Baerim, city of Baerim
Decades ago in this capital city, a man was born who changed the fate of the country. While the nations and the world quarreled, he maintained a low profile. His country was much too weak and inadequate to face off against the masses. Instead, he wrote books while his country continued to suffer.
Those books contained magical theories and the understanding of the world. It was not known how he managed to delve into these topics or what sort of thought process he had that allowed him to tap into the knowledge of the Arcane.
But regardless, he managed to uncover a plethora of secrets about the state of the world. He had merely needed to observe things, and immediately an answer comes within his head. His books, though at first doubted, started becoming more and more proven by the day.
Many nations started enlisting his help in training the best magicians. Time after time, he came out with theories on arcane combat, arcane laws, and even rules that one should never break. He only published a limited amount of books and made copies for the rest of the world to buy from him.
Nations that managed to get a hold of such a copy, boosted their military might by an insane amount. Their magicians were well trained and understood much more about the inner mechanisms of Mana and Aura.
To this day, no one knows how that man had gained such information. Some claim he made a pact with the devil. Others claimed he was a variant with the ability to know everything. Many of the surrounding countries assumed that Baerim also held magicians beyond imagination. However, no such thing was true.
He never taught the mage’s guild in Baerim. To avoid the country gaining military prowess and maintain himself as an asset, he only released very little information to Baerim. When the country demanded he spill the secrets, his books simply vanished in an instant.
He held absolutely zero magical prowess. Only knowledge in that field. He waited until the country was entirely in a rut, and begging for his guidance before he lifted a hand to help them. With that, he solidified his position and necessariness to the government and slowly made his way up.
It wasn’t long before the country of Baerim found themselves largely in favor of their new savior. Though he wasn’t the king of Baerim, he was granted a new title that arguably far surpassed the level of King. The title was granted after his last name, Keinsuerch.
Since then, even though they had a king, many of the people looked to the Keinsuerch for answers. Though they held a king, the Keinseurch held much more influence altogether. The king was entirely a figurehead.
Within this village, a giant monument stood at the very center. Stone cobbled paths made of quartz and streets made of gold all pointed towards one single destination. The Royal Palace.
The city was vast and had one of the most vibrant flourishing communities known to man. Steel poles rose from the ground of every block, illuminating the streets below with dragon lanterns. Everything was well maintained and in pristine condition. They had governmental workers cleaning the streets daily. Students could be found walking to and from class while others studied the arcane arts at their mages college.
It was clear that this country was one that was doing well off on their own. You could not find even a single homeless being on the streets.
In the middle of this great nation, stood the giant royal palace. It stood marvelously, completely composed of marble and quartz. Gold trimmed the outside edges of the castle, and each separate dome-like layers of the castle walls were made from tinted obsidian glass.
It gave off just the right amount of sunlight, without heating those within. The marble walls provided a nice heat resistant coating to the walls and prevented any staining from happening.
Within this castle, the king slept. Even in his bed, his crown never left his head. The fat man weighed over 300 pounds clearly having lived a life luxury.
“Lord Ri’en... Lord Ri’en!” The voice shouted. He was trying to be as quiet as he can so as to avoid disrespecting the king, but he had also wanted to wake the king up without being a hindrance. Therein lies the complications of his job.
The king woke up augered and enraged. “WHAT!? YOUR KING REQUIRES SLEEP, FOUL RAT.” His shout could be heard across the halls. Several of the guards that placed dotted themselves across the palace grounds could be seen feeling visibly nervous.
They understood the position he was in. It was a position he assumed daily. Some days, the response he got was nice, some days it was menacing and dangerous. He was the king’s attendant, Remus.
Remus’ pure blue eyes quivered instantly upon hearing the king’s angered voice. His short black hair stuck up on end. He knew all too well how dangerous his position was. All 5 previous king attendants perished.
Every time he had to awaken the king, he danced along the possibility of ending up in the gallows as well. “Your majesty…it’s past 3pm.” He nodded. “Your audience with the king of Oreilia begins soon. He’ll be here by 4.”
The king immediately got out of bed and cursed loudly and grumbled, putting on his robe. “WHY DIDN’T YOU WAKE ME EARLIER!?”
“I-i…I did sir..but you assured me you were alright.” In truth, each time that Remus had tried to awaken the king up to now, the king grumbled and threatened to have him executed for interrupting his ‘royal sleep’.
Of course, of Remus had given up on trying to awaken him before 4pm, he’d have him executed for failing to do his job.
The stress of this job had almost garnered him grey hairs. The king was a troublesome individual. Oh how he wished to have attended to the Keinsuerch. The Keinsuerch family for generations had been the most venerated family.
For years, their knowledge was beyond that of many people he knew. That was because the first Keinseurch, Reizin, had created a guidebook for the Keinseurch family. It was only readable by them. And they became entirely enigmatic after their adolescence.
Right now, they were the true leaders of the country. And the kings were only allowed to exist in order to deal with foreign affairs.
Nonetheless, the neighboring countries often came in hopes of having an audience with the Keinseurch.
“Jeez. Do I have to order you around for everything? Come in!”
Remus slowly entered the kings quarters. A huge room layered in gold stood before him. It always made him gasp in awe.
The King held his hands out and Remus instantly complied. He ran and grabbed the best outfit for him. His scissors trimmed the man’s beard and any stray hairs on his body. He combed the King’s hair and placed his clothing on him. His Regal purple robe rested nicely on top of him, over a red and gold vest that he adorned.
The king's royal boots were already prepared at the entrance of his doorstep. After Lord Ri’en had left and departed for his food chambers, Remus cleaned after him.
He folded all the clothes in his dresser, remade his bed. Wiped clean the sink in which he washed and bathed. He didn’t take a single moment to rest. Immediately after he cleaned the room, he traveled the several floors of the castle in a hurry to reach the king 10 minutes before his meeting was to begin.
Nervously he rushed in, to find that the Keinsuerch was standing beside the king as well to witness this meeting.
“Ahh, Remus. Come sit.” This was the first time any official had even remembered his name. His face lit up to find that it was the Keinsuerch. He sat down nervously next to the Keinsuerch. The seat was originally his, yet the Keins opted to stand instead.
He stood right beside the king and waited for the royal guard to enter and allow the King his audience. The time was passing by rapidly, and King Ri’en was getting impatient with every second that past.
It was only until 4:30 that the king grew outraged at the other country’s lateness. All the rage that welled up within him had overflowed and he clanged his fist upon the table. Rumbling everything within the room and causing all the nobles to turn to face him.
“BLASTED! THAT DAMN KING WASTING MY TIME LIKE THIS! I HAVE BETTER THINGS TO DO THAN WAIT FOR A NO SHOW!” He got up and threw his crowned chair to the floor. “You!” He pointed to Remus. “Remi or whatever your name is. I’ll make sure you're hanged for this. Wasting a kings time is never without consequence.”
The King stormed out. The week had been a particularly rough week for him. First, he had to address the king of Oreilia for their past skirmishes at the border. Oreilia had offered a great sum for the acquisition of Lakia in response to their prior skirmishes.
Then, while trying to live a completely normal day- one of his only free days off, the Silver Knight Kars had shown at his doorstep unannounced and forced him into a tense meeting about some sort of assassination.
He couldn’t bear to sit there any longer with him so he approved of the mission anyway. At least Yorba agreed to send him a new set of A-grade relics.
And now this. The king of Oreilia had set up an audience with him and then failed to even show up. This angered him to no extent. The best way to maintain his image was to scapegoat the cause of this meeting.
It wasn’t through disrespect, but through the failure of his attendant that he got stood up. At least, that’s what the public would come to understand.
Remus got up to run after him and plead, but the Keins held his shoulder down. He smiled brightly, his long white hair resting over his chest. He wore a long pointed hat and long robes that sequestered most of his body and adorned him with different colors.
This was Keinschuer Kirise. His smile was almost as warm as his appearance. “It’s alright, Remus. You’ll be alright.”
Those blank and darkened hollow eyes seemed to reassure him of everything. As if he knew the sequence of events the world would undertake. As if he could peer into the minds of others himself and tell Remus exactly what the king was thinking.
“You’ll be alright.” With that, everyone walked away from the meeting table and left the room. The only two remaining people were Remus and the Keins. “Remus. Would you mind grabbing the king for me?”
Remus nervously looked around at the empty room. “W-what should I tell him?” The real question he wanted to ask was why. But he couldn’t bring himself to disrespect the Keins. Not even by accident.
“We have a guest. It seems things that are extremely important are about to happen.”
He nodded and ran up to the doorways as fast as he can. He paused for a second to ask a question, but before he could ask, the Keins had answered his question.
“We have urgent news from Sei’O. Things are beginning to stir up.” Kirise said. He covered his mouth, hiding the smile underneath. “Please do call him over.”
Remus nodded and ran up the steps of all 6 floors to the palace. He found himself at the king's room and gulped before knocking the door.
“WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING!?” The voice rang out
“IF YOU CAME TO BEG FOR YOUR LIFE, YOU ARE DOING A TERRIBLE JOB AT IT. I WILL SERIOUSLY HAVE YOU HANGED DRAWN AND QUARTERED FOR YOUR INSOLENT BEHAVIOUR. NEVER ONCE HAVE I BEEN WITH A SUBORDINATE AS IRRESPONSIBLE AND DISPICAB-“
He had to cut off the king’s rambling else he’d lose will before he could say what he came here for.
“Y-your Highness! The Keinschuer calls upon you. There is a very important visitor here. It's of utmost urgency.”
He heard something slam inside the king's room and he got up enraged. The door swung open and he followed the attendant to the bottom floor. There, the Arch-Mage of Sei'O rested before him.
He knelt before the Keinschuer and immediately bowed to the king upon his arrival.
“Your Highness…I bring you urgent news. It’s hard to believe…but-“ There were only 2 words that stood out to him from the entire statement the guard had said.
“3000….dead.”
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