Monarch's Rebirth: Chapter 38

ALARIC'S POV

"It seems that he has caught on to our plan. He hasn't made any moves on it though." Kody reported to me, as usual.

I've been keeping track of Artorius' whereabouts for a few days now. He seems to be relaxing rather than stressing about too many things. He's focusing on his projects and business rather than anything suspicious.

"Is that so? As long as he doesn't make any suspicious moves we are fine." I told Kody. "If you have nothing else to report you can go."

Kody nods and takes his leave. I'm left in the same state as before, thinking.

We've been spying on each other for a few days now. I know he has spies on me and he knows I have spies on him. We both are being careful but I'm not sure if he knows of my plan.

"Is he worth all the headache?" A deep, intimidating voice suddenly spoke out.

The voice freaked me out. No one was in the room other than me. It's a voice I could recognize in an instant. Mori's voice.

"I-is there something you know I don't?" I asked him, knowing that he was a god, wanting to take my soul. "That's an obvious answer. Of course I do. But the question is are you ready to know?"

I felt a lump in my throat as he spoke with me. "I'm… not sure." I muttered out loud.

"Remember. You're time is coming close. Be prepared because you gave me a month's time."

Suddenly Sylas comes into my room without a knock. I panicked but stayed composed on the outside. "My lord. It's getting quite late. I suggest you get some sleep." He says while bowing down.

"Sylas. I need to tell you something. Something I haven't told Kody either." I said softly. "What may it be, my lord?" He said as he stood at ease.

"Do you know of the god of death?"

He looked at me with a skeptical glare. "Indeed I do. The god of death has a cult-like following. He's known as Mori and is said to be ruthless." He answered.

A smile broke from my face, knowing that he isn't that ignorant. "Good that you know. Well… he's counting my time currently."

Fear dawned over Sylas as I told him that I was dying. "H-how is it possible? Your latest health checkup showed that you were perfectly fine! Apart from the minor issues of your bones becoming weaker."

I shook my head hearing his concern. "I'm a secret worshipper of Mori. He's the one god that I've trusted for years so far. He's the reason I'm still alive and not dead."

"Why would he take away one of his worshippers so abruptly?"

"Like all humans, it's his duty to take away the lives of humans and animals. My time had come years ago, when I was once lost in a cave."

Sylas still remembers when it happened. He knew which incident I was talking about.

Years ago I went on an adventure with Amadeus so that he could gain more experience of this world. During that trip we had entered a deep cave. The cave collapsed and I was stranded from the rest of the group.

I roamed my side of the cave with only a single sword in my hand. For nearly two weeks I roamed the cave, killing any monsters or creatures and cooking their meat for food.

At one point I came across a shrine. It was Mori's shrine that had been abandoned for centuries by now. It was a spine-chilling shrine. Fires were still lit up on torches and fruits were still ripe as if they were just taken off their trees.

I tried to eat an apple from the shrine, which is the biggest mistake I've made in the last decade.

"Stealing from my shrine? You seem to not fear death. You will die braver than most."

That voice haunted me since then, and still does. He gave me a chance to redeem myself by becoming an avid worshipper, extending my lifetime by a few years.

"I came out of that cave as a different person." I spoke out after thinking back to the terrifying memory of that cave.

Sylas tried to grasp and understand the situation but he didn't understand it at all. "How did this change occur?" He asked me. "His shrine. I tried to steal an apple from there but he caught me. Since then I've worshipped him, trying my best to live and not die."

His face became pale as I told him a story that no one has heard of. I never made it public knowledge till now. He's the first person to know of this and possibly the last.

"How much longer do you have, sire?" He asked softly, terrified to know when I would die.

Just then Mori spoke out once more. "Two weeks. I'll be taking your soul in two weeks." He said.

My eyes opened wide from shock and fear. He broke his agreement with me on the spot…

"Is everything okay, my lord!?" Sylas panicked seeing my sudden change in expression. "T-t-two w-weeks…" I simply muttered out, trying to understand his sudden change of plans.

"I'm sorry, my loyal follower. But your soul is the one that I want the most. I feel no sympathy towards humans, I just want your souls."

I was living on extra time. He gave me extra time to live. "If I stop worshipping you?" I asked him in my mind. "You won't be breathing the same second."

He's trapped me.

"Do we make preparations for your death, sire?" He asked me as I spoke to Mori. "No, Sylas. I'm telling you this because I need someone to know my true reason to die."

"Understood. The truth is safe with me, sire."

I am finished.

ARTORIUS' POV

"Papa! Wake up! It's already noon!"

Amelia's voice rang in my ears as I slowly opened my eyes. "What…? I slept through…?" I slowly muttered out under my breath.

I slowly sat up on my bed and rubbed my eyes as the sun's light shined through the balcony and windows. Amelia walked onto my lap and looked at me with a concerned look. "Is everything okay?" She asked me through telepathy.

"Yeah… Did you sleep in as well or was it just me?"

"Just you. Uncle Felix called you for a long time but you didn't answer. I tried as well but you were out cold!"

I must be really tired. But I've never been this tired…

Without wasting any more time I rushed to the bathroom to wash my face and quickly start the day.

"Why are you in a rush? Did we have anything planned today?" Amelia asked me, frightened by my sudden actions. "Nope, I just need to start work quickly." I replied back.

She sighs in disappointment seeing my rush to work. "Why are you so eager to work? Do you like it?"

"Not at all. But I need to do it so I can keep making the economy better, which in turn keeps me at peace."

I quickly wore a new set of clothes and bolted out the door and through the hallway. Amelia could barely keep up with me as I made it to the office room.

As I ran to the office room I found Felix on the way. "Good afternoon. Do you want food?" He asked me as I walked past him. "Yes. Bring it to my office. I'll be having it there."

Felix follows me to my office room before splitting paths with me as I enter the office.

It was another day of the same old work. There were less things to do today so I have some free time to myself. I couldn't go to Wilkins last night because I felt too tired to even move a muscle after dinner.

I take my seat and start my work. Amelia as usual helps me with work by summarising everything near instant time.

Amelia's intelligence is something that I can make use of really well. Her skills are beyond what us mere humans could do such as reading through long texts and easily summarising it in a way that even a child could understand.

One after the other we finished the small stacks of paper that would've taken me hours to do. Most of these consisted of reports to read through and write my thoughts on them, such as the amount of criminals that are being put on trial or the amount of people coming in and out of the kingdom. The boring and bland work that suits people in the corporate world.

"Phew~ All this reading is getting quite tiring! It's only been twenty minutes but we finished nearly all of it." Amelia says as we finish the last pile of papers.

As she said that Felix walked into my room with a tray, on the tray was a plate with food and some tea. He even was considerate enough to bring me wine.

"Breakfast is served~! Or lunch by now." Felix says as he enters the room. I chuckle at his enthusiasm for bringing me lunch. "Thank you. I was nearly finished with the work too."

I pushed aside the piles to make room for the food. Felix was surprised that I finished all this work by the time he brought me food.

"You finished all of these? You know you've been doing like a week's worth of work since yesterday, right?" He said as he placed the plate and the bottle of wine on my desk.

"Yes, I know. They're finally finished too!" I replied back.

I felt quite liberated after working countless hours for the past few days to finish all of it. "H-how!?" He exclaims. "Amelia helped me out. Being a dragon, her intelligence is unmatched." I told him while petting Amelia's head.

"Quite helpful. Lady Amelia has so many abilities it's incredible!"

Amelia acted smug as Felix complimented her abilities of her inhumane reading and summarising skills.

"By the way, we don't have any work for the next few days. We could potentially go and find some monsters to kill while we wait for the days to pass." Felix says as he opens the door to leave.

"What day is it today?" I asked him. "35th of Spring. We still have four days till we set off."

I thought for a moment about it. I was still recovering from the scars but at this point I am fine. I can function fully so small risks like this wouldn't be too bad.

"Sure. Let's go tomorrow." I told him. He smiled at my answer and nodded. "We can arrange that.'

He left the room and I started eating my meal. Amelia was not left out as Felix brought her another plate with steak as well. We both were quite hungry even though Amelia had breakfast.

"Papa, since you have so much knowledge of your past life, why not invent more to make lives easier here?" She said as we ate.

"Like what?" I asked her. "I don't know…? Weapons? We still use cannons and catapults. I'm sure you know how to make weapons that are better."

What is she trying to imply?

"Why should we make new weapons?"

There seems to be no reason to make weapons. The weapons in this world are magic and swords which I would like to keep for the foreseeable future.

"It would be a nice change of style in fighting. It's usually just swords and magic but it can get quite boring." She said, whining for a new style of fighting.

"Nope. Weapons cause destruction. I'd rather not make a weapon that can be used easily and used for slaughtering thousands, if not millions."

Amelia freaked out from me mentioning how many people can be killed. "W-what!? Millions?" She exclaimed.

There are weapons that I know I could easily invent. Guns like pistols or assault rifles. I could easily figure out a way to make them in this world. But it's not worth making them because it just means people will mistreat it. It can cause more and more violence.

"Yes. Weapons that can easily kill millions. Usually with swords you can easily stop them with magic. For magic they will slowly run out of mana or get tired. Some weapons that I can make could kill thousands without getting tired, if in the right circumstances."

She was trembling from fear as I explained to her. "O-okay… Nevermind my idea…" She said, stuttering from fear. "Why do you crave so much violence anyways?"

"I don't. I just want to fight things to see how strong I am. I want to learn how to fight so I can protect you! Seeing you get hurt trying to protect everyone else made me realise how strong you are. I want to be like that!"

Her words made me feel a strange feeling I never felt before. No one has ever said they wanted to be like me.

"Why be like me? It's just my work. A king shouldn't stand behind his soldiers, rather he should stand in front."

Most people saw monarchs as just people that fight in the back, watching their men die at war. But to me it's the opposite. The king should be in front of his army, taking on the charge himself rather than his army doing it.

A general is nothing without his army. He lives and dies with the army. The army stays loyal to a general that stays loyal to them.

Amelia looked at me with an adorable smile, admiring me like a father figure. "That's the best trait you have! You're hardworking and selfless!" She said with excitement.

That's the first time I was described with such adjectives.

"T-that's quite honouring to hear! I'm glad you see me that way." I told her with a bright smile.

We finished our meals and I drank my tea before getting up from my chair. Amelia got on my shoulder and we walked to the door.

"Almost forgot. The wine." I said before turning back around and grabbing my wine. "You drink so much wine. Shouldn't you limit yourself?" Amelia said, looking at me with concern as I chug down the bottle.

"I know my limits. The taste of wine is just so addicting. My high tolerance doesn't help it either." I said after finishing half of the bottle in just one go. "I can't wait for Wilkins to finally start making the wine he makes. That one is the best!"

Amelia stared at me while squinting in disappointment. "Forget what I said… You're just an alcoholic that has no self control and just sacrifices himself, hoping to die."

She isn't wrong.

"No~ I'll limit myself! Don't look at your papa in such a horrid manner!" I pleaded sarcastically. "Okay!" She simply replied back.

We walked through the hallway and went downstairs. I had no work for the rest of the day and could laze around without anything to do.

"Let's call Alexander! I want to hear from him after seeing my report." I said as the idea clicked in my mind.

At the perfect moment Felix came through the foyer with Vincent. "Oh, good afternoon, Master Artorius." VIncent says as he sees me.

"Don't you have to work with Wilkins?" I asked him. "Not today. I'm helping my family move today. They will come in the evening." He said with a happy smile. I stare blankly at him for a moment before speaking again.

"Oh right. I hope the palace is well enough for your family. Well anyways, Felix, I need to call Alexander. I haven't spoken to him since we came back. I need to talk to him about the project."

"I can arrange that in a few minutes. Follow me." He says before walking away to the hallway straight ahead. I followed behind him as he said and looked around the hallway that I usually never visit.

The walk was a long one. The artifact needed to be used in a separate room. You could only use it for five minutes, if lucky ten.

"This room here." Felix said while opening the door to a new room that I had not seen before.

It was a room with four sofas arranged around a table. It was quiet and barely had any decorations in here, only things that stood out were the plants that were used for decorations and the orange wall with dark wooden trimmings that went one fourth the way. The room had a strange increase in mana, it felt like there was more mana in here than anywhere else.

I expected the room to have no one inside but there seemed to be a man with shiny black hair that was combed back and cut short. He had a clean face and looked to be in his youth still. He wore a purple robe that glittered from the chandelier light.

"Oh my! Welcome~! It's been a while since someone used this." The man said as we entered the room."

Felix scoffs at him getting excited over the use of the artifact. "Good afternoon, Atlas. It's been a while since I saw you too. No new calls?" He says with a mocking tone.

A mischievous smirk breaks from Atlas' face. "Nope. No one uses this. Anyways, where do I need to make this call?" He asked while taking a seat on the sofa.

"Sir Arnold's estate."

Atlas instantly gets started with the work needed to set up the machine. He tweaks around with the machine for a few minutes while I sit down, cross armed, watching him mess around with this artifact.

The artifact was a clear orb with a black stand that held it in place. It seemed more of a show piece since it was just sitting in the middle of the table, showing no sign of it having a more important use than to just look pretty.

"Please place your hand on the orb." He said while placing his hand on it as well. I do as I was asked and the orb lights up into a luminescent white light that made me squint from how bright it was. It made no noise but I felt a strange feeling on my hand as the orb did its work.

I felt my mana being drained as the artifact shined brighter and brighter. The artifact was sucking in all my mana to use as energy to link the two artifacts together.

"The link has been made. We need to wait for the other side to pick up first and we are in the clear." Atlas said as he took his hand off the orb.

I also take my hand off the orb and lay back on the sofa, waiting for Alexander to pick up the call. "How long do I have?" I asked Atlas as he walked past me to exit the room. "Ten minutes. You had a lot of mana which the artifact used to make the link."

Perfect! I can take some time with it now.

Felix and Atlas leave the room while Amelia and I sit down on the sofa, waiting for Alexander or Arnold to pick up the call.

A static sound came from the orb before abruptly stopping the same second. We both became confused and tried to figure out what happened.

"Hello? Artorius? Are you there?" A familiar voice came through from the orb. I smiled from recognizing the voice and replied back.

"Yes, Alexander. I'm here. Good afternoon."

"It's been a while since we talked! We have ten minutes so let's make it quick." Alexander said as we began our conversation.

"Ten minutes is enough. Anyways I wanted to hear from you about my design."

"It's perfect! The team saw it and became ecstatic. They are already beginning work on it. We already started clearing up the path for the railway tracks. Progress is coming along nicely!"

I smile in happiness seeing that the work was going smoothly. "Nice! Well I have no further plans but I do have another thing to talk about to you."

"What is it?" He asked, curiously and excitedly.

"I am invited to go to Prince Amadeus' birthday party. I am allowed to take two guests excluding Felix. I don't know anyone else so why not join me?"

Alexander went silent for a few seconds. I couldn't tell if he wanted to go or not from his silence.

"Bet. I'll see you on the 40th."

I sigh a breath of relief. "Good! Well I need to warn you about something…"

"What is it?"

"There's no one around you, right?"

Alexander goes silent for a few seconds, possibly to look around him. "No, there's no one."

"Alaric has eyes on me. He finds me suspicious and I'm not sure what he's planning. I need to stay alert the entire time so help me out."

"Is that so? I'll help in whatever way I can. Actually speaking of you being suspicious… my father also was suspicious about you."

I already know that. Felix told me everything.

"Yes, I know. Felix already told me about it. It's fine now I hope, right?"

"Everything is fine now. I convinced him enough."

"I'll talk more about the project when we meet at the party. We're staying there for a night just for your information."

"I'll see you then. Farewell!"

The bright light that came from the orb stopped shining and I felt the mana influx in the room. I stand up and take my leave from the room.

Felix and Atlas stood right outside the door, talking amongst each other when they saw me walk out. Atlas spoke no words and walked back inside the room. Felix followed me while I walked down the hallway, trying to figure out what to do next.