Humanity's Hero Of Despair

I groan as my body aches from sleeping in a weird position.

My joints are a bit stiff as I roll out of bed and massage my muscles. I wasn't able to get much good sleep. My body has been in survival mode for the past few days. The glass of water on my nightstand becomes empty as I gulp it all down in one go.

As I set my glass of water back on my nightstand, I think about the events of yesterday.

The interrogation. The burial of Lancaster. The rise to Grand Duke. The fighting.

I shake my head and walk to the bathroom. The cold water on my face makes me feel more awake as my body adjusts to moving around again. I brush my teeth and fix my hair as usual. It is funny to think that just a few days ago, I was a Duke, and now I am a Grand Duke with an enormous army under me.

After brushing my teeth, I head to my closet. Once I think my clothes look good enough in the mirror, I grab my wands and head out the door to the dining hall. The halls of the Imperial Palace look slightly better than yesterday. The imperial guards are using their magic to repair all the damage from the fight yesterday. I arrive at the dining hall within a few minutes.

The dining hall doesn't look too damaged.

Some of the walls and pillars have faded scorch marks, but besides that, the room looks mostly okay. I say thank you to the imperial guards for helping rebuild the palace and make it look more peaceful again and not like a war-torn battlefield. Thank goodness for magic, or else this would've taken ages to actually fix.

My friends notice I look exhausted as I sit down at the table.

"Not much sleep, aye?" Matte says to me teasingly.

"Not much, had too much to process. I have something big to tell you all."

That gets everybody's attention. Estes puts his book down. Zephyr stops engulfing his food for a moment. The rest look at me with curiosity.

"I am a Grand Duke now. The late Grand Duke Lancaster named me his successor. Somehow, I now own his castle, all of his resources—which includes his army—as well as management over all the citizens within my Grand Dukedom."

Matteo drops his fork when he hears me say this.

Quillen raises his eyebrows in shock.

"That's amazing, Nico! I can imagine, though, how much of a shock this is to you. Just know all of us are here for you no matter what and will do our best to help you adjust to this new role," Ivy says while lightly squeezing my arm.

"Ivy is right. We will be there for you always, man. Even though you are now probably richer than me," Matteo says teasingly, which causes Leena to elbow him again in the stomach.

Leena grins and says, "We were there for you from the beginning, and we will be there for you at the end."

I smile at the support my friends give me. It is just wild to think that at the beginning, all my friends were in high-status positions, and now I have become one like them. It's not every day you become a ruler only second to the Emperor of one of the most prosperous nations on the continent.

"The Emperor suggests that I take my party back to Lotus Castle once the first meeting of the Glozaria Alliance is concluded. You are all welcome to join me, but you do not have to if you don't want to."

"Of course, we are coming with you, dummy. Right, everyone?" Ivy says to me and the group.

They all nod and say yes. We happily finish our breakfast.

I wave goodbye to my friends as they head off to do their own thing. The Emperor is waiting for me right outside the dining hall. We head up the familiar staircase from last night to his private office. The Emperor unlocks the door as usual and waves me inside.

Before sitting down, I take a moment to stand by the window to admire the imperial garden in the sunlight. The beautiful blue sky and sunshine make me forget about all the troubles in the world.

The Emperor walks over and sits down in his chair while pulling out what seems to be a map.

"Grand Duke Lotus, please come see this."

"Please just call me Nico. I forgot to mention that before."

"Okay, Nico. I will do so, no problem at all."

I make my way to the Emperor's table. The map on the table is a map of the Oriventh Empire. The Emperor's finger points to the southern part of the map.

"This is the Grand Dukedom of Lancaster. The name of the territory changes depending on the ruler. The Lancasters have ruled this territory for many ages, but the last Lancaster to live did not bear any children or marry. He had women around but never any children or marriage. He declared you his heir, so it should be officially the Grand Dukedom of Lotus within a few months."

"Do not worry, the citizens there never really liked him too much, so they are very happy to have anybody replace him as their ruler. That is why it's important to meet and see the cities within your Grand Dukedom to get a feel for everything."

"Now."

The Emperor points to the western part of the map.

"This is the Grand Dukedom of Zogard, ruled by Grand Duke Zogard. He is the one who supported me from the get-go of being Emperor. He is very loyal to the imperial throne."

The Emperor points to the northern part of the map.

"This is the Grand Dukedom of Pedgas. They are the ones who started the potential rebellion but backed down. Grand Duke Pedgas is a good man, but he himself—even through war—cannot change how our nation operates. Though we made a deal, they can have some form of citizenship rights to pass bills to change things in their territory, but limited."

The Emperor points to the eastern part of the map where the Imperial Palace is located.

"There are a few territories by the palace which I oversee personally, along with a few Barons. They are quite small but very loyal to the imperial family. You have nothing to worry about at all with them."

The Emperor rolls up the map and hands it to me for safekeeping.

"Besides knowing the current political landscape, there is one other very important thing that makes you a good Grand Duke of Oriventh."

"What's that?"