55 Ch. 55: Bearer of Bad News

The bombshell news spread the palace like a plague, swiftly and decisively. The emperor has returned.

From my isolated roost, I am not privy to the madness that ensues in the capital and the information the returning vanguard brings. The pages of newspapers are awash with the same news: Baron Bourdain, the baron of a sleepy province within the Duchy of Avernall had financed the upheaval, prompting the common people to demand for their tiny region to be seceded from the Erudian Empire and join with Sarsaval, the neighboring kingdom. It was an irrational demand, as the area had been conquered from Sarsaval over 100 years ago and it wasn't treated any differently from any other province, town, or region within the Empire.

Upon the arrival of the emperor and the deployed units of the royal guard, the rebellion had quickly been quelled, but the traitorous Baron had escaped to Sarsaval, leaving his family behind to face the consequences. The return to Radovalsk was glorious and prompted sincere patriotism amongst the commoners. Flag bearers carrying the Erudian Phoenix walked out first, singing of the recent victory. Following was the Emperor Helio and Crown Prince Augustus, in their white and gold military uniform, setting women's hearts aflutter.

"Oh my, the emperor! I fear I may faint!"

"What country or kingdom can compare with us in terms of having such a handsome sovereign."

"I'll say, Her Majesty is a lucky woman!"

For a sinister killing god, the emperor's unparalleled looks won him significant support among the female population, and prevented a louder outcry against his tyrannical actions. Looking at his face, one would not know that he had razed the rebellious region to the ground, leaving little but cinders and tears behind.

Crown Prince Augustus, who was almost a mirror image of the Emperor with dark brown hair rather than black and his mother's high cheekbones, waved proudly from his steed, rousing the crowd further. The royal guard marched in sync behind and it was a jubilant day for all but one in the capital.

"Hurry, hurry," Julian said impatiently, his trademark grin out of sight. He was a handsome youth, but he appeared slightly bedraggled due to the mild dark circles under his eyes. As a member of the imperial family, he had to dress formally and greet Emperor Helio in the throne room once he had returned to the palace. The servant girl who was hanging the knotted rope from his epaulets dropped the accessory to the ground altogether, prompting a dark frown from the usually easy going prince.

"Felix, get me some servants who know how to dress me!" he snapped, ignoring the reddening eyes of the kneeling servant. The young prince wasn't actually worried about the reception, but what came after, when the news of his sister reached Emperor Helio's ears.

He was wondering how his old man would react. As a middle-aged individual shoved into a young boy's body after an untimely death, he did not have much affection for his ice block of a father, but Julian did have a healthy dose of fear. His old eyes could sense the disgust and tension between his father and mother, the way his father hated to reduce his killing aura around the empress so they could sit beside one another during formal events.

Only Augustus ever received any semblance of affection, due to the fact that his mother was the only person Emperor Helio probably ever loved, and even then that so-called affection would be better referred to as 'tough love' in modern times.

A more steady-handed maid fastened the epaulets to Julian's shoulder, completing his formal uniform. Followed by a short procession of servants, Julian hustled to the foyer before the throne room in silence. His mother stood there with Julia beside her, his dreaded little sister whining about something as usual.

Julian bowed slightly towards Empress Katya. "Mother," he said dutifully, frowning at Julia. He was not blind to the calculations of his mother, however ever since he had arrived in this world, she had treated him very sincerely thus it had always been easy to overlook. Until now, when a fellow traveler from another world arrived.

His brow creased as he struggled between the new half-sister from his true world or the mother that had cared for him since his youth.

"Julian, is something the matter?" Katya asked, her eagle eyes noticing the discrepancy in his expression.

"No, I'm fine," he said hastily. Katya did not appreciate the sudden distance between mother and son for the past few weeks, but as Emperor Helio was about to return, she thought it would be wiser to inquire why later.

"Mother, there is no need to worry about Julian," Julia said brightly to comfort their mother, her deceptively charming face barely hiding the inner wrath within. Julian snorted coldly, ignoring his little sister who unfortunately shared the same name as him.

Watching Empress Katya caress the golden tresses of his sister, Julian wondered how such an intelligent woman could have given birth to a demon-like girl. She went through palace staff like dresses, discarding them and acquiring new ones at an alarming rate. Empress Katya covered up the strange accidents within Sunset Palace, but as someone who had worked in business for decades, he could sense the insidious personality within that little girl.

As his mother continued fretting over Julia's perfectly fine self, he beckoned Felix over with a flick of his head.

"Your highness," Felix said, dropping into an obedient bow. Felix was his most trusted confidant, who had accompanied him as long as he could remember and handled all of Julian's important tasks.

"When Father returns to his study, you must tell him about Winter's matter before any of Mother's people get there," Julian whispered, nervous at the thought of impeding his mother's authority.

"Princess Winter?" Felix asked, a strange expression crossing his face before it disappeared as rapidly as it had appeared.

"Yes. You must tell Father that she was framed... by the maid," Julian said urgently, omitting the fault of his mother, "And was subsequently locked in the Tower to await punishment. Ask him to review the case of who truly poisoned Sir George."

The past few days had not been restful for the young prince. He had spoken in length with the low ranking nobleman in charge of Winter's case for hours and several cups of tea to no avail, the man was firmly in his mother's pocket and had little interest in exploring an option where Winter wasn't persecuted for the crime. It made his head hurt, splitting his attention and devotion between two parties.

A herald stepped into the foyer, his hands clasped behind his back as he generously bellowed, "Attention! His Majesty, Emperor Helio of Erudian has returned. His Highness, Crown Prince Augustus of Erudian has returned." As everyone in the foyer folded into a respectful half-bow, the doormen opened the doors of the foyer and in strutted Julian's father.

Long legs and a swishing cloak filled Julian's periphery vision, the only sound that could be heard once Emperor Helio had entered were the soft footfalls of himself and Augustus on red carpet. His father looked the same, his bearing and aura as if he were carved out of ice. An unfriendly eye swept over his bowed family members as he passed by without halting.

Julian was no longer bitter about the preference towards Augustus from his father. He was an adult and had been a father too in his past life. He had similarly once carried the burden of leadership and knew how lonely it was for those on top. But he couldn't help but have a twinge of sympathy for his mother, who was ignored as usual as doormen finally opened the door to the throne room, where his father always spent an awful lot of time in.

"Your Majesty," Julian, his mother and sister said formally. Even though they were family, being a member of the imperial family had strict rules and they still had to gree the emperor as subjects.

Emperor Helio's close steward who had the ability to withstand the emperor's killing aura much better than dozens of previous servants, made an apologetic look towards the prince, empress, and princess still waiting in the foyer as the emperor and crown prince had largely ignored them.

"His Majesty is grateful for your greeting," the steward said, his greasy appearance at odds with his even speech. At first glance, he looked like someone easy to bribe, but the man, named Harold, was actually a tough nut to crack. "You may all return."

The Mad Dog, a figure who was Julian's 'cool uncle', came in after Helio and Augustus, his relaxed demeanor a far cry from father and son. He didn't follow the father and son into the throne room ahead, pausing at Julian. The tall, redheaded man clapped a friendly hand on Julian's shoulder.

"Julian!" his father's right hand said, dropping the royal titles, "How have you been?"

Julian smiled. "I've been well, Uncle. I trust the suppression of the rebellion went well?"

Empress Katya and Sir Wolfgang had always been at odds with each other, Katya instructing Julia's wet nurse to carry her out as she threw an unfavorable glance towards the roguish knight commander. But it slid of Wolfgang like water off a wet duck's back as he led Julian out towards the archery range.

The Mad Dog let out a long sigh. "Depends on how you would define well," Sir Wolfgang said, the easy grin sliding off his face.

"Were the rebels that troublesome?" Julian asked with a frown. From what he had heard, a large portion of the opposition were simply armed with shovels and basic tools.

"Yes and no. The main force was easy to dismantle, but we think that there were more players involved than we had originally thought," the Mad Dog admitted. A pair of maids stepped out of their path and bowed before they giggled softly behind their hands like love-struck fools.

Neither Julian nor Sir Wolfgang noticed as they had arrived at the range and began stringing the weapons. "More as in it wasn't just that traitorous baron?"

"Yes. Some unexpected things happened too, that caused the need for the Duke of Avernall to call for backup in the first place. Mind your elbow," Wolfgang instructed.

He steadied Julian's arm, as archery was his greatest weakness when it came to combat.

"Steady there. Aim right for the center and... beautiful! Not a bulls-eye but close!" Sir Wolfgang praised as Julian fired a round towards the red and blue target. It felt a little uncomfortable to shoot in his formal uniform.

"What kind of unexpected things?" Julian asked impatiently, eager for more news.

"Well... the Duke succeeded in pushing the force back in out of the capital of his duchy, Belhelm, and into the Dredgen Woods between us and Sarsaval," Wolfgang said darkly, "But they had planned on it, the entire forest had become a trap. According to the few survivors who made it out, there was a strange sorcery we have never seen before, on that caused the earth to rise to the height of a tree and could blow fully armored men to pieces."

Julian jumped in alarm, causing his next shot to go wide. He was grateful his back was to Sir Wolfgang, otherwise his shaken expression would have set the sharp knight commander's alarms off. Causing earth to rise and blowing limbs off? For a modern soul such as his, that sounded eerily like a detonated explosive.

"Oy! That shot was sure off!" Wolfgang laughed, falling quickly back into his easy-going demeanor.

"Yes, it was," Julian said weakly, running to go fetch his own arrow before a servant could pick it up.

All the hairs on his neck rose, as he weighed the possibility of their neighboring country possessing modern weaponry. In a world that didn't have guns, this was the kind of revelation that could turn a great empire to rubble overnight. The Native Americans and the Chinese were longstanding examples of this devastation in his past life. Was it possible there was a traveler in that kingdom? And if those really were bombs, what other advanced weapons might Sarsaval have up their sleeve?

Winter's matters slipped to the back of his mind, but Felix, ever the obedient servant had already departed to inform the emperor privately once he received the message that the emperor had left the throne room and headed towards his study. After all, the young manservant was awfully good at playing his role of dutiful servant to Prince Julian.

He moved with haste through the imperial palace, smugly smiling to himself as made sure as many servants within the halls noticed his quick movements. This way if his young master inquired in private, all Prince Julian would hear was how frantically his loyal manservant had rushed through the halls to deliver a message that unfortunately would never reach the ears of the emperor.

The teenage servant came to an exhausted stop before the wing of the main palace that housed the Emperor's private quarters. Two knights crossed their sword in his path, before noticing that he wore the livery of Prince Julian and allowing him to pass. But once Felix entered, he stopped and waited, taking an exorbitantly long time to tie his shoes.

Footsteps echoed behind him, the light ones of a woman.

"Well done, Felix," a familiar voice said behind him, and Kora walked past him in a leisurely pace. In his outstretched hand a slender piece of paper was placed, one with a smell that comforted him like no other. Three gold tickets, a paper form of currency which was worth 100 gold each, was placed in his rough palm.

"Thank you. I will return to the young master and inform him that I could not enter the study before you," Felix said simperingly. "But this... will it be enough?"

He gestured towards the money.

"Don't worry. The empress knows of your affection and placed Janice in the nicest Red House in Radovalsk. That price should cover you for a visit or two," Kora said knowingly. She knocked on the study door and the footman within allowed her to enter so she could tell the empress' rendition of Winter's affairs to the emperor and obtain a swift conviction.

Felix did not care for the young princess' matters nor Prince Julian. For he was a young man in the spring of love, his heart bubbling as he broke his master's trust and all but sealed an innocent girl's fate.