As Alexia called out more and more names, Charles suspicion grew.
Trian Albestro: The Unicorn Lord
Celiana Jobaron: The Pheonix Lord
Pencil Normokoy: The Dragon Lord
The positions had changed. None of the other names for the army commanders had been dropped, but a new one had been included. Because of this, the order had changed, Albestro was supposed to be the Centaur Lord, Jobaron the Unicorn Lord, Normokoy the Phoenix Lord.
If Charles could, he would have walked on the stage and directly asked Alexia, what was going on? But without a change in her tone Alexia kept on calling one noble after another…
Danel Bilromen: The Lord of Resources
Sementa Periol: The Lord of Information
Arthur Dragathon: The Lord Commander in Chief
What was going on? Dragathon was to be given the Dragon Lord. Charles was supposed to be Commander in Chief.
And finally, the fifth princess of Dhamlan called out, “Charles Warammar.”
There was total silence in the hall. From the beginning of the ceremony the hall had been silent. Earlier everyone had maintained decency as a token of respect. But this silence was different, it was filled with confusion and doubt.
The most confused person in the entire hall was Charles. What was happening? Why did Alexia change everything? Slowly he started making his way towards the stage. His footsteps felt eerily loud , as if trying to compete with his wildly beating heart. Why was he going to the stage, there were no positions left? He stopped in front of Alexia and stared at her, stared deep in her eyes searching for an answer. An emotion passed through her face and then it dawned upon him…
Raising his hands, Alexia turned to the crowd. “From today onwards, you will not follow one person; but two, you will not charge behind one; but two, you will not have one lord; but two. Charles Warammar, I declare you as the lord of my territory and an equal to me. Your position will be my position, your word will have the same weight as mine, you will lead the same territory as me cause you and I are equal.”
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Charles didn't even register what Alexia said. He understood, he had finally understood what had been going on. Someone had set him up, set him up big time.
From now on he would have to attend all the duties a territorial lord had to, he would have to make specific reports on the progress of his territory, attend Dhamlan Lords meetings, but most importantly, he would have to face the Warammar’s again. Involuntarily a shiver passed through his body, memories started resurfacing, memories he didn't want to remember, memories he was better off without. His breathing became jagged and-
There was a gentle squeeze on his right hand. Charles looked to the side, Alexia was giving him a sidelong look filled with concern. Charles instantly brought a smile to his face. Squeezing her hand back, he turned towards the crowd and raised it higher.
After all the positions were announced, it was time to distribute the Beads of Familiarity*. These were special items found in the Eternal Realm. They allowed awakeners entering the Realm for the first time, to be connected with each other and spawn at the same position. There was one head bead with which all the beads had to be connected. Generally, the territory lord owned the head bead and distributed all the connected beads to the other awakeners.
All the thousand awakeners formed a neat queue in front of Alexia and Charles and started collecting their beads. Of course, the positions in the queue were hierarchical, with the nobles right at the front.
Many nobles gave Charles hateful and loathsome looks; he used to live on the streets, he had not been born in their society, yet here he was given the highest possible position and soon going to be their lord. The commoners looked at him with awe. He was an inspiration for them; starting from nothing he had gone on to become equal to the princess of their Empire.
Charles wasn't bothered by any of this, his mind was far from reality. He was thinking of a lot many things and feeling a lot many things; most prominent of them being fear. He was afraid, afraid of the future. Charles hadn't felt like this for a long time, he was used to having everything under his control, in the palm of his hand but this time it was different, this time he hadn't even seen the attack coming towards him. That was his ability, he could see everything physical that was directed towards him, and such was his personality too. He liked being in control, he liked knowing what other people were going to do against him and when he didn't it left him vulnerable, it left him weak.
Becoming the lord of the territory wasn't that bad of a thing. He would have to step into the spotlight which he very much liked to avoid, he would have to face the people who had given him nightmares for years, but after overcoming the initial shock Charles understood these weren't the most serious issues…
Charles finally understood something, making him her equal was more like a last ditch effort Alexia had done. The true aim of the person pulling the strings was to not give him any positions in Alexia’s army or at the most make him just a Brigade Lord. Charles shivered thinking about the people who could order the princess to change the commanders in her army or rather the only person who could do that. And Charles had caught the attention of that being, this was way more frightening…