Emperor's Reckoning

Lyon crossed his arm as he looked at the two guards, "Your emperor wanted to see me."

One of the guards looked at him carefully from head to toe. The garment that Lyon wore was nothing sort of common in this area. The guard couldn't figure out why would a man wore something that looked like a skirt. (Is he, is he a performer?) the thought was shared with his partner.

"A-hem," the guard made a fake cough, "I've heard no such thing nor a notice for that matter that the emperor will be meeting anyone."

The guard looked at the surroundings and saw no official carriages nor any type of transportation that proved Lyon to be someone important. He could only swear that he was a performer but there was no prior notice for that.

"Hmm, are you sure?" muttered Lyon.

"Yes, I'm sure, you... uh... are you a performer by chance?" asked the guard.

"Sorry what?" asked Lyon as he blinked twice. He thought he misheard him saying that he thought he was a performer.

"Sorry, a-hem, are you a performer?" asked the guard. After the long hours of a shift a day, he barely had anything wet on his throat from the morning.

"What?"

"I know that my throat is dry, but you surely heard what I'm saying right? Please give me a break young man," said the guard as he rubbed his throat.

(What the hell is he saying?! Why would he think that I'm a performer?!) screamed Lyon in his mind.

"What makes you think that I'm a performer?"

"I mean," the guard pointed out his golden patterned sarong, "you uh, wore a skirt."

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Lyon squinted his eyes but he couldn't blame them for the lack of knowledge. However, he couldn't believe that this world where multiple islands existed, and multiple cultures in-between, haven't heard of sarong. Not to mention that the one he had wasn't even his to begin with.

"This is not a skirt, is a type of style that I like, it's called a sarong, I still wore long compressed pants under it! I mean look, look goddamnit! The sarong's not even that long, you could see some kind of fabric tightly hugging on top of my ankle from there!"

The guard raised his hands as far as his chest as he showed him his palms, "Woah, okay calm down, I don't want to make a fuss here."

"Why don't you just take the skirt off then?" said the guard's partner.

"It's sarong!"

"Right, it's a sarong."

"Heh, hahaha," Lyon chuckled before the guards thought him he was starting to go crazy. They nervously held their weapons as they gulped their saliva before looking at one another.

"Behold, losers! It has, POCKETS!" said Lyon as he slipped both of his hands inside the pockets that the sarong had. He inserted and take out the hands repeatedly to prove his point.

The guards let down their shoulders before he said, "That's actually kinda cool."

"I know right, does your metallic armor has pockets? Of course not! Hahaha!" laughed Lyon in victory.

"Well, actually we have..."

"Huh?...."

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*bang

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Lyon sneaked up behind them in a blink of an eye before taking out their consciousness with a chop from his hand against the back of their heads. He looked right and left and notice no one before entering the palace front garden.

"Looks like straight up from here would be the throne room," muttered Lyon before a smirk appeared on his face.

With his arms supporting his head, Lyon went to the right instead of forward. (After all, I'm the guest here, and you know what they say about guests, 'treat it like it's your own home'. Well, I don't know what happened to my house back on earth after I left though).

After taking the first turn, he soon found a beautiful pond that was almost as big as a lake presented in his view. He took a deep breath as nature tingled his nostrils and brought about a calming sensation in his mind. He approached piling docks before crouching down and put his hands on the warm water. (Hmm, that's quite unusual, with a place this high, the water is actually warm).

"May I know, what is your purpose here?"

Lyon stood up with a smile before turning around. He looked at the middle-aged man with a thick mustache who asked him the question. The latter had the same height as Lyon and a reseeding hair on his head.

"I'm just taking a stroll," answered Lyon before walking to pass him.

The middle-aged man put his hand on Lyon's chest before he administered a push to halt Lyon's tracks. Lyon furrowed his eyebrows as he darted his glance against him.

"Who are you? I have never seen you around before, are you a tourist from a different world?" asked the middle-aged man with his condescending eyes after looking at Lyon's garment.

"I'm the emperor's guest," answered Lyon with a smile.

The middle-aged man furrowed his eyebrows before smiling, "Please, you jest."

"Ah I get it," said the middle-aged man before carefully looking at Lyon's garment, "You must be a performer right?"

"Motherfucker..." Lyon's eyes immediately turned sharp before with a whoop of his hand the middle-aged man was put down on the spot, unconscious. Though the latter was quite remarkable in the cultivation level, a fatal blow could easily be launched if they were unprepared. Especially from Lyon himself.

Lyon left the scene before muttering profanities after profanities. He even kicked a small stone out of anger before it launched and exploded upon impact against the wall. He kept on walking before he noticed that he was already back in the pond.

He furrowed his eyebrows as he looked at his surrounding, it was exactly the same, even the middle-aged man was still unconscious on the piling dock. (Am I trapped in some sort of illusion here?).

Lyon ran around the castle before he was back on the same spot.

"What the hell, this palace is so small!" shouted Lyon. He looked at the surroundings and noticed that the wall had not been well maintained. There were no other 'people' in his vicinity.

(Wait a minute) thought Lyon as he looked at the palace. (It's clean, the gate's outer walls were also clean now that I remembered).

"Heh, something is definitely off here," muttered Lyon before got up the stairs that lead to the throne room.

"Not a soldier nor a knight in sight huh," smiled Lyon before he pushed opened the huge door effortlessly. He walked on the dirty red carpet before he noticed a figure sitting on the throne.

The old man was unkempt and was skinny to the bone. The royal clothing didn't fit him anymore and there was no one else but him inside the throne room. His eyes had been weary with times and his gaze was no longer as clear as it used to be. He was stuck in a phase between sleeping and opening his eyes. He blinked a couple of times before he noticed a figure in front of him.

"W-who are you?" asked the old man with his hoarse voice. His lips looked like it was breaking apart like a cracked wall.

Lyon crossed his arms with a smirk on his face, "Take a good long look old man."

The old man on the throne strugglingly stood up before he squinted his eyes. The two blurry images that were received respectively from his right and left eyes fused.

"Hah...hah..." the old man's eyes opened wide as his pupils shrunken. His fragile hands were pointing at him before he wombly walked down the stairs. On the third step, his old body tripped and fell on the floor. Nonetheless, the old bones quickly got up to a crawl albeit with the shaking in his figure.

Lyon stood firmly despite what happened to the old man as the latter crawled on the ugly red carpet and touched his right ankle with both hands.

"PLEASE!" the old man shouted.

The black knight who was in the vicinity heard the shout before he rushed against the gate. He noticed the two guards were already down for the count and the huge door to the throne room was opened.

"SAVE ME!"

Killing intent immediately permeated from his black Mithril armor as he leaped toward the throne room. (Don't you try anything funny!).

"YOUR MAJESTY!"

The black knight instantly lost all intent to kill as he heard what the emperor just said. His eyes under his helmet were opened wide in disbelief as he looked at the emperor knelt and rest his head on top of Lyon's right foot with tears rolling down the latter's cheeks. Even though the red carpet was dirty, the emperor was willingly on the ground.

The atmosphere instantly froze as the black knight's mind blanked and couldn't comprehend the situation as he looked at both of them. (Wh-what the hell is happening?!).