Natalya got out of the car after a while. She had quite the rest while they were traveling around the city. She was thankful that the man had enough tact to understand that she needed the rest. Though she wished that he’d be greedy. I don’t like that look, Natalya recalled when she asked what his desire was.

He’s still stuck in that duty, don’t die on me, Natalya thought. Six times of repeating the same pattern, but with a few changes that made things easier for the Magi side. The Null wasn’t bad, but they had crossed the line that separated those who have the power and those who do not have them.

Even the Grandmaster of the Nullers have started to question why their forces in Arkadia have not contacted. Natalya had been able to silently kill most of the Nullers, while the remaining ones were eager. They weren’t fools who could easily be rid off and yet she knew as well that they were pushing them into the corner.

It looks like he doesn’t seem to understand. He pursues the same thing, and does what he usually does, the difference was that without my presence, he seems to do well, Natalya thought. I wonder why that is. No, he’s just looking to give up his life for something. It’s not that he wants to die, but he had no qualms giving his life. Maybe I am reading home, and there is more to it, but I can’t let him die.

The wind felt prickly against her skin. She felt her mark warn her as she headed to her destination. Just below the Vydin River where she usually meets Nano.

She didn’t wait and entered directly, taking a seat on the chair and leaned her back on it.

“You are back, it seems,” Nano said. “Your work is truly exemplary. Most of the Nullers have become dirt on the ground. I’ve cleaned up everything. The Lady is pleased that you have done such grand work. Quiet and silence, one would expect from the Lady of Death.”

“Enough about that,” Natalya glared. “The deal said that you’ll give me the plane and the lessons.”

Nano crossed the pictures attached to the Nuller. “Half of the Nullers in the Imperial Capital died by your hand,” Nano smiled. “I’m truly and utterly impressed.”

“About the contract.”

“You will get it. But you know that there is a process. It shall be transferred to your belonging and I’m sure that the Lady will help you secure this. As for the lessons, I believe that it might not come so easily. You do realize that the Emperor desires his Sky Knights so much lately. Nonetheless, the Lady will stay by her word and give you what you have desired.”

Natalya couldn’t believe her easily. “There must be a catch then.”

“Oh, there is a catch.”

“I’m afraid that there is a problem regarding the choosing. The Nullers have taken quite a loss. They demand that all technology that we took from the bodies of their people are to be returned. They know that we’ve been disposing them and the headmaster has decided that we must abide.”

“Abide? What do you mean by Abide?”

“They demand that the life of their members be repaid. They won’t easily give up on the technology that the Holmians possessed. Truthfully, the process and the handling has been spread. However, they are demanding and they would wage a war against the Magi here. Of course, since the Imperial Family wants us to stand down after your successful missions. We can only hope that they would be appeased by negotiations.”

“I doubt that,” Natalya pointed out. “Most of the people that I killed didn’t go down easily, they believe that whatever the Holmians are handling would change this.”

“Truthfully, it will. There are forces other than the Magi and the Nullers who could possibly change this world. We’ve been living under the graces of the light so far. There are many ways that this level of technology could change. The Webman Company’s ideals and the Emperor’s beliefs are different. One wants to rule the skies with an army of planes, while the other wants to connect the continents for profit. Of course, this transcontinental line that the Webman wants to create is nothing more than a way for them to profit on it. Every train in the continent would have to use the railroad tracks. It’s much safer to travel on land than on air and sea. Though if they are able to transport tons of goods and materials using the air. That would change the world as well. We’ve been reliant on fossil fuel and natural resources to run the world where we are living. The Magi, the Nullers, they are merely old sects that have started to lose sight and control. Indeed, we are powerful when facing a single individual. But your existence alone proves that a gun would be sufficient to pierce through our heads. There are many advantages that we still could use, but the age of wonders have started to change. What we have left are machines and a world free from the demifiends. The Lazonians...they really do owe this continent.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“Before the Empire, before all the nations formed in the lands. There were long lost kingdoms who held strength in their arms. They possessed mars and blooms that allowed them to face the demifiends in battle. Tall behemoths and hordes that could wipe out of the land. However, the world has changed after the age of wonders, and as kingdoms crumble. Many knowledge is lost to this world. Even the continents didn’t know what power that this land possessed once. This continent once loathed those who did not belong. They did not have the power that made the world run. Nonetheless, there might be hope that the world can become like that again.”

Nano glared at the Imperator’s Mark on the back of Natalya’s hand. Natalya glared at her.

“I am not going to become an Imperator.”

“That is your choice,” Nano sat on the chair. “That mark comes with power and envy. There are those who would hunt you down for it. The age of wonders must not return and yet despite the dwindling of our marks and bloom. Some think that the little power that we have is a privilege.”

“You people do like your secret societies.”

“It gives us an advantage. It gives us the sense of mysticism and awe that those who do not have it. It is the divine right that most of those who have noble blood proclaims and declares as their right. Legitimacy that you are given the right by God that you are the rightful ruler of this world.”

“You really do believe that after all of this, they’d bow their heads to a simple mark?”

“Yes,” Nano looked serious. “The Imperator’s Mark had been lost to the world. From West to East, those who knew its power would gather in hopes that they could serve under the rightful ruler of its land. You have the right to rule this land. You are chosen by God.”

“How lovely,” Natalya scowled. “Please, don’t pretend that you aren’t gaining something from whatever direction you want me to go. I understand you’d want to become more powerful, not spend your life doing dirty work for the lady, but count me out of it.”

“That is unfortunate, you could have a legion if  you wished to. They would not hesitate to offer a country for you if you desire it, milady.”

Natalya stared at Nano for a moment. She then spoke with a careful and frosty voice. “Do you know why women like me fought in the war?”

“Because you believe in the cause?”

“That’s right. We truly believe that the Ancient Regime was something that needed to be stopped. I had honestly thought that as well, but the more I spend time in the field. I realized that, that was not it. The more I spent time scouting and running around I realized that there was a need for war because some of the regions were suffering from the plague. It doesn’t help that there were still many who wanted to sympathize with the Empire. For years they made us think of the Empire as evil, and we truly believed that we’d be freeing people from despot and tyrants. Evil men and women who wanted to put people down. We thought of the soldiers that we were fighting as monsters, but you know what? They’re just young men who were told to fight. The Empire had lost so much in this war and the three alliances lost the same as well. We lost too many good people who have dreams just because of the ideas of a few who couldn’t accept that the ways of old are changing. That their way does not suit the ways of the old.”

“What are you trying to say?”

Natalya slammed her hands on the table. “You’re really expecting someone, who spent five years of her life, believing that she was doing it for the sake of liberty and the right of people to agree and become like the same people who her leaders told her to put down? You want me to become the so-called Imperator, the ruler of the Magi and the Null and yet not once did you ask that maybe I don’t want to become a despot, a dictator who rules through a goddamn mark on the back of my hand? Why do I have to carry such a heavy burden on my shoulders? Did you also forget, if you had done your digging, that I helped in making sure that the treaty in Flost is signed? Because I want the goddamn war to stopped that I fought hard in Flost. Do you even realize the gravity of what you are trying to do? You want me to present myself to powerful societies, and ask me to be their leader. The mark might be welcomed by many, and I understand that there is a fanatical belief in this mark, but it doesn’t mean that there aren't those who crave for this mark as well. When a ruler who has the right to rule the lands  rises up, there are those who would follow. You are asking me to start another war after a war just ended. You want to put the burden of many lives on my shoulder just because of a goddamn mark on the back of my hand?”

She pushed the table, splitting it into two. “You don’t understand what I fought for, Nano. You insult me again and again by wanting me to become this Imperator.”

Nano raised her hands. “I didn’t mean nothing by it.”

“That’s what you are trying to convince me to become. I hate it. I do not want to become this ‘Imperator’ that you want me to become one. I don’t want to drag this continent to war just because I have this goddamn mark on the back of my hand. Do you understand?”

“I do,” Nano said. “Please calm yourself.”

Natalya snorted. She twisted on her chair and folded her arms. “Maybe I would have thought about it back then. Considered becoming this Imperator to stop the fighting, but we were able to do so. I don’t think of myself as superior enough to rule this continent,” Natalya caressed the scar running across the side of her head. The scar was a reminder how arrogant she was. How she believed that she was unbeatable in the field of battle. It reminded her of the ideals and the beliefs that made her go to war. 

She does feel tempted at the thought of it, but considering the problems that this mark had given her. She couldn’t stomach the thought of waging war and ruling people.

She didn't spend five years fighting to become a despot.

In a way, she understood why Mavin didn’t want to rule. 

The burden of such rule was heavy.

Natalya hated Nano for that ignorance. That belief that just because she has the right to do so, people under her would follow. Natalya made it clear that she didn’t want to hear more of her prattling, which Nano fortunately understood.