“Sir?” I shook my head.

“Lord Morgenstern?”

“Do not call me that,” I remembered where I was. “Call me Nobunaga.” I put on a smile for him. I had cared so little for this conversation that I had resorted to other thoughts in order to entertain myself.

“Yes,” the fat man smiled, rubbing his hands together and he continued to speak as I nodded, pretending to follow along.

The man in question was a slaver. He ran this arena in which I sat, and he wanted to negotiate terms of business with me. But before I had met him I had already decided that people like him couldn’t be trusted. There was no time for business in a time of war. I needed resources, and I would seize everything he had so that I could continue the war I had waged. A small sacrifice for the greater good. Nobody would miss him anyways.

It was boring. I wished that Ivan or Lucy would have come with me, but they weren’t allowed in with me. So as discussed they sat among the audience to observe, and if any of them were to sense that I was in danger, they would come running in. But it wasn’t as if I couldn’t defend myself either. I had a sword, but I was young. I had beaten some adults at swordplay, but who knows how long that streak would continue?

Better safe than sorry.

And then suddenly at the bottom of the gates a child appeared. Unremarkable, heavily bruised and completely normal. So why had he caught my attention? For some reason I had begun to pay attention to the fights now. I could feel a gut feeling - that something was about to happen.

And what a display I received. He rose from the ground, and after a short moment he displayed magic beyond what I had ever conceived possible for mankind. I had studied the mystic arts, even those that I could not practice so that I could understand the limitations and possibility of human magic, but what I saw disobeyed the rules that had been imposed upon us. Magic that could create, magic that defied the taboo of man - magic that allowed him to create things, out of nothing.

I smiled. I could feel fortune turning in my favor.

The gods had put an animal in my way, and I had to appraise whether it was a kitten, or the cub of a tiger.

* * *

His name was Magnus. He never told me his last name. I never pried deep into his private life, but I often wondered exactly how he had ended up where he ended. He was strong. Inconceivably strong for his age.

And on top of that he could read. He wasn’t just any lowborn child that had lost his way, he was gifted. And just like that he had been served to me on a silver platter, and for a moment I thought that it was too good to be true.

He didn’t want money, women or material objects. He was driven by an unquenchable thirst, born from god knows what. He only asked for a sword and a room to sleep in. He never complained about the food, and whenever he trained with Ivan and me there was always a feeling that he was a different person. That I was dealing with two people at once, but that couldn't have been possible. Or could it?

I liked to think that I grew relatively close to him. He always answered every question honestly and without much hesitation. Whenever he didn’t want to answer something, he simply chose to remain silent. Most people found it disrespectful but it didn’t bother me. It made it clear which topics were off-limits for him. One thing for sure was that he wasn’t a kitten. But he hadn’t proved that he was a tiger either.

We had one year before we would continue our war against the kingdom. I wondered just how this person I had met would grow in that short amount of time. In a way, I was envious. If I had the same strength as he did, then I would be able to do so much more.

* * *

“What do you think about him?” I asked Ivan once, at dinner. I sat in the dining halls with the other soldiers, making sure that morale was high. Ivan was drinking heavily, after a recent battle. Sometimes I worried about his health.

“Who?” he burped.

“Magnus.”

“I thought we already had this conversation.”

“I was wondering whether your thoughts had changed.”

“It hasn’t.”

“I know it has,” I raised a cup to him. “Don’t lie to me.”

He sighed, but leaned back on his chair, emptying his cup.

“Let’s see…” Ivan began. “I’m going to say that I’m glad that he’s on our side.”

“And why is that?”

“Because he would be a terrifying enemy to face,” he said softly. I had never heard Ivan say that about anyone before. Not even Lucy, not even Eileen.

“People like him,” Ivan leaned forward, speaking softly now. “Aren’t normal. People want things, and that’s why they go to war. The foot soldiers here spend their gold on whores and drink, the sorcerers that serve Lucy are guaranteed a position at court, all that shenanigans. But Magnus… people like him can’t be bribed or bought. They can’t be changed, or forced. If you saw what he did on the battlefield…” Ivan looked stern. “I give my enemies a quick death. I don’t enjoy torture, nor will I ever do it. I’m just not suited to watch people go through such agony. But Magnus… that kid doesn’t care. He makes a spectacle out of everyone that opposes him. Any enemy, he will destroy them, slowly as his comrades watch. He doesn’t do it for pleasure though, he does it to break the enemy’s spirit. And at the same time he has morals. If you ever touch a woman, you’d better hope that he never hears about it. The last time I heard one of our soldiers had forced themselves onto a woman, I heard that Magnus pulled every bone out of his body, starting from the ones in his toes and fingers. The soldiers that saw what he did are now too afraid to even enter a brothel.”

He paused, drinking again.

“A few moons ago I saw one of our soldiers kill a newborn child. So young that he was still sucking on his mother’s tit. Magnus was there. And he saw it. Do you know what he did? He skinned the soldier alive. You could see the white of his skull while Magnus went down the rest of the body. He’s got a way of making people listen to him without even saying a single word, he knows that the best way to make people listen is to set an example.”

“Do you think he’s dangerous?” I listened with great interest.

“Dangerous? Very,” Ivan nodded. “But not to us. He’s guided by a completely screwed up sense of morality. He’s young, the same age as you. He’s one of those guys that do what’s right, that does what’s necessary, no matter the cost. I don’t know what he’s gone through before he came here… and I don’t want to. To even imagine what broke a person like him… I can’t.”

Like I said, Ivan had never spoken this way about anyone ever. He always boasted that he was stronger. But this evaluation left me speechless and wondered exactly how to continue from here.

“Can I trust him, as I have been doing already?” That was the most important question.

“As long as he’s on your side, you have nothing to worry about. Our goals are in line with what he believes, fortunately. If it weren’t… god knows what kind of hell I would have to go through to put him down.”

“You think he’s stronger than you?”

“No. But it’s not going to be easy to put someone like him down. I might have to resort to summoning that guy.”

“Really?” I was surprised. That was a very difficult to procure gift that I had given him. An ancient spell that allowed me to contact an otherworldly spirit, just for a short while. And if I hadn’t been the son of a king, Lu Bu would have never listened. But even then using its powers would cost Ivan a great magnitude of his life. So I made him promise to never use it unless he was about to die.

“Might,” Ivan looked completely serious. “He’s only going to get more powerful from here. I can’t tell where his potential lies, that’s normally someone you can see.”

I nodded. The more and more I heard about Magnus, the more and more I felt envious. To receive such praise from Ivan, he was truly gifted physically and mentally. A mental fortitude that allowed him to fight for what he believed in, and physical prowess that allowed him to fight for his beliefs.

I had evaluated correctly.

We were raising a ferocious animal.

And one day I feared that it would bear its fangs against me.

* * *

“Man the walls!” I shouted at the soldiers. I almost tripped on the snow trying to get places. Everyone was running everywhere, panicking and wondering how we got into this situation. Outside, there was an army of bandits and deserters that were pounding on the gates. We had been cut off from the outside for a couple days now. Ivan, Lucy and Eileen weren’t here. They had been sent back to several cities during our campaign. I had assumed that everything was in order, but hadn’t expected an army big enough to be this large of a threat. It was only a few hundred people, but we didn’t have enough manpower to fight back. Magnus was inside the castle, resting. He had been so heavily injured that the nurses screamed when he arrived. Now, they were taking care of him and there was no sign of him waking up anytime soon.

They probably had no idea I was even in this fort, they just attacked it because they needed resources to get through the winter. I had made a poor choice in sending my most trusted troops away, thinking that the more ground we covered the better it would be.

If Ivan made it back, then the siege could end sooner. But I wasn’t sure when he would be back, and I couldn’t get a message to him soon enough. Morale was dropping, and I was starting to feel nervous.

I saw one of the soldiers on the walls wailing. He was shooting a bow haphazardly, almost injuring one of his comrades. I watched as he was carried down by his friends, and even then he charged straight at the closed gates. There was blood from scratch wounds trickling down his arms. There were blood sacks being brought down from the wall as well. Whose blood it was, I did not know.

When I asked what had happened they told me that his wife lived outside the walls. The deserters and bandits had raped her in front of him and threw her body parts over the wall after they were done. I could still hear him crying silently, as he slowly pounded on the gates. He scraped the gate with his fingers, his nails being chipped off slowly. What I saw was a man that had been broken and torn down by the world, and I could do nothing to comfort his loss.

“What’s going on?” I heard a voice behind me. Magnus walked out from the shadows, half naked. He was covered from head to toes in bandages and stitches, and several nurses chased after him from behind. They were still frightened of him, but not as much now.

“We’re being sieged,” I responded. “You should go back to rest. Ivan and the others aren’t here. We can’t deal with this now.”

“I can’t sleep,” he tore off his bandages. “With this shit inside of my body,” he looked at his body, and parts of his flesh almost began to re-grow. He had superior regeneration, another unexplainable talent but watching it before your own eyes was something spectacular. He tore the stitches out of his body, and blood splattered onto the snow. The nurses began panicking, cleaning the mess he made and trying to wipe the blood off his body.

“Get more rest,” I told him.

“I don’t need it,” he looked at me calmly. He walked past me despite my protests, and approached the soldier at the gate. I could hear their conversation from where I stood. Everyone around could as well.

“What happened to you?” Magnus asked.

“My wife…” the mindless soldier murmured while sobbing. “My wife. My wife. My life.”

Magnus looked down at him like the pitiful creature he was. Then like a flipped switch, I could feel something sinister from Magnus. An aura of complete malice that flooded the area.

“Are they outside?” I could hear Magnus’s quiet voice that even made the snow feel warm.

“Yes,” the man continued to cry.

And then the coldest voice I had ever heard, that even put the snow to shame.

“Can I kill them all?” I heard Magnus. Or whoever he was right now.

“Open the gates,” Magnus commanded quietly.

The soldiers, uncertain of whether or not to follow his order turned to look at me for confirmation. After hearing the things Ivan and the rest of the soldiers had to say about Magnus, I nodded. This decision could spell the end of me if my judgement was wrong.

As the door pushed back the snow, I could see something behind Magnus. A vile, dark aura that consumed his whole body. The same sort of godly aura that I felt from the otherworldly spirit that now supported Ivan.

What I witnessed that day will stay with me for the rest of my life. It was the second time I had been that close to Magnus while he was transfixed, and he was like an entirely different person. I knew that he was cold, but that deep down he was looking to do the right thing.

What I saw that day was a complete indifference to the loss of human life. The way he butchered everyone on the battlefield. For every sword that drew blood, he sent a dozen blades through their necks. For every spear that impaled him, a hundred rained down from the sky. His armor protected him, and when he was surrounded it turned bright white. Then every weapon that he had thrown and laid on the ground all began levitating, creating a storm of weapons that tore everything inside apart into small red pools.

Everyone went on the castle walls to view the red tide that had arrived at our doorsteps. When there were only a single enemy left. Hundreds littered the ground as Magnus slowly crawled back into the fort, leaving a bright red trail behind. He was still in a trance, whispering words in a language that I didn’t recognize. As he came up the walls, the soldiers and nurses walked out of the way, none of them daring to approach him. Upon arrival he simply looked over the horizon. In the far distance, the single deserter could still be seen.

Magnus raised a hand, and a single white spear appeared in his hands. The winds twisted as he threw it over the horizon, and turned away. Me and the soldiers watched as in the far distance, the spear began to aim in on the deserter. Even when the man tried to dodge and spin away, the spear chased, determined to hit its target and all we saw as the spear landed into the ground, and the black spot stopped moving.

Magnus himself began walking down, nearly collapsing down the stars. He slouched and leaned on the walls as his armor faded, and all the blood that had gathered inside flooded out. The soldiers and the nurses began panicking once more, trying to keep him upright.

All the meanwhile the only thoughts inside my head were the words that Ivan had told me when I had asked if he was dangerous.

Twice now I had seen Magnus in combat. And twice now I had realized that what I had harbored and raised was not a tiger, but a monster that I might not be able to control.

* * *

We conquered all of Viesereal. It took a long time, but we finally did it. During the crowning ceremony, I remembered how Magnus looked. Completely indifferent to our accomplishments, as if none of it had mattered to him. Ivan had been right. He hadn’t been doing this because he wanted to, only because he thought it had been the right thing to do.

In all those years, I had never seen him smile even once. Perhaps, now that the war was over and he could rest, he could finally find peace. Ivan, Lucy and Eileen had already found their places at the castle. Ivan would be commander, Lucy would be the head sorceress, and Eileen would work from the shadows and Delilah would be my advisor. Everyone in their suited environments. It all looked bright and perfect for us.

I had finally claimed my birthright, and now there would be peace in Visereal.

“Thank you,” I told Magnus after the ceremony. “For everything.”

He simply nodded. We continued playing chess and I asked him about his opinion on politics. He answered as best as he could, but even now he was feeling distant.

It felt like a wall had been erect between us now that the war was over. We no longer shared a common goal to fight for. Our relationship came to a halt. We never grew any closer, and we didn’t meet enough to feel like we were friends. In a way, he felt like a brother to me the same way Ivan did. He had given me his unquestionable loyalty, but those days were over.

* * *

I sat in the meeting room, listening to the aristocrats go on and on. I almost fell asleep trying to keep up with their pointless ramblings.

“Sir? Are you listening?” they asked.

“Yes,” I shook my head. I wrapped up the meeting and they left the room.

This wasn’t exactly what I had imagined when I had become king. I mean, I knew that there would be a lot of reading, politics and needed to communicate with the people that worked for me. But there was no substance or taste to the work I did. It didn’t feel meaningful, it felt like I was being trapped and held down by the new rules that I had to play by.

During times of peace, the tactics that I used during war no longer applied.

Ivan had grown tired of acting all proper and noble, returning to his usual whoring and excessive drinking now that he had nothing else to do.

Lucy was never with the other sorceresses, doing as she wished.

Eileen was always hunting down common criminals, as she lacked any other skill sets and interests.

The only one that felt like they were in their natural environment was actually Delilah, but as a former aristocrat and noble she knew exactly what this job entailed.

I had heard news that Magnus had met someone new, someone that he cared for now. But those were only baseless rumors. I couldn’t imagine the soldier that I had known for all this time to just settle down like his past meant nothing. It just wasn’t him.

Little by little, the seeds of doubt had been planted in my head.

I was beginning to get bored with this life.

The rest of the time I spent at the black throne.

An ancient relic that gave me power. Slowly but surely I could feel my magical capabilities getting better. Maybe even, I might become as strong as Magnus. But what use was strength during times of peace?

* * *

I began exploring the old king’s room. I had chosen not to even look at it at first due to the fact that I wanted nothing to do with my predecessors. However, there was simply nothing else to do now. With all the time in the world, I might as well explore my lineage.

I never went by Morgenstern either. Some of the servants still called me that, and I had to remind them that I was an Oda. I took my mother’s name instead of my father, because I hated my royal lineage.

So I sat in the dusty old room that no one had bothered to clean up, and I looked through the books in the room. Dust lined every inch of the room, but that didn’t bother me. I found a good spot and began scrolling through the books. There were many books that felt like they were only meant for the successors to read. Some of the passages in the book were too worm out to be read, but for the most part I made do with what was available.

The first ancestor, whose name was long forgotten in these books, wanted the royal blood to watch over the kingdom as they seemed fit as long as the black throne was preserved. What he dreamed was not of a world free from demons. What he had dreamt and what he had given up his life for was a world where humans were free from cruelty and weakness.

It seemed that over time the new kings had forgotten the original’s goals. They had drowned themselves in pleasure and lust, surrounding themselves in material happiness instead of upholding their responsibilities.

I had begun spending more time contemplating the past now that everything had come to pass. It was strange. Why had I felt more fulfilled fighting for this kingdom than running it?

Was it because of the thrill?

I didn’t enjoy the fighting, I led the armies but I was protected by those close to me. There was no thrill in it for me.

But I realized that I wasn’t happy.

And neither was Ivan, Lucy or Eileen.

We were rebels without a cause to fight for. We didn’t want to sit down and talk politics. We wanted to change the world, and now that it was over it felt like we had nothing.

The only two that were doing well right now was Magnus, presumably and of course Delilah. As soon as she had arrived at the castle she knew exactly what to do and where to begin, from repairs and restorations to introducing me to every competent contact she knew. Magnus, on the other hand I think had found something else to pass the time.

A woman.

Everyone else was in a complete slump, and it was strange how the only one to have moved on was the most violent and fearsome of us all.

I put the books down, letting my mind drift to places. It wasn’t just that. Even when I had become king rebellions and issues had already arisen in the other cities. I had to send representatives and come up with methods to handle each and every one of them. Ever after all that I had done, criminals still roamed the streets.

Things had gotten better ever since the war had ended, but were things better than before the war had broken out? Only by a bit. The realization that I had changed so little even with a large movement had broken me a bit. Humans were inherently evil, and no matter what I did nothing could change that. I could start a thousand wars and we would always have conflict. I could kill a million criminals and they would still roam the streets. I could save a hundred children, but dozens more die by the day and I will never be able to save them all.

As I sat on my throne, I began to see things. I began to see the truth. I could see the spirits of the previous kings as I sat on the throne, all of them eyeing me, waiting to see what I would do now that I had inherited their wisdom and their might. After all of this time having hope in humanity and believing that once my revolution was finished that we would have peace, was now nothing but the ravings of a fool that knew little about how the world worked.

I was wrong.

If humanity remained as they were, as they have for thousands of years then we were only willingly participating in a perpetual cycle of pain.

So I would end the cycle. And begin a new one, from the very ground up.

Was it insane?

It was. But I was patient, and I began to plan my next move. Not as a ruler of this kingdom, but a man who desired to lift humanity into its cycle of evolution and enlightenment. A fresh start, where we were lords of our own world, and would never have to cower in fear of the other races.

That was four years ago. I remembered that instead of leaving it to chance, I sent Ivan, Lucy and Eileen after Magnus. When the time came, he would stand in my way, I was sure of it. His sense of justice was twisted but he would fight to the death for his beliefs. I just couldn’t risk it.

Did I feel threatened by the fact that he was my brother?

That he shared the same blood as I did, and that he had a claim to the throne?

Perhaps.

But it was knowing what he was capable of, that I just couldn't let him walk away.

What remained that night four years ago was a crater as if a meteor had struck the planet, and no traces of any of them left. Not even Magnus. But I had seen his tenacity and virility. I knew that he had survived, in fact I was positive that he was the one that had defeated Ivan. I could feel it that night, when Ivan gave up a portion of his life in order to fight. I could feel it all the way from the throne… and I knew that they had failed to kill Magnus.

That was confirmed, a few weeks ago when I felt his powers fluctuating through the air. The same ferocity and intensity rippled through the aether, and I recognized it immediately.

I mourned their deaths. They had trusted and believed in me, and I had sent them to their deaths. If I was stronger… I would have killed him myself. I now understood what it meant to hold the weight of the future on your shoulders. If you wanted someone dead, you should swing the sword yourself. But it’s too late to reminiscence.

I placed the flowers on the stones I erected for Ivan, Lucy and Eileen. It had been four years since their deaths, but I could still feel their spirit beside me.

“I’ll avenge you,” I whispered. “I’m sorry I was too weak to stand by you before… but now it’s different.”

The snake in my shadow hissed in unison.

Things were different now. After all these years… I had found the truth. I turned away from the stones, slowly moving through the garden. The gods had spoken, and I knew what had to be done.

We were preparing for war. A war for the world, because I knew that only through and conquest will humanity find the permanent peace that I wished for them.

I had a vision of a new world, one built from the ground up. I was destined for this, I knew what I was doing. Even if it meant killing hundreds. Thousands.

Millions.

All in the name of an eternal peace.

Magnus, I know you’ll stand in my way. If you practice what you preach, you will definitely try to stop me. But in the past four years I’ve been preparing. I’m not the same useless king that could only watch by the side, not anymore. I lost Ivan, Eileen and Lucy because I was far too weak to do it myself. I lost them because I took the one he treasured from him.

It was fair. That was why I chose not to pursue any further, and retreated back into my den to lick my wounds and suffer my losses.

But now if you stand in the way of my vision, then I won’t let you go. Because in the war for the world, I must be victorious or it will all be meaningless.

Everything I did, I did in the name of humanity and its future.

Label me a monster, a criminal, a beast. Name me as you wish.

I’m prepared to fight you brother.

I”m ready for what’s next.