The two stared at Darius, following his words, yet they both showed no sign of distress or confusion, as their merely steadied before they both replied with an iron conviction "We are ready to do our duty."

The two had been raised as true princes their entire lives, born and bred into one of the most powerful and prestigious noble heritages in the world, which meant they were keenly aware of the obligations they are expected to uphold in their lives, as remittance of the privileges they enjoyed since birth.

However I had no interest in giving this honourable resolution of theirs any true value this time, as I answered their statement of iron will, with words as light as a feather, yet as heavy as an elephant's stomp.

"I, and our ancestors did not work so tirelessly so that we would need you to sacrifice your possible happiness for the sake of the nation, my dear brothers. Your marriage is your own and no one else's, so do as you will with it, and shrug away all other concerns, understand?"

The two were even more shocked at my words than anyone else's, as I was effectively shattering their life's expectations that they had built up and expected in their minds since they first beheld the light of this world, when our mother gave life to them and held them in her loving arms.

"But brother..." Nizam tried to argue, fearing that I was only speaking such words due to the love I held for them, when in reality such a thing would only spell further trouble for me and the empire, who he felt especially responsible to bear a portion of it's weight as well, but I had no wish to entertain his sweet, yet fantasized worries, as I instantly interrupted him.

"The nation needs not the simple favours and paltry advantages possibly secured by your marriage my brothers." I then turned to look them in the eye, as I continued with a commanding, yet compelling voice, one that almost devilishly whispered and lulled them into the depths of the dazzling dream I portrayed before them "You only speak, learn and accept such matters, because we are powerful enough for it weigh upon your minds, but not strong enough to not bother with it, and that is the fault I aim to mend in the world. To complete our forefather's work and deliver our bloodline to the pinnacle of power; where none of the world's other apexes, whether alone or combined could ever hope to challenge our rule."

I laid bare the extent of my gluttonous ambition to them, as a chills ran marathons across their skin, making them momentarily question their hearing, before an unconscious smile, one of excitement tainted with dark, malevolent glee, spread eerily across their lips.

"We understand brother." They both replied after a moment, yet unbeknownst to me at the time, my words had birthed another effect on my brothers, one that hardened their already firm resolve to work themselves a hundred fold harder in the future, so that my words would indeed come true, and we would become the undisputed, unrivalled masters of the world.

And secondly, but far more importantly in their minds, so that none would ever dare criticize me and my words this night in the future, saying that I selfishly abandoned my duty as emperor for my own family's sake; but also that I would never regret uttering them, by gracing them with such a seemingly ludicrous privilege, one that very few in all of history were afforded.

Our half meeting half afternoon tea party therein ended, with everyone then dispersing back to their duties, while I returned to my hellish training, slowly influencing my hellfire to continue circulating throughout my body, slowly singing my skin, burning black my bones and balefully boiling my blood, all the while subtly infusing them with the miasmic taint of hell, that would better prepare my flesh for the sheer amount of power it would need to encage when unlocking the next gate.

And so the hours passed with me enduring this silent, yet rewarding torment until suddenly Isaac's voice invaded my ears from beyond my locked door, saying "Pardon me sire, but we must begin to make ready ourselves for the opening ball of the Banquet of Concordia."

"Time?" I simply asked, finally allowing my power to rest, as my hellfire returned to it's dormant state.

"We have three hours, my liege." He answered, as he entered with three other servants, ready to help me into me attire for the night.

"And Eve?" I tried to spell her name with the same emotionless voice I used before, but I could not hide the hopeful flux that slithered it's way into my tone.

"...Nothing yet I'm afraid, sire." He replied, his tone betraying a hint of his frustration, for never before had anyone proven to be so vexingly difficult to find, for the feared and ancient Commander of the Shade Corps.

"It's fine Isaac." I said with slight smile. "Eve wouldn't be who she is if she were easy to find. Just keep searching, she's bound to appear in the coming days."

The last words I spoke were without confidence and instead withered by excruciating fear, but I managed to cover them with some false bravado, even if temporarily.

'Where in the name of all the Gods are you, my love?' I almost pleadingly thought, before I awoke from pathetic state by the tyrant's roar.

'Find her! We must find her already, or we repeat what we did to this city and raze it to the ground, and upturn every accursed stone in this place if need be! Just find her!' He rioted in my mind, his words as venomously vicious as they were increasingly pleasant to my ears.

Yet my will was still not completely vacant of reason, as I rebukingly replied 'Calm yourself you blood drunk beast, if we do that, we'll never find her. So stop raging and hold your temper a while longer.'

He seemed convinced by my words, as his echoing roars quieted down, though only somewhat, before Isaac said "For now my liege, I think it best if we finish the task at hand with your wardrobe."

"Agreed." I immediately said, mostly in an effort occupy myself with something else, while allowing them to begin their work.

And the though the process was as tedious as always, it did manage to distract me for a while, as I beheld myself on the opposing mirror.

I was dressed in black and silver garbs, with a slightly more militaristic edge to it, on account of the light shoulder pads, vambraces and other similar details, that mostly performed a fashionable instead of a functional purpose, with the finishing touch that tied it all together being the heavy mantle laid upon my shoulders and back, with the empire's eclipsing sun sigil woven in silver threads upon it.

"Well done Isaac." I honestly praised the man, pleasantly surprised by how well this looked upon me.

"My pleasure, sire." He replied with a small bow, and a happy smile.

"Brother, are you ready yet?" My brothers then entered, with Cyrus' impatient voice loudly asking.

He was dressed in similar clothes to mine, only replacing the silver colour of my clothes with golden highlights for his, to match his golden locks, a decision undoubtedly made by my mother.

Meanwhile Nizam was clothed in a more refined set of cloth, completely lacking the ornamental pieces of armour me and Cyrus wore, and instead it was enhanced with a few overt details that gave him a more scholarly and sophisticated air, one I found suited him greatly; with the only oddity to this being the small straight silver dagger dangling from his hip, the same one our mother gave him when he first followed me to war three years ago.

"I am." I answered.

"Then let's go already." Cyrus quickly proclaimed, before he instantly turned to leave the room he'd just entered.

"Yes, let's." I nodded, as we all took our leave from the room, and down the vast corridors of the Thua Palace and to the southern gate of the great hall, where the opening ball of the event would take place.

Once there, a clearly anxious man quickly approached us, before bowing a full ninety degrees and saying "You've finally arrived my lords."

Hearing the man's words, we were all perplexed, as Isaac asked "There is still an hour before the agreed upon time for the entrance of the four emperors arrives, is it not?"

"Yes, my lord. You are correct." The man quickly nodded with a head full of sweat.

"Then why do you speak as though we are late?" Isaac's chilling eyes sharpened even further, as he beheld the man with displeasure.

"N-No, you miss understand me my lords!" The man panicked, before he quickly explained "It's just that s-some of the other Empires requested a ch-changing in the order you would enter, so we would like to a-affirm with you if you're willing to be the first to enter the hall, instead of the third."

"Which fool requested such a last minute change?" I coldly asked, making the man nearly jump in fright at the sound of my voice, as he swiftly answered.

"I-I wasn't informed my lord! I was only told to ask your opinion on the matter."

"Fine then. We accept your new arrangements, we don't care whether we are the first or the last." I nonchalantly said.

"Thank you my lords." The ma bowed several times, before he made instantly left, looking as though he was escaping.

"That's odd." Darius remarked.

"Indeed." I replied perplexed.

"Brother is there some kind of benefit for entering the hall at a certain order?" Cyrus confusedly asked, thinking that it was maybe someone being greedy for some prestige by entering third or something of that nature, by adhering to some archaic tradition of the Banquet he'd never heard of.

"No, there is no such thing." I answered his query with furrowed eyebrows, finding myself as baffled as all the others around me, since even if it was some sort of ploy to annoy or embarrass us, it was one without any teethe, as it would have failed achieved such an outcome anyway, and if anything it would only sour your image before the Astrapi Kingdom's people, who were now scurrying around to accommodate his their request.

'Who, and what are they thinking?' I quietly thought to myself, uneased by my unseen foe's odd move.