Monarch's Rebirth: Chapter 25

The foyer doors opened as I stepped up and stood in front of Alaric. Felix followed me to the front and stood with his chest pumped up, looking taller than usual.

We walked out together and saw the crowd that was gathered inside the courtyard of the castle. A stage was set up with a mic. I was not ready to speak to such a loud crowd.

It was deafening to hear the crowd's cheer even from such lengths away from them. I knew it was big but not this big! There were many journalists and many crazy looking paparazzis that also stood in the front. I did not want to answer any of their questions but Alaric put me in this spot and I was bound to.

We walked onto the podium and looked over the crowd. This was bigger than the crowd in my kingdom… Alaric, what have you done to me?!

The crowd looked on and asked multiple questions all together, or just shouted out names or gibberish that I couldn't understand. All of this noise is inaudible.

Suddenly I notice Amadeus in the corner of my eyes, just standing to my right hand side. He glanced at me and quickly averted his eyes back to the crowd. How long was he here for?

I bring the artifact closer and cough, calming down the crowd from their shouting. Time to announce the end.

"Greetings, the people of the Rigel empire. Today is a special and blissful day for all of the people in the kingdom. The Aberdeen and Faunus kingdoms both have been enemies for a century now. Starting from my grandfather, continuing onto me, Artorius Dorman."

The crowd looked at me with glittering eyes, as if I'm telling a long tale starting from a century ago. This is really making me uncomfortable

"The war between the Aberdeen king and the Faunus Kingdom from now on truly be over. The eternal peace between the two kingdoms was decided on the battlefield, before King Lukas passed. We both promised to not fight and work for the greater good of the empire."

The crowd erupted into a cheer as I announced the eternal peace treaty. It was something I came up with. It was more spiritual than being bound by a contract. It was something Alyssa would agree to without thinking twice, maybe leaving room for me to manipulate this eternal peace.

"With that being said this marks the end of the war. We will flip to a new page and write a new tale, how two kingdoms went from rivals to allies. There's no further announcements coming from my side so I shall give the permission to speak to the new monarch of the Aberdeen kingdom."

I stepped backwards from the mic and disappeared from the crowd's vision. I let Alyssa take the mic so that she could speak to the crowd herself. I wanted her to speak out and tell her feelings and give hope to the already miserable kingdom of hers.

Alyssa slowly steps forwards in vision of the crowd. Her dress was quite long and barely floated above the ground. It shined in the bright sunlight and made her look beautiful with it. It gave the vision of a dignified queen to her, as if she was a queen for years already.

She took the mic and cleared her throat before speaking into it.

"Greetings, I, Alyssa Meyer, the new queen of the Aberdeen kingdom would like to say a few words on this new beginning. Firstly I would like to say that my father was not what many think. He was delusional but at the end he was my father and without him I would've not become queen or be given the opportunities I have been provided with."

She stopped for a moment, keeping her emotions in check and not breaking down in front of the crowd. I know the pressure first hand and was interested in seeing how she handles it.

"What Artorius said is true. I agree that we should not be divided and be allies for eternity. An empire divided between itself cannot progress. I, as the new queen, have a lot to learn about ruling but I promise to everyone to be a better monarch than my father. I will make sure the Aberdeen kingdom will become powerful and a peaceful land where anyone can live."

The crowd starts to clap at what Alyssa said. She's already becoming better at this. Good for her.

The crowd's claps gave Alyssa a sense of relief that the majority of people are willing to stay behind her even after all of what happened. It's comforting to know that most people don't see her like Lukas but more like a different person that will lead them to a better life.

"Papa, I have a bad feeling. Something is going to go wrong." Amelia suddenly told me while looking skeptical. She was skeptical about what?

"What is it? What might go wrong?" I asked her, feeling nervous about what might happen.

"I don't know, but it has something to do with Alyssa. My gut is telling me." She said while looking around restlessly.

"There's a lot of protection here. I don't think it will be an assassination." I told her while thinking to myself.

"It's life threatening. I can't predict it but it's something bad, really bad."

Alyssa continued talking while I pondered about what it may be. Amelia looked distressed and I fell into deep thinking on what would happen.

"I hear a clock. It's ticking fast. Too fast." Amelia suddenly said to me.

That's no good. It can't be.

I whispered to Felix about what Amelia is suddenly telling me. "Felix, what are the chances of an assassination attempt today?" I asked him, hoping the chances would be slim.

"No chance. The stage was set today and had multiple checks. The entire castle is surrounded by elite guards that are on duty day in and day out. Why ask?" He told me, scaring me even more.

"Amelia is telling me there's a bad feeling in her gut. She hears a ticking sound, like a clock." I told him. I saw the fear overwhelm him in his face. He knew something was off as well.

"I've been hearing this sparking noise for a while. But… no way it can be what I'm thinking.

"Shit."

I looked around the crowd to see anything suspicious happening. I can't look for answers to why but rather answers to where this bomb can be.

Seeing Felix's reaction there must be time bombs in this world. But who will have this time bomb is the quesiton.

"Amelia, use your ability to see any suspicious colours." I asked her, hoping for it to quickly be found.

I realised Amelia's ability is not to see if a person is good or bad. It's actually like a mood ring. Certain colours mean certain moods. Right now everyone must be having a curious mind and a joyful one. In the midst of all this there must be someone who is different. Who is it?

She stood higher on my shoulder and looked around the crowd. "There's so many! Most of them are feeling happy and curious, there are a few that are showing signs of sorrow but that's barely."

Damn it! It's not as easy as I thought. "Keep looking. We have to find who it is."

Alyssa finishes her speech and we all start clapping. I couldn't hear all of it but I'm sure it was something that motivated the crowd and made everything think of her differently.

Everyone starts to step down from the stage and I am left terrified. Felix is also nervous as we two are the only ones that know of this.

"Papa! It's this guard behind us! He has a purple aura on him!

This is even worse. An elite guard that is fully armoured from head to toe. I had to think fast.

"Felix, follow me. Now." I said while pulling him away. Amelia pointed to the guard and I saw him. He was taller than me and had a halberd with him. I could tell he would be a difficult person to tackle.

Alaric saw me and Felix heading back to the stage. I didn't notice his stare and continued walking to the stage.

"The ticking is louder! What do we do?" Amelia exclaimed as we got closer.

"I know a plan." I said before leaving Felix's arm and bolting it.

Amelia got off my shoulder and ran after me. There was no other way but to sacrifice all I had. I might risk my life here but I am sure of my abilities.

I jumped on the guard that Amelia pointed towards and tackled him. He ran towards me as I was about to tackle him. This guy definitely has something in his mind.

The crowd became shocked as I tackled down the elite guard and took his helmet off, revealing a human who had a scar on his right eye.

"Where the hell is the bomb on your body!?" I shouted at him as he tried to get me off. He pushed me off but I held onto him and tried my best to not let him go.

"Let me go! You trash bastard! I am killing all of you if that's the last thing that happens! You killed my brother!" He said with anger and frustration in his voice. So this was his motivation.

I quickly make tornados on my fists and punch him in the face, the same tornados that Alyssa tried on me. He was knocked out instantly and I saw other guards rushing towards me.

"Stay clear! That guard is a traitor! He has explosives in his body!" Felix shouted as I stripped the guard of his armour.

Inside his armour was dynamite that he set up to blow in just seconds. The fuse was running out quickly and I had to think fast. The crowd saw the dynamite and panicked. The guards kept them in order as I quickly thought of what to do.

Amelia jumped onto me and looked at the horrifying sight of the guard with a bomb strapped to him. I quickly grab her and throw her at Felix. I cannot risk her getting injured in this.

"I see no other way. CLEAR!" I shouted before ripping the dynamite off the guards body and running away

I have no clue on how to defuse the bomb. I never learnt how to make bombs and I am not spending the mere seconds I have spare to struggle with the bomb and stop it.

The dynamite had a fuse that was going too quick for me to stop it. I could pour water on it and cut it off but the string seems to be different from normal fuse strings.

I made as many layers of mana as possible, too many layers. Mana layers surround your body with mana and become thicker and more dense. If there are too many of the layers then even oxygen won't go through and you're only left in a dense bubble of mana, with no oxygen.

Six layers, seven layers, eight layers… I made as many as possible while struggling with the dynamite's fuse. It was not going to stop no matter how much I tried to pour water on it or cut it off. The fuse was too dense for me to cut through. I covered my body and the entire dynamite in near freezing water. Cold water is dense and it can help absorb the explosion.

With no options left I curled onto the ground and hugged the sticks of dynamite around me. This should negate the explosion as the only molecule around me was mana. It would act as a shield and not explode further than a few metres, with me blocking it as well, it will barely cause damage.

I held my breath as I saw the fuse run out. I closed my eyes and waited for the impact of the explosion.

"I'm coming back, Mori." I whispered under my breath as the sound of the fuse burning stopped.

At first I felt a burning sensation coming from the dynamite. Soon enough my ears rang and my vision went all white. I was flashbanged and could not hear a single thing. My vision went blurry and I felt no oxygen entering my body.

Is this what death feels like?

FELIX'S POV

I shouted at him at the top of my lungs as he ran near the wall of the castle, the dynamite sticks in his arms and countless mana layers around him. I can't believe he would give his life up like this.

The explosion happened but it was not something we expected. The mana layers broke but the explosion hadn't damaged any of the surroundings. There were still a few mana layers left and Artorius barely moved away from the explosion, though his condition looked dire.

The dust around the explosion cleared and we saw the figure of a man standing, limped over but alive. He survived a point blank explosion.

"No way…" I muttered under my breath as the smoke cleared off completely, revealing Artorius' body, covered in scars, old and new. His nose bled but he was still alive, by some miracle.

He slowly walked out of the explosion, releasing the layers of mana that were not broken. His clothes were completely tattered. He barely had any clothes covering his upper body, his trousers somehow survived most of the damage.

He walked over to me and gave me a terrifying yet polite smile. "Give me your handkerchief." He said softly with his nose bleeding.

I hurried to give my handkerchief and handed it to him. He could still walk and move like nothing happened, but how? He cleaned off the blood that started to come from his nose and handed it back to me.

"He was a traitor. Part of the royal elite force of the Rigel empire. He lost his brother in war so he looked for revenge. You all live another day, have a great rest of the day."

He spoke to the crowd of people that feared for their lives as he bravely endured the explosion with his full body. The explosion of multiple dynamite sticks that are used for blowing up holes in caves.

Amelia jumped on his shoulder and he was not bothered by her. Do the scars not hurt? Did he really not get hurt from the explosion? How did he manage this?

"A-Artorius… Are you really alright?" I asked him, stuttering midway through my sentence.

"Yes, Felix. I just need a bath and new clothes." He told me before walking back to King Alaric.

The crowd started leaving and I followed behind him. He casually walks over to King Alaric with his scars shown and soot that covered his entire body. His face was tarred with black powder as if he worked in the mines.

Alexander was smiling aggressively with his teeth out. Alaric and his family stared at him with an expression of fear or surprise, I couldn't tell.

"That dynamite really hurt. Damn there goes a good outfit. Took a shower as well just an hour ago." He said as he walked past Alaric without even batting an eye.

King Alaric Realised the scars he gained from the war. He couldn't believe his eyes that a man could come out from an explosion at point blank range and still walk, talk, make silly comments and casually walk back to his room.

"A-Artorius, how do you feel?" King Alaric asked him, breaking the silence.

"Huh? I feel fine. I just need a new set of clothes and a bath. I;ll talk to you and Alexander about the project at lunch." He said before continuing to walk inside the castle like nothing happened.

King Alaric sighed and smiled. "The Dorman family really scares me. Always had that one person that does insane stuff like this. Blessed by the gods."

He proved it today here.

I followed behind him as he calmly walked up the staircase to the second floor. Everyone stared at him as he passed through. They were terrified but amazed. He was really something else.

"Felix, bring some clothes to my room and set up the bath. I'll just lay down till you do that." He said while continuing to walk to his room.

"As you say, sire."

ARTORIUS' POV

I had no choice but to sacrifice all of myself to save them. At least I will be seen as a hero now.

"Papa… How did you survive?" Amelia asked me as we reached my room.

"Mana is really dense when they are locked together. You saw how dense it can be when I made all those layers around me. I made more covering my body. Mana itself can act like a dense element, like slime. It absorbed most of the explosion and broke through about twelve of the fourteen layers I made covering my body. There were around fourteen more layers outside, which stopped the explosion from causing damage to the surrounding area."

Amelia was shocked by my plan. It was a suicidal plan but it was calculated. I calculated every step of the way till the end. Even Alaric and Alexander's reactions were calculated in my head.

Felix came inside my room and went to fill up the bath. I slowly laid down on my bed and sighed a breath of relief as I lay down and Amelia curled up on my chest.

"Damn these scars hurt. At least I'm not bleeding." I said out loud while petting Amelia.

Felix laughs from the bathroom as I say that. "You're acting as if you just fell down a fleet of stairs rather than survive an explosion. The Dorman family really are some of the strongest."

"Oh yeah? I guess I really am the strongest." I said out loud, sarcastically.

"I am! I'm the strongest!" Amelia jumps up as I said that. "Yes you are, sweetie. Just not yet."

"The bath's ready. I'll go bring your clothes." Felix left the room as he dried off his hands and put his gloves back on. I got up gently and walked to the bathroom to have my long deserved bath.

The bath was comforting and I felt my body naturally heal itself just from the bath. Amelia did not join me so I relaxed on my own.

"Papa, why did you jump on the bomb though? It was fine to just run away." Amelia asked me from my room through telepathy.

"The explosion would've been huge. I couldn't let such a huge explosion go off in the castle." I told her back. "The noise it gave off when it exploded could be heard for miles, if that exploded without mana and covering the explosion it would've caused a huge explosion in the king's lawn."

"You have a point. But who cares if his lawn gets blown up. You will still be hailed as a hero if you just left."

Amelia had a point. But at that moment I let the hero side of me outshine the logical side of me and now I'm having to pay for the consequences now. At least my hero side was still logical enough to protect himself.

"It showed Alyssa what being a king meant. It showed everyone what being a king meant." That was the only reason I could come up with.

Being a king doesn't mean living in tranquillity in your palace or castle. It meant keeping your entire kingdom in order. Sacrificing themselves for the kingdom is the highest form of honour. A king's duty is to sacrifice himself for his kingdom and people. That's how I view it.

"You're not as lousy as you usually act. You still take it upon yourself to protect others and do labour. That's not at all being lousy, that's called being hardworking." Amelia told me through telepathy once more.

"You're right. But I like the lazy lifestyle. I have too much work right now so I can't live life how I want."

I cleaned the tar and soot off my body, revealing the same shine that my body used to give. The water became dirty from the dirt and turned a dark colour.

My wounds had healed and the skins already joined together like before. The explosion must've hurt me from within as my nose kept bleeding. Blood kept coming out slowly but it stopped after a few minutes.

"Felix left your clothes. You can come out if you are doing better now." Amelia notified me.

"Sure, coming out."

I got out of the bath and dried off. Felix had just left and kept a new set of clothes on my bed.

The shirt had a teal colour down the middle with a pattern on it. The trousers were beige and had the belt matched the teal on the shirt. Felix really knows how to pick outfits.

"You're looking rather unique today. Before you looked like a king but now you just look like a young noble." Amelia said, commenting on my outfit.

I curled up the sleeves to my elbows which exposed some of the scars on my arm. "I technically am a young noble. A young king." I replied back as I sprayed on some perfume.

"I guess you're right. I smell food being prepared." She said while sniffing and looking up.

"Let's go down then. I really need some food in my system." I told her as I opened the door.

When I opened the door I found a maid that was about to knock on my door.

"Lord Artorius. I came to notify you about lunch. You may come down now." The maid said as she bowed down.

"Alright, I'll be down in a minute."

She went away and I picked up Amelia. I placed her on my shoulder and she slowly climbed on my head. "Food!" She simply exclaimed.

I smiled and started to walk down the hallway when I heard the door behind me open. It was Alyssa's door.

Alyssa came out of her room as I walked past it. She saw me and became surprised that I would even be walking without help right now.

"Artorius… Are you doing better?" She asked me while walking towards me. I nod my head in approval and give her a smile. "Much better. What happened to the guard that had the dynamites on him?" I asked her back as I did not see what happened to him.

"They took him in for questioning. Thank you for saving everyone today. Many wouldn't be standing on their two feet without your sacrifice." She told me while looking down and smiling.

"That's what a king does. It's something you will have to do too. Well it won't be tackling a royal elite guard to the floor then ripping dynamite off his body and then covering the explosion with your body but, it will be sacrificing yourself."

She chuckled from my analogy and looked at me, making eye contact with me properly for the first time.

"I know. I have a lot to learn about being a monarch but, you said you will help me. I can rely on you from now on to protect our kingdoms and empire in general." She told me with a smile on her face. The first time I saw her smile at me.

I give her a smile and turn back around. "Let's go to lunch then. Don't be gloomy and miserable this time. Your smile is better the right way up than upside down." I told her as I looked back around.

She looks at me with a shocked expression before blushing and hiding her face with her hands.

"You can't just flirt with everyone!" Amelia suddenly chimed in and facepalmed.

"Flirt? All I said was that her smile is better than her frown." I said back to her while walking away. "How ignorant are you!?"