Chapter 136

Chapter 136: Ch. 135: Even More Secrets

What is the best way to humiliate a man?

There are a few ways, my friend. The easiest? His manhood. I’ve never not seen a man not get offended when someone called his dick small. But that is just surface level. Peel away everything that makes a man: his job, his reputation, his perception amongst women, his “family jewels”, and then what do you have left?

Nothing. You have trash, a humiliated piece of castrated trash. Because in a world where men can’t always rely on their looks the way women can, they have to earn or inherit their keep. And I cannot wait to strip it all away from Sir Jasper.

Yes. Yes, that would be most fitting for revenge.

The dark clouds above my mood float up, up, and away. I smile brightly at the two boys, a light giggle escaping my mouth before I can help it.

“Shall we?” I say cheerfully, gesturing towards the door. They both stare at me as if I’ve grown a second head.

“Remind me to never cross the second princess of this empire,” Amir whispers not so quietly to Elias.

.....

And then Elias replies and I’m not quite sure if my ears are tricking me or if he really said, “She’s perfect.”

Which I’m not. But it is certainly nice to hear.

“Amir,” I say suddenly, causing both boys to straighten and look away from each other as if they weren’t gossiping like old fisher’s wives.

He clears out his throat awkwardly.

“Yes?”

“Are you really angry for my sake?” Elias narrows his eyes, clearly picking up the subtle nuances in my not-so-innocent question, but Amir blazes ahead like a knight charging for victory.

“Of course!” he exclaims righteously. He even pounds his chest in the Aidelish fashion, with both arms crossed across the emerald green tunic.

“Then I’ve got a fun little idea for you to act out for me,” I beckon him over and whisper in his ear, relishing the way his eyes grow wide, and then a similarly devious smile sprouts across his face.

———–

LAST NIGHT

Wolfgang “Mad Dog” Amarelius was many things.

A lord. The emperor’s running dog. A prestigious knight. The occasional black sheep of House Amarelius. Today, he was even a messenger.

Of these many things, however, he was not a father. Wolfgang had no desire to be one either. Even well situated in his late 30s, witnessing all his comrades’ ruddy faces tell stories of their teenaged brats, the urge had never struck the playboy.

But Wolfgang was a son. Not the best one, but if it weren’t for his impulsive teenage desire to stand beside the bastard prince, House Amarelius would not have been awarded a duchy for all their troubles.

And as a son, he could tell that his closest friend, Emperor Helio, was a bad father.

“What of the matter during the hunting competition?” The Mad Dog asked without a care, settling down in a chair with the leisure of someone not conversing with the most powerful man in the empire. The quiet study was illuminated by a single candle, casting shadows on everything including the solemn emperor’s already gloomy face.

Emperor Helio’s eyes flicked up from the paper he was reading, pinning Wolfgang with a hard stare, before continuing to digest the confidential information.

“Bromely is on the move again. This time he’s gone east. It is time to find him,” Helio simply said as if he hadn’t heard a word.

“Why not just kill the traitor?” Wolfgang snorted. “Anyways, I know you’ve been paying attention to the mayhem in court. If nothing else, shouldn’t you take this opportunity to humble House Duvernay?” He began to toss a container of ink between his hands, the bottle completely dwarfed in Wolfgang’s massive hands that had killed many enemies for the emperor.

This time, Helio didn’t even deign him a response. But Wolfgang carried on talking regardless.

“I spoke to Princess Winter the other day. She reminds me an awful lot of you when you were young, Your Majesty.” It was as if the captain of the royal guard had just said magic words because he drew an unexpected emotion out of a man famous for having so few of them.

“Of me?”

A fish had been drawn to the bait, only this fish knew when bait had been thrown before it. Nonetheless, Wolfgang was briefly proud of himself for managing to drag the emperor’s attention away from a matter that had been consuming most of his attention for the past few years. And it was for good cause. Lord Bromely was not infamously nicknamed “The Kingmaker” for no reason.

But what he made was not a king, but an emperor. And this one was demanding an explanation from Wolfgang, his heavy stare a burden the confidant had carried for many years.

Wolfgang tapped his chin. “Well, not that similar to you. She hasn’t quite got that particular stare of yours down yet. And she’s nowhere near as good at hiding her fear.”

“I was never afraid,” Helio retorts.

“Then consider what I said a slip of tongue, Your Majesty,” Wolfgang wily responded without missing a beat. He absentmindedly rubbed at the new scar on his face, drawing Helio’s stare to it.

“You have done a lot for me over the years,” the emperor said, putting down the secret message in hand. “Is there anything you desire?”

“Look into whatever business Princess Winter is getting mixed up in lest the next Bromely starts putting ideas in her head that shouldn’t be there. She doesn’t look or act like any 11-year-old girl I’ve ever seen. And my sister has 3 daughters!”

“It is inevitable for children of the imperial family to be a little different from others.” Helio’s expression darkened once more, his golden eyes flashing dangerously. “And that matter has already been handled.”

Helio was a curt speaker, but Wolfgang had spent enough time with him to read between the lines. “You’ve already handled the situation? How? Will you blame it on Katya?”

“I just gave her back the right to run the imperial palace. Doing something else to her would rile up the Duvernay faction in court even more during this critical time,” Helio disagreed immediately.

Wolfgang snorted obnoxiously, only to be cowed by Helio’s deadly side-eye. “Since when did you care about the Duvernay faction?”

“Since the days we learned of their desire to usurp the imperial throne for themselves.” Helio folded his hands on his desk in deep introspection. Time had hardly left a trace on him over the years other than the ever-present darkness that seemed to doggedly chase at the emperor’s heels. Others only saw the frightening might Helio presented to the world, but never moments like this.

“Right. That is concerning.” Wolfgang sobered up right away at the mention of their latest headache in the past few years.

“To think a day would come when I would learn that not all my problems could be dealt with with a sword.”

Helio laughed but it lacked humor. It sounded desolate and pitiful but Wolfgang would sooner fall on his own sword than admit that to his friend. They sat together in the silence, their shared years of friendship if Wolfgang could call it that, making the silence comfortable.

Wolfgang knew how much blood had been spilled to pave Helio’s way to the throne. A majority of the imperial family had been brutally wiped out and dissidents from neighboring kingdoms were invaded and assimilated seamlessly into the empire. Helio was a conqueror in his blood. He took back what had been denied from him and took from those who dared to doubt him.

But to rule an empire, meant maintaining a delicate balance between several parties of varied interest. Most empires of old didn’t end because they were invaded. No. They fell apart due to internal strife and corruption. Helio was a smart man, how could he not know that? Hence the many allowances he made to House Duvernay, who had usurped the Holy Church and several key industries within the empire while he was off basking in the glory of war.

What was most frightening was that the one who moved all the chess pieces of House Duvernay always seemed to be two or three moves ahead of anything they had done over the years. Chancellor Duvernay had first appeared to be the mastermind of House Duvernay. But Emperor Helio had found out the hard way several years ago in the dark days after the flames had ravaged the former Rose Palace.

“So this is the price he spoke of,” Wolfgang still remembered Emperor Helio moaning as ash from the Rose Palace floated down around them like snow. The then almost 20-year-old emperor had kneeled amongst the ashes, his hands and arms burnt badly from the flames before Wolfgang himself had dragged him away from the blazing palace. The screaming inside had stopped long ago by then, so even if Helio had somehow made it in, the former empress was long dead.

“It is my fault. If I hadn’t... if I hadn’t sought this power, Liana would be- She would still be-” The devastation had wiped all sense from Helio. No one could approach him, literally. His aura was so powerful that just dragging Helio from the fire left Wolfgang in bed for a month fighting through the side effects. The words echoed through Wolfgang’s head as he had lain on a sickbed for the first time in his life with his tearful mother beside him because he did not understand what Helio had meant.

What price? Was the power Helio referring to his killing aura and the unstoppable onslaught that followed whenever the young emperor unsheathed his sword? Wolfgang fathomed that somehow the emperor had made a deal involving dark magic with a sorcerer of some sort, but with no proof, he’d always shelved the thought in his mind.

All he knew was that after that night, Emperor Helio, who had already grown out of being a vicious, wolf-like child no one cared about into a loving husband, fell back into his past self that was completely focused on achieving his goals at any cost. He married the Duvernay girl they’d always made fun of when they were younger and he carried out more campaigns than ever. It grew to the point that he spent far more days out of the palace than in it. And in that time, House Duvernay sank their claws deeper and deeper into Radovalsk to the point that they basically controlled the capital.

The most strange thing was that Helio watched it all happen. The sharp emperor was not someone who could easily have the wool pulled over his eyes, yet he watched the power plays of his hateful wife’s family and did... nothing.

“Do you regret letting House Duvernay grow as much as they did?” Wolfgang finally asked as the emperor proceeded to burn the message in the candle flame.

“It was part of the price. I knew what I had to pay. But I did not expect them to be so greedy.” The rage in Helio’s voice still made Wolfgang’s heart jump a little even though he knew it wasn’t directed towards him.

“They are too powerful and yet they want more,” Wolfgang concurred.

Despite being the emperor, the government was not totalitarian like the Kingdom of Aidel, hence the presence of nobility in court affairs. And those greedy bastards were happy to do whatever it took to gain more power.

Wolfgang still remembered the weathered hands that had felt so heavy as they wrapped around his thin shoulders he hadn’t yet fully grown into. He’d always had a keen eye for people and even in his youth, Lord Bromely the “Kingmaker” always left a bad taste in his mouth.

“Everything and everyone has a price. It just depends if one is willing to pay for it,” Lord Bromely had once taught a young Helio and Wolfgang back in the days they were plotting the impossible and Wolfgang hadn’t acquired his killing aura.

Only back then they went by different names. He was the popular and beloved Young Lord Amarelius and Helio was still Prince Bartholomew. The second prince. The prince no one loved.

Today’s Emperor Helio of Erudia and the Northern Territories, that was just a persona created the day his friend had finally sat upon the throne with a tired look on his face.

“The common people love that god, Helio, don’t they? So they should love me too,” Helio had murmured after he was announced at the coronation with his new name. “Will you still follow me, Wolfgang? Even as Helio?”

“Without question, Your Majesty,” Wolfgang had answered, sinking onto a knee immediately.

As a new emperor, Helio had been generous to him and his family. House Amarelius was awarded the former Duchy of Provoth as repayment. Lord Bromely had been awarded the most coveted position of Chancellor. The girl Helio had long secretly admired became his beloved wife and they had a son within a year of their marriage. Things had been good and leaving Bartholomew in the past seemed to be a good decision.

But things changed and so did the new Helio, who wore his new name so well that even Wolfgang himself had almost forgotten the thrashing and animalistic Bartholomew who had been locked in the stables for accidentally showing his face before the Dowager Empress. Until he saw Princess Winter with that same, jumpy expression.

The most dangerous beast is a cornered one. But when they lash out, does the blame fall on the beast or those that cornered it?

“I know you have wondered why I gave House Duvernay so many allowances,” Helio said from the desk, unknowing of Wolfgang’s mental journey into the past. “Not just you, but Bromely must have wondered as well. He is in the east now probably to seek such answers.”

There were many secrets Helio kept from Wolfgang. How he became friends with the Lord Protector of the North. How he acquired his mysterious power. But Wolfgang was wise enough not to pry, the same way he was wise enough not to have children. He had his inklings, but like any wise subject who wanted to live a long life, Wolfgang mostly kept them to himself.

Even though they were still friends, even as they threw back glasses of imported ale and reminisced on the old days, Wolfgang never forgot that they were subject and emperor. That was how he’d managed to last as long as he had, even when the ruthless, bloodthirsty Helio had taken the reigns.

“Do you intend to tell me, Your Majesty?” Wolfgang asked, not expecting any information.

Helio smiled up at Wolfgang. “You actually already know more than you think,” the emperor responded cryptically. “But it is what we do not know that is far more intriguing.”

There was a glow in the hooded gaze of the emperor, the kind that Wolfgang often saw before Helio did what he did best and took what he wanted.

“Your Majesty...?” Wolfgang unconsciously straightened in the chair he sat in, curious to hear what his friend had to say.

“I have been hearing whispers from my spies for a while now. Whispers of a secret even an emperor is not privy to. A secret that supposedly involves the most powerful figures not only in our empire, but the neighboring lands and continents too.” The corner of Helio’s mouth quirked up even higher. “According to that message I just burned, it seems even Bromely knows of it.”

Wolfgang got a bad feeling immediately. “Anything that Bromely is involved in cannot be good. You have not forgotten the illegal matters he got up to while he served as chancellor, have you, Your Majesty?”

Wolfgang verbally danced around the crimes of Lord Bromely, but Helio stabbed the truth out into the light.

“His magic experiments, you mean?” the emperor said. “No, I have not. He was always curious about how to replicate my aura.”

“Do you think House Duvernay is involved?”

“Without a doubt. But not the Chancellor. No, no, no,” the emperor shook his head. “The real head of that family. He doesn’t have much longer left to live, you see. He’s been cursed.”

“A curse?” Wolfgang sputtered, unable to hold his cool. The candlelight flickered as if it were just as perturbed as he was. “Those have been banned for centuries! There should not be a soul alive who knows how to cast one let alone has the ability to!”

.....

His stomach churned in the way it did before he embarked into battle. Politics were just as frightening and dangerous as the battlefield. The lengths people went to for power, the lengths that Emperor Helio had gone to for power, they crossed a threshold that deeply frightened him.

“And yet I’ve personally seen traces of one cast in the past few years. Even with our history books, people still forget why magic is banned beyond battlemages and healers. First Travelers, now curses. Something big is afoot and yet I am not privy to it.” The emperor stood from the desk, his tall figure slightly shorter and trimmer than Wolfgang’s own. Yet he could easily best Wolfgang in battle, even without his killing aura.

“Call Madame Nightingale. Tell her to find a way to lure Bromely back to Radovalsk,” Helio ordered.

Wolfgang shook his head. “He would never risk that. After sneaking in to speak with the princess all those years ago, he has avoided Radovalsk like the plague.”

Helio smirked darkly. “I wouldn’t pay that woman such an exorbitant amount of coin if she couldn’t fulfill such a simple matter. Her and her little birds will see to it.”

Wolfgang pouted, an unusual expression on someone as old as he was. “But I hate talking to that strange woman. I still don’t understand why you had to appoint her as your spymaster.”

“Because she could do what you couldn’t,” Emperor Helio said, throwing in a quick barb as he prepared to leave the darkened study. The candle was nearly about to go out. “Get me the information I need.”

“I am a knight, not a gossip monger,” Wolfgang muttered under his breath. He smiled innocently when Helio cast a glance over his shoulder in his direction. How could Wolfgang forget that the emperor had the senses of a hawk?

Wolfgang awkwardly cleared his throat as he trailed out into the dark halls of the opulent palace after the emperor. “It is late, Your Majesty. Are you off to rest?”

“No, I must see to some matters regarding my daughter. Go rest. I shall see you tomorrow for a spar before the banquet,” Emperor Helio called back, disappearing into the halls.

The torchlight on the walls provided for subpar lighting, but before the emperor turned the corner, Wolfgang could swear he’d seen the faintest hint of a real smile on his friend’s face. Even though Emperor Helio couldn’t see it, ever since Princess Winter had moved into the central palace, the lighter-hearted Helio from the days when Empress Liana was still around seemed to be making a comeback.

He only hoped it wasn’t too late for a true relationship to foster between the estranged father and daughter.