If you decline Pia’s offer to join when she first visits, you don’t go through any of the council of crowns stuff and instead just rule indefinitely. Eventually, though, the royal advisor comes to talk to you about a “personal matter” and asks you out. It takes quite a while though, often only happening in the post 100 days
I was just looking for some random strategy game to pass the time, but I ended up liking this one way more than I expected! The art style is a really cool blend of pixel art for the maps and animations but full art for the character portraits, which really sells the Fire Emblem vibe. I was surprised at how many campaigns there were as well, right now I've only done the tutorial and first one but I'll be doing the others definitely. Good job!