Humanity's Hero Of Despair

The Emperor leads all of us through a bunch of hidden passageways.

He casts several advanced spells in certain patterns, which cause certain walls to move and shift. We walk through several tunnels with magic traps, which are easily disarmed by the Emperor. The walls close behind all of us as we keep moving into other passageways.

The Emperor senses my curiosity.

"The Imperial Palace was built to include many secret passageways just for instances like this. The secret passageways are only known to a few of the highest-ranking Oriventh nobles and royals. Knowing your way around this place in its entirety is one thing that marks you as Emperor," he says as he waves his wand and unlocks one final door that leads into a large dark tunnel.

I use my light magic to help everyone see around the area, even though the Emperor has no trouble working his way around.

We are all blinded by light as a door is opened. The light eventually fizzles out until our eyes adjust to it. I look up and see the Emperor standing by a huge intricate door that has several magic enchantments on it. A random door in the middle of a wall.

The Emperor tells us to come inside the door with him. He walks inside.

We follow him inside the door in the wall and are amazed at the sight.

In one corner of the massive underground room is a large kitchen with over five large refrigerators and freezers. Dozens of boxes filled with canned food sit by the kitchen.

In another corner of the room lie around a dozen simple but comfortable-looking beds. On the opposite side of the beds is a corner that acts like a living room with several different couches, chairs, and a bookshelf to pass the time.

The last corner is a mini room itself, which contains a couple of showers and toilets. To sum it all up, this is a luxurious bunker that looks like it could fit at least fifty people or more and could last for a while.

"How strong are these walls?" I ask the Emperor out of curiosity.

"They can withstand up to one tenth-affinity level magic. We should be safe unless the enemy has somehow found a way to harness your origin magic, or they have multiple mages of that level, but I highly doubt that to be the case."

I nod to him. The Emperor shows us around the bunker and explains how it all works. He then places a magic mark on each of us that will allow us to find this bunker at any time and access it. Since I am a Duke now and we are in 'war-time,' it is fine to make this move.

We then leave the high-security secret bunker and make our way back to the main area of the Imperial Palace. The tension is still very thick in the air as guards run around, making sure all the defenses are armed around the palace to prepare for tomorrow.

It is lunchtime now, and we head back to the dining hall.

The dining hall is much quieter now, as all the other guests have been warned about what's to come tomorrow. My friends and I eat almost in complete silence. All of us are probably thinking the same thing—how tomorrow is going to turn out.

The Emperor and the Grand Duke speak in hushed tones as they figure out what to do next.

Even Quillen is figuring out what to write to King Grey about how our kingdom should take action with all of this. The logical thought is that we need Tarondar and Veltheria to back the Vice President, as the President is working with the dragons.

Ivy softly grabs my shaking left hand as I barely eat anything. I squeeze her hand slightly.

I don't know why, just as things are about to be peaceful for a while, things like this have to happen.

Lunch ends, and the only thing that has changed is that my empty stomach is now full.

Captain Daelon walks over to us as we get up from our chairs with a sad but serious look on his face.

"Everyone, please come with me to the Imperial Training Grounds. I need to train you and teach you how to counter some tricks by the mercenaries. We need to ensure all of your survival. Especially Duke Lotus."

Everyone nods in agreement. We head together toward the Imperial Training Grounds.

When we get to the Imperial Training Grounds, we get right to work. Captain Daelon explains to us that mercenaries do not fight fairly, so being unpredictable to them is the best counter. He also explains how, the majority of the time, it's better to dodge or deflect than take a head-on attack.

"Mercenaries are shrewd individuals, usually. They will use deadly magic poison on the tips of their daggers or weapons, so even if it manages to touch your skin for a second, you would be dead within the hour unless you get several tenth-affinity healing mages near you to help. That, or use high-level light affinity magic for purification, but you can't heal yourself and fight at the same time."

Captain Daelon then points at various points on his body where mercenaries target to take down a target and kill them with one strike.

He then goes on to explain how these professional mercenaries are usually very good at stealth, so you always need to be on guard until you are sure they are unable to harm you or are dead.

"Captain, why don't we just send a mercenary squad back to kill the President?" Matteo asks as he is breathing heavily, his sword in his hand.

Quillen responds to the question.

"Since we would be officially declaring war on them, which is something we do not need right now. We just need to defend ourselves and secretly help the Vice President to push the civil war in his favor. We can leverage using it for them to join the GA."

We all nod our heads. We then train and are sufficiently prepared to defend ourselves after a few hours of training. The day quickly turns into night, and I am back in my bedroom before I know it. I have guards stationed outside my room just in case.

Let's hope no one dies tomorrow.