Interlude - A “King”’s Soliloquy

Duke Dolon Engres was stressed.

Extremely stressed.

Nothing was going his way: not the assassination, nor the hero summoning ritual, and not even his dealings with the two ‘hostile’ kingdoms.

Nearly forty years ago, as an ambitious young man working in the inner palace, he had managed to negotiate a trade agreement with the Dwarven Kingdom – a feat thought impossible at the time. The public sentiment was that each race, and subsequently kingdoms, were in a cold war with one another, ready to start another crusade at the drop of a hat. Of course, that wasn’t entirely accurate, but the truth wasn’t that far off. Most races preferred to work alone in spite of the dimming dwarf suns, happily exploiting others to survive.

However, unlike the rest, the dwarves’ gruff yet craftsman-like nature led them to prioritize a solution for all rather than for a few. After all, what use was a frozen planet compared to one booming with technological prowess? And so, in exchange for borrowing some people for experiments, the dwarves provided spellstones to the Human Kingdom, along with the technical know-how to use them.

This brought about a second Industrial Revolution, not in magic, but in science. Mana and spellstones functioned similarly to electricity and circuits from a certain Jester’s home world. Objects like lamps and refrigerators took over the work that mages used to provide, spreading across the land like wildfire. After all, even a grain of spellstones had enough mana to power a device for nearly twenty years. Sure, it did take away jobs from mages, but there was an easy solution for that too: join the palace guards and increase the country’s military power.

From the palace’s perspective, most considered Dolon’s contributions to be legendary, even comparable to the strength the Sword Queen Valerie Reale once wielded. Slowly but surely, he was able to gain – or strip away, as some might put it – diplomatic power until he effectively became the king in all but name. It didn’t hurt that Valerie never tried to retaliate, instead relegating herself to her room besides ceremonies.

But from the people’s perspective, very few knew about Dolon’s contributions. The countries were at war, so their dealings were kept under the table. Plus, compared to a warring queens stand, a technological boom was much more forgettable. As such, time passed, and people took Dolon’s work for granted as spellstones became integrated in almost every aspect of life. He actually had to request more spellstones, something the dwarves weren’t particularly happy about, but they complied nonetheless.

And now, the dwarves’ project was reaching its conclusion, having obtained enough data to dial in their newly created appraisal tool. As such, the humans would no longer obtain the negligible percentage of spellstones the dwarves had stockpiled. Dolon once again tried to negotiate another agreement. However, with how much insight they gained from using humans as test subjects, the dwarves wanted a larger sample to test their future endeavors.

That was a problem. Only a few people knew about the agreement with the dwarves, and the public still denounced them as demis, grouping them with the rest of the races. Dolon was afraid that since the queen was still around, it might lead to a coup, removing him from power. An illogical argument even on the worst of days. Yet after all he sacrificed, in the end, would he only be labeled a traitor to his people?

That could not stand.

And so, the queen had to go.

Maybe, in some corner of his heart, Dolon felt a twinge of guilt, but it was nothing compared to his desire for power and patriotism for his country.

But she wouldn’t die.

No matter how many assassins he sent after her. What else did he expect from the Sword Queen, a human so strong to be on par with orcs – a race whose gifts lie in strength. Even well past her prime, an ordinary human stood no chance. So, he decided to make a deal with the masters of magic: the elves.

Unlike the dwarves’ neutral stance, the elves viewed all other races as inferior due to their lack of magical prowess. Therefore, any deal would result in an unimaginable concession from the other party. As expected, the elves offered to kill the Sword Queen, but only if the Human Kingdom became a vassal of the Elven Kingdom. A terrible deal, no matter who you phrased it. The humans would probably be treated like cattle at best. And yet, it was the only choice he had. The fact that Dolon still felt apprehensive meant that his patriotism still outweighed his greed.

Little did he know that the elves also wanted the Sword Queen gone. So, surprisingly, the elves provided a second offer. They would give the humans access to their more advanced spells for free. If Dolon could kill the queen with that alone, then all would work out well. However, if he had to obtain help from an elf, he would have to submit to vassalage.

It was obvious what the elves were thinking, yet Dolon took the handout despite that. Sure enough, even assassins with advanced spells could barely land a spatter of blood on her. He continued flipping through the grimoire for something, anything, until he eventually landed on the hero summoning spell. By normal means, it was impossible to cast. The amount of mana required nearly a hundred elves; the total amount in humans was barely two. However, with a large enough spellstone, they might be able to commence the ritual.

At first, against all odds, they actually summoned a hero: a young sixteen year old girl, naive to the ways of the world. Like the grimoire said, the hero was blessed with immense physical and magical abilities and a talent that could reach the stars. On the first day alone, she managed to take down fifty palace guards with a swing of a stick. With her, Dolon thought, killing the queen may be possible!

Unfortunately, two things caused his plan to go awry. First, the hero made friends with the Sword Queen, joining her for a cup of tea now and then. Even worse, one of the male elves found out about the hero, and using his charms, became a close confidant. She called it ‘love at first sight,’ a ridiculous notion Dolon could not understand.

With so many additional ‘threats’ closing in, the only light Dolon could see was to summon another hero, this time making sure to train them to see the queen as a villain. Unfortunately, no matter how many times they attempted the ritual again, it always failed. There was one time where the ritual showered the room with light, similar to the first hero, but like a goddess playing tricks, no one appeared.

“Why is it failing…” Dolon muttered, looking over the grimoire once again. The spell gave no mention that only one hero could be summoned, so why–

Knock knock knock. “Your Majesty, I bring a report,” one of the guards called out from outside the room.

“Come in,” he said, looking up as the door opened. “Did the hero summoning ritual succeed?”

“Um…” that strained expression told Dolon all he needed to know.

“Then what have you come here for?” he waved off, focusing his attention back on the pages.

“Well, you see… there’s this mage–” The guard went on to report a fantastical tale playing out in the hospitality zone. At first, Dolon wasn’t interested in the slightest, but he slowly grew enraptured as the story spun out of control. A mage talented enough to use teleport and survive an explosion spell with nary a scratch working as a street performer of all things? It sounded too good to be true, like a spotlight peering through the darkness.

However, it was just what Dolon needed.

“I want you to bring him here immediately. No wait, I’ll send someone to pick him up.” With this man’s – the Jester, was it? – skills, he should be able to easily assassinate the queen. He was probably an illegal, so all Dolon had to do was pay him off and send him to some remote town where he could live out the rest of his life in comfortable luxury. After all, if he managed to succeed, who else could eliminate him?

Still, something felt off about this supposed Jester. Dolon’s gut allowed him to walk the fine line of desire without giving up his ideals, so he trusted his instinct. With how absurd everything was though, he couldn’t figure out what. So, there had to be a contingency, just in case.

Unfortunately, that left the one card he wanted to avoid playing.