Mark of a new beginning or something...

The sun was coming up, and I'm sure the guards were long alerted after I thrashed the throne room. "Loeya, stay guard outside," I ordered. "Ensure nobody enters this room, the king will be busy until further notice."

The only two people in the room who held a look of uncertainty and concern were Loeya and Martin. While Loeya reluctantly obeyed me and exited the room, Martin stepped forward and tended to the king. "Your highness," he held the king's hand and helped him stand up. His shoulder was visibly broken under his royal gown, further confirming him being a mortal; it did not heal like it would for the immortals.

"What is your name?" I politely questioned.

Him and Martin looked at each other, trying to figure out what to do. But there was nothing they could do except allow me to be in control of the situation for now. "Von Rehath Graham," he locked his eyes with mine as he answered.

"King Rehath. So as I was saying, we got off on the wrong foot. Which is why we are having this discussion. I understand there are very good reasons why you are unwilling to form this alliance despite the obvious benefits, so why don't you list those concerns to me? I am willing to make any number of reasonable compromises for us to be allied."

Once again, they were unsure of what to do. And Martin, being the mediator, was the first to question the roots of this confusion. "Why are you so inclined to form this alliance? For a being as powerful as you, you surely don't need our help to eliminate Adamas and Venus when they come."

"For a being as powerful as myself, Martin, I would very much rather have security than to have to deal with threats on a regular basis. It defeats the purpose for which I descended to this world."

"And what's that purpose?"

"If I said it's to live a peaceful life, would you believe me?" I tried to sound as genuine as possible with that response, which was more of a statement.

After a brief silence, King Rehath finally spoke, "An alliance is not impossible. But as you said, I have concerns on behalf of Eden's future." Things were moving in the right direction as far as I anticipated. Following this, he listed his three main concerns over this alliance.

1) I may gain too much influence in Eden to the point where it would just seem like history repeating itself. This one I had already assumed, and it was a very rational concern. For Eden to achieve the peace it currently had, a lot of sacrifices were made. King Rehath who has seen all of that, absolutely did not want Eden to go back to it.

2) Violence. I was somewhat offended by this one, but I tried not to show it. You see, after the first war with the red mages which led to peace in Eden, there was a clear priority to keep that peace. So understandably, King Rehath and chief strategist Martin took a very passive approach in dealing with the current wave of the red mages. This approach was basically spying, infiltration, and everything along those lines.

The concern here is that if I were to enter the equation, this passive approach could change and may lead to bloodshed. I don't know why he would automatically associate me with violence, it was honestly a little judgmental on his part.

3) The general threat of the most powerful being in the universe residing in Eden. This was a concern they were right to have but for the wrong reason. The truth is despite my A+ mana control, accidentally destroying earth is still a completely plausible scenario. But King Rehath was more concerned that I would get angry one day and decide to wipe Eden off the face of the planet, which I don't see happening because I'm not a violent sociopath.

"I hear your concerns, King Rehath," I acknowledged, still sitting on the throne with my legs crossed. "They sound fair enough. Allow me to now offer my solutions for each of them. Feel free to voice your opinions if you don't find any of my compromises acceptable." That's what I said, but I didn't fully mean that last sentence. Mainly because, I planned to be extremely reasonable with my proposals that they would need to be extremely unreasonable to think twice about it.

Starting with the solution for the first point, "There will be no interference from my side in ruling this nation, that will be left entirely in your hands. The only condition is that I be notified of every major decision beforehand so that we can discuss it if necessary. Similarly, I will also be obliged to share details regarding any major decisions from our side prior to it being made. Additionally, I will not ask you to treat us above the law except under special circumstances or emergencies, which I will personally contact you about. So, if myself or any of my followers were to commit any unjustifiable actions that go against the law in Eden, the appropriate lawful action may be taken."

See? Extremely reasonable. Even my companions standing behind King Rehath and Martin were confused by the amount of leeway I was giving.

Onto the second point, "I am fully willing to fight if it means to secure peace in Eden. But at the same time, I also respect your desire to resolve this without disturbing the existing peace. With that being said, if there is a way to actually do that, we will prioritize it no matter the feasibility." I stopped with that for now, but we'll get back to this.

Third, "I want to be provided with a safe environment within the kingdom, where outside threats won't be able to reach me. And that's where I'll spend most of my time. Other than this, there isn't much I can provide in terms of security. You will have to trust me on the promise that I will never pose a threat to Eden."

Needless to say, King Rehath and Martin were surprised, maybe even suspicious, of my proposal. But the question is, why would I lie about all this, and the answer is… well, there is no answer. I didn't have any ulterior motives, I just wanted to form this alliance which would benefit me not only in the short term against Adamas and Venus, but also in the long term where Eden could be the ideal place for me to lead a peaceful life.

"I wish to add one more condition before we proceed," Martin unexpectedly chimed in.

"One more? I thought I was being more than reasonable."

He nodded. "I agree. But… just to ensure there are no loopholes for you to cheat—"

"Watch your tongue, cripple!" Heath interrupted the mana-impaired man, calling him the C-word (oof).

I put my hand out, gesturing Heath to not interfere. "Go on, Martin."

"Absolute transparency," he said. "And not just limited to major decisions and special circumstances. We provide each other with daily reports on the activities carried out under each side. Then this alliance can work."

The king seemed to agree as well. The only reason I was hesitant to accept this is because I would lose a little bit of my standing in this negotiation by saying 'yes' to everything. But other than that, I couldn't really think of how daily reports could affect us in any significant way. Besides, we would be getting the same from the government. "As long as these reports don't fall into the hands of a third party, it should be fine," I therefore agreed.

And that's how the alliance between me and the ruler of Eden was formed… except, not quite and not yet. We still had to go through plenty of information exchanges to finalize this bond, all of which we decided to include in a detailed report and deliver it to each other by the end of the day.

Setting that aside, we still had a few more important topics to discuss as unofficial allies. One of them being, what's next? Adamas and Venus clearly failed in sparking a conflict between me and King Rehath; not considering the fact that I broke his shoulder and his throne room. So, what will they do next? What can they do next? There was only one man I could consult regarding this. "Heath, your thoughts?"

"Uh, yes lord Zenith, about that…" he sounded unsure of how to bring up the following information. "With this alliance now formed, we may have a bigger problem on the horizon."

I curiously leaned forward from my chair. "Go on."

"The Paragons of Omni, lord Zenith. Back when we were together and trying to take over Eden, the way we planned to do it was through harboring enough manpower to defeat the king. But due to the uncertainty of it, we actively looked for other more reliable approaches. And… At one point, I found a way."

As he explained this 'approach', I found myself less concerned than I found it interesting. Remember those neighboring kingdoms that were split from the original empire which Eden was part of? You see, the current relationship between these kingdoms are more neutral than friendly, or at least that's the case with Eden and the others. Considering this and the fact that King Rehath is so powerful to the point of being untouchable by even the immortals, why aren't those other kingdoms constantly worrying about the possibility that Eden could at any time destroy their nation?

Apparently, they are not as powerless. In fact, they could possibly be more powerful than Eden. "Other people like King Rehath do exist, even outside Eden," Heath continued. "During one of our slave trades with the kingdom of Oloha, we heard a rumor that was supposedly a national secret. Basically, the government had a powerful weapon, a woman with immeasurable and exponentially growing magic strength, under their control. The source of this rumor originally wasn't very reliable, but I confirmed it with a more reliable one and… Yeah. After that, I spent a month investigating Oloha and the other neighboring kingdoms for anything similar, and sure enough, there are more."

In conclusion, the so-called 'reliable approach' that Heath found was to provoke a war between Eden and the three neighboring nations so that those biological weapons would be used against King Rehath. But there is a very obvious flaw with the plan, considering that the entire goal of the red mages is to take over Eden. You see, the information Heath managed to uncover about these weapons was very limited, which means he had no idea about their power levels, skill sets, etcetera. So, as far as he knew, one of these weapons would be enough to defeat King Rehath or even all of them still wouldn't stand a chance. If it's the case of the former, then there won't be a nation left to take over for the red mages. And if it's the case of the latter, nothing changes. See the problem?

"For that reason, we couldn't carry out this plan until we could gain more intel on these weapons' capacity, which we had very little luck with." So, now that I have entered the equation along with this alliance being formed, Adamas and Venus are pushed to the corner. The only choice they have left is to carry out this plan, which actually may seem like a good idea now. Because they know that I'm strong, they may even hope that I'm strong enough to take on all of those weapons to the point where Eden won't fall but could be taken over by the red mages by assisting those weapons; the ideal scenario.

"Do you have any additional information on this, Martin and King Rehath," I abruptly acknowledged the unsurprised look on their faces.

Martin glanced at the king before revealing, "They are part of the royal bloodline."

> Skillset: … Royal Blood (Complexity - S)

Oh, how oddly familiar. "Elaborate," I demanded.

"We don't know all the details either," he responded. "There is this old unpopular folklore about the ancient era that the whole world was once ruled by a single man. A person so powerful even every other living thing on earth combined couldn't match his strength. However, he wasn't immortal. So instead of living forever, his bloodline was passed down generations. I don't know if any of this is true. But we have also made efforts to investigate the neighboring kingdoms on this matter, and as far as the success we have had, the so-called 'weapons' that Heath mentioned are similar to his highness."

"You mean they all have royal blood?" I confirmed while looking at King Rehath and his skill set that included the said anomaly.

"Yes, at least the ones we managed to effectively investigate do."

"And how exactly were you able to determine this? What specifically sets the royal blood apart?"

"Again, I don't know everything. But there's a book containing all my research notes on this I can share a copy of. The main point is that the subject's mana capacity and quality exponentially increases over time."

This would actually mean that Princess Loeya, also being part of the royal bloodline, would eventually become a mana powerhouse. I could only look forward to how interesting of a student she will turn out to be. Anyway, I responded to Martin with a nod. "And while we're on the subject of biological anomalies, do you know anything about animals being subjected to magic-related experiments? I recently came across a dog with mana flowing through it."

He didn't expect that question, but not because he didn't know about it. In fact, his response suggested that it was a very trivial matter for me to even pay attention to. "Well, yes. I will share the details on that for when and if it becomes relevant in the future."

"Sounds good. So then, more importantly, we should discuss how to deal with this potential war with the three nations before we wrap things up here." Just to be clear, with enough intel, I could very likely come up with a way to either find and kill these royal bloods or easily win the war when it happens. But the problem is that it violates almost every point I agreed over to form this alliance. So, as much of a pain in the ass it is, we must think of a peaceful way to resolve this. "I'm open to suggestions."

After a brief period of silence where we all racked our brains for a solution, Devon stepped forward. "Master Zenith, I have a suggestion."

Everyone's gaze shifted to him, including mine. "Yes, Devon," I encouraged.

"There was an incident that happened in our old kingdom 182 years ago," He started a history class about the charcoal kingdom. "A neighboring nation started selling a drug called Opium to expand their trade power within our territory so that they could sell more goods more freely. We initially didn't take this very seriously, but by the time we did, it was too late. Thousands fell victims to opium addiction, including the 17-year-old princess at the time. It was a big mess to recover from, and it was only possible because Edith and I stepped in to help."

"Are you saying we should officially start selling drugs to the neighboring kingdoms to weaken them?" King Rehath asked, ridiculing the insanity of the idea.

"No, of course not," Devon returned, which surprised me because I thought the drug trade was a good idea. "I'm emphasizing the concept of getting used to something to the point where a nation can't function without it. We have made some groundbreaking advancement in enchantment technology recently, so maybe we can use that or build something even better. And we can further subsidize the prices in those kingdoms who agree to have a peaceful trade relationship with us."

While everyone else tried to think of how well this plan would work in practice in the context of preventing a war, I thought about it a little outside the box. And having realized something, I muttered, "Brilliant." I smiled as I looked at King Rehath. "Loeya once quoted you saying, 'the day when people realize that magic is more useful for the people rather than as a tool of war against them, will be the day our civilization grows to invite envy from the rest of the world.' You know what, King Rehath? I think it's time to execute that. Let's warp ahead to the next generation of this civilization — a new Eden."

My speech inspired them surely, especially my companions. "That's big," Martin attempted to conceive the sheer scale of the goal I presented. "How do you plan to do that?"

"Not me, us," I replied. "I will need a lot of and constant consultation from you on this research and development process. And you know what the ideal place to work on this?"

He knew that I knew that he knew. "The academy," he said, looking at the king.

"Hm," King Rehath thought about it for a second, and probably realized that this also served as a threat-free environment for me like I mentioned in the solution for his third concern. "Very well."

"I trust you both to arrange everything necessary, from my enrollment to a personal space for me there. I'll send over all the details later today. If you could prioritize this matter over the next few days, that would be ideal." With that said, I stepped down from the throne, and approached the two new allies. "Looking forward to an alliance that showers us and Eden with goodness, King Rehath." I extended my hand for a handshake.

It may have been a little insensitive of me, because he had to strain his broken shoulder to shake my hand, which he did. "Likewise, Lord Zenith." I didn't sense a level of respect from him I would have preferred, but his character trait included 'domineering' so that shouldn't be surprising.

And that's how we successfully pitched the idea of an alliance to the king of Eden. Considering all the ways things could have gone wrong, I would say that everything went very well.

It was 7 AM when Heath, Pok, and of course, my precious companions arrived at the gates of my mansion. With the morning light shining, I got to see my estate in all its glory. The vibrant green lawn, a huge garden with flowers of every color, some even cross-bred to produce the mystical colors they did, and not to mention the river that flowed seamlessly before what is a part of the eastern forest. Elegantly standing in the middle of all this was my 3 story Victorian style mansion complete with black roof tiles.

Along with my mansion, the headquarters of my business firm was also part of the estate, a few yards away from the mansion behind a curved compound wall. It was a two story architecture spanned across a large circular area, shaped like a donut (donuts don't exist in this timeline, just to be clear). Crossing the main gates of my estate, the logo covering a part of the headquarters came into view, which I had never seen before but still managed to recognize. "Is that…?" I uttered, pointing to the engraving of a minimalistic apple with a leaf hovering on top.

"Oh yes, master Zenith," Devon replied. "I designed that logo inspired by your fantastic creation — the world tree, and the golden apples that grew on them."

It was certainly admirable. The brand looked like something that could get away with selling a set of useless and overpriced wheels. Steve Jobs would be proud. "Very nice," I said, and turned to my companions. "Good job, Edith and Devon. You two have made valiant efforts in maintaining and handling everything while I was away. And you have done it very well, I couldn't be prouder."

Devon almost cried and Edith was visibly grinning after having received my appreciation. It was very well deserved though. "We shall treasure your words, master Zenith," Devon bowed his head at me. Acknowledging him with a pat on his shoulder, I turned to Heath.

"Waking up from my slumber, I didn't think this is how I was going to meet you again," I said.

"Lord Zenith, I—"

"As much as I would have wanted an apology out of you, your actions thus far have delivered more than that. I will trust you, Heath. And we are glad to have you on our side." Admittedly, I didn't mean those words as much as I did with my two true companions. I saw Heath as a very valuable ally, and I didn't want to risk losing him by unintentionally alienating him.

"I am grateful, lord Zenith."

"Are you gonna say something nice to me now?" Pok chimed in, looking forward to receiving a compliment from me.

But too bad, she's going to have to continue looking forward to it. "No," I casually replied and continued heading towards the mansion.

…

Finally being able to just sit alone in my room with a cup of tea while staring out the window at the garden was bliss. It seemed like a glimpse of the peaceful life I was longing for. Does this mean it's actually within my reach now? I could only let out a satisfactory smile as I sipped my tea. All the while, more important things were going on downstairs.

Devon obviously was busy with preparing all the reports that needed to be sent to Martin by the end of the day. Heath was assigned the task of taking care of Ayat and his dog. My exact instruction to him was, "I want you to help him with his trauma. Do what you must do, therapy or whatnot. I want him stable enough to enroll as a trainee under Edith." On the same topic, Edith was asked to bring Akayala to privately meet me ASAP. Why? I think you can probably imagine why.

With everyone occupied with their own assigned tasks, that leaves Pok. And she was… "I can't believe you're letting me stay in your room. Does this mean I don't have to pay rent also?" Yes, she was in my room, and will be staying here keeping me company until my character traits change.

"Whatever," I replied, and continued enjoying my tea. Now that Heath was in good terms with us, there's no point in charging rent anyway.

"Cool. What about redecorating?"

"No."

"Aw, come on. Why not?"

"Pok, if I see any part of this room resemble a Jackson Pollock painting, I will kil—kick you out. Got it?"

"Who's Jackson Pollock?"

I shook my head. "Not important. The room stays the way it is."

She rolled her eyes as she took her seat on my king-sized bed. "So, why did you let me stay with you anyway?"

"I thought you didn't care about the reason."

"I don't. I'm just making conversation."

"Well then, pick another topic."

"Okay…" she gave that some serious thought. "Oh yeah, Ayat, that poor kid. What did you do to traumatize him like that?"

"I defended him from his bullies."

"That doesn't sound like something you'd be traumatized over."

"By killing them in front of him."

"Okay, that's... awful. Isn't that too far, especially being a God?"

"Don't give me that," I put down my cup of tea and coaster on the table before me. "I was provoked by them, my own followers."

"You killed your own followers?"

"That's not the point, Pok," I retorted, genuinely trying to defend my character to her of all people. "I reacted appropriately in that situation. I can't bring myself to forgive people who provoke me. If I let it happen once, it will happen again and again, and one of those times, things will go out of control."

"Woah, you sound angry," she completely ignored everything I just said. "And very defensive. Are you okay?"

I knew it was a waste of time trying to validate my views with her. But I still believed she would give the most honest advice on the matter. "Fine. What would you have done? In fact, I'll be going to meet Akayala soon, the only of them I spared. When she finds out that the man she messed with was me, Zenith, she is going to beg for forgiveness. How would you respond to something like that and why?"

"I don't know. I get really uncomfortable when someone so sincerely asks for my forgiveness. It makes me wonder if from their perspective, I'm some sort of scary and violent sociopath."

Only a few minutes ago, I was enjoying my tea while staring out at the garden. And now I was suppressing my urge to throw this woman out the window. Where did things go wrong?

Anyway, I finished my tea and escaped that conversation with Pok without throwing her out the window. And it was then I got the message from Edith that she had brought Akayala to see me. Of course, I still took Pok along with me. We followed Edith downstairs and into an empty closet room. She then stepped towards the shelf in front of us and gave it a strong push, releasing a draft and revealing a staircase that led underground.

Now, I'll be the first to reference the Batcave in this context. But this was more than just that. This well-ventilated base covered the entire area of my estate, and had several designated rooms for purposes ranging from conducting written tests to battle training. So basically, my followers are trained and educated right below my own land, which is convenient. This base had multiple other entrances, one of them connecting to the headquarters. We also had other bases within Eden where graduates — those who successfully completed their training — are sent to. Overall, it's a system that functioned and was yielding the desired results.

"She's in there, master," Edith signaled, pointing to the room we were approaching.

I was still in my God look when I entered the room and saw the familiar face turn around and bow down to me. "Lord Zenith," her voice trembled slightly. "I am extremely honored to meet you."

"Rise, child," I responded as I walked past her further into the room. "And do relax." She lifted her head, but not quite relaxed yet. Pok and Edith stood together on the side, each in their own way wondering what I was going to do to her. I got straight to the point as usual. "I learned that your friends were killed last night. What led to it?"

"We were attacked, lord Zenith. He was an arrogant animal we had never seen before, and he was too strong for us to fight."

Edith, who was aware that it was me she was talking about, was fuming. She was barely holding herself from blowing Akayala's head off. "What did he look like," I further inquired.

"Um… black hair, average height, and pale skin. He was wearing an enchanted robe, lord Zenith. None of our attacks were able to get through that enchantment."

"Have you considered the possibility that that person may have been a graduate? Or maybe a senior trainee? Or maybe… me?"

A frown appropriately appeared on her face. "Pa—Pardon me, lord Zenith?"

I transformed back to my usual appearance. And stepped towards her, as she stepped back in terror. "Black hair, average height, and pale skin. Everything checks out?"

"Y—y—you…" she stuttered uncontrollably.

"I am Zenith, Akayala. What do you have to say for yourself now?"

I honestly expected her to fall to her knees and beg for forgiveness. But, that's not even close to what actually happened. She realized she was going to die now, and it seemed like she didn't find it worth it to beg for forgiveness. So, she chose to let out her true feelings of contempt for me instead. She yelled out, "Go fuck yourse—!" Edith's merciless blue ball of flames interrupted her last words. And it disintegrated her head.

Or at least that's what would have happened if I hadn't put my hand in front of it, and shielded her. More than anyone, Akayala was shocked. For whatever reason I decided to do that, it wasn't a decision made in consideration of my character trait. Actually, it wasn't a decision made in consideration of anything. It felt like by letting her die, I was proving an unspoken point she had made against me. "Master Zenith?" Edith was just as confused as I was with my action.

"You may leave now," I told Akayala as I transformed back to my God look. As disheartened as I was, that's all I could say to her.

Given her reaction, she probably thought I was going to stab her through the heart the moment she tried to walk out. But no, I was actually letting her go having faced zero consequences. I'll tell you this, it's so unbelievably annoying to do something you normally wouldn't do for reasons you can't even figure out. And I'm sure my biological human brain was responsible for this, because there's no way the virus would do something so utterly senseless.

"Master Zenith, is expelling her really enough?" Edith came forward and questioned.

"What? No, we're not expelling her," I replied, which confused her even more. "Didn't you say she is one of your best students? It would be a shame to lose her over a very tolerable reason like this. Continue training her, and try not to be biased against her for what happened here today."

She definitely had a hard time accepting that. "As you wish, master."

It was not a very satisfying way to settle that, but it is what it is. We left the base back into the mansion. As Pok and I headed back upstairs, I asked her, "So, what did you think?"

"About what?" she shrugged.

"I saved Akayala's life, Pok."

"Wasn't that... like, the normal thing to do?"

I wondered if she paid any attention to what happened at all. "No, the normal thing would have been to kill her."

"That doesn't sound like a normal thing anyone would do." I don't know how the Omnipotent designed her brain to function, but he surely left some loose wires in there.

But nevertheless, "I love you, Pok. But your opinion matters very less to me."

"Then why do you keep asking me."

"Shut up."

…

6 days passed by, some days more busy than others. The important thing is, everything related to the alliance went smoothly. We were now officially and secretly allied with the king of Eden. Additionally, the arrangements related to my enrollment in the academy was also all set, and it's the morning I was getting ready for my first day.

Staring at my usual looking self in the mirror wearing the advanced suit made for me, I pulled down my white gloves by the wrist and adjusted my tie with a confident smirk. "You know, it's been a while since I've had something new to look forward to. I get to experience the school life."

"Same!" Pok exclaimed from outside my dressing room. "Hey, thanks again for letting me enroll with you. It kinda gets boring around here sometimes, especially with others being busy with stuff."

"Don't be so grateful, I'm just using you as a mule to carry my things."

"Yeah, I get the feeling you don't mean that."

"Well, whatever makes you feel better, Pok," I exited the dressing room to see her pulling up her navy blue pants, part of the academy's first year uniform, while being topless. "Get dressed fast, and make sure to grab a pouch of gold coins before leaving."

"A whole pouch? You can buy a small shop with that."

"Hm, you're right. It's not going to be enough, make it three." Being as rich as we were, three pouches of gold coins was like lunch money. Our net worth at the time was around 17 billion UCs. I guess you can pretend UCs are American dollars for some perspective on how absurdly rich I am.

Pok disapprovingly sighed as she proceeded to wear the rest of the uniform. If you really must know, it consisted of a pair of blue pants, a white collared blouse, and an elegant jacket that matches the color of the pants. It was complete with white socks and black shoes.

It was a little past 7 AM when we finally set off to the academy, which if you remember is quite close to my estate. So, we reached there with a 5 minute walk. It was not just me and Pok, Edith was also with us. As per my plan before I went to sleep, Edith enrolled into the academy the normal way by passing the entrance exam. She was already an ace student. Pok and I were more like transfer students, who as far as everyone else knows got in through the backdoor.

But there were still several differences between myself and Pok being the only students who have ever enrolled in the middle of a semester. I'm extra special with more than a few personalized privileges. The obvious one is the dress code. While Edith and Pok are required to wear the academy's uniform, I can wear my tuxedo.

Setting all of that aside, standing before the academy gates about to enter as an official student felt refreshing. Waves of students in uniform clothing were passing by, some walking alone, some in groups talking and laughing amongst each other, and even professors were part of the morning crowd. Maybe it's a mark of a new beginning or something... No, that's a bit of stretch. Let's just call it the end of volume one.

"Let's go," I said as I, the most powerful entity in the universe, stepped into a public school with two immortal companions. What could go wrong?