Hidden from their view, a simple-clothed man smiled in satisfaction as he listened to their stories of His Divine Majesty's greatness.
Grinning, he slammed his mug down, attracting the attention of everyone in the tavern. "For His Divine Majesty and his kin's greatness, we are grateful! Therefore, everything here is on me! Cheers for His Divine Majesty!" He shouted and raised his mug.
"Yeah!!" When they heard that everything's free, everyone rejoiced even more, and the atmosphere inside the tavern became joyous.
The man also walked to the bard and handed him ten gold coins, "A tip for a great storyteller!" He said with a smile.
The bard was shocked and he immediately bowed repeatedly like a pecking chicken, "Thank you very much, mister!" After he thanked him, the bard picked up his pipa and sang happily, with the people joining in on the fun.
The man also walked to the counter to pay for everything. After that, he also joined in with the people, jumping, laughing, and singing as they danced arm in arm.
Their fun went on and on for hours and hours, and it was already midnight when they all tumbled down, sound asleep, drunk and tired.
The man that paid for everyone's drinks rose slowly, being careful not to wake anyone up. Looking at everyone, his lips curled up.
Suddenly, someone appeared next to him, covered in black cloth, standing on the mug lightly without shaking nor breaking it, "It's already midnight, Your Majesty. The Empress is already worried sick."
The man, who was of course, Matthias, chuckled in response, "I am the most powerful person in the Empire and one of the greatest powers here in the continent. Do you think anything or anyone would be able to do a thing to me?"
"Your Majesty.." Faced with Matthias' stubbornness, the black-clothed man bemoaned. "Aish, yeah, yeah! I'll go back." Matthias waved his hand, dismissing the man before vanishing from his seat.
Knowing that his monarch had already gone home, hopefully, the black-clothed man sank deep into the shadows, as if he hadn't even gone there.
In the Imperial Palace of Divine Heaven..
The Empress, Isabelle, paced back and forth as she had a worried expression plastered on her face. It has already been more than half a day since her husband the Emperor had gone out to go somewhere, and it was already in the middle of the night.
Her red phoenix gown spun around every time she turned to walk back. Although she was worried, she still looked beautiful in the eyes of those who could see her.
Behind her, the three Consorts tried to calm her down, "Empress, the Emperor is strong. You shouldn't worry about his safety and you should sleep." The Gallant Consort, Gongsun Yue, said to her.
"The Gallant Consort is right, Empress." The Noble Consort seconded, "His Majesty can return home by himself and may even return without us knowing that he is already here."
"You should take a rest or just sit, Empress Isa." The Pure Consort also spoke as she held the Empress' hands to ease her worries.
"Sigh." Isabelle sighed as she looked at the three Consorts, "Thank you. It's just that it's already past the day, and he still isn't here."
"I am here now, My Empress." Suddenly, out of nowhere, Matthias appeared in front of the balcony and called out with a smile, having already changed his attire; a simple white and gold hanfu.
"Your Majesty." The Three Consorts immediately knelt down in front of his presence. On the other hand, Isabelle, who was very angry, immediately charged forward and started beating him with her hand fan.
"Hey, hey. Stop!" Matthias pleaded as he raised his hands to cover himself from her barrage of attacks.
"You! What time is it already?! Why are you just coming home?!" She reprimanded in anger. "Hey, My Empress, your image." Matthias tried to dissuade her by using the image card.
Unfortunately for him, it wasn't working in the face of her anger. "Why do you care about my image now when you told me that I shouldn't care too much about my image because you'll still be with me even after everything? Why are you still out at night?" She scolded.
"Hey, are you my mother or something?!" Matthias whined. He turned to the Three Consorts and allowed them to stand up, "Can you stop the Empress now? Please?" He asked kindly.
The Three Consorts were going to pull Isabelle back but she immediately turned and glared at them, telling them not to interfere, so they could only gaze at him with an apologetic look on their faces.
With that, Matthias could only sigh and let Isabelle beat him. "Empress, you should take a rest and continue beating His Majesty tomorrow. As you have already said, it's already past midnight, and you should sleep already." Fortunately for him, the black-clothed man that called him home arrived and talked some sense to Isabelle.
Finally, Isabelle backed off, but she was still glaring at him, "I'll see you tomorrow." After that, she immediately turned around, raised her gown, and walked away.
Before turning to join the Empress, The Consorts first bowed towards Matthias, "May you have a good night's rest, Your Majesty." They said to him respectfully.
"Thank you." Matthias smiled and nodded in acknowledgement before they finally turned to leave.
Now that they were gone, Matthias could finally heave a sigh of relief. "I told you Her Majesty is very worried. Fortunately, I got here in time." The black-clothed man said neutrally.
"What do you mean 'in time'?" Matthias scoffed, "You arrived here while I was already getting beaten for thirty minutes!"
"Thank me, it's just thirty minutes. Would you like it to be an hour?" The man rebutted, "You should learn now that you were beaten. Don't stay out late if you go out of the palace or else you are going to get whipped up by your wife."
"Yeah, yeah, I got it." Matthias nodded reluctantly. "Wait, Black, are you the Master or is it me? You're being cocky now, huh?" Matthias glared at him.
Black did not respond and only sank in the shadows, leaving the scene peacefully. "Motherf–"
Seeing that Black really had left the palace, Matthias scratched the back of his head irritatedly before calming down. Thinking about everything that happened today, Matthias just chuckled before walking towards the balcony with his hands clasped on his back.
"Two hundred years, huh?" He muttered with his mind travelling through the course of time. From his declaration of warring against the Yuan Empire to this age of prosperity for the united empire, two centuries have already passed.
If it was him before, he would definitely haven't thought that he would spend more than a century here, but now, here he is. A lot of things had already happened.
With the return of the empire in once again becoming a hegemon in the continent, he had already made a lot of enemies. Different foreign empires expressed indirect hostility towards his rule, and some even directly banned the people of the Divine Heaven Empire from entering their territories.
Of course, there were also some who extended their hands as allies to the newly united domain, and Matthias treated them with respect. Foreign trades had already begun two or three years after the uniting, and some even sent envoys of friendship in its early days.
Of course, some of them were denied entry by Matthias, due to the fact that some of them were Theocratic, and endorsed their religion onto the people of Divine Heaven. As a god himself, Matthias isn't friendly to those kinds of people that seek to influence his subordinates into worshipping other gods when, in fact, he was there.
So, as soon as Matthias saw other religions trying to infiltrate his empire, he immediately established to the people the religion that was shut down by him before; The Han Religion.
When the Han Religion was introduced to the people, with Matthias introducing its god as a "higher being" that guided him as ruler and would later on guide the people, the majority of the people immediately joined. With its doctrines leaning on neutrality, hidden benevolence, and greatness, everyone felt that it was just right for them.
With the Han Religion established, theological empires, in turn, also expressed hostility to the Divine Heaven Empire, saying that its religion is nothing but a hoax and its goal is just to endorse the legitimacy of the empire.
When Matthias heard those accusations, he laughed while sitting on his throne and thought, "Aren't everyone using religions as an excuse to legitimize their rule?"
After that, Divine Heaven entered its hibernation period, replenishing its strength and developing its territories. Reclaiming lands, signing treaties of mutual benefits with the Beast Kings, and promoting advancement for everyone.
Princess Han Yue, his daughter with the Pure Consort Fei, also volunteered with research by joining the Divine Heaven Academy, the old Qin University of Literature and Arts.
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶