Chronicles of the Red Sovereign

Kai’s eyes widened when he heard the explosion. His gaze immediately landed on the archduchess who gave him a pointed look. He shrugged his shoulders and managed to excuse himself from his friends who were called to assist with the security of the stadium.

He headed to the balcony where his uncle and the archduchess was, and proceeded to the archduchess’ side. He noticed that the other officials that were previously in the balcony as well were gone. The only ones that remained were the emperor, the archduchess, the leader of the imperial knights; Commander Dean Hultir, and one of the four guardians of Praiji; Paula Lorfud.

“Kai,” the emperor called. “What are you doing here?”

Kai did not answer, instead he met Archduchess Zaira’s gaze.

“Ivan, I have something to tell you.” she said with a sigh. “Kai is a member of the Dark Palace.”

Emperor Ivan’s eyes widened, his gaze shifted from his prime minister/adviser to his nephew.

“WHAT?!”

“Well, stuff happened. I’ll explain later.” the archduchess turned to Kai. He swallowed the nonexistent lump on his throat. “Your information seems to be a bit off.”

“But-“

“But the forces you said who will invade us are still a day’s away, so I guess it’s not ‘that’ off.” she sighed. “Looks like the Ferhusto Kingdom representatives brought a few dangerous individuals themselves.”

Kai’s eyes widened. His information was correct yet there was something that happened that he did not remember to happen.

‘Perhaps this event has changed as well?’ he wondered, differentiating the current scenario from the memories he received. ‘A lot of things are already different from those memories.’

“Paula, I want you to bring a team and apprehend the people from Ferhusto Kingdom. Commander Hultir, keep the members of the imperial family safe.” Emperor Ivan ordered. The two immediately bowed and left the room. “Prime Minister. I want you to lead a team and deactivate any teleportation formations the intruders might’ve used to enter the city, as well as find the source of the explosions. If you find the leader, bring him to me alive.”

“And the minions?”

“Let them choose; die or serve a purpose on our side.”

Kai couldn’t help but shudder. To him, the Ivan was a goofy uncle who dotes on kids, him included, but the man in front of him was the emperor of Praiji Empire who will do everything he can to keep his country and his people safe.

“Kai, I want you to accompany the prime minister and assist her.”

Kai answered with an agreement.

“But imperial uncle, what about you?” Kai asked, worried about his uncle.

“I’ll be fine Kai.” the emperor eyed the archduchess and gave him a nod. “Lancelot.”

From the shadows a figure clad in black emerged. Kai couldn’t help but widen his eyes! The man literally ‘stepped out’ from the shadows.

“Lancelot will stay by my side and keep me safe.” his uncle gave him a reassuring smile. “Kai, be safe, okay?”

‘I’ll try.’ he answered in his mind, but Kai did not dare say it out loud.

***

We were about to leave the room when two figures entered; Aunt Zaira and Kai. Everyone immediately bowed to the Prime Minister and Prince Royal of Praiji, including me.

“Hello students. I believe you’ve been briefed of what’s happening at the moment?” Aunt Zaira asked, with a serious look on her face.

“Yes your excellency.” answered Senior Trent. Well, he was the team leader after all. “Azte is being attacked by unknown forces and our team was assigned to investigate their entry points.”

“Very good. Now let me tell you this; from the intel we’ve gathered we’re being attacked by the forces led by the Ferhusto Kingdom.”

Our eyes widened at the news. My mind immediately drifted to the crown prince of that kingdom whom I had a disagreement with; Crown Prince Gerald.

-I wonder if he’s leading the attack. If he does, I’ll give him a good beating.

“But they won’t be our problem. Your team will be assisting me in searching for any entry points or teleportation formations within the city, as well as find the source or sources of explosions.”

We all nodded in agreement of her statement.

“Apart from that, the next information I’ll tell you is confidential. We believe Ferhusto Kingdom is conspiring with demons in attacking Azte City.” she drew a circle on the floor using magic. She named the inside of the circle ‘Azte’ then put up dots on areas not that far from the city which she later named ‘South’ and ‘East’. “We have discovered demon armies in these areas and they will be arriving soon.”

Kai then took over the explanation, which shocked me very much.

“The army in the south is bigger with the intent of a large scale invasion, and they’re expected to arrive in two days. Meanwhile there’s a smaller army in the east and they will be arriving by tonight.” he said. “We believe the current situation is to weaken us and get some time until the army from the east arrives.”

I could see fear get etched into everyone’s faces. Well, demons are a strong and difficult foe.

“This will no doubt be a very dangerous venture, but we have a duty to the empire.” Aunt Zaira said with a stern look. “And as students of the Imperial Academy, you have been training all this time to face situations such as this. I’m pretty sure this will be a very good experience for you guys.”

I couldn’t help but mentally groan. Aunt Zaira was never good at pep talk even though somehow she does end up always making sense.

“The gist of it is, do your best and try not to die.” she added.

-Oh dear.

I put my palm on my face, hiding my frustration and embarrassment.

-And this woman is my guardian.

“Let’s move out!”

With a sigh, I walked out of the room and we started heading outside the stadium. Aunt Zaira beckoned us to come closer to her and she teleported us into the heart of Azte City. I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow.

-I guess the city’s security defenses are more messed up than I thought if we can easily teleport inside.

But then again, Aunt Zaira was one of the developers of the barriers so she probably had some tricks up her sleeves.

We were then divided into two groups, each with five members. Aunt Zaira was the team leader of one group while the other one was led by Professor Tresde. I was in Aunt Zaira’s team… With Kai.

“Kayla, contact me for any progress on your side.” Aunt Zaira told her.

“Yes your excellency.”

Professor Tresde and then her team left leaving me with my team; me, Aunt Zaira, Kai, Senior Anastasia and Freya. We were then given positions in which I ended up as vanguard. Aunt Zaira motioned for us to move but before I could dart forward she held me and whispered:

“I can sense foreign magic circles scattered all over the city. Use your knowledge of magic circles and deactivate them.”

My eyes widened at her order.

“I don’t think I-“

“You can do it. Remember why I sent you to learn in the magic arts department in the first place.”

I couldn’t help but grimace, but I agreed anyway.

Deactivating magic circles only had two known ways; disrupting the caster or cut off its source. But Aunt Zaira had another way, a very dangerous one; destroying the magic circle itself, which had never been attempted without casualties. Earlier studies that attempted it always ended up getting imploded or something.

But according to Aunt Zaira,t destroying a magic circle itself could be done just by erasing a part of the formation itself. One could even modify a magic circle’s purpose if they know where to look.

I mentally groaned. Knocking the casters out would be simpler to be honest, but I get where she was getting; what if the caster as well as the source is at a distance and is activating the magic circle remotely? If that was the case, then we could not deactivate them easily.

Of course, I did learn how to deactivate, as well as modify one, during my stay in the academy. I did do a lot of stuff despite being a first year. Aunt Zaira provided me with so many theories she made and all I needed was to apply it and then master it.

The question remained though;

-To destroy or modify? That is the question.