Bored bored boring was Ryuu's condition with a capital 'B', why does he have to suffer so much, a thought ran through his mind, he never felt so sleepy, 'even mommy's lullabies does not make me feel so sleepy when will the torture end', as he tried keeping his eyes peeled open like an owl it really was the greatest test on his endurance and patience. Suddenly the angry look on his sister's face came to his mind he shivered and jolted into full attention.
As words came to his ears " ....as a result we were forced to close the mine."
Antariskh: "Huh you closed it for such silly reason, now listen carefully, you will..."
Ryuu's mind wandered off again 'it is so difficult trying to keep awake, it is so boooorrrrrring ', as he tried to stifled a yawn, 'hmmm maybe I should carry a fan like that funny moustache old man at least no one will see me yawn', was the musing of a seven year old as the funny moustache kept droning on some report.
Shamiran was observing Ryuu from the corner of her eyes, her lips twitched a little on seeing Ryuu struggling to stay focused and awake.
After long agonizing hours, the meeting came to a end, it was near midnight and, Ryuu was already on the edge of falling asleep, if the meeting went on for a few more minutes he would have fallen asleep on his throne consequences be damned.
All the officials bowed deeply, as the Empress left her throne and was walking towards the door, with her siblings following behind her closely. The officials all sighed in relief inwardly as they watched Empress almost outside the throne room, 'It was closed we have distracted her enough to forget about the punishment', thought the same person who was the first one to apologize when they unintentionally insulted Ryuu.
Just as Antariskh was about to step outside she came to an abrupt halt she turned and addressed her council with a pleasant smile, "Ah before we forget, we want to reward you all for your hard work."
At that most of the members were giddy with happiness, only a couple of them starting sweating getting 'reward', the word sounded like death sentence.
Antariskh continued with a pleasant smile on her face, "We will only allow the officials currently present in this room to partake in the enjoyment of this reward, no one regardless of any reason outside of this room is allowed to participate; we hope you will accept it without any protest."
The officials all chorused as one with hidden glee and some with a bit of greed, "We are greatly honored to receive your gift your majesty.", while the duo thought, 'maybe she really is rewarding us', with a bit of hope.
Ryuu looked at her sister in horror that smile she has seen too many times on his Third mistress's face, his thought was proved correct when she uttered the next sentence, "Excellent, then we would allow you all to serve my family by hunting down and bringing us the body of Peak Empyrean God level Void Beast, We hope by the end of a week by this time we wished to see its body before us, time is running out so we suggest you all should hurry."
A commotion broke up, as all the officials were horrified on hearing about the content of the 'reward'. The strongest person was the head of their entire eastern division, was one man named Othomann Müller, even then he just achieved it a few months back.
One of the more foolish officials spoke out of turn, "Pardon your majesty, but how can we all…"
Antariskh stopped him by raising her hand, "We understand that most of you are not satisfied by the conditions given, we never knew we had such loyal citizen, alright we will change the reward."
At that many visibly relaxed except the duo, who already had tears forming on their eyes as they inwardly wished their family goodbye.
Antariskh continued with same kind smile on her face, "Well since all are so eager we want each of you to hunt and bring the body of one Peak Empyrean God level Void Beasts."
At that most suffered a heart attack and everyone gave their fiercest glare promising of pain towards the fool who had opened his big mouth, the fool who spotted some wet spots in his pants out of fear.
With that the Empress turned and was about to leave, but he was interrupted by the head of the eastern division, Othomann Müller, himself, the same man who welcomed them along with his wife, "Excuse me your Majesty, please forgive my rudeness."
Antariskh turned towards him as she gave him permission to continue speaking with a gesture from her hand.
Othomann Müller, cleared his throat while praying for all the luck in the universe for help, "For Highness, we would be delighted and grateful to you for allowing us the magnanimous opportunity to serve you and the Royal family, but the void beast population is very low, in fact in the last 1000 years only one Void Beast has been seen of Empyrean God level, couple of others are too low level they are not even immortal, so please be merciful as we will not be able to deliver you more than one with in such a short time frame.", as he along with the others bowed their heads low enough to touch the ground.
Everyone felt a terrible killing intent to pass over them for a fraction of a second, they all saw various gruesome scenes of their death, a hardened voice devoid of emotion commanded them, "Raise your heads and listen carefully."
"We are a merciful and kind person, so we will give you only 4 days not a second more to bring us the carcass of the Empyrean God level Void Beast, we are reasonable merciful and kind person but we have our limits so for your own betterment we hope you all haven't forgotten about Easter Branch Head Müller's predecessor we will hope you comply and enjoy the privilege to participate as you put it in your words 'magnanimous opportunity' to serve the Royal Family.", Antariskh spoke in a cold tone that send shivers down their spine, and then she left the throne room along with her siblings and the Royal Guards.
How could they forget about the proud and arrogant former head, who had even reached the difficult Dao Father level, only for him to incur Her Majesties wrath neither they would forget how that man was broken by the Third Princess into a sniveling mess, acting like a pet dog liking the boots of Her Majesty, before she killed him, no they would never forget the death of his lineage as well, they swallowed hard, the only way to escape her Majesty's punishment is to commit suicide and hope she never finds out about their next life's incarnation. Now they have no time to lose as they scrambled out of the throne room, to fight a death battle, while inwardly weeping while thinking, 'Demon Empress never forgives or forgets.'
Meanwhile Ryuu was awed and amazed at what he saw, his sister's way of rewarding her followers caused a strange feeling to rise up from deep within him.
Seeing Ryuu having a slight blush and in deep contemplation, Sylvana could not help but ask Ryuu, "Brother are you alright, if anything is troubling you pray tell us we will help you."
Ryuu fidgeted before answering with a blush and his voice almost inaudible to their ears, "Well when we saw those people make funny face when her majesty gave them their 'reward', we do not know why but we felt elated a part of wished we could do the same."
Antariskh and Sylvana paled a that, 'No not another one', while Shamiran almost squealed in happiness, seems like someone will follow the footsteps of 'Goddess of Sadism' Celestia and her as well, she has to keep an eye out for her sisters who know doubt try to prevent him from falling to the dark side as they call it.
While the elder two sister were debating on how to rescue their brother, a cultivator after a lifetime of battle and hardships tend to gain a sadistic side, but their Third mother and their youngest sister were different they were called 'Goddess and Demi-Goddess of Sadism' respectively, there is even a rumor that Mama Celestia was the one who invented sadism and they sometime whole heartedly agree to it, no they will have to protect Ryuu from falling into the dark side at any cost.
Sylvana: "Brother it seems you are more tired then you have realized, and as it is very late so we think we should have a very light dinner before we go to sleep, we think a good sleep will clear you of your tiredness.", she replied with a kind smile, while inwardly praying,' accept the lie, accept the lie.'
Ryuu replied while pondering her sister's words," We think you are right Second Princess, we propose to dine first before returning to our room to sleep."
His eldest sister nodded with approval at his proposal, before Antariskh and Sylvana shoot out the dirtiest glare they could master towards Shamiran who returned it in equal measure.
Ryuu idly wondered as he saw few sparks fly of his older sister's eyes, 'I must be dead tired if I am starting to hallucinate.' before shaking his head in a negative fashion, 'nah I am fine but adults are weird, it must be one of those moments which I will understand when I grow up and become an adult or in other words a certified weirdo.', he nodded his head in a sagely manner as if he has deciphered one of the most hidden mysteries of the universe. On an unrelated note every adult who knew Ryuu had the sudden urge to smack Ryuu silly.