Rusty watched as a dozen people filed into his throne room. Next to him were Frederic and Tur''stal to round out the meeting. Now that the Emperor had stated this was his final offer to the Knight revival program, they were either going to move forward or the effort would die here.

    It had taken almost fifty years after they officially presented the proposal to reach a hopefully mutually acceptable agreement. But now, it was time to convince the stubborn mules that were the remnants of the Orders into actually accepting.

    Because things could never be easy.

    It was days like this that Rusty wondered why he had ever accepted the mantle of King instead of just remaining a duke,or just passing the title onto a relative and ascending.

    Sadly, he couldn''t even shunt this off to Frederic and had to host the meeting himself. This was, out of all of their duties, primarily his.

    His kingdom''s leader two generations ago, King Damian, despite being an Agatha loyalist, sheltered a number of the old Knight remnants in defiance of the overt disapproval of the Empress. With the then Duke Damian protecting the remnants of the Knight Orders, those he sheltered were spared the majority of Agatha’s wrath and they had settled down within his borders. And so, his kingdom had the most Knightly Orders who still knew the closely guarded secrets of just how they could merge Natural Treasures with newborns and make the benefits genetic enough to become inheritable.

    Rusty’s predecessor had continued the trend of protecting the Knights even when Georgios wanted the information of how to create elites, but the remaining Orders had made it clear they would rather die than share their secrets with anyone. Georgios had apparently even tried to look back in time to watch the procedure done without their consent, but the time between Agatha’s rise and her outlawing such measures was simply too long, which made the cost impossible to pay when paired with their once-formidable wards.

    The Knightly Orders had had very robust anti-divination, anti-clairvoyance, and anti-pre and post-cognition wards around their strongholds, which increased the difficulty exponentially. Combined with the fact it had been a full sixty thousand years, it was probably impossible even once Matt was T50.

    Not that he thought Manny would be interested in trying, even if he could.

    A stand he personally agreed with.

    His own opinions were irrelevant, though.

    His faction might not be as traditional as Frederic’s, but even they were nearly unanimous in their desire in taking some power from the Imperial government, which was why he had backed the effort.

    Officially, Tur’stal was in a similar political position, but Rusty was pretty sure she was personally invested in creating or taking over an Order around nature, which at least partially fueled her support of the effort over the last fifty years.

    Frederic, on the other hand, was a bit of a mystery to Rusty. His faction supported the measure because they were the most traditional, and anything that harkened back to the ‘good old days’ was something they championed, but Rusty couldn’t pin down the man''s personal motives.

    Was he just doing his duty as a representative of his dukes, or did he have a deeper motivation in backing this motion?

    Rusty had his people do their research and he wasn’t sure.

    Being the descendants of the factions that had been on Agatha’s bad side, they had historical connections to the Orders, but their practical connections had been fairly cleanly severed when Agatha purged most of the Orders. His people had noted a few of the noble families in Frederic''s kingdom probably had existing connections to various orders, whether in the form of having sheltered them, just financially supporting one, or even outright being the remnants of one. However, no hint was found that Frederic’s family had any connection at all.

    Rusty knew Frederic fairly well as a politician who had done the impossible and wrestled a kingdom for himself. But once he had his prize, Frederic had been nothing but a model King, balancing his internal faction’s desires and his duties as a Royal perfectly.

    That shouldn’t have been surprising as Emmanuel had allowed his coronation, but Rusty had always felt Frederic had layers within layers and plans within plans. And Rusty trusted his gut, which meant if Frederic was backing this proposal... Not just backing, but championing it as he had been the driving force behind the revival efforts, he had to have a reason.

    Rusty just didn’t know what it was.

    Not that it mattered anymore, the die was cast.

    One hundred and sixty three people walked into the throne room and Rusty couldn’t help but sigh at the sight.

    The once grand Knightly Orders that had had thousands of branches and variations were reduced to a measly one hundred and sixty three surviving members.

    All of them were old immortals from Agatha’s time, thanks to the Order''s methods being outlawed and their own reluctance to create new Knights, even illegally, because of Georgios’ ability to peer back in time without significant preparation. Only those who had remained in this Realm and hadn’t died were left.

    During the negotiations, almost a dozen had refused anything but a full return to their former rights, privileges, and prestige, and they had been encouraged to ascend. But they were the exception. Most who had waited this long were desperate for any form of legitimacy, as those too proud in the slightest had all ascended long ago in disgust and protest. That, or they had been arrested for continuing to act as if the same freedoms they had under the last dynasty still applied.

    Which left them dealing with this motley crew of past glories.

    Stella Pattinson was the first through the door, and while she didn’t look physically old, late thirties for a mortal at most, she carried the weight of her history like heavy baggage that dragged down each and every step she took despite being Tier 45 and beyond such frailties.

    For all of her melancholy, she was an astute schemer and was a prodigy at pulling strings from the shadows to get her way. It was how she had survived where so many others had fallen afoul of the government or ascended in the last two generations of leaders.

    She was powerful, however, as she represented one of the more intact Knightly Orders. The Order of the Final Breath had famously been imbued with Fall’s Final Leaf, a Natural Treasure that increased all aspects of a person the closer they were to death. Her Order’s use of the Natural Treasure shifted what qualified as being ‘close to death’, giving them the significant boost in power without the risks of actually being close to death, and managed to extend this effect to other damage based boosts.

    Stella herself was one of the Order''s successes who had both a Talent related to her natal Natural Treasure and a Domain in the same vein. A pinnacle elite in her own time, she was one of the driving forces for the Knightly Orders’ revival, and was a perfect showcase of just what could be achieved with their methods.

    Rusty didn’t care too much for her, but that was at least partially because she treated him and everyone of his generation like misbehaving children who should default to her older and more experienced judgment.

    That was one of the risks of lingering in a Realm for so long. It led to such stagnation and was a potent reminder why all of the Great Powers ensured their leaders cycled.

    Ernest Baxter was the second through the door and walked with confidence and pride Rusty knew were both fabricated. A Tier 45, he had been a failure of a Knight in that neither his Talent nor his Domain revolved around the Dawn’s Blossom Natural Treasure his Order espoused. He did have the natal Natural Treasure’s effect spread through his body, which gave him a resistance to light-based attack, as well as a multiplicative damage effect to any light-based spells. But his own inclinations leaned towards being a blade mage who had no real elemental affinity.

    A peak elite, he was still a success in that his power had been enough to put him in the second highest rung of combat Tiers besides Ascenders, and he had been influential enough to single handedly turn the Light’s Knights from a third-rate Order into a first-rate one, just before Agatha had usurped the throne and ruined all of his hard work.

    Despite his loss of position and the dismantling of his faction, Ernest hadn’t become bitter like Stella, but instead threw himself into securing his and other smaller Orders'' survival once Agatha outlawed the process.

    A laudable endeavor, but the tens of millennia of effort with no payoff had led to a fairly public nervous breakdown that had seen Ernest bedridden and cationic for almost five thousand years, until he slowly started to pull himself out of his depression.

    Now, he was little more than a shell of a man putting on airs to reclaim some manner of dignity.

    Personally, Rusty hoped that this step in a direction Ernest had been working for so long would see some level of true return to the man. But if his trembling left hand was any indicator, he was far from truly recovered.

    Finally, the last Order leader to enter the hall was the one Rusty wanted to see the least.

    Cornelius Ross Jr., Knight Commander of the Order of the Damned, was lucky to be alive.

    It was strong enough to stop most other at-Tier divinations methods, which accounted for all loose cultivators and was robust enough that anyone Tier 47 or higher wouldn’t be able to break in without tripping alarms.

    Sure, that wouldn’t prevent the damage, but there just weren’t enough high-Tier materials to actually make a higher-Tier safe room.

    Not to mention that it needed to be more like a safe warehouse, which just exacerbated the problem.

    The Orders demanded safe areas to perform the secret procedures that would infer the Natural Treasures into oneself and make them inheritable, but that wasn’t a one-time procedure and needed to be repeated every generation, which meant the Orders needed persistent safe locations that they controlled. Before the dynasty change, they had about two dozen Tier 46 and 47 areas they shared, but this revival would be more limited, with one in each capital system except the Capital itself. None of the Orders were comfortable being so close to a Tier 50 with post- and precognition with their secrets.

    The Orders argued that wasn’t enough, but that was all Emmanuel and the three of them were willing to pay for. Wards of the caliber they needed were incredibly expensive, and at the size they needed, spatial expansion would weaken the wards and so couldn’t be used. It was already stretching their budgets thin to create six such safe areas.

    None of that stopped the Knights from bickering and complaining, begging, wheedling, and demanding more.

    Rusty hoped things would end there, but when the restrictions about squires came up, there was a new round of complaints once more led by Stella.

    “We cannot pay for squires. That defeats the purpose of a squire. They live and die at our whim for good reason. What good are they if we can’t use and dispose of them? There is a reason we used peasants for such positions.”

    When they shut that down, the Orders changed their demands.

    “We need our ancestral Legacies returned to our hands.”

    As the military leader and someone who was actively reported to about the status of the Legacy obelisks, Rusty answered, “A dozen have been approved for return, but that accounts for most of the remaining Legacies which were confiscated from the present Orders.”

    The same woman slapped the air, causing a shockwave. “That is wholly unacceptable! We demand they...”

    As it sunk in that the other Legacy obelisks had been destroyed via use, she faltered.

    “We demand Legacy obelisks be given to us in order to compensate us for the loss of our heritage. Three per Order.”

    Rusty rolled his eyes, but let Tur’stal answer in his stead.

    “That is a flatly impossible number. The Empire doesn''t currently, and in fact has never had, over four hundred unused Legacy obelisks waiting to be used. We can authorize the next dozen to be allocated to the Orders to be used as you all can agree upon, but we just cannot give so many.”

    Frederick picked up from there, “In more positive news, we managed to persuade the Emperor to add a tax exemption when purchasing your Orders natal Natural treasure on top of your Right of First Refusal. There are some limitations, but they are not too egregious and should offset a lot of the costs of reestablishing yourself.”

    That settled, the conversation once more turned negative.

    “These restrictions on following orders must be removed so we can do our job properly. We are elites who do not need such oversight. To suggest so is folly.”

    It was there that Rusty finally lost his patience.

    Seeing that Tur’stal and Frederic were similarly fed up, he stood and at Tier 47 speeds, stepped in front of Stella up close and well within her personal space, his Stamana flaring hot.

    His move startled everyone, and all but Stella backed up from his sudden appearance.

    Looking over her shoulder, he spoke to the crowd in little more than a whisper, knowing they could hear. “Enough. You all seem to think this is a return to the old ways, and despite saying it more than once, I don’t know how to make it more clear. This isn’t the old dynasty where you created and expanded your power bases, earning expectations and freedoms until you were a dominant force. This revival is because you have something useful. This revival isn’t you returning to glory and reclaiming everything you lost, it''s a last-ditch effort to preserve your uniqueness, nothing more. Such foolish demands will not be entertained.”

    Letting his words and gaze sweep across the gathered Knights, Rusty challenged any of them to say he was wrong.

    Ernest shuddered slightly, but that wasn’t an uncommon reaction. People either let loose thousands of years of grief and pain, or they turned gazes of hatred onto Rusty for seeming to side with the Empire over their heritage.

    Even ignoring his personal feelings that were more closely aligned with the Imperial government, some of these relics didn’t seem to understand that this was truly their last chance at a revival. Ignoring everything else, once Matt reached Tier 35 or so, the Empire would start to undergo vast and systematic changes. It was either get on the train now or be forever lost to the annals of history.

    Having made his point and with no one willing to challenge him, Rusty increased his perception to Tier 47 levels and sat back down.

    He did note everyone and their reactions, though. They would all be watched in the coming years, as it wouldn’t do to let the obviously unaccepting move unhindered.

    Hopefully they would make the smart choice, heed his warning, and ascend after ensuring their Orders were properly revived, but he knew they would have to make an example out of at least one of them before the others listened.

    Once the smaller details were settled, mostly about the Empire demanding the potential Knights were given a chance to leave the service of their family, they moved onto something mildly more pleasant.

    Tur’stal glided forward. “Now that we have dealt with the unpleasant parts, it is time for a party and some mingling. We have invited the noble houses who are looking to sponsor a Knightly Order, and they are waiting for us in the next room over. This is a time to find patrons or possibly find new Natural Treasures that might lead to either a shift in focus or a branching off for some of your descendants. We have lawyers on standby for anyone who wishes to make a deal sooner than later, but I would like to remind everyone that there is no rush and being a sponsored Knightly Order isn’t to be entered into lightly.”

    Rusty was almost tempted to leave, but he didn’t. As much as he wanted to wipe his hands of this, he hadn’t put in so much effort to just allow everyone else to get a portion of the spoils.

    He had his eye on an Order or two, and this would be an opportune time to watch them mingle with others.

    Nobles who sponsored Orders paid a lot, but they also received a pseudo mercenary corps in peace time that could be useful for all manner of projects.

    It would do his family’s long-term development well to tie an Order to them while they were a King-level title for when he ascended and they once more became mere dukes.

    Why did he ever bother to accept this title?

    It was times like this he generally wondered.

    These people were somehow worse than the Ascenders.

    And just as he was thinking of them, they appeared thanks to an Allie teleport.