Long Live the Emperor: Chapter 21 (Patreon)

Mabel returned a few minutes later after clearing out the guards from the surrounding area.

“I see you took care of the problem,” Mabel said as she closed the door firmly behind her and took in Alvin’s blood-soaked hands.

“I’m sorry I dragged you into this,” Alvin said, grimacing as he wiped his fingers off on a handkerchief laying on the desk.

Mabel stepped up to him and wrapped her arms around him, not minding the blood in the slightest. “It’s okay.”

Alvin didn’t think he should find a woman happy to help him cover up murder as sexy as he did, but he couldn’t deny the need to return Mabel’s embrace. Things would be a lot worse if he didn’t have her.

“The guards will be wondering why the meeting you called hasn’t started yet. We need to work fast,” Alvin said as they separated.

“Right. Right. I... uh...” Mabel released Alvin and struggled for words.

“You said you had a plan before?”

“Yes! We’ll burn the body!”

Alvin glanced at the fireplace. It might fit, but it would also be extremely obvious where the body went and what happened to it.

“Not like that! We’ll pour some lamp oil on him and set him on fire,” Mabel explained.

“And then we’ll have a burnt corpse. Not a vanished one.”

“Ah, but everybody knows Magus Terrance was here chasing a demon, right? Who’s to say the demon didn’t kill him?”

Understanding lit Alvin’s eyes. “Well done, Mabel. Maybe I can rouse Clover so she can leave some obvious signs around the room. If we can cover up the dagger wound, it should all look natural.”

“Exactly! Maybe the demon crawled through the window and tore out his throat or something.”

The two of them soon got to work, and Magus Terrance’s body was just starting to burn when Clover arrived. After Alvin explained what he wanted to her, she clapped her hands together.

“Oh, body disposal duty! Firebrand loves that job. I’ll get her, and we’ll get to work! Don’t worry, master!” Clover said.

With her on the job, Mabel and Alvin spent a few minutes washing up and changing clothes. The two arrived just after the last of the guards showed up on the practice field.

“Thank you all for coming!” Mabel said. “Now, as you’ve probably heard, we’ve had a bit of trouble with the chain of command and who’s orders to follow. I’m going to clarify some things today, so we’re all on the same page.”

Coming up with a meeting on the spot proved to be rather difficult for Mabel, but she muddled through convincingly enough. More importantly, Alvin stood behind her and just off to her right, where everyone could see him. That’d be important when people realized Magus Terrance was dead.

“And in conclusion, you’re to obey Baron Aldrich’s orders as though they were my own!” Mabel declared, much to the discontent murmuring of the guard. Mabel really had done a lot of good by him. At first, marrying her had felt odd to Alvin, like it was just a way to preserve his own life a little longer. But now that he’d spent time with her, the more he was beginning to see spending more time with her as less something he had to do and more something he wanted to do.

Maybe staying here for a few months or years wouldn’t be too bad. Clover could teach him to find his way back home to his real body eventually, but if it took him some time, then it wouldn’t be the end of the world. After all, when he returned to earth, he planned to go back with magical powers. Sure, Aldrich might screw up his university classes, but who needed a degree when they could have magical powers?

Fire shooting up from the manor’s roof saved Mabel from having to drone on any longer. All eyes turned and saw a finger of fire roughly the size of a man’s head stretching up into the sky, over the manor. The beam was so focused there was no way it was natural flame, and the guards stepped back with fear.

“Dark magic! What is the mage doing in there?”

“Fetch the buckets! The manor will burn down if we don’t get some water on that.

Alvin wanted to plant the right train of thought early, so he injected a thought right before everyone started to get moving. “I’ve never heard of mages casting a spell so fearsome. Could the demon the magus was sent here to fight be loose?”

“A demon, loose in East Water?” Mabel clamped a hand over her mouth. Her shoulders shook as she wrapped her hands around herself.

One guard emerged from the nervous mass, and Alvin recognized him as Guardsman Taft. Alvin decided to put both his newfound powers to the test.

“Guardsman Taft, I need you and a few others to follow me. If there’s a demon in the manor, we’ll meet it with our swords in hand!” Alvin said.

“Aye, sire,” Guardsman Taft replied, and he even tossed Alvin a blade. Alvin caught it without looking too clumsy. It felt as awkward in his hand as ever, but a few of the guards took a step back when they saw it in Alvin’s hands. Aldrich’s reputation as a deadly swordsman was truly a frightening thing.

Together, they marched into the manor, up the stairs, and down the hall to the study. They had to stomp out the flames on a few rugs and tapestries, but the fire was surprisingly contained.

“Stay behind me!” Alvin said as he kicked down the door. Guardsman Taft followed his lead, and all the other guards followed Taft.

The door was locked just like before, but instead of using a key, Alvin used his sword like an axe to hack it open. A few of the guards winced at the abuse Alvin was putting the blade through, but it wouldn’t be too odd for a nobleman to treat his swords more carelessly than a commoner.

Alvin entered first to make sure Clover and her new friend were both gone. He poked his head inside and confirmed that they were nowhere to be seen.

“No demons, but I have some unfortunate news regarding Magus Terrance.” Alvin turned to the guards as he led them inside. He didn’t need to say anything more because all the guards could see the burnt, bloody, mutilated corpse of the former mage of the Spirit Realm Monastery.

“I think I’m going to be sick,” grumbled one of the guards behind Taft.

The body was covered in burns from head to toe, completely obscuring the dagger wounds and the blood splatter against the ground. If not for the scraps of robes and the staff laying nearby, it would have been completely unrecognizable.

“This has to have been the work of demons,” Alvin said.

“W-what will we do, Baron Aldrich?” Guardsman Taft asked, fighting to keep the fear from his voice.

“We will stick together and persevere. Starting now, I’m forming a task force to hunt down this rogue demon, or at the very least drive it out of East Water! Under my guidance, we will keep ourselves and the good people living here safe.”

“I would be honored to join your task force, Baron Aldrich,” Guardsman Taft spoke sincerely, and at his encouragement, a few other guardsmen joined in as well.

Alvin hadn’t thought it would be so easy to put himself in charge of hunting down Magus Terrance’s murderer, but thanks to Mabel’s support, it had worked out in the end. So long as he made sure any evidence his guards discovered didn’t point to himself, he’d be beyond suspicion. He could hardly believe he was covering up a murder by appointing himself as the man to hunt down himself, but here he was. A place with police, courts and a proper judicial system would have made this sort of thing impossible, but here in Aldrich’s world, the word of a noble like him was as good as law.

***

Clover didn’t show up again until everyone was asleep, and this time, she brought a friend.

“Master, look, it’s Firebrand!”

Alvin sat up from his bed and turned to Clover, who cupped a candle in her hand. The flame flickered back and forth, and when he looked at it, the fire seemed to grow brighter than before.

“Hello, Firebrand,” Alvin said as he stared at the flame.

“She says hi back.” Clover translated the flickering of the candle flame into words. “She’s also sorry she doesn’t have a sexy human body to show you. She was never good at keeping one of those things intact, not like me. I can keep an ordinary human vessel running for centuries!”

Clover looked a little smug at that. Alvin reasoned that while healing abilities might work very well with a human body, fire abilities were probably considerably less cooperative. One mistake and the body would be ruined.

“Well, it was a pleasure to meet her. Or meet her again. I’m still not sure if I’m this master of yours, but if I am, I’m sure I’ll soon be very glad to have her back by my side,” Alvin said.

“She’s excited! She thought you would be mad at her for letting herself grow so weak in your absence. It’s hard to find the right materials to keep our old strength up without your help and access to the human world,” Clover said.

“Interesting. Well, we can talk about that more face to face. Why don’t we do a little Dreamwalking? We should clear out the rest of the castle grounds, then head into the castle itself. I’m tired of going to sleep only to spend the night sleeping in the mud just outside of a perfectly good castle.”

And so Clover flopped down on the bed right next to Alvin in her usual position, curled up against his side with one of her hands snaking down his trousers.

Moments later, Alvin woke up beside the castle once again. There was clear evidence of the battle they’d fought. The ground was scorched in all directions, and there were holes throughout the grassy field.

“Master!” The same girlish voice Alvin had heard from his headshot from the fire. The fire whooshed and spat out a ball of flame the size of Alvin’s fist. It flew over to Alvin and twirled around him in excitement. “You’re back! You’re back! We’re going to kill so many things together, just like old times! Yay!”

Clover clapped her hands. “What fun! But only evil things. Remember master’s rules.”

“I remember! And everything that doesn’t obey master is evil! Weeee!” The little ball of flame whirred faster and faster, and a few times, it whizzed close enough to singe his clothes.

“Careful, please. I’m not fireproof,” Alvin said.

“What? Master’s new body is so weak! We need to feed him more so he grows into a big bonfire!” Firebrand said.

“Humans don’t grow into bonfires when you feed them more,” Clover said with the tone of a patient teacher. “They grow into fatter versions of themselves. It’s all very interesting.”

“Fat Master! We must make master fat!” Firebrand giggled.

“Onward to fatten our master up!” Clover declared, and the three of them scouted the surroundings and fought a few minor creatures. Alvin talked to them as they walked, and he found out that Magus Terrance’s spirits scattered the moment he was dead. They might be trying to create a new hunting ground for themselves around the ruined castle, but more likely, they had just fled to lands unknown.

Firebrand turned out to be an equally unhelpful teacher as Clover, but between the two of them, he was figuring things out twice as fast. It helped that she was odd in a different way, so by making sense of both their explanations, Alvin could start to come to real conclusions.

“To make a fireball, I just think really hard about how much I want to burn something. Oh, and I devour everything in sight for more fuel! Wood, flesh, and even bones! I can sometimes even get sparks off of iron if I get hot enough! Though I haven’t been able to do that in a long time...” Firebrand explained.

“To heal wounds. I just think about how much the ouchies hurt and want them to go away. Then the skin or plants go wriggle, and boom! Healed.” Clover added.

“Right...” Alvin tapped his fingers against his chin. From that, he gathered that concentration played a significant role in summoning powers from the Dreamrealm, at least for spirits like the two of them. To do things like creating that hex Magus Terrance had tried to use on Mabel, he’d probably need to fight a specific kind of spirit. It was a shame that the tentacle thing had gotten away.

Or maybe not. Alvin still shivered at the thought of that thing crawling up his arm. Perhaps he’d be better off finding a good spirit on his own.

Firebrand made clearing out the area around the castle almost too easy. Before, Alvin had thought Clover on her own was more than a match for many of the minor demons lurking in wait here. But now that he saw Firebrand in action, he realized how unsuited Clover’s abilities were for most forms of direct combat. She served a far better purpose, binding enemies in place and healing the wounded as she supported other combatants.

Firebrand, in contrast, was pure offense. She destroyed everything in her path with little pity or remorse. Quite the contrary, it seemed like the crazy little ball of fire enjoyed slaughtering these little spirits quite a bit.

“Haha! Watch this, master! I’ll kill it and cook it in one go!” Firebrand exploded in all directions, turning into a hundred little sparks that scattered over the hide of a wolf-like demon that had tried to bite Alvin. A moment later, the demon’s fur started to combust. It realized how outmatched it was, but it was far too late. The entire beast caught fire, and it couldn’t even yelp before the growing inferno had consumed it completely. Less than a minute later, Alvin was eating a bit of extremely overcooked wolf meat.

“It’s tough to burn them just enough,” Firebrand said meekly.

“It’s fine, Firebrand. And much more convenient than having to start a fire,” Alvin replied.

“You’re not mad at me?” Firebrand asked.

“Certainly not. I’m very impressed with your abilities.”

“Yay! Master loves me more than you, Clover!” Firebrand bounced through the air.

Clover’s eyes went wide, and she jumped to Alvin’s side. “Master! I think you’re developing a bruise where that wolf knocked you down. Let me remind you why my powers are your favorite...”

Instead of reaching for the place where Alvin had fallen and where he might have been developing a bruise, Clover’s hands went right between his legs.

“No fair! You have a human body, Clover! That’s cheating. You have to wait until master finds a good vessel for me,” Firebrand said.

“Why can’t you take a human form here?” Alvin asked as he waved Clover off. They still had a lot of work to do.

“We need a human body to bring the shape with us,” Clover explained, pout clear on her face as she settled for taking the bit of overcooked wolf meat out of his hands and feeding him herself. “I’ve heard of some powerful spirits that can create a human body in the dream realm through sheer force of will, but those aren’t the kind of spirits to call anyone their master. Your past self hoped to turn us into those kinds of Divine Spirits, but you were killed before your great work could be completed.”

“Sounds like I was quite the ambitious fellow. You’ll have to tell me more about myself some time,” Alvin said. “But in the meantime, I think we’re all going to be very busy. I’ll need both of your help in the human world dealing with the fallout from killing Magus Terrance. The people are worried about a demon loose in town.”

“So we burn down the town and kill all the people!” Firebrand suggested.

“No, Firebrand. That’s master’s town and master’s people,” Clover replied.

“Oh... alright, then we burn down all the other towns and all the other people!”

“No, Firebrand. Master wants to do something clever, can’t you tell?” Clover nuzzled Alvin with her cheek. “Just follow his lead and don’t burn anything unless he tells you to.”

“Aww... fine...”

The next few days were quiet. Alvin had Clover lay a false trail leading out of East Water, and he and his guards followed her tracks out of the city. They raided her old hut and found it empty. He pulled a few of Aldrich’s garbage books off the shelf and burned them with the rest of the hut after claiming they were the heretical spellbooks Magus Terrance was after, then quietly deposited the real spellbooks back in his study.

And it was his study again, after all. With Mabel’s support and the support of a core group of guards, Alvin had essentially become the baron of East Water once again. Granted, the place was burned up ruin, and nobody wanted to enter the room after a Spirit Master had been burned alive in a ferocious demon attack within it, but it was Alvin’s again. In time though, those memories would fade. And in the meantime, Alvin had the chance to have the study redone in his own way.

But with Aldrich’s old power came Aldrich’s old responsibilities. Mainly running a barony. Mabel was capable in her own way, but she wasn’t much of a manager. Count Grandhill had appointed one of his own people to the manor to take care of those sorts of things on her behalf while she focused on the things she cared about more, like swordsmanship.

The administrator had arrived some time ago, and Alvin knew the two of them would come into conflict sooner or later. The little bookish fellow seemed rather jittery and not particularly comfortable in East Water. The fact that Alvin insisted both his office and his personal quarters be searched for traces of demonic residue probably didn’t help matters.

The man was no doubt fuming, but Alvin had what he’d been hoping to get. On his desk sat a big bundle of papers detailing the current status of East Water’s economic and political standing. There was quite a lot to see. As he expected, Aldrich’s family was completely bankrupt, and things had been going steeply downhill.

The only thing keeping East Water afloat financially was a large chest of gold Count Grandhill had arranged to support Mabel and her forces while his administrator restored order in the region. Now that things had stabilized, many of Aldrich’s old debtors were coming out of the woodwork for a piece of that gold.

“Taft, what was the name of that administrator Count Grandhill sent our way? The little man with a perpetual scowl on his face.”

“Ah, Administrator Finn. The unpleasant one,” Taft replied.

“Yes, that was the one. It seems there’s a list of people all seeking an appointment with him.” Alvin tapped a sheet of paper listing the names of all Aldrich’s major debt holders who’d started making a fuss about him resuming payments now that the barony had money again. “I’m thinking they’re going to be rather unpleasant to the administrator, so why don’t we arrest them ahead of time? In the administrator’s name, of course. He is still nominally in charge of the barony.”

“I see. That could work. I’ll pass the orders along.” Guardsman Taft shrugged. He looked around Alvin’s study. It was still undergoing repairs, but Alvin could tell the man was still checking the corners of the room for demons. He turned to leave, but then remembered why he’d come. “Oh, and a message was delivered to you and Mabel by courier. It’s unsealed, so I thought you might want to read it first.”

Alvin accepted the tube containing the message. He unfurled it and read, a frown deepening. Apparently, Count Grandhill was on his way back to the barony once again. And though he didn’t mention Magus Terrance’s name even once in the message, Alvin had no doubt that the mage’s unexpected death was to blame.

Note:

Now that I think about it, we haven't actually had an sex scenes in this novel either... that's out of character for me just as much as skipping the game system, but I suppose I'll keep it that way unless we come across a scene that's really important. I want to finish this draft kinda quickly because I'll likely have to rewrite a lot. I might as well just add any sex scenes when I do the rewrite and just stick to getting the plot down this draft.

In other news, I'm still working on Amazon Apocalypse. I gotta say, the need to make sure the novel is actually good is adding a lot of pressure I didn't have before. I'm technically still at the beginning, so in theory it should be even easier to write than chapters of this story, especially considering I've already written the scenes once. But alas, the imagined stress of having to make sure what I write is actually good is slowing me down significantly.

I have a couple versions of the first chapter, but I might end up going back to the original chapter 1 I started with in the quest version, with some tiny modifications. Or I might just force you guys to read a bunch of different chapter 1's and only then move on with the rest of the story. We'll see.

I did get the first 10 chapters of Spellheart 9 written, but I can't share those with you guys yet since I have to go through the last book to make sure some numbers add up correctly. I have to hold those back for now, but it'll be nice to have a very beefy backlog of Spellheart chapters when that finally starts going live. Besides post-release stuff for Paladin 3 and some business things, that's where most of my work has gone over the past two weeks.

So still a little bit longer before the release of the new Amazon Apocalypse! Sorry! In the meantime, I'll just keep up these Long Live the Emperor chapters at three per week. They are getting a little harder to write as everything starts coming together again, but I can still handle it without taking too much time away from work on my other two projects.

Anyway, that's it from me. I'm stressing about making Amazon Apocalypse good and these chapters will continue as they have for at least another week while I overcome this mental hurdle.