Journey to the Capital

"In any case, as I was saying, Your Highness Tenebris, you must choose a new first name for yourself." Mike said as the carriage continued moving at a decently fast speed. 

Ten had spent two days in the journey through the Wycliffe territory, constantly listening to Mike's explanations about plenty of things regarding the Empire, and also revealed the fact that Tenebris was the last heir of the Empire, who had somehow been discovered by the head of the Imperial Intelligence, Omniscient Eye. 

Although he still lacked lots of basic and important knowledge, like noble etiquette, the basic alphabet of the Black Empire, an extended vocabulary on noble term and more. 

Regardless, he had found out the question that had been bothering and annoying him the most. What was the source of the supernatural powers these men possessed? 

According to Uncle Mike, the world of Astaries possessed something called Pure Energy. All living beings, humans, animals, plants, and even some non-living things such as ancient minerals or historical locations possessed Pure Energy. Humans, while they did possess Pure Energy, this did not allow all of them to become Tainted. 

Why? Well, that's because the powers of the Tainted are achieved through a combination of three things. Innate talent, the opening of the aperture, and the amount of corruption of the Pure Energy. 

Innate talent, was of course the talent required to become a combatant in the first place. A person could be skilled in many, many things but if they had no talent in either research or battle, they could never become Tainted. 

The aperture was something that allowed the usage of the Pure Energy inside the Tainted. A person with a closed aperture could not use Pure Energy, and thus, could not become Tainted. In Ten's own understanding, the aperture was similar to a tube, or valve that managed how much Pure Energy could be used at a time by the Tainted.

The corruption of the Pure Energy referred to how impure the Pure Energy inside a Tainted was. Each and every human had large amounts of Pure Energy, however that Pure Energy would be mixed in with what people called Impurity. And so, despite the fact that Tainted had very, very large amounts of Pure Energy, they could barely make use of it effectively. 

Pure Energy could only be singled out by a process Uncle Mike called 'apotheosis'. Each Tainted had to go through apotheosis in order to progress to the next stage, and rid themselves of a good amount of Impurity. Going through this process caused the tightening of the aperture, which limited the amount of Pure Energy that could be used, but at the same time increased it massively due to the decreased Impurity. 

After progressing from the rank of Tainted, the next stage split into two pathways, namely, Cleansed, and Reformed. Cleansed had the ability to use their Pure Energy to manifest unique powers that could cause mass devastation, but were rather limited in physical altercations. 

Reformed, on the other hand, had unnatural durability, power, stamina, skill, senses and improved all the characteristics that made a warrior a formidable force in the battlefield, or in a duel. This, however, resulted in their inability to use very effective means of large amounts of destruction or accomplishing seemingly magical feats.

Uncle Mike explained that when progressing from Tainted, each and every Cleansed or Reformed received unique powers that belonged to them and them only, while the powers of the Tainted were rather basic and were similar to other powers. 

When he asked Uncle Mike what decided the powers that one would receive upon going through apotheosis, he only smiled and said one word. 

"Life." 

Leaving it at that, Ten returned to the situation at hand.

"Pick a new name? Why?" He asked with indignation. The name of Tenebris handed to him was the only symbol he had left of his bloodline, family and mother. At least in this life.

"You don't have to abandon your current name, Your Highness, but you must pick an appropriate first name as a soon-to-be high standing noble and member of the Imperial Family. The name Tenebris, while it is unique, it is not something that nobles commonly use." 

Uncle Mike explained patiently and gently, he understood what their name meant to a child like Tenebris, who had spent his entire life with no possessions, slaving away at a mine. 

"Alright, then... what about the name Cassius?" Tenebris asked, his past life still had quite the influence on him. 

"Hm.. it is not a bad name. It is not the most meaningful in terms of names that nobility use, but it is good enough to avoid any complications, besides, no-one would expect too good of a name from a past child slave, of course, no offense, Your Highness." Uncle Mike said as he chuckled. 

"None taken." Teneb- Or rather, Cassius said while laughing?

"Does that mean we should call you Cassius now, Ten?" Nessie asked because she was listening in on the conversation. 

"Well, I'd prefer it if you did, since I could get used to it that way." Cassius said as he smiled softly. 

"A good idea, Your Highness, you must get used to the name Cassius until we reach the capital. In any case, I congratulate you on receiving your official name, Your Highness Cassius Tenebris von Nightstar." John said from outside the carriage as he kept the horses galloping at a steady pace. 

'Cassius Tenebris von Nightstar... a good name.' Cassius said as he chuckled to himself. 

Suddenly, a thought that he had put to the back of his head bothered him yet again. His friends. What would be done with his friends?

"John, I understand what I'm going to do, and the fact that I need to prepare for entering the political game of the Nobles and the Imperial Family, but what about my friends?" 

"You can choose to do as you wish, Your Highness, however, as far as my expertise goes, I highly recommend that you assign Nessie as your personal maid and Baron as a member of your personal guard. I understand it may be hard to see your friends serving you, but it is the most optimal solution, unless of course you want to send them off." John said with an indifferent tone. 

"Well, if the decision is up to me, then the decision is up to my friends, Nessie, Baron, what do you want to do?"

Baron and Nessie looked at each other for a second with what seemed to be confused expressions and then, Nessie spoke.

"Are you a dumbass? Yeah, sure, everything has been really confusing these days, but we will always stay with you. I don't mind being a personal maid anyways, it's not like it's worse than being a slave... besides... this is gonna be so awesome to tell, my best friend is actually a Prince." Nessie said while laughing, showing a mature side that Cassius rarely saw from her. 

Baron, on the other hand, stared silently and angrily at Cassius before finally laughing out loud wildly, as he slapped Cassius' back forcefully. 

"You've let me down, pipsqueak! You do the thinking, I do the action, that's what we always say, I'll gladly join your personal guard, just say the word!" 

Baron said in his usual demeanor, to others, it might've looked disrespectful to slap the Imperial Prince, call him a pipsqueak and not even refer to him as Your Highness. But to Cassius, this was the highest form of affection they could give him. Baron, this boy who was 11 years old, had chestnut hair with a handsome face and stoic expression (yet a wild and funny personality) and had a height that could rival even adults, had been by Cassius' side for the entirety of the four years they had spent in the mines as slaves, protecting him like he was his own brother. Not to mention Nessie, the 10 year old girl with blonde hair and blue eyes who had cared for them as if she was their eldest sister. 

To Cassius, these two people, no matter how they spoke or what they did, could never disrespect him, or betray him, it was his family, after all.

Cassius smiled honestly. 

"I'll make sure both of you work overtime."

Cassius smiled honestly. 

Baron and Nessie's smiles froze. 

"Anyways, John, that's my answer. I have another question, though." 

"Please ask, Your Highness." 

"When we get to the capital, can I meet the Omniscient Eye?" 

"Well... not really, but he is listening to you right now."

"Right now? How?" 

John chuckled for a bit before turning his head and saying:

"The Omniscient Eye sees everything, and hears everything through our eyes and ears, he has been hearing, and seeing. He of course is quite familiar with you now, Your Highness, you may greet him if you wish." 

"Uh... Hello? I guess? I hope you can explain a lot of things to me when we arrive." Cassius said while looking at John's figure outside of the carriage.

"I am sure he has received your message, Your Highness, if he wishes to receive you, the appropriate arrangements will be made of course." 

"Thank you. Well, I guess all that's left now is to enjoy the trip." 

----------

Cool wind rushed into the inside of the carriage, making its way to the group as they quickly felt the biting cold of the outside environment. Nessie rose and shut the carriage window as the group looked at the scenery. 

The name of "Grimwood Forests" was extremely fitting for this region. Dead wood, or at least it seemed like so, filled the entire scenery. Despite how it looked, this region was one of the largest firewood producers of the Empire.

Why? Well, although these trees looked dead, they were very much alive and brimming with vitality. Grimwood was a special type of firewood due to the fact that it caught on fire easily but was very long-lived, and that it regenerated extremely quickly. You could cut a grimwood tree in half and the next week it would've been as if you had never cut anything in the first place. These features, along with the environment gave opportunity to plenty of wild animals, rare herbs, and different types of fungi to grow in this region.

The most surprising feature of this region, although, was none of the pecularities mentioned above. Instead it was the existence of the Imperial Coven Tower, or else known by the Coven Headquarters, as explained by Uncle Mike. It was also the place that had deployed Uncle Mike to receive Cassius, the Imperial Heir who was yet to be crowned, and escort him to the capital.

"Uncle Mike, what's the reason why the Coven Headquarters were built in this region?" Nessie asked curiously, she had never heard of such a thing like Tainted, the Imperial Coven, and all the other bundles of information they had received from the old elder of the Coven.

"You remind me of the students in the tower, my dear, this question has been asked for centuries, but we don't really know. Some records state that it is due to the strategical advantage, some others speculate that it is due to the large rare ore mines beneath the Tower, while some outside sources say that it is due to the Grimwood Forests having plenty of rich experimentation and research materials. Though I can say for sure that it is none of these reasons."

"Why is that?" Cassius asked instead, he had been intrigued by the conversation.

"The Coven, Your Highness, has roots much deeper than the Black Empire. Legends say that it was first built by what us Tainted call the Pure. They are deities to us. To such an entity, such things as strategical advantage, rare resources and large ore deposits are as worthless as a sack of potatoes."

"So that's why…" Cassius said as he nodded. If such an entity really did exist, then it would normally not make sense for them to seek simple benefits.

While Cassius was in thought, Baron tapped his shoulder and pointed to a distance far away.

"Is that the tower?"

Cassius focused his sigh and soon noticed what seemed to be an enormous pillar that put even the skyscrapers of his old life to shame.

"Yes, my young friend, that is the Coven Tower indeed. Around it, is the only mega-city of the Empire besides the capital, and the only city in the Grimwood Forests region, Tower City."

"Beautiful…" Nessie said as she stared at the impossibly enormous tower and the extremely large city surrounding it, that seemed to be on the verge of lighting up its buildings, with the evening approaching.

The city, in contrast with the rest of the Grimwood Forests, had bright, colorful themes and was dominated by a combination of white, red, yellow, green, brown and small amounts of black.

In a very fitting resemblance to its name, the buildings in this city consisted of high buildings with three or four stories, sometimes five. A large main road connected the city by its four cardinal directions, North, West, East and South.

Cassius and group were currently approaching from the distant hills to the South of the city. The distance, although, did not diminish its majesty at all.

"Are all cities of the Black Empire like this? Cordia only had some villages and a town…" Nessie said as she was absolutely awed by the grandeur of this mega-city.

"While there are very impressive cities in the Empire, my young Nessie, I can assure you that Tower City is one of a kind. You will not find a city that compares to it elsewhere in the Empire, with the exception of the Capital, of course." Uncle Mike said with a look of pride in his eyes, it was clear he valued this city dearly.

"Wow…" Nessie exclaimed yet again, her eyes fixated on the city.

"How many people live in Tower City, Uncle Mike?" Cassius asked curiously, he had yet to get an estimate of how populous the Black Empire was.

"If we account for all the citizens, the occasional refugees and the traveling merchants… well, Tower City has a consistent population of around nine to ten million people, Your Highness. Ah, wait, do you know that number…? I'll explain right now, forgive my blunder, so we have singular numbers that-"

"Don't worry, we all know numbers, Uncle Mike." Baron said with a prideful and confident expression.

"Huh? How? The mines don't provide food, yet alone education…"

"Ten- I mean, Cassius taught us." Nessie said matter-of-factly.

"Ah.. is that so…" Uncle Mike looked to be a bit confused, with a mix of bewilderment and surprise flashing across his face sometimes.

"My late mother taught me. I can remember things well." Cassius explained, lying through his teeth.

"Oh! That explains it…" Uncle Mike said, although he had chosen to overlook the fact that Cassius was clearly only 9 years old. How could he have learnt all that? Uncle Mike did not know, and did not wish to know.

An old saying in the Coven went like so:

"The less you know about the Imperial Family, the longer you'll live."

Uncle Mike still wished to live a bit longer.

In any case, it was a matter of minutes before the group arrived at Tower City, the most prominent city of the Empire.

———

"Are you from Montfort?" A strict looking guard asked the fat man leading a trading caravan up front.

"Haha, yes, sir, we are indeed from Montfort, I'm bringing a large amount of curated Frost Wolf fur. I just hope there's no complications…" The fat man said while rubbing his hands as he tried to sneak a satchel with silver coins to the strict looking guard who monitored the Southern border entrance of Tower City.

Looking at him disdainfully, the guard rejected the satchel of coins and quickly said to the younger guards: "Search the caravan, the trade goods should be Frost Wolf fur and some daily convenience items at most, find anything suspicious, tell me."

The fat man immediately froze, as if he had been dropped in the Northern Sea for a good minute, as the guards began searching.

Behind the medium-sized caravan, Cassius watched with interest.

"Uncle Mike, why didn't that guard accept that bribe?"

"So you saw it too, Your Highness. Well, there are three main reasons on why it happened. The first reason is that the guards of Tower City are vassals of the Imperial Coven, and the Imperial Coven does not lack money, my young Prince. We pay the guards quite well, so in return, they do their jobs well, as long as it's not a huge amount of money being offered.

The second reason, is because that guard leader most likely does not know the merchant, after all, only an idiot would take the bribe of someone they do not know, and a guard leader could not be an idiot.

The third reason, is also the most impacting factor, and that is the presence of our carriage. No-one knows who we are, Your Highness, but they see only one thing, the emblem of the Empire on the carriage. The scouts already notify the gate guards of all traffic, they would've been notified of us too. They don't want to risk offending someone important by taking a bribe right in front of them."

"I see… well, I certainly did not expect the guards to be vassals of the Coven, I thought all guards and soldiers belonged to the Empire?"

"In a way, they do belong to the Empire, but only during times of war. In any other case, each noble family, or branch of the Empire like the Imperial Coven or the Imperial Intelligence have the capacity to lead their own private guards and armies. This does not include hired mercenaries."

"That does make sense…" Cassius said softly. He recognized now that the Black Empire was not as much of a tyrant as its name suggested, which for Cassius, and the Tenebris bloodline that he was trying to save and seek information on, was an extremely good thing.

'But it's also a bad thing… that means that the nobles most likely have the authority to try and scheme against me by their own initiative… the Imperial Intelligence will come handy in preventing this.'

Soon, John moved the carriage forward as the line progressed. Cassius did not see what happened to the fat merchant as his attention had been occupied, but he didn't really care.

"Halt! Who are you and what's your purpose for visiting Tower Ci-" The guard leader's words got stuck in his mouth as he watched John turn his head to him, he had not seen it clearly, but this man who wore a hooded black cloak had a half-face mask that revealed his mouth.

"I-I-Imperial I-" Quickly, the guard leader shut his mouth as he broke out in a cold sweat, hurriedly, he turned his head to the guards manning the gate and said: "Let them through!"

Quickly, the guards opened the way and Cassius' carriage was let through. The reason why the guard didn't even bother verifying that John was Imperial Intelligence was because the carriage donned the emblem of the Empire, and not any noble house.

He had also quickly recognized John's identity because all guard leaders were ordered to never interfere with the Masked Men, as the populace called them.

The four agents were also following the carriage by remaining in its shadow.

In a short amount of time, the group made their way past the gates of the Southern entrance and were immersed in the bustling city that was Tower City.

Even in such a far place like the Southern Gate, activity was booming as tradesmen, merchants, guards, tourists, civilians and other people with odd jobs made their way around the streets. The main, wide street that was suitable for carriages to travel in had a few food stalls to the left or right.

Seeing the food, Cassius', Nessie's and Baron's mouths watered. Of course, they had camped for many nights along the way to Grimwood Forests, but that was done in the vast plains of Wycliffe region, and they had only eaten quick rations with dried meat, cheese, bread and water.

The sizzling meat, the fresh milk, cheese, herbs and seasonings, the sweet smell of chocolate, cakes, batter, and the enticing scent of omelettes, rice and more had the three children almost acting like wild animals having experienced human food for the first time.

"John, stop the carriage for a bit." Uncle Mike said, having noticed their pleading gazes.

Under Mike's attentive gaze, the three children quickly hopped out of the carriage and immediately went to a stall serving something similar to Shish Kebabs in Cassius' old world. After bothering the stall owner for a while, they got three meat sticks each, while repeating the process for the other stalls to the point where Uncle Mike had to carry some of the food himself.

The payment, of course, came out of Mike's pocket.

In under a second after finishing their buying spree, the three children immediately got back into the carriage, leaving Uncle Mike stunned and only able to sigh.

'How are they so quick when it comes to food? I swear that speed could rival a Tainted…'

Soon enough, shortly after the carriage began moving again, all the meat sticks had been devoured.

"Oof… it's been so long since I've had actual meat." Baron said as he rubbed his belly.

"I know, right, the food at the mines was dog food!" Nessie nodded in agreement.

Cassius, could only nod, as he was still chewing.

'How long has it been since I've had an actual meal? God, I love food.'

There was only one thing a man like Cassius couldn't get rid of. His love for food.

By the time John had found a suitable inn for them to stay the night, the three children had utterly devoured every single piece of food.

Soon, the group made their way into what seemed to be an inn reserved for well-off patrons that was deep into the Southern Road, closer to the centre of Town City, which was the Imperial Coven.

The bustling sounds of conversations, glasses clanking, tables being hit and the loud yells of the chefs filled the inn.

Cassius walked forward as he led the group, which he had not wanted to do, but according to John and Mike's instructions, as the Imperial Prince, he needed to get used to being the head of the group among his followers and vassals.

Walking up to the bar of the inn, a burly but short man with a surprisingly very well kept beard and haircut spoke respectfully.

"Esteemed Guests, welcome to the Fleeting Dream Inn, how may I help you?"

Having already made plans of how they were going to organize the rooms, the group needed three rooms, one for Cassius, Nessie and Baron, one for Mike, and one for John and his Imperial Intelligence agents who were currently hiding in their shadows. According to John, he and his people only needed a small room, because Imperial Intelligence agents could sleep anywhere and everywhere. Still, he didn't want to put the four agents through any more trouble, the journey had been tough for them, having to ward off ignorant bandits, wild beasts, scouting the way, and more. They deserved a proper rest.

"What do your rooms cost?"

"Our Fleeting Dream Inn has three Imperial suites, going at 2 silvers a night. Five Noble suites going at 1 silver a night and the rest of our ordinary rooms go for fifty coppers a night, young Sir."

"How many people can an Imperial suite accommodate?"

"Up to six people, sir."

"Then we'll get the three Imperial suites for one night."

"Excellent, my young Sir, please allow my staff to carry your belongings to your rooms. The cost of your room covers breakfast and dinner, as well as room service, laundry, horse keeping, carriage cleaning and many other benefits. In any case, welcome to our Fleeting Dream Inn, we are glad to have you here."

The short man said with a professional smile as he led the group upstairs. The few belongings that the group had with them were being carried by the valets of the inn.

Soon, the group reached the fifth floor of the inn.

"These three rooms are the Imperial suites, you may arrange yourselves as you wish, if you have any requests, you can ring the bell inside the room and a valet will attend to you. Now, if I may, have a wonderful stay, and enjoy yourselves." The short, burly man said as he bid farewell and went downstairs.

The four agents quickly sweeped the three rooms and found nothing wrong, so they swiftly helped the three children settle in their room.

Jumping on the very soft bed, Nessie let out a delighted yawn. It was already evening and everyone was tired. The room they were in was quite luxurious, with intricate carving on the walls, black silver lining on the ceiling, corners and some parts of the wall, as well as some marble tables, bedside tables, and more. The room, if it could even be called a room at this size, had a king sized bed, two bathrooms with running water and baths which highly surprised Cassius, who had thought this world couldn't have possibly invented pumps, but he was sure some magical way through the use of Pure Energy was achieved. He would have to ask Uncle Mike. In any case, the room had a cabinet for miscellanous storage, a walk-in closet, a fireplace, two additional bedrooms with ordinary size beds, but still of high quality.

This truly was an Imperial suite, or more like an Imperial apartment.

In no time, all three children quickly went to sleep without even having the opportunity to chat or do anything fun, the entire journey had been exhausting.

In the shadows, the four agents continuously took turns watching their Imperial Prince, ensuring nothing happened.

Few valued these silent protectors' work, of course.

Except Cassius.