“To grow, change is needed. To become the best version of yourself, you must overcome fears and face head on the bad and good that comes with it.”

This version of Earth where - now - Nikias lives only ever knew of monarchy, mana flows in the bodies of 70% of the population of Earth in different degrees and here, the presence of gods is also something not only felt but also seen. Every Kingdom or Empire has a patron god, while the god of the sun blesses the Exos Empire, other gods also have their favorites, after all, even if golden mana is something astonishing to see, it isn't the only special kind of mana existent. 

Across the sea from the Exos Empire coast, there is a small but influential place called the Morke Kingdom, a very religious place that only has saints as their Kings. Besides being very influential due to their abundance in mana stones, they're quite recluse and secretive, however even with the most of efforts, they weren't able to avoid a rumor from spreading.

The new King is a Tyrant, a rumor created by the neighboring Kingdom that failed with peace negotiations. But even if people knew that, they couldn't even formulate their own opinions, after all the King was never even seen outside his castle. 

Nikias sighs, leaning back and glancing at his window, the sun is at its high. Nikias and I share the same birthday, right in the middle of spring, he closes his eyes, the Exos Empire has chilly weather even if the sun is burning at its highest. He's attempting to recall information about the fourth and last book of the ‘Odd Eyes' novel, it was an overwhelming book, with deaths happening at every corner and misery sweeping the Empire. Even if the protagonists met a bunch of allies in the duration of the three previous books, no one was as important as him. And there was a reason for that, a human blessed by two gods at the same time, someone born special. Quite the opposite of me, he thinks blinking slowly and staring at the flashy ceiling of his room.

The Morke Kingdom will soon become an Empire by the ruling of a Tyrant. A groan leaves his lips, the man is a complicated character, and of course he didn't think about him at first because he's far away and doesn't appear until later. However, if you think about who would be able to protect Nikias the most, he's the man for the job. How could a book be named after a character that appears for only 50 pages? That was the biggest pet peeve of the readers, how odd was it that the only character with odd eyes was someone way too overpowered and that only appears to fight the boss? He didn't even know the protagonists and appeared when Vremes was about to stop time at full power, the man practically one shot the boss that took four books and four timelines to kill.

Everyone thought the writer was trying to rush the ending, who would've thought that it would be pertinent for their own survival. Well, it is for Nikias right now, not only will the man be the one to kill the ancient god, but he will be able to protect him against anything. His golden eyes drift towards the empty paper, it's his last one, he already wrote sixty letters, none that he was satisfied enough to send to the man. How do one blackmail a god killer into marrying them? However the answer never came to Nikias, hence the failed attempts. Fuck it, he won't cross the ocean just to kill me if he doesn't like my letter, right? Poor Nikias, he has no idea that the man in question would probably do just that.

I, Nikias Gregor Chrysl, greet the light of the Morke Kingdom, Lyor Natrix Noir,

Hopefully this letter arrived to you despite the distance between us. I'm aware that you're a busy man yourself and that my reputation may even have reached your ears. However, I wouldn't expect the cavalier of the gods of light and darkness to have prejudice against other fellow humans. That's why I would like for you to attend my coming of age ball tomorrow night, even if you arrive late I'll greet you with my best regards.

You must be wondering why you must attend a mere Prince ball when you're busy planning war against your neighborhood Kingdoms. Oh well, I'm sure discussing everything through letters isn't ideal, but hopefully knowing your full name and the fact that you were chosen by the gods is enough to pick your interest.

After all this isn't only a letter to blackmail you but also to ask for your hand in marriage.

I would be thankful to get an answer in person, otherwise who knows, I might drink with sadness and babble about how a small Kingdom has a King with both the blessings of the goddess of light and darkness within him. Oh no, what would I do if that were to happen?

I'm sure you'll come though, right?

Hope to see you in good health,

With a heavy heart I end this letter with a goodbye and see you soon.

The letter was awful, Nikias stares at the paper with anger towards himself, he tried sounding like he was deranged enough to do just what he said he would, however he sounds more like a crazy stalker than anything else. Whatever, this will need to do, he sighs again, it’s not like he has any more papers to use, after all those special papers take weeks to be produced and he just used a bunch of them that ended up on his fireplace. He seals the letter and writes the destinatary, the greatest thing about a world with magic, is that the letters are delivered almost instantly by a mana currier system that uses the mana in the air to basically teleport a letter from one place to the other.

When the man is finally done with sending his letters, he reaches for the other papers on his desk, trying to distract himself from the fear blossoming in his heart. The first paper he reaches for is a report made by Lowe of his assets, this is all mine? He thinks in shock as he reads the more than forty pages of properties listed under Nikias name. If the man wanted he could run away after selling everything and live the rest of his life in luxury. There was a problem, though, it isn’t Nikias himself that administers those assets, its Duke Sawdon, the contract establishes that he can only manage the assets until Nikias comes of age, therefore tomorrow the assets must be returned to the Prince. Something tells me that he’ll try extending the contract, or maybe I won’t be receiving my assets in full. The man thinks as he reads the documents carefully, if the previous Nikias was manipulated by that man, that means that he’ll come at him thinking that he’s still the same naive man. 

A knock on the door interrupts the man’s reading, ‘’Enter’’, he says and the door opens with a limping Raphael, already bandaged and clean, accompanying an overweight man of small stature and a lot of facial hair. The man bows to the Prince.

‘’I greet the second star of the Empire’’, Nikias nods and the man stands straight again. ‘’I brought your clothes for your coming of age ceremony, my Prince’’, he snaps his fingers and two female assistants enter the room carrying a black garment cover. The man grabs the cover and opens to reveal a set of clothes that really don’t match Nikias at all.

The shirt was plain white made with low-quality materials, the jacket was red and had way too many pearls decorating it, there is even a shoulder cape made of silk with red decorations with the coat of arms of the Empire. The white pants were an even worse sight, besides the lack of proper style, there is even the obvious problem of the low-quality materials used for it, the pearls were opaque and the silk was rough on the hands and felt more like touching sandpaper. 

Nikias thinks about being polite at first, he truly does. ‘’This is, if I may say it myself, a true masterpiece’’. He gave up quite fast, though. 

‘’What the actual fuck?’’ Raphael holds his laugh, even a commoner can tell the poor quality of the clothing, what made the man think that he could simply deceive a Prince that is known to obsess over his appearance more than anything? Maybe the old Nikias could be more passive, but even him wouldn’t let the man get away with such blatant disrespect. ‘’This looks like something a baby would throw up, not designer clothes’’, he gets up from his desk, walking towards the man, who shivers with the Prince’s threatening gaze. In this situation his previously charming eyes now look like the eyes of a predator towards its prey. 

‘’My apologies’’, the man falls onto the ground quite quickly, bowing to the Prince, his whole body shaking with fear. The rumors of the youngest Prince resorting to murder at the sight of an annoyance had already managed to spread at the capital. ‘’I’m afraid I must’ve offended you, your highness’’.

Nikias laughs. ‘’Offended? Not quite’’, he lowers his body for his mouth to reach the other man’s ears. ‘’You see, I was looking for an excuse to practice my sword abilities’’. That's a lie, of course, raising a sword left Nikias wrist sore and he hated the experience, but the man doesn’t need to know that.

‘’Please spare me!’’ he almost screams, the door of Nikias’ room is open so the servants passing by seem to hear the commotion.

A sigh leaves the Prince’s lips, he’s annoyed. There’s a lot on his plate at the moment, he doesn’t even know how to dance or basic etiquette, and now he needs to deal with not only insolent servants but subjects that think they can outsmart him that easily. An anger that wasn’t there before starts boiling inside him. It's so tiring, to live your whole life by being a nobody, suffering in the hands of your family and strangers, and now that you get a second chance… Things are still the same. I wish to be alone, he thinks, his head is spinning and this whole situation is way too overwhelming even to a person with his calm personality. 

He had almost killed a man just the night prior, and now he’s thinking about killing another. 

‘’Give me one reason to’’, his tone makes clear to anyone that hears, that the man is not only angry, he’s furious. 

‘’We will make you new clothes!’’ One of the women accompanying the designer says, stepping in, her long curly brown hair is similar in color to the man bowing on the ground. She’s probably his daughter. Most businesses at the capital are family-based, so it makes sense that the ones accompanying him would be his daughters. ‘’They’ll be ready by tomorrow before the ball’’, the woman flinches as her green eyes meet Nikias’ golden ones. 

‘’You have until tomorrow afternoon, and don’t use these hideous colors again’’, his anger subsided, but only by a  bit. ‘’I would like black, white and gold as the colors, no capes and no precious stones’’. His tone is clear and the older man now gets up from the ground, his face is red and his eyes are filled with tears. ‘’If you’re going to act like a coward next time, don’t try deceiving a royal’’, Nikias says finally, signaling to Raphael to deal with the rest.

‘’Please, leave, the Prince wishes to rest now’’, Raphael says, his voice seeming hoarse from the injuries he suffered that morning. The women and the man leave quickly, hopefully they won’t cause any more issues. I wonder how the old Nikias dealt with this. He thinks, the sound of the door closing as he sits back at his desk.

‘’My Prince’’, Raphael’s voice catches his attention.

‘’Yes?’’

‘’May I ask what you seek at the black market?’’ The question crosses the line, and the servant knows that, however he got hurt and seeing the dangerous looking man managing the black market, he wonders why would a delicate looking Prince search for such a place. 

Nikias decides to forgo the man’s insolence, after all the mana pact alone already guarantees their loyalty. A bold and loyal servant is better than an obedient traitor.

‘’I’m going to buy a fairy’’, the man answers calmly, Raphael isn’t shocked by the Prince’s answer, if there is something that makes sense for him to buy is a fairy. However, as Raphael was roaming the capital streets he heard a rumor about something quite interesting.

‘’I heard about something while I was in the city’’, he says as he sits at the small table a bit far from Nikias, he doesn’t ask for permission, his leg is already burning with pain. Nikias doesn’t seem to mind, though. Previously the man wouldn’t even stand at the sight of his servants looking comfortable at his presence, but now he seems to not mind even when they act like they’re friends instead of employee and employer. ‘’There’s a rumor circulating that a holy object might be up for auction this time’’.

Holy object? Those are described in the book as relics of the gods, objects used by the gods themselves, most times gifted to their favorite humans, however most are lost in history, some keep those at their homes as displays of the history of their families. The Imperial family has six holy objects, the crown of the Empress and the crown of the Emperor are both relics of the god of the sun and goddess of the moon. There is also the staff of the goddess of the moon, the cloak of the goddess of darkness, the branch of one of the sacred trees of the god of nature and at last the bracelet of the goddess of the moon. All of them were gifts at the birth of the Empire, be it by allies of the first Emperor or the gifts the Empress herself got from the goddess.

‘’Did the rumors got more specific?’’ Nikias asks for a reason, relics are important in the fight against Vremes, the second book had a sort of treasure hunt by secondary characters where they went after important relics, and the sword that Lyor uses against Vremes is a relic made by both the goddess of light and goddess of darkness as a gift to him. 

‘’I couldn’t hear much, but it was something about a book’’, both men stayed silent for a couple seconds. ‘’It could be the book of the god of wisdom’’, Raphael theorizes, however, Nikias recalls a book far more important.

‘’It would be interesting, however if it is Aelius Diary…’’ The diary of the first Emperor, a relic lost in time, he used a special ink made of the tears of the sun god, it's priceless and it could hold a lot of answers. Evangelia never managed to find it, considering that Nikias and Aelius share the same type of mana, the diary could be like striking gold to him.

‘’I’m sorry but I didn’t get much more information, the auction will be three days from now, I’ll try getting more information’’, Nikias shakes his head at Raphael words.

‘’Don’t bother, you already got hurt enough’’.

‘’I can be more useful, your highness’’, the Prince understands why Raphael seems desperate, after all he uses his brother way more and both brothers are trapped by the pact and the fear of going back to the northern tower. However, Raphael’s eagerness isn’t needed.