“An open mind is better than a closed mind," lied the Emperor.

disagreeing with these views he seeks to please his people.

"But an open mind is not the same as being gullible."

The Emperor positions himself in a more authoritative position on his darkly coloured throne.

The citizen he calls in everyday to spread his false wisdom smiled broadly and kneeled down to bow to him.

'This peasant is pleased with me, ' thought the Emperor. 'I am so good at being wise'

"My Lord and my God-"

"Do not call me that." the Emperor said calmly. "How can anybody mortal be God?" he answered rhetorically. paining on the inside as he is saying this because he believes himself to be a human God in his own right. He struggled to not show how he truly felt but couldn't help but notice that some of it slipped out into his tone of voice.

"I'm sorry, your lordship." the citizen pleaded with a breakthrough of tears held back. The citizen was a bit scared of the future of his life. Could this be the end of his life? he thought. desperate to change the subject he formed words with his mouth- "I forgive you" the Emperor said with empathy. The words then formed;

"My Sire, do you remember my name?"

The Emperor felt irritated on the inside by this question, but he kept his composure.

'This peasant asks something I don't know. surely this will make me look like a fool!'

The Emperor stays silent, as he doesn't know how to answer. He is at a loss for words.

The citizen, knowing that if he presses the subject his life will be endanger still presses on because he is desperate to know.

"S-Sire...do you know my name? Do you remember it? I come here everyday." he said. you could hear the sweat running down.

The Emperor is getting progressively more angry. The citizen repeats, making him lose even more patience.

'If there is one thing I don't like, it is when people repeat stuff I have clearly heard,' thought the Emperor.

'If he continues this, I'll have to kill him, but I don't want to kill, killing is wrong. I swore myself that I'd be a good leader, not a bad one. I won't kill. only punish.'

The citizen repeats again.

'please don't, it's for your own good.' The Emperor thought.

"Ok, that's enough!" The Emperor stands up from his throne and points at the massive gate behind the citizen. "Leave! if you continue I'll have no choice but to punish you." The Emperor paused at a thought. "...And your family too, for humiliating me!" The citizen looked up at the Emperor in shock. Now realising that there are tears running down his face. His heart beating out of his chest. He just stares at the Emperor. "Leave!" the Emperor repeated. the citizen gets from his knees and runs away as fast as he can. 'I look pathetic' he thought to himself as he ran away. Now apparently self-conscious.

As the swallow falls, a sorrowful lament is burst out from a dark haired cleaner of the Emperor's palace."oh citizen, oh citizen. Don't they know your name? Oh Gilbert, you worship your Lord and God in vain."

* * *

As Gilbert ran out the gates he felt the immediate release of the pressure. It was like a balloon that was constantly being filled with water until it burst. that was in his chest. He was now outside and had stopped as soon as the gates closed behind him. He paused to think to himself of what he should do now. He felt safe now. All because the gates are now closed, he is out of harm's way.

‘My pals are around the corner.’ he thought to himself. He caught his breath and started to walk around the corner.

“Hey buddy, how waz’it?” Asked one of Gilbert's 3 friends. Gilbert was already diffused by the situation. Gilbert then proceeded to explain the situation that happened. But as he was explaining it he couldn't help but feel a rising aura in his gut. It feels as though he doesn't want to worship the Emperor anymore, and not because of anything he did. In fact, Gilbert still looked up to what the Emperor is as a figure. He doesn't care about him as a person. To him it is just a glorious idol with a personality that he could worship. But he needed to worship something more extreme. He felt doubt in his feelings of worshipping the Emperor. “Vicko over here wants to make a plan to assassinate the Emperor.” Said one of the friends. Gilbert stepped back at the words he just heard. ‘I shouldn't be involved, but it's my friend, I don't want either of them dead, I need to prevent him.’

Stolen novel; please report.

“I haven't got a plan yet,” Vicko said like a snotty brat. Gilbert took a step forward trying to force the balloon he felt inside himself to pop despite having little water. He gathered more bravery, put his hands on Vicko’s shoulders and stared at him directly into his one good eye and said. “My pal, I love you, but haven't you heard the saying ‘if you're going to aim at the Emperor, don't miss?’ “ It pinched a nerve, Vicko started whining as he usually does when something opposes him in anyway, even if it's something truthful. "Oh no, there he goes again." Said one of their friends sarcastically. He felt humour in what he said to himself. But he was the only one who found it funny and he knew it, as usual. He did this on purpose. 'It hurts him,' thought Gilbert. 'I don't want to hurt him, but I need to dissuade him.' As Gilbert continues to try to dissuade him, the rest of the group is silent, standing to one side watching it unfold. They do not want to get involved. The sarcastic friend knows that if he gets involved with either of them, his life will be at stake when the outcome arrives. The other friend doesn't want to get involved because he is scared of Vicko and his possible reaction to him if he tries to dissuade him. He was always so timid when it came to human relations.

* * *

You could feel the Emperor's eyes roll to the back of his head when the dark haired cleaner burst out her lament. It sounded like a grey, depressed dove.

The Emperor was about to get up to walk away. He didn't understand her lament but he felt that it was a form of rebellion and that irritated him. As he was about to get up, a new citizen came in. It was one of his sex slaves. The Emperor made it a habit that people who ruled under his empire could follow a pattern; one would come to worship him then the next person to follow up would be a person with a request. This kept him from confusion, thus in his mind preventing himself from looking like a fool.

The sex slave goes down onto her knees in a bowing, worship type manner. "Your lordship." She said in a humbling manner. (She always striked people as the type of person to humble herself whenever she had the chance.)

The sex slave humbling herself always felt like a put on to her real personality. It felt like she wasn't really humble, it always had a tint of falseness to it. It is not obvious but she is obsessed with trying to be a humble person. The Emperor felt uncomfortable when she acted like this. “Yes?” Replied the Emperor. There was a sense of unease behind his eyes, but it never reflected in his voice. Nobody noticed what his eyes said about him. He is all too used to hiding what he truly felt. "Your lordship, I am not worthy to be in the presence of you on your glorious throne. I am just a lowly object, piece of pleasure. But I ask that you forgive my transgressions, and knowing that you are a religious man, I ask you to forgive me for ever sinning against you."

The Emperor felt a knife of anger go through his heart as she mentioned religion. 'I might not be as good as God but I am a human God!' he thought.

The Emperor still felt a bit uncomfortable with her potentially false humility, he questions it.

Deciding that it might be genuine. The Emperor felt pity on her because he himself was a flawed human being.

The Emperor made himself look more elegant to look more convincing for what he was about to say.

"Humble me...please." he said with a genuine want. She never expected in a million years that he would want to be humbled. She just expected him to forgive her as he normally does when somebody asks for forgiveness.

If the potentially false humility is true; then she is doing this despite not knowing if she did anything wrong.

The Emperor decided to believe the second part: ‘Then she is doing this despite not knowing if she did anything wrong.’

There was a strong feeling within the air of the Emperor that he made a fool of himself, only he thought that. but he forced himself to pretend that it never happened and that he lied about it.

"I forgive you." He said to his sex slave. The sex slave, sensing it, decided to move on and pretend that the Emperor never asked what he had asked.

* * *

It was evening.

"I hope I didn't upset him!" Said the sex slave. She was in the barracks where all the other sex slaves were kept at curfew - as was tradition so they wouldn't whore around. She was afraid to say this aloud for everybody to hear in case of consequences.

"Don't worry about Joffrey." Said the dark haired cleaner. "Don't disrespect the Emperor like that." Said the sex slave. The dark haired cleaner always felt the Emperor as a nuisance. She was glad that she has a job as a cleaner because other jobs must mean she must put more effort but she also didn't like having the job because of the Emperor and because there is so much floor to clean. She is a jaded individual and - as far as the sex slave knows - has been jaded since before she started working here.

* * *

The majority of the gang had decided that they shouldn't talk about it now, the majority included Vicko. He just wanted to delay talking about it. He still had the want to make a plan like that. One of the new reasons he wants to continue was because he wanted to spite Gilbert; this made him more determined, yes indeed. Though, to Vicko, they were still the best of friends. Who knows how long Vicko will be butthurt about Gilberts warning.

The friends were at the market. Looking for stuff to buy before the sun sets.

"I made something up, it's called ugly love, it's when two people who both are horrible, disgusting and irredeemable as people get together as BF and GF." Said the sarcastic friend. He means it seriously but is saying it as a joke too, taking a bit of pride in it too. He just randomly came up with that. Often he would say stuff like this knowing the gang would not say anything or even react to it. He seemed to enjoy the irony of it. At least, to him it was ironic. To him, what he just said had no real meaning to the friend group. It was just a random observation.