It was a foggy night when we finally returned to the castle. It had been a long and exhausting day full of meetings, politics and dealing with the usual assassination attempt. The assassins were actually the least stressful part of the day, when your bodyguards are an elite group of highly trained and experienced paladins who are also level 101 wizards, sorcerers, clerics and archivists some inexperienced punk who just gone through a FLEA days before just becomes a minor inconvenience or entertainment depending on the assassin and my mood, no it was the nobles that made my life difficult. Ever since I made the FLEA available to all peasants the nobles became even more difficult then before, according to Thomas and Suze since just about most of the population has gone through the FLEA the nobles have been feeling they aren't as important as they used to be what with just about everyone else being rich and powerful. Unfortunately for the ruler AKA me they decided they could feel more important by being involved in the politics of Flobovia which again unfortunately for me meant having to constantly deal with self-entitled and spoiled politicians. What's worse is after the FLEAs and POPEs became widespread more and more people wanted to become nobles and royals themselves, apparently just being an all-powerful mage or adventurer loses it's appeal rather quickly when everyone else is doing it too while to the common man nobility and royalty still seemed appealing.
"Uhhhh" I grunted while I dragged myself to the castle after another exhausting day of work. "I just don't understand the appeal of nobility, all it is politics and dealing with stuck up self-entitled jerks while dealing with everyone's else's problems" I said in a tired tone while we reached the gates. I've taken to going on walks when I had a tough day since it made the nobles more difficult to find me whenever they demanded to talk to me or make an appointment, sure they would just send messengers but they were way easier to deal with then the nobles themselves.
"You know it how it is the peasants have this romanticized view on nobility and royalty" Thomas stated as he walked beside me keeping looking around for any sign of trouble "Since the FLEAs everyone wants to be special they want to be something no one else can be, these days many people want to be remembered and have stories written about them like the famous adventurers of the past so they do things like become adventurers' themselves. When they go Through the FLEA and realize they have become one the most powerful beings on the planet for one brief moment they feel like they are the most special person on the planet, then they look around the end of the line and realize they aren't as special as they thought they would be. So they go on to try to become nobles and royals either through finding their own lands, trying to conquer our lands or trying to overthrow the current nobility thinking they can do a better job"
I looked at Thomas accusingly "You know it seems you understand these people an awful lot for a paladin."
"What I couldn't have considered being an adventurer before becoming one of the landguard?" He shot me back his own accusing look "In fact Many paladins that join the landguard were adventurers before joining up, some looking for adventure while others to fight evil and injustice. Though I am somewhat embarrassed to admit during my younger years I used fantasize about becoming a king of my own lands with stories of my reign being sung through the ages." He said the last line with a look of somewhat embarrassment.
"Ah when everyone's special no one is." The landguard just gave me their usual look whenever I make one of my 'off world' references. I guess I could sympathize with them, I mean I can imagine what it must be like to be a high level mage, have genius intellect and be able to alter reality while still being a one in a million person.
"Well they sort of have a point when they say they could do a better job then some the nobles what with most of them only having their jobs due to nepotism and most of them definitely have the qualifications what with the POPE boosting their intelligence and wisdom while most of the nobles haven't even gone through the FLEA yet" Thomas gave me an accusing look. "Hey it's not my fault the nobles were suspicious of the FLEAs and took so long to sign up! I still can't believe their still upset about that."
"Actually I am pretty sure their upset about the fact that you told them they had to wait like everyone else to go through when they finally changed their minds." one of the other younger and less experienced land guards stated. I couldn't really blame the nobles being so skeptical and cautious considering that the FLEAs were one those things that seemed too good to be true. I still remember how hard it was to convince the average citizen that it wasn't some trick or sinister trap, which I found quite insulting since if I was going to do something sinister I would have been more clever about it.
"As I already said as long I am emperor everyone will be treated equally and if you stuck up jerks don't like it tough luck, so says emperor Jake!" *I said in a loud and authoritive tone with my chest puffed out and my fists on my hips while the landuard smiled. "Besides I don't get what they have to complain about at least their going to get awesome all powerful physics breaking power eventually while I won't ever be able to even cast the simplest spell." I sulked as I realized that my dream of becoming an all powerful arch mage will never become a reality. "Well at least I only have to put up with this for another three weeks and then my reign and my constant headaches are over" I stated in a happy tone with a touch of bitterness remembering my time here was almost up but pushed the thoughts out of my mind.
"Enough talk about work lets talk about finishing my to do list before I have to go back home" I said gleefully as I took out said list and handed it to Thomas.
"Lets see here." Thomas said as he scanned the list. "We still haven't found an unexplored dungeon that we can privately explore"
"Oh come on still? This world is filled with the brim with dungeons how hard is it to find one that I can privately explore with my guards." I said exasperated.
"Well it's kind of hard to find a dungeon that's unexplored since the FLEAs became more widespread and dungeon crawling has become a hobby for the average citizen. I've even heard that people are creating 'super' dungeons for adventurers who have gone through the FLEA that actually want a challenge." Thomas turned to see a hopeful look on my face. "No it's too dangerous, people that haven't gone through the FLEA don't have slightest chance of even surviving a super dungeon but we managed to get into contact with people that make normal dungeons for casual dungeon crawlers and have managed to convince them to let us travel through one that should be finished in a week. Now onto the next item on the list... you want to visit a huge vault filled with gold coins and jewels so you may swim through the treasure like Scrooge Mcduck." Thomas raised an eyebrow while reading this.
"What?" I asked in a casual tone.
"Nothing its just that is actually quite simple compared to most of the remaining items on this list including half the ones we already went through." Thomas stated quite casually. I know that the list was quite over the top but honestly what are the odds that an opportunity like this will ever show up for me again? Besides I only have less than a month till my term is up so I might as well use that time to accomplish my fantastic fantasies that could never come true in the real world. I spent the rest of the night arguing with Thomas about which things on the list had to be taken out for being to dangerous or just to flat out crazy to even consider...
Later that night after falling asleep I was having an unusual dream in a sci-fi world probably influenced by a movie or series I don't consciously remember when all of a sudden the landscape changed into my room then went black for a moment. I woke up to see a man dressed in clothe that would be worn by the average person from this world. "You will die soon" The man simply stated in a monotone voice.
I just looked at him for few seconds before I casually responded. "Look no offence to you but I literally heard that line hundreds of times already and it stopped being intimidating after the ninth time" Honestly I can say that I wasn't afraid since I had my highly capable and crazy prepared guards in the same room with me, that is to say they were supposed to be. I looked around and realized that it was just me and this average looking man in the room before everything around me started warping and changing around me the next thing I knew I was in a park filled with over a dozen kids each I assume to be around 4 years old and adults who I think are their parents from the looks of things it looked like they were having a birthday party for one of the kids. Besides being seemingly teleported here the weirdest thing was that they were all dressed in clothe that people from my world would wear and they were next to one those playgrounds that didn't get the chance to be ruined and made boring by over protective parents, taking a closer look the clothe looked they could have come from the 1970's with one of the kids was even wearing a Donald duck sailor outfit. The place seemed familiar to me somehow but I couldn't remember why, that's when I noticed that one of the women who was trying to calm down some crying kid looked a lot like my aunt Helen... if she was a few decades younger.
Before I could do anything the world around me flashed for a moment and the next thing I knew I was in a crowded hallway filled with preteens in what appeared to be a middle school. Looking around this time it appeared that things jumped ahead to a decade seeing as everyone was wearing the unmistakable tacky clothe of the 80s and posters of 80s icons and celebrities on and inside the students lockers. After a few seconds there I got a familiar feeling after barely noticing a kid walk past me, I barely got a glimpse at him since he already passed me and rounded a corner but I got a strong feeling I knew him so I tried to follow him only for the world before to warp again.
This time I found myself in a college seminar where a professor who was around fifty, balding and was skinny to the point that you could swear he had a eating disorder was going over the basics of programming. Unlike the last few times where everything seemed random I was able to tell right away where I was, I recognized my old professor Mr. Castle, my college roommate and next to him was me except twenty years younger. It finally hit me this was my old college, the middle school was the one I attended and the park was a birthday party my aunt took me to but couldn't really remember because I was too young. After that it seemed like I was literally driving past memory lane as everything went by me in fast motion, I saw my graduation party, me walking into my first apartment, my first programming job it just kept going until it finally slowed down as it stopped at the memory of how I was taken to this world where I was first surrounded by the arch mages and land guards.
A voice suddenly echoed through my mind "This is not the material world, I am a telepath from another world and we are in your mind." Suddenly the memory faded until there was nothing but an empty plane with no end in sight and an a man who came across as completely average... except for the fact that I couldn't tell what his physical features were. And just like that I was absolutely scared out of my mind. I remember reading about Psion's before and what came to mind were their ability to destroy your mind, turn you into a vegetable and mind rape.
So here I was with an assassin who was already in my head and as far I knew the landguard had no defense for. Just as I was about to scream for help knowing it wouldn't help but being the only thing I can do he spoke. "Relax for I am not here to kill you but to give you a message."
I relaxed seeing that if he wanted to harm me he would have already "You know you really need to work on how you deliver your messages if you want to be any good at your job as messenger." I said as I tried to get my heart to stop trying to burst out of my chest. "So what's so important that you couldn't just come to me like a normal person and give me a heart attack."
He just stood there for a moment before answering. "I'll get straight to the point I am a partial copy of one of the former rulers of this land and I come to warn you that as the current ruler you will be slain at the hands of your own guards if you cannot escape."