--- A few days after the Military Advisor left the Capital ---

"Colin, we have somebody who claims to be an advisor to the emperor." An employee says.

"Bring him here then." I answer him and wait for half an hour.

A man in his late thirties enters the room with the employee.

"The Military Advisor of the Empire, Beaduric. He has also brought his entire family here, shall I allow them in as well?" The employee introduces the advisor and then asks a question.

I nod as an aswer and turn my attention to the advisor.

"Sit. I doubt you are here to try to assassinate me. It is surprising there haven't been any tries on my life though." I say to the advisor and he just laughs a little.

"We were afraid to do anything, in shock you might say. I'm here to surrender. Not for the Empire since the Emperor is a stubborn one. I'm here to personally surrender, I will surrender my duchy under your control with one condition. Don't kill my family." The Advisor immediatly gets to the point, not wasting a second.

"And here I thought you were going to negotiate MY surrender to you and not the other way around. Well this works as well. I had no plans to kill any families. I just want the throne, nothing more and nothing less. So you can rest easy and if you want to join me, you can." Just as I finish my sentence, the family of the advisor enters.

The wife of the advisor gracefully bows and so do the children.

"You don't need to be so formal around me. I'm not some kind of royalty. I just happen to own the largest trading company in the empire. One that just might become an actual trading empire with it's own sovereign land." I try to joke around a little since the looks on their faces disturb me a tad.

The instant I say that, a little girl immediatly runs to the advisor and jumps on his lap.

"This is my youngest child, Estrid. That boy over there is my oldest. They are twins but for some reason completely different. Erwin, come over here. You don't need to stand up. Neither do you Maethild." The Advisor talks to his family a bit and once they hear the news, the wife looks relieved and the children don't understand anything that the advisor said.

After a small discussion between me and the Advisor and the family, I send them off to their duchy.

As they leave, I sigh in dissapointment.

"I was hoping the Empire would surrender at this point but I guess we'll have to go and take the throne by force. Bunvers!" I shout for Bunvers who immediatly enters the room.

"Yes, headmaster?" Bunvers looks a little confused.

"Start the plan. The Emperor didn't answer to my ultimatum. So now let's see how tough he really is. March our army right underneath his gates. Let's see him keep that many people out." I give an order to Bunvers and he immediatly runs off to fulfill it.

"It'll take a few days for everybody to get the message and start moving. But I guess I'll get there a little bit earlier." I sigh as I start heading down the many stairs.

--- A week later, The Capital of the Empire ---

(Ah, I love this sight. This massive army knocking on the Emperor's doorstep. The guards inside are actually hesitating to keep us outside. It seems like one of them will soon open the gates. No blood must be spilled, just as I said yesterday. Seems like they are listening.)

After a few hours of waiting, a guard actually opened the gates and so did the other gates follow suit.

Not long after, my army marched in columns, straight towards the Emperor's palace.

During that time, I was casually jumping across the roofs towards the palace.

Exactly fifteen minutes later, I was looking at the Emperor in his throneroom and I had quite a bit of soldiers behind me.

"Emperor, might I ask you to step down from your throne and hand over the crown. You have no way to win after all." I ask nicely and after a few minutes of thinking, even the stubborn Emperor hands over his crown.

As he was handing it over, he tried to stab me but the blade broke in half the instant it came in contact with my clothes.

It broke since I was faster and hit the knife so it broke before it could actually touch me.

I then walked towards the throne and sat down on it.

(I guess I am an Emperor now. But I haven't forgotten my goal, the Ritual. I will destroy and then retire peacefully in a small island in the corner of the world somewhere. A small, beautiful island.)