Shortly after, he spotted the eager figure of Prince Raul, who was soon followed by Princess Raemina, Prince Raijun, Princess Ranea, Prince Rajak, and Princess Rafia throughout the long line.
They alternatingly split into two lines on either side of the ostentatious carpet leading to the throne.
The time had come.
"Please welcome the Emperor of Harmony, the Second Emperor of the Kandrian Empire, His Majesty Rael Di Kandria!"
A powerful drum beat reverberated through the throne hall with each step.
STEP
STEP
STEP
Rui's eyes widened as he beheld the vaunted Emperor of Kandria.
…Now, a weary old man with a diseased body.
His skin was a shade of sickly darkness, hanging off his gaunt face. His body was lean and haggard; his thin, weak limbs conveyed an impression of malnourishment. His hair, once a brilliant golden, had lost its luster. His eyes, once an ethereal blue, had lost their shine.
Yet they never once lost the light of determination.
His gait was unstable even as two of his concubines held his hands, aiding him as he exerted himself to reach the throne.
Nearly twenty-five Martial Masters followed behind him, absolutely alert for any threat whatsoever.
Not that there were any threats.
Not with a Martial Sage overseeing security.
STEP
With each passing step, each guest bowed their head deeply as the Royal Emperor passed them, paying their respects to the Emperor of Kandria.
STEP…
He had arrived at his rightful throne atop the elevated platoon, beholding it for what could very well be the last time it bore him.
"Ahh…"
A voice of comfort escaped him as he sat upon his throne. His security detail circled around the throne, forming a layer that encompassed him, his concubines, and Sage Farana standing behind him.
A single command escaped his voice.
"Raise your heads."
His deep and rich masculine voice cut through the silence as each of the guests abided, beholding the seated Emperor of Kandria.
Despite his sickly appearance, a profoundly deep air of power and authority seemed to radiate from him. This was power, not innately of his own but that of the entirety of Kandria.
When Rui saw him, he saw the hundreds of thousands of powerful siege weapon artifacts.
When Rui beheld him, he beheld the might of a million-strong army of elite soldiers armed with the finest artifacts and potions that the Empire had to offer.
When Rui bore witness to him, he bore witness to the power of three Martial Sages who had sworn absolute loyalty to the throne.
When Rui regarded him, he could almost feel the weight of his power, the power to erase Sage-level nations with a single command, to hunt Martial Sages like they were no more than prey, to leave his mark on the fabric of all of human civilization today and forever more.
The guests did their best to hide their nervousness as the emperor's eyes swum across each and every single one of them.
The silence lingered.
It was deafening.
"It's good to be back."
A nonchalant remark.
No, it may as well have been law, considering who spoke those words.
"My citizens…My children…" His voice reverberated through the throne hall. "It is good to be back, wouldn't you agree?"
The air grew electric.
It prickled.
His eyes nonchalantly swam across the guests and his own children as a wave of apprehension washed through the crowd.
"You seem nervous."
They undoubtedly were.
Be they the most powerful business and economic tycoons or the most accomplished Martial Masters of the Martial Union, a heavy weight weighed down on their weary shoulders.
"Do I inspire fear?"
He certainly did now, with the way he was talking.
Uncertainty began gripping the hearts of the many guests that were present in the throne hall.
"Does my sickly visage inspire fear?"
His voice grew stronger as it pierced through the tingling silence.
"Does my impending death inspire fear?"
Many of the invited guests stirred at his words.
"It should."
His words grew ominous.
"It should inspire fear in you but…I know it doesn't," The Emperor calmly declared. "What it inspires, if anything at all, is…."
A fierce light lit up in his eyes as his nonchalance receded. "…is ambition and greed, does it not?"
Silence rang through the throne hall.
"DOES IT NOT?" His voice boomed through the throne hall.
His words shook them.
His wrath shook them.
Physically, but also mentally.
It shook them to their very core.
"…So much so that a war that threatens to tear Kandria apart boils in the undercurrents of this Empire. A war of greed and ambition. A war for ultimate power," The Emperor's voice took on a hint of ferocity. "My fragile life happens to be the only force that keeps it at bay. Should I die at this very moment, the lot of you would leap at each other within this very room, fighting each other to race to this throne over each other's corpses."
"Civil wars…a known tale," He remarked. "One that has recurred many a time in the annals of history in all manners of unfolding. Yet, do you know what each of them has in common?"
His eyes narrowed. "They are all marked as human catastrophes by history."
"Tell me, my subjects…"
His voice was calm.
Yet it betrayed a deep undercurrent of cold fury.
"Tell me, my children…"
Ferocity glinted in his eyes. "Do you, too, want to be known as human catastrophes by history?"
Uncertainty flashed in the eyes of the many forces and powers that heard the Emperor's words.
It was not just the words being uttered.
No.
What mattered more was who uttered them.
Any common man or woman could lecture them on the perils of civil war.
Yet it wasn't just anybody lecturing them about civil wars.
It was the Emperor of Harmony, the man who prevented the greatest civil war of all of East Panama from unfolding, who spoke to them.
The weight of history itself accompanied his words.
