Darius

[Year K410]

In the illustrious city of Ars, capital of the Asura Kingdom, a man sat in a luxurious room in the Silver Palace.

His stocky, plump body remained motionless as he worked and wrote on papers on his desk.

Most, if not all, were people too confidential to leave their room without being in the hands of their most trusted confidants.

Of course, such people were few and far between in the palace, especially for a man like Darius Silva Ganius, who had quickly risen to a high ministerial position.

He had made many enemies in his time, rising to the position he held now, but that mattered little.

He had a foothold in the palace; no attempt, no matter how insignificant, would deter his position from changing.

This meant he had also become negligent and somewhat reckless in his activities, from his choice of food to his spending... and even the women he wished to sleep with.

To many, Darius was a despicable man, but very few knew the depth of his depravities.

To him, it didn't matter what he had to do to get what he wanted.

The only thing that mattered in the end was getting it.

If he wanted a woman in his bedroom, she would be there that very night.

If he wished to see a nobleman's son punished, he would make sure to do it personally.

Those examples only scratched the surface of Darius Silva Ganius's true identity.

A depraved fatso who had found himself in a position of high power.

That was Darius.

How had a man like him risen so high in the hierarchy of the asura kingdom's cutthroat political world? The answer, though simple, was also incredibly far-fetched.

Darius got this far because a self-proclaimed god appeared in his dreams and guided him to where he was.

This god was aptly named the God-Man by his followers.

Only a few knew this name; even fewer would live to receive it.

This was because most of the Man-God's apostles had short lives.

There were many reasons for this, but the most important was a man with a vendetta against his god.

This man was known as Orsted, also known as the current Dragon God.

Obviously, Darius knew better than to trifle with him; his god advised him against it.

So instead, he set his sights elsewhere.

Not long ago, his god appeared to him in a dream.

It had been years since the last time, but the Minister's devotion hadn't waned, not one bit.

His god made a direct request of him on the white plane of nothingness that was his domain.

"I need you to kill a family in Buena Village. More specifically, I need you to kill a child." The request was simple.

One Darius would have scoffed at its simplicity, but this was at the behest of his god. If he wanted it done, so be it.

Kill Rudeus Greyrat and his family.

That was the task entrusted to the Minister, and since it was a request from the person he held most dear, he made sure to be extremely thorough.

It took quite a bit of planning and several changes of hands to ensure everything went perfectly, but Darius eventually found the best way to proceed.

After all, there was little a low-ranking knight like Paul Greyrat or the Saint-ranked water mage Roxy Migurdia could do against the King of the North, Nuckelgard.

The Minister had his thoughts about the blue-haired girl who had escaped him, but for now, he would restrain himself and do as he was told.

With that, the Minister went about his days in relative peace, knowing that before long, he would live up to his god's word and end the life of the filthy cretin who had somehow managed to incur his wrath.

That would be that, and this matter would be settled.

"Just thinking about making him happy puts me in the mood..." The man looked through his papers and stopped at a name.

"What will it taste like?" He licked his plump lips, anticipating the new delicacy that had fixed his gaze.

The Minister only had to wait for Nuckelgard's confirmation of the assassination.

"Graaaaawh..." A yawn escaped the Minister's throat.

It was barely noon, but he felt strangely tired. "Well, if it's just a nap, it won't hurt anyone. Besides, nonstop paperwork can hardly be considered enjoyable." With that, the Minister of Asura fell asleep at his desk.

When he regained consciousness, his body had leaned to one side of the chair, pointing toward the windows of his room.

The sun, which had recently been peeking through the curtains, was now firmly planted high in the sky. "What a waste of a couple of hours. Why did no one bother to wake up-..." He turned back to his desk.

An acrid smell invaded his nose as he did so.

He should have noticed it as soon as he woke up, but he was still recovering from sleep.

The pungent smell of blood emanated from his desk.

The same desk scribbled upon with papers just hours ago now held a repulsive sight. One that made Darius's face turn pale with terror.

Two decapitated heads of the killers he assumed he'd hear from any moment lay on his desk. "What the hell?!" His body shuddered as he stood up.

His breathing quickly became ragged with fear.

His sudden outburst was only slightly calmed when he noticed no one else in the stinking room.

Instead, his attention was drawn to what lay in front of the terrible sight he'd found on his desk.

A simple letter was placed in front of the heads of the King of the North.

A letter bearing a seal with a simple but recognizable symbol of the Dragon God.

His stumpy legs trembled at the mere sight, for Darius Silva Ganius knew what that symbol meant to any devoted follower of the Man-God.

His certain death.

He staggered, frightened, toward the letter.

His consciousness was at an all-time high. The feeling of fear, dread, and adrenaline that simple piece of paper gave him was suffocating.

Even more so than Nuckelgard's lifeless heads.

With a gesture, he grabbed the letter and opened it. His breath hitched as he did so, and time seemed to stand still as he read it.

"To Minister Darius Silva Ganius,

I usually begin with a polite introduction in most of my letters, but you might find me questioning that notion—something understandable given my current circumstances. After all, you don't usually treat your enemies who would send an assassin after your family kindly, do you?

However, it's necessary to introduce myself, even though it seems unnecessary.

My name is Orsted, and I am known as the Dragon God. Frankly, I know that you were the one who sent Nuckelgard after the family of one of my comrades, and as you can easily see, they were... let's say, sent... so as not to screw up.

I know that your pitiful god was the one who told you exactly what to do. You even keep a journal of your "audiences" with him. The fact that that guy has even one follower astonishes me with his attitude."

At the mention of his coded journal, the pig-like man shuddered.

The letter he had addressed to him didn't make much sense in the grand scheme of things, but one thing had been proven beyond a doubt.

Rudeus Greyrat, in some ways, was a follower of the Dragon God.

"I'll get straight to the point, Darius. You're lucky to be alive right now the only reason is that I consider you more valuable to us, alive than dead at the moment, but only for now since I'm busy with people more dangerous than you.

So where does this leave you?

I'll be sure to explain this to you clearly and simply.

If you do anything to interfere with my plans, I will be forced to retract the kindness I've offered you. Unlike you, Rudeus Greyrat and I consider it essential to treat people with caution. I've cast you aside instead of taking the necessary steps to eliminate you. Consider yourself in my debt.

So keep that in mind, fat and bald pig. At any moment, any day, I could walk into your office and butcher you like the pig you are.

So be careful, Minister, know that we're watching you, and remember to stay away from his family if you value your life.

And don't even think about sending Auber Corvette or your lapdog, Reida Reia. When my work is done, all of you will die the same gruesome death as Nuckelgard. And if, at the end of all this, you still don't take this letter seriously, you can be sure that at least I give you my word."

The Minister paled as he finished the letter. He didn't breathe in the few moments after reading it.

So, he fumbled a little, and the letter he'd been clutching until his knuckles turned white slipped to the floor.

When he tried to bend down to retrieve it, his knees finally buckled from the fear and dread that gripped him.

He knew deep in his heart that the man his god had warned him about had been in that very room not long before and had probably been by his side on many occasions.

Darius was a dead man, and he knew that to be an undeniable fact.

He looked at the envelope and found another one. piece of paper.

"P.S. You should check the barriers in your room they could use a little more protection Furthermore, these letters should disintegrate within minutes of opening the envelope."

Recognizing the words on the letter, the minister felt his hands scorch with flames and was forced to drop the letter and watch as any hope of blackmail vanished into thin air.

The Prime Minister, panicking, ran out of his office at top speed.

It didn't take long to find the barrier specialist from the Silver Palace, and within minutes, the Minister and the older man returned to Darius's office.

"So you're telling me someone breached multiple royal-rank barriers?" The inflection in the older man's voice clearly showed how irritated he was.

"I don't know! Just check it out!" "What are we paying you for?" Darius's voice had become shrill.

The man walked over to a bookshelf and quickly moved it aside. "Whatever... My time is better spent elsewhere..." His hand brushed against the magic circle behind the bookshelf. His voice trailed off completely as he stared at it.

"So?" "What's wrong!!?" Darius shouted once more. However, he didn't reply, but remained silent for another minute.

"Well, the wards are still up." Something in his voice trembled as he spoke. It was almost as if he didn't believe his own words.

"That's good..." Darius, however, took that as good news, but the ward expert interrupted him before he could finally relax.

"But they're not mine." The shiver that ran down the Minister's spine was otherworldly.

"So... What does that mean?"

The older man stared at the Minister, wide-eyed and surprised.

"If all the wards are like this, we can safely assume that the royal-rank wards surrounding your office have been replaced with what I can only assume are emperor-rank wards." The man's face filled with a stern expression.

The Minister realized in that moment that the unwanted visitor who had invaded his room wasn't just taunting him with the heads of the assassins he sent after them. He decided that, while Darius slept, he might as well replace the barriers surrounding his office with higher-quality ones.

It's a stupidly naive idea. It's an incredibly stupid action on his part.

But that's not how it happened to the Minister.

Darius knew at that moment that this was Orsted's way of telling him that he could and would be able to kill him if he ever wanted to, no matter where he was or what he was doing.

That night, his god appeared to him in a dream and warned him to stay away from the boy and focus his efforts elsewhere.

A few weeks later, rumors spread through the Silver Palace that Minister Darius's room was the safest place in the capital. But for Darius Silva Ganius, that room became nothing more than a prison where he awaited his sentence, and eventually his death at the hands of the Dragon God