Edited by: Chip

Everet’s study looked similar to Cyrus’ and Atlas’ but it was much more mature. It had lots of books on the shelves, but the books were incredibly thick. One look and Atlas knew he could not understand what was in them. On his desk, there were two large piles of papers.

The study didn’t have a lot of personal items, but it did have portraits of the Alnhart family. 

Atlas even saw a picture where he and Sir Walter were included. 

Everet motioned them to sit down on the sofas. There were two sofas so he sat down next to Atlas and Sir Walter while the person who looked like a butler sat down with the muscular person. 

There was a coffee table in between the two sofas. Everet’s personal servants had already placed down cups of tea and some cookies just in case Atlas wanted some.

“Atlas, the person on our left will be your personal butler and the person on our right will be your personal guard. You can introduce yourself to them if you want to.” 

Atlas was a bit nervous, but with Sir Walter and Duke Alnhart with him, he had a bit more courage. 

“Okay, thank you, Dad!” He then looked over at the butler and bodyguard. “Hello, my name is Atlas Alnhart. I’m still getting used to the gender constructs of this Empire, so please excuse my ignorance. My pronouns are he/him. I grew up in the forest until recently, so my manners are not the best. I hope that we will get along from now on.” 

“And this is Sir Walter. He’s my best friend and big brother. I hope you all will treat him like you will treat me.” 

“Woof!” Sir Walter gave a majestic bark and showed off his fluffy and clean fur. 

The two were still stunned at seeing Atlas’ appearance, but they knew they had to be professional and snap out of it. They were warned that Atlas, who had the blessing of the Dragon God and the God of Light, would be accompanied by a Divine Beast, but seeing was believing. Atlas looked just like the scriptures that depicted the Dragon God, with only one eye color difference. 

The butler was the first to introduce himself. 

“It’s an honor to meet you, Lord Atlas and Sir Walter. My name is Nolan Sevil. I am 20 years old, and my pronouns are he/him. I come from a family of commoners who were born and raised in Hirim. I will do my best to take care of you both from now on.” 

“It is a pleasure to meet you too, Mr. Sevil.” 

“Woof!” Sir Walter was saying it was nice to meet you too. 

“Lord Atlas, Sir Walter, you may call me Nolan!” 

Atlas wasn’t one for stiff pleasantries so he took Nolan up on his offer. 

“Then Nolan, please take care of us from now on.” 

After Nolan’s introduction, Atlas’ new bodyguard was next. 

The voice that came out was a bit deep, but it reminded him of Devina. “Hello, Lord Atlas and Sir Walter. It’s a pleasure to meet you both.” 

They gave a salute. “My name is Kris Altman, but you can call me Kris. I am 22-years-old and I am Devina’s younger sibling. I am also agender so you can refer to me using they/them pronouns. 

“Oh, I don’t know if Devina told you, but we come from a Barons family who specializes in combat. It’s a recent thing, so I am not too privy on manners and stuff like that.” 

Now that Atlas looked at Kris Altman more carefully, he noticed that they both had tan skin and a similar hair color. They also had really similar body types! 

“It is a pleasure to meet you too, Kris. Teacher Devina didn’t mention that to me. At the time, Teacher Devina was teaching me about agender people and how there were lots of different genders in the Hirean Empire. There’s still a lot I don’t know so I hope to learn more.” 

“Woof!” Sir Walter was saying that he doesn’t mind protecting Atlas with someone else. Just don’t get in his way. 

“If you have any questions, I don't mind answering them for you, Lord Atlas.” 

“Thank you, Kris!” 

When Everet saw that Atlas was getting along with Nolan and Kris, he felt he did a good job choosing the two of them. Nolan was a gifted butler and was Head Butler Odin’s best disciple. Atlas needed someone like Nolan to help him learn how to live in Hirim. 

As for Kris, they were almost as strong as their older sibling, Devina. He felt that Kris would be enough to help Sir Walter take care of Atlas. 

After talking a bit longer, Atlas was feeling a little tired so he said goodnight to Everet and made his way back to his room… Well, Nolan kindly escorted him back to his room. 

Atlas still didn’t know where his room was. He had lived with the Alnhart family for a bit over six months but still needed someone to take him back to his room. 

He knew he was directionally challenged but he didn’t realize it was this bad, especially without a GPS. 

Nolan already knew about Atlas’ lack of direction, so becoming Atlas’ map was another part of his job. After making sure that Atlas was ready for bed, Nolan left the room while Kris guarded outside the room. 

Atlas dreamed of eating delicious food with Cyrus and Sophie, just in time for their next outing. 

*****

The next day, Nolan woke Atlas up and helped him get ready for breakfast

Since it was the day of the week when Atlas, Cyrus, and Sophie would hang out, they decided to try out a new restaurant that Sophie heard about from her close friends. 

The meeting time was just before lunch, so Atlas had his history class right after breakfast. 

It was the class that Atlas dreaded the most. Since the Hirean Empire had been around for over a thousand years, it had a lot of history. Every major event was documented by historians, leaving behind plenty of books for future generations to read. 

Atlas was still learning about the first one hundred years of the Hirean Empire. 

His history teacher, Rowan Eumia, was a scholar from the Imperial Academy. Some days, he would tutor young nobles and on other days, he was teaching at the Academy. 

Though at the moment, Atlas was the only noble he was tutoring. This was because Atlas had the highest priority.

“Atlas, since you read the book that I gave you, do you know why the Hirean Empire is known as the Empire of the Dragons?” Teacher Rowan had an open book in his hands and flipped to the page where Atlas could find the answer. 

It was not an open book though, so Atlas did his best to remember. 

“In addition to being a country founded by the Dragon God, there are five Guardian Dragons that are protecting the Hirean Empire. Not only that, there are members of the Imperial family who are capable of turning into dragons because the first Emperor married one of the Guardian Dragons’ children.” 

Atlas then finished off what he could remember. “The Royal Family still has the blood of the dragons running through their veins and will occasionally give birth to children who can also turn into dragons.”  

“That’s correct! And there are other families who have a connection with a Guardian Dragon, including the Alnhart family. All the Prime Ministers of the Alnhart family will be given a blessing by the Guardian Dragon of the West. This is an important ceremony.” 

This was something that Atlas didn’t know too much about. “Teacher Rowan, what does the blessing from the Guardian Dragon do?” 

Rowan replied, “It will allow the Prime Minister to call upon the Guardian Dragon in times of distress. Let’s say someone is trying to assassinate the current Prime Minister. The Prime Minister can call the Guardian Dragon to protect him. They can also come to the Prime Minister’s aid if someone is about to kill the Prime Minister in their sleep. Overall, they protect the Prime Minister to protect the country.”

“Just remember though, if they can protect the Prime Minister to protect the country, they can also kill the Prime Minister to protect the country.”

Other than the West Guardian Dragon, there was the East Guardian Dragon who blessed the Norrs family, and then there was the North Guardian Dragon who blessed the Balther family, which was Cyrus’ master, Duke Wallace Balther. The other two were the Central Guardian Dragon that protected the Imperial family. Finally, the South Guardian Dragon protected the Eumia family, which happened to be Rowan’s family. 

The Eumia family was the ducal family that governed the Southern territories. Rowan’s family was from the south of the Hirean Empire, so he had a healthy brown complexion. His older sister took over the Eumia family, leaving him, the only other child to do whatever he wanted. With his red hair and yellow eyes, he could have gone to the Temple. Even though Light magic was his strongest attribute, it was actually really weak, which was why he didn’t join the Dragon’s Temple. 

“Coincidentally, my older sister has the blessing of the South Guardian Dragon. She has taken over the Eumia family and is currently in charge of a large portion of the Empire’s economy. In my eyes, she was made to be the head of the Eumia family. I look up to her a lot!” 

“Duke Eumia sounds powerful! But teacher, I have another question.” 

“Yes, what is it?” 

“Well, you said the first Emperor of Hirean married a dragon, does that mean the Imperial family members who can turn into a dragon will live longer than most people?” 

“Yes and no. So, the Imperial family member who can turn into a dragon will die of old age just like a normal human, but they can ask the Dragon God to be reincarnated into a full-fledged dragon without their past life’s memories. There were only two cases of this happening in the Imperial family.” 

After answering all of Atlas' questions, they went back to the textbook content. 

Teacher Rowan had to make sure Atlas stayed on track because there were times when Atlas got distracted. “So, now that we know why the Hirean Empire is considered the Empire of the Dragons, why did the Dragon God decide to build the Hirean Empire?” 

Atlas responded, this time, he remembered it quite well, “Dragon God Sohtris was traveling around the continent when she noticed the ancestors of the Hirean Empire were being enslaved by a tyrant who was trying to conquer the whole continent. Taking pity on the people, she gave her blessings to five heroes and five dragons, and together, they led a revolution that would free the people from this tyrant.” 

“That’s correct. We do not know the name of this tyrant as it has been banned from all books. Plus, it’s been for a bit over a thousand years. Though the people have forgotten, the Guardian Dragons have not. They do not want anyone to utter his name.” 

While Atlas was learning this, he couldn’t help but wonder, since Sohtris the Dragon God, and Avlios the Light God, were always so lovey-dovey, why did they establish two separate countries instead of sharing one?