After an infinitely long journey, my party and I finally got back to the Northern Empire. We rolled out carriage down the road and ended up in front of the large metal gate of the Grey City Fort.
The soldiers stationed at the fort could already tell it was us and before we even had to announce ourselves, the lathe metal doors opened up slowly as if it was about to swallow us up. Ace whipped the horse leash and the carriage began to move again. And soon, we were headed home to Millis.
*
*
After the meeting with the Margrave Empire, the representatives of the North and the Merchant Guild, excluding Doris who had returned to Margrave, proceeded to return to the Northern Empire. The carriages rolled into the courtyard of the Manor of the Grey Lord.
The Merchants came down from their carriage. Then the Lords came down from theirs.
As Ash, Lucy and Roger came down from their carriage, they were greeted by Aisha and Arianne.
"Welcome back Lord Ash, Lord Lucy, Lord Roger." Aisha and Arianne greeted.
"This is surprising." Roger said. "Where ate the rest of the Lords and Dukes? They should have been here to listen to the report from the meeting."
"Everyone is in the Throne room." Aisha replied.
"Throne room? Why?"
"Emperor Jordan has returned!"
"Jordan's back?!" Ash asked almost shouting. "I was getting worried he won't return before the war began. So? Where is he?"
"As soon as he returned, he asked all the rulers and the Merchants to come to the throne room. He said he will be making his first official appearance as Emperor."
"Oh." Ash said and turned his gaze to the Merchants. "I am sure you heard that. Our Emperor is back and would like you to see you. As this will be his very first appearance to other races."
"It would be my honour to attend, Lord Ash." George replied.
*
George, Nina and Ronnie took a carriage again and followed behind the carriage taken by the Lords. The Lords carriage was guiding theirs since it was their first time entering the Palace of the Northern Empire.
As the carriage passed through the gates of the Palace all they could do as gasp.
It was amazing. The palace yard was adorned with the most beautiful white flowers found in the North, the northern snow. The path for carriages was tiled with the most beautiful and expensive stones giving the ground a sparkle. And the palace itself, was enormous. The palace was white and beautiful.
The carriage rolled to the front of the palace and stopped. Then everyone came down and went inside the palace.
Ash, the Lords and Merchants and Millis's guardians Aisha and Arianne, entered the Throne room to see the rest of the Lords and Dukes were already present.
Ash walked to them and asked. "Where is the Emperor?"
"He's still in his room." Klaus answered. "Tell us, what was the outcome of the meeting?"
"Same as we expected."
The Lords and Dukes smiled and nodded. That was the expected outcome for them. Jordan's plan worked better when Margrave was to be blamed for initiating the war.
Then they felt his presence. Jordan was coming.
When they felt him, the Lords and Dukes immediately went to their positions with four Lords by the right and four Dukes behind them, and the other four Lords by the left and four Dukes behind them.
Then all of a sudden, the air started to become colder. People could see their own breaths. That was when the door opened up, and there he was.
Jordan in an all white outfit with a trouser, shirt and coat. His first stepped in the room echoed around. And he kept walking. It was majestic. His gaze was unwavering as he started only at his goal, the Throne. The room grew colder with ever step he took. This caused the attention of everyone in the room to be on him. Everyone could see his majestic aura as he walked.
Magnificent. George thought. So this was the one true King of the monsters. I can feel an immense power emanating for his body. How can an Innate Realm monster possess this much strength. This strength could rival many Demon Realm experts. Now I see how he could have united the monster race.
He walked up to the throne, and sat on it. Then he rested his chin on the fist of his left hand, while his elbow rested on the arm of the throne.
His eyes, bright blue that looked like they could see all of you, lazily scammed the room.
Then they all knelt down to greet. "Welcome back, Emperor."
Only the merchants remained standing but bowed... to the Emperor in White.
"Rise." Was all Jordan said.
His Lords and Dukes all rose and looked to him with a smile on their face. You have gotten stronger, Emperor. They thought to themselves.
Then Ash began. "First things first, your majesty. These visitors are the merchants from the Five Guilds."
Then George stepped forward with Nina and Ronnie behind him. "My name is George. I am the guildmaster of the Merchant's guild of the Five Guilds. It is an honour to finally meet you Emperor Jordan."
George proceeded to introduce Nina and Ronnie as Master merchants of the guild and their authority.
"As the Merchant guild as a member of the Five Guilds have former an alliance with the Northern Empire, so have the rest of the guilds. As we continue our relationship, I will introduce you with the rest of the guilds and help the North form good relations with not just the guilds, but all the other kingdoms of Mavis.
"Ronnie here," George said as he gestured towards her. "will be our guild's connection with the north. As she is the designated Master merchant of the North. We hope we will be able to continue our friendship for a long time."
"So do I." Jordan said and smiled. "I am sorry the parlay ended the way it did. We, the North, really do not want any conflict. Our resources would be rather spent in other places right now. I hope you will be able to defend us when the rest of the worlds asks about the happenings."
Wait a minute. George thought. Didn't we just arrive? How does he know the outcome of the parlay that happened so far away? And also, he is secretly hinting to me that the Five Guilds should help the North resolve the war faster so we can make profits from business with them. That might not be all either!
"I will. Thank you for seeing us. We will take our leave now."
"Duke Klaus." Jordan called out. "Can you escort our guests to their carriage please."
"Yes, your majesty." Klaus replied.
King Klaus escorted the merchants to their carriage and waited till it started moving before he went back into the Palace.
*
In the carriage of the Merchants.
"George what's wrong?" Nina asked when she noticed George was deep in thought.
"I think I just realized something." George answered.
"What?" Nina and Ronnie asked.
"Didn't you guys notice how strange it was that the Emperor already knew the outcome of the parlay without even being around for the past few months. I mean, yes it is possible for him to know about the parley if they had informed him before our arrival. But, how did he already the out come?"
"Is it possible that they used telepathy?" Ronnie asked.
"No! Telepathy is low level mind magic. Innate Realm experts can't use it. Only Divine Realm experts and above can. So I started to think. What if all this was a part of his plan?"
"All this? What do you mean?" Nina said.
"I suspect that they purposefully didn't reveal the creation of their kingdom so that other races would discover them. This would then cause a rift between the rest of the world and the North but also inform the whole continent that the monsters have created a kingdom of their own. The fences the whole kingdom causing no information to be able to be extracted about the monsters. With no information, other kingdoms won't want to go to war hastily. Except a kingdom with long hostility for monsters and the most to gain from the war."
"The Margrave Empire!" Nina continued.
"Exactly! Then suddenly, the Five Guilds make a connection to the North through the Merchant guild, and you know what this means? Allies. Allies who propose a parley with the kingdom that suddenly waged war on them. And they accepted. But! Knowing Margrave, no amount of negotiation would change their mind. But all this was so they could get the biggest organization in all of Mavis to get on their side. And when that happens, the people will also slowly begin to take their side. What do you think of this?"
"Wow!" Nina exclaimed. "Thus is definitely a possibility. But the problem is that there is no way to know for certain."
"True!" Nina added. "They really might have planned all this, but they also might have not."
"Yes. But imagine if they did. That would mean the Emperor of the monsters might have an intellect to rival the head of the Five Guilds. The second most powerful man in Mavis, the Analyst. And if he is. The Northern Empire is definitely not an empire we should go against!"