Humanity's Hero Of Despair

The Imperial Courtroom is heavily damaged.

Cracked marble pillars. Broken chandeliers. Scorch marks. All of these things are a few of many reasons why the Imperial Courtroom looks like a wreck. It is going to take a few days at least, even with magic, to clean all of this up. The few pillars that are not damaged are where the imperial guards have all the Ryndoria mercenaries tied with magic rope.

My friends and the rest of the noble guests stand to the side while the imperial guards walk up toward the Ryndoria mercenaries to interrogate them. The Emperor and I, on the other hand, walk over to the other pillar, which is more heavily guarded.

An ominous figure in a dark brown cloak is tied to this pillar, separated from the others.

The tension in the air makes me feel like they are different from the rest.

This is the leader, I think to myself as the Emperor and I walk up to this lone figure. The lone figure is tied up not only with magic rope but also with magic chains. It seems like this figure is probably capable of tenth-affinity-level magic. I tense myself up as we get closer to them.

An imperial guard throws back the hood of the Ryndoria mercenary leader to reveal the hardened face of a young woman. The Ryndoria leader scowls at us as she turns her face away from us. The imperial guards on the other side of the Imperial Courtroom start interrogating the other Ryndoria mercenaries.

The Emperor walks up to the mercenary leader and uses magic to force her to take the truth potion. She tries to spit it out, but it has already taken effect. The Emperor asks the first question.

"Did the President of Ryndoria send your squad here to kill me and Duke Lotus?"

The mercenary leader reluctantly answers.

"Yes. Our mission was to take the information we got from the Ryndoria intelligence spies and use that information to effectively kill you and Duke Lotus. Since our spies were captured ahead of time, we still had to do our best to carry out the mission, or else the President would've come for us as well. Kill us if you have to."

I crouch down and look at the mercenary leader at face level.

"Do you have any loyalty towards the President of Ryndoria?"

"None at all. Loyalty does not buy us food. Money does. We do whatever the person who pays us the most wants."

I nod my head in understanding. Most mercenaries work just by contract or job by job.

The Emperor looks like he is thinking hard about something. Something on his mind.

I stop squatting as he walks over to the Ryndoria mercenary leader to say something.

"How much did the President pay for you to assassinate us?"

"He agreed to pay 1,000,000 Ryns for killing both of you."

The Emperor thinks for a moment before speaking again.

"We will pay you 1,000,000 Ori for you to secretly go back to the President, pretending you killed us, but actually kill him. Considering one Ori equals two Ryns, we will be paying you double what the President is giving you. In other words, 2,000,000 Ryns. How does that sound to you and your squad? It is either that or lifetime jail until we figure out what to do."

My face goes into shock as I process the words. The Emperor trusts them enough and is brave enough to take on this risk. My eyes look back at the mercenary leader, who is smiling.

"Deal. We will head back immediately to report the successful extermination of Emperor Hadrian III and Duke Lotus. We will bring back his head as proof of the assassination."

I put my hand to my mouth at the mental image of that.

The Emperor walks up to the pillar of the mercenary leader and starts releasing the magic restraints on her. The imperial guards are on edge as he frees her. I take out my Wand of Origin in case she tries anything funny. As soon as she is free, she calmly walks over to her companions and releases them.

The imperial guards protest, but the Emperor shuts them down.

"Thank you, Your Imperial Highness, for trusting us. Again, we have no loyalty towards the President or you. We just work for who offers to pay more. Only on failed attempts do we allow the other side of the extermination contract to make a counter bid."

The Ryndoria mercenary says as she pulls up her hood and jumps out of the window along with her companions. All of us continue to process everything that just happened. The Emperor sighs and walks over to me.

"Well, hopefully, that takes care of the President. If the Vice-President needs backup, we will give it to him as soon as possible. Right now, we need to focus on the present."

He turns to face everybody in the room.

"Everyone! The matter is taken care of for now. Please help me take care of the injured and bury the dead out in the imperial graveyard."

We all start moving as we try to distract our thoughts. I help heal the injured with my light magic as I go from one imperial guard to the next. Some bodies I notice with cloth over them as others carry them outside with solemn expressions on their faces.

Time flies by, and the sun is starting to set. We all stand outside with the dark green grass underneath our feet as we attend the burial ceremony of the Grand Duke and all the deceased. The flower petals are cold against my touch as I place the flower next to the Grand Duke's grave.

Hopefully, he is in a better place now.

After the burial ceremony, everyone goes to bed. My friends head to sleep as well. The Emperor stops me before I get too far. He tells me he wants to talk to me privately about a very important matter regarding the Grand Duke. That nobody else can know for now.

This should be interesting.