The hallway transformed into a room as soon as we noticed each other, the space morphing as if it was natural for it to do so. A reclining chair appeared in the barely lit room, soon accompanied by a table and then two other chairs on the other side of the table.

I gulped as I felt the original protagonist tense beside me. Even though I knew what was coming, it was scary. A power seemed to press down on me, as if warning me of what stood before me. I wonder why the Monarch of Justice chose such a setting.

This was supposed to be a place for justice. Where those suffering were offered relief. But now it just looked like a scary suspicious place we had walked into. Even in the original novel it had appeared strange. Now it was…difficult to understand.

“Hi.” I said, trying to give the protagonist a friendly wave, trying to hide my nervousness. The protagonist did not know that I was an Eldanveir. I had to keep at that.

What I received in return was strangely similar to a growl. I suppose he was scared of me. Or angry at me. Not surprising. I had looked at myself in the mirror. Whatever condition Aphra had lived in, he was dressed as a noble. A very wealthy noble. The buttons of this shirt had diamonds on them, and the lining was probably real gold or something.

Rowan, the protagonist, despised nobles. For good reason too, considering what he and his sister had been put through. Of course, he would be hostile to a noble that appeared before him in a place like this.

“I don’t know why this is happening either.” I said, pointing to the table while still trying to be friendly. Rowan looked like he had just been handed poison.

“Well then, I suppose it is a good thing I do.” A loud, deep voice echoed through the room. I startled, turning towards it. I could see Rowan do the same beside me. A man now sat on one of the reclining chairs, a smile dancing on his lips.

A faint breeze took to waving his black hair, a faint humm of power appearing with him. Golden eyes stared at us, judging us even as we looked at him.

“Would you like some tea?” the Monarch of Justice offered. “I have some coffee too if that is what you prefer.”

Rowan stood rooted on the spot. I forced a smile on my face and took a step forward. A golden light spread through the floor with every step I took, brightening the room as I approached the Monarch. The barely audible sound of footsteps behind me informed me that Rowan had followed.

And yet I did not dare turn around. Just taking one step after another until I was at the table, not daring to make any sudden motions. A shudder ran through my body the second I touched the chair, like an invisible pressure had been lifted. The darkness in the room disappeared, leaving a soothing yellow light whose source was difficult to pinpoint.

A scraping sound beside me told me that Rowan had taken his seat, and I took mine. A teacup appeared before each of us, one of them filling with a brown liquid.

“Just milk and no sugar, yes?” the Monarch asked in a dry voice.

I nodded and then paused. How did he know how I liked my coffee? Did this world even have coffee? The Monarch of Justice didn’t read minds so he couldn’t have gotten the information that way.

“What about you, young slave?” the Monarch asked Rowan, who bristled at his words. The boy hated being referred to as a slave. I mean, who wouldn’t? But the Monarch had referred to him like that anyway. A manner that most would consider to be very, very rude.

I wondered, not for the first time, what the Monarch was trying to do. Revealing that he knew my taste for coffee. Calling Rowan a slave. That was not how it went in the novel. The novel had painted this as a welcoming space. But what I saw here just made me nervous.

“I suppose you wish for tea then.” the Monarch said. The teacup before Rowan filled with a green liquid that looked far too thick to be tea. And it probably wasn’t. There were far too many fibers inside for it to be so. The way Rowan’s face morphed into one of anger confirmed my suspicions.

This was ‘bark tea’ that Elena had made to cheer Rowan up. In fact, she had even stolen two teacups from the kitchen so they could have their little tea party. And it was why she had been sold off.

The Monarch had decided to conjure the very thing that would set him off, in a place even Rowan would not dare cause trouble. Even he knew what this was after all. The Court of Justice was famous. And yet it was proving its reputation incorrect.

“Why are you -” I asked before I could help it. A second later I sat frozen as I felt the weight of those golden eyes sit upon me, swearing at myself for being so quick to voice my opinion. I had thought I knew the Monarch of Justice. But it would appear I was wrong.

“I suppose this is not an appropriate time for tea.” the Monarch commented, ignoring my words. “Do excuse me, I sometimes forget that planets still have days and nights.”

I doubted he had forgotten anything of that sort.

“Have some dinner.” the Monarch said, and plates appeared before us. There was food already on the plate, and just a look told me that it was our favorite dishes’. How strange. The Monarch did not read minds. That went against his beliefs. So he had to have looked through the records of the past his mother kept and then deduced our favorite foods. A significant effort, even for him.

And it still shouldn't have given him my tastes. I hadn’t eaten a single thing since I came here. I still didn’t want to. The events of the last hour did not exactly give me an appetite. Rowan, well, he had quickly taken to eating. I suppose he was starving.

I couldn’t bring myself to eat. Why had things changed so much from the original novel even though I hadn’t really done anything? I did not wish for things to worsen because of my interference. There were far too many lives at stake for that.

What should I do? I had to do something. I just didn't know what.

“Monarch,” I began.

“Yes, Lord Eldanveir?” the Monarch replied with a slight smile on his face, his golden eyes twinkling with laughter. The sounds of eating stopped beside me, and I could practically hear Rowan growling.

I froze again, realizing what the Monarch had done. Just that name was enough for Rowan to want to kill me. And I couldn’t really blame him. The Eldanveir deserved the hate. The Monarch probably knew that too. So why had he gone ahead and revealed it?

“Why are you doing this?” I asked, my heart beating against my chest as I forced the words out of my mouth. This was foolish. I was taunting someone that could destroy the universe inside his own home. If this was any other Monarch, I would have not dared. But this was the Monarch of Justice. The Monarch that went across the world solving people’s problems just because he could. The reason I had read the book even after it took a turn for the worse.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

The person I had wanted to grow up to be.

I had to hope that this was just some test, that he wasn’t really like this. That the book had been accurate about that much at least. I needed it to be so, if I was to escape from this place.

A smile appeared on his face at my question. “What do you think?”

I paused. If I had the answer to the question, I would not be asking him. “I do not know.”

“I think you do.” the Monarch said, his smile turning into a grin as he looked at me as if he knew something I didn’t.

I looked back. “I really don’t.”

What was this childish argument? Why couldn’t he just—no wait. Don’t get irritated at the Monarch. This is a Monarch. Getting annoyed at him will probably kill me.

“I think you have access to far greater information about me than is usual among the Court of Justice’s applicants. Is that not true?” the Monarch asked.

I gulped. “Well…yes.”

“Then tell me, why would I do this? I know you can figure it out.”

I just looked at him. So he knew about the transmigration. I did not know how he knew, but he was a Monarch so it was fine. And expected given how vague the limits on his power were to begin with. But for the life of me, I could not figure out what he was talking about.

“I shall give you a hint. There are different ways to give justice.” the Monarch said.

What—oh. Now I understood. That was what he was talking about. There were multiple ways in which justice could be given. Take Rowan’s case. The Monarch could give Rowan the power to kill his slavers. Or he could kill Rowan's slavers for him. Or just help Rowan escape and set him up somewhere nice. That could all be ‘justice’.

Why would he take such a roundabout way to—oh that fucker. The Monarch decided what to do based on the situation and the person involved. If that was the case then -

“Were you testing me?” I asked.

“Yes.” the Monarch answered. “I do have to know what kind of person you are before I do anything after all. And information about you is rather limited.”

I groaned. So this was because I didn’t have much of a presence in the Lake of a Thousand Memories. The mind reading information collecting monster that stored information on just about every person in the universe. But I wasn’t from this universe, and thus outside its range. So the Monarch had decided to do this. Not sure what he got from it though.

I sighed in relief. The Monarch was the same. Well, maybe not the same. But he wasn’t secretly a murdering monster. And that was a relief. I don’t know what I would do if the Monarch had changed. Just die, probably.

The last book’s last volume may have been the worst thing I had the displeasure of reading, but it had shown the power of Monarchs clearly. The likes of me and Rowan were irrelevant to them.

“Do you understand?” the Monarch asked, smiling.

“Yes.” I replied, taking a deep breath and looking at Rowan who had stopped eating. In fact, he had been glaring at me since the Monarch declared that I was an Eldanveir. I had to deal with that now, didn’t I? Hmm, I actually did have an idea on how to do that.

“Monarch, I have a request.” I started.

“Speak.” the Monarch said, and his voice echoed once more. The lights dimmed, and I could practically feel power buzzing across the room. The Court of Justice had activated. I didn’t know what exactly the Court actually did, but it was supposed to be one of the most powerful spells in the known multiverse.

And I had somehow spoken the words to activate it.

“I wish to escape the Eldanveir.” I asked. And thus differentiated myself from the evil Eldanveir. Rowan was already glaring at me less. If I made myself appear the victim, then he wouldn’t be so angry with me. And honestly, it wasn’t hard to appear the victim.

“To safety, I presume?” the Monarch asked.

“Yes.”

“Would you accept a different world?”

I blinked. I hadn’t expected that. Would I accept a different world? That would solve the problem. The Eldanvier couldn’t very well follow me to a different world, they didn’t have the power to travel through space yet. Not properly.

“Would that be fine?” I asked, a bit tempted. I still didn’t know if that was a good thing. I did know stuff about this world. A bit about how the future went. How the magic system worked—well actually I really didn’t. That shit was not explained well. But I did have a bloodline that could help me down the line.

The Emperor had only one daughter. That daughter was my grandmother. That made me and Leif the only living descendants of the Emperor. The, ugh, rape and stuff made it so we weren’t actually in the line of succession, but it was possible.

I did like the idea of being actual royalty.

“I shall give you time to consider.” The Monarch said, turning towards Rowan.

“What about you?”

The boy straightened himself, pushing his long hair behind his head as he spoke. “Yes, your majesty.”

“Speak.” the Monarch’s voice echoed once more, though I did not feel the buzz of power this time. I suppose that was only when I was activating it.

“I would like for you to end slavery. To end those that do it and rescue those that suffer from it.”

I smiled. That was exactly what he had said in the book. Rowan might have been a slave, but he was the protagonist. Dreaming big and asking for things like this was his job. And with that, things had gone back to it even after I had messed things up. Well, that was one good thing.

“And how would you suggest I go about that?” the Monarch asked. “Do you wish for me to kill those responsible?”

“Yes.” Rowan asked, looking disappointed that his request had not been immediately accepted.

The Monarch did not look happy with that, however. Just like in the novel.

“And what would you suppose would happen then?”

The boy’s eyebrows scrunched up in confusion, clearly not having accepted that question.

“What do you think, Lord Eldanveir?” the Monarch asked. I looked up in surprise. Why was I getting pulled into this? I didn’t want to answer this question. This was Rowan’s question to answer.

“I am sure you have a better knowledge of the consequences of such actions than young Rowan here. So, what do you think?”

I gulped under his expectant gaze, realizing that I really didn’t have a way out.

“The Empire would collapse.”

“Then let it.” Rowan swore.

I shook my head. “That’s not the problem, the problem is what would come afterward. There would be a mad rush for power. The first person to reach the higher stages would be the one that would establish their own Empire. And, well, you already know how they would go about gathering that power.”

Rowan was many things, but he was not stupid. And really, it was obvious to someone in his position what they would do. There was but one way to quickly gain power in this world. The very thing he hated the Eldanveir for, the reason slavery was so common.

The killing of people for their mana.

“There would be a great deal of death. The ones that remained would rush to kill as many as they could to gain more power. And the ones who didn't would be left behind.” the Monarch interrupted. “I would not kill all those of the royal or Eldanveir bloodlines. There are many that are innocent among them. There are children, and those forced to live lives they did not choose. And even more who have committed crimes, but do not deserve death for them.”

“At the moment, the royal family and the Eldanveir keep each other in check. In an effort to not allow the other to gain more power, they are protecting those who do not have the power to protect themselves. Remove this balance without proper preparation, and you risk causing a much worse situation. Perhaps the ones that would come to power afterward may be worse than those that exist today.”

“So tell me, what is your answer? How would you like to proceed? Do you still wish to kill them?”