"Will you all just shut up?" the loud voice of the High Chancellor echoed through the big hall. Several kings and mages were trying to finish their started sentence with: "...but I only wanted to say..."
"Right now," High Chancellor Cologne hissed. "Or the next one that feels he has to say something will leave this building slithering on his belly, turned into a snake."
That managed to turn most of the men sitting at the giant table silent. Cologne was one of the mightiest sorceresses of this world, and her specialty were snakes. She looked like one herself: Dry skin, tinted slightly green, and eyes that could squint to form snake-like pupils.
But a few of the assembled men were courageous enough to mutter something like: "Being a snake would perhaps be better than this..." She threw them an angry glare.
And some of them, like the old wizard Happosai, didn't even react to her threat: "...only wanted to say that you don't know the position we're in. You're a woman. Mr. Kuno doesn't allow a woman playing the role of the Dark Lord."
Cologne threw the old man a cold look, but it seemed to bounce off of his wrinkly old face. She knew this old coot well enough to know that he'd never be afraid of her powers... he was almost as powerful as she was herself.
Happosai looked back at her with an amused glint in his eyes. "We're beat, everyone of us," he added. Multiple wizards and mages nodded to that statement. "True, true..." they muttered.
"I know that," Cologne replied. "And if you all didn't always whine that much, you would have realized that I have called this meeting to think about a solution how we are going to get rid of 'Mr. Kuno's pilgrimages'."
The people sitting at the table just gaped at her.
She nodded. "Yes, I know I got elected to High Chancellor only because many of you believe that I am able to free our world from Mr. Kuno and the tourist groups that haunt our land every year. Of course, it's not an easy task, as his base of operations lies within a completely different world than ours. Besides, he has the powers of this demon to assist him."
She rummaged around her memos. "But I realized that the situation is getting more and more catastrophic each year. Almost every of these papers are letters and messages from people that want to complain about something. Almost half of the university's male wizards are complaining because of excessive labor, while the female half demands equal rights because Mr. Kuno doesn't seem to believe that a woman can play the part of a mage. Kings and emperors also complain because the tourist groups are travelling through their lands. The staged - although very real - battles that are being fought in their kingdoms are destroying their crops and the villages. I also have complaints from farmers, artisans and other citizens."
"Indeed, High Chancellor!" A young man wearing a royal armor, an impressive sword and a regal expression on his face, stood up at the table. It was King Endymion, ruler of the northern kingdom. "This has to stop. My kingdom is in ruins. Every year my capital is being raided by tourists or the army of the so-called 'Dark Lord' which is, as you all know, the leader of the dark forces, elected every year on a meeting like this. They and our 'good' army have to fight numerous battles just to amuse Mr. Kuno's tourists. I have no money to rebuild my towns every year, as I have to repay the farmers for their destroyed crops. You see, High Chancellor..."
Cologne waved the young king back down. "Yes, yes, I understand, your majesty! Thank you... The only citizens that don't complain are the innkeepers... but they are upset that they aren't able to produce enough beer for the tourists that are staying within their inns."
"Mr. Kuno won't be pleased," a high priest whispered. "May the gods protect us!"
"Kuno is a human being like everyone here in this room," the delegate of the thieve's guild muttered.
"Don't let him hear that, young man," Happosai warned him.
"Of course he's a human being," Cologne snapped. "But sadly the most powerful human in this world. But at least I made sure he couldn't listen to our conversation. The next complaints are from the elves and dragons..."
She pulled out an old parchment with glowing runes, and an oval, green plate that was covered with writing. "Perhaps one of their scales," she murmured. "They both are not very aeticulate, but the elves are talking about blackmail, and the dragons seem to worry about their shrinking treasure hoards... looks like they have to pay Mr. Kuno a considerable amount of gold."
"And what of it?" another wizard asked. "Did you find a solution? What are we gonna do against Mr. Kuno?"
"Nothing," Cologne answered. Everyone was looking at her with disbelieving eyes. "There is no way," she said. "At least no one I could think of. The pact with this demon grants him a position we cannot change that easily."
"But it was 40 years ago that the contract was being signed," shouted the young emperor of the south. "Why should I atone for something my grandfather did?"
"Demons are immortal, after all," Cologne explained.
"But Mr. Kuno isn't," the young ruler replied.
"But I heard he has children that will take over his business once he retires," Cologne said. "Now, enough of this. Officially, this meeting was called to elect a new Dark Lord. Any volunteers?"
"Well, I won't do it," said a mage. "I did it last year."
Several other wizards said their opinions, and finally Cologne sighed. "To make things easier, I decided that this year we should ask the oracles about our new Dark Lord."
"But High Chancellor," High Priest Tofu exclaimed. "The oracles were being established on order of Mr. Kuno. Don't you think they will probably... um... take his side?"
"I thought about that," the High Chancellor replied. "And I think I will ask both oracles, the White one as well as the Black one, to avoid something like that."
"TWO Dark Lords?" Tofu muttered.
"We'll see about it," Cologne said. "Now, I think only a few people should join me when I consult the oracles. Everyone else, you can kill time by reading through the articles and letters. Let's see.. You'll come with me, Tofu, and King Endymion, and Happosai. And you as well, young man!" She nodded towards the delegate of the thieve's guild.
"Me?" the young man asked in surprise. "Are you sure?"
"Yes, I am," Cologne said impatiently. "Now hurry up and step into this magic circle. And I need your name."
The man smiled at her with a fang-toothed grin. "Just call me Ryoga Hibiki!"
See other episodes by Shritistrang
(Posted Thu, 27 Jul 2006 00:05)
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