Chapter 226.

PART 1.

After the meetings of the monarchs were done, they left for the Subcontinent. Hatori is getting paranoid, he is constantly looking for threats. All the training that Zeko gave him is making him go into overdrive, the death of his master is not doing his mental state any favors either.

“Halt!” he declared before they stepped inside of the airship. Hatori senses around for any threats, including inside of the airship. Unable to feel anything inside, he goes in there to investigate. “Stay outside until I say so.”

Entering the airship, Hatori does not find anything unusual. He analyzed the runes as well, for which he used his recently developed rune analyzer which works on any item that has runes carved on it, including an airship. Finding nothing out of the place, he finally beckons his friends and the king inside.

“Everything is clear.” He said, not sounding happy.

Avinash understands this feeling. The last time they visited this continent, they did not have an easy time while leaving. Though there are no attacks or adventures through the sea, they are still going with a gloomy feeling. Zeko could have lived for many more years, but his life is cut short. At least by the mage standards. Porus will be devastated. His student died before him.

For the rest of this trip, Raven and Josh try to keep Hatori together, to make sure he does not attack anyone out of a sense of paranoia. They cannot wait to go back to their country. They feel at least they are under control of the things there, even though horrible things do happen to people in the Subcontinent as well.

PART 2.

After Avinash arrives, and the funeral for Zeko is done, Porus tells Avinash about the invasion of the Academy and the death of Corvus, the former headmaster. Though none of them were close to the former headmaster, they still felt bad after listening to his death. It seems they are getting the news of someone's death all the time nowadays.

Suresh is also sent back to the Subcontinent. With full honors given to him by the emperor, he enters the court of his king, and hands over the letter by emperor Hao to Avinash. It is usually a word salad, something something good relations, something something friendship, etc. etc.

“In short, we can safely say that you were successful in helping his faction?” asked Avinash.

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Said Suresh. “Though I did not participate in any conflict directly.”

“Good,” said Avinash. “I always believe that people have to fight for themselves, or else they will always feel as if their pride is trampled.”

Suresh shares some of his experiences in Zhongguo. It was a unique geographic area where he got to see a conflict and participate in the planning process. This information is important for the military; therefore, Raven is noting his observations down. Later, they will analyze these observations in more detail to come up with their own plans, should they ever get into a conflict with Zhongguo in the future.

After Suresh is done, Avinash gives him some days off. Raven leaves to speak with him further, and Avinash shares what he learned in the Doichland with Porus and other important people in his government, such as his ministers Akshit and Sagar, and of course, the old king.

“I always had some suspicions, especially when in the last twenty years of my reign the noble families started to act up. That also included the forced summoning of Hatori. they twisted my arm to perform the ritual, or they threatened to do it themselves.” Said Porus. “I could not let that happen, because such a child growing under their control and influence would be disastrous for the country. Not to mention, the boy would have a rather sad childhood.”

“That would have been bad indeed.” Said Avinash. “Hatori is not an easy person to deal with most of the time. I imagine he would have been far worse if he were to grow up under their control.”

Though their venture with Zhongguo was successful, Avinash is not feeling any joy. The death of Zeko, the invasion of the Academy, and the death of a prominent mage like Corvus put a damper on the mood.

PART 3.

Meng Hao felt that it was in his best interest to hunt down the people who conspired against Zuo Chi. After all, that previous emperor was a dragon among men, which would not be a wrong phrase to describe the late emperor. However, if they can corner him, and force him to commit suicide, then he must do something about them before they can move against him.

But the things he has learned from the interrogation of these people are presenting quite a conundrum for him. “What should I do, Liu Bao?”

“Given the help they provided, giving them this information is the least you could do.” Said Bao. “Besides, it concerns them mostly. We do not have any advantage in keeping it to ourselves.”

“Very well. Let’s write a letter, shall we?” said the emperor, while the royal ink and royal paper were being brought to his royal desk, while he waited with his royal pen in hand.

PART 4.

The monarchs are meeting through a group mirror call. They resume their discussion. “So, did you let Albus go?” asked Avinash to the Doichland emperor.

“Yes. he is free.” Said the Kaiser. “Though I suspect that he will not have an easier time in his country.”

“Whatever.” Said Henry. “I believe we can all agree on one thing. Albion is a center for this group.”

“That might be true,” said Avinash, “But judging by the latest information I got, they have footholds in our territories.”

“Can this source be trusted?” asked Batya.

“Given it is by the new dragon emperor, it better be.” Said Avinash. “Besides, they could have never coordinated those civil wars and chaotic unrests otherwise.”

“That is true.” Said everyone. “But what can we do to solve this problem? I do think we need to bring this group out in the open.” Said the Kaiser.

“Before we can do that, we need to remove their sleeping agents from our lands.” Said Batya.

“I believe we can do all of this, but we might need to take some losses.” Said Henry. “I suggest we concede some strategic battles with them, while we work on removing their people from our government and military.”

“That is a good plan.” Avinash Agreed with Henry. “Though I feel I should point out that we can’t let it go too far, or else this might backfire on us. The losses have to be small enough that we can manage them, and handle the situation before it goes out of control for us.”

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“The young king is correct.” Said the Kaiser. “I believe we should do another call once we have taken some suitable steps.”

“Agreed.” They all said and disconnected the call.

Hatori listened to the entire conversation, remaining out of view of the mirror’s video feed. “Do you think they will be able to take the necessary steps?” he asked Avinash. “What if their trusted people are part of this conspiracy?”

“Then they will have to decide for themselves. I know what I would do.” Said Avinash. “Go speak with Porus, he has expressed his willingness to talk with you.”

“Fine.” Said Hatori. “Anything else?”

“Not at this moment.” Said Avinash.

Hatori goes to meet with Porus. He has still not come to terms with the death of Zeko completely. The fact that he has to work with the king on this mysterious conspiracy which seems to be moving them towards another worldwide conflict also does not give him enough time to do this. Hopefully, Porus will have something important for him, he is not in the mood to listen about the good old days, or how sorry he was to summon him in this dimension. Hatori has gotten over it a long time ago.

“Your majesty, you wanted to see me?” asked Hatori.

“I’m not a king anymore. You should address me by my name,” said Porus.

“That… might be harder to do.” Said Hatori, because he will have to break a lifetime of habit.

“True. Though please try it.” requested the former king. “But the reason why I called you is because I feel you are not over your master’s death.”

Hatori takes a seat before the king, while they both enjoy some tea and the cool breezes in the garden. “About that, you are right.”

“It was difficult for me. I thought that tough bastard would outlive me.” Said Porus, sipping his tea. “And here we are. He is dead, while I am still alive.”

“Things never happen the way we think.” Said Hatori. “If I were to be living in the previous dimension, I probably would be some struggling disabled adult, who is not able to find a job or something, who is also getting crushed beneath his failed ambitions.”

“That is depressing to consider.” Said Porus. “Having said that, every human should have an ambition. Even if it is a small one. I never agreed with the philosophy of being happy with what you got.”

“Some might argue that this is the path to misery.” Said Hatori.

“What do they know? Have they tried it?” said Porus. “There were many strong mages in my generation. Some of them were prodigies, and some people even thought that one of them might become a modern-day sorcerer. And here we are. I am the most famous, while others languish in obscurity. I would have never gotten here if I was happy with being a small-time alchemist, disappearing under Corvus’s shadow.”

“Speaking of whom,” said Hatori, “Aren’t you sad about his death?”

“Believe me, I am.” Said Porus. “But I can make peace with his death because of two reasons. First, he lived a long and fulfilling life. Second, he died the way he would have liked. Corvus would not be happy to live as a helpless old man, who is sick in his bed and needs help to move. Come to think of it, I am the same way.”

“I suppose the same thing is true for Master Zeko.” Said Hatori. “And of course, me as well.”

Porus and Hatori take a sip of their tea together. “In the end, what I wanted to say to you is, don’t let his death keep you down. He would not like it. If you wish to honor his memory, then do not mope in sadness for too long.”

“I won’t.” agreed Hatori. “Instead, maybe I might find someone in the future to torment by his training methods.” said Hatori with a smile.

“That’s the spirit!” said the former king, thumping Hatori on his back.

PART 5.

Dhiraj had to send a report of the damages they took in this invasion. After this, the Magecraft and Sorcery Institute replied that they needed to inspect the dimensional foundation of the Academy, to make sure that these battles did not upset the runes which created this pocket dimension.

Dhiraj wanted to refuse this inspection, but other professors convinced him that this was necessary, and those runes had not been inspected in a really long time anyway. So, he should let them run this inspection, since it would kill two birds with one stone. They will get the inspection which would come in the future anyway, and the Institute will be satisfied that the Academy is suitable to operate independently without their oversight.

Dhiraj was expecting some overbearing old man, but instead, he got a woman by the name of Mina, who was about the same age as himself, if not younger. She did not try to boss him around. Instead, she runs the inspection quietly, checks the wards, and then goes out to investigate the wider dimension beyond the school.

After they were done with this work, Dhiraj invited her to have some tea with him in his office. Never the one to hold back his words, he said what he was thinking in his mind quite bluntly. “I must admit, I was expecting you to pull the rank, and boss me around.”

Mina laughed. “That is not our goal, headmaster. We want the academies to operate on their own because we cannot keep an eye on them all the time. Not to mention, it will consume our resources which could be put to some other use.”

“Then you are here to help me, is what you mean?” asked Dhiraj.

“Quite right,” said Mina. “Your dimension is stable, though some runes need updating. I will send a rune expert to update these runes, it should optimize the performance. The school will need less power to run on as a result.”

“That is good,” said Dhiraj.

His next words would have been about how he would like Krodhatma to observe this work, but those words died in his throat. His friend is no more, and he cannot do any such work.

PART 6.

Alan, Justice, and Victoria meet at a hotel in Albion. Given what has happened, someone from Albion going outside of the country is looked at with suspicion, so they have decided to stay here instead of going to mainland Europa.

Though they failed to kill the young king of the Subcontinent or any other monarch, they did take out some strong mages. And among them is the silver bloody fox, Zeko. Still, they are tired of their repeated failures, so Alan decides to say what they are all thinking.

“It is time we replace Albus with another puppet. Choose wisely though.” said the man, “We can’t have someone incompetent as him once again.”

“He is right,” said Justice. “After his humiliation in Doichland, the public has no confidence in him. It is a perfect time to replace him.”

“Fine.” Said Victoria. “But first, we need to prepare a list.”

“I’ll do that,” said Justice.

“I’ll work on what we must do after we have our new puppet on the throne.” Said Alan.

“Give me the name, and I’ll weave my magic around them,” said Victoria.

Having decided their roles, they end this meeting.