I Am Mastermind!

Guess who’s always speaking on these first two lines…?

Of course, who else if it isn’t—

******

Northwest of the mainland, where the capital city of Sacran stands. Supposedly housing over five million people in it, it is considered to be the largest and busiest city in the continent. But now it’s a ghost city. Only a considerable amount of Imperial Army and some Dragonians inhabit the empty city. In the middle resides the Imperial Palace, where the head of the empire lives.

On the courtyard, a middle-aged man who wears silver-plated armor and two dragon horns sticking out of his head lands on the palace courtyard on the Green Dragon's back. The dragon transformed back into a humanoid form, which turns out to be Zeugen.

"Pyaaah~ vat a tiring work, ah, Herr Ognist?" he asked kindly while stretching his body.

The silver-armored man turns around at him, "Remember where we at, Zeugen. Reconsider your choice of names when calling me," said Ognist heavily.

"Bah, formalities, is it not?" Zeugen asked grumbly.

"Correct. You know who we are going to face," Ognist grinned.

"Aye, aye... Ich shalt not repeat it again,"

"Good. Let's get going."

Ognist and Zeugen walked into the palace's door, they're bound to meet the emperor.

*crrrrreeeeaaaak....

The sound of the large ornamental door opened in front of them. The pressure rises up greatly, Zeugen and Ognist gulped as they enter the Imperial Palace. Zeugen thought, "Ich hoffe (I hope) I won't fall into a trouble. Mein supreme Führer won't like 'ze fact 'zat I toyed a bit into 'ze human territory," said Zeugen exaggeratedly.

Ognist feel his body as if a thousand stone falling on him as he walks through the corridor. He can only hope that this meeting would run normally. Zeugen's steps is slightly unstable from his quivering as he walks, he's also experiencing the same dread.

Upon reaching the door to the throne room, Ognist puts his hand on his chest. Somehow, Zeugen follows his trail. The guards opened the door welcoming them into the throne room.

*gulp* L-Let's go, said Ognist to his fellow dragon colleague.

Master Zeugen and Master Xregan has arrived, my Imperial Majesty, stated one of the guards.

“Hm,” the emperor shortly confirmed. He then commands every soldier to leave the throne room, leaving him with the two Dragonians in private.

The two bows down before the emperor, both of them still experiences a terrifying atmosphere coming from the emperor. "So..." the emperor started his word as he remained seated on his throne.

"Do tell… what happened at Areda Island?" he gently asked. His voice is enough to make anyone who hears it tremble in fear, even non-human creatures.

"Yes, my lord… We have suffered major casualties after the visit to Areda, the inhabitants used some sort of weapon that we never heard before to flush us off their island aggressively." Ognist explained firmly about the incident at Areda.

"That island attacked the fleet, Xregan?" the emperor asked to Ognist once again.

"Unfortunately yes, my lord," Ognist bowed further.

…suddenly, the emperor went silent. This made Zeugen and Ognist to sweat massively like a waterfall. Ognist, whose name is called as 'Xregan' by the emperor gets himself trembling greatly, making his bowing position unstable, but he tried to get ahold of himself.

“—interesting,” The emperor breaks the atmosphere all of sudden.

"I had expected that the fleet shall suffer great damages—whereas it shouldn't be," The emperor stands up firmly. "I won't blame you for letting them attack you," said the emperor calmly. He walks closer to the two Dragonians.

"It is an act of their defensive instinct. Besides... they've been attacked by an invading kingdom, no?" The emperor gently stated. He's now in front of the bowing dragons.

"An invading kingdom... my lord...?" Ognist asked carefully.

"Fortis— or at least that's what I was informed. So it won't be a surprise that the islanders tried to smite our fleet. They felt threatened by our existence in the first place." the emperor explained slowly. “Remember, that island belong to the explorer clan… they don’t take us too kindly, ever since our first meeting,”

Ognist reluctantly felt he must confess something to his leader, "Pardon me, my lord… I retaliated with a single elemental spell, my lord," Ognist stated, "But I did it solely to protect our fleet from further destruction, my lord," Ognist added. His face is full of sweat.

"I see," the emperor turned around. His black cape swayed as he turned, making an ominous sight to both Zeugen and Ognist.

"But I knew solely that someone else is responsible for leading half of our fleet into near destruction," Ognist stated. “I believe’th it ist ‘ze man who informed thee of Fortis…” Zeugen added.

The emperor stops his motion. "—That man, is it not?" He meekly stated.

The two Dragonians who bowed before the emperor nodded, confirming their leader’s question.

. . .

In the eastern mainland, a large tower stands in the middle of wide open plains with a few trees decorating the landscape. Roadways were painted that lead to four directions with going upwards leading into the tower.

A lot of soldiers flying the banner of Imperialism are seen in the area, mostly battling against tough monsters in order to secure the region. A gateway can be spotted to the south of the tower, that place is filled with around more than a thousand men. They're being led by the fearsome warlord.

"Thaaaat's right! I deserve to be called as fearsome, is it not?" the commander mockingly stated. His men didn't reply, they got confused trying to understand his previous word.

"…oh, nevermind," He closed off his statement right away.

The warlord was also the ship commander who led the Imperial Fleet to Areda Island. He spoke differently than most of his fellow comrades. He usually speaks offhandedly, which sometimes can cause misperception among the officials.

He wears a black samurai helmet with gilded horns with neat ornaments and all around black samurai armor with a few orange stripes on the edges. His face is concealed behind his black mask with an exception to his yellow eyes and his forehead that has a 'red-mark' atop of his left eye. His back is covered with a long black cape with a shield and two swords symbol.

He's known as... ‘Mastermind’

Hardly anyone knows about his origins or why he's called Mastermind. He simply says, "It sounded cool" and leaves off any asker.

"Yaiba, Tate, take good care of the tower while I'm away," he ordered his two elite guards. "By your command, sir!" Both of them simultaneously accepted.

Mastermind is bound to head south with an army of five hundred Imperial Soldiers. Accompanied by his personal Field General, Rezzo, he's ready to cross the region to the south.

"Hm..." Mastermind grabbed an amulet which wasn't easy to see by anyone. The amulet gleamed in yellow. He thought "Yellow represents joy and happiness... but really, though. Not so long ago, I heard some weirdos saying this color represents someone's 'death!' —What the heck is wrong with their minds?" He stared the amulet poorly.

"Knowing two contradicting info makes me wanna hurl... oh, well. I need to keep it with me, or else I won't be 'recognized' as a Dragonian,"

The amulet in mention is known as the Amulet of Dragonia. Every Dragonian has one and they must keep it safe and make sure they don't lose it, or else their existence as a dragon race won't be recognized. For short, the amulet is an identity to every living Dragonian in the world.

And with that in mind, the black-armored commander IS a Dragonian.

"Now..." he said as he gets on his horse, "It's time to go south. All forces, prepare to move out!"

"You heard him, alright, move, move!" ordered the Field General, Rezzo.

Mastermind's horse neighed, quickly spurred due south, and soon followed by his men who rode on a big vehicle. Rezzo joined Mastermind from behind on his own horseback.

Their destination... is nowhere else, than the Kingdom of Napre.