After traversing through the castle for quite some time, Philip arrived before the big door to the office.
Sophia stayed behind as Philip knocked on the door, and soon a deep voice was heard.
"Come in."
Philip took a deep breath and exhaled before entering the Duke's study room. Inside the room was a large desk where the Duke sat behind, going over paperwork. A small library within the room covered the walls, mostly filled with books of direct importance to managing the realm's affairs.
Max's father was a tall and robust man with regal facial features. He had short blonde hair, a matching beard, and sky-blue eyes like him. In front of the table, there sat his mother, a black-haired, busty beauty, who looked at him with her glistening sapphire eyes in a perplexed manner.
Philip didn't know any of their names or anything about them, yet he felt like he had known them for a very long time. It was like he had done this many times before. A strange feeling.
But looking at the lady, he felt something was amiss?
"So, my son, when are you going to stop giving me trouble?" his father spoke distinctly.
Philip did not know what Max had done, so he appeared bewildered naturally.
"Why didn't you join the princess at the ceremony?" this time his mother spoke in a worried tone.
And yet again, Philip understood nothing.
"..."
"Stop acting like a fool and answer me." his father spoke, slamming his fist on the table.
"She sent you the letter weeks ago. You said you would accompany her, but you didn't. Care to explain why?" His voice grew louder with each word.
Nervously, Philip took a step back. His brain was not processing anything. Who was this princess? When did she even send a letter? And why on earth did his acting seemed too genuine to be fake?
Noticing the confused look on her son's face, his mother spoke.
"Listen, Max, you know how important is Stella to us. And this is not the first time you have done something like this..."
"Important...How..."
"Do you have any idea how delicate the situation is? No, you don't. That's why you keep repeating the same damned mistake every time." said the Duke. His face was full of anger and frustration.
"Dear..." The Duchess tried to say something but couldn't as the Duke spoke gain.
"Do you know what's on the stake here? "
"..."
"Everything literally everything, our pride, reputation, power everything and yet you couldn't do a single thing." the Duke retorted.
"You realise what will happen if you failed to make the princess your fiancee right?"
"I...I..."
"Someone else will take her and we will lose everything."
"Listen, I...." Philip wanted to say that he understood nothing but couldn't.
"Damn those three sons of bitches and their sons." said the duke with a resounding voice, again slamming his fist onto the table.
Now he really was getting scary. Just what the fuck Max did to make this guy so angry?
"Max my son, if you don't make Stella your fiancee than the other duke's sons would do it and that is not a good sign for our duchy, for our future. So please listen to your father." said the duchess in a pleading tone.
"..."
"7 days... You have 7 days to fix this mess you created."
"Wha..."
"You will go to the palace, ask for her forgiveness, and solve this mess and if you failed to do even that, then my son, you better be ready for what's coming," said the Duke in a threatening tone, which send shivers down Philip's spine.
"You understand what I said, right?.."
"..."
"Right?" shouted the Duke.
"Yes."
"Now get out."
As soon as Philip heard the word get out, he literally ran out of the room.
Just what the hell just happened? He was a 32-year-old adult, but still got scared to death by just mere words. The Duke really was scary and surely he was not acting. His confident demeanour couldn't be faked.
Philip again traversed through the huge castle corridors and made his way to the room. As he sat down on the massive bed, he focused on the entire events happened so far. He came to this world out of nowhere, did not know about anything, and now had to fix some mess he did not make. But if he won't do what the duke said, then it would create another problem for him and it was also not like he could go around announcing that he was Philip, not Maximillian.
"What in the world I did to deserve this...?" shouted Philip in frustration. Still, there was nothing he could do.
"That System..."
And the screen appeared before Philip. For trial, he tried to make it disappear, and it disappeared. He tried it a few more times as he realised he could control it at his will.
"Pretty handy."
Now the next step was to touch the screen & it happened. Magic happened. The same old Agree/disagree page. Just what was so special with the terms & conditions that the System wanted his permission.
"You know something" said the [System], or more precisely, Lyson.
"What?"
"You can't survive without me."
"Why?" replied Philip with a bored expression. He had survived a miscalculated para-jumping with pure judgemental skill & reflexes, but with some broken bones. So what bad could happen without this?
"Cause there is a war brewing just beside you & if you won't do anything, everyone's gonna die."
"Are you kidding me?"
"No," replied Lyson in a flat tone.
"You are definitely joking & even if there is a war, what it would have to do with me?"
"Captain Philip, how many people do you think you have killed?"
"I don't know, I forgot counting them long time ago." After becoming an operative, it had become his job to kill. He was doing it for the profit of his motherland or some other guy he never knew. There were many reasons, but one thing was sure that he had become a professional killer throughout the years.
"Yeah, I expected that. Now tell me how many people were killed because of your stupid mistakes?"
Philip just looked at the screen, saying nothing, with a face devoid of any expression. It was the face everyone remembered when they heard the name 'Black Reaper'. Cold eyes, expressionless face and precise movements with 100% efficiency. Jobs were always done with no error ever reported. His kills were precise & efficient. One shot to the head & done. No torture, no second thoughts.
It seemed like he had a heart carved of steel, but in reality, he did not differ from others.
"NO answer, huh...?"
"What do you want?" asked Philip in an icy tone.
"Trust me & I can make you someone befitting of your name. Otherwise you will repeat what happened in scarecrow."
Hearing the word Scarecrow, Philip's face stiffened. He never wanted to relieve the memories of those days again.
"So if I trust you, then you will make me what?"
"Whatever you desire, with no string attached."
"That sounds awfully fishy."
"But I don't think you have a choice. Right? And also, don't you wanna know why they killed you?"
"Why are you so desperate?" asked Philip. He couldn't understand why this thing called System was so eager to make him something he never wanted to be.
"That's classified & just fucking agree to it, man. We have a lot of work to do."
"Yeah." Except agreeing to this weird thing, Philip had no choice left cause he also wanted to know this world a better. And how bad it could even go.
So, with no second thoughts, he pressed the green button. Soon a Lyson's professional voice rang inside his head & the screen change to show some new info.
----------------------
Thank you. Now it is my sworn duty to make you what you what you want the most.
So what do you want to be?
1- Emperor
2- Emperor
3- Emperor
4- Probably think about it later. Still, you should choose Emperor.
----------------------
"What the fu...?"
"Dude no Swearing."
"You dickhead. You told me I could choose, but that doesn't look like a choice of mine."
"Oooooo, you should have read the terms & condition before agreeing."
"You Son of a bitch." Philip tried to punch the screen, but his hands just went through it. He was more irritated now as to what he just stepped into.
"It's not my fault, you know..."
"Fuck you."
"Fuck you too." shouted Lyson.
"Shut up Asshole...."
"Same to you, moron."
And then this shitfuckery continued for quite some time before Philip tried to hit the screen again but hit the rock solid wall. After which a hysterical laughter could be heard from Lyson & Philip just stayed silent, waving his hand in pain. This system really was annoying.