Chapter 17: Chapter 10 ─ Magic Empire

Beyond the northern border of Aster, there was a nation illuminated by the rays of the sun.

All the territories were gathered close together forming a spiral, in the center of that spiral was the capital of this country.

Manaria Magic Empire.

The magic empire is a nation that managed to use magic before anyone else, for that reason they were called the first country to use it, but besides that, their religion is based on worshipping magic as if it were their god.

In the corridors of the beautiful and huge castle, a man in ministers' clothes was walking a bit angrily.

He opened different doors looking for someone, but he couldn't find him.

Until he opened a glass door that led to a huge balcony which looked like a park.

In the middle of the garden was a small artificial pond where ducks were eating the biscuit crumbs that an old man was throwing at them.

The man was guarded by several knights who on seeing the man who entered, greeted him.

As he approached the old man he said.

"At last I find you, Your Majesty."

The old man was dressed in fine, elegant clothes of red with black borders.

Golden rings on each finger and resting near him was a golden diamond encrusted scepter like a gold plated crown.

The man, for a man in his 70s, looked in good condition, his grizzled hair was in the shape of a mane and reached down his back.

His wrinkled face did not show that age was a weakness, it showed in the steadiness of his golden eyes.

The man, who was the emperor, replied cheerfully.

"What can an old man do for you, prime minister?"

The prime minister greeted him.

"I am sorry to interrupt you at this moment of relaxation of yours, Your Majesty, Dixgard Zai Zellgred-sama."

Dixgard made an expression of distaste at being so called.

"Don't call me by my full name when your father was my best friend."

"With all due respect, I can't call the Magic Emperor by his name."

His expression of displeasure increased.

"Don't call me that either, it's very childish."

"Then what do you want me to call him?"

"The Crimson Lion King?"

"Sword Emperor?"

"Hey, I can sense a little hostility from you towards me."

Dixgard in his youth was a warrior, earning the nickname "Crimson Lion King" due to his red hair in the form of a mane.

While the title of "Sword Emperor" he earned several years ago after defeating several foes. Sometime later a man from the east would take that title, but he was killed by Bandel.

Dixgard finished throwing biscuit crumbs into the lake, watched the ducks eat it.

"When you get to my age, the world around you changes totally. Sometimes you don't even realise it, human life is so fragile, but so fragile, that I would like to go back to the ignorant time where we didn't know what would happen."

"Your Majesty, I am sorry to interrupt you in your senile ramblings, but this is important."

"You just said it, I heard you. You called me senile."

The emperor was angry, but that was bad for his heart.

He put on his crown and grabbed his scepter to help him to his feet.

The imperial scepter was more of a walking stick than anything else.

"If you came all this way to look for me it must be for something, what is it?"

"That man requests to see you."

"I see."

The emperor and his escorts set off along with the prime minister.

◇◇◇

Arriving at the hall of ministers, they found only one person there, it was a man dressed in white robes and hat.

The man was in his 30s and his sharp beard showed his confidence.

He was drinking a glass of an aged wine.

Noticing the emperor entering, he stood up to greet him.

"It is a pleasure to see you, His Majesty the Emperor."

As he reached his throne and sat down, the emperor returned the greeting.

"I would say the same, but it is you, Baron Norbert Erich Gambino who speaks to me."

The man with the gambler's look was a most unusual nobleman.

That unusual appearance was thanks to his job, a pirate.

He was not just any pirate, he was a noble pirate.

A pirate who managed to get the noble title years ago thanks to a mutual aid agreement with the emperor.

Gambino was the head of the Gambino Family, those who rule the underworld in the empire to protect it from other pirates.

Under that excuse, the emperor let him do his own thing since the citizens were not getting hurt.

The emperor asked him.

"What do you want Gambino?"

"That coldness is not at all pleasant to me, Your Majesty. I came with business, this will benefit you and me."

"Really? Say it."

"Yeah. As you may know, I learned last year that one of the three great crime families of the world, the Rossini, were wiped out, their base of operations was in a country called the Altfode Kingdom."

"Altfode? I've never heard that name."

"It's a small country with nothing important to highlight, back to the subject. A few days ago I also found out that my rival, the Bartolini were eliminated as well."

"Hoh? Does that mean you're getting scared of being next?"

"Of course not, the thing about the Bartolini is that they were doing business in Aster."

"In Aster, huh?"

Gambino noticed that both the emperor's look and tone of voice changed at the mention of Aster's name.

"Enzo, the last head of the Bartolini Family, was the new rival for me since his father Bargo was my sworn enemy─"

"You're making it too long, get to the point."

The emperor was instantly bored when Gambino thought of telling him about his life, in fact, he always enjoyed telling anecdotes from his past, but even his subordinates didn't care, sometimes they would get drunk or beat themselves up to avoid hearing them.

*Cough*

"To sum it up. There is currently no crime family in Aster, meaning that the smuggling business is free."

"You want to take over Aster's criminal business, how will you do that if the great nobles don't want to deal with pirates?"

"That's where your majesty is wrong, you see, among the great nobles there is someone I dealt with in the past when I was young. He is currently the head of his house, he is Randy from Herring Household."

"And this Randy will help you take criminal control in Aster?"

"I'm sure he will, since the reason the Rossini's and Bartolini's were eliminated is the same, it was the same man."

"A brat named Rudel, and that brat is currently hated by Randy and other great nobles... is there something wrong with you?"

Dixgard's eyes went wide when he heard that name, then he relaxed and said.

"I see. So you want my country to help you with taking over Aster, do you?"

"It would be good for us to take over all of Aster, after all, we have had fights with them in the past for control of the sacred tree that gives orbs, but we always lose."

"This time one of the great nobles will be on our side so we can gain ground within their territory."

"That doesn't sound bad, but you'd need a commander to mobilise the fleet. Besides, you should contact this Randy fellow to see if he will help us."

"With all due respect Your Majesty, I think that's a bad idea."

The prime minister butted into the conversation.

"Why do you say that?"

"For months now our border crisis has been aggravated because the kingdom of Bastille and some of the Ten Powers are picking fights with us, even the Grand Duke and the strongest knight are busy."

"I understand, who can we send?"

Dixgard wondered as he stroked his beard. Gambino took off his hat, revealing a bit of his bald head with a few hairs around it.

"In that case, I suggest we send His Highness, the crown prince."

"What you say?"

"To Jasper-kun?"

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The prime minister became upset.

"With all due respect Your Majesty, sending Prince Jasper on an invasion is a bad idea, what if something happens to him?"

Gambino interjected.

"Nothing to worry about, I'll use my entire fleet to make sure nothing bad happens, he'll go out just to put up the flag of the magical empire."

"... Are you really sure about that?"

"The crown prince's future is also my future, prime minister-dono."

"..."

The prime minister didn't trust Gambino, but when he heard the name of his only son, Dixgard lost his mind.

"I see, if Jasper-kun goes it means he will be happy and forgive me for not giving him that 1000-meter warship he wanted."

"Your Majesty, the crown prince recently turned 21, it's only natural that he's starting to earn points to be accepted by everyone as the next emperor."

"Umm, you are right. Call my son this instant."

An official behind the door ran to fetch the crown prince.

◇◇◇

Training grounds of the magical empire.

A place identical to a military camp.

There, a large amount of armors was attacking one another.

They were using magic bullets, normal bullets, magic swords and axes.

The red armored unit with a golden lion emblem was moving at an inhuman speed, its movements were also impossible to make.

Normally the cockpit would be smashed if anyone did.

But the man inside was demonstrating his talent for handling armor.

He was taking down the armor one by one.

Until suddenly there was none left standing.

The hatch opened and a young man poked his head out.

"Tch, how boring they are. There's no one to fight."

The young man with long red hair tied over his shoulder and sharp golden-eyed gaze sat in the hatch.

His healthy tanned skin gave him a very attractive look along with his hunched eyebrows.

This is the crown prince of the empire, Jasper Zai Zellgred.

Jasper watched as a boat approached him.

"Now what does he want?"

◇◇◇

"Say that again, I didn't hear you."

"As I said, Jasper-kun, you will go on a mission to invade Aster and take at least part of their territory, in taking it, they will take political action, but we will have infiltrated several of our soldiers to put together an internal revolt thanks to someone's help, won't we?"

The emperor looked at Gambino who nodded.

"Y-Yes, I already sent the letter requesting help, ask my right hand man."

A tall man with slicked back hair and a vacant stare was Gambino's right hand man, Kenny Holz.

Kenny is a cruel man who enjoys torturing others and for that he has earned several nicknames.

"The letter was sent as quickly as possible, once we have affirmation, a subordinate will communicate from there with us directly."

"I see."

"You heard, Jasper-kun. Do you want to go to your first battle?"

Jasper who was known by many as a chaotic prince as he was always causing havoc, including the nickname of the Imperial Berserker for never controlling himself in duels, was happy as a child.

"I am! I'm excited! I'll really be able to tear many to shreds!"

"Hahaha, I'm glad. That's why I've prepared this for you as a gift to take care of yourself."

The prime minister approached with a suitcase, upon opening it, there was a strange black colored right arm that was part of a suit of armor.

"With this 'gift' you can easily win without breaking a sweat, what do you think?"

"I'm excited, father."

Jasper smiled sinisterly.

The magical empire was exclusively a future enemy, which should not appear now.

◇◇◇

Altfode Kingdom.

In the capital's academy, the heroine Irisdina─ Airi, a blonde-haired girl with a bob haircut and blue eyes was sighing.

Beside her was the villainess and daughter of the duke, Alicelotte von Bismarck─ Alisa.

Alisa and Airi according to the plot of the game should be enemies, but thanks to Erselica stealing Liam and her title of saint is that they can both be friends and Rudel's fiancée.

Floating above her was a white-colored, green-eyed sphere, Bellion─ Bell, who asked them.

"What's wrong with you two?"

Airi replied without taking her eyes off her cup of tea.

"Winter break has already started and we still haven't heard back from Rudel-san, I'm getting worried."

"I haven't heard from Rudel either, it's bothering me, are you sure we can't communicate with them, Bell?"

They could communicate with Rudel, but Bell didn't want to, she was planning something behind her master's back.

The girls were in the room where they were having tea with Rudel, they missed their conversations and his presence. For them, spending time with their fiancé was precious.

Now they can't even communicate.

In that moment of sadness, a girl came in knocking on the door.

"Please, Lady Alicelotte! Come quickly, there is trouble."

"Trouble? Where?"

"In the cafeteria, it's them again."

Alisa knew what the girl was talking about.

"It's those guys again..."

"Alisa, let's go quickly."

"Yeah."

The new students were troublemakers, many of them were commoners who were accepted into the academy since they achieved excellent results as adventurers.

Even children from merchant families and children without inheritance entered.

Arriving at the dining hall, they found two boys fighting.

One of them had green hair and the other had purple hair.

"Say it again you wretch! I'll kill you!"

"I said commoners shouldn't be in the academy! This is no place for scum like you to be with nobles!"

"We are genuine adventurers not like you scum!"

"Don't compare a peasant to someone from the city."

Alisa reached over and tugged on both of their ears.

"You two stop now, don't make me call the headmaster to have you expelled."

The kids this year were rebellious, too much so many would say.

They had no respect for authority or nobles.

It was all due to the war that had left the capital almost devastated.

The boys saw Alisa angry, they knew that as the duke's daughter they could not say anything to her.

They went their separate ways.

Airi came and gave her a handkerchief.

"It was easier to stop them this time, wasn't it?"

"It doesn't matter if it's easy or hard, what matters is that they're behaving like savages."

Alisa pouted as she saw how chaotic the academy was.

"I hope this all gets sorted out before Rudel arrives, I fear because his arrival will make it worse."

Life at the academy is a jungle with or without the main troublemakers.

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