The doors creaked open.
There he was.
The Emperor.
Sitting in the center of the grand throne room, wrapped in silence as suffocating as his presence. His posture was composed, one leg draped over the other, a single hand resting lazily on the armrest—yet somehow, he dominated the entire room like a god among insects.
His eyes swept across us once.
Then, wordlessly, he waited.
Wanora immediately dropped to one knee. Her voice was calm but edged with pressure. "Kneel," she whispered to us.
The three of us followed without hesitation.
"Look up," the voice echoed, smooth yet heavy. It rang through the vastness like a tolling bell. All heads rose.
"I heard your guild was able to find the nobles," the Emperor said slowly. "If so, why didn't you bring them to me like I told you to?"
Wanora opened her mouth, ready to explain. But the Emperor raised a hand.
"Silence," he said, cutting her off. "I want to hear it from the ones who were there."
That meant me.
I looked up. The pressure on my shoulders didn't lessen.
"The great Emperor," I began.
A ripple went through the courtroom. Nobles murmured, confused. Wanora turned pale beside me, as if I'd spat on the imperial crest.
Did I say it wrong?
Was this not how you addressed an Emperor?
But then—
He chuckled. "Continue."
I cleared my throat. "Oh yes... so, the truth is, we met a Tempest of the Sea. He was using an artifact to pull every ship toward his castle—"
The murmurs rose sharply again. But the Emperor's voice sliced through the noise like a blade.
"That's not what I asked."
Right. Shit.
"Ah, yes. My apologies." I corrected myself quickly. "The truth is, by the time we were done beating the Tempest of the Sea, we were barely able to stand. So, the second the nobles were saved... each of them ran away on their ships. We couldn't do anything."
He studied me. His eyes didn't blink.
"Yes... that's the story I heard," he finally said. "You don't seem to lie, it seems like. But even so, the rewards can't be given out. The orders clearly stated that the nobles would be here."
My blood simmered. "But Your Highness, we couldn't do anything. Besides—why would you need them to be present here?" I clenched my fists. We had nearly died. And now this man wanted to strip us of our rewards? Was he that much of an asshole, even for an emperor?
He narrowed his eyes.
"Don't question me, boy."
I met his gaze. "Oh? Is that so? I'm sure you wanted to get an edge in terms of bargaining... if you were to return the nobles of different kingdoms, right?"
A sharp intake of breath passed through the court.
The Emperor's eyes darkened. Then, he raised his hand—and cut the air.
Literally.
With a simple flick of his wrist, the atmosphere fractured like glass.
"You don't seem to understand your position," he said.
Wanora yanked me down into a kneel, eyes wide. "Stay down!" she hissed.
The Emperor lowered his hand. "Still... surprisingly, you are alive."
I stared at him. "What do you mean, Your Highness?"
His response chilled the room.
"The cut you received the second you entered," he said, "that was me."
Wanora shot to her feet. "Why would you attack him when he didn't do anything?!"
He remained unfazed. "He showed disrespect, now didn't he?"
"But he did it now! Why attack him before that?!"
He tapped the armrest with one finger, smiling faintly. "I attacked him now," he said, "but my attack hit him in the past."
It clicked.
The pain. The wound. The blood that stained my chest before I had even seen him.
It made sense.
As someone summoned by the Emperor himself, any hostile action against me would be a direct offense against the Empire. No one could touch me—except him. But instead of making it obvious, he'd done something far more terrifying.
He struck me in the present... and the injury landed back in time.
It wasn't just a show of power.
It was a warning embedded into the laws of reality.
He didn't need to kill me. He just needed to show that he could have killed me... before I ever saw it coming.
Wanora's hands trembled, but she didn't speak again.
I stayed kneeling, still processing the nature of what just happened.
Time-displaced attacks. Attacks that hit across time. This man could have killed me however he wished—and I couldn't have done anything to stop it.
The Emperor leaned back, satisfied. "Still... your courage demands respect. Keep your tongue in check, young boy."
He turned to the court.
"The Taskhand Guild is recognized by the Empire. From today, it will be directly funded by the crown and shall receive all benefits entitled to it."
The courtroom jolted. Nobles stiffened, visibly disturbed—but none dared to speak. Their eyes screamed opposition, but their mouths remained shut.
Wanora blinked. Even Sinus looked stunned.
She bowed again, her voice formal. "Thank you, Your Highness. Glory to the Empire."
He waved a hand, dismissing us.
"Leave. Your business is done."
The massive doors of the throne room closed behind us with a finality that echoed down the marble corridor.
We didn't speak at first.
The four of us—Wanora, Sinus, Shalap, and I—walked in silence, each of us steeped in the gravity of what had just transpired. The Emperor's voice still echoed in my skull. The strange way my chest still throbbed under the new coat made the memory of his time-cut feel surreal—like a nightmare I hadn't fully woken from.
Outside, the royal carriage waited exactly where it had dropped us off.
We stepped down the grand steps, our footsteps light but stiff from tension. As I moved to enter, my eyes caught something.
Two people.
They stood near the far wall in quietly laughing while talking, they were part of the Emperor's personal guard. But it wasn't the crest I recognized.
It was their faces.
Juno.
Lysander.
Time stuttered. For a second, I wasn't in the capital anymore. I was younger, smaller—running barefoot through mud-slick streets, heart pounding like a drum as armored boots chased behind me.
They'd seen me back then.
The guards who hadn't taken me to the temple... but hadn't forgotten me either.
They didn't move. They didn't acknowledge me.
But juno's eyes met mine—and something passed between us.
Something else as juno smiled seeing me lysander didn't see me.
Before I could open my mouth, Wanora's voice cut cleanly through the moment.
"Come on. Let's go."
I swallowed the memory down and stepped into the carriage.
With a sudden lurch, the vehicle activated its high-tier enchantments. The air bent. The ground folded in and out of itself. In a blink, we were moving—not forward, but through space itself. Every ten minutes, the world outside shimmered, teleporting us across the empire in bursts of speed only artifacts at the imperial level could achieve.
I leaned back against the cushioned seat.
The others sat quietly, caught in their own thoughts.
Wanora's brow remained furrowed, her hand tapping against her leg like a metronome. Sinus kept adjusting the cuffs of his new formal attire, still clearly uncomfortable in them. Shalap had curled into the seat beside her, arms wrapped around her knees, exhausted but clearly processing everything.
The ride took 40 minutes.
A journey that should have been nearly a day collapsed into less than an hour again. And then—
The carriage stopped.
We were back.
Taskhand.
The gates opened without delay, as if they'd been expecting us. Staff ran about, re-hanging signs and banners, reactivating stations, and preparing for a new day none of them fully understood yet.
The Empire's carriage rolled to a halt, and the four of us stepped out.
The wind here felt lighter. But there was something heavier looming in the air.
Behind us, the imperial vehicle turned and vanished with the same blinding fold of space that had brought us here.
Taskhand was open for business today as always.
Wanora remained still for a moment, staring up at the high walls of the guild hall like someone seeing it differently for the first time. Then, quietly, she said:
"Tomorrow... it'll be official. The entire Empire will know we're sponsored by the Emperor."
Her voice was calm. But I could hear the edge in it. The calculation.
"It'll cause an uproar. Guilds will be against us."
She turned toward us, eyes narrowing with focused determination.
"So we'll need to make good ties with the other guilds—and fast. Let's make a plan."
There it was.
The next battle wasn't against monsters or sea-bound tempest lords.
It was against politics. Pride. Reputation.
And somehow, that felt even more dangerous.