ON AUGUST 13th, THE THREE DAYS AFTER SATSUJIN'S CORONATION BANQUET HAD FINALLY PASSED. Zero found himself once more at the doorsteps of the Akuni palace. He knew that today was the day when he would finally be able to learn of what Satsujin had been planning to do while on the throne of Akuni and Aotoshi. It was clear that he had some sort of motivation for ruling outside of simply bettering the lives of the common man, which he did not seem to have much care for anyway, given his lack of action toward whatever plights may exist.

Regardless, Zero walked through the door of the palace and found the throne room in a similar state to what it had been in during the banquet, albeit this time with no food upon the table. Rather, there were papers, scattered across the table and with some writing blacked out. Some of the text on these documents was, for one reason or another, redacted. Perhaps this was to cover up information from Zero and to keep him out of the loop despite their apparent willingness to describe their plans.

Zero elected to sit in a location far from the other members of the Saisei Coalition, still having very little trust in their newly established regime. Just as he sat down, a buzzer sounded, much like the one used in the early days of Saisei. Shortly afterward, Satsujin entered and all of the people in the room rose from their seats and gave him a salute by placing their right hand on their left shoulder and using their left hand to tap their right shoulder two times.

“You may be seated,” Satsujin announced as he took his seat at the head of the table. Finding himself in a comfortable position, he took out a large scroll of paper before laying it out in front of those who sat with him at the table. Zero was able to catch a glimpse of the scroll and see that it was a map of Crenon. On the map, various locations were marked, such as a circle around the capitol building’s approximate location in Central Akuni, two circles marking the cities of Jidi in Aotoshi and Murasakino in Aotoshi. These circled points all met in one location: the Medikai city of Gunju. From the point in Gunju, the map went through the towns of Kasagri, Buithar, and Miyutachi, having broken into another three-pronged position, before rejoining one another once more in Central Medikai.

“Gentlemen,” Satsujin began, “I have laid out these plans for our main mission. As I am sure you know, we have decided that we shall make a complete reunification of Crenon under one ruler. This will entail our combined nation of Akuni and Aotoshi taking over Medikai. With this accomplished, we shall return the continent to its glorious beginnings from the 18th century before the death of Ettan IV.”

Upon hearing of Satsujin’s wish for conquest, Zero’s face grew pale. The very thing he feared the wielders of the Fabled Swords would attempt was being done without the need of those swords. All it took was a power-hungry maila to create an indestructible leader of such a dominant force that no country could topple it.

“Our unification of Crenon will begin with our troops mounted at the capitol meeting at the border between Akuni and Medikai. Once there, we will plow across the land at full power until we reach Gunju. Once we get there, we will take the city and its supplies. With newfound resources to continue our campaign, we will split once more into three militias, plowing through these smaller towns to ensure we can enclose Central Medikai, which will then topple as we flank the city in a triangular approach, laying siege until they surrender their country to our rule.”

Zero held hope that Medikai would be able to handle an invasion from Akuni and Aotoshi, considering how it has since developed an incredibly strong military with artillery the likes of which Crenon’s other two countries could only imagine in their mind’s eye. This hope was quickly dashed.

“As some of my colleagues pointed out,” the emperor continued, “Medikai will not be easy to penetrate in our current state. Instead, there are…other means to utilize.”

Satsujin laid a burlap sack onto the table. It was unusually light in spite of its full appearance, barely making a sound as its contents smacked onto the mahogany plateau beneath it.

“This is a sack full of rare metal from the Unkempt called garnium. We can use this to our advantage and enhance our weapons, much in the same way that we had in the Great Trifecta War. Best of all, we have the same blacksmith that won us that great victory well over 80 years ago.”

He looked toward Zero, and the blacksmith knew what he was being asked to do. He was not willing to create more arms of such a caliber to lead to complete domination of Crenon, but he also was not willing to risk his position by saying no. He held a vantage point over Satsujin, acting as a predator, waiting for the perfect opportunity to get him on his own and sink his teeth into his prey’s flesh. Yet, even still, he was also the prey, working in servitude of a more powerful beast that could take his life at a moment’s notice. Measuring this, he decided to answer with a nod.

“I will do the best I can,” Zero told Satsujin, “to ensure the prosperity of Akuni and Aotoshi.”

“That’s more like it!” Satsujin exclaimed. “I’ve been waiting to see your headstrong side for a while now. I thought that it had been lost to time.”

“Some things never change,” Zero added. “Now, if you wouldn’t mind, I would like to take that garnium off your hands so I can get to work.”

“Of course!”

Satsujin hurled the burlap sack across the table. Zero caught the sack with both hands, only flinching slightly to make sure that he was able to get a good grip on the bag. With the garnium in his possession, he began his planning once more in lieu of recent developments.

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In his house, Zero began writing to Satsujin. The exact text of this letter has been lost to time, but the rough idea of what it said was that Zero had realized that Lanya and Musuko might one day return to the throne of Akuni and Aotoshi. With this in mind, he had requested Satsujin permission to bring Lanya and Musuko back to be killed in front of him to prove his loyalty to the Saisei Coalition. Assuming that Satsujin would certainly accept anything to maintain his current position of power, Zero continued his planning on the assumption that Satsujin would give him the green light to hop onto the next trip on Orban’s Ferry.

As for the garnium Zero had been given, he had other plans than manufacturing weapons, or at least not weapons for Saisei. That night, after finishing the letter, he began sketching out a sword and new arrows, all strengthened by garnium merged with diamonds. At that moment, Zero knew that he had to stop Satsujin by any means necessary, even if it meant death.