"Do you really think we would go through all this effort and put ourselves at so great a risk if we were paid off by someone!?", Troy shouted. At this point, him and Brutus were having a mental war with one another, and both refused to back down.

"Did the mercenaries who left for the war not risk their very lives for their pay? Perhaps the one backing you can pay you enough to get you to take such a risk.", Brutus commented, sneering.

Troy looked to the young Emperor, who seemed to be playing with the hair of one of the women he was laying on.

"I mean.... I suppose technically there is no evidence, unless you have any?", Percius asked while glancing over to Troy.

Troy bit hit lip as the young Emperor said this, and bowed deeply.

"Forgive me, my liege, but we have no such evidence."

While it was true that Oraguth had prepared many documents to support their arguments, if the accounts of witnesses were not enough to be considered proof, then none of them could be taken as cold hard evidence.

However, Oraguth was not worried in the least.

For his goal was not to incriminate Brutus. This was merely a side effect of the plan which his masters had set out.

Instead, his goal was to obtain a position inside the palace of the Empire where they would be able to gain information.

This was why the young Emperor was the perfect target.

The young Emperor was not currently supported by anyone. He didn't have his own faction.

Many loved Percius IV, and the few who didn't were secretly supporters of Brutus, who was controlling a faction from the shadows. But the young Emperor had virtually no supporters aside from his concubines, and Oraguth's masters planned on taking advantage of this.

If they targeted the Emperor directly, they would likely be heard out, but not have a place to remain within the palace as soon as the hearing was completed. On the other hand, the young Emperor would jump at the idea of supporters, even before he rose to the position of Emperor.

Oraguth had no actual intention to remove Brutus from his seat just yet.

As a matter of fact, the existence of Brutus was something which he could use to control the people around him.

If Brutus were to be removed, then he would be praised and his masters would be loved, and that would be a fine outcome. However, what if the members of the resistance rose to a position of power, and Brutus was not taken down immediately? In this case, they would believe that progress was being made, and that their efforts were not for nothing- that everything was going according to the plan of Oraguth and his masters, and that in due time Brutus would be taken down.

All he would have to say is that it would take more time to gather proper evidence on Brutus, but now they have the ability to do so openly, and under the protection of the young Emperor.

No matter what happened here, it was a winning scenario. This was according to the prediction of Theo.

"I don't play a game I will not win. If I set something into motion, then I have already won before it has even started.", Theo had told Oraguth.

The young Emperor turned to Brutus, who now seemed calm and composed as if he had won, but this composure would only last a moment.

"Well, I suppose even without evidence I will hear the rest out, and I will then have you all stay in the palace to gather evidence. You may search the libraries and acquire documentation on any of these events, so that we may determine if treason has truly occurred. I will arrange for you all to meet with my father when he returns, so use your time wisely."

"My liege!! Are you seriously going to not only pardon these criminals of their actions, but you will also allow them to do as they please here in the palace!?!?"

"Yes. I am. Do you have a problem with my decision, Brutus?"

"Grr..... no, my liege. There is no issue."

"Wonderful. Now then...."

Troy bowed his head in gratitude, before going on.

He told the stories of many of the people who had been wronged by Senator Brutus, and the young Emperor patiently listened as these stories were told.

"Eh.... you're into young girls, Brutus?", the young Emperor asked while changing his own position as he lay on the backs of the women who served as his seat.

"I completely deny any and all of these accusations!!! This entire hearing is absurd, and meant to destroy my reputation!!! EVIDENCE!!! YOU HAVE NO EVIDENCE!!!!"

'And you have no right to judge me, you lecherous little snob!!', Brutus wanted to shout, but held himself back.

"Shut up, Brutus. How many times today have I told you to stop screaming? Anyways..... I think that will be all, won't it, Troy? I think it's about time we move onto the next matter. I can't do anything about Brutus without my father's approval, and certainly not without any evidence, but I give you full permission to do what you need. All I ask is that once your hearing is over, that you and your men report directly to me. Messenger! Send a message to the Colonel who was supposed to be guarding the royal palace that these men are to be pardoned for all offenses and are now under my official protection!! None of them are to be harmed!!!"

And with that, the messenger replied in the affirmative and ran out. Troy and Oraguth as well as the 60 men were then led out into the halls of the palace, where they walked for a while before coming across a well kept barracks.

"This will be your personal living quarters as the soldiers serving directly under the young Emperor.", the guard who led them stated.

The men of the resistance looked around in joy on seeing how well kept the place was. The beds were laid out in a grid, and they were of high quality. There was a kitchen, a shower and bath area, and even a training courtyard.

"We've.... actually done it...."

"We may not have taken Brutus down today, but we really established a faction."

"And with this, we can now truly focus on taking Brutus down...."

"Who would have ever thought to form a faction under the hated and frivolous young Emperor.... and to think he reacted perfectly to every action we took.... Oraguth, did your masters truly plan all this?"

Oraguth walked down the aisle of beds in his rags, and chuckled, before repeating the phrase one more time.

"Of course. My masters can do ANYTHING."

----

As soon as the group left the throne room, The young Emperor looked over to the other three messengers who had been eagerly awaiting their turn to speak.

Every single one of them apparently bore an important message, so Percius turned to the one who stated that his message was for Brutus.

"You. Speak."

"Y-yes, my liege. This message is towards Senator Brutus, but it is also for your ears as well. A major event has occurred in the small town of Porta, and the Senator of Porta is requesting assistance from you, Senator Brutus! A monster has invaded the town and hidden away in a mineshaft nearby!! How it made it through the wall is unknown, but apparently a civilian force of 30 men went in to try and defeat it, and only 3 people made it out alive!!! This is an urgent matter, and the monster is apparently very powerful, so the Senator of Porta is requesting that Slith be deployed in order to exterminate the beast!!"

The young Emperor looked bored.

"You call that an urgent message? Brutus, deal with this on your own. I don't have time to care about a single little monster. Go figure this out."

"Yes, my liege.", Brutus said, bowing his head, and leaving with the messenger to head to another room.

"You. You seemed pretty desperate when you came in. What's your 'urgent message'?", Percius asked sarcastically while pretending to be extremely interested.

"M-my liege, something terrible has happened!!! I.... a few men have just arrived back from the Ruthobold Kingdom, and a series of terrible events took place while your father was there!! Your father was being escorted out of the country by both the Indeterminant and the hero of the Ruthobold Kingdom, when apparently the hero lost his mind, killed the Emperor, and eliminated most of the men in the unit send to protect the Emperor!!! Only a few people survived, and your father is dead!!!!!! It is highly likely that this was an assassination plot by the Ruthobold Kingdom!"

Percius listened to the messenger as his eyes widened.

His mouth began to quiver in an unpredictable manner, flashing back and forth between a frown filled with rage and a smile filled with pleasure.

However, it ended up in a face of complete satisfaction.

"My father is dead, you say? Is this absolutely certain?"

"My liege, this information is completely accurate!! He was mangled to the point where there is zero chance of him having lived, according to the soldiers who survived!"

Sitting up, the young Emperor looked around the room.

Longitudinas was at a complete loss, and the guards seemed to be completely shocked at this news.

Of course, who wouldn't be?

"Then, I will have to take drastic measures."

Percius stood up, his robe fluttering in the wind as he bolstered forward with the air not of a young child who was playing with his toys, but now with the determination of a leader.

"Call Troy back to the palace immediately!! You!! Send messages to the Legion Commanders of the 2nd and 4th legions to gather in the Capital immediately, and begin preparations."

"Preparations for what, my liege?", the man said while bowing before the new Emperor.

At this, Percius cringed, rebuking the man with his eyes.

"What else? Preparations for war. I am declaring war on the Ruthobold Kingdom."

----

"Young Emperor..... this.... this is tragic, but I believe that resorting to war immediately would be a bad move. If we declare war on the Kingdom so suddenly, thousands of people-"

Longitudinas tried to calm the young Emperor, and get him to make a rational decision, but the young Emperor turned to Longitudinas with a face that said 'don't get in my way.'

Longitudinas shrunk away at seeing such a tremendous figure.

"Do you think I am supposed to lie down as my father is SLAUGHTERED? Do you think I am supposed to calmly and rationally think things through, and perhaps forgive the men who sent their hero to assassinate my father? Do you think I am supposed to sit down at a table with them and talk it out, putting myself at the same risk that he put himself at? Maybe I should even bend down and kiss their feet? Perhaps even lick the cheese between their toes? Is that what you expect me to do after hearing this news?"

Percius turned away from Longitudinas without even giving him a second to answer the questions.

"My father was killed because he tried to negotiate. Because he tried to make peace with others. Because he was desperately fighting not for his country, but for humanity as a whole. The other countries used this against him. He was a great man, for sure. But these things which made him great, were also his downfall. I will not make the same mistakes. I will take everything he did right and do it, and I will take everything he did wrong and correct it. For I am the Emperor now."

Turning to yet another messenger who was on standby, the young Emperor continued to bark out orders.

"Fetch Brutus as well. I don't need to keep a snake around if I don't have to."

"Of course, my liege!", the man shouted as he ran off.

"And you. What is this urgent message of yours? Surely it cannot be as catastrophic as the last one?"

"M-my liege..... forgive me, but I dare say this message is just as catastrophic."

Percius thinned his eyes at this.

"Speak."

"My liege, Caspus, the Legion Commander of the first legion of the Empire who was send to the fishmen village in the monster realm to take the land.... has failed desperately. We have lost all contact, and the result of the campaign has been.... complete annihilation."

Percius' eyes widened at hearing this, even more so than when he heard of his fathers death.

"What?"

The man bowed his head and began to cry as he shouted the details of the message.

"An entire legion of 10,000 men have been slaughtered!!! The last messenger who was sent stated that the campaign was going well, and that Caspus had taken the fishmen village, but after that all 10,000 men were killed in a manner which I hesitate to describe due to how absurd it sounds!!"

"Speak. Spit it out. How were these men killed?"

"According to the man who witnessed the event, who happened to just recently arrive back safely but is currently in a state of mental torment and shock, the armies had invaded the underground sector of the fishmen village and were in the process of eliminating the remaining fishmen when an army of lizardmen appeared out of nowhere!!!"

"So these lizardmen killed off the men of the legion!? Just how many were there!?"

"As far as my intel goes, there were about 1000 of them! But..."

Percius became furious at hearing this, shocked that the forces of the Empire could be beaten back despite outnumbering their foes so greatly.

"Only 1000!?!?!? Are you telling me that 1000 lizardmen took on an army of 10,000 men, and we were completely annihilated!??!?! How can that be!!!! That is impossible!!!! The Legions of the Empire are the most powerful military in the world!!! How could we have been defeated by numbers a mere tenth of our own!?!?!?!"

Percius was now shouting, and pulled his hair in frustration on hearing this.

Just moments before he was filled with a combination of rage and glee- rage as to the death of his father, yet glee in that he was now the current ruler of the Empire.

Yet now, he was being told that without even having done anything, an entire legion had been destroyed. One of his cards had already been eliminated, before he even had the chance to use it.

"My liege!! Forgive me for continuing, but the lizardmen were not the ones who annihilated our legion!!"

"Oh? So then you're telling me that the monsters had further reinforcements beyond these mere 1000 men, and used their own superior numbers to defeat our warriors?"

The man was now crying on the ground, barely able to get the words out, but he forced himself to continue speaking.

"Just the opposite, my liege!!! The 10,000 soldiers of the first legion were completely wiped out by A SINGLE ENEMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

A fuse seemed to shoot off in Percius' mind at that moment, and he held his forehead, closing his eyes to calm himself, before once more opening his eyes.

"Forgive me, messenger. I must have misheard what you just said. Please repeat it."

The man who was desperately drooling and tearing up with his face to the palace floor at this point, shouted out once more in anguish.

"MY LIEGE!! 10,000 men were defeated by ONE SINGLE ENEMY!!!!!"

At this, Percius tore open his undershirt.

"HOW!? HOW THE HELL COULD 10,000 MEN BE KILLED BY A SINGLE ENEMY!?!?!??!?! WHO WAS THIS ENEMY!?!?!?!??!"

"My liege!!! From the report, there were four beings!! The one who defeated the entire legion on her own was a woman with the appearance of a ghost!! With her were two demons, and an elven figure!!!"

Percius was grinding his teeth in fury at this point, and he turned to the messenger.

"Damn monsters... reducing my power right when I take this throne.....", he lamented to himself.

Percius then calmly looked at the messenger with anger in his voice.

"Go to the Commander of the 5th legion and tell him to head to the wall, where the 3rd legion is stationed. Tell them that they are both to prepare for a full invasion of the monster realm."

At this, Longitudinas, who was standing by and listening in horror, shouted out and reprimanded Percius.

"My liege!!! If we do that, then every single legion under our command will be deployed!!! We cannot-"

"Silence. I am not my father. I will NOT sit back as the rest of the world mocks us, testing our patience."

With this, Longitudinas was completely isolated in his opinion, and the messenger ran off.

Turning his back to those in the hall, the robe of Percius fluttered as he walked.

"If the entire world wants to declare war on us, then we will first declare war on the entire world."

Percius then walked over to his own lounge of women, and plopped himself on them, causing them great pain as they struggled to hold him up.

After just moments of becoming Emperor, his eyes were already becoming tired and furious with the difficulties of ruling.

'Just how did my father deal with something like this?', he thought as he put his fist to his chin. 'No, I should not consider his methods. I don't plan to imitate him. I plan to surpass him, using my own revolutionary methods.'

As the new Emperor was thinking this, the doors of the room opened and two men made their way in.

It was Troy and Brutus.

Both of them walked forward, one with great pride and the other with great humility, however they both ended up kneeling before the Emperor.

However, as these two kneeled, the messenger who had reported the death of Percius IV spoke up once more.

"My liege, there is one more thing I wish to report. May I speak?"

Turning to the man, the young Emperor sighed and waved his hand, allowing the man to say what he had to say.

"My liege, the Indeterminant arrived with the group of soldiers who survived the event. He is currently waiting in the palace to speak with you."