-Sword Kingdom, The Capital-

Aldrin sighed, being the King of the Sword Kingdom had been his greatest aspiration, 'been' because he was now realizing that although being the King had some merits, it certainly wasn't worth all the work he had put in at his age.

He had gone through assassination attempts, political plots, rivalries, and challenges beyond what he could still remember at his refined age. His mottled gray hair testified to his age all too clearly, and his advanced years sent jolts of happiness into the minds of his enemies.

Back in his prime, he had slashed and shredded his way through all adversaries, but obviously that was no longer a viable solution, and all of his past allies were now either dead or had one leg in the grave.

Recently though, the Administrative Minister: basically the person who managed both the finances of the Kingdom as well as national relationship's, such as those they had with the Adventurer's and Blacksmiths' Guilds, was trying to push his nephew to become the Kingdom's heir.

In the Sword Kingdom the method for the ascension of a new king was 'abnormal'. Instead of passing royalty through the bloodline, once the current king's ruling term ended, they would choose someone who they though should be the next king and send them into the 'Runic Chambers.'

The Runic Chambers were a permanent version of a Meteor Labyrinth buried deep in the ground. For some reason it had never burst and released it's monsters, so at some point in the past, one of the kings had an extremely complex series of trials installed inside the Meteor, designed to test the taker's honor, bravery, wisdom, and of course, swordsmanship.

But like all machines, especially with one this old, it could be fooled.

You would think that with him being able to choose the next heir, it was impossible for the Administrative Minister to push his nephew to become the heir, but in all truth, it wasn't even that hard. In fact he had used the same method to force the last king into sending him. Although that mostly only worked because nobody, including himself thought he would pass the Chambers.

Anyways, the Minister planned to force his nephew into the position by taking-

Suddenly the door to the office Aldrin was sitting in, burst open.

"Sir!" An exhausted looking and heavily panting man in a sergeant outfit flew into the room, "Sir! We have a report from Sliver Pass!"

"Oh?" Aldrin spoke with all the surprise he could muster at his age, "I don't believe I recall anything important happening all the way over there, unless the Magic Kingdom has finally succeeded in one of their infernal skirmishes, and taken over the castle."

Looking slightly lost, the sergeant questioningly asked, "Sir..?"

"Well go on ahead then," Aldrin said, "Read your report."

The sergeant saluted and pulled a piece of parchment out of his pocket, "Yes Sir!"

"To his Ever-Sharp Majesty, I write this report as commander of the Sliver Pass Fortress. I myself will be arriving just a few days behind this message, but for the sake of giving his Majesty the latest news, I could not delay sending it by even a few days."

The sergeant took a long breath and continued, "In this account I detail the suddenly eventful last few days. Starting about 8 days before you should receive this message, the Magic Kingdom launched another one of their not-infrequent and extremely aggravating border skirmishes. We deployed our default tactics, pushing out to dry out their mana and pulling back in to finish them from a range."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

The sergeant started coughing, interrupting the message.

"Go on then," Aldrin said, pouring out water in a tall glass of water, "drink up, I expect you would be parched after making your way all the way over to this old man."

Taking the glass of water and downing it all in one large gulp, the sergeant continued, "After sending our troops out to combat the Magic Kingdom's forces, I, who was commanding the troops from my perch noticed something odd about the enemy's troops. Instead of trying to push their way further infield and breach the fortress, they looked to be drawing our troops further out. Noticing as much, and as wary of the cowardliness of the Magic Kingdom as I am as wary of an open blade, I ordered our troops to remain in their positions, and not to follow the retreating backs of those Magic Kingdom scum. Thank the kingdoms that my suspicion was spot on, as soon as I issued the command to not follow the Magic Kingdom's troops any further, just as our soldiers valiantly backed away from the slavering jaws of the enemy, two more entire regiments of the Magic Kingdom's soldiers appeared to our sides, making us all but a peninsula in a violent sea."

Again taking a breath, the sergeant continued yet again, "I admit, even my astute mind had started to panic now, I immediately ordered a retreat and rushed our soldiers back towards the castle. But it seemed that the Magic Kingdom had put their all into this attack, not just the number of soldiers, but even their quality had increased by three-fold. It was now that a miracle appeared within a storm of misfortune, as I was rallying the troops back into the fortress, a somewhat handsome white-haired and gold eye-patched jumped down from heaven like a god appearing before mortal men. He spoke to me these words: 'Retreat faster valiant heroes' saying such with a heroic gleam in his own eye, he flew into the sky like god himself, and upon his fall down, not just he, but a meteor of divine flames crashed down into the Magic Kingdom soldiers, burning their weak into ashes, and some of the few that survived were wiped out mere seconds later by a second flash of heavenly tribulation."

Pausing and glancing at the letter with an odd glance, perhaps wondering why an esteemed commander of the Sliver Pass would be hailing someone as a god. Even still he continued reading: "Our savior landed next to his beautiful angel and together they walked towards another few regiments of Magic Soldier's that had just arrived, along with a group of what I assume to be the Magic Kingdom's finest warriors. After speaking to them for but a moment, the elites and their soldiers, clearly scared for their lives, ran away as fast as they could, no doubt going to report to that bastard king of theirs. To his Esteemed Majesty, King Aldrin."

"Oh my," Aldrin said with a twinkle of curiosity and not a small amount of amusement in his eye, "Looks like the commander has quite a flair for the dramatic, to write his letter more like a great odyssey than a military report. But I am quite interested in the commander's 'God and Angel' that he claim came down from heaven to save his fortress."

Scratching his forehead, he asked the sergeant, "You wouldn't happen to know where this white-haired man and his angel are, would you? I do suppose I owe him my thanks for preventing the downfall of the kingdom."

The sergeant nodded his head: "Last I have heard they were coming along in the carriage train with the commander, as it seems they couldn't find any other means of transportation back to the capital."

"God's apostle in need of transportation? Looks like god had fallen into poverty," Aldrin chuckled, "Oh what terrible humor I have nowadays."

The sergeant yet again gave him an odd look, to which the King responded with a wide grin and a twinkle in his eye that only a man of his advanced age could sport.

"Well then, I have heard your report son," Aldrin said, "If you are up to it, send a message for those God's apostles to come meet me as fast as they may come. And of course, if you are yet too fatigued to set off again, just send for another messenger."

The sergeant saluted him, "Sir!" And briskly turned and walk back through the door.

"Looks like my luck hasn't abandoned me quite yet," Aldrin said to himself with a sparkling white smile, "Perhaps the future of the Sword Kingdom will start to look up again."

Aldrin put on a sad smile and got up out of his seat, readying himself to again enter his throne room and face the endless complaints and problems that any King must face in his journey to improve his kingdom.

Although Aldrin may not have ascended the throne with the best intentions, or with the best methods, he truly cared about his kingdom now, his many years seemed to have increased his affection for his home without his noticing.

He pasted a fake smile over his wrinkled face and pushed open the large double doors to walk into the throne room.

His face may have changed, but his thoughts remained the same. The great Sword Devil, founder of the Sword Kingdom, may have died long, long ago. But it didn't matter, Aldrin would carry out his legacy, and make the Kingdom of the Sword greater than any to ever be or any to ever come!