Chaptor 4
Emperor Valorus
I am a very lucky man. An entire planet looks up to me as not just a ruler but a father figure. My wife, the empress, is a true love match and the light of my life. My daughter is an unparalleled beauty that the bards will write songs about through the ages. But most importantly, when my planet,Terrasia, most needed saving, a hero came down to us from a world beyond the stars. His name was Graxoth.
My beloved sire, Valorus the Previous, was an excellent emperor and a doting father. And impressively long lived for a Terrasian. With an average lifespan of 72 for royal males, he lived to the ripe old age of 120 with all of his faculties intact to the very end. And I, having been a prince for 40 years at that point, was immediately dumped into the role of high ruler with virtually no preparation for that fact.
I bluffed, I fibbed, I strenuously projected my late father's confidence at every turn, but in reality, I floundered. I knew nothing about running an entire planet! Do you have any idea how many peasants that is? And if you're not careful, the merchants and even the lesser nobility start looking and acting like peasants too!
And then perhaps you get word that the three bloodthirstiest of your older sisters have started a very popular rebel faction. And the royal guards start glancing in someone else's direction and hesitate just a beat before following your direct orders. And perhaps you start having trouble sleeping because of the whispers at night.
Death to the oppressor!
The Emperor must die!
Valorus the Current couldn't rule a pebble sized moon!
That might have been just the paranoia, but I can't be certain.
In any event, one day, when the situation was poised to tip from perilous to catastrophic, a stranger from another world came to us. For every problem that plagued us, he brought a solution beyond our wildest imaginations. He gave the farmers perfect seeds, provided a new self-healing material to permanently fix the roads, introduced better designed carts, and engineered more efficient animals to pull them. He even took the empress and I to the orphanage to select the princess so that after years of trying and failing, we might finally have a child to raise as our own.
I owe everything to Graxoth, and he asks so little for himself. Frankly, I doubt there's anything I could refuse him if he would only say the word…
And so ends Part 4. It seems that Valoria had every reason to be concerned based on the way things are shaping up!
On another note, I've never posted to Scholar and Scribe before. I remember reading the description years ago and thinking that my style of writing might be a poor fit (based on content, frequency or the relatively short word counts). I checked out the community again yesterday, and I can't find whatever it was that gave me that impression, so I figured I'd give it a try. It does seem rather quiet around here lately, though 🤔.
But, back to the point. If this isn't the kind of thing I should post here, no worries, just let me know and I'll stop 😊 (also if there are any rules I should keep in mind for potential future posts).
The next installment will be ready...definitely eventually 😉.
Keep posting say I. Your story has a good vibe!
Thanks, I'm glad you like it so far!