Drawbacks

"Drawbacks?" Kalim looked to her in confusion, "How is there a problem?"

Ren who remained quiet in thought for a while spoke up, "Could it be... If the children were the ones who wanted to do harm instead?"

Impressed by his quick thinking, Lotus chuckled, "Care for another short story?"

This time, Ren was the one who spoke up, "If possible..."

"Very well." Lotus nodded and began, "A long, long time ago, there was five kingdoms that ruled different species that existed in the world. Humans, sentient artifacts that can think for themselves such as Kalim's magic carpet, demons, beasts and beastmen, and the plant fairies and fae kingdoms. Together, these kingdoms represented their own race and all obey to one person. A person chosen to represent the will of the Earth. This person was very powerful and favored by the Earth. For example, if this person was stranded in a place with no water, the earth will naturally help provide it water by using the mana in the air to lead it to a water source underground. If they were stranded with no food on an island, the Earth would summon large waves to strand a large number of fish for them to feed upon."

"Woah! That's pretty neat!" Kalim exclaimed in awe.

Hearing this, Ren paused with a quiet and thoughtful expression as Lotus continued, "This person has the blessing and understood the will of the Earth. There's no need to communicate with words as they communicate through feelings to form what they want to say. Thus, this person was very powerful and the Earth was the one who made the decision to have them maintain the balance of chaos and order in the world in their place. They were the Earth's representative. For ten million years after the creation of the earth by Pangu the giant, the world was at peace. It was an era where everyone could live among one another without any disputes between races. One race's concern was the concern of the entire world. One kingdom's struggle was the struggle of the world. One could say it was a very chaotic yet peaceful era. Amongst that peaceful era, a special event occurred. It was the wedding of the General and Crown Princess of the human kingdom."

"A general and a crown princess?" Kalim hummed curiously.

"The General was strong and intelligent. He displayed his prowess and wits in battle against the wild, non-sentient beasts and rebels. Yet, he was very humble and did not want anything more than the peace and concerns for those left without family from the battles. The Crown Princess was the eldest daughter of the former human emperor. During those times, one emperor would have a number of children with many wives just so at least one child would live to inherit his title and position of emperor. However, it was thanks to this method that his children and wives would later fight amongst one another just so one child could sit in that position for themselves. This type of infighting is one of the most brutal life to be born into. Hence, some say being born into a royal family of that time and place is considered a curse rather than a blessing."

"That's kind of scary." Kalim nodded in agreement, "This Crown Princess must be very talented and strong to have survived all that."

Lotus nodded, "Using her own wit, the Crown princess survived the infighting and the emperor crowned her the crown princess and the successor to his throne. Any other surviving siblings were given high ranking positions as nobles or the daughters were married off to high-ranking nobles. The crown princess was not very strong physically, but she was wise, compassionate, and brave. She followed her father's right hand man to the frontline once to protect the human kingdom from thieves using her knowledge of the plants in the area. There she met the General and the two would later develop feelings that would later lead to marriage."

"It's a romance that's very rare for members of royalty to have, considering that princes and princesses usually wed whoever the royal family or nobles select. They rare get to wed out of romance." Ren noted.

Closing her eyes softly, Lotus nodded, "That's correct. With the General being so powerful and the crown princess so wise, they had little problems with their engagement to be approved or even their marriage. Both were approved by the human emperor. After their marriage, the Crown princess gave birth to a daughter, a princess. This child was showered with the love and attention of her parents and her grandfather. When she became a toddler, she was a bright child and a prodigy. With this talent, she quickly gained the favor of the emperor and her parents. Her magic limit was not to be seen. Her every action was eyed with great expectations. She was expected to achieve a great number of things for the Human kingdom and the heavens favored her, even going as far as striking lightning at those who dared to harm her."

"What happened to her later?" Ren questioned hesitantly with a foreboding feeling in his chest.

"One day..." Lotus shook her head with a rather downcast expression, "The emperor passed away. According to reports and records the General and the Crown princess uncovered and recalled, he was on his way to the front line once more as appearances of strange thieves had appeared. These thieves only attack at night and would take nothing but herbs and resources. At first, the emperor assumed that they were just common thieves suffering from the recent drought. He believed that capturing these thieves would put an end to their crimes. However, the General and Crown princess had thought otherwise. They weren't certain what was not right, but they had an awful hunch that this was not their normal everyday band of thieves and, each day, their violence grew to the point that body count started and continued to grow endlessly. Each day, the actions of the thieves would reach closer and closer to the capital and the couple wanted to devise a plan to capture them. However, the Emperor thought otherwise. 'What can capturing a band of thieves do?' He said this in disapproval. 'They would be placed into the dungeon to be starved or tortured for committing such heinous crimes upon my people. I have already came to a conclusion. I shall make example of them with execution. No one is allowed to act recklessly, like them, during my reign.'"

"But, that's too cruel!" Kalim clamored in wide eyes of disbelief, "There has to be a reason they went to do something so horrible as killing people. Wouldn't it be better to put them in jail and help their families instead?"

"But then, those people may take advantage of the help and do not want to work harder for a better life. They would just want to rely on the aid of the royal family instead." Ren frowned, "Yet, at the same time, what he has decided to do is also very risky. If he goes through with this, he would be labeled as a blood thirsty ruler."

"That's right." Lotus nodded, "Yet, that was still what he did. When his daughter and her husband tried to talk him out of it, he ignored their pleas and did as he said. He went to the front lines, caught the thieves, and executed them on a platform in public. And, that's when things began to spiral downhill. Prior the execution of the thieves, many families suddenly came forward claiming their husbands or sons were trying to provide for them due to the recent drought having left them penniless and hungry. These families suddenly began to riot in rage and grief over the loss of their loved ones. Some claimed they were innocent, some demanded reimbursement for false accusations and others lay low not wanting to be in the range of the emperor's anger of their claims. Without mercy, he also executed them for taking advantage of the kingdom's treasury that funded their financial aid. As riots began, so did the number of rebels grew. After he executed these people, many began to question the actions of the emperor and his sanity. The General and the Crown Princess were at a loss of what came over the emperor to suddenly start issuing such outlandish commands. However, his expedition did not put an end to the mysterious thieves as they only continued to grow in number and entered into the capital city. Once more, the emperor ignored the words of his children and went out to catch these thieves. Days passed then weeks before news returned to the family of three. The emperor had gone missing one night and could not be found."

"What?!"

"The emperor just went missing one night?" Kalim muttered in confusion, "What happened to him?"

"The General and the Crown princess were concerned too. However, before they could send out a search party, news of the emperor came that he had returned and he was in the palace." Lotus continued, "In a frenzy, the granddaughter hurried to the throne room hoping to see her grandfather in one piece before her parents could stop her. Upon arriving, her scream echoed in the palace as everyone hurried to the throne room only to be stunned in horror. The emperor had returned. However, only his severed head sat on the throne in the large room. The emperor had been killed."