Chapter 251
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“And, did the king invite us for a round of blackjack?” I asked as Tom and I strolled towards the heavily guarded gate leading towards the royal palace.

“Sort of. He wants to talk with us about the demonstrations we are doing.” So it is a trap, but that much was obvious. By cutting off the head of our organization, he assumed the rest would only spasm afterwards, but this unrest wouldn’t end with our disappearance. It would become far worse.

“While we throw the biggest party the world has ever seen. Understood, my king.” I told Tom through my mask and nodded towards the first guards in the distance.

“I am King. We are here to meet Alphonso Worchester.” Tom stated cockily while holding up a piece of paper with the kings signature. Surprisingly, it wasn’t even forged. Even as they pointed their spears and other weapons at us, we didn´t flinch at all but rather walked through this group of guards while they made a place for us and encircled us shortly afterwards.

“Gentlemen, this way please.” One slightly familiar butler said, standing on the stairs which led toward the main entrance door.

“The second throne room?” Tom asked, shocking the butler considerably.

“… he awaits you there, that is correct.” The butler, clad in black clothing, said.

“Thank you, we know the way.” Or rather, Tom knew the way. The only thing I could do to find the room would be to climb the outer walls and open one of the many windows ten floors above the ground.

True to his words, Tom really knew the way. Without care for all the guards behind and in front of us, he took the shortest route towards the second throne room by ascending the nearest stairwell, ignoring the few fires I could spot out of the window and then walked past several hallways. Finally, he opened up the door with both of his hands and strode into the room which was filled with the elite guards of the king. The door closed behind us shut, capturing us inside this room with around one hundred guards and the king on his throne.

“Salut.” Tom said, breaking every bit of protocol there was in one go. Well, I remained silent, which wasn’t exactly better.

“You … why are you here?” The king asked visibly confused.

“Well, you did send us this message here, so we thought about coming by for a little chat.” Tom pointed to the parchment still in his hands which was in all honesty more than a way to demand our unconditional surrender than anything else.

“Okay, let´s chat then. Who are you?” The king asked and squinted his eyes.

“King of the Underworld. I think that is enough chatting, so let´s get down to business.” Tom said carefree.

“Business? What could you possibly offer me?” The king asked. We had to offer a lot, and the king knew that. But we were also in his clutches right now, making it somewhat difficult for us to manoeuvre.

“If you would be so kind.” Tom said, nodding in my direction.  While holding my hands in front of me for everyone to see, I slowly walked towards the long row of coloured windows and stopped just before one. Placing my right hand on it, I pressed against it until the first cracks started to form. Then, stepped back a bit, balled my hand into a fist and punched the window.

It splintered in thousand fragments, most of them sailing down the facade of the palace. But my destruction had a reason and that became painfully obvious as the wind blew into the room. I wouldn’t say it was a fire front, but certain parts of the city were definitely burning brightly.

Just as I turned around, some sort of explosion engulfed a part of the noble district in the north, inside the grounds of the royal academy. I could only hope that nobody unrelated was hurt as I listened to Tom´s words once more.

“This city has around a hundred thousand inhabitants. There are only a few thousand nobles on your side, while around fifty thousand are demonstrating, most peacefully, but some … well you can see it yourself. If we aren’t out of here at around … nine o`clock, I can assure you this is just the beginning.”

“Guards, apprehend them.” The king ordered which made Tom chuckle madly, even though one of the guards had already grabbed his shoulder.

“The elves have the Crown of Thorns. The Staff of Creation is in my hands.” He claimed, forcing the king to hold up his hand. The guards who were just trying to grab my arms immediately distanced themselves from me again.

“What?” The king asked, even though he was nearly sure it was a lie from Tom´s side.

“We stole two crowns that day. Your majesty, why don’t you try touching the Crown of Thorns with another magical artefact?” Tom asked and dusted off his shoulders. The king squinted his eyes once more and then nodded towards the wall to his right, which had a spyhole in it. For several minutes nobody said anything until a single mage awkwardly stepped into the room and walked towards the king while evading all the guards who stood still. The king gave him his ring and immediately afterwards, the mage scooted out of the room again.

For around half an hour, nobody said anything, which kind of forced me to sit where the broken window once was and let my legs dangle down. The fires were all controlled so far, but they could go beyond the capabilities of the inhabitants to put them out any second.

But Tom wasn’t dumb. The fires were concentrated on the northern side of this place, showing the king the worst of the worst, while keeping the damage to the city to a minimum. Additionally, she spread the fires out evenly, making it somewhat easier to contain them.

Only after the mage stepped back into the room did I stand up again and walk to Tom´s side.

“Your majesty … this is the Crown of Thorns. It is a mimicry.” The mage said and presented a magical dagger in his hands.

“How did you do that?” The king asked Tom.

“No magician will ever tell you his secrets … well, should we talk about the contents of your surrender? I really don’t want the elves to raze everything to the ground because we waited for so long.” He said and nodded towards the tumults outside.

“You are a spy of the elves?” The king asked.

“Oh, please, god forbid, no. We are just … concerned citizens who want to lay the future of this kingdom in good hands.” Concerned citizens? Yeah, I could support that.

“You and concerned citizens? You are riling them all up!” The king nearly shouted at us in his anger.

“Your majesty, there is no reason to shout. I´m not deaf.” Tom clarified.

“… you.” He said, full of hostility.

“Yes?” Tom asked innocently.

“What do you want? Money? A title?” We had absolutely no need for anything like that.

“Oh, my, you don’t seem to listen that much, do you?” Tom asked swiftly.

“I will not abdicate.” He stated firmly.

“Considering your first prince is currently sleeping with two harlots at the tender age of fifteen, this wouldn’t benefit anyone, would it?” Tom asked and laughed loudly.

“Wha- How do you know that?” The answer was probably the whores themselves, but it was not yet known that all high-class whores were working for us.

“Corruption, your majesty. Look at each and every one of your guards. Thiry per cent are on my side and they are chirping really interesting stuff into my ears.” We did not have any elite guard on our payroll. But we also didn´t need to. The threat alone was enough to sow distrust. “We are only here because you didn´t listen to the citizens, we are only here because you catered to the nobles instead of the general populace. Can you see that, your majesty? That is our power.” Tom pointed out of the broken window towards a crowd of around ten thousand people, all carrying torches and standing in front of the noble gates peacefully. Just at that moment, the gates opened, letting them all inside the noble district like a wave. Interestingly enough, most of these people weren’t even interested in looting the noble estates but marched directly towards the royal palace.

 “You are only using them for your own shellfish gains.” Yeah, we certainly were, we just packed it into gift paper nicely.

“Not at all. We are only here to ask for a fair ruling by someone who will not be corrupted by power. Someone who knows that all life is created equal. And someone who can backs up their ideals with more than just words.” Tom said cheerfully. The king needed to think for a second until he understood who Tom was referring to.

“You want the saint to rule over this kingdom?” Yeah, it was me. I was already corrupted to my bones, knew that all life was equal in front of death and could back up my words with a long, long killing streak. And yet, I wasn’t here to declare myself as the ruler of this kingdom. I would have no chance to use that well enough in the two weeks I still had left.

“No, your majesty, we want you to marry her.”

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