“Prince? Prince where are you?” a voice called out through the mostly empty hallways of the palace, and as the voice stated, the source was searching for the prince…

Said prince was hiding behind a curtain, waiting for the source of the voice to walk away, holding in his breath and keeping quiet for as long as he could, eventually he could not hear the footsteps anymore…

“Finally. Time to get out of here.” The young voice of the prince spoke out, turning, instead of going out of the curtain, the boy opened the window the curtain covered, and jumped out, landing softly on the grass.

Standing from his crouch, the third and youngest prince of the Empire, Martin Valzard looked at the sky, seeing the surprisingly sunny day and smiling.

“Today’s a good day to conquer.” The boy walked, making sure no one was following him as he moved towards the vine covered wall which was at the back of the palace, using the vines to climb.

Soon after the boy landed on the other side of the wall, the woman who had been searching for the prince stood on the wall, watching the little boy running somewhere.

“Prince, you really should be more careful.” The woman, a maid, said, her long brown hair swaying in the breeze as she stepped off the wall, the wall itself jutting outwards to create steps which melded back into the wall as soon as she finished using said step.

“Delilah, you let the young prince leave again?” the woman turned, looking at the man that ‘suddenly’ appeared leaning against a tree near her.

“Drake, I see you’re the one on guard duty today. Do not worry, it’s good for the prince to interact with those his age.” Delilah, the woman dressed as a maid, spoke to the man leaning against the tree as he scoffed, standing straight.

“Maybe it is, but it’s a bit dangerous for him right now to leave the palace with the murders.” Drake pointed out, tipping his tri-corn hat so that it covered his eyes, getting a roll of the eyes from his conversation partner.

“Oh please, all those murdered were three Star or lower Sages, and yes, the prince is not that strong… but I am stronger. As if a Sword of the Empire would be killed.” Delilah reminded and Drake shook his head, walking past Delilah while sending her a narrow stare from his blood red eyes.

“That pride will get you killed one day. But you aren’t wrong. Just know that if harm comes to the prince I will kill you myself.” Flames briefly erupted from Drakes boots before the man vanished, his speed at such extremes that even Delilah barely caught sight of him leaving.

“I will rightfully accept my death then. For now, I must watch the prince on his adventure.” The maid patted her apron as if dusting imaginary dirt from it as she sunk into the ground, the earth swallowing her and leaving no trace of her existence.

The prince they spoke of, Martin, was running through the forest with a smile on his face, the seven year old leaping from rock to rock and going through a needlessly complicated path…

Well, as royalty, he was born stronger than other children, so this complicated path of ducking under branches, swinging from point to point and jumping over a rock while maintaining a steady pace was nothing much for the young prince…

Well, nothing much for the first minute or two before the Prince instead walked, breathing heavily in exertion.

Stronger than normal he may be, Martin was still a child… good training for the future though, so the boy smiled, finally coming out to a fence, and after taking off his coat and boots and actively rolling in the dirt for a bit, climbing over, Martin found himself at a park, with a few families around…

“Marty, over here!” Martin turned, seeing the source of the voice and smiling as he ran over to the group of children.

“Hey guys, where’s my stuff?” ‘Marty’ asked, looking at everyone who smiled, dirty looks being sent their way by the adults in the park…

‘Marty’ just looked at them, sticking his tongue out and smiling as he and his friends went to his stash, holding all their belongings…

All these other children were orphans after all, unlike Martin who was royalty…

Delilah, watching from nearby, smiled softly at the scene, recalling the first time the prince met these orphans who lived near the park.

The first time Martin had met these children, he had been playing around in the forest, ‘hiding’ from Delilah, after a particularly messy training session.

And then, finding the fence, and being the curious child he was, Martin climbed over the fence, and happened to gracefully land in the middle of the gathering of orphans by landing on their eldest.

After the fight, and it wasn’t so dangerous that Delilah would step in, Martin had proven himself stronger than even the nine year old boy he landed on, and all the rest, and so he demanded they be his friends.

“It’s the charisma of royalty, it has to be.” Delilah muttered to herself in the present, watching as ‘Marty’ held a wooden sword, and with a red blanket as a cape, he and his ‘kingdom’ prepared to wage war.

A very childish war though, considering they were going to try going to a different park and seeing if they were welcome there, and if not, pick a fight with the people saying anything against it.

Some adults who came to this park and didn’t know about the orphans tried to get mad at the ‘ruffians’ only once or twice.

After beating up a grown man with their numbers, everyone else simply gave up, hoping to call the police or something…

An impossibility given that Delilah was watching and told the police to leave the children alone and back off.

Delilah was aware that there was suspicions in the police that one of these orphan rug-rats were hers, bah, she’d have children when she was defeated in a fight by anyone other than Drake.

Preferably with the person who defeated her, though if the other was a female Delilah wouldn’t mind…

Delilah had gotten side tracked, snapping to attention and following the children from as far a distance as she could manage, watching them walk through the streets as people either smiled at them or gave them a wide berth.

Those who smiled were typically Sages, though there were a few normal humans too, probably people who had Sage relatives…

Martin’s bright red hair signified him as a Sage, a rarity for children under the age of twelve to show signs of being a Sage, and normal humans in the Empire knew to leave Sages well alone.

There wasn’t any real discrimination against normal humans, they had the same standard of living as in many other countries, the difference was that Sages were… kind of, upper class citizens.

A Sage was guaranteed admission into the military, regardless of strength, and the military was directly under the command of the nobles, who were, on average, the strongest Sages in the Empire.

So the hierarchy would be- royal family- nobles- military- normal humans, but even the lowest rung of this ladder had a well off life.

There would always be problems though, Delilah frowned as a man seated by an open café scowled at the children, chucking a piece of bread at one of them, expecting that to disturb the children.

Delilah chuckled when one of them actually snatched the bread from mid-air with their teeth, chewing loudly while one of their numbers thanked the man for the food.

The shade of red the man was turning was very funny, even as Delilah remembered that face for a later… visit. Even the people seated near the man frowned at him.

Some in the military abused their power over normal humans, and so normal humans hated in return, there were occasionally bad nobles who did bad things and once there had even been a bad Emperor, though the current Emperor earned his title by defeating and executing that one.

Mordred Valzard was a monster that deserved to be put down though, the horrors that man inflicted upon the Empire resulted in Delilah’s status as an orphan before the Emperor took her in for training during the Fae Wars.

But in front of her eyes Delilah watched Martin boldly smirk as walked with his first followers, these orphans who may or may not be Sages would always be considered by Martin as his most loyal, Delilah had no doubt…

And if a prince of the Empire could roll in dirt just to play with some orphans then the country should have a bright future.

“Huh, so that’s the youngest brat prince huh?” Delilah stiffened in fear, having not detected anything prior to this voice, staying very still so as to not provoke the being that snuck up on her.

“Hey Clara, you scared the maid… sorry about her, she doesn’t really care much for how her actions affect others.” Delilah turned at the second voice, slowly, recognizing the name Clara…

In front of Delilah, also on the roof of a building near that café, was the King of Darkness, and if the man next to her was treating her so casually, he was likely also a King… and judging by the physique, and the beach-wear, the King of Water.

“A-a-apology accepted, sir.” Delilah stuttered out, bowing and not daring to look up.

Sword of the Empire Delilah may be, but she was no King, nine Star Sages such as her knew better than most how terrifying Kings were, nine Star Sages actually fought alongside Kings many times…

“Ah, no need to stand on formality like that with me, though Clara might like it. You’re the guard of the youngest prince?” Kai Lanakila asked, noting that she had been watching the group of children from her perch on the roofs for a while.

“Yes sir, I’m the strongest of the Swords of the Empire, Delilah, no surname.” Delilah admitted, no lie leaving her.

She was not the leader of the Swords, but she was most certainly the strongest, as in the Empire one did not need to be strongest to lead.

Evidence of that was how the eldest prince, Gregory, was the General of the Army when some of his higher ranked soldiers were seven Star Sages, or even six Star Sages.

Gregory had only become a six Star Sage in the last five years so he was still relatively weak for a six Star Sage, but his ability to lead was good enough that he earned his title of General despite that weakness.

“Oh, you’re that Delilah? Not sure if you remember but we actually fought together down in Spain during the Fae Wars.” Delilah recalled the battle that Kai Lanakila, yes…

She recalled that she was still an eight Star Sage when that battle happened, and that there were three Kings on the battlefield destroying that entire section, meaning Delilah and those too weak to contribute in that fight had to go around.

So yes, technically speaking, they had ‘fought together’ but Delilah would call that a stretch as she blushed recalling how little she really helped, embarrassed at the praise…

“If it weren’t for you leading that group in a pincer attack against the magicians we wouldn’t have been able to force the retreat of the Fae, so thank you.” Kai said with a smile on his face as Delilah looked away with a blush.

The rumours of Kai’s heroism were not unfounded apparently… he held a similar aura to one the Emperor had before he took the throne actually…

And Delilah did always say she’s only end up with someone stronger…

No, bad Delilah!

“I… don’t think I was that much help in that fight, but you’re welcome.” Delilah finally said with an awkward look on her face, getting a sigh from Clara.

“Whatever, we were going to go see the Emperor, you keep a watch on the prince then.” Clara said, motioning with her head towards the direction of the palace, getting a nod from Kai as they took off.

Waiting for a moment, watching in the direction the two Kings left, Delilah wondered why they were in the Empire exactly… it was quite rare for Kings to meet up and interact after all.

“I wonder if the King of Water is single…” Delilah muttered aloud for a moment before shaking her head and moving on. She was above such things as love at first sight, and the both didn’t really know the other, move on.

Delilah kept watching the prince and his friends from the rooftops, trying to ignore the presence of two behemoths so close to the Emperor she swore to fight for.

With Kai and Clara, the two Kings vanished into the forest behind the palace, not willing to go through the pompous greeting going through the front would cause, and their movements barely stopped at all until someone landed in front of them from the sky.

“Halt.” The man said, looking at the two with narrowed red eyes, the two Kings blinking in surprise, one in amusement, the other in annoyance.

“Did you really just order a King to stop in their path? Boy, you better get out of my way so I can talk to your Emperor or you’ll be crippled until Elior gets to you.” Clara growled, the forest around them suddenly getting darker, a howl echoing from around them as Kai grew nervous.

“Easy there Clara, he’s just going his job, right?” Kai asked the other man as quickly as he could, not wanting to give the King of Darkness an excuse to attack…

She was quite easily the strongest King, though she seemed to let Elior take the reins, she really shouldn’t be weaker than Elior.

“Indeed I am, King of Water… it’s been a long time by the way. As the Shield of the Empire, I just needed to confirm your identities before I moved on to inform the palace of your arrival.” Drake admitted, getting raised eyebrows from the two Kings, both realizing that they did in fact know the man before them.

Younger, but stronger, brother to the Emperor, Drake Valzard was the strongest Fire Sage in the world bar the King of Fire and two others, three if you counted Everburn…

Then again, all three of those others would probably lose in a one on one fight against Drake just by virtue of his fighting experience, having fought almost non-stop in the Fae War due to his Diversity granting him extreme regeneration.

Rather…

“It has been a long time… by the way, I heard that the Emperor’s eldest, Gregory, is similar to you, what with the dragon and Fire Element.” Drake narrowed his eyes at Kai, then shrugged.

“I made an impression on my nephew in his youth. We are quite different, but considering he gave up his chance for the throne to join the military, like I did…” Drake admitted, frowning beneath the cloth tied around the lower half of his face.

“Ah. Yeah, you were strong enough to be considered for the position of Emperor, but you let it go to your older brother… why?” Drake scoffed at Clara’s line of questioning, turning away from the Kings and crouching slightly.

“Galahad is a brilliant leader, I’m not.” Drake stated, a burst of fire and he was gone, yet the forest floor was mysteriously without any hint of a burn.

“That’s some damn good control, no wonder he was one of our vanguard against the Garuda during the war.” Clara admitted, knowing that Fire was an expanding Element, it wanted to consume and grow, to expand, and yet Drake didn’t even burn the grass beneath his feet when he used the Fire to propel him.

“Yep. Let’s go, I’m certain the Emperor is waiting for us, along with Grigori and Rabia.” Kai said to remind Clara of their reasons for being here, drawing a roll of the eyes from the older King.

“No need to remind me. Time is money, do you really think I’d waste money?” Kai was aware that such a thing would never happen what with Clara’s love of money.

Money was above most things to her, and even if Kai suspected that her Black Bank actually took an occasional assassination mission, he’d leave her alone because Clara would never let her workers do anything morally wrong while working for her.

If they were going to assassinate someone, Clara would run a thorough background check and find out why this person had to be assassinated before doing anything.

If the reasons were good enough, the person would be dead, if not, the mission would be refused.

The King of Water hopped, floating in their air before he began to move, the King of Darkness rolling her eyes as she sank into the shadows.

Moving here, they had moved with just their physical abilities, no use of their Elements, and yet it seemed that watching Drake moving with such fine control over his Element left Kai feeling a bit… competitive.

“Men.” Clara mumbled from the shadows, finding a certain shadow and having a small smile as she reached out towards it, pulling herself into the material world.

“Oh! Clara, it’s good to see you!” Clara, the King of Darkness, scariest and most morally grey King, smiled as she leaned down a bit to hug the King of Wind.

“It’s good to see you too, little wind.” Rabia pouted at that, poking Clara and getting the older woman to back of slightly with a soft giggle.

“Hey, it’s been years since you’ve had reason to call me that.” Rabia pointed out, recalling how, in her youth, she had encountered Clara while fleeing from her family…

She hadn’t had the strength to rule her family back then, and she refused to undergo their tests, and so ran away…

Clara found her and protected her, with the promise that Rabia would prevent her family from being assassin’s once she was strong enough.

Rabia had agreed, not wanting to have anything to do with the family business even if she was trained in it, and Clara had wanted this done because she was considering the benefits of being an assassin herself.

A decade or two went by with Rabia living with Clara until Rabia took over her family, and their promise went through, and in their entire time living together, Rabia was ‘little wind’ to Clara.

“Alright, alright, I’m still glad to see you Rabia… you’re the only King I like you know?” Clara said with a smirk, leaving Rabia giggling as Jonathan stood a bit behind the two, just standing still and waiting.

Just as this part of the conversation was ending, Kai swam in through the front door, landing on the floor with barely a sound, frowning as he saw Clara had gotten into the palace before he did, and a moment or two after Drake landed at his side, looking at the same person.

“…I’m supposed to let them know to let you in, so why would you rush to be here before me if you would just need to wait?” Drake asked aloud, walking past Kai who scratched his head with a sheepish grin.

“Sorry about that, your control is impressive so I got a bit competitive, I even used my Diversity…” Kai sighed, realizing he really was going something dumb, a King competing with a nine Star Sage, even a powerful one, was stupid.

And yet, Kai narrowed his eyes, focusing on Drake as he walked further into the palace.

And yet, despite being a nine Star Sage, Drake was not so slow that they had to wait for a few minutes, he even arrived a few seconds after Kai.

Even if he had a head start, Drake should not have been that fast unless…

Unless he was a top tier nine Star Sage. A Sage on the verge of ascending to the next Star…

“Between that guy and the twins, I think he’s going to become a King before them, nin.” Kai jumped in fright, a massive spear appearing in his hands as he turned to see the King of Wood, Grigori, standing there with a smirk.

The man wore what Kai knew to be ninja wear, having a face mask and a hood, the only part of Grigori that could be seen without looking at his clothes were the area around his eyes…

The problem with the outfit was that instead of being black, it was military camouflage, allowing the man to easily blend in with forests and jungles…

A scary fact considering Grigori summoned trees and plants everywhere he went. The man was an honoured invited of the Elves for that… no other human held that distinction as far as Kai knew.

“Damn it Greg, you scared me!” Kai pointed out, vanishing his spear and dropping himself back to the ground, apparently having activated his diversity again without meaning to…

Well, he was a swimmer. His ability to treat air as water thanks to his Diversity made him truly scary to face, but it wasn’t a truly effective ability…

He couldn’t sense through air like he could water, and while he could sense blood in someone’s veins, Grigori could actively slow down his own heartbeat so that Kai wouldn’t feel the flow of blood.

Meaning Grigori could sneak up on Kai.

Once Grigori found out how to erase his shadow and hide from light at the same time he’d be invisible even to Clara and Elior.

“I know, that was the point of my actions, nin. Still, I really do think that man will be the next King of Fire.” Kai looked to where Drake had gone…

“So you know?” Kai asked Grigori with a pointed look, the ninja looking insulted as he crossed his arms.

“Please, I’m a ninja, of course I know secrets I shouldn’t know. But enough of that, I’d like to greet our peers, nin.” Grigori… was an interesting one, Kai chuckled as he remembered that, following Grigori who was wildly waving at the two female Kings, and Jonathan.

Can’t forget that guy, he actually had the guts to romantically pursue a King back when he was barely into five Stars.

Kai could respect that guy… though his power was feeling a bit higher than when they had last seen him.

“Hi there Rabia, it’s good to see you again, you too Jonathan, and congrats on reaching six Stars by the way, it’s impressive.” Kai said with a smile and nod to Rabia, then a wave to the youngest Sage in the room.

“Thank you for the praise.” Jonathan was really a no-nonsense kind of guy when around his superiors, though Kai remembered seeing Jonathan and how he acted when there was no one he respected around.

Jonathan could be weird.

“Ninja! Hey there Rabia, I see the cradle snatcher is still doing well!” Kai choked on nothing while Clara burst into laughter and Jonathan looked away with a small blush on his face at Grigori’s words…

“Oh Grigori, I didn’t know you felt like dying so soon…I’m sure I can be of assistance.” Rabia said with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes, leaving the exuberant ninja leaning back, holding his hands up defensively.

“N-n-now Rabia, I was j-j-just joking! No need to fight, no- ack!” Grigori held his throat, waving his head around dramatically before dropping to his knees, holding his hands to the sky before falling down.

That was when his body turned into a block of wood, leaving Rabia staring at a corner of the room which Grigori came out of looking very sheepish for someone who only showed his eyes.

“Sorry about that Rabia, but did you really need to kill my clone, nin?” Grigori asked, getting a roll of the eyes from Rabia as she calmed down.

“Yes, it was cathartic. And besides, I only choked it for a second or two, that dramatic play just now was all you.” Grigori laughed loudly, acknowledging what he had just done…

Jonathan on the other hand just witnessed this gathering of Kings with the knowledge that if his wife had done that move on him, he wouldn’t have been choking, Jonathan’s neck would have just snapped.

“Hey, the Emperor will see you all now.” Drake appeared, pointing his thumb behind him and letting them all move past him, and instead of following, Drake left, taking to the skies.

Walking into the ‘greeting’ room of the palace, the group saw the Emperor standing, and at his left side was the second generation dragon, Gregory Valzard, and to the right of the Emperor was Nicola Velzard, the Royal Guard.

And yes, it was confusing when everyone else heard about it, but Valzard and Velzard were indeed two of the noble families of the Empire, with the third being lost to history and the fourth being, unfortunately, the Baqri.

That was a very well-kept secret though, given the Baqri were once assassins for the Empire before leaving, technically Rabia was a noble of the Empire if she wanted to be, but she refused, the Baqri had left the Empire centuries ago after all.

“Ah, Greetings Kings, it’s an honour.” The Emperor, Galahad Valzard, bowed his head slightly, the two at his sides bowing lower than he did as they had a lower position than the Emperor.

Even considering his title as ‘Emperor’ Galahad was still below the ‘Kings’ though, odd as that was.

“It’s a pleasure to be here Galahad, and to you two as well, Nicola and Gregory.” The General of the Army and Royal Guard nodded, raising their heads and nodding.

“Come, come, sit, I assume we have quite a bit to discuss… Yule would have been here, but he does have a job at the Academy.” Galahad sighed, with Nicola scratching his icy blue hair.

“Sorry about my father…” indeed, the Prince of Ice Nicola was the son of Yule Argos, though few actually held those titles as a good thing.

Rick, Yusuf, Nicola, none of them actually liked being called ‘Prince’ of their Element, knowing that it was a title only granted because of their parents, not because of something they did.

“No need to apologize Nicola, Yule is a busy guy… even if he is just using that as an excuse to not meet up with the other Kings.” Kai said, always the peacemaker when Elior wasn’t around… well, Kai and Rabia.

This was when Rabia wasn’t mad at the others for making fun of her relationship with Jonathan of course.

“That being said, you should all know that there are two main points to this meeting with you, Galahad.” Clara spoke out, demanding the attention of all in the room as she frowned.

“…Yes, I understand.” Galahad stated, sighing with a sad look on his face, looking at the round table they found themselves seated at.

“Yes, your first Emperor, Uther, is dead.” No one had outright stated it, but most in the room knew of this, the exceptions being those who weren’t Kings and Rabia.

“Wait, Old Man Fire is… old age?” Rabia asked with a sad look, realizing that only such a thing could lead to the death of someone as powerful as the King of Fire once was.

“Yes… It’s a shame, but he joined our collective knowing he barely had a century left in him, we all knew this, it’s why we emphasized the growth of nine Star Fire Sages for the past century, why we freely allow Drake to spar with Yule or any other King that we feel should.” Clara pointed out, getting a nod from Kai.

He had faced Drake in the past for a spar, the younger Sage was powerful, but was defeated by Kai… but back then, Drake had not been as fast as he was now, and Kai had no doubt his explosive power had increased as well.

“We need a replacement for the King of Fire. The Twins were being trained only as a favour to him, but we aren’t willing to focus only on them when there are other candidates such as Drake, otherwise it would be favouritism.” Clara added on, getting nods all around.

“I see… will the Kings be arranging something for the three?” Galahad asked, getting a nod from Grigori.

“Yes, nin. The twins were going to train with Kai as he is the best option to challenge them, while Drake will be training with either Goku or Elior… and if you could offer a high enough price, Clara might also.” Grigori pointed out, reminding the group that Clara could in fact be swayed with money.

“A million euros per month.” It just took a lot of money.

“That’s a very reasonable price considering who is saying it, but I’ll leave that choice up to Drake.” Galahad admitted with a wince at the high number.

“The second fact, and something we’re not willing to deal with… hey, go hunt down the serial killer killing your Sages.” Clara said with a glare towards Galahad who nodded, a frown on his face, and Gregory at his side clenching his fists.

“It is being taken care of, Gregory here is handling the investigation himself.” The second dragon stated.

“Good… now, let’s talk a bit more.” Clara said with a smirk, getting worried looks across the table.

Walking into the palace after a fun day, Martin looked at the disapproving gaze of Delilah with a smile on his face.

“Smile all you want prince, you need to clean up before you do anything else.” Delilah said, ignoring the bruises on the prince as battle scars, walking away with the child…

As they walked, Martin paused, hearing screams near his father’s throne room, wondering what was going on and focusing his ears.

“No, no it can’t be!” screamed what could be the voice of his father, worrying Martin for a moment before another voice shouted back.

“Yes, yes it can! After paying more than a few billion euros to help restore this country thanks to your predecessor, plus the interest, you owe me a lot there! Mwa ha ha ha ha!” whoever was laughing had a really evil laugh, Martin supposed, but he just shrugged and moved on.

If his father really owed someone money, well, it was his debt to bare.

If Martin knew that it was the King of Darkness practically extorting money from the Emperor, Martin might have been more worried than he was currently.

Oh well, such was the interesting things happening in the Empire.

Oh, and in Elem, the Inner Class fight finished, nothing big.