"Uhhh... Hey, there, little sister..."
Erebus nervously greeted her.
She had a tense scowl on her face. Her amber eyes seemed to lose colour the more she glared at Erebus.
Her hair was jet-black and tied into a twisted ponytail.
The woman was dressed in a navy blue bathrobe.
"So,"
Nyx crossed her legs, looking at the little girl hiding behind her elder brother.
"Why did you go to adopt a slave? One from the Neutral District at that?"
"She was lost..."
He told her.
"You're going to have to give her back."
She said.
That was when Erebus' switch flipped.
"No."
"Look, Brother, I already contacted her slave contractor via Two-way Scroll. Just give her--"
Erebus began leaking mana as he glared at his sister.
"If he comes here, I'll kill him."
"You won't, you'll give that girl back."
"Not on my life."
"Then you'll be happy to die right here, right, Brother?"
The two of them stood up. There was barely two inches gap between their faces.
They leaked mana as they got ready to blast each other with mana.
Suddenly, the door burst open and a man, who looked to be eighteen, walked through.
He had black hair and azure eyes. His hands were in the pocket of the trenchcoat he was wearing.
"Yo--hey, what did I say about sibling fights?"
The man said.
The siblings stopped leaking mana and hid their hands behind their backs. They put on gleaming smiles.
"Hey, Master!"
"Hey, Master Crestfallen!"
They both greeted him in unison.
Their master was the ruler of the Shadow District, Altair Marrow Crestfallen.
"Don't even try to hide the fact that you were fighting. That girl there would've been obliterated if you did."
Altair pointed at Maria, who was shaking, standing with her arms out at each side of her.
Erebus bent over and patted Maria on the head, to signify to her that everything was fine.
"Ah, that's right! Master Crestfallen, could you tell Erebus to give that slave back to the Neutral District?"
"God. You guys would've destroyed my castle aga--huh, slave?"
He looked at the girl.
Altair then looked at Erebus, sceptically.
"Did you--"
"Master, you know me, I would never! I found her at the border of Abadine Forest."
"The border of Abadine Forest?"
He repeated.
"Besides,"
Erebus pointed at Nyx.
"She's the one who called the slave contractor to the Black District, she wants to take Maria back to being a slave."
"Tch!"
Nyx clicked her tongue and faced away.
"Oi, oi, oi! You can't just click your tongue, thinking that you'll get away with that!"
Altair exclaimed.
The Emperor then sighed.
"Seriously... Let the girl stay in the castle for however long she likes. Her whole life even. Letting her go back to being a slave would be problematic for her."
"B-but, Master Crestfallen, she's still contracted to the slave contractor. There'll be political problems if we don't--"
Nyx stopped when she saw Altair blankly staring at her.
"Then you deal with it. You're the one who called him here, Nyx. If he wants the girl, then send him back to the Neutral District, no violence. If Rose uses that as an excuse to fight me, so be it."
Altair explained, nonchalantly.
"R-right..."
"If anyone says anything about the girl, tell them to send me a formal complaint. All servants must treat her like how they treat Celestia and I."
He continued.
"Oh, yeah, have any of you seen Celestia? I could've sworn she was taking a bath?"
"Ah, Miss Celestia went on a trip to the Constellation District."
Nyx told him.
"Constellation District? Why did she--"
"Because you were supposed to have a meeting with Miss Astoria twelve hours ago."
"Ah."
When he heard Nyx, he immediately waved and ran out of the room.
"Master is something else, isn't he?"
"Indeed."
Meanwhile, Maria was still bracing in fear of being struck by high-level spells.
---
{5 YEARS LATER, YEAR 664}
"No way, a war between all nine Districts?!"
Fey exclaimed.
Though all adults, the five disciples only grew slightly. Other than that, no features about them changed. Excluding Aura's bust size and their hair.
"Yeah,"
Maria replied.
It only took the girl two years to get ahold of the language used in Albatross. In those two years, she was able to beat every disciple of Erebus and take her place at the top.
"I overheard Altair talking about it."
"Lord Altair?!"
"Really?"
The others exclaimed.
"But if there's a war, then what do you think was the cause?"
Zephyr asked.
Maria flinched and everyone noticed.
"If you know, Maria, then you can tell us."
Eugene said to her.
The blonde-haired girl twiddled her fingers.
"Well, uhh... You're looking at the cause."
"Oh, oka--what?!"
The disciples were taken aback by her statement.
The woman, Maria, seemed to melt as she kept on playing with her index fingers.
"Because Master saved me and took me in, the slave contractor told the Pink Emperor and she complained to Altair. I thought the whole problem was solved but a week ago, there was a council meeting with all of the Emperors and there seemed to be an argument."
"And someone proposed there be a nine District war, right?"
Maria nodded at Aura.
Erebus slid the door to the dojo and walked toward his disciples.
"Master! Is it true?!"
"Will we be okay?!"
"Can we fight too?!"
"What can we do?!"
The disciples blasted their Master with questions. Even he did not know what was happening. Then, he realised what they meant.
"Oh, the upcoming Emperors' War. You guys can apply to be in the army but the Shadow District won't be attacking. We'll only be defending."
Erebus said.
"Wait, why?!"
Zephyr shouted.
"You've all met Master Altair, haven't you?"
They all nodded.
"He seems to be a goof sometimes but he always does things in the best interest of the Shadow District. For example, he doesn't kill."
"Isn't that a weakness though?"
Eugene asked.
"If I beat my enemy without killing them, won't they still come after me?"
"Well, if you're someone as powerful as Master Altair, then killing is easy. But he doesn't like stealing life from another."
Fey's eyes glistened slightly.
"That's... awesome."
"Awesome, indeed."
Maria said.