The Star Of Annihilation

The Star of Annihilation

Chapter 49 – Titanius (1)

Written by : eleven

* * *

Tap. Tap. Tap.


Howard’s fingertips drummed on the chair he was sitting in.

Inside his Imperial Residence that was within the Palace, Howard was in turmoil about the recent withdrawal requests of the Imperial Nobles that were supporting him.

He and the other Princes were able to lobby quite heavily for the spots that were left for the representatives that would represent the Empire in the upcoming Tournament of Young Lions.

‘What would they be up to?’

Howard knew very well that most nobles that supported him for the throne were crafty and two-faced.

They always had their own hidden agendas, and Howard was keeping tabs on their assets with his own private information network in case he ever needed to hold them collateral.

However, this move did not make much sense to him.

It did on the surface, but he felt that the Nobility of the Empire was being quite silly with their choices.

Howard knew very well about the fact that these beasts known as the Dragons had completely infiltrated and taken over an Entire Kingdom in the East.

If their ploy was to throw the towel for the First Prince to make a blunder, Howard couldn’t help but feel frustrated.

‘Do they seriously underestimate those brats that much?’

Howard had been not sleeping well as of late because he knew the arrival of the two children he had failed to bring under his wing were returning to the Capital soon.

He knew better than anyone that he should never underestimate his opponents, and he took into the account that it was likely the two boys had some exceptional growth and were likely to break several records within the Empire in terms of growth.

That was how much of a blow it had been to Howard when they had gone under the entourage of the First Prince.

“Hm….”

Continuing to drum his fingers in anxiety, Howard racked his brain while he organized his thoughts.

‘It’s still unlikely that they are truly aligned with him though.’

Howard stirred the wine glass he held in his other hand as he remained hopeful.

‘…..But what about that crafty child?’

There was one among the Imperial Family that Howard truly felt wary of however. There wasn’t any substantial evidence that the Imperial Princess, Sistine Ismenian, had been making any moves in the political scene for her right to the throne, but Howard always felt this unsettling and uncomfortable aura around her.

She was sharp, distant, objective, and more than anything…. Impossible to read.

Despite her being only twelve years-old, Howard felt a sense of disgust towards his sister in name.

‘She’ll be away this year though for a little bit… Wait-NO!’

Howard stood up suddenly as he realized something was off.

She may not be active in the political scene, but Sistine Ismenian had a way in.

‘Roy Stone and Nate Fielder… They’re being admitted in the same year as her to the Imperial Academy… Titanius!’

Howard got up as he immediately started to order his servants inside to get him dressed as he started to organize his thoughts of protest to his father about her admission.

* * *

Whoosh.
The warp portal opened in the same location as before.

Roy recognized the surroundings when he stepped through and noticed the view of the large Imperial Palace surrounding him.

[Welcome back.]

An odd voice rang out in front of the group as Aurelia and Mateo looked to see the owner of the voice.

“Ferneth! Elizabeth!”

Roy exclaimed in surprise as he ran towards the Arch-Lich and his student, Elizabeth.

“Hahaha… It’s good to see you too Roy!”

Elizabeth laughed as she hugged Roy.

Roy quickly noticed how much Elizabeth had progressed over the time they had spent apart.

She was already at 3-stars, in the middle of the level, progressing towards the breakthrough point would only be a matter of time.

“I see you’ve both grown so much.”

Roy smiled as he looked at both Elizabeth and Ferneth.

“It’s quite amazing isn’t it? Ferneth here, has become the new Tower Master of the Purple Tower, the Tower focused on soul and life magic.”

Tubel interjected as he smiled warmly towards Ferneth and company.

[Indeed, I have. I did not think the church would be silent throughout this time, but it seems that becoming an 8-star Grand-Lich has helped me cover my tracks accordingly.]

Ferneth spoke up with a hint of pride evident in his voice.

Mateo looked at Roy incredulously, as he had been observing the boy quite thoroughly and had no idea that Ferneth, the new Tower Master and second being in the entire Empire to reach 8-stars, had direct ties with the mysterious boy.

“I just hope you have some new spell models for me.”

Roy chided as he elbowed Ferneth jokingly.

[Cheeky brat. Of course I do.]

Ferneth smiled as he was still wearing his skin mask magic when in public.

Everyone in the Imperial Palace knew that Ferneth was a Lich, but Navarro Ismenian had done an incredible job at restricting any possibility of leaking that information outside the palace.

Only the Imperial Family, other Tower Masters, Swordmasters, and Ministry knew of his true identity as a Grand-Lich.

“Let’s go inside, we have much to discuss.”

Tubel guided the group back into the Palace as he reminded them that time was of the essence as he ordered some Imperial servants and maids to take Lucius off of Mateo’s hands.

* * *

“So, are you ready?”

“I think so.”

“That’s wonderful. You’ll make sure to visit from time to time, right?”

“Of course, mom. I love you.”

Roy and Mathilde were talking as it was finally dusk and Roy had just finished his affairs at the Imperial Palace.

Emperor Navarro made sure that Roy and his friends would have free tuition inside the Imperial Academy, Titanius.

The First Prince was responsible for providing him with room and board, and did not fail to meet his expectations.

However, Roy had missed his mother quite a bit these past two years as Mathilde was currently holding Roy in her arms.

“It’s really so amazing to see you again.”

Mathilde repeated her affection for Roy as she had been inexplicably happy to see her son again.

“I’m sorry, mom. It must have been lonely here.”

Mathilde looked at Roy as she embraced him in her arms inside the living room of their new home that the First Prince had gotten them.

“Don’t worry about that nonsense, I have the maids here with me!”

Mathilde refuted Roy as she smiled whole-heartedly.

It was very true that Mathilde had enjoyed the maids’ company while staying in Lazarus, and the maids were also quite thrilled with the owner of the house, as Mathilde was a commoner in name and treated them with fairness and even amicability.

None of the nobles these maids had served in the past, were as friendly and warm as Mathilde was.

“I… I have to stay on campus for school this year,”

Roy spoke in a gloomy voice as he looked at his mother with a bitter smile.

“It’s alright, I already knew. I just hope since it’s closeby, that you’ll come home to visit when you can.”

Mathilde looked at Roy with an understanding expression in her eyes.

“I promise I will.”

Roy only prayed that it would not be an empty promise.

Visiting his mother was easy enough. Especially with the fact that Titanius Academy would allow them to go off campus once a week.

“By the way mom…”

Roy suddenly realized he had forgotten to ask his mom about something.

When he asked this question to Tubel or Ferneth, neither of them had given him a solid answer and just responded vaguely with a smile.

“Yes?”

“Where’s Nate? Nobody’s been able to tell me where he is.”

Roy was starting to grow a bit worried, but he was certain Nate would be able to take care of himself. It was just a bit worrying that he hadn’t had contact with one of the few friends he had made in this life.

“Well….”

Mathilde was about to give him the same look that everyone else had given him, but Roy pleaded.

“Mom, nobody’s giving me a straight answer. Can’t you just tell me what’s going on?”

Mathilde just sighed when she saw this.

It wasn’t a big deal to disclose it, but Mathilde figured it would be better for Roy to see Nate for himself.

“He should be back from his trip pretty soon. School starts next week, and I’ve been told he’s going to be arriving back via the warp portal tomorrow morning.”

“Trip…? Where did he go?”

“It’ll be better if you ask him yourself, honey.”

Roy bit his lip, but gave up.

It would be better just to follow what Mathilde said and ask Nate himself.

‘Did he train separately as well?’

-The Apostle of a God like Varpulis, should at least be committed to growing stronger in his free time.

Ifrit chimed in as he heard Roy’s thoughts.

‘I really need to talk with you later down the line about that. I really don’t have much of an idea about the Gods and other Transcendent beings like the Spirit Kings. Could we find some time this week to do that?’

Roy realized there was still a lot of information he didn’t know about in regards to these great beings, and he had a hunch that maybe… just maybe… one of these great beings could be responsible for his regression to the past.

-I’ll try to answer what I can. Just know there are these rules to how much information I can give you; even if I want to, I might not be able to because of them.

‘The laws of casualty?’

-You know well.

In reality, Roy didn’t know what the laws of casualty were, he had enough of an idea to understand what they did and what not.

‘Alright, I’ll look forward to it then.’

Roy had no choice but to be content with not knowing much about things at that moment.

His friends were only Elizabeth and Nate, and one of them was gone.

Furthermore, he had school coming up, and his master was still resting from the exhausting escape they had taken.

As Roy crawled up under the covers of his bed, he snuggled warmly next to his mother while dozing off quietly from the mental and physical fatigue he suffered from the Demon Territory.

Chapter 49 – Fin

Hey guys, sorry for the late upload! I’m actually writing and working on chapter 55 right now, but I’m not uploading them until the promised date since we met our ko-fi goal for this month which will be on September 1st with 10 chapter mass release ???? If you want to know who to thank for it, thank MochaBear for the large donation!

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