Amadeus was currently dressed rather flamboyantly like his father. While Baldrik wore golden robes with the emperor"s overcoat, a crown was also placed on his head. Amadeus wore his purple robes with a four-clawed dragon depicted on them. The two walked hand in hand and they both sported a stoic expression. Amadeus"s entourage of maids were following behind them, while his father"s maids were also behind them. A group of Blades surrounded the two while one of them opened the doors when they had to.Every personnel they went past bowed to them while Baldrik kept his head straight, not even sparing them a glance. His footsteps were steady and level, keeping the same distance between them at every step. He wasn"t hurried, but confidence radiated from him as he walked. This was the first time he had seen his father"s "emperor" mode and boy he could say that it was awesome.
Henrik, the bat demi-human who was also the prime minister, had already made his way towards the royal court as he couldn"t arrive with them. Only once the emperor entered would the doors close, so they all had to be there before they entered. The Emperor would be the last to arrive and if you arrived later than that, well you would be punished, unless you had a valid reason.
Amadeus then arrived in front of a large door, where it was silent. Their maids came forward and checked everything was okay and moved to the back, not speaking a word. Amadeus took a deep breath while Baldrik"s voice entered his ear,
"You okay?"
Amadeus looked up and nodded.
"It"s fine for you to be nervous, I was also the same. Remember, to steel your heart, do not look like you are going to favour anyone, and try not to show any emotions, ok? Although their will be a veil between us, while we would be able to see outside clearly, it"s not the same opposite. However, there are many people with sharp eyes there that could probably find a needle in a haystack so be careful."
Amadeus once more nodded.
"Well, I doubt it would be hard for you, considering your grandmother is the queen of not shoeing emotion."
A slight giggle left Amadeus" lips as he felt calmer. This was the first time he was going to meet all the ministers that ran the country. Before, he would be invited to smaller meetings of minor matters but now was the real deal. One thing he knew from the previous world, there will always be some form of internal conflict within an empire, no matter how strong.
While they couldn"t go against the royal family due to their strength and the fact that the royal family held the ultimate control of their life and death, there wasn"t anything to say that they couldn"t plot against each other. Amadeus had been introduced to what the political intrigue is by Atia, but this would be the first time that he would be experiencing it himself.
His was suddenly bought out of his thoughts as a loud voice was heard,
"His Highness, The Emperor makes his entrance."
"His Highness, The Crown Prince make his entrance."
As the door opened, Amadeus heard murmurs and whispers within the court. From the faint whispers that were heard, the ministers were quickly surprised at the fact that Amadeus was also here.
Amadeus walked in taking in the view. While it was true that there some sort of veil in front of where he and his father would sit, he could see everyone within the court. He could see the four dukes, Henrik and many ministers all looking at him while whispering to their neighbours. Amadeus saw all the ministers look at him and a silent pressure enveloped him. All these people oversaw some part of the empire.
Amadeus could also see divisions among the group however it wasn"t due to race, but their ideals. The biggest one was between the generals and the ministers. As Baldrik sat down on his seat, a smaller chair was placed on a lower position than his, where Amadeus sat. The royal court had its own room which they were currently in. Unlike the throne room, the royal court was well lit and had a bright atmosphere.
This didn"t mean that it was all jolly and nice, words laced with poison were often spoken here. Apart from the two seats where Amadeus and Baldrik sat, there were two smaller seats in the corners where scribes would write down the proceedings of the court.
The ministers never had seats, with exception of the old and one that would have difficulties standing. The rest had to stand but currently they were bowing towards his father. With the blades surrounding them, the doors to the royal court closed and the royal court officially started. Baldrik first spoke,
"Rise!"
It was just one word, but everyone complied. As they stood up, they all looked at the front and waited for the first one to speak. It was very critical with the way one started, and it seemed that no-one would like to start in case they earned the ire of anyone else with their issue.
However, someone had to do it and it was a minor official that took the firs steps,
"Your majesty, there have been reports of water shortages in the north-east…"
Amadeus watched on with small issues being brought up one by one and how the all the officials worked to resolve it. As for the final say, Baldrik would give the final decree and they would move onto the next issue at hand. All in all, it was hectic yet orderly at the same time. However, there wasn"t any sort of major conflict that arose, and everything was relatively peacefully. Yet, Amadeus could see the compet.i.tion between all the officials as one would try to promote their family"s younger generation while some would try and halt it. While the ma.s.sacre of a clan was never seen, a clan could die down with town if suppressed enough. At the end, the royal court was another version of survival of the fittest.
Yet the four dukes and the prime ministers, never took part until they really needed to, but they were mostly silent. Amadeus was just silently observing and not making any contributions, it was his first time and he needed to develop an understanding of the royal court, otherwise, he could lose the support of the officials and that wasn"t what he needed. Although he would be emperor, he was just one being, and he would need the support of whoever that was currently in the room to help manage the empire.
"Maybe I should look for talented individuals."
"Your Majesty, bandits have arisen…"
"Your majesty…"
"Your…"
"…"
Amadeus looked pretty beat after the whole ordeal, but he managed to maintain his stoic composure towards the end. After the royal court ended, it was already dark, and the two father and son were walking next to each other.
"Well, how was it?"
"Huh, it got pretty sweaty and hot, needed to use my ice powers to cool myself."
Baldrik giggled slightly as he ruffled Amadeus" hair.
"Remember to control your gaze, I"m pretty sure I saw a minor official continuously s.h.i.+ver whenever you looked at him. It seemed your gaze becomes colder when you use your cold energy. I suspected that he would pee at any moment, but you seemed to have frozen it."
The two father and son laughed while Amadeus turned to his father,
"By the way…"
Baldrik looked back at Amadeus wondering what he would say,
"…How was father"s first royal court like?"
Baldrik bought up his hand to his chin in a thoughtful manner.
- Flashback -
During the middle of the royal court, all was normal and well while an official came up,
"Your majesty-"
"zzzzzzzz"
"Y-your majesty-"
"zzzzzz*grunt*ZZZZZ"
"Y-y-y-"
"ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ"
"Dammit wake up Baldrik!"
A slap to the back of his head sent the young Baldrik flying into the door. As Baldrik fell back down, a dent of a face was left on the door while Baldrik got up as if he had just been shaken awake.
"Huuh?"
- Flashback end -
"Hahaha, it went pretty normal."
Amadeus immediately realised that his father was lying but didn"t pursue it.
"Well, let"s go to the have dinner, it seems your mother has cooked your favourite."
The two father and son left for their meal, while all the officials made their way home. Various thoughts were thrown about but the one that stood out the most,
"The crown prince was brought into the royal court, isn"t he only 8 years old?"
"He did keep his composure quite well."
…
The next day, Amadeus woke up, still remembering what the royal court was like. During breakfast, he turned to his parents,
"Mother, Father, I want to leave the palace."
"What? Why? Where? No"
His mother gave out three questions and a conclusion while his father just looked at him with an inquisitive expression.
"Just the palace, not the capital city, I"m going to try and find some loyal subjects for my myself."
While her mother had a frown and seemed to hesitate, Baldrik gave a nod aggreging to his request. Arius was playing with his spoon before turning to his parent with excitement,Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.
"Me too!"
"No!"
His mother was more firm with Arius while she turned to Amadeus.
"Ok, but you will take at least…"
"In secret, mum."
Looking at her carefully, she just gave up with a sigh
"F-fine, but at least, take Eras with you, and the maids."
"I"ll only be taking, Eriko, Velia and Emily as my maids."
"Okay."
A smile crept onto his face while Amadeus started to plan where to start to search for talents. Firstly, it was the slums, in whatever book he read, the main character would always find an unpolished jade within areas like this.
That was why a group of five cloaked individuals appeared at of nowhere within a desolate alley. It was also a place covered by a barrier hiding the place. The ability to teleport within the city was only available to the royal family as it was seen in the last a.s.sa.s.sination attempt. Where groups of guard were teleported to Amadeus" location.
The group moved on from the alley as Amadeus" expected to smell something horrendous but nothing came. This was probably the first time seeing the slums of the city, but he was quiet impressed. The streets were relatively clean and the smiles the people had were the result of there being no hards.h.i.+ps for them. It was refres.h.i.+ng for them to see different races happily chatting away.
The two youngest maids however, were continuously looking left and right as it was their first time properly seeing Emerald City.
The five carried on walking not attracting any attention. Special wards had been placed on the cloaks which was a type of illusion, making people think that it was nothing weird seeing the black cloaks. It was nothing high level and there was no harm for anyone else.
The group of five continuously looked around and Amadeus was faintly hoping for there to be a commotion where a child would run and steal food from a stall, only for a group of thugs to chase him, yet nothing like that happened.
"Dammit, is my luck that bad!"
And just like that, it was like an invisible hand had increased Amadeus" luck and the group encountered a commotion. Amadeus eyes started s.h.i.+ning while the other four got curious and subtly moved into a formation around Amadeus.
"Let"s go see what it is."
"Huh?"
Amadeus had already started moving leaving the four to just go along with his whims. Pus.h.i.+ng through the crowd, the attracted the dissatisfaction of the people but with one look from Eras, those people turned away in fear.
Moving to the front, they saw a man las.h.i.+ng out at a stall owner.
"Was it that, secret master opens a stall of valuable items but no one recognizes the item"s value situation?"
It wasn"t that. It was just another quarrel, of the man"s vegetables price increasing. Amadeus soon lost interest, and the five carried on walking. It wasn"t until a vision hit him and he saw body of a child lying in an alleyway a few metres ahead of them. Without further ado, Amadeus ran towards that alleyway and immediately found that body. He didn"t know what had triggered his clairvoyance, but someone that could trigger it wasn"t anyone normal. The body was of a kid a bit older than him and it just wore a tattered one piece and had dirty hair. Picking it up, Amadeus felt a pulse and that the body was still breathing. Immediately, Amadeus nodded for Eras to take them back to the Palace, who complied as he pressed something on his chest and the six disappeared from the alleyway.
The next day, a downcast Amadeus was sitting on a bench looking down onto the ground. His maids were trying to cheer him up,
"It doesn"t matter, we can still look for another person. The good news is that we have a sister now, isn"t it, your highness?"
Amadeus weekly nodded as he sighed. He had went looking for a loyal subject that will have the talent of entering the royal court but he came back with another maid. A girl with white hair made her way towards Amadeus while looking straight, nothing catching her attention. However, this wasn"t due to her being detached from the outside world, seeing her milky eyes, one could tell she was blind. Amadeus got up and as if sensing him, the girl stopped and bowed.