Dawn- An age of Darkness

It was a two-hour-long flight.

I doubted Ve\'s claims about going around the whole world three times in twenty days. Or was it that she could but she was just going slow so she flew a bit steadier so, I felt less fear? It was also possible that this world was a bit smaller than earth. I didn\'t know, I didn\'t care. Because no matter what, flying was still scary regardless. 

"That\'s the capital?" Trying to distract myself by looking down, wasn\'t really helping that much either. But I still didn\'t scream- at least not on the outside. 

This was my first time seeing the central capital of Destoa. It was a lot bigger than Moire and the northern capital. 

There were loads of villages around the place too: green in all directions and no forests! All in all, this whole land was packed with life.

The houses weren\'t as compact as the northern capital and the architecture was better and more modern looking than Moire. The walls were tall, thick, and sturdy: I could see it from even up here. They had large cannons on top of the walls. I guess the prototype I saw back in Moire had finally replaced the typical stuff.

Obviously, they didn\'t fire at us and there was plenty of space in the royal garden, so we didn\'t need to land on the walls or anything. There were also plenty of people staring up at the sky. Actually, there were too many people in the streets and I had to admit the city looked beautiful. The city itself was decorated for some reason, almost like a festival. Wait, the letter did mention something about a festival. 

\'What\'s a holy night though?\'

Kids were running around, people were dressed up and in the streets.

Everyone seemed to be in good spirits. I guess these guys didn\'t really care about their royals either. 

It was so cheerful that it rubbed me the wrong way.

***

We descended in the royal garden and there already were a group of people waiting for us. They bowed before us and they looked more or less like ministers of some kind. Or at least nobles possessing powerful titles.

It was roughly 10 or maybe eleven. According to my skin and sudden winds, I could tell this was spring. How did I not notice the weather before?

Deserts!

Forests!?

"It\'s been too long lord Browly." Apparently, our minister knew one of them. 

"Yes lord Berreirie."

Just what the hell was wrong with this world and its names?

Sigh. Well, as long as it worked out, I didn\'t have too much to complain. 

These guys worked something out and we started walking around the castle. 

In hindsight it looked like a replica of the castle back in Moire but- it wasn\'t. 

There were more floors here and half of the castle was floating. Then again the castle of Moire also floated. The inner design and the appeal of the castle was slightly different though. 

Okay, maybe I was just being stingy but this place really did resemble the castle of Moire but maybe it was just bigger? 

Sigh. 

At this point, I just gave up on justifying that this place was actually different. Cause, no matter how I looked, I couldn\'t really find too many dissimilarities. 

I saw about three gardens as we walked for the throne room on the second floor: this was a six-story castle. Our minister was doing all the talking. Alisa asked one or two questions in between. My input wasn\'t necessary. 

I didn\'t see Gorgon around though. 

What the hell was that moron doing?

There were maids, soldiers, and even nobles running around. They weren\'t glaring at me or even coming my way. Rather they were busy with something. It almost made me suspicious. 

Before long, we arrived at a large double door and as a herald declared our names, we went in, fully prepared to fight a whole army. After all, even I wasn\'t dumb enough to let my guard down just because everything was going good. 

There were actually a lot of soldiers and ministers and other nobles in here. I did see Gorgon but he was actually chained and kind of beat up. He raised his head slightly but promptly looked down.

Apparently, there was no army but-

"Well, this just got complicated," Alisa mumbled. "Try to stay level-headed. They want you to snap," She whispered. 

Uh-huh. 

I also saw the princess and her head was down. I was already fuming over stuff I didn\'t understand but for the time being, I tried to act calm. If I ended up losing my cool now, things would only get worse. 

A boy was on the throne: probably younger than me. He had a black robe, embroidered with golden threads.

I bowed swiftly, just lowering my head slightly. "It\'s a pleasure to meet you, your highness."

He didn\'t actually say anything. He wasn\'t expecting me to bow on my knees or anything, right?

Actually, come to think of it, all of us bowed, all except Biteria. 

I quickly signaled her to bow but it was kind of late. 

"Such insolence." A high noble raged. He looked like quite the dude: totally shaved, a lot of badges, and a haughty attitude. Probably a duke or something similar. 

"Yes, I apologize on her behalf." I gave a noble bow to the man.

He quieted down, albeit forcibly. 

I forced Biteria to bow and she almost bit me but listened. 

Seriously, what was wrong with her?

Anyway, with that done, I looked at the guy on the throne. 

"Yes, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Daarc Green Archduke of Elves." For a kid, he sure knew how to speak all high and mighty. Then again, he was a king after all.

***

This was one of the most awkward moments of my life. There was a kid on the throne who looked maybe sixteen, seventeen? He had a haughty look and the room was full of people with puffed-up egos and one beaten-up friend of mine. 

I really didn\'t know what to do about all this.

Alisa was also quiet for some reason, isn\'t this why I brought her here in the first place?

\'Looks like I\'m on my own.\'  I sighed, and loudly too. At least it was loud enough for everyone to hear. 

Some actually even took a step back in fright. I guess they thought I was disappointed? Which I actually was. 

But I wasn\'t going to give in and show rage. After all, that was what they were after. 

"Three weeks ago I had an audience with the king of the northern capital and we discussed some things. It was about me bringing back the prince who\'d gone missing and \'ending\' the war. I did \'end\' the war but the prince was already dead when I confronted the duke who\'d been turned into a vampire by one of the seven \'monarchs.\'" My gaze wasn\'t just fixed on the king. 

I looked at everyone. Obviously, I paused every now and then to emphasize on things. If they weren\'t aware of the gravity of the whole situation then they didn\'t have any right to fault me. But now that they did, I was definitely prepared to hear one or two insults and even accusations. 

"My sister once wrote me a letter." The boy started to speak freely. He actually sounded like an emo teenage kid: perhaps he was going through puberty. He looked pretty good though- almost like he wasn\'t a guy. He didn\'t have any facial hair and his hair was long plus he had long thick eyelashes: unlike his sister, he had pure black hair- kind of like me. I did not like this pattern, no sir! "She said, she met a rather peculiar man. A man who must defeat a monarch. I still remember the letter as if she\'d sent it yesterday. It was the first time I read something so full of emotion." What the hell was this guy even talking about? 

\'Oh yeah, I did lie back then, didn\'t I?\' I might or might not have forgotten what happened back then. Eight months was a long time ago.

The boy continued. "But- if I take all your actions into account, you\'ve already defeated two monarchs and even some grand monsters, struck a deal with a god. Tell me, what drives you now? Haven\'t you accomplished enough? Why do you crave more power? More land? And more women?"

I kind of went silent. More power? More land? Yeah, given my actions so far, that was reasonable. But more women?

Sigh. I guess I had to explain everything properly. \'I don\'t have much time, do I?\'

Besides, after lying for so long and sucking at it, I kind of didn\'t want to go into a deeper hole. 

"Allow me to be frank." I kind of had enough of formality at this point. "I plan to fight the demon emperor." Gasp ran across the whole room. Everyone was shocked apart from Gorgon and the princess who were still just looking at the ground. 

My companions were kind of smiling though.