The castle got unstable. Everyone was panicking. The knights assigned with the task of protecting the Emperor, that doesn't make sense, searched the entire castle.
(The strongest in the whole country needs protection?!×D)
Room after room, floors after floors, people after people and they didn't stop there. The maids, chefs, servants, workers, soldiers no one was spared for the check.
Rose came out of the castle to the open field in case it came to fighting. His precious castle would get destroyed if he fought inside. With the rise of his left arm he signaled the knights to report their findings.
One by one they came and told Rose everything.
"Your Majesty, the maids are safe and free from doubts."
"There was nothing suspicious in the basement as well, Your Majesty."
"Your Majesty, the chef, cook, cleaners all are clear of doubts."
"The soldiers inside the castle do not possess the power we felt, Your Majesty."
Rose couldn't digest those words. No one in the castle could possess that power except him and the Dark. The only option left was that either it was an enemy attack or it was felt from external sources.
The latter wasn't possible at all. If someone so strong really existed in the Capital, he would have known about it. The former was also not true. So what was it actually?
"Dark, can you guess what might have happened? Whose aura was it?"
With a hand on his chin, he said. "Unfortunately, Your Majesty, I cannot completely support my theory however I doubt that it was coming from outside the capital."
"Eh?! I thought you were a genius, Knight Dark. You are more of an idiot than I thought." Chris mocked Dark and laughed at him.
"Then, do you have any clues, Advisor Chris?"
Chris became speechless. Rose expected the most experienced person in the capital as of now, to at least give out some clues.
Chris kneeled down and apologized,
"I am extremely sorry, Your Majesty. But what Knight Dark said felt like a joke to cheer us up."
Dark sighed deeply as his feelings were hurt. In a serious mood such as this, who could even think of about joking?
Rose looked at Dark and asked him to provide bases for his opinion,
"Why do you think that the source was from outside the capital, Dark?"
"The highest status that the people have in the capital is Nobility with the strongest class of Count only. The presence was on par with Your Majesty's presence. Though it wasn't as strong as an Emperor's but I would say it was equal to a King."
Rose couldn't help but agree with Dark. But yet another doubt arose.
"You may be correct Dark but what would someone with the status of King come here for."
"I am clueless about it. But given the fact that the aura was filled with menacing vibes, he/she may be after Your Majesty's life."
That possibility couldn't be ignored either. After all, Rose was protecting the Empire. If someone has Ruling status—King or Emperor, they can begin their own country.
If a ruler of some country has no ruler status and is the descendent of the previous ruler, then they can be removed from their position as a King or an Emperor by someone with equivalent status.
Basically, having the ruling status makes you a country ruler even if you don't have a country.
"*Growl*"
"....."
"Oh my! Maids! Come here! Serve His Majesty some breakfast! He is hungry! Bring the tables and chairs here! Hurry up!"
How embarrassing Rose felt. He grabbed his stomach hard and his face was all red.
(The black cloth covered his red face ×D)
The tables were brought and the breakfast was served as well. Today there were pancakes, cookies, pastries, tea and some high quality bread.
Naturally, Rose loved sweet food. He wanted to jump onto the food and eat like a child eating sweets. He was drooling but he had to contain his excitement to maintain his position as a respected Emperor. Dark knew about Rose's favourites, so he tried teasing him a little.
"Advisor Chris, don't you think that there is too much sugary food here? Have you no concern for His Majesty's health?"
Rose had no choice but to agree with Dark. It was one of the disadvantages of being a ruler.He cried in his heart, cursed Dark and bid his sweets farewell.
"Maids! Take the pastries and pancakes from here. From next time, make sure to prepare healthy food."
The maids arrived and took away his heart pieces one by one. Rose just consoled himself and promised himself to treat himself to sweets later.
(The number of Himself, My brain cells ×D)
"Where are you taking those? Are you going to throw them away?"
The maid, who never talked, was a bit shy. She skipped some words but she replied,
"Y-Yes, Your Majesty. W-We t-thro it."
(What was that?!!!!!)
Chris felt ashamed. He regretted not teaching the maids how to talk to the Emperor. So he replied properly.
"Your Majesty, we always throw away the leftovers."
Rose let out a sigh and remembered never teaching them the importance of food.
"You idiots!! Who told you to throw away so much food?!!"
"B-But, Your Majesty? Who would eat someone's leftovers?"
"If any food remains untouched by anyone, anyone working in the castle can eat it. But if it is someone's leftovers then feed it to the animals. If no one wants to eat it, go give it to the needy people. Not everyone can have a comfortable and tasty food like us everyday.
Food is very important. Make sure you don't waste even a single bit of it. Does everyone understand?"
Everyone's eyes, including Dark's, were widened. With the great face of respect, everyone agreed to the Emperor's decree.
The maid took the sweets and distributed it to the Knights around Rose. Everyone was very happy and satisfied. With every bite they took,
"So delicious~!"
Could be heard. Rose also felt relieved. He was so proud of himself, he wanted someone to pat him.
After a few minutes, Rose's stomach was happy.
"Thank the chef in my stead. Thanks to you, I can eat such meals everyday."
"Y-Yes, Majesty."
The maid ran away without bowing. Chris hit his forehead in disappointment.
"Don't eat so much, Your Majesty. I don't want you to become the renowned Fat Emperor. If you get fat, Your Majesty will have nothing to worry about. I will design the weight loss regime."
"Shut up! I have never been a fat pig."
Dark cracked random jokes and everyone laughed. Chris shouted at Dark to stop it but it continued. Until Chris brought up the previous event.
The joyful moments returned back to seriousness as everyone remembered what happened a few minutes ago.
"Still no clue, anyone?" Rose asked looking at everyone while using a toothpick.
In response, everyone was silent. Rose thought about different possibilities. Putting himself into the shoes of different people, he came up with a lot of possibilities and a plan.
"All of the knights present here, go to the gates and protect the Capital, including Dark as well."
"But, Your Majesty! I am your personal guard! I can't leave your side!"
Well, Dark's thinking was logical however, this was a part of Rose's plan. Rose signaled Dark by winking. Dark immediately understood and left the vicinity. Other knights followed their captain, Dark, and left.
"As for you, Advisor Chris. Can you go and take care of the documents in my office room?"
Chris felt like this was the Emperor's plan. The decades of experience he held concluded it and he, as well, left the vicinity.
"Now now, let's see if the assassins shows of."
Out of all the possibilities, this was the most likely one. Rose sat there for 3 hours continuously, waiting for anything to happen.
'Something, anything, please happen! I am bored!' he thought.
Waiting their for three hours continuously numbed his legs. So he stood up and did some stretching. After a sweat breaking of 30 minutes, he sat down and drank some water.
After the fourth hour passed, one of the knight came running and panting. The knight immediately fell to his knees before reaching Rose. Rose stood up immediately and ran towards the knight himself.
"What happened?!"
The knight couldn't stop panting. Rose brought a chair and some water and gave it to the knight. After a few minutes, the knight calmed down and kneeled down first.
"Your Majesty, you have to hurry to the gates. It is a message from Captain Dark."
Rose was startled. He asked again,
"What happened at the gates?"
"We found someone...who saw it."
Rose got even more confused.
"What it?"
"The source of the aura, four hours ago, Your Majesty."
Rose's assumptions weren't true but his decision to send Dark was his wisest choice.
"You stay here and inform Advisor Chris. I will go right now."
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
"Skill: Fly"
Rose used his flying skill and flew towards the gate as fast as he could. The gate was the only way of entering the city. It lies East to the castle.
After just a few minutes of flying, Rose reached the gates. Normally, it would take even an athlete runner, an hour to reach the gates from the castle but Rose is different.
(My man is built different ^-^)
Rose landed in front of the gates and saw Dark, holding his sword, ready to fight. Rose couldn't hold his curiosity so he asked him,
"Oh my, how come the peace loving knight so furious today? Are you angry at me perhaps?"
Dark was dead serious and his face reflected it.
"It is no time to joke around, Your Majesty. We are going to be attacked by a Bone Dragon."
"A Bone Dragon, you say?! Where is it?! Who told you?!"
Rose got serious as well. A Bone Dragon was an extremely powerful undead monster. Not as strong as an Emperor but it posed a great threat for peasants and weak class Nobility.
(Note: Only peasant and Nobility have classes.)
"It might be coming any time soon. A seriously wounded man came running at us. We treated him and asked him what happened. We may have solved the mystery, Your Majesty. A deity has set foot on this world."
Rose's face was covered in sweat. His eyes opened wide and his mouth showed utter shock.
"Which deity?! Is it a Dragon?! Or a Phoenix?! Or something else?!"
Dark looked at Rose. He lowered his head and tried to look away from Rose. Rose was one hundred percent sure that his guess was true.
"Is it a Deity.....?"
The only thing Dark could do was nod and look away with narrowed eyes. Rose fell to his knees and his eyes were wide open. He forgot to blink.
"Why? There has been non of such incidents for the deity to come themselves, has there?! Damn it!! Why now?!"
Deities were those entities whose job was to stop mortal creatures from going too far. The Gods created all of the creatures in search of ultimate entertainment. If their creations started fighting for the dominance over the world, it would disturb their entertainment.
The Gods , themselves, couldn't come down to the physical realm to control their creatures. They have thousands of worlds to look after. Thus, they came up with the idea of deities.
Deities were mythical creatures that would bring the God's wrath on the world only if certain rules are broken. Thousands of years ago, when the Demons tried to take over the world and eliminate the human species, the phoenix came.
The Demon Lord couldn't even scratch the deity. And thus the Demon army was utterly defeated. They were now happy with having the Northern continent instead of the world.
The deity only appeared when the world was out of control or in a utter mess but for one to appear now meant something was going on that Rose didn't know about. Which creature was going to be punished? Who knows?
One thing that Rose was sure of, if the deity is a dragon, it meant serious business. The strongest deity, stronger then a phoenix.
"Your Majesty, it is not the time to crumble. We have to fight off this dragon. It is almost here."
Rose remembered Dark mentioning a Bone Dragon. He got up and maintained his posture and asked,
"A Bone Dragon? Isn't it an undead? Who summoned it?!"
"The man said the deity created it and sent it to chase him. The adventures he was with died as well."
This was strange. The God of Death only allowed mana with dark essence to be able to summon an undead. But the deities used holy magic.
"How is that even possible?! A deity? Using dark essence?!"
It was strange. Even Dark dropped his sword and thought about it for a while. So, was it something else? Or was the deity an exception? There were a lot of questions in Rose's mind but the answers would be difficult to get. Only the man who saw it had the answer.
(Note: Deities are actually worshipped. They are considered God's pets.)
To be continued