Kismet’s Tale

      Robert Kernel took a step out of the train station. To his surprise, the Imperial Capital truly had change in appearance and size. What waited for him at the exit of the train station was the person who Robert had expected to come.

“Hey, Robert,” said the young master. “I don’t know how it came to this, but are you sure about this?”

The young master was a great pretender. Robert Kernel felt sickened at the words of concern oozing out of him. And yet at the same time he understood why there was 'concern' in the young master's look. He couldn't get used to the new eyes of the young master. The eyes that once saw him as nothing more than tools had worry in it now.

He hated it.

“Young Master Mavin,” said Robert to the young master. He wondered if the young master saw through that mask of his?

Young Master Mavin approached with steady steps. He was a young adult who stood and stared with his blue-gray eyes.

“You’ve grown.”

“It is to your will.”

“How’s your aim, Robert?”

“Swift.”

“Good.”

Young Master Mavin led Robert to his car. Robert got in and sat on the back of the car. He looked away from the driver seat.

“Again, I want to ask you, Robert. Do you really want to go with this?”

Robert looked down. He answered, “When you found me in Jorvi, I told you Sir that I am your sword, and that I would not hesitate to lead the Hounds to hell if you ordered me to do so.”

“Do you believe that people change?”

“Sir, people do change. I believe that you have as well.”

“How so?”

“You are asking me about thinking twice. The one who told me to crawl out of a demifiend’s guts wouldn't have said this.”

“I see.”

It was a meeting that had happened thirteen years ago. During the tragedy of Jorvi, there was a young boy who had been saved by another young boy.  It was a tall young boy with dulled blue-gray eyes. The young boy extended his bloodied hands, telling the young boy that he wants to use him to kill the demifiends.

Robert knew the young master well. But he had changed because of the war. He didn’t know what made the  young master change, but he couldn’t believe them.  He had believed that no one could change the young master, not until the demifiends in the nest east of the mouth of pustalo are taken care of.

Thirteen years he had strived for a goal. The young master needed resources, men, and the influence to do what he had wanted. He needed an Empire that would turn its eyes away and lend their best men. He needed the knowledge of the Holmians to create the weapons that would destroy the heart of the nest.

The Holmians had the best technology. For the sake of destroying the enemies who took the lives of those who they cherish, the young master didn’t want to spare anything he could use. He understood this better than anyone.

If the young master had changed.

He would not have been here to welcome him.

He would have not appeared in this city, and instead ran away from this place with the princess holding his hand.

His appearance alone made it clear that he had not changed. There might be parts that had changed because of some realization within the war. Nevertheless, Robert Kernel could still see the monster that had been created in the tragedy of Jorvi.

“The Huntsmen will be waiting for you in the airstrip. They will personally bring you the gear you need.”

“I wish I could have fought the demikins in the east.”

“If you do survive this nest.”

“That’s impossible.”

Robert Kernel knew that the moment they were dropped into that nest. The chances of their survival would be lessened to zero. They would not be able to leave that place. They would be buried under that island.

It was a cruel plan that involved killing the mother of the nest. To block the tunnels and make sure that they wouldn’t have a place to enter the continent through a series of tunnels that had been made under the Magnar-Azia continent.

The same tunnels that were made to construct the channels of the ebony market. There were thousands of caverns that have been found. The Hounds of Lazon and the Huntsmans of the Empire had been closing these caverns in fear that a nest may find their way.

The young master had found these places through some method. It was only because he found these tunnels that the Empire noticed the threats.  To demand from the Empire was dangerous, and to protect Lazon’s position he had decided to hand over the position of power to Lord Derrick.

Robert Kernel admired Lord Derrick, and if there was any choice that he thought was right. Then handing the burden of power to the most brilliant man in Lazon was the right choice.

“Have you given everything up?”

“Sir, why do you ask so much?”

“Because I want you in your hundred percent.”

“I hope that the Sir does not doubt me in this regard. I have done what you asked me for. To doubt me is insulting. Is this why you keep asking me if I want to let go of this duty?”

“Yes, I want to know. I do not want a hothead in this mission. You know my opinion of this, Robert.  I would have not hesitated to join this mission if they would have let me.”

Robert couldn’t help but laughed at the thought of that. The young master noticed his laugh and did not respond to that mockery. Robert found amusement in the idea that he could go into this mission.

“We will drop the sun on the island.”

“I heard that they found a way to recreate what the Nullers fear. Are they really gone from this place?”

“They are,” the young master said. “However, we might have unleashed some evil in the world if the ‘spark’ that allows the Magi and the Nuller to use their ‘bloom’ and ‘mark’  have started to fade.”

“They might get a rude awakening without their powers in the first place. Those problems are for the east to worry about.”

The car stopped on a crossroad.

“We cannot allow ourselves to think about the ‘what if’,” the young master began. “To think of what might happen outside of this problem, and allowing this to lead to inaction is the height of stupidity. We solve a problem, then the next one, we continue solving the problems until we have been able to solve the problems around said problems to do what we were meant to do.

“I have done everything that I can to solve the problems. Changing the world itself to allow us to lead people in that nest won’t happen. I had done what we have here through the use of intimidation, power, and overwhelming resolve. We are in a quagmire called the Imperial City, and do you know where the Imperial City is positioned? 1500 miles from the capital of the Empire lies the demifiend womb. You surprised me with your victory in Kauta.”

The battle in Kauta was hidden by the war that raged for five years. The forces of Lazon alongside the Imperial Army had landed at Kauta and Outoki,  the beaches located 310 miles east of the mouth of Pustalo.

For three years the two armies fought against the demifiends. In those three years they had made use of the weaponry that they have created to tear through the demifiends. Robert had fought inside the exoskeletons that were made by the Holmians to tear through to that small nest.

It was a test against the demifiends. He saw hundreds of thousands demifiends during those three years. He saw young men die because of the demifiends, and saw more perish at the hands of the weapons they were using.

The three years they fought was slow. However, the three years of sacrifice had allowed them to learn of their enemies, and study them better. It was only because of the arrival of the Vulcans, the teen foot giants that could carry more rounds of ammunition that they could cleanse the regions of Kauta and Outoki within  the last two years.

Robert knew that the recent Vulcans that they would be equipped with were meant to be powered by this new crystal, which would allow them to continuously fight against hordes of the demifiends.

Though they have improved their tactics, there was nothing new to the very idea that they would be risking their lives in hopes they could destroy the womb that creates the demifiends in this region.

If they go about this safely, then it would take two years and more to reach the heart of the nest. There was a time limit that the young master had set for the extermination of the womb.

Robert questioned this. He had known that the young master had found a way to cripple the Imperator’s Crest that he feared so much. Yet he would still go with this matter in a way that would risk the lives of every soldier that he was willing to throw down.

“You have questions?”

Robert stared, “you have been able to produce results,  Sir. We wouldn’t have found a way to end the demifiends if it weren’t for your tireless effort to remove the obstacles blocking your way. You said to me in the letter that the war must not continue beyond seven years. That Lazon must have enough resources to offer the Empire, and the cooperation of the Holmians. You have done well in all of these regards, and yet I do not understand why you would still worry that there is something more to this.”

The car started suddenly. Robert’s back was pressed on the back of his seat. The young master’s dulled eyes glanced once. “Robert, among the many people that I know. You are the one that I trust the most. It is because I trust you the most that I am willing to let you die. All of it because you told me that you would be willing to die for me. I had asked your eighteen times before, and yet you pursue this path. Why?”

“Because you have done what you had said, Sir.”

“If I had not?”

Robert couldn’t answer that.

“Robert, you mocked me just now because I couldn’t finish the deal. Thirteen years ago, we made a pact, and you had allowed me to live while you would die. I had given you the boons, and I believe that none could rival you in this land.”

Robert leaned on the window. “When you told me that you would destroy them, I told myself that you should live while I shall give you my life in honor to those who were lost.  I am sorry that you have to live on as a monster.”

“You really like calling me a monster.  This Empire is a quagmire, Robert. This place is a trap, and when the two sides who wish for their side to win grow impatient. We would not have the time to do what must be done. The Crown Prince hesitates too much on who he should make Empress. But that is something that you don’t have to worry about.”

Robert looked at the young master’s back. He closed his eyes and waited in the car. They arrived in the Ancestral House of the Tomas Family. In the patio waited a lone figure in a silver arm, she glanced at Robert, then her eyes stayed on the young master.

“She must be the new missus,” said Robert.

The young master nodded dumbly. There was a mocking look at the woman who dully watched the young master, holding to a bottle of whiskey. 

Robert understood that another one had caught on to the mask that the young master wore. Robert could tell that the Miss could see through that mask he likes to wear.

It was sad to Robert that there are those who would look at the young master as a hero when in truth he had seen the true face of the great pretender who wore the mask of concern for the people of Lazon and the Empire.

Yet Robert would do nothing about it. They had already decided that they would play their roles, and he would only have to play his role in cleansing the nest located in the demifiend womb.

They went inside the house.

“Was she?”

“Yes. She’s the Lady of Bellatrix.”

“Are you fine with this?”

“I am,” the young master said. “She could do everything she wants, but it seems that she would rather hold onto the chain that she found attached to my neck now.”

“Are they watching?”

“She is dangerous even without the Mark that makes her stand above others.”

“Is she part of the plan?”

“No,” the young master said. “She’s one of the few surprises, I did expect that she’d be my problem, nonetheless, who knew that I would be so lucky to reduce the problem that would weaken those who wield the Spark? The Nullers and the Magi wouldn’t be able to react for a while because I had the fortune of meeting her.”

“I see,” Robert clenched his hand. “Young master, have you thought about the question you always asked me? Do you still want to do this?”

“Hah,” the young master let out a sorrowful laugh. “I told you that I had put myself into this role.”

“Then I have no more to say,” Robert climbed on the staircase. He stared at the monster who wore the mask of a great pretender. He wondered how hollow this villain would be after the destruction of the nest, and would he even have the resolve to go through the affairs of the Empire’s succession?

“I guess that’s something that I don’t have to worry about,” Robert told himself. The villain of Lazon had already consigned him to the place where he had to die. Thirteen years was enough to resolve himself about finally doing what needed to be done.

It may come from the words of a great pretender, but nonetheless it needs to happen.

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