Tyrant of the Ruined Sun-Chapter 182: Unforeseen Circumstances and Budding Affection

Isaac rapidly continued relaying the rest of the man’s words, and we all could do nothing but remain paralyzed in our place as he explained the situation in the southern front.

’I swear, this day doesn’t know when to end.’ I annoyedly thought as I roughly rubbed my hand over my aching forehead, even beginning to very much regret rising from my bed this morning.

"I can see why the Arch Duke couldn’t trust this knowledge to a bird’s wings or a vocal man’s tongue." Darius commented a moment later, his tone not betraying his feelings, yet not his eyes, which did nothing to hide the magnitude of his worry.

Sighing, I say, turning to the Hecatomb member "Take the man to rest, he’s at least earned that for the moment."

Isaac nodded, and signalled the surrounding servants to usher the man to a vacant room where he could indulge in some much earned and needed rest; something the man himself was very much appreciative of as well, clearly evident by his deep bow in reply to my words, before he then happily followed the servants to his new quarters.

Once gone, I turned back to my frowning council and asked, my tone so blood curdingly frigid it barely manged to conceal the bubbling wrath beneath, infinitely fuelling the reflected madness of the tyrant in my eyes "We were assured that the Murathicus civil war is ravenously devouring all their resources and energy, all the while ruthlessly ripping apart the slightest semblances chance to form any meaningful cohesion they could possibly muster against us, so how come that we now have been suddenly been struck with an army of thirty thousand strong from the central Murathicus lands?"

The fallout of my words was a long and drawn out stillness, one that stretched infinitely across the span of a few meaningless seconds that seemed to deafeningly echo with the sound of their own ignorant silence, before it was finally vanquished by the merciful reprieve of Isaac’s confident voice, sounding out "My emperor, the latest reports of my men and informants all claim that the war in the south is still raging with ever increasing ferocity, it is impossible for them to have the energy to marshal a force to attack us so suddenly."

"Indeed, sire." Darius added a second later, his words oozing of infallible logic birthed from centuries of accumulated wisdom "And the latest reports of my men in the region still in the midst of their missions of subterfuge and deceit to continuously escalate and further divide the warring tribes, still report the Great Tribes are as of yet, still in the throes of internal strife and civil discord, so it would be beyond any stretch of the imagination for them to dare to aggravate us at this moment."

"Then how do you explain the sudden assault that left ten thousand of our men dead or injured, and an entire garrison fort of ours slaughtered, looted and then raised?" I asked, my tone plunging further into arctic abysses, as my eyes for the first time in a long while lost their veil of controlled sanity, and began to pulse with dark, depraved, deranged madness.

An almost audible gulp was heard from our surroundings, as those most loyal guards and assassins of mine began to silently quake where they stood, their hearts stewing in an odd mix of terror and excitement, as they were now all too familiar with their monarch’s currently dangerous mood, that has historically always led them into both inglorious depravity and illustrious deeds.

Meanwhile my council of most trusted and competent advisors before me, also recognize my present state, but unlike those around us, they instead became further rooted into the present than before, their minds chilling in a rush of cold logic, while their hearts exploded in a blaze of ardent emotions, knowing that my blade of promised punishment has already been drawn, and I would never retreat my sword now without it indulging in a monument of glorious gore, so they began to work twice as hard to give a target for my wrath.

"Could a few foolish tribes have already resolved their differences and decided to unite against us, their invaders invader, now that they are free?" Leonid who was the least familiar with the situation and the tribes among us then spoke up.

"Impossible." Darius instantly answered him with shake of his white head, explaining "This isn’t a war where a clan could join and then abandon it as they please; if anything, such impunity might paint you a target for both sides to attack and then claim their resources and warriors for themselves. No such a scenario is utterly unfeasible to occur."

They stayed quiet for a moment longer, before Horus spoke up saying "My emperor, I think we should prepare reinforcements to immediately send his lordship the Grand Marshal, just in case, as we currently have no idea what might happen in the southern front."

"No." I sternly replied. "Hamilcar has the three hundred thousand men of the fifth, eighth and ninth armies under his command, that is more than enough to deal with anything immediate that occurs, even if the entire Murathicus suddenly halted their wars and united against us, a man such as him would be more than capable of holding on for a while... Besides our other armies are currently under a great deal of surveillance from our adversaries, and directing any of them south at such a time, would all but reveal our ongoing war in the south." 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Darius slowly nodded in agreement at my words, before I looked at him and Isaac again, commanding "I’m giving you two until we return to the empire for you to have uncovered who, and why has our southern border been suddenly attacked with such ferocity, understand?"

"You will not have to wait such a long time, sire."

"You will have the answers you need in little more than a week’s time, my liege." The two resolutely declared as they rose and bowed.

Nodding in response, satisfied with their unflinching promise, I added "Send a message to Hamilcar and my uncle as well."

"Detailing what exactly, sire?" Horus questioned, parchment and quill already in hand.

"Accelerate the preparation for the coming war, and begin to covertly divert ten thousand men from my personal army to the Broken Gate Pass." I finished with them all looking at me in shock, the meaning of my words stunning them for a moment.

Our talks ended then, as Darius and Isaac had to rush to plan how to cooperate to unveil the one behind the southern tragedy, while Horus had to rush to safely deliver my classified orders back to the capital with Leonid taking his leave to help him, which occurred just as the doors of the hall opened to reveal the returned forms of my two brothers, finally done with their outing with the eastern emperor’s children.

Cyrus had a wide smile adorning his quickly maturing features, clearly having enjoyed the eastern crown prince’s company, which made sense, as the two indeed shared a great deal of interests and traits with each other, that must have quickly led the two into forming a budding friendship.

Meanwhile Nizam had returned to his previously stoic expression, yet he couldn’t completely hide his abundant joy from my eyes, even if he was becoming increasingly better at hiding his true feelings from the eyes of others.

And looking at the few signs showing on his face, and even the slight bounce in his step that wans’t present before, it was clear to me beyond any shadow of a doubt, that my little brother was smitten by the young eastern beauty.

I smiled at them, knowing that they wanted to ask why everyone seemed to be in such a rush, before I too departed, retreating into my room for some brief moment of peace, wanting to organize some of my more rampant thoughts, as the troubles of seemingly an entire decade had been dropped upon me in one day.

And there I remained, a single stalk of lavender flowers in my hand, keeping that intoxicating scent next to me, preventing certain monsters from overly affecting me, as I plotted in silence for the next hour or so, when Isaac suddenly entered my room, saying "Pardon me, sire, I have been knocking for a while now, but you didn’t answer."

I was slightly surprised by this, not thinking I was so engrossed in my thoughts to have not even noticed the door knocking for so long, before I replied "It’s fine Isaac, what is it?"

"It’s nearly time for you to start getting ready for the masquerade ball today." He answered.

So much had happened today that I had nearly forgotten that I was still expected to attend and participate in the ongoing Banquet of Concordia.

"...Very well." I said a second later, nodding my head, as I rose from my seat.

Isaac nodded, gesturing for the maids to enter and begin encasing me in the intricate straps and buttons of my costume, yet he suddenly held his hand before them, barring them entry, confusing them for a moment, yet they didn’t dare question the ancient assassin, as he then carefully closed the door behind him, a slight smile playing on his lips as he said "You may not enter his imperial majesty’s quarters until he calls for you himself, understand?"

"Yes, my lord." The two quickly bowed, accepting his command, yet they remained utterly perplexed by the Grand Chamberlin’s actions, thinking briefly that maybe the emperor was undecided if he wanted to attend tonight’s festivities.

But while they remained bewildered beyond the closed doors, I was looking expectingly at my rising shadow, and the beautiful woman currently exiting it.

"Welcome back love." I said with a smile, once she had fully materialized before me.

Yet oppositely to what I had expected, she instead remained silent, her eyebrows bent ever so slightly downward, in a slight frown, before seriously asking "What’s wrong?"

Her question surprised me, leaving slightly wide eyed, before she explained when she maybe felt that I was taking too long to answer "Your voice... it’s different from before. You’re upset." Her words were not a question, but a statement, spoken without a shred of hesitation.

"What’s wrong?" She asked again, taking a step closer to me while extending her hand ever so slightly towards me, taking my hand in hers, as though she could physically pluck the answer from me.

By the time I realized my broadening smile, it was already beginning to painfully stretch my lips, as a light chuckle escaped me, before I then enveloped her in my embrace.

She faintly flinched, not because of my touch, but due to it’s unexpectedness and novelty, since none bar her father and brothers had ever touched in such a manner before in her life present life, but then she loosened a few seconds later, accepting my hug, even returning it a second later.