Winds of Beginning

The Seventh Kingdom of the Underworld was not a nation meant to prosper. Their land majorly consisted of rocky, fruitless fields no one else wanted, and their natural reserves were few and far between. The always war-ready Ninth occupied three quarters of their borders to the South, North, and East, and to the West stood the ever neutral Fifth and the regal Fourth, both of whom also shared borders with Ninth.

Cultivation was impossible, trade was difficult, and the international relations with their neighbours were strained, at best. By all accounts, Seventh seemed doomed to fall almost as soon as it was created. Yet, there it stood, thousands of years later, under nobody's vassalage or protection, no bigger nor smaller than the day it was founded.

Kaiser was one of the few privy to the answer, and he had no intentions to share.

"Your highness, please finish these documents at your earliest convenience," Kaiser placed a veritable stack of papers on the desk, his gaze naturally sliding away from the angry glare he was given in return. As a demon of class Pride, it was a matter of principle to not let even his master stop him from doing his job correctly.

"How are the researchers doing," the master hedged instead, putting down his pen and getting ready for a report. The deflection was obvious, as the King had no intention of hiding it in the first place. Kaiser sighed, but complied.

"The laboratories are steadily coming up with new ways of using magic for our needs instead of souls. We have had two new patents of completed technologies registered this past month, and the team working directly with contracted wizards believe they're close to a breakthrough. Your highness Wendell's esteemed parents left an expansive legacy of research we're still sifting through."

Wendell hummed and interlocked his fingers under his chin. He seemed to be doing some mental calculations, then asked, "and at what point, would you say, will we finally exceed the amount of power we need for daily consumption?"

Kaiser pulled a face. He knew exactly where this was going, and if he were more than a mere footman, albeit directly under the king's jurisdiction, he would've interfered more directly. Seventh had not made it thousands of years just to perish under the hasty hand of a vengeful Wrath class demon as its ruler.

"The more wizards we try to contract from the Middleworld, the higher the risk of exposing our national secret. If Your highness would recall, the last time that nearly happened was under the rule of His Majesty Amarant III Borges two hundred years ago, who-"

"I get your concerns," Wendell snapped with barely concealed annoyance made such only by years of diplomacy tutelage, "however, I am not my ancestors, and your concerns are unnecessary, if not downright unwelcome."

Kaiser shut up and leveled a look at his master that, were he any other, he would have shriveled up and died, and were <i>he</i> any other, he would have been sent to the guillotine for lesse majeste.

"It's calculated risk, Kaiser," Wendell placated, leaning back in his chair. Kaiser wanted to argue that arming the nation with excess magic product and waging war was a downright suicidal move for Seventh with the way things stood right now. Kaiser was, naturally, sceptical.

"I may be class Wrath, but I am not about to jeopardize everything my parents and all my ancestors worked so hard for just to satisfy my lust for vengeance upon those mongrels in Fourth," Wendell nearly spat the name, then took a deep breath to rebuild his calm facade. Kaiser looked out the window to allow his highness a moment of privacy. Outside, the grounds of the royal palace stretched out until the steep sudden drop past the cliffs to the capital city below. On the other side of the palace, the view was little more than the stones and trees of the mountain the palace was carved into. It was a veritable fortress, even though none of that had helped when the assassins snuck into it a decade ago and in cold blood murdered the reigning King and Queen, as well as several of the Princes in the royal lineage before their rampage was discovered and put to a brutal end. Since then, of course, the protection of the palace had been militaristically tightened.

"Your worry is palpable, Kaiser," Wendell joked. "However, it is merely the worry of a pawn who cannot see all the pieces on the playing field."

Kaiser's expertise might have been administration and not nation ruling, but he still couldn't take his master's words to heart, and his concerns could not be waved away so swiftly. Wendell, aware of Kaiser's conflicting feelings, merely laughed and started to work over the documents he'd been presented with.

"Schedule this tea party for a week earlier and push my visit topside to the week after that. Don't forget to send a gift to the missionary from Fifth for visiting us last month. Oh, and find me a folder titled..."

Just like that, with nary a word in conclusion, the conversation was shelved away for another time, if ever.

Deep within the jaded Seventh, secrets and plans built up steadily.