Humanity's Hero Of Despair

The massive doors of the Emperor's Palace creak open, revealing a room that makes Grand Duke Lancaster's grand hall look like a toy room.

The Imperial Lobby has many towering marble pillars, golden chandeliers, fancy paintings, sculptures everywhere, and priceless artifacts intricately placed throughout the Emperor's Palace. All of us gawk at it as the person who looks like the Emperor, as well as the Rebel Alliance Leader, walks up to us with a certain form of elegance.

The Grand Duke walks up to them and they start to speak in hushed tones to each other. Whatever they are saying could change the shape of the entire continent and world. Quillen notices them talking and confidently walks up to them, asking for a moment.

Then Quillen joins in on the whispering. If this wasn't about something extremely important, it may have even looked a bit funny. All four of them: Quillen, the Emperor, Grand Duke Lancaster, and the Rebel Alliance Leader all walk into what I assume to be the Imperial Courtroom down the hall.

"Do you think everything is going to be okay in there?" Ivy asks me in a worried tone.

"I hope so. I just have to trust in Quillen to persuade the Grand Duke to stay loyal to the Emperor and hopefully that convinces the Rebel Alliance Leader to stand down. If this plan doesn't work, I do not know what we are going to do," I reply with a slight wavering in my tone.

A warm sensation is present on my right shoulder. I look over my shoulder to the right.

"It's going to be okay, Nico. We just have to believe in his abilities," Zephyr says to me, his eyes betraying his confident voice. Matteo and Leena both look nervous as heck as their guards stand next to them. It is hard to imagine we were all just noble students a year ago, and now we are nobles and royals.

While we wait for their very important meeting to be done, the Imperial Staff treats us very well with amenities, making sure we are all comfortable. I distract myself from the entire situation by eating and eating more food.

Anxious eating. You can call it that.

As I stuff my stomach with food, the rest of my friends all do different kinds of things. Estes is reading his book, Leena and Matteo are debating about something stupid, Zephyr and Neve are playing chess, and I am here eating. The rest of our party is either resting or pacing around. It feels like time is taking forever.

After what seems to be an hour, the door of the Imperial Courtroom opens up. I expect to see all of them walk out, but it's just Quillen. We all get out of our seats, anxious to know what the verdict is of the meeting. Quillen smiles at me and gestures for all of us to follow him inside the Imperial Courtroom.

I side-eye him as I pass him to walk into the Imperial Courtroom. All he does is wink at me.

I swear all my friends are mysterious as heck.

We enter, and the Imperial Courtroom is the most grand room I have ever seen. Many imperial knights stand on either side of the courtroom to protect the Emperor. I see the Emperor on his throne with the other two people standing on either side of him.

"Welcome, Viscount Lotus and company, to the Imperial Palace! I had a very productive meeting with young master Quillen here, Grand Duke Lancaster, and the Rebel Alliance Leader. Grand Duke Lancaster has decided to protect the throne, and the Rebel Alliance Leader agreed to stand down completely through a few negotiations."

All of us sigh internally.

Thank goodness it somehow ended up working out.

"We know the current situation, and we will agree to form an alliance with the other nations on the continent to protect us from these existential threats. The dragons are extremely powerful, as well as these strangely enhanced goblins. Both the dragons and goblins are being helped by some other force we can't pin it on yet. The Eradicators supposedly all vanished, so why is there light magic still being used to this level?"

The Emperor asks us while also glancing at the Grand Duke.

Grand Duke Lancaster sighs and shakes his head.

"We do not know yet, Your Imperial Highness. We still have to gather all the best researchers around the continent to figure it out and the weird way that mana has been flowing around recently. We will figure it out, though, as fast as we can."

The Emperor nods and turns to us.

"Grand Duke Lancaster and I know you all spent many months getting here today. Please have your entire party and yourselves enjoy the next few days at the Imperial Palace before you start your journey back to the Kingdom of Tarondar."

He doesn't seem like such a bad guy after all.

"In addition, to celebrate and organize the alliance, we need to gather all the high-profile nobles, royals, and politicians from all the countries around us. This will take about a month's time if they all come directly to us. I talked with the Seylora Theocracy, and they are on board with it as their Archbishop is a close friend of mine. Enjoy your rooms to the fullest and the Imperial Palace as a whole until everybody gathers here. It is going to be a while."

"Thank you, Your Imperial Highness, for all the hospitality!"

I say to the Emperor as I bow my head.

We then all depart. As we all leave the Imperial Courtroom, all of us sigh in relief.

That was a very tense couple of hours. At least the GA (Glozaria Alliance) is secured now. All we have to do now is wait for all the information to be relayed to everyone and for everyone to get here as fast as possible. In the meantime, we will enjoy our time at the Imperial Palace and prepare for war against the magical beasts.

Now, time for me to hit the sheets. I am very tired from all of this, mentally and physically.