The pressure on all fronts had turned the emperor desperate. Every kingdom, every duchy, and every city was slowly being taken away from him, and despite Haruki's alleged progress on Inferno's territory, they were losing too much for that pascal of land to amount to much at all. In fact, at the rate at which the demon lords were creeping in on his territory under Margarette's watch, he felt a burning jealousy for the competence of Haruki's war general.
"So, Selena, what have you learned from being around the demon lord of lust?" Taking a stroll through the Halfeti garden, the emperor accompanied by Haruki's personal guards wanted to squeeze out as much information about him as possible.
A bit fidgety from the presence of the emperor beside her, Selena's body was all tensed up and even her steps felt stiffly puppeteered.
"M-My Lo-Lord!" Covering her mouth Selena took a deep gulp to calm her staggering tongue. Then as she finally began to feel slightly better, she opened her mouth again to answer the emperor's question. "The lord of lust, he…was very secretive and only talked when he needed something."
"Needed what exactly?" Venturing into a maze of tall bushes, Atlas looked at Selena from the edge of his eyes waiting for an answer. "He might be working under me now, but he's still a demon so I'm going to assume you didn't open your mouth too much around him, did you?"
"Of course not! I would never!" Selena replied without a moment's delay.
"Then what did you learn from him exactly?" Atlas asked again as they moved deeper through the maze.
Taking yet another moment to calm her heart, Selena steeled herself before replying.
"He spends most of his time reading books in the library, and to be honest, I didn't expect him to be studious but he seemed knowledgeable in almost all aspects of history and the occult," laying it all out, Selena felt the burden on her lessen ever so slightly.
"Hmmm…" Humming to himself, the emperor was lost in deep thought until the two of them reached the other end of the maze.
With a gazebo under the shades of lush trees, a painted white table with chairs was laid out in front of them. Walking over to it, Atlas settled down in one of the seats and motioned Selena to sit down across him.
To show her fidelity, however, Selena refused to take a seat and simply stood by the emperor waiting for an order or any more questions that he could've had.
"Oh…" Remembering something important about her encounter with Haruki, Selena quickly blurted it out. "There was one thing particularly odd about his reading habit, he was looking through the arcane books even though I'm quite certain he couldn't understand a word written in them."
'Arcane books? Nothing good comes from the arcane.' Given an obvious hint about a potential betrayal, Atlas wondered if he should shut the libraries at once or keep them open just to see where things go and perhaps figure out Haruki's plans before he gets to execute them. 'Either way, his performance at the war has been excellent, discarding him would be a fool's play especially since I have him under my grasp.'
As if the stars had willed it, a guard came rushing from the garden bushes with urgent news from the battlefield. With obvious hints of urgency on his face, the armored soldier made his way toward his lord and knelt down before speaking to him.
"My L-lord!" Panting as he spoke, the messenger's words were far from coherent.
"Calm down and breathe" Atlas ordered.
Following his lord's command, the messenger took a moment to catch his breath before looking back up at Atlas. Gulping down in angst, he finally spoke clearly.
"Sir…Sir Haruki has taken back Sir Dominion's land! We need to send more Royal guards to secure the region before the demon lord's return!" Although the messenger had summed up everything pretty clearly, there were still points of confusion that needed some clearing.
"In a day's time, the demon has taken the territory back, that too with but a handful of soldiers?" Atlas asked, a bit skeptical of the situation.
Recognizing the doubt in the emperor's eyes, the soldier felt an eerie chill run down his spine. Yet as he spoke nothing but the truth, his answer remained the same as before.
"Yes my lord, sir Michael was the one who sent that message so there's no doubt about it!" Taking yet another nervous gulp, the messenger decided to clear something else about the situation as well. "It seems the demon lord of envy isn't present in his territory and so his demons perished without his guidance the same way Sir Dominion's army fell without him."
"Where is he then?" Atlas asked, having no clue about Inferno's whereabouts.
"I…I do not know, my lord," the messenger answered, lowering his head in shame.
"Fine, send the reserved royal guards for Haruki's aid," too concerned with the demon lords all pushing in on his territory, the emperor knew he couldn't waste too much time over decisions like this. "And relay this order to Haruki, I do not want a single more of my men to die in Inferno's flames and if it happens he can forget about Serena's soul."
Keeping Serena's soul hostage was currently the only leverage he had against Haruki, especially since the armies from Haruki's former companions were closing in on him at a rapid speed. Receiving his orders, the messenger dismissed himself with a bow to the emperor. Left alone with Selena once more, Atlas turned to her for one last question.
"I have to ask," glaring at her with a sharp gaze, the emperor seemed slightly irked by something. "Your oath, what made you break it so easily?"
Smelling the musk of a demon on her, her infidelity to her oath was more apparent to Atlas than to Selena herself. Thus shocked by his words, her eyes widened up and she even stepped away in horror wondering what she'd done wrong to anger her master.
"My lord, I would never do anything to-"
"Demons are elusive in more than a handful of ways, and you've been tainted already," directing his fingers towards her, Atlas created a small circular window peeking into the past. "And it seems Nabe is much the same."
Peering into the window of memories, the night where Selena had slept with Haruki unfolded before the eyes of two. Already suspected Nabe of betrayal. Atlas wasn't too surprised by seeing her present inside the room, in fact, the only thing that bothered him was having taken care of a viper since her birth only to be bitten by it in its adult years.
Fortunately for Haruki, throughout the night he'd not spoiled a single step of his plan or even the contract he made with Asmodia. But for Selena who thought herself to be the lord's servant, bouncing on top of Haruki's dick like a whore was devastating enough to bring her to her knees.
"You're no royal guard anymore," curling his fingers into a fist, Atlas shut the window closed and looked right into Selena's eyes. "Submit your armor until you can prove your worth to be a royal guard again."
Too ashamed to speak a word, Selena stayed on her knees bowing to the emperor. Not in a million years could she have seen herself begging for a mistake like this, yet now that she was down on all fours she wanted nothing more than to be forgiven by her master no matter the price for it might be.
"My lord, please, I didn't know!" She begged, her breaths growing unsteady.
"I know you didn't know, that's why I can't have you around him anymore," even though he appeared cruel in his judgment, deep within, Atlas was still thinking of his subject's wellbeing. "Abstain in the dungeons, and when you're done, I want you to face the same demon who took your honor from you."
Getting out of the chair, Atlas placed his hand on Selena's shoulder for a moment before passing her by. Making his way back into the castle, he'd left her despairing in her shortcoming and yet determined to be a better servant to her loving master.
'By the order of the oaths, I should've been killed for breaking them, but…' Looking back at Atlas walking away, Selena felt thankful to him for giving her a second chance.
In reality, however, Atlas himself has broken plenty of natural laws that he was supposed to uphold, and the weight of those rebellions against the creator made him feel ineligible to punish anyone else who dares to do the same.
'I feel horrible…' While rushing towards the castle, the emperor's body was drenched with a sudden burst of cold sweat, almost as if his cosmic heart was about to implode from the feeble use of his magic to show Selena the memories from that night.
"Call the generals, I need them all here! Send all royal guards out in their places but I need them here!" Giving out orders to the guards stationed by the castle doors, Atlas rushed past them before they could notice his skin turning a ghostly pale.
'Dammit…I thought I had more time!' His teeth clenched tight, he could taste the iron flooding out through his gums. His vision was no better as it got blurrier by the second, even his body was waning in strength with each step, and worst of all his head was throbbing with a skull-shattering migraine.
Bleeding through his eyes, and nails, the emperor took brisk steps in an attempt to somehow make it to his room, but before he could climb even half the steps that led to the upper floors, his legs gave in and he stumbled right down the steps. Hearing their lord's body thrashing down the stairs, the guards rushed right over to him and helped him get to a safer place on the lower floor itself.
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