Imperial Appointment (2/2)

-More than a hundred years ago-

There is a sickly old man coughing violently on a velvet-colored bed with golden-laced curtains. Stitched on the curtains is the royal crest of the imperial family. Beside the old man is an untouched meal – long gone cold.

A servant comes in, does a quick bow, and says, "Your majesty? What am I going to tell the doctor when I have to explain why you're not eating your meals?"

The Brancotte Emperor looks at the servant and snaps, "What's business brought you here!?" Unless it's important, he'd rather be left to sleep with how terrible he's feeling.

The servant whips out a report out of thin air with a quick spell and hands it to the emperor. "Your majesty, you had instructed me earlier to give you a report on your son's mission as soon as news came in."

After Lady Prella's frantic message 2 months ago, communication with the Pit was cut off. Fearing the worst, the emperor had sent one of his many sons to investigate. Frankly, the emperor didn't expect to hear from his son until several more weeks.

The emperor finally stirs and sits up. "Bring it here." As he reads over the report, it first lists the price of the dragon corpse, which was recovered on Stanrock Island. If it had been any other dragon, the corpse wouldn't have even come close to paying off the ruined Pit. However, this is a 4 horned dragon! Their bodies are so priceless that the emperor can't even bring himself to stay angry at the Vanteri Family anymore.

After staring at the price tag on the rest of Dakka's body, the emperor smiles and says, "Announce to the court that the Vanteri Family has done a great service to the empire, and that they'll be rewarded with a million carrats." (a measurement of gold in the empire).

After word spread that the Pit was completely destroyed and that Lady Prella was nowhere to be found, the Vanteri's status plummeted in court. With nobody willing to do business with them and receiving persecution from most of the entire aristocracy, the Vanteri Dukedom was on the verge of collapse.

However, with the emperor's one word, their doom has been averted, and they've been granted their status back.

Of course, the emperor assumes the Vanteri and their defenses at the Pit are what slew the dragon, and this truly is a feat worthy of admiration. A 4 horned dragon has never been slain by humans before…!

The emperor smiles and reads the rest of the report.

The next thing on the report is a list of surviving prisoners and the accounts of the damages. Out of the tens of thousands of souls imprisoned there, less than a 1000 still survived. Less than 700 of the guards are still alive. Almost the entire fortress was completely leveled flat, and more than half the floors below were completely destroyed.

Finally, the last part of the report is the longest. It details the testimonies of some of the surviving officers, and most of it talks about one particular prisoner - a man named Haalfrin.

At first, the emperor recognizes Haalfrin, and he scoffs at the many memories of Prella complaining about this prisoner over the centuries. "Why was Warden Prella so afraid of this man, anyway?"

From what the emperor knows from his last account of the "Demon of the Pit", the man was only a 3rd gate mage. (Of course, by the time Prella learned for sure about him having 5 Gates open, she had to flee the Pit that same hour; she never had time to update the emperor.)

'Hmm… I've done background checks on this… Haalfrin before. He's certainly no sloucher, but he's also not enough to freak out about when Prella had a literal arsenal to keep him where he was supposed to be. From what I know, this man did seem to be a few times more powerful than a normal archmage, but that's it!'

The emperor wonders for a moment about what to do with the remaining prisoners in custody. Luckily, most of them can be moved to other maximum security prisons. The security there can be adjusted to hold mid-rank mages.

As for the prisoners 3 Gates and above, he orders their immediate execution. The Pit was the place best suited for holding powerful mages, yet with it gone, keeping powerful mages prisoner is more trouble than it's worth.

Still curious to see if Haalfrin is still in custody (or if he even survived the dragon attack), the reports say that…

"WHAT!!!??" the emperor shouts while violently hacking up more blood.

"SIRE!?" the attendant steps forward with a napkin. "I'll go get the doctor."

"Shut up!" the emperor snaps, "I was just surprised."

Indeed, this next statement on the report is just ludicrous. "A single man fought the dragon equally, and barely slew it."

The emperor wouldn't have believed the report if a recording crystal wasn't tied to the report scroll. On the crystal are the surviving recordings of Haalfrin's fight with Dakka.

Seeing that the report ends with, "…and Haalfrin took Prella as a captive and left on a boat to sail back to Brancotte on the 35th of Kri."

Looking up, the emperor barks out an order, "I want Haalfrin found NOW!"

The attendant has no idea what's gotten his master so agitated, so he backs off and bows in fear, "Sire! What do you want your men to do once they find him?"

"Absolutely DON'T attack him. Don't talk to him! In fact, I don't want anyone in the empire talking about him!"

Maybe Prella was right. There's no way this man called Haalfrin is actually human. Only a demon could slay a 4 horned dragon, right?

With a demon that powerful, the best bet would be to keep your distance from him and observe his movements. If he seems malleable enough, then it's certainly worth it to try inviting him to serve the empire.

However, people with powerful Spirits like the Demon of the Pit tend to be extremely stubborn and volatile. Inviting a man who'd just been imprisoned for most of his life to suddenly serve the empire might just be inviting a disaster to the nation. It's best to give the man some space and allow him to live freely.

'Hmm...,' the Emperor thinks, 'I'll encourage some other noble families to try soliciting his service. If he responds well to them, then I'll know that he's ok with serving as vassal. In that case, I'll step in and invite him into the palace. Otherwise, I'll pretend like he doesn't exist and hope that he doesn't cause any chaos.'

---------------------

-Present day-

The Emperor of Brancotte, once again, is lying sick on his bed. Lately, his bouts of illness are lasting longer and longer, and the court is getting conerned.

*knock knock* comes the sound of heavy fists rapping on his door.

"Come in...," the emperor croaks loudly.

A servant walks in the door and hands his monarch a note. He then steps back, stands in place, and looks down nervously.

'Judging by his reaction, it's probably not good news,' Emperor Genris Val Brancotte thinks.

The emperor quickly tears open the leader and reads it.

As his eyes drift further and further down the page, his face is turning redder and redder.

Suddenly, the letter goes up in flames, and a quick wind spell carries the ashes away from his bed - startling the servant.

"WHO DARES!?" Emperor Genris hisses hoarsely. "Sir Haalfrin has come by to see me 3 times already. WHY IS THIS THE FIRST TIME I'M HEARING ABOUT IT!?"

The servant looks down and sputters an apology. "I'm sorry... We didn't know it was him. He was with Lady Vanteri, and he wasn't wearing an noble's identity token. We thought he was her attendant..."

Emperor Genris shooks daggers at the manservant with his eyes. "Where's my usually secretary? I don't recognize you."

Typically, only the designated secretary is allowed to hold papers destined for the emperor. Who is this young man, anyway?

The manservant bows apologetically. "Secretary Jonri came in sick today. He had me fill in for him."

"Heh," Emperor Genris spits derisively. "More like, he was too afraid of facing my angry face directly. All right. Jonri is dismissed. You're my new secretary. I want the man's things cleared out of his office by tonight. Congradulations on your promotion. Now leave."

The manservant doesn't know whether he should feel flattered or scared about his new promotion. Either way, he has the feeling that he needs to get out of here.

Just before the young man is about to flee the scene, the old emperor sits up in his bed and says, "Wait."

The new secretary pauses.

"Have my chief bodyguard to come to my room immediately."

"Yes, your majesty."

---------------------

A minute later, the sound of loud, clattering metal boots clanking up the stairs is heard. A moment after that, a large man wearing gold rimmed armor walks into the room. The stands up straight, clanks his ankes together, and stands at attention. "Your majesty."

"How many times do I have to tell you to bow instead of solute?" Emperor Genris says. "I'm the emperor now - not your general."

Indeed, The current emperor of Brancotte was the Threshold commander before he he stepped down from that position - all because the imperial throne became free after his grandfather died.

After Emperor Genris was crowned as the ruler of Brancotte, a young mage named Fisco was appointed as the next Threshold general.

"Sorry, your majesty," his bodyguard apologizes sheepishly. He drops to one knee and bows his head.

"Sir Penris, I need you to prepare my carriage and take me to Sir Haalfrin and Lady Vanteri. The address of their hotel should be at the bottom of the report on my table."

The imperial bodyguard looks up with confusion. "But... your majesty? I thought you already knew about him? Didn't you not want to see him?"

"What makes you say that?"

The captain keeps his composure and points below him, "Lady Prella Vanteri just showed up a week and a half ago with a man called Haalfrin in tow. She wanted to request an audience with you."

The emperor rubs his temples and sighs with exhaustion, "I know. Get on with it."

"Your secretary put Lady Prella at the bottom of the waiting list when she arrived. With every new arrival wishing to speak with you, Sir Jonri kept adjusting her place on the list to keep her at the bottom. That WAS with based on your order, right?"

"No, it wasn't. That stupid man was so caught up with trying to bully the Vanteri Family that he failed to realize who her companion was."

The old emperor sets up from his bed and starts putting on his shoes. "Anyway, prepare the carriage. Oh, and make sure that we take the anonymous carriage. I don't want people making a fuss about the emperor leaving the palace when he's sick."