Chapter 115 - Founding Ball Pt. 7
"We are glad to have you here, Lord Janus," the Emperor said.
Another privilege is that the Emperor himself, who is the father of this empire, acts like this man stands above him. Which is, if you think about it closely, it sounds strange, isn't it?
But that's the unfiltered truth. Even though the Arcane Tower is built right beside the palace, it's not under the palace's jurisdiction. They act independently and are exempted from Rosenthal laws.
It is fascinating.
Like wow, they got more power than the monarchs.
You might be wondering why the Royal family doesn't make a move on them because that's probably what the others would have done to thwart their influence.
Imagine being the absolute ruler of a kingdom but some magicians hold so much power than you.. These magicians could also go out of their tower and overthrow the monarchy if they feel like it.
Who isn't going to be threatened by that? Much more so if you ruled over a land as big as the Rosenthal Empire.
It wouldn't be impossible that no one would take measures, right? Especially those who are on the side of the royalty, and the royalty themselves.
Well you see, a long time ago, someone did something. They saw how big an influence the Arcane Towers have.
Yes, towers, because not only Rosenthal has them. There are towers in other kingdoms too but I heard that the Arcane Tower here is like the main hub or something like that.
So anyways, these idiots witnessed the tower's might and thought, 'They should be shut down!'.
Apparently, no one should be stronger than the Emperor.
One more thing, the current royal family, the Windsors, are only the third to sit on the throne. There were two families who ruled first. The first one disappeared after being overthrown by the Ronans.
These Ronans and their noble supporters are the same idiots, ehem-- Am I allowed to curse the late royals? I can, right? They are dead anyway and they wouldn't know… Is it a crime? Ah, who cares.
As I said, these idiots got intimidated by the tower and banded together to drag them down. The rising nobles who backed up the Ronans convinced the Emperor to bully them. Because you know, they are the father of the empire so the tower should bow down to him.
That's where they fvcked up, big time. The Ronan Emperor who got blinded by their ego, ordered the late master of the tower, Asmodeus, to kneel and pledge their loyalty to him.
They sent a decree towards the tower, basically telling them to yield or get exiled and die. The emperor also said he's going to strip them off of their title and shit like that.
Of course, the inhabitants of the tower got pissed off by this idiot of an Emperor. Asmodeus himself descended and taught them a lesson-- taught everyone a lesson, by wiping out the noble families who instigated it, and punished the Ronan emperor. It's along the lines of cutting off his lineage so he wouldn't be able to bear kin.
No heirs means effectively kicking them off of the seat. The people rallied to impeach him off of it either, so there's that. He also put some gruesome curse on him that the historians lost words on how they are going to describe it.
They must have forgotten how terrifying the tower is to be able to straight up bully them and irk the magicians like that.
Asmodeus is apparently one of the Magia Regis, which means he is a King. A magician king.
Being part of the Magia Regis's Kings means you must be hella powerful. Just look at Solomon, he literally sealed off people's magic.
He's an idiot, okay. He only got what's coming for him. To assert dominance over a King of Magic?
So yeah, that's a little bit of backstory from the past. I learned that from reading history books.
Now everyone knows not to get on the tower's nerves.
Thus, the current royal family learned the lesson from the Ronans' failures and avoided antagonizing the Arcane Tower. If you want your bloodline to cease existing then feel free to do so.
This is also the reason why the Arcane Tower is the Empire's symbol of power. And why Janus Cromwell is being treated like some higher power, because he is.
During the time I was blabbering about the past, it seems like they had finished conversing. I have no idea what they talked about though.
"I want to go and meet him," Eon muttered.
"I'm sure that you wouldn't even get past a few meters around him. Even the noble patriarchs feel intimidated to approach Lord Janus," Conrad stated.
True to his words, not one of them made a move, even though they all looked like they wanted to. So Janus was just standing there at the side alone, with a glass of wine in his hand. Nevertheless, his smile didn't waver a bit.
He still looked the same as when he first stepped inside the royal hall. What an unbothered man…
"Who is he? He's very powerful," Lost babbled.
All of us who had heard him turned to his direction, which was behind me. I saw his amber irises glued directly to Janus and were glowing crazily.
I snapped to the others if they had seen it too because that would take me a whole lot of explanation. They do not know that he is a contracted Anima yet but it seems like I'm worrying for naught. They didn't react so I assumed that they didn't see it.
Phew~
"Are you curious about Lord Janus too?" Kai asked.
Luther came up to him and put his arm around Lost's shoulders.
"That's the Empire's greatest magician, Lord Janus Cromwell. He really is powerful," Luther told him.
"I can't believe Nadia never told you about that," Eon remarked and shook his head.
Why is it my fault now?
"A magician…" Lost muttered.
It made me blink. This was the first time that I saw him so interested in someone. That's Janus for you, I guess. Even Animas notice him.
"Oh, look! Prince Ezekiel and Sir Nathan are talking to Lord Janus now!" Gwen exclaimed.
"How envious," Noah commented.
"That's the privilege of being a royal, huh," Conrad mused.
Eon clicked his tongue beside me, "That's unfair. I'm a vice-captain so I should be there too!"
"Then go?" I rebuked.
"No one is stopping you," Gwen seconded.
"Fufu~ Ehem," that was Bea by the way. She's seriously trying her best to stay silent and be a doll.
I pity her sometimes. I don't even want to be in her shoes, always conforming to the noble's ethics.
It's awful, I tell you. Been there, done that.
Eon looked really offended when we started shooing him away. I'm just saying, if he really wants to go then we aren't holding him back, you know.
"Heh," Luther was smirking at the side as if taunting him, "What now, Eon? Are you going to leave or are you staying?"