Royal Interlude: Two Kings (Patreon)

In the current era, the Aizen Kingdom was undoubtedly outmatched when it came to relaying information across great distances. Mainly because they had access to resources that could only be found beyond the portal, in a world that nobody should ever visit if they could avoid it. Really, that place was horrible.

Roland, at least, wished he could torch the entire thing and be done with it. But they were slowly starting to discover signs that there were intelligent beings somewhere out there that weren't just some intelligent monstrosity. And both Roland and his father were of the opinion that interacting with them could prove useful. Perhaps they could even serve as allies to Aizen, for they were strong enough to survive in such a god-forsaken place. In any case, nobody had the power to just blow everything away, so Roland and all his subjects would have to live with a naked blade in their throats for the foreseeable future.

His job was to make sure the people didn't know the naked blade existed. They couldn't really do anything about it, and the crown was already doing all it could to handle matters. If they remained ignorant, they could continue on and live full lives filled with simple happiness and simple problems.

But in any case, it was because of the rapid relaying of information that Roland received his troublesome little brother's first report since going off and playing at spyhood.

And what a report it was.

'It's good that he's fine.'

Roland smiled as he drummed his fingers on his desk. He was enjoying one of the rare breaks in the day when there wasn't any work to be done. And he was using it to muse on his brother's good health — though the good health bit remained dubious at best. At least he was alive. That would have to count for something. Of course, he was aware of the Transcendent artifacts Reivan had with him, but as a brother, he still felt uneasy about having his brother so far away from home and behind enemy lines.

He supposed this was how the relatives of the spies the kingdom sent all over the place felt. The dread of never seeing their loved one again. With not even a body to bury or a cause of death to muse on.

Just the cold hard news that they were dead.

And that was if they were lucky that news of death arrived. Some simply waited for decades, yearning for people who would never return.

"You look like you're thinking of something complicated."

Roland looked to the side to see his father, the former king of Aizen, lounging on one of the office sofas with his foot resting on the low table. The man looked quite comfortable too, reading some kind of treatise written by a king of centuries past.

"Father." The king nodded. "What are you doing here?"

Rodin chuckled. "I came to see my son at work. Is something the matter?"

"You make it sound innocent, but our profession is not really one where you can simply drop in and observe, is it?"

"So I can't be here?"

Roland drummed his fingers on the table, something he noticed was slowly becoming a habit. He only did it when he was talking to annoying people whose heads were too heavy for him to have chopped off. Of course, he'd never had anyone's head chopped off, but he could, just not with certain people.

Well, he could if he really wanted to. But he didn't.

"If you're going to loiter here anyway," Roland sighed. "At least offer me counsel of some kind."

"You seem to be doing very well on your own so far." Rodin smiled, though he didn't look up from the book he was reading. "I don't want to intrude."

"This is a bit too big for that kind of worry." Roland stood up and poured himself some wine from a nearby carafe. He didn't drink often, but his recent thoughts granted him a headache that he couldn't quite deal with sober. "I did not transfer it to you, but you got a hold of Reivan's report, yes?"

Rodin nodded, tapping at a bracelet with a small gem that allowed for instant transfer of information. "You told your mother. She and I have no secrets."

"Sure." Roland rolled his eyes but he did not contest his father on this mistaken assumption. "Then I believe you should know that our little... guest in Grimharbor Penitentiary has finally spoken."

"Torture?"

"Of course not. Even if she is technically a criminal under our laws, We chose not to go that far in consideration of how important she seems. She also deems us a lesser evil than the republic that wants her spirit beast dead."

"Spirit beast...?" Rodin frowned at the sudden mention of them, though it hadn't been that long since he was reminded of the strange beings. In Reivan's report, there had been a part about the spirit beasts he'd caught in strange objects called orbs. "What about them?"

"Yes, well, I believe you haven't gone senile enough to have forgotten what Reivan reported about his newest friend, hm? The one who can Ascend after devouring a certain number of spirit beasts with that quality. Dom, or whatever his name was."

"The white wolf, yes." Rodin nodded. "I remember. Though, I could have done without the snide comment about my age."

"In any case, let us assume that after a spirit beast seed Ascends, it becomes a Spirit King."

"Go on. That's probably exactly how it works though."

"Focus, Father. Now, hypothetically speaking let us assume that these Spirit Kings are the same. They need to devour other Spirit Kings to advance to..." Roland paused to think. "Spirit Emperors. Or Spirit Saints, maybe? In any case, their advancement will also require the devouring of their own kind."

Rodin smiled and nodded, giving Roland the gnawing impression that his father knew everything he was alluding to before he even said it.

"Alright, hold onto that idea." Roland rolled his eyes. "Now, merely going off how long the Tower has been utilizing spirit beasts in such massive droves, we can assume that they know how this works too, right?"

"There is some sense in that, yes." The former king nodded to his son. "Of course, we could be wrong. But it is not a farfetched assumption, as the Tower has worked with the creature for centuries."

"And so." Roland paused, taking a pull from his cup before pouring himself another one. "Provided that the Tower knows, has access to a world where people who've never been there yet could catch spirit beasts, and take them out against their will, it is not hard to imagine that the Tower will want to farm seeds to produce Spirit Kings, thereby producing enough to birth a Transcendent."

“That,” Rodin nodded slowly, his smile having faded already. “Is a sound hypothesis. And so, I’m assuming you are bringing up this assumption because our guest has provided damning evidence?”

“I questioned her personally, and the way her spirit beast advanced the ability Reivan described. And the beast itself matched how his newest pet acted, hunting down certain worthy foes.”

“I see.”

Rodin sighed as he reclined, his back sinking into the sofa’s embrace. His eyes closed in silent thought for a moment before they opened once again, two pairs of blue eyes meeting in the air as he spoke again.

“I assume you have the makings of a plan?”

“Is there any other plan than to declare war?” Roland laughed sheepishly.

The very nature of Aizen’s defense was offense. Knights would eliminate threats before they really became threats. And way before any damage would spill over to the kingdom’s soil. That was the thing they wanted to avoid the most, as the royal family and the knighthood were all well aware of just how destructive a fight between Ascendants could be to the surroundings.

Cities could quite literally disappear as collateral damage.

So every single knight in service of Aizen’s crown would agree that they would rather take the fight to the enemy than sit in their fortresses and wait. Yes, the kingdom had centuries of enchantments and all sorts of supernatural hoo-hah built up in cases when the fighting actually does spill over to the motherland. But those were a last resort. They did not want to test those defenses.

And why would they consume them when they could just sally out and break their enemies? That had always been the thought process behind the kingdom’s aggressive defense strategies. It was why the knights frequently culled the nightmare spawns beyond the portal from time to time.

Because when the monsters came, be they from the north, the west, the east, or from another world, Aizen wanted the threat to have ceased being a threat at all.

And so, war.

They would wage war on the Tower. And they would not stop until the Sage King was dead.

‘No, wait. That’s not quite true…’

Roland looked down and combed his dark hair back, considering the kingdom’s victory conditions.

The threat, in this case, was the possibility that one of their neighbors could spawn another Transcendent, potentially breaking the balance of the continent. Aizen simply needed to neuter that possibility, and the most sure-fire way was to slay the Sage King. That way, even if the Tower successfully waited its way into producing another Transcendent, it would have a net gain of zero.

Another way, which was only now known to him because of his dear brother’s excellent work, was to destroy the world that allowed the Tower to so easily acquire spirit beasts.

Now was the time to strike. Because judging from the information, the Tower could not send people into the world all year round, meaning now was the time to strike. As they had roughly a year before a new wave of spirit beasts came into the Tower’s clutches, each one potentially being a spirit king seed.

‘No. No… I shouldn’t be too hasty.’

They needed to do things cleanly. And for that, some preparations had to be made. At the very least, Reivan’s information had already ensured they had the better half of a year to place their knights in strategic locations around the republic, ensuring that their siege of the Tower would not be interrupted from other directions.

There was a portal, now that he thought about it. Reivan’s work. Again. Or rather, it was a combination of Reivan’s people and that thug organization he had his fiancee run.

In any case, with that portal, positioning people in Arkhan would be a lot easier, as they could bypass the borders completely. Ironically, Arkhan’s interior defense was brittle, as much of their lands were uninhabited and unfortified, unlike Aizen, who had kept to a much smaller territory for thousands of years so they could more easily defend everything.

With that, an assault plan was decided. It was a simple plan, but it would have to do. Besides, a plan that had more steps than one had fingers wasn’t a plan — it was wishful thinking. Variables were bound to show up when the operation started. It would then be up to the participants to adapt. And a thirty-step plan didn’t encourage such things.

The main participant, of course, would be Sir Rolf, the Sword Star. He would most definitely have to be mobilized. And that had a whole host of problems. For one thing, the portal could not be left unattended.

‘The Saintess, then.’

Roland would have to negotiate her aid in its defense. That would reveal an incredible amount of unwanted information. But the portal’s existence wasn’t damning in the eyes of the church. The royal family hadn’t wanted the damned thing either. It had simply appeared. And that was the truth.

Information had a way of leaking the more people knew about it, which was why the crown had never told the Saintess about the demonic portal to another dimension. Besides, the Sword Star could still handle most things and had already stained his blade with the blood of countless Transcendent Nightmares.

Despite that, the crown had never questioned whether she would aid or not. It was a matter of course. She would not help them invade another country — even if it was in the name of defense — but the portal? With nasty little hellspawns running around everywhere? That was something she would not ignore.

Now, though the Saintess was a significantly duller blade than the Sword Star, she was unnaturally sturdy when she wanted to be. The Sword Star had even admitted that he wouldn't be able to penetrate the tiny little church Aizen had bestowed upon them. Not without wailing on it for an extended period of time.

That troubling aspect of her was what made her the perfect sentinel. Now, Sir Rolf would be free to leave Aizen for a while.

‘There’s the Gladiator King as well.’

There had always been a balance of power in the continent as far as Transcendents went. Aizen’s Sword Star and Saintess. Argonia’s Wag God and the Pontifex. Then there was Arkhan’s Sage King and Gladiator King.

That balance was broken a while ago, when Aizen obtained a promise from the Golden Star that they could use the Gladiator King once.

It was a net gain of two Transcendents. Because not only did Aizen gain a temporary ally, but they would also smother the chance that the Gladiator King would turn its blade on them.

The only remaining problems were the Sage King’s defenses — which he wouldn’t know until the siege began — and Argonia’s response. But the latter was already somewhat answered by Roland’s intention to finish the war in one go.

Just the press of a trigger, and it would end just as soon as it began. That would give any third parties little chance to respond.

‘It’s not enough… It’s missing something.’

Roland bit his lip as the cogs in his head turned. He noticed his father looking at him with serenity, so Roland decided that he might as well pick the former king’s brain. With a sigh, he divulged his thoughts.

“It’s not enough.” Rodin shook his head, saying exactly what Roland thought. “You forgot about Aguru.”

“Right.” Roland slapped his forehead. “He’s also a factor in this…”

The supposedly sentient monkey on the verge of Transcendence was a bit of a wild card that nobody had expected. Reivan had mentioned the ape’s pacifistic nature, but it wasn’t as if Aizen’s prince had a foolproof method of discerning people.

If he did, Roland and Rodin wouldn’t have figured out a way around his ability to tell convincing lies. Jiji was starting to notice it too, as she grew in experience.

It was, after all, in the nature of those who handle politics to doubt everything they heard instinctively. Roland and Rodin even doubted their own wives and each other. Of course, this doubt would be quickly squashed because of the trust that had already been built up and because their familial bonds were strong.

Still, it was in their nature to doubt everything. And in the constant allaying of those doubts, the foundations of trust were strengthened. For example: every day Roland woke up with his wife right next to him, he was steadily more convinced that she wasn't out to stab him in his sleep. The doubt was always there, ingrained through years of conditioning, but trust would silence those doubts as soon as they came.

They would have to come before being silenced, however.

And that was the problem with Reivan’s ability. Roland had infinite trust in his brother, but no amount of trust was enough for Roland to just not feel any doubt at all. But when his brother lied, the promised internal question of “is he telling the truth?” was completely absent.

That was the thing that exposed his lies, in the end. Of course, only inherently paranoid individuals like those who lurked in Aizen’s court and had

Roland didn’t know if there was a similar loophole or workaround to all of Reivan’s other abilities, but the fact of the matter was that Reivan’s judgment wasn’t ironclad. Not when it came to his special abilities, at least. That would have to be fixed over time, just not by Roland. And certainly not any time soon, as they were much too busy to do so.

And so, that brought Roland’s thoughts back to the subject of whether Aguru could actually be trusted to stay out of things. Sure, the ape was just an Ascendent at the moment. The main players of the operation would be Transcendents, with Ascendents simply offering moral support in the background or perhaps serving as a net, preventing the Tower’s Ascendents from flying over to the relatively undefended Aizen and waging utter destruction across its lands in revenge.

Some errant hermit, even an Ascendant, had no place in the story at all.

The variable in this was Reivan’s impression that the beast was close to rising. And that had implications. Protocol would dictate that they kill Aguru to remove a chaotic variable, but Roland’s neck itched at the notion. Somehow, that didn’t seem like a good idea.

“Then…” Roland frowned, drumming his fingers on the table for a good few moments as he arranged his thoughts. “Then we help the hermit become a Transcendent.”

Rodin raised a brow, the embers of a smile blooming on his face. “For what reason?”

‘Damn you, Father. You’re actually testing me right now?’

Still, it was heartening that he had an actual experienced king to bounce ideas off of. “We see what he does. Instead of Aguru being a chaotic variable, we intentionally raise him up. Reveal his colors and whatnot.”

“If he is a pacifist as he says he is…”

“Then all is well. We convince him to leave. Go elsewhere. As payment for our help.”

“And if he is a more feral player than he lets on? People often reveal their true colors after obtaining great power.”

Roland nodded, waving his hand in nonchalance. “Then the Tower can deal with him. Aguru is in the republic. So let the republic deal with it. It could potentially weaken the Sage King as well. If the ape comes to Aizen, he’ll be in for a treat. Saintess Frey will gladly help rebuff a monstrous invader. And we won’t have to bring Sir Rolf too far away from the portal. And we won’t have to reveal the portal’s existence to anyone.”

Rodin’s lips became a genuine smile as he nodded in approval. “Better.”

“Better…?” Roland echoed, noting the bare hints of nuance in his father's voice. “Did I miss anything else?”

“You wrote off Argonia too easily.”

“Argonia…?”

Roland took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment, letting the cogs in his mind spin once again. It didn’t take long though. “You mean we could leak information to them? Have them join the assault on the Tower?”

“There is that.” Rodin nodded. “Do you not think it is in their best interest to smother this as well? The republic’s enmity toward the empire is much greater than whatever resentment they have for us. Fear is what Arkhan has for us, and that could certainly act as a catalyst. But Argonia will know that, after the Tower obtains another Transcendent, no matter who the Tower goes after first, they will try to vanquish the other.”

“I disagree.” Roland shook his head as he poured himself another cup of wine, downing it in one pull. “There is a chance that Arkhan will lose one of their Transcendents in the eventual clash.”

“You forget to keep in mind the nature of the Transcendents of Argonia and Aizen.” Rodin gestured roughly in the direction of the giant mountain smack dab in the middle of the nation. “The Sword Star may be a noble individual who sees nothing wrong with dying to protect the nation, but Argonia’s Transcendent is also their emperor. Not the ruling one, but still the power behind the throne. And what are the chances that Arkhan goes after them first?”

Roland’s brows furrowed in thought. “They’ve been building alliances so…”

“Arkhan knows that those alliances are just a farce to stop the skirmishes that have happened for centuries. It is a friendship born of a desire to stop hitting each other with their sticks. Now, imagine that Arkhan suddenly gets another stick?”

“I suppose they’ll want revenge.”

“Yes.” Rodin nodded. “It is, of course, a convenient interpretation. But nonetheless, it is publicly perceived that if Arkhan ever had the chance to, they would want to take out Argonia first. It is not reality that matters, in our particular case. It is the perceived notion that matters, because Leonel, the War God, will also think that he’ll be first on the chopping block. And no tyrant will want to risk their throne on bad odds. He might take the enemy down with him, but any outcome that results in his death is, ultimately, a loss. He will try to avoid it at all costs. There are records of this kind of behavior from the era before Sentorale had any Trascendants. A time when Ascendants were gods.”

“I see... And so, if we leak the information, the empire will want an alliance. To crush the Sage King.”

“That is what I believe. This is, of course, in the case where Leonel actually believes us.”

“That is the hurdle, yes…” Roland rested his chin atop his palm and hummed in thought. Eventually, he gave up and sighed, turning his gaze toward his father. “Got any ideas?”

Rodin chuckled wryly and shook his head in exasperation. “I have a few. Why don’t you try thinking about it a bit first?”

“This isn’t really the time for a lesson, Father…”

And so, the two kings, current and former, exchanged thoughts on the nature of how the Sage King would fall. Peace was never discussed, however, as both understood that Aizen would never be safe with such a volatile situation festering right next to them.

A few days later, Reivan’s second report, one that gives mention of Mira, arrived and the two kings had to revise their plans all over again.