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Chapter 461 – White Flame
"You never told me you were a Duke's daughter," Ning told Camie.
"Oh, you never asked, master," the girl said. Now that she didn't have the same frowning face as back when she had visited the City of Beginnings, she looked a little more beautiful.
"Okay, if anyone asks who I am, just tell them I am with you," Ning said.
"Okay master, but why are you here?" the girl asked.
"Oh right, I'm here to find someone. Help me get there," Ning said as he gave her the information he knew.
"Oh, that room? Thats… not a area of the house I usually visit," Camie said.
"Oh, what is this place?" Ning asked.
"It's a spare room of sorts for the servants. Usually if they have people over, or we take in a few too many servants, they are given those rooms," Camie said.
"Hmm, take me there."
Camie nodded and walked in front while Ning followed her. After a minute or so, they came across the room.
"This is it," Camie said, resisting her urge to call him master in the presence of the maids that walked by.
Ning knocked on the door and waited. "You can go now," he told Camie, and watched her leave.
The door opened to an unfamiliar face. This wasn't the person he was looking for. 'There are more than one terrorists? Why is the duke letting them stay here? Or is it one of the servants?' Ning thought.
"Can I help you?" the person asked. They had been told that the servants wouldn't bother them, but somehow there was a guy on the door.
"Can I come in?" Ning asked with a smile. Before he even got an answer, however, he pushed the door to walk in on 5 people playing cards in the room.
They were all between the age of 20 and 40, and wore the same drab looking clothes, possibly to hide their presence from places.
"Who are you?" the people asked. However, one of them didn't speak. Instead, he held an incredulous look of shock and surprise on his face.
Ning looked at all of them. "Are you all from the Great Raiders group?" he asked.
The group were a little surprised that he realized their affiliation. When they were about ask how he knew, the one that was shocked immediately pulled out a gun and pointed at Ning.
"Wake up you idiots! That's him, the person I shot today," the man cried out.
When the group realized who he was, they all brought out guns as well as started using Aether to control his body.
Ning simply shook his head. "Who sent you to kill the princess?" he asked.
"The princess? HAH! We came here to kill you," the group said.
"Huh?" the moment Ning showed the slightest sense of hesitation, the group all shot at him.
Numerous sound of gunshot rang across the servant's quarters. The nearby servants immediately ran away in terror when they heard the noise.
Camie looked back in worry towards the room, but she didn't know if she should go help her master. After all, she wasn't the strongest at using Aether.
Dozens upon dozens of holes appeared on Ning's clothes. However, not a single drop of blood dripped from his body. In fact, there was not a single wound, not even a scratch on his body.
Just when he noticed the guns, Ning had already started strengthening his body with Aether. By the time he was shot at, the bullets couldn't even penetrate his skin.
Ning was himself surprised a bit when he didn't even feel the bullets hit him. It sort of let him understand for one how strong his body could get, and for another just how strong that dagger attack of Sam was that cut his arm to the bone.
'That vibrating dagger skill was really amazing,' he thought.
The terrorists watched in awe as they saw the numerous bullets on the floor. "How are you—"
Ning shot the bullets that were on the ground back towards the terrorists. He shot them so fast that the bullets ended up entering the bodies of the terrorists that weren't ready to protect themselves.
The only one that was still alive was the one that shot him in the slums today.
Ning walked up to the trembling man and grabbed him by the shirt. He pulled him up and asked him, "You were here to kill me?"
The man was too scared to answer, so Ning created a ball of flame next to the man's face and kept it floating there to threaten him.
"Who ordered you to kill me?" he asked with a serious tone.
The trembling terrorist was so scared that he practically started singing the answer.
"It was our boss. It was the boss. We have nothing to do with this. Our boss ordered us to come here and attack you. I swear," the terrorist shouted.
"Are you sure?" Ning asked.
"Yes! Yes!" the man cried.
"Very well," Ning moved the flame away from the terrorist's face. The terrorist sighed in relief when he saw the flame dim… just a second before it came back blazing in a pure white color.
The temperature in the room immediately skyrocketed as the terrorist started fearing once more what was coming.
Ning dropped the flame on him, burning him at such a high temperature, that in just a few seconds of touching the man, he had 3rd degree burns all over his body.
The man cried a terrible scream. In the next 2 seconds, his body charred, and in the next 5 seconds, it fully turned to ashes.
Ning then spread the fire to the rest of the dead bodies, making sure to isolate the fire only there and nowhere else. In less than a minute, the men that were originally in the room were there no more.
Ning looked at the room solemnly before decided to go look for this boss of theirs.
Once he got the information about his location, Ning vanished.
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Chapter 462 – Great Raiders Boss
To the northwest of the empire of Xandria laid a small village close to the desert.
The village was far away from any other civilization and could only be seen through the railway tracks up in the mountain to the south.
Ning appeared in the air, above the same village.
"This is it?" he wondered as he looked down at the village with only a few people outside.
While the village looked like a normal, poor village, it was actually a base for the notorious Great Raiders group that was known to steal cargo from trains and merchants.
They were basically the bandits of this day and age.
"I wonder how they didn't get caught until now," Ning wondered.
Ning let go of his flight and simply strengthened his body as he dropped on the village like a bomb.
The raiders heard a loud sound and quickly came running to see who it was.
Ning walked out of a small crater as he dusted off the dirt on his body. He shook his hair to get rid of the dirt as he thought, 'I shouldn't have done that.'
He looked at the men that had walked out and asked, "where's your boss?"
The men looked at each other in confusion and didn't know what to do.
Ning snapped his finger, immediately creating a loud noise that hurt the people's ears. They dropped to the floor while covering their ears as the ringing noise got a little too loud for them.
"Don't make me ask again," Ning said to the men. "Where is your boss?"
A man walked out of the biggest house in the village, followed by a few other people that seemed to have just woken up from an afternoon nap.
"What's going on, boss?" they lazily asked the man that walked upfront.
The man was about 170 cm tall, had rough facial hair and a bald head. His body was near twice the width of Ning and looked to be around 50 years old.
He looked at Ning with a look of surprise and slight fear.
Ning looked at him and smiled. 'He recognizes me,' he thought.
"I will make this easy for you," Ning said from far away. "Tell me who made the order and I will leave."
The boos looked at the floor with his subordinates barely trying to get up.
He shook his head and turned back to Ning. "How are you still alive?" he asked.
"Why wouldn't I be?" Ning asked. "It can't be that you expected your little group to kill me, right? They barely even had an Aether Magister with them."
The old man got a little angry. Of course, they didn't have any Aether Magister to send away. The ones they did have were already sent to the capital to kidnap the first prince.
He had wondered what had happened to that group since they never even contacted him back. There were moments when the boss assumed that they had just run away.
However, it had turned out that they had died after being defeated during their task, and were then killed.
Ever since then, he had been waiting to get revenge, but he himself couldn't go, so he had sent his best assassins.
However, it didn't seem like they were alive either.
"How did you find us?" the boss asked, ignoring Ning's questions for the moment.
"It was easy. Your cronies gave me the location after I found them," Ning said.
"What did you do to them?" the boss asked.
"The same thing you wished to do to me," Ning said, not cowering in front of the boss.
"Good! Good! At least you came to die here. Men, attack him!" the boss shouted.
Both the sleepy and the hurting men started attacking Ning in any way possible.
Some shot bullets at him. Some burned him in the fire. Some dropped multiple giant rocks on him the size of his head.
Some also tried to tear him apart by using their telekinesis on him.
Ning waited for the charade to be over as he watched them in contempt while they did any damage to him at all.
The boss looked at him, knowing there was no way he would be hurt at all.
So, he took out a crossbow from his storage and created a very sharp-tipped arrow before loading it in.
He targeted Ning with the crossbow and shot it.
For the first time since coming here, Ning saw something hurt him. The especially sharp arrow had managed to give him a bit of scratch. That was it.
The boss looked in horror when he realized that the person they were messing with was no ordinary man.
"You all, retreat!" he immediately shouted, but the sound of the barrage made it impossible for the boss's voice to reach anyone.
The boss grabbed someone and shook him really hard to get his attention. "RUN AWAAY!" he shouted.
The man was a little surprised, but he did what the boss told him to. Seeing one of their members run, the others stopped attacking and looked towards the boss.
"Runaway!" the boss shouted now that the sound was down. "Runaway before he g—"
The boss stopped mid-order as he couldn't speak. The air around him and inside of his stopped moving, suffocating him.
The other men were the same. They slowly started dropping to the ground. However, the boss remained standing.
In fact, despite being suffocated, he didn't look as suffocated as the rest of the people.
When Ning tried to check why that was, he realized that the man was actually using Aether to create air directly in his lungs. That way, despite not getting any air in, he was still breathing.
However, that wouldn't last very long. As the air outside was unmoving, if the boss kept creating air, he would either burst his own lungs or go unconscious from the amount of carbon dioxide his body was creating in his lungs.
"You and your men will die soon if you don't answer my question," Ning said. "Who gave you the order to kill me?"
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Chapter 463 – Dragging The Culprit
The boss tried to speak so Ning loosened his control over the air.
"It… It was…"
Ning listened to the name of the person who gave him the order and was surprised. Ning confirmed it once more and the boss gave the same name.
"I had expected it to be the duke since your men were staying there. But… to think it was him," Ning was truly surprised.
"Please let us go. I answered your question," the boss cried out.
"That doesn't mean you didn't try to kill me," Ning said. In a flick of a finger, he gathered all of the men and grabbed them.
In the next moment, they were gone.
Ning appeared outside of the city walls, dragging the men with his Aether arts. When the guards saw him, they immediately drew their weapons in response.
"Wait right there," they shouted.
"Go call someone with higher authority. You have some terrorists here," Ning said.
The guards looked at each other and then at the numerous men that were somehow being dragged by a single person.
A police officer walked out, who instantly recognized Ning as someone from the palace.
"Brother, who are these people?" the man asked.
"Inspector Reen, these are the members of the Great Raiders group. I know you have a lot of problems with them, so I brought them here," Ning said.
The inspector was shocked when he heard that. "These are the people from the zoo incident?" he asked.
"Yes, can you please capture them?" Ning asked.
"Yes," the police officer said and got his men to capture them one by one. Most of them were already unconscious for some reason and the rest that was on the verge of being unconscious were given some drugs before being taken away.
"Should I call the palace to let them know about this?" the inspector asked.
"Sure," Ning said. "Actually, don't call them for another hour. There is something important in the palace happening soon."
Ning walked into the city under the watch of the various guards. Once a little further away, he disappeared.
He appeared back in his room in the palace. He walked out of the room and went toward's the prince's quarters.
Ning reached the room with 2 guards waiting outside and asked, "is the prince inside?"
The guards nodded, thinking nothing else of the situation.
"I see. Thanks," Ning said and pushed the door. However, it was locked.
"Hey, what are you—"
Ning burst open the door and walked in. The prince had been sleeping inside and was immediately woken up.
He sat up in his bed looking at Ning who walked in.
"Hey, stop right there," the guards immediately pointed their guns at Ning, but with the flick of a finger, Ning got rid of their guns and sent them flying back against the wall.
"Wh-why are you attacking me?" the prince asked in fear.
"You know why," Ning said and grabbed the prince by the hair. "You tried to kill me. Did you really think it would go as you wanted?"
Ning dragged the prince down from the bed, his black hair firmly grasped in his hands.
"And here I even thought I was saving you from the terrorists. That was your plan too, wasn't it?" Ning asked.
The first prince of the empire, Prince Felix screamed in agony as he felt his hair being ripped from the scalp.
The servants watched in horror as the prince tried to fight back against Ning's pulling.
People started gathering around Ning, trying to stop him, but Ning wouldn't budge.
Old man Tim arrived at the scene, watching furiously at Ning. "What are you doing, Mr. Ning. Let the prince go," he shouted.
"Move away, I'm taking him to the emperor. This little prince of yours has been acting terribly, and needs a little dose of punishment," Ning said.
Tim looked around in shock watching the guards do nothing. They had already tried everything from shooting to using Aether, but Ning was too strong for them.
"Miss Fiona, do something," he shouted.
Fiona looked away from the old man. "I'm sorry, senior Tim. He's too strong for any of us. For now, it looks like he doesn't plan to hurt the prince even more, so we should be relieved about that."
Lisa appeared on the scene, as well as every other member of the royal family.
Ning recognized most of them.
"Let go of my son!" a woman appeared out of nowhere. Ning hadn't interacted with her yet but had seen her from afar.
She was the Empress of the nation, first wife of the emperor.
'What was her name again? Felicia something?' Ning thought. He didn't care much about her at the moment, but since he was dragging her son, it was obvious she was angry at him at the moment.
"You people! Do something. He's hurting your prince and you are just watching," she shouted.
People tried to persuade Ning to let the prince go once again, and even attacked him, but not a single of their attacks phased him.
The Empress moved to block Ning's way and stood there. "Let go of my son. You will be hanged for this," she shouted.
Ning looked at her and asked, "Woman, MOVE!"
His loud voice brought terror in the mother's heart, but she stood firm.
"Sigh, if you don't move, I will kill your son," Ning had to resort to threatening her. He didn't want to harm a mother who was just trying to protect her son, so he decided to use a different approach instead.
And this approach worked. The Empress got scared and started shivering when she thought of her son dying.
"Your highness, you should move," Fiona walked up to her and slowly dragged her away.
Ning kept on walking after that.
"I know you have arrived, but don't do anything silly. I don't plan on harming the prince more than I already have," Ning said and carried on.
Finally, reached a giant door that lead to the Palace hall where the Emperor would spend most of his days.
He pushed open the door and walked in.
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Chapter 464 – Emperor Kain
Emperor Kain was now 100 years old. After his father's death nearly 40 years ago, he had become the Emperor of the Xandria empire.
He was about 180 cm tall, had stark blonde hair, and a very young-looking face. If anyone saw him, they would think he was only 50 years old.
He looked way too young to be an emperor. He wore dark yellow pants with a white shirt that had golden embroidery on it. On his head, he wore the crown that made him the emperor.
He sat on a crimson throne, elevated by a few staircases, all decorated with a similar crimson carpet.
Around the hall were many different chairs on either side, none of which looked as fantastic as the throne.
Ning opened the door and walked in with the prince's hair still clutched in his hands.
As soon as the Emperor saw it, he stopped speaking and immediately got furious.
"What's the meaning of this? Let go of my son," he shouted. Anger flared in his face very quickly when he saw his son in trouble.
'So he does love his children. That should have been expected,' he thought. With Lisa telling him how he was never there for her, Ning always wondered if he was a callous man, but that didn't seem like it.
The two guards next to the emperor immediately shot out from behind the emperor like bullets and arrived next to Ning, ready to stab him.
"Your mere weapons won't hurt me," Ning said. "I suggest you tell your ministers to leave before we proceed."
The Emperor looked at Ning furiously and nodded towards the nobles and ministers.
The men stood up and left, their curiosity never diminishing in the slightest.
Once they all left and the doors were shut, Ning let go of the prince's hair and turned around to grab the prince by his shirt collar.
Seeing him move, the guards stabbed Ning. Their spears pierced through Ning, coming out at the other side. However, there wasn't a single drop of blood on their spears.
Ning ignored them and tossed the prince forward.
"Ask your son what he did. I'm sure he will confess willingly," Ning said. He ignored the spears for the moment even though they were starting to burn.
"Wait!" the Emperor shouted at the guards, but the guards were not sure if that order even meant anything anymore.
They had already stabbed him. What 'waiting' could they even do? Still, they pulled back the spear and waited with a confused look on their faces.
Maybe we shouldn't have gotten too hasty, they thought.
"Don't worry. Your spears could never kill me," Ning said with a smile towards them.
"What's your name, young man?" the Emperor asked. He was genuinely shocked that a person was able to survive while getting stabbed.
'How did he do it? Is he an illusion? But he just tossed my son. It didn't look like he used Aether. Besides, my guards should have felt the resistance and in fact, knew it really was him,' The emperor started thinking.
"My name is Ning Ruogong," Ning replied. "I am a temporary guard in the palace."
The Emperor looked at him with a curious face. "You don't seem to hold much respect for me. You don't even bow before me, or show me call me majesty," he said.
"I'll be honest, I don't really care about your status enough to change my way of speaking. I will respect you when I think you've earned it, but before that, I will just think of you as an ordinary human being," Ning said.
"I see," the Emperor said. "Then, maybe I ask, as an ordinary human father, why you've dragged my son to me?"
"Yes," Ning said. "Did you know about your daughter's feast in the slums today? Where she gave away food and blankets to the poor?"
"Yes, I did," the Emperor said. "I had approved it after all."
"Then did you know someone was shot during the event?" Ning asked.
"Someone was shot?" the Emperor looked at him with a serious face. "I'm sorry. I've been in multiple meetings today and I usually don't get unimportant news until the end of the day."
"But… this shooting sounds important, and yet I didn't hear it," the Emperor said.
"Well, that's understandable because the person that got shot… is me," Ning said. "And as you may see, I'm perfectly fine. So maybe it got pushed back to being unimportant news, but that's not the point I'm getting at."
"The thing I'm trying to get to is the fact that the person that ordered the shooting was your son," Ning said.
"What?" the Emperor turned to his son who had tears and snots running down his face, with a scalp that was very red.
"How do you know it's my son?" the Emperor asked.
"Because I asked the boss of the raiders he gave the job to," Ning said. "Did you know that about 4 or so weeks ago, I saved your son from a hostage situation in the zoo? You must've, right? I would consider that an important bit of information."
The Emperor looked shocked. "That was you?" he asked.
"Yes, that was me," Ning said.
"This boss you speak of, how did you confirm he was telling the truth," the Emperor asked.
"I have my ways," Ning said. "I've captured him and sent him to the police, so you can confirm it later as well. For now, I think you'll be interested in something else rather than your son's attempt to kill me."
The Emperor looked a little stunned. "What exactly did my son do?" the Emperor asked.
"The zoo incident, the hostage situation. All fake," Ning said. "There was never any threat. It was all set up by your own son, which I presume was to get something out of you."
"Right, what were the negotiations for with the terrorists? You would give them Gem in exchange for your son? Yeah, I think he was doing in for the gem."
The Emperor's eyes immediately turned cold and callous.. It seemed, he knew what it was all about.
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Chapter 465 – Questioning
The Emperor stood tall and walked down the throne towards his son. He lifted his son using his Aether and looked at his crying face.
"Is it true?" he asked with a serious face. The prince, still with his snot-ridden face and teary eyes, only kept crying.
"Felix, Answer my question," the Emperor shouted, but the prince only kept on crying.
"Let me help a bit," Ning said and walked towards the Emperor. The guards immediately put their spears in front of Ning to block him, but with a casual push, he pushed them away.
The Emperor himself got cautious as he was still not sure what Ning's plans were.
Ning reached the prince and placed his hands on the prince.
"What are you doing?" the Emperor got ready to attack in case Ning did something to his son, but Ning stepped back from him before the Emperor reacted.
The Emperor looked back on his son and wondered what was happening.
"Go ahead, ask him anything you want. He will answer everything," Ning said.
The Emperor looked at Ning curiously. "What did you do to my son?" he asked.
"Don't worry. It's easily reversible. Besides, if I wanted to hurt your son, I wouldn't have dragged him all the way here in front of you. So you can safely assume that I have no intention of harming your son… yet," Ning said.
The Emperor didn't know what to say, but it was indeed true that despite all the pain his son seemed to have suffered, he wasn't truly hurt at all.
So, he turned around and started asking his questions.
"Were you the one behind the plan to get yourself kidnapped?" The Emperor asked.
"Y-yes," the prince answered.
The Emperor took a deep breath to control his anger, but he still showed it a little on his face.
"Why did you do that? Why did you put yourself and the civilians in such danger? Was it for the gems?" he asked.
"Yes," the Prince answered.
The Emperor stopped when he got the answer. He seemed hesitant to ask the next question that was running in his mind. He didn't want it to be true.
"Why… do you want the gems?" the Emperor asked as his heart started beating faster and faster, very anxious for the answer.
"To become stronger. I want to grow as an Aether user and be strong enough to take the throne for myself," the prince said.
There it was, the answer he had been so anxious not to hear, and yet his son spoke of it so easily.
Ning looked at the Emperor's surprised face and nodded to himself. 'He should have seen it coming. Not giving your first son the throne would certainly cause some problems,' Ning thought.
However, that was not the reason the Emperor was so surprised.
"How… how did you know that eating the Aether Beast's gem would give increase your Aether rank?" the Emperor asked.
"From a book," the prince said.
"You… got that knowledge from a book?" the Emperor asked suspiciously. "Where did you get the book?"
"Grandfather handed it to me in private during my 15th birthday. It was his diary he wrote since he was little. He told me to keep the book a secret," the Prince said.
The Emperor lost his footing as he stumbled to the ground. His son who he was holding up also fell to the ground.
"Your highness," the guards screamed and ran up to him to help him up.
The emperor was breathing heavily, his pupils dilated a bit more than normal. His arms twitched, especially his right hand which basically started shaking.
The emperor used his left arm to grab his other arm to hold it down. The guards picked up the emperor and placed him on the seat closest to them.
They brought out water from their storage and had the emperor drink it.
"Are you okay?" Ning asked, looking a little concerned.
"No," the Emperor said, a little bit of shakiness in his voice. "I'm not okay."
Ning looked at the prince and back at the Emperor before asking, "what's this about the diary?"
"That… that diary… it must hold the truth behind my father's legacy," the Emperor said.
"The truth about Emperor Kron?" Ning's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Is there something in there that you do not want the rest of the public to know?"
"I… I…" The Emperor tried to calm himself for a bit. "I can't let the world know the truth. It's my burden to keep."
"Tell me what you've been hiding about your father," Ning asked. When he saw that the Emperor didn't want to speak about it, he said, "You can say it, or I will make your son say."
"No!" the Emperor cried out suddenly. "I… I will say it." The emperor sent out his two guards, despite their urges not to.
And then, the Emperor started telling a story of a time long past.
Kain Xanders was born about 10 years after his father had won the war against the Aether Beast and brought peace to the land of Xandria.
They called him a Hero more times than they did an Emperor. Kron was happy to know how much his people loved him, and Kain loved to see his father being praised like that.
"I want to become strong like father someday," he thought to himself since childhood.
Kain was a single child of the emperor, but fortunately, he had come to acquire the blonde hair of his father, making him the sole rightful heir to the throne.
He remembered his father's feats throughout his life. Master in sword art at the age of 20. A master in politics at the age of 30, and perhaps the youngest person in the history of Xandria to become an Emperor, only at the young age of 37.
And he had done it despite being really mediocre as an Aether user. This was one of the reasons why his father sympathized with the non-aether users and made it illegal for them to be discriminated against.
As Kain grew older, his views of his father stayed the same, but… he could sense, and sometimes even see changes in his father.
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Chapter 466 – Addicted
At the age of 40, Kain married his wife, the empress. After that, in the course of the next 10 years, he married 6 more of his wives, of which only 2 became his official wives and the rest became his concubine.
He was the sole bloodline holder of the Xanders bloodline, so he tried his best to improve the situation by having a lot of kids.
During this period, his father had grown more and more violent, while at the same time becoming sicker and sicker.
Kain didn't understand what was going on and none of the doctors gave a straight answer.
Until one day, he was called to his father's bed chambers when he was 60 years old.
Kain walked in to see his father, weak in his death bed. Next to him was the general commander of the defense army.
"What's going on?" Kain asked.
"The emperor wants to speak to you, your highness," the commander said and walked to the corner of the room to let the father-son have some time alone.
"Father," Kain said holding onto his hands. "I am here."
"Kain," the Emperor said in a slow and hoarse voice. "I need… I need you to do something for me."
"Yes, father. Of course," he said. "What do you want?"
"Go… go to the Undying Fort, and get the soldiers there to attack the beasts. I… I need their gems to survive," the Emperor said.
"Gems? You can survive with gems?" Kain asked, a little happy even. "We have gems at home father. The zoo had been sending us the cores for quite a while now."
"You IDIOT!" the Emperor cried out. "You think I don't know that? I have used it already."
"What?" Kain asked in shock.
"I need… I need you to kill more beasts to bring me the gems. This useless commander refuses to listen to my orders," The Emperor said.
Kain turned to look towards the commander. This man had been with his father for nearly 80 years now. He was one of the best Aether users in the empire, and yet… he was refusing his own emperor.
"Why are you refusing the orders of your emperor?" Kain asked the commander.
"I will not follow that order, your highness," the commander said. "I will not help him begin a war that will kill more innocent civilians."
"Huh? He's just asking you to kill some beasts. Not start a war," Kain said.
The commander still shook his head. "That will start a war with the Aether beasts for sure," he said.
Kain got a little annoyed. "How can you be so sure?" he asked.
The commander looked at him, dead in the eyes, and said, "because that's how the previous war started."
"What? What do you mean?" Kain asked.
"It's better if you ask the emperor," the commander said.
"What does he mean, father?" Kain turned around to ask.
"So what if it starts a war? What does it matter if a few thousand more people die if I get to live," the Emperor shouted. "With the gems, I will continue growing. With the gems, I will continue living on."
"You don't know how great these Aether beast's gems are. They were exactly what helped me defeat my brothers and take the throne," the Emperor shouted.
"What? I thought you used your swordsmanship and wit to defeat your brothers," Kain asked.
"Swordsmanship? Wit? PUI!! What use are those against pure power? Ever since I was young, I was born weak, however, the gems helped me grow stronger. Now that I'm dying, I need more," the Emperor continued shouting.
"It's like a drug," the commander spoke from behind him. "The gems, they are like drugs to the Emperor. Ever since he found out they increase his strength, he's been taking them."
"He went as far as to start an entire war using a fake premise that the beasts were attacking us. When in fact, the war had started much earlier, and they were just retaliating back."
"You have read the reports, your highness. You know what the war did. So many villages and cities were destroyed. So many soldiers died in the front line. So many of my own men died," the commander said.
"By the time I noticed what was happening, the war was already over. This is why I won't help you in anything you want to do," the commander said.
"Father… that's not true, right?" he asked, fearfully.
"Are you not listening to my orders too? Have your mind gone to the chamberpots as well?" the Emperor cried out.
"Father, we can't do this. The war… destroyed so many people. If we start another such war, Xandria itself will suffer a great catastrophe," Kain said.
"You think I care? Just get me the Gems. Go!" the Emperor shouted.
Kain finally understood that his father had far gone. The gems… the drug, its addiction had not only made him weak, but it had also affected his mind.
Perhaps, it had affected him from the very start.
He decided to take a stance. "No, father. If what you want brings destruction to the empire, then I will not let you do it," he said.
"Useless," the Emperor said after hearing his son. "I let you have too much freedom, and now this is what I suffer because of it.
"I don't need such a son," the Emperor shouted and brought out a sword from his storage and cut towards Kain.
Kain dodged backward. The Emperor was now standing up straight, his body and face's vein bulging from the enormous stress he was suffering.
"Your highness," the commander moved forward to protect the prince. However, the Emperor didn't stop.
He attacked the commander too like a madman. The commander couldn't fight back against his own emperor, so he was forced to stay on the defensive.
Kain was in shock, looking at the craziness in his father's eyes. The same eyes that loved him, they were now looking at him with hatred and intention to kill.
The Emperor was just too strong. Slowly, without any offensive threat, the Emperor started beating the commander.
Just then, from behind the commander, the prince ran forth… and drove a sword through his father's heart.
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Chapter 467 – Trauma
After killing his own father, Kain never remained the same.
Soon after Kron died, Kain did his best to clear up any confusion and fabricated a story that said his father died from an old wound he got when he fought the beasts.
The civilians ate that story up like a freshly baked cake. After that, Kain took the throne as the emperor of Xandria.
The empire felt saddened over their old emperor's death, but Kain's succession brought joy to all of them.
While the empire rejoiced, Kain couldn't feel the same himself. The death… no, murder of his father had left a deep scar in him.
He would randomly wake up at night, the nightmares of his father's death still haunting him even when he woke up.
Every night, the nightmare came, followed by a screaming shout of his father's voice that called him a bastard as he had died.
Kain would wake up, full of sweat in the middle of the night, scaring the empress who would also wake up.
His hands shook with fear, the same hands that killed his father. Even when the empress tried to console him it was alright, he couldn't accept it. After all, she had no idea what he had done to protect himself and the empire.
As the nightmares continued, he didn't feel safe for him to stay around his family. So, he made a separate bed-chamber for himself and slept there alone.
He had already harmed one of his family, what if he harmed more? Thinking so, he stopped visiting his wives and children.
He separated himself from his family so that he never lost himself like how he did against his father. It was a defensive instinct that had kicked into him from all the sword training he had gone through.
Still, he couldn't guarantee that he would never repeat it again, especially since even to this day, the thought of his father's death kept on haunting him.
And now, his father was somehow back to haunt him through his own sun.
Ning listened to the tale of the broken man who kept it all bottled up, never revealing what he knew and felt to anyone. Letting the weight of what he knew to sink him deeper and deeper onto his own void.
This was not what he had expected of the Emperor to be like. He expected a valiant man like in the stories, but he was instead a lonely man, being trampled by his own memories.
"You don't have to say anything else," Ning said, not wanting to let the man suffer the thoughts anymore.
"Was that why you wanted the gem? To increase your Aether rank?" Ning asked.
"Yes," the first prince said. "Grandfather wrote that he got strong enough to defeat his brothers using the Aether gems, so I believed I could do the same as well."
The Emperor took deep breaths to calm himself. Ning wasn't sure if he heard what his son said or not, but he decided to continue with his questioning.
"Did you not care about the Empire's tradition? As far as I know, your grandfather had blonde hair, which you do not," Ning asked. While he himself didn't care much for the tradition, he also didn't want to speak against it since it was something that had been going on in this Empire since before he came here.
"I did," the first prince said. "However, I had plans for that situation as well."
The Emperor looked at him too this time. He wanted to know what his son's plan was to become an Emperor despite not holding the blonde hair.
"You're not going to say you will dye your hair, are you?" Ning jokingly asked.
"No," the prince said. "I was going to kill all 3 of the successors. When they died, I would be the only one remaining that would become the Emperor for sure."
Things just got a lot serious. Ning could visibly see how fast the Emperor's facial expression was changing.
"You were going to kill your own brothers and sister?" the Emperor got angry at his son. He didn't waste a second and slapped his son in the face.
This was perhaps the first time in a long time since he had even touched his own children, and the first thing he did was hit him.
However, Ning was surprised to see the Emperor was fine, at least for now, and not floored on the ground like the broken man he was.
"You dared to even think of killing our brothers and sisters?" the Emperor asked angrily.
When he did, a certain thought entered Ning's mind. His eyes narrowed and a serious look appeared on his face.
"Were you only planning on doing this… or did you already put it into motion?" Ning asked.
"I have already tried multiple times and failed," the Prince said.
"What?" the Emperor cried out. "Yo-You! You were the one behind the attack?"
"Yes," the prince said.
"Attack? What attack?" Ning asked. It didn't seem like the two of them were speaking about the same thing he was thinking of, which was the incident on the train.
"The attack on the palace 10 years ago, where my 7th wife died, where Elizabeth ran away from, where… my other wives and children were in some ways harmed," the Emperor said with anger rising from within him. "That was you?"
"Yes," the prince answered.
"You… how did you get in contact with the Shadow Pavillion? What payment did you give them to dare attack the Royal family of Xandria?" the Emperor asked.
"I learned that one of the guards was a member and contacted the organization through them. It didn't take very long to get a reply back saying they will help me with the task," the prince spoke.
"As for payment, I made them a promise."
The Emperor's eyes narrowed, his fury still visible in those eyes. "What promise?" he asked.
"If I became the Emperor, I would give them 200 Kilos of Aether ores."
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Chapter 468 – Punishment And Help
The Royal family of Xandria only held about a ton of Aether Ores in their inventory, which was the largest portion of their wealth.
Giving away 20% of it to a criminal organization, Kain couldn't believe that his son would even think of doing such a thing.
"The attack on the train, Was that you as well?" Ning asked.
"Which attack?" the prince asked.
"The one when your sister was returning back to the capital," Ning said.
"Yes, that was me too," he said.
While the Emperor was in shock at the horrific things his son had planned towards his own family, Ning started getting curious about how he even got the news.
'Just the next morning, the assassins were on the train. We hadn't told them we were returning or anything. How did they even recognize us?' he wondered.
"When exactly did you learn about your sister's existence?" Ning asked.
"Right after my cousin called my uncle. I was the first one to learn since I was with my uncle," the prince said.
"Your uncle?" Ning asked confusedly. The prince didn't have a sibling, so where did the uncle come from? Ning couldn't help but wonder.
"The Duke, he's my brother-in-law," the Emperor said from the side.
"Ah, I see. That makes sense," Ning said. "That makes a lot of sense."
He finally realized why they were attacked so fast. He understood why the terrorists were in the Duke's house. He understood why he was attacked today, and understood why the terrorists had wanted the gems.
It was all because of this piece of a shit prince.
The Emperor's face was unsightly. His son hadn't just tried to kill the royal family members, his plan was going to kill himself, just like his father did.
The Emperor started shaking once more as his thoughts ran wild. He imagined a day when he himself would have to kill his son, just as he did to his father.
Ning saw this and couldn't help but sympathize with the Emperor. Over the course of the last 40 years, his father's death still haunted him.
"Guards!" he shouted. He couldn't bring himself to deal with his son as he couldn't trust himself to not hurt him.
The guards that were sent outside came back in a hurry.
"Your Majesty," they kneeled before him.
"Take my son and escort him out to the front of the palace. Then, give him 50 lashes. From today onwards, he is to not hold the status of a royal family member and is to be forever be kept to his own chambers. He shall never be allowed freedom," the Emperor announced.
The guards wore shocked faces, but they did what they were told to do.
Ning silently removed his domination skill from the prince, and suddenly, the prince started shouting.
"Father, I'm sorry. I'm sorry father. Please don't punish me, father please!" he cried out as he was dragged away by the guards.
The punishment seemed quite tame for someone with such horrific plans in his mind. He had even killed his own stepmother. Ning wanted to at least cut an arm or a leg, but… he supposed that was perhaps because he didn't understand the love of a father.
He could see the Emperor beat himself up on the inside while watching his son get taken away. He did what was right… but that still hurt him.
Ning could hear the sound of the Empress crying outside while her son was dragged to the front.
The Emperor stood up and walked outside as well. He went to the front of the palace, where the people were already gathering to see what was happening.
The Emperor then gave an announcement, letting the people learn of the Prince's punishment. He kept the crime as vague as possible, but those who knew even the slightest about what had happened could point their fingers towards him.
Lisa was there. She cried, learning that the reason her mother died that night during the assassin attack was because of her eldest brother.
The Empress asked the Emperor to rethink the punishment, but the Emperor wouldn't budge.
The crowd watched as the Emperor's guards lashed the prince a full 50 times, and then he was dragged away.
The Emperor returned back to the Throne room and Ning walked behind him. As soon as he entered the room, he fell to the ground and started crying.
He couldn't show his vulnerable self on the outside, but on the inside, he cried. Ning had seen it all already, so the Emperor didn't care about him.
"This is all my fault," the Emperor said. "I was too passive in my choice of a successor. Had I made it clear that one of them would become the successor, this would've likely not have happened."
"Don't beat yourself over it. You would've only increased the threat on that one person if you had made a choice," Ning said. "Although, it would have helped settle down internal conflicts if you did choose."
"I… I thought it was obvious," the Emperor said. "Adrian doesn't like doing anything political, and Elizabeth was happy in the City of beginnings. So, I thought it was obvious that Gillian was the one that would be my successor."
'I see, so he always knew where his daughter was,' Ning thought. He saw the Emperor start to have a hard time breathing again as he realized what the had done to another one of his family.
'This guy's trauma…' Ning sighed.
"Do you want my help?" Ning asked.
The Emperor calmed himself and asked, "Help with what?"
"I can get rid of your memory of your father's death. You will remember it to be just as everyone else does," Ning said.
The Emperor looked up in surprise. "You can do that?" he asked.
"Yes, I will remove the prince's memories too," Ning said. "Once I remove the memory, no one in the Empire, but I will remember the truth."
"No, one more person will remember the truth," the Emperor said.
"Who?" Ning asked, but then he remembered. "Ah, the Commander General. Where is he? I will remove his memories too."
"He is in the City of Beginnings right now," the Emperor said.
"The City of beginnings?" Ning asked in surprise.
"Yes, he's the one that helped my daughter survive the assassin attack 10 years ago," the Emperor said.
Ning realized who he was talking about.
"Ah, the boss!"
Chapter 469 – Opposition
Ning removed the Emperor's memory. From now on, he wouldn't wake up in the dead of night, recalling his father's haunting death.
He also removed all knowledge about the prince's grandfather's diary from the prince.
'I can't believe removing memories was this simple,' Ning thought. He left the prince's chambers and went to his room.
"Lisa must be quite sad," he thought. Learning the truth about her mother's death, learning that it was related to her eldest brother couldn't have been easy for her.
"Well, at least she's not al— Shit!"
Ning disappeared at once and appeared just outside the desert where Reever was selling his stuff now.
Ning walked up to him and asked, "You doing fine?"
"Ah, brother Ning, you're back. I thought I would've had to go to the city tonight," Reever said.
"Uhh… how long before you are done here? Your wife needs you right now," Ning said.
"Lisa needs me? Why?" Reever asked.
"There's… been a revelation in the palace," Ning said. "It's better if you end it quickly and return back."
"One moment," Reever turned around.
"Everyone, listen up. You don't have to sell me anything. Do what you've been doing all this time, grab a train and go to the city to sell all you want. You will earn a lot more than you are with me."
"Here!" Reever threw a storage locket at the people. "There are flour and dry food in there, eat accordingly."
"Let's go," Reever turned around and walked with Ning.
Ning teleported him back to the palace, and Reever immediately went to give company to Lisa. He on the other hand had nothing to do anymore.
It was starting to get dark outside, so he went to lay on his bed. It had truly been a long day.
However, he felt like there was one more thing he had to do before he went to sleep. So, he disappeared.
Ning woke up early in the morning and went to have breakfast. However, before he could reach the kitchen, old man Tim found him.
'Dammit, he better not bother me about yesterday's conflict. I don't have the time for that,' he thought.
"Ning, can you come with me?" old man Tim asked.
"What is it, senior Tim?" Ning asked while following behind him.
"His Majesty is looking for you," the old man said.
"Oh," Ning was a little surprised. He hadn't thought the Emperor would want to see him this early.
Ning followed him and went to the Throne Room where the Emperor was waiting for him.
"Thank you for coming, mister Ning," the Emperor said from on top of his throne.
"You called me your Majesty. Of course, I have to come," Ning said.
"Oh, you're addressing me respectfully today," the Emperor said in a jovial tone.
Old man Tim who was standing behind Ning couldn't believe what he was seeing. His emperor, who was known to be stoic, sometimes even gloomy around the morning was speaking so cheerfully.
'What happened?' he wondered.
"Tim, you can leave," the Emperor said.
"Yes, your majesty," Tim backed away slowly and left out of the door.
"So, why was I called here today?" Ning asked.
"First of all, let me ask you, what Aether rank are you?" the Emperor asked.
"I would rather not say it out loud," Ning said.
"Very well," the Emperor said. "And, your ability to heal despite being stabbed through the chest?"
Ning smiled at the Emperor.
"I see," The Emperor understood he was getting no answers. "Here's the reason I called you."
Ning listened intently.
"I… I am facing a bit of opposition from my own family because of your actions yesterday. While I thank you for what you did yesterday, you did drag my son through the entire palace," the Emperor said.
"I don't see the point of this conversation yet, your Majesty," Ning said.
The emperor tried to speak more but just sighed. "My family, especially the Empress wants you to get thrown out of the palace. She doesn't want a guard who can't respect her or the family," the Emperor said.
Ning looked at the Emperor and asked, "Do you want to throw me out?"
"Honestly? No. I would rather you stay by my side and protect me," the Emperor said. "I want you to be part of my shadow guard. That is the only way I can… make you disappear from the palace without my wives knowing it."
"I see," Ning said. "That's a fantastic idea, your majesty."
The Emperor was just about to get happy when,
"However," Ning continued. "I will have to say no. I was only here to make sure your daughter and son-in-law were out of danger, and now that they are safe, I… really don't see a reason to stick around."
"Huh? You're leaving?" the Emperor asked.
"Well, I was planning to stick around just a few weeks longer, but since I'm apparently being thrown out of the palace, it might be better for me to leave today," Ning said.
"But… but the threat on my children is still there. It's not gone entirely. Surely you can stick around a little longer, right?" the Emperor asked.
"Ah, you must mean the Shadow Pavillion. You won't need to worry about them anymore,' Ning said.
"I don't need to worry about them?" the Emperor questioned.
"Yes, I have dealt with them already. You can relax now," Ning said.
"You… did you do something to the assassins?"
"Uhh… let's just say I gave the group a very stern talk and made them see why it was a bad idea to go after the prince and princesses of Xandria."
"They were really good at picking up suggestions and promised never to take any more job regarding the royal family of Xandria," Ning said.
The Emperor's eyes went wide in shock. He wondered what Ning could have possibly done to the assassins to force them to follow him.
"Anyway, since I have classes soon, I shall go meet up with the princess and prince consort and give them my goodbyes.. See you later, your Majesty."
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Chapter 470 – Merilyn Champers
"You're leaving, Brother Ning?" Reever asked in surprise. It was just yesterday they had gone to the feast, just yesterday Ning had taken him to the desert.
It was just yesterday that Ning had helped them find out the truth about Lisa's eldest brother.
"I… I expected to be on the road constantly looking at the world, however, because you two were in trouble, I decided to stick around. Now that you have nothing to worry, about… I will leave," Ning said.
"Where will you go?" Lisa asked curiously.
"You know what? I don't know. I think I will stick around in the capital for a while more as I still have classes in the Tower, but… I might end up dropping out as well since I've learned what I wanted to," Ning said.
"I see," Reever said. "We would love if you would stay for much longer, but if leaving is what you desire then we won't stop you."
Lisa walked forward and bowed towards Ning. "Thank you for everything you've done for us so far," she said.
Reever followed her as well and bowed. "Thank you, Brother Ning," he said.
Ning felt a little emotional seeing that. "Alright, take care. I will come to meet you once in a while, although I don't know how many years later that will be."
"Also, you can contact me through those rings if anything ever comes up. Goodbye," Ning said and walked out.
He didn't have anything more to do, so he went to old man Tim and let him know he was leaving.
Then, he left the palace.
'Should I go back to the hotel?' he wondered. He decided to think about it later as now was time for his classes.
He walked over to the tower and went up the floor to his classroom. Inside, he found most of the students already there.
'Right, they stay in the dorms, so they can easily come to the class whenever they want,' Ning thought.
He looked to the side of the class and saw the seat where Rachel usually sat was empty.
Ning internally chuckled and sat down on his bench. About 2 minutes before it was time for the classes to start, Rachel finally walked in.
The moment she did, her body stiffened as she saw Ning in the class. Ning waved towards her.
Rachel had planned to sit elsewhere, but seeing him a wave, she felt that if she were to go sit anywhere else, she would be in danger of being targeted after class.
So, while feeling afraid, while shivering, she went up to her original seat next to Ning and sat down.
"Good Morning," Ning said with a smile.
Rachel felt the skin on the back of her neck stand up when he spoke. "Go-Good M-Morning," she tried to stop her fear show up in her voice, but she wasn't able to.
"I've been wanting to speak to you about something," Ning said.
"W-wh-what is it?" she asked.
"Well, exactly this," Ning said. "Stop being scared so much. Do you think I'm here to hurt people?"
"I-I'm not scared," Rachel tried to act strong, but her shakiness gave it away.
"So… you can steal people's Aether by touching them, huh?" Ning asked.
"Wh-wh-what? N-no, no. I don't know what you're talking about. I can do no such thing," She cried out.
"You don't have to lie. I know what you can do. Honestly, I'm a little jealous of what you can do. No wonder you got a scholarship with how great your ability with Aether is," Ning said.
Rachel got a little scared at having been figured out. She didn't expect Ning to know what her secret ability was, so she was frightened beyond belief.
"Wh-what are you going to do? Kill me and steal my skill?" she asked.
"What?" Ning looked at her with a weird face. "Why would I kill you? Your skill can't be stolen either. You seem needlessly suspicious of me."
"You are a strong man acting like a student. Of course, you have something suspicious to do here," Rachel said.
Just then, the teacher walked into the class. Ning turned around and stopped talking with Rachel to focus on the class, but the Teacher didn't say anything. Instead, she looked at Ning.
"Ning, come with me," she said.
'Hmm, what's going on?' Ning thought. He stood up and walked to the front of the class before following the teacher Sherry out of the room.
She walked in front of him, a full head shorter than him, and went to an elevator.
After she entered, Ning followed into the elevator and waited for it to start moving.
Before he knew it, the elevator started going upwards, and it showed no sign of stopping.
After going up what felt like 20 floors, the elevator finally stopped, and Ning walked out of it.
"Follow me," Sherry said, and Ning nodded before following her to a room.
There were a few people in the room, including one person he knew, the Vice president of the tower.
As soon as he walked into the room, the doors behind were shut as two bulky men, obviously trained in the ways of Aether stood guard.
'That doesn't seem suspicious at all,' Ning thought. Ning looked around the room and saw at least 7 different people, not including the 2 guards behind him.
The room was situated very high in the tower and was filled with different types of pictures, hung on the wall. One of which, he recognized to be of the goddess that the Aether users seemed to believe in.
"May I ask why I have been brought here?" Ning asked.
The woman in her 50s wore a purple, scholarly robe like everyone in the room, but for some reason, she stood out the most in the group.
"So you must be Ning Ruogong, huh?" the old woman asked.
"Yes, that is me," Ning said. "And you are?"
"I am Merilyn Champers.. I am the president of the Xandria branch of the Aether tower."
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