Will of a Prince

Jenna started writing three names on her board as everyone filed into their seats.

Paria

Monlo

Kinder

She turned around and bowed to the class. She wore her same blue attire; however, today she decided to let her dark hair to rest along her back. Her demeaner seemed much more relaxed in comparison to the other day. Small scratches could be heard in the back of the classroom as everyone quieted down.

"Stell, could you not scratch your desk please? It’s distracting everyone else from the lecture."

Steel sighed and rested his face in his hands, staring bleakly at the board.

"Alright. Now that everyone is here, let’s all get started. Today, I am going to be talking about the history of the three empires that were on this land. Even though we are talking about all three, only the Monlo and Paria Empires still exist today. Any questions before we start?"

Jacob raised his hand thoughtfully.

"How big is our continent exactly? I simply find it hard to believe this land could be large enough to support three different empires at once. Also, our kingdom was never a part of any empire. Is that normal?"

Jenna appeared slightly shocked upon hearing the last words leave Jacob’s mouth.

"For your first question, these lands span for thousands of miles. Not a single person knows how large each continent actually is, but we can only estimate them to be tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of miles in both length and width. As for your second question, it really makes me curious. I’ve never heard of a rogue kingdom before. Are you sure you weren’t a part of an empire and didn’t know it?"

Jacob thought about it. He never considered the possibility of the Iron Kingdom simply being a branch of a greater force before. However, there was no way his father would take orders from someone else. So, that led Jacob to believe it was because in some way, the kingdom had successfully hidden from all three empires for its entire existence. However long that may have been. But then, this brought more questions than answers to Jacob’s mind.

’If we really have existed for a long time and no one has found us, how could that have been possible? We were never exactly a small mark on the map.’

Realizing he never answered the professor’s question, Jacob cleared his throat.

"It’s possible, but I am not sure. I’m sorry."

"It’s okay. Let’s get back to these three empires."

Jenna started preparing to write on the board with small white chalk.

"For the longest time, these three empires lived in harmony. In fact, the Sacred Trio used to split the authority over each land before the current rulers took over! Isn’t that interesting?"

Maria raised her hand.

"Wait, do they not rule over the empires now? What do they do instead?"

Jenna’s face saddened slightly.

"Actually, no one has seen or heard from the Sacred’s for quite some time. I believe they found their influence on the world to be more harmful than good, so they hid themselves away from the public eye. That leads us as to who became the new rulers of the three kingdoms. Our ruler of Paria is named Pelo, the Monlo leader is named Zhou, and the prior leader of Kinder was named Madeline. For the longest time, these three lived in harmony. However, Pelo and Zhou didn’t seem satisfied with the land they were given. Both of them craved more, wanted more. They all built of their forces for years before trying to expand their territories little by little."

"What did the other leader think of this? Did they try building their forces?"

"Actually, Madeline tried to negotiate peace between the two of them. However, not a single one of them would listen. Every idea was thrown out the window. It didn’t take long before the war started spreading into the domain of Kinder. They all desperately fought back against the forces coming from both sides. However, the combined power of the other two empires was too great, and they were completely wiped off the map."

A small tension filled the room as Jenna continued.

"I believe the saddest part of this whole war is that their civilization had nothing to do with the conflict. They were merely caught in the crossfire. Millions had died in the north for seemingly no reason other than the power-hungry Emperor’s conquests."

Jacob didn’t show it, but the story was hitting his heart greater compared to those around him. The reason the emperor’s had killed all those people were for the same reason his father was treating those around him so poorly. He wondered if his father were in their position if he would do the same. There was one thing about the whole story that made Jacob sick to his stomach, and he raised his hand to confirm his suspicion.

"Yes, Jacob?"

"Is power really the only thing they wanted? It wasn’t because they needed more food or more land for housing or anything like that?"

Jenna seemed to close up a bit.

"I understand it isn’t the greatest reason, but great power can get to one’s mind much easier than you may think. I mean, simply imagine having the power to destroy entire populations with one wave of the hand. It is possible that both of them got addicted to that feeling of towering over others, being untouchable. Even though I shouldn’t disagree with our emperor, I sometimes find myself questioning his decisions."

Jacob’s fist clenched under his desk.

’It’s sick. It’s absolutely sick that people like this are in charge of our continent. And the fact that this conflict is still going on means even more innocent people will get caught in the crossfire.’

Maria noticed Jacob getting angry and rested a hand on his shoulder. This calmed his temper slightly as Jenna continued her lecture.

"There’s one more thing I want to talk about with this that will lead us into our next topic."

Jenna started drawing a large skull on the board. The whole group seemed to pale seeing the familiar mark be drawn on the board.

"This mark is the unifying symbol for the Epigones of Calamity. If you see someone wearing this mask, it is very important that you do whatever they say. Otherwise, you will be punished beyond what Paria can protect you from."