to have the brat fall from grace. BUT, I have a few questions:
2.1
Why do they need Shirley as a scape goat /have her killed?
They could've just added her detainment as another reason for the brat's madness and ineligibility to rule. Will the cons of having Reius and Gimmy(?) become an enemy outweight the pros of such endeavours?
If Caid puts his mind to it, he can start a rebellion (I hope).
2.2
Assuming the faction's reach in the palace is deep, why not set up another band of assassins to kill the princess?
Because they can't think of a way to make it untraceable to the prince? (Ie his eligibility decreases if he's incriminated in the death of the princess)
2.3
Given the amount of damage the brat did to them, why maintain MC and co as enemies? Wouldn't if be more helpful for the deluded faction to have them as allies, esp when after the brat is out of the picture?
2.4
If they were aware of her madness, why empower her at all???
2.5
Exactly how do they think the prince will take this in after everything?
What if the prince discovered everything and found a way to pass the throne to someone else, out of guilt?
3.
This arc better have sufficient story significance. It better not be this tragic just to put its audience and main cast through the wringer. (PLEASE. It's a really good story so far, please keep it so.)