make an act

John woke up and found himself lying in his bed, the twins are sleeping beside him on each side, they have satisfied looks on their face, wearing only very thin white silk dresses. John kissed their cheeks and the twins snuggled more in his embrace.

He softly said "after the ceremony I will consummate our marriage as official husband and wife,"

John felt satisfied with his love life, he closed his eyes and meditated. The twins smiled, they woke up after two hours of heavenly slumber at the bathroom. Afraid that John would wake up the two hurriedly washed their bodies and changed clothes, they laid John on his bed and slept on both his sides. When John woke up, the twins felt it but didn't open their eyes, but John's words and tender kiss made them feel sweet.

They felt lucky to be loved by John, they knew that he is a very protective person especially to his people. A filial, caring, and loving son to his parents and a loving brother to his sister. In his tight embrace, the twins felt safe and warm, they loved this feeling of being close to him.

Diana is not happy with her mother not wanting her to go to her brother's room, when Diane is busy she slipped to John's room, the guards blocked her. But she used the ring her brother gifted her and activated the barrier the poor guards were thrown to the sides, she kicked johns door "brother, I miss you"

When she saw the twins snuggling on johns chest Diana rush to the bed, Diane and the ladies arrived when they heard the commotion, the girls saw the twins snuggling in johns chest, they felt very jealous, but can't complain.

Diane touched her forehead, 'this daughter of mine, how can my eldest son have any private moments with his wives?' (Look whose talking) she is having a headache right now, her attachment to her big brother is making Dianes head hurt.

The twins are awake but don't know how to react thus maintained their position.

Diana jumped to John's bed and hugged her brother's neck tightly. John opened his eyes and found himself in a very awkward position. He acted normal and kissed Diana's forehead, "sister, big brother is hungry, let's go down and eat at the hall" then he winked at the twins

Diane wanted to laugh at the sight of the twins, but decided not to, she asked the other ladies to go down with her while John carrying his sister went down followed by the twins.

When Jonathan saw his son entered the room he smiled widely with a knowing look on his face. John smiled awkwardly to his father and sat with the twins sitting on both his sides.

After a sumptuous meal, Jonathan asked John to accompany him to his study room. "What are you planning to do on your wedding day?" he asked

"Father indeed knows me best" then he smiled widely, "i want everyone to build and image of a conceited, weak, low leveled playboy prince who thinks nothing but with his thing between the legs, and doesn't like to train" he said

Jonathan doesn't know what his son is thinking, to deliberately destroy his image and forming a misconception. 'Is there really a need to do that?' He thought

"Father I know what you are thinking, but the tall trees catch more wind, " he said

His father nodded in agreement, he is also thinking of ways to cover up his son's amazing talents to avoid too much attention. But John's plan is more extreme than what he is planning to do. To thoroughly destroy his image among the people's eyes, he wanted to disagree but John spoke before he could voice out a complaint,

"father in the past hundreds of years, the progress of the empire is slowly being held back by an unknown force, and all our allies seem to be decreasing over the years, do you think it's suspicious?" he asked

Indeed, after the last planar war, the empire is slowly weakening, the former vigilance and vigor of the race lowered, and spies got to infiltrate the empire without them noticing. The previous allies had become their enemies and there have been more attacksk to their caravans who goes out for trade.

Jonathan and the rest investigated it but they were not able to get to the bottom of it.

"If we get to expose that the empire's successor is as talented as the current king, we might suffer from losses that we could not recover," he said

"I will work in the darkness while everyone acts to despise me and shun me from the affairs of the empire"

"Aren't you being overly cautious?" Jonathan said, he knew that many enemies are eying them, but to deliberately wanting to destroy his image, he felt that his son's actions to be too much

"I think it's better to be more cautious and vigilant" John exclaimed

Since Jonathan couldn't change his son's decision, he gave up and supported his plans, "then let it be, we will go along with your plans, " then he called for Alfred, Mario, and Diane.

The three came at the same time, they are wondering why Jonathan called for them, looking at his serious face, the three knew that what the father and son duo talked about is very serious.

Jonathan explained what they talked about, "are you seriously willing to follow your son's decision?" Diane is first to react, the more she thought of their plan the angrier she felt 'why would he even want to ruin his image, against unknown enemies, and they are not even sure if there is one?'

"I understand that we need to be vigilant and cautious, but a son! It's your image we are talking about here... You need to reconsider" she pleaded

"I believe that it's the best course of action now, " Alfred agreed, if John's analysis is correct, an even more powerful enemy lurking in the dark would certainly move the gears and ruin the empire.

"Mother, we might have won the last planar wars, but it was a defeat where we lost more than half of our best warriors... Not only that, the enemies retreated, and we did not eliminate them" John said in defense

"How could you let me accept this plan of yours? Ruining your image? Isn't it too much... There must be some other way..." she continued

"We don't have much time, and it's the only way to deceive our enemies without alerting them... If they are to discover about me, their attacks will be swift and decisive, I don't think they would let a dangerous character like me ruin their plans" he insisted

"Daughter, your son is correct, as we are now we are not strong enough to avoid the disaster." Alfred seriously commented

"But..." she wanted to explain however she was interrupted by her husband

"Diane! I know what you feel, and I myself am not in agreement with our son's decision. But, if his analysis is true, the empire is in great danger of extinction." he reprimanded his wife while tightly clenching his fist

Mario then spoke "how are you planning to deal with the saints and immortals? They all knew the truth"

"There is a soul technique that is being practiced by immortal Jura, to control those with weaker soul force, along with the soul technique from the ancestors' memories, I made a new technique combining the two" Jonathan interrupted while he wrinkled his eyebrows "are you planning to control your people?"

What Jonathan said is also true, using these fabricated memories, John can control and manipulate the people. He doesn't want that to happen, as it may cause panic and mistrust from his subordinates.

"No father, I will use this technique to seal their memories and insert fabricated memories of me. It is like making two memory banks, working at the same time, the process is through making a soul clone." the four are shocked when they heard the words soul clone, it's an advanced technique that is only possible ones a cultivator reached the ninth level of a soul art.

"Is it really possible to make a soul clone even if the soul cultivation is not yet on the ninth level of the soul cultivation arts?" they asked, it is unbelievable.

"It is possible, but the splitting won't have any effect on one's cultivation, what I will do is simply trigger the soul to clone itself and insert the fabricated memory into the clone, the clone then will act as a parasite and feed the host with the fabricated memory. Without erasing the original memory, no loopholes can be found and the actions of the host will not be affected making everything look natural.

Once the clone is deactivated everything will go back to normal and the events that occurred during the process will be clear as day to the host. So there is no need to explain anything. This process also serves as a protection to keep all the secrets of the empire. Then if the need arises it can be activated and deactivated." he explained

"it is also the plan I thought of this past five years in order to keep all our empires secret safe. Through this method, even if a high-level warrior is held captive and has their soul searched, none of the empire's vital information will be revealed. Using the method of swearing an oath is effective but the process is too eye-catching, and the acting might fail if it is done through this method" he added

Jonathan and the others were surprised by what they heard, if what John said is true then they could increase the empire's strength without letting their enemies know. They wanted to test it out, so John called for Elise. Elise came inside the study, nervous of what she has been called for.

"Elise, do you trust me?" John asked

"I trust you with my life, even if you ask me to die right now, I won't even blink an eye," she said without hesitation. John felt warm inside, to be loved by this woman is one of his recent life's greatest gifts.

"I won't ask you to do that, not now… not ever…." then he hugged Elise

"relax" Elise did not ask for a reason, she completely trusts John, he then triggered her soul to create a soul clone. Initially, though he knew that theoretically, this will work, it is also the first time he will be applying this method. However, with his superb soul control, the process went smoothly without any mishaps. After the soul clone is made, he inserted the fabricated memory fragment into the soul clone.

Elise face is like she is carrying a very heavy burden in her heart. the look she is giving John is the same as the one would give to their husbands who have thoroughly wrong their wife.

Since she is with the king, queen, Alfred, and Mario, Elise held her tears and sadness in her heart. Diane noticed her emotional instability so she went to comfort her.

"Elise tell mother what happened? don't worry about John, I will take care of everything" she comforted her

"child, tell us what happened, even if we are old, we won't let John bully you" exclaimed Alfred, Mario, and Jonathan also comforted her, and asked her to tell them all her feelings. Jonathan asked John to leave the room, when the door closed, Elise let go of her tears and cried loudly on Diane's embrace.

"mother... John is too much... every day he wents to the brothel and brings home different women, and...and... hic... hic... he would do the deed on our bed..." she is crying very hard, the four couldn't find any lies on her word, everything is genuine, her feelings and emotions, nothing is off. If they didn't know the truth they would certainly believe all she says.

"I tried to stop him... but he threatens to divorce me... mother, I can't live without him, I love him so much" she continued to cry, Diane hugged and comforted her

"Elise, can you let us check your memories, I know it pains you to tell this to us, let us be the one to check it... is it okay?" she asked, Elise, nodded her head like a meek child then relaxed herself. Diane and the rest did a soul search on her and saw all that she narrated, they were all surprised, everything is like it's what really happened. If they are clueless about the truth, they would have certainly believed everything. The four checked her soul and searched for the seal and the clone. to their surprise, even with the four of them working together they couldn't find it.

Diane called for John, when he entered the room he saw Elise's eyes are swollen from all the crying. John snapped his fingers and Elise woke up from the dream, as she recalled all that happened, she was surprised and felt embarrassed by what she said and did.

John hugged her and apologized " I'm sorry Elise, but all that you've seen is part of my next plan before returning to the empire."

Elise is a very smart woman, she knew what he meant, and guessed the reason behind the memory she had.

"amazing! truly a genius!" Mario complimented John

"very good... very good..." Alfred repeatedly praised

Jonathan clapped his hands "perfect, with this, the plan can proceed as planned, there won't be any problems."

"However, people might form fear and distrust in you, if they were to know about this. How are you planning to solve this problem?" this is his main concern,

This is indeed a big problem, if John continued with this plan, though people might obey him and support him, there is no doubt that this power could also instill fear of being manipulated by him.