Chapter 4

The Palace was constructed to be built on a part of land that the sun would reach first and leave last. In that way, Acriestelion Empire would always consist of longer days, leaving the palace to shine into a golden glow, which now was given the name. The Land of the Sun. This had been the very first time since the reign of Acriestelion that Jayus had visited the inner parts of the Empire. Each pillar they passed was an identical replica than the last, healthy green vines clung unto the pillars giving them an aura of that akin to a god's realm. Immersed in his awe towards the Empire Garden, Jayus didn't even realized they already reached the center of the garden when he spotted the wooden gazebo in front of them. In it was a pretty little table with a couple cups of tea. The Empress took the seat closer to the bed of marigolds and beckoned for Jayus to sit across her, in which he did.

"Was there something bothering you, Your Highness?" Jayus asked, almost immediately as soon as he sat down. "Whatever it may be, rest assured that there will be nothing to big or too small of a task for us, Your Highness." Since the reign of Acriestelion across all the land, Jayus had shown a great deal of loyalty towards the new royalties of this Era. That was one of the many things the Empress had favored about the young duke.

"Since the betrayal of the former crown prince, a number of regions had turned their backs against peace treaties and refused to cooperate with the empire once more in fear of a second betrayal from the empire," Empress Aminesria had once tried to bring union back together amongst the other regions however a great number of them had refused partnership with the empire after the traitor, Crown Prince Heracles Eckleis. Many people had lost their homes during that conflict, forever the fear and hopelessness they fealt would be engraved into them. Never forgotten. Jayus's father had also lost a large sum of wealth due to the former crown prince's actions, causing his own father to flee with a luggage of what was left to their family. Jayus was left with only their family name to protect. Hence he aided the Acriestelion to rise to the top.

"Many nobles were scammed out of their wealth by Heracles Eckleis, even if they desired to help us persevere through it, I believe they were afraid of losing more of what was already left for them-" The empress stirred the tea on her hands. Throughout her entire affirmation, her olive green eyes kept a close eye on her reflection. Even without looking directly into her eyes, Jayus could hint the bitter taste of the tea within. The duke didn't say anything. There was nothing to say to make things feel better. But what was done was done. And what should be left of the past, should be made into something better.

Empress Aminesria heaved a heavy sigh, her cold front and strong backbone never once lacking from the sight of her. For the first time since they arrived in the garden, her strong gaze finally held on to his. If it was any other ordinary person, they would have swallowed their tongues and ran with their tails tucked between their legs. Jayus was about to do so too. The Empress was someone akin to the previous fallen Empress. The same cold empty look on their faces were hard to discern.

"That's why I'm holding this annual battle tournament as replacement of the former annual event." The empress said. Jayus felt like an apple had just fallen on to his head yet caused a concussion, leaving him utterly clueless. The empress could very much see clearly that Jayus was not at all following. So she explained further.

"The tournament will supply an award for the winner of the championship. Only, those who will participate will most likely consist of warriors from noble houses or those who seek recognition. If it had been a normal event, no other regions would bother to come, but for a prize capable of restoring the loss they earned from the Great Fall will be a stepping stone to restoring our bridge to them." Jayus nodded along, he had slowly been absorbing the Empress's words. He truly did. But each time he heard it, he couldn't help but question the plan the Empress had going on in her head. Fighting fire with fire is something Jayus is very fond at. But wouldn't a competition only cause more rift to an already broken seam? This question was left unasked.

The Empress was not at all fazed by this. Jayus is very keen. By all means, he is exceptionally bright. Although, often times she couldn't help but think the lights were on yet nobody was home. He was not completely wrong. This type of plan had a gray scale of succeeding and failing. However, the main goal was never to fix broken ties with one stone. This tournament would only be a starting point. A mere reason to bring other regions to the empire.

"What does the empress have for me to do?" Jayus immediately asked. There was no way the empress wpuld have called him all the way here just to explain her plan like this. He idly waited. There was nothinf Jayus couldn't do. Whatever he hasn't fought yet, he would fight it. Afterall, he hadn't retored his family name doing nothing. The empress leisurely sipped her tea, as opposed to the duke who not once touched his own cup. Every second it took the empress made Jayus wait in tortured silence. Empress Aminesria set down her cup, in this heavy atmosphere, she gazed at him in all seriousness and spoke. "Oh, what I have tasked for you actually has nothing to do with the tournament."

Those words fell brick by brick on top of Jayus head. Then why would you talk about the tournament in the first place?! Jayus thought, his composure slightly wavering in the air like the marigolds on the flowerbeds.

"You seemed confused about the tournament so I thought I would give you a slight briefing of it is all. Aside from that, there is something that I need you to look into recently," She pulled a piece of paper from the nearby tea cart and handed it to the very confused, slightly surprised duke.

"Something seems to be attacking the village nearby the bank river. I would have already sent out a troop by now however, I feel something strange is amiss with this situation." Surprised, Jayus accepted the paper and skimmed through its details. In a normal perspective, this situation would have just been another monster terrorizing a village situation. But red eyes squinted into seriousness and mild concern the more he read through the paper.

"That's weird. This sounds like the creature terrorizing the village is only targeting young females. Why would that be?" Jayus wondered. Normally, beasts wouldn't choose to be on a balanced diet. If meat was meat, they would eat it no matter the species. The empress didn't say a word, leaving Jayus to wonder deeper into this situation.

"That's what I want you to find out. Visaril Village is on the path towards the palace, if the issue isn't resolved before the regions depart for the tournament then they might get caught up within that mess. That isn't exactly what we want for our guests, isn't it?" The empress stood up with ruby eyes following her every move. "Hopefully, you find an end to this situation before the preparations for Hostile Combat, Duke Frasirr. The success of this event depends on you! Well, at least half of it." Without a care for formalities, the Empress left the garden without any more words.

The ride back to the estate came as peaceful as it was on the way to the palace. That was minus the crash with Baron Jerudich, of course. Speaking of which, Jayus would need to resolve that incident with the Baron first before he left for Visaril Village. That and other estate affairs. Since becoming Duke of the Frasirr estate, Jayus found his father to be buried in a numeral amount of debt that he never even heard of before. That vulgar man did nothing but cause problems even after he ran away! It seems like pulling an all-nighter would be inevitable. So when Jayus was met with good news as soon as he arrived back at the estate, his mouth fell agape to the floor. In front of him stood a certain dark haired young man,completely refreshed and smiling, welcoming back his lordship after a long day.

"Wait," Jayus took a step back. "What do you mean you've done it already?" Perhaps Hera didn't even recognize the amount of work he did, or perhaps he didn't know how much of a huge favor he had done for Jayus when he announced he had already finished the Duke's leftover paperwork. But the job was done regardless. "It means I've already cleared my lord's workload for the week," Hera said it so easily that Jayus had to go double check himself. He hadn't even got the chance to step inside the manor when Hera greeted him by the door. When asked to prepare a bath before he had to bury himself in his study, this man merely stated, in the most nonchalant, unbelievable, carelessly way, smiling through it the entire time. "I've done it already."

Jayus dashed through the halls in the speed of light, when he entered his office everything had been cleaned down to the very dust behind cabinets. For a second, he couldn't recognize his own room. Perhaps he had gotten used to practically living in it looking like a swamp of paperwork. His trip to the palace had been the first time in days to be out of this room, and in that short trip, Hera had managed to clean out this entire room while sorting through the papers. On the desk were nearly stacked piles of papers. Jayus took ome page off and began reading through its contents.

"You finished the Colletes negotiations-"

"I have." Answered Hera.

"-And the estate affairs..." Jayus butted in.

"The budget and stocks have all been prepared for this month. You won't have to worry about the estate for a while," Hera assured. "The bank transfers...!"

"-Have been contacted already. They said the previous duke's damages will be dealt with by using the insurance plan that hasn't been withdrawn yet." To say Jayus was surprised would be an understatement. It seems like his trip to Visaril would be a piece of walk to the cake. He was rendered speechless.

"Is there anything else you need, My lord?" Hera asked. Getting over his initial shock, Jayus immediately reminded himself of the Visaril Village's current situation. He shook his head, sitting down on the chair of his desk with a leg across the other. "No, that's all for now. Thank you, Hera-" Ruby eyes glanced up at Hera in sincere gratitude, "-You made my life so much easier." Hera seemed pleased enough with the simple thank you and immediately shook his head, "It's my honor to serve you, Duke Frasirr." Since Jayus had took him in months ago, there wasn't any exact place the former crown prince could run to. He's a branded traitor, and a wanted criminal. Something that Jayus didn't know about his new loyal butler. Of course, Hera had no intention of keeping this a secret from Jayus for long. He couldn't imagine having betrayed someone like him.

Still, I need to find a way to clear my name. Hera thought to himself in desperation. I just need to find a single evidence of the previous Empress's schemes. Not noticing the sudden change of demeanour from Hera, Jayus merely shrugged off any sort of chill he felt as he took out the papers for the investigation that Empress Aminesria had given him. These new papers caught Hera's interest as he lingered in the room further, eyeing the papers curiously. When he used to be Heracles Eckleis, there hasn't been anything he wasn't informed of. Specially since his left hand man had always informed him of every happenings in and out of the empire. Felicity had been a woman of perseverance. After forcing her to escape the empire before his betrayal, he hadn't seen her since. Now Hera had to rely on his own means to gather information. In a way, it wasn't anything new. Working by himself had always been something he'd done while living in the palace. His curious eyes, however, were not left unnoticed by the red eyed duke.

"This is a file for investigation by the Empress. Apparently, there's a creature terrorizing Visaril Village, do you know anything about it?" Jayus asked, the files pinched between his fingers as he glanced up at Hera. The man standing before him only gave him a cheeky grin. The first time Jayus brought Hera to his estate was the first time Jayus was made aware that Hera was someone who was considered good-looking, handsome, and charismatic. Almost everyone at the estate had crowded Hera when he first arrived. Back then in the forest, beneath the foggy skies and blurry light, Jayus could only see this man as small and dirty when they first met. Looking at him now, completely cleaned up and smiling so freely, he couldn't help but agree with everyone's opinions.

"Actually, Jolene from the Bakery had just arrived back from her trip to Visaril to see her family. Apparently, this creature is known to only take certain women," Hera raised a finger to make one point. Jayus brought two fingers to his chin, scratching it as he submerged into deep thought, "So it's only certain women, not all women?" He asked.

"That's what I heard. The Visaril villagers said that might be the only reason as to why the monster hasn't attacked the village," Hera added. This made Jayus curious, however this added information didn't help him come closer to the answer he searched for. "So you're saying this monster might move on to another village if it catches all the women it wants in Visaril? That'll be a problem. If we don't catch it soon, we might lost track of it."

So this monster only preys on certain women. So far, that was the only clue they had. This was giving Jayus a headache. The visible frustration on his face came to Hera's attention, and in a blink of an eye, he set down a cup of chamomile tea which Jayus gratefully accepted. Suddenly, Jayus was struck with an idea. As he stared purposefully at the bewildered man in front of him, he boldly suggested. "Why don't you join me with the investigation?"

Startled, Hera could only stare back at him. "What?"

The more Jayus thought of it, the more the idea pleased him. "You seem to know a lot of stuff. And you absorb information like a sponge wherever you go. If I bring you along, this investigation might run faster than expected." Jayus explained. For the entire time they've known each other, Jayus had already placed a great deal of trust on Hera. The young Duke had already deemed him a reliable company. Those eyes held Hera's own blue ones in pure anticipation. Hera himself didn't know what Jayus was waiting for, if Jayus truly wanted Hera to come with him, then he would have ordered it already, yet this man in front of him, with his big rubies flaring with expectation, patiently waited for his answer. In the end, Hera sighed and agreed. "I'll follow you wherever you go, My lord "

"Then it's settled. Pack neccessities that will last us for five days. We'll be living after tomorrow." With that, Jayus pushed himself off his desk and walked towards the door. Hearing this, Hera was a bit taken aback. "That soon?"

"The Empress wants us to deal with this situation as soon as possible in case it might affect the annual event. So we should do as we are ordered." Jayus waved back as he began walking into the corridor. Hera didn't try and catch up to him after, this poor young man merely sighed at the young duke's persistence before walking out himself to begin preparations. Seriously, not even when he was crown prince did he work his ass off this much. Perhaps it came with the responsibility given at a young age. In a way, Hera udnerstood Jayus's insistent perseverance.