1 Emperor

Somewhere in the depths of an old forest, a brand new existence became conscious that it had just gained consciousness. Lost in its own mind, this existence attempted to make sense of all the information that was trying to drown him. It was flooded in knowledge but could not remember having ever learned anything. In fact, it was very sure that before this moment, there had been nothing.

More knowledge was being poured in its mind without pause, as if it would never stop. It first knew that he was a man, then, how to eat, how to walk, how to hold things between his fingers, then, the knowledge of even possessing fingers, followed by how to breathe. Realizing suddenly that he needed to breath in order to live, he took a deep gasping breath. Luckily, he possessed a body that was able to breath.

"It's working!" A deep voice exclaimed nearby.

"Of course it's working, why would it not work?" Answered a second sharper voice.

A brief moment, which he felt dragged on for an eternity, passed by. In that moment, he vainly tried to make sense of all the information appearing in his mind and to organize it.

His biggest problem was that the information wasn't given to him in a logical way. For example, the concept of logic itself came to him before knowing how to breathe. His other worry was that he didn't know if all that knowledge would be lost to him forever if he didn't catch it immediately as it appeared in his mind. This forced him to try and analyse each little bit of knowledge, throttling it's unstoppable flow as more and more piled on to the rest.

There was too much of it, quickly, he felt crushed by it and unable to resist any longer, he was swept by the torrential flow. In the end, he could only let himself be thrown in confusion and madness by the storm raging in his own mind.

After a long while of being unable to form any coherent thoughts of his own, his mind started to calm down once again, there was no more knowledge left to invade him.

He felt it was extraordinary. Mere moments ago, he didn't even exist and now, he was full of knowledge. At least enough to formulate such a thought.

He took a long time to regain the total control of his mind. He felt relieved that none of this precious knowledge had been lost, he probably needed it after all.

Once it was done, he opened his eyes to discover the world around him for the very first time. He was laying on his back in a small clearing. Around him, four beings were gathered and were observing him with great attention. There were three men and a women.

The first was a burly man whose facial traits were extraordinarily pronounced. His black hair was long and matted, his beard larger than his face and his smile seemed franc and amicable. He wore an armor sparkling like a thousand fire and dozens of sharp objects of all kinds dangled from everywhere on him. He radiated a noble and proud air as his piercing gaze observed him from above his massive crossed arms.

On his left, a woman wearing a long flowing red dress was fixing him with the same intensity. Her blonde hair were so long that they should have been sprawled on the ground but they seemed to refuse to do so on their own accord. They were lightly floating just above the blades of grass. There was no words to describe her other than beauty. Her slender arms were bringing her hands, seemingly even gentler and thin, to rest upon her sublime face, giving her a pensive yet breathtaking look.

The next man possessed a beard like the first, his, was only covering the tip of his chin to exaggerate its sharpness. He seemed much older than the first two and wore long robes on which the sleeves were so loose that they reached his knees even if he kept both of his arms in front of him. This one seemed serious and intelligent, much more than the first two. Wisdom was written on his face with small wrinkles and his eyes reflected something astonishingly deep and powerful.

The last of the four observer was hard to describe with a word different than eccentric. He wore two different pieces of clothing, sowed together by the middle. A total of sixteen different colors were dancing on them without ever stopping in place for more than a brief moment. He possessed long bony fingers that never stopped from rubbing against one another, as if he was really impatient. In contrast though, his face was made of an interesting masculinity and his eyes seemed made of gold.

The four of them had a joyous expression and exclaimed of triumph upon seeing him open his eyes.

"Fantastic! He is conscious. Do you understand what I am saying?" Asked the muscled man with the deep voice.

To answer, he opened his mouth for the first time in his existence.

"I think", he said. "I feel it is strange though. How do I know if I am really understanding or if I only interpreted the words at random? Maybe all the words are wrongly arranged in my mind."

"Wha...?"

The sage started laughing when he saw the confused air of his companion.

"We were supposed to create an ordinary man, not someone super smart! I don't understand even half of what he said!"

"Now now, don't embarrass yourself. He isn't that smart, only a hair's breadth above the average. It is you Strength that isn't smart enough."

"What? You want to die? Is that it!" His smile was swiftly replaced by a raging frown.

"Please, calm down." Intervened the sweet voice of the women. "This poor boy was just born right now. Instead of bickering, we should explain to him what is going on."

"Yes, alright." Grumbled the warrior.

He cast his gaze down on the newborn adult man once again and started to explain the situation in a caring manner.

"First of all, let me introduce us. All four of us are gods. I am Strength, she is Love, he is Sage and finally, this is Luck. It is us that created you for a bet."

"A bet? As in a gamble?"

The new born was curious of what kind of bet prompted them to give him life.

"Yes, answered Luck. It's a funny story. All four of us were invited together at a feast organised by emperor Mardrakon Landeater XV of the green dragon empire. It is common knowledge that we do not like him very much but we do appreciate feasts. Thus, we went there anyway and started to argue over every single thing like we usually end up doing.

Drunk on anger and alcohol, we declared that anyone would make a better emperor than him. This whole thing quickly got out of hand until a bet was thrown."

"The rules are simple." Said Love. "If the emperor dies from anything else than old age or lose his title of emperor, we win. On the other end, we do not have the right to intervene in anything aside from designating someone who will try to topple him on our behalf and bestow upon him a very limited help. Since the green dragon empire is extremely old, powerful, and stable, we will lose without a doubt if we don't do anything."

"We could chose another emperor to wage war against him and throw him down but no one would dare attack the biggest power of the continent and even if they did, they would not have the required strength to do so." Said Strength.

"Hiring an assassin is not much better, if he fails, we lose our only chance to make a move and the bet will be lost. In light of all this, we decided to create our own luck like I always say we should." Said Luck.

"Instead of choosing someone, we created our very own champion, you!" Followed Sage.

"I exist to murder an emperor?" Asked the newborn, stunned by what had been said.

"No, not exactly. We got an even better idea, you exist to take his place!"

The newborn felt much better knowing he had not been created to murder. It would have been horrible to be given morals and then immediately asked to ignore them.

"By creating a new life form to beat him, we are already stretching the rules to their maximum so we could not create you as a superior being like we wanted to. We could not even give you our blessings because it would have been too obvious. All we could do is create you slightly above the average. To make us win, you will have to work hard and rise above the masses by yourself."

"But if I don't have any advantages, how am I supposed to defeat the biggest empire? I do not even have a name!" This seemed like an impossible task to the newborn.

"You do have a name my darling" Said Love. "It's Emperor."

Emperor thought that the gods had a really bad naming sense.

"Will I not look like an idiot if I present myself as Emperor? How will people react? On top of that, having a name doesn't fix my problem, I do not have any advantages."

"You do have an advantage, albeit a small one. We told you that you were above average but only just slightly. Slightly stronger, slightly more charismatic, slightly more intelligent and slightly more lucky than the average man. Moreover, each of us have the right to bestow upon you an item that will help you out in your quest."

"Also, we may help out a little along the way, no one will ever know" Followed up Luck with a dismissive wave of the hand.

Emperor had only just been created and he was already being sent in a quest so hard that it was most probably suicidal. He wondered if he had the right to refuse to try such a thing and instead make the most out of life and the existence that had been given to him.

As soon as this idea crossed his mind, he rejected it. Those four gods had just created him for this very reason, how could he even think about dismissing such a quest? He vowed to himself that he would honor them and their wish and make them proud of their creation. After all, he existed thanks to them and he was determined to give back this favor to his creators a hundred times over.

Emperor was still feeling unwell thinking about the task they wanted him to accomplish but since he had decided to do it, he put his worries aside for now. Instead, he thought about the objects they intended to give him. He was curious and impatient to see what were those four items.

For the first time of his life, he awkwardly got up from the ground and stood upright. In the space of a brief moment, he panicked at the idea that he could fall over at any second, that his balance was all wrong. His apprehension was unfounded. The basic knowledge on how to stand and walk was already a part of him, the movements felt natural for him and his fear flew away as soon as he found his balance for the first time.

As soon as he stood up like them, the four divinity drew a circle in the air in front of them using their hands. In the center of each drawn space, an object appeared out of nothing. Those were the four treasures that would soon be his, he believed. A big hammer made out of black stone, a ring of gold and ruby, a large book whose cover was made of greenish leather and finally, a strange looking bag.

Without losing any time, his four creators started to describe with enthusiasm their respective items.

The first one was the hammer that Strength was presenting him. The hammer head was half a meter large. It's ordinary looking surface was covered in cracks and in the depths of those fissures, a feeble and intermittent red glow was barely visible. It's handle was long, even a little longer than Emperor was tall. Aside from the fact that it was completely made of black stone, and for the strange and ominous red glow barely visible when looking closely at it, it seemed very ordinary.

"I offer you the Great overburdening hammer. However strong you are, this war hammer will always be a little too heavy for you."

Emperor looked at him with a puzzled look. In which way could a war hammer too heavy for him be useful? He took it in his hands and immediately, it's weight almost made him fall over. He rushed to put it down before it happened.

"I can see on your face that you do not understand its use but believe me, the great overburdening hammer is extraordinary. It is impossible to use it effectively in combat but the simple act of raising it or wearing it on yourself slowly raises the strength of its possessor. The more you use it and the stronger you get.

The best part is that since its weight is always determined by your strength, it's effect will always be as strong. I do not recommend you to travel with it on your back though because you risk injuring yourself doing so."

Now that it had been explained, it seemed much more reasonable to him. It was not supposed to be a weapon but a training tool to improve himself. Satisfied by the explanation, he did not interrupt his creators and let Love explain her own gift instead.

As she delicately presented him the ring, he was able to examine it in more details. It seemed to be made almost entirely of a ruby-like material polished to perfection. On its surface, a number of infinitely fine golden treads were forming symbols and arabesques he did not recognize but he could still appreciate their beauty. By looking at it even closer, it was possible to distinguish small clouds drifting calmly inside the ruby. While Love was sliding it onto his finger, she explained it's use.

"This is the Ring of allegiance. For now, It has absolutely no use for you, but later on, it will be a great advantage. By focusing on the ring, using only your will, you can make as many copies of it as you want. Each copy will change in appearance depending on the person wearing it. The better the feelings or the impression you have for the wearer of the copy, the more the copy will be splendid.

Each copy ring will send information to the original you are wearing. The more beautiful the copy is, the more information you will get. For example, a weak copy would only be able to tell you if the wearer is alive or dead but a stronger one could also tell you where he is, what he is doing and so on until a perfect ring that would tell you all you want to know about the wearer. But beware, the precision of said information will not depend on you but instead on the wearer of the copy!

If you loved someone from the bottom of your heart, the ring would be magnificent but if the person in question hates you and always lied to you, all the information given by the ring would be false.

You can love someone as much as you want but it doesn't mean that the opposite is true. The ring cannot ensure the fidelity of other peoples, it can only help you manage and understand your allies better. Traitors will stay traitors."

Emperor contemplated The ring of allegiance on his finger while engraving the warning of Love in his memories. Afterwards, he raised his eyes again to see Sage advancing toward him with the enormous book.

It was thick, heavy, large and seemed tough. It was reinforced with metal bindings, none of its timeworn pages where wrinkled and it's title was displayed in big golden letters atop the green leather cover. "The book of answers"

"I present you the Book of answers." Said Sage while dropping it in his arms. "It's use is really simple. Whatever questions you might have, you only need to ask it to the book and open it at any page at all for it to answer. Sometimes, the answers are a little convoluted but beside that, it's only restriction is that it cannot answer a question for which you already have the answer. If you ask it how many stars are in the sky, it will answer you but if you ask it how to walk, the page will stay empty. Simple and efficient. The only thing it really cannot do is predict the future."

Emperor was really happy to receive all those gifts but his hands were already full. To hold the book alone, he needed his two hands, he couldn't take the hammer as well. He wondered how he would take everything with him. The ring wasn't a problem but the others were too much, he could barely hold one!

It's at this time that Luck decided to come to his rescue with his own gift. From his right hand, he presented Emperor a bag made of a thick black fabric covered with a weird mix of scales and feathers as black as the rest. It's opening was gaping largely and there didn't seem to be a way to close it other than by holding it in one's hands. Even if it lacked a mean to close it, it still possessed a large metallic ring to fix it on a belt.

"Honestly, I had no idea what to give you so I just took something at random. This is the ugliest of all my bottomless bags! You can put all you want in it, it will never be full, no one but you can access its content and even if you hold it upside down, nothing will fall out of it. There are some rules on what you can and cannot put inside such a bag but I feel too lazy to explain them to you so you'll have to figure it out on your own.

To make you lucky would be cheating but at the very least with this, if you are struck with good fortune and find treasures, you will be able to take them with you. Just remember that given luck isn't that useful anyway, true luck is always made by yourself. Oh also, I put some clothes in it for you because running around naked isn't the most clever of ideas."

The mind of Emperor started reeling in panic thinking about what kind of clothes the eccentric Luck could have given him. Just looking at what he was wearing right now and the bag itself, Emperor feared everyone he met would think he was a madman. Luck started laughing when he saw the panic stricken face of Emperor. He casually threw the bag at his feet and defended himself from the silent accusation of Emperor.

"I wasn't the one who chose the clothes! I just put them in the bag. I am not an idiot, I want to win the bet as well."

Deeply relieved, Emperor thanked each of his four creators with a deep bow. These four gifts were extraordinary no doubt and would help him a lot but he knew he would not be able to rely on them entirely. The hammer could make him stronger but left him defenseless because of its weight. The ring had an incredible usefulness but if he misjudged those around him, it could endanger him easily. At first glance, the book had no flaws but in truth, he could already guess that even if the answers were true every time, he had to ask the right question or the answers would be too ambiguous to help him. In the end, he felt that even if the bag was the most ordinary of them all, it was still the safest to use and maybe the most useful. He only had to understand its limitations before he hit a wall in a crucial moment.

"Thank you so much, I will take great care of everything you bestowed upon me, from my very life to those four gifts, and I will do my best to not disappoint you all."

"Excellent." Commented Sage. "Remember, those four items belong to you and you only, it is impossible to take them from you unless it's from your cold corpse."

Even if that had not been the case, Emperor would probably not be careless enough to let someone take them from him. At least he hoped that would be the case.

"As a last tip," Said Strength "I will tell you that a good emperor is someone stronger than the rest. Someone who can reassure its allies by his sole presence and make his enemies tremble by the mere mention of his name. Train everyday and become the strongest so that no one would ever dare think about making you submit. Do not run straight into the beast jaw and wait until you have sufficient power before moving."

With this, Strength lightly tapped the back of his creation and instantly vanished without a trace. Emperor didn't even have the time to be surprised as Love was already saying her own goodbye.

"A good emperor is someone that inspire respect from anyone. Someone with manners so refined that no one can stop themselves from admiring him. Answer to hate with hate and love with love. Weave reliable bonds that will last for many a lifetime because no one can stand alone. Become someone who's kind, charming and honest so that everyone from the smallest to the greatest will look towards you with adoration. Remember my son, if you want to see us again, you will need to find either one of our temples or a chamber of trials"

She gave emperor a light kiss on the forehead before disappearing in the same manner as Strength. Sage instantly moved forth.

"A good emperor is someone who knows better than the rest. Someone who can take quick and enlightened decisions related to any and all subjects. It would be a good idea to deepen your knowledge about magic and science. Become someone who's smart and confident to lead your empire to prosperity and glory."

He too disappeared without sound or forewarning and Luck became the only one left. His speech was the shortest of them all.

"Good luck!"

He instantly vanished with a smile leaving Emperor nude and alone in the clearing. He immediately sat back down in the tall grass to take the time and think about what had just occurred.