To Build An Empire

In their silence, before either one had the opportunity to speak up, a loud knocking startled them. The person outside pounded the door without a second thought, so unlike the respect Jonas was so used to seeing from everyone around him. 

Frezar got up from his seat, his limbs creaking. "I will see who it is."

With his shoulders slumped, the old butler walked towards the door. He paused right before his hands touched the knob, with a deep sigh he straightened his back and wiped away the tears he had in his eyes. Wearing an impassive face, he swung the heavy door open without a single complaint to its weight. 

"How dares interrupt the Young Masters rest?" 

His voice was deeper and far more imposing. It had shivers running down Jonas's back. 

"Camidor, Sir Frezar." A soldier then, greeting like this were quite common in the empire. It showed a certain level of respect towards authority most other demographics lacked. 

"Camidor."

"Gravious Hadin has requested I escort the Young Master towards his office. It is of the essence we reach the destination in a timely manner."

"Duke Hadin?" Frezar looked over his shoulder at Jonas. "Give us a few moments to freshen him up and dress him in the appropriate dress."

Without wasting a moment, Frezar hurried towards a smaller door, he entered and put on the water. A few whispered words later, he came out and fast-walked towards a long closet. Grabbing a black robe, pants, and shirt, he placed them folded on the bed near Jonas. 

"Hurry, Young Master. It is time to meet your father. Let's get you to take a bath, wear your clothes, and put fragrant smelling oils." Saying this, Frezar turned to get the oils ready. 

"Frezar," Jonas called, stopping him in his tracks. "W-will I be executed?" His voice was embarrassingly high pitched.

The old butler turned back with his staple gentle smile. "No, Young Master. You are deeply connected to the royal family to be executed. At worst, you'd be sent to a frontier town by yourself. At best, a frontier city of renown with a large honor guard to keep any greedy idiots in check."

Jonas let out a long breath he didn't know he held. He put his hopes on Frezar's words, the old man knew more than any man had the right too. 

"Alright, help me clean myself up."

As he got up, a certain distant feeling of indignation at others cleaning him cropped up in his mind. Might have something to do with his weird nightmares. He quickly ignored the feeling and did his best to prepare himself for his father. A figure he met once every few months. 

---

Jonas stood in front of the closed door to his father's office. He had been standing there for almost half an hour without a single soul showing themselves. Even the soldier that had escorted him here quickly left after they made it to their destination. 

He kept on pulling on the cuffs of his robe even though they fit perfectly. The family tailor was skilled at his trade, only second to the royal tailor. 

Jonas gulped as he felt light-headed. His stomach cramped and his fingers felt oddly cold. The longer his wait continued, the worse his anxiety got. He knew in a few moments, his hands would start to shake, just like how they trembled as he held the knife so she wouldn't bleed out. 

His younger brother stabbed her without a shred of mercy. Those cold and dead eyes, absent the warmth Jonas was so used to seeing in his brother, caused him to shake every time he remembered. 

They were of someone used to killing. Used to taking life without a second thought.

Unable to stop himself, his hands began to shake and his breathing became ragged. As he stood there, that feeling of loneliness he wished to escape from only increased. He was alone in this dark hallway, with no one to stand by his side. No family to comfort him, no servants who had worshipped him and sworn to stay by his side, no friends in his time of need. 

There was no one. 

Just as he was about to fall into this hellhole, his father's powerful voice boom even through the door. 

"Enter!"

Jonas jumped in his spot, he hesitated for a moment before reaching out towards the doorknob. With a twist, the door cracked open letting light into the hallway. Without showing any emotion, Jonas stepped in, though he made sure to hide his hands behind his back. 

They still shook in fear.

"Father," he greeted as his eyes adjusted to the light. 

Sitting hunched over a massive desk was an even larger man. With wide shoulders and impressive height, he was the epitome of the image a general would look like. His salt and pepper colored hair and beard were nicely combed, but a few stands stood out from the rest. It showed how much stress the man had been going through for the past few days after the incident. 

"Jonas," his father responded. His voice carried very little kindness and familiarity in them. 

"You called for me?"

"Enough of the games. You will be sent away three days hence on exile. Your crimes have been covered as an attack on the manor with the daughter of Marquis Juvi as an unfortunate casualty in the process. You will be sent to the city of Aidan…"

"Where?" Aidan? Where in the world was that?

"That's the point, Jonas. Few people remember the Empire owns land on the Orcish subcontinent. And fewer even know how to get anything there and back."

Duke Hadin opened a drawer and pulled out a stack of letters, it seemed like five of them. He slapped them onto the desk with a snarl. 

"The royal blood that runs in your veins saved you from the executioner's axe. And worse, it gave you an entire principality. An impoverished, bandit filled, and weak principality, but one nonetheless. These letters are the royal commandments to your new position demanding the allegiance of the nobles, army, and church on the threat of death."

A silence descended as the duke looked away gritting his teeth. His jaw flexed like he was doing his best to contain his violence. But that quickly transitioned into disappointment. 

"You were so talented. The next heir to everything I had built from the ground up. I brought you the best of scholars, swordmasters, spearmaster, archery masters, tactical geniuses, strategists. Taught you the ways of war and every tiny detail in between. What were you lacking to become so deprived of a soul? So cruel and evil to kill in cold blood? You had everything anyone could have wished for! What were you missing?!"

Unable to hold the emotions any longer, Jonas had tears running down his impassive face. His hands held each other tightly as his mouth moved by itself before he could stop it. 

"A father."

The duke reeled back like he had been physically hit. 

"A father that would have shown up to my eighteenth birthday and my entrance into high society. A father that would have held me as I cried from the pain in my soul. A father to stave away the loneliness that haunted me. Someone to believe in me...at the very least, you could have brought in a mage to prove my innocence and my claim, but you didn't. Instead, you cursed me, then labeled me a liar!" 

By the end, Jonas was screaming at the top of his lungs, his shaking hands were by his side holding tightly to his robes. 

"You've neglected me ever since I was a child and now…" Jonas looked his father in the eyes, a certain broken look in his own. "Now you are abandoning me." 

He shook his head as he let the tears flow freely. Unwilling to stop himself, he turned around and ran out of the room leaving his father by himself in stunned silence.

---

The three days passed in a blur. One moment he was rushing out of his father's office, and the next he stood in front of a small fleet armed to the teeth with mages, knights, and the common soldier. Of course, many more ordinary, but skilled in the ways of sailing, citizenry had been tasked to leave with Jonas as his entourage. 

From the most common merchant to master artisans of the three main professions. Blacksmithing, tailoring, and stonework. Each large vessel was packed and the smaller ones even more so with resources and money. 

It made little sense to Jonas why his father would send such a vast amount of gold currency across the Gulf of Humra or at least until Frezar had to explain with a darkened look. Now, Jonas wished he never asked in the first place. 

Duke Hadin, not father after being disowned, meant to cut off all ties by supplying Jonas with the sh.i.p.s, resources, men and women, and the rest in gold to cover all he would have inherited. This gave him no sway over any matter in the Hadin House any longer and his disownment a true reality that hit harder than a charging boar. 

He couldn't help but feel like there was something or someone sitting on his c.h.e.s.t, making it hard to breath. That only lasted a few minutes as he walked up the plank to the largest and most robust ship he had ever seen. He made sure to shed any emotion for his family there. To take anything back was to guarantee his downward spiral into depression. 

It would take four months for the fleet to make it to their destination. A journey he was not looking forward to. He had heard tales of the seas, monsters and sea serpents the size of a castle, pirate fleets hunting on merchants, and worse of all, the unpredictable weather. 

They would not know whether to prepare for a massive storm with waves as high as mountains or nothing to be worried about.

He hoped the ship he was boarding was worth its cost and size. Otherwise, he wouldn't live to complain about it to anyone. Even then, it wouldn't be beyond his younger brother to sabotage this voyage. 

Tie up loose ends and what not.

As he walked on the deck, a jolly man, his steps full of life and bounce, scampered towards him. His smile was so bright it burned Jonas to stare at and even worse, he could not look into his nemesis's eyes. They were too scrunched up to be visible even from up close. 

Wearing chainmail over his tunic and pants, a cacophony of noise followed him wherever he went. 

Jonas decided then, that he did not like the man one bit. 

"Young Master! It is Hue's p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e to finally feast his eyes upon your divine likeness! We are blessed to have such an esteemed man aboard the Leviathan. And even more so to learn we shall follow you on your journey to ascendancy! Whatever your command, let Hue know and he will see to it!"

A bootlicker to boot. Yep, he didn't like him. Not even a little bit.

"Y-yea. Thanks. Ugh, can I speak to the captain Huemara? Just point me to his general direction, please. I wouldn't want to bother you," Jonas said as he looked past the jolly man's massive figure. How could one man be so wide?

The man's scrunched left eye began to twitch and smile faltered. Even his shoulders began to sag. 

"I am positive you are joking, Young Master. Your sense for comedy is amazing," the man awkwardly laughed. But that faltered as he saw Jonas's confused expression. All he could do was sigh, even then, that enormous smile never escaped him. 

"I am Huemara, Young Master. But Hue is fine as well. Welcome aboard my lover. She'll take care of us, don't worry yourself." 

Jonas choked on his spit. He had to apologize before the only man that could possibly navigate and lead this fleet of sh.i.p.s suddenly decided he didn't like him around anymore. Without any backing from his house anymore, he had no real pull other than the massive amount of gold he carried. Even the loyalty of most of the men was suspect. All he really had was Frezar and the five powerful hidden guards he learned about today. 

Jonas wondered if he would ever meet one of them. They were said to be the best his father had available in the duchy, some of the most skilled and powerful men only matched by a duke's guard or the royal guards. 

Frezar leaned in to whisper into Jonas's ear, just loud enough for only the three of them to hear what was said. "Hue is one of the hidden guards the Duke had assigned as your honor guard. They are all bound by oath to protect and care for you without deviation."

Welp, there goes any positive thoughts and hopes on the earth shaking strength of the honor guards. If the rest were as...unique as Huemara, then Jonas could only pray to the gods he finds himself in no serious situation. 

Resigning himself to a far more difficult future, he hoped the beginning of the trip would at least be easy sailing. 

"Will we survive the high seas, Huemara? I've heard quite a few frightening tales about the oceans we are going to cross."

Huemara laughed, a deep rumbling thing that had all the fat on his body jiggling. "We are on the Leviathan, Young Master. Even the gods could not bring this beast down if they tried. We carry over a hundred mana cannons, fifty monster bolt throwers, and an endless supply of mana generated by a neutered dungeon core."

That all seemed to sooth a part of Jonas, but the other cried in absolute distress. All it could think about was one word, which at the time made little sense other than an extreme amount of foreboding. Titanic, the ship the gods could not bring down, except it was doomed to destruction before it even left the pier. 

Jonas shivered a bit. "Okay, may the mercy of the Father keep us safe."

---

Unlike what he expected, five months passed without a hitch until they made it to their destination. It was a nerve-wracking, illness inducing, balance shaking experience, but they made it without any real threat to their safety. 

Of course, they saw the occasional sea monster and mountain high waves, but either the mana cannons or the Leviathan's charge was enough to destroy anything that stood in their way. 

It was harrowing at first to see his first sea monster. It was a clear night with calm waves and a strong current carrying them faster than expected, then all of a sudden, the moon's light was gone. The waves broke puking out a monstrosity that shadowed the entire fleet. It had to be at least five hundred feet tall.

Or so Jonas thought. 

For the first couple of moments, he thought they were dead men walking. How were they supposed to fight something so massive and primal? He was embarrassed to say he did relieve himself without conscious thought. 

And worse of all, Huemara just laughed his usual, irritating way. It annoyed Jonas till this day. Everyone was about to die and all he could do was laugh. He cursed the Duke for sending him with such a useless honor guard. 

That was until Hue-yes, they were on nickname bases now-spread his hands out. He laughed the entire time as hundreds upon hundreds of mana cannons erupted in a rainbow of colors, then quickly followed by hundreds of more bolts whistling through the air. 

Ten cannons might not have made a difference to their expected outcome of death, but over four hundred shot at the same time...well, Jonas kind of felt bad for the monster, to die so unexpectedly. 

Though they did have a mighty feast of monster meat after the event. Huemara tried to reel in the carcass to pull it along with them, but it was far too large to pull along. So, they cut up as much meat as possible and took as many bones and alchemy material they could get their hands on. 

By the end of their journey, Jonas was sick of the monster meat. Anything else would have been fine, but no, Frezar took exception and stuffed him like a pig. Something about the innate mana carried by such a high level creature would strengthen him beyond the normal scope of knights and mages. Jonas questioned how high level that monster could be if it was so easily defeated-yes, he was victory drunk after that overwhelming win-but was quickly shot down by the old butler. 

"It is only because Huemara is with us that the battle went so smoothly. He is one of the only SeaMasters, unique as his personality is. Each cannon was probably twice as powerful as it had any right to be with his ability."

Jonas reevaluated the skin-crawling type of irritating man Hue was. He also silently thanked his father for matching him with someone so capable.