A couple of hours had passed since his mishaps with the jester and, with nothing else to do, Ixion now found himself at his desk.

Since tomorrow he was going to leave for the southern expedition, entering Vertias' body for an extended period, he decided, why not write another volume before he left?

'But… what should I name this one?'

***

Volume III: Hollow Kingdom

Now, after the tragedy that befell Catatran that day, we were somewhat of a broken nation. We didn't collapse as a nation like Praxis, who also suffered terribly that day, but it was safe to say the Catatran military was in disarray.

Morale was at an all-time low. Not a single person dared enlist.

If I wanted to create even a semblance of the army's might from before, forced conscription would be the only way.

In an ironic twist, it was that awful day that sparked the creation of the Chrys Commonwealth. So, the actual front lines benefited from our "noble sacrifice."

But seriously, what's noble about it?

Even before the Scourge, before I lived, dying at war seemed like the most pointless thing in the world. I may be 'crazy' now and express that as my creed, but perhaps that's the one thing that makes me the most sane human in existence.

I simply want to enjoy what I have, not fight to keep it.

Not that I'm not fighting.

I'd say in my own way I'm fighting more fervently than anyone else in existence!

Perhaps not Hope, actually…

Or Zayn.

As for you, Pax…

Yeah, sorry, but your plights are trifles in the grander scheme. A lot of your issues could be solved with words, yet you love to use your claws, don't you?

Ah, before I get too off topic, that's enough of that...

While the strong spread out to go to different flashpoints, I retreated to Catatran. Well, maybe not retreated…

I'd never been there, to my own kingdom, after all.

Hope had kept fighting, but Despair, and the remaining soldiers who'd lost their will to fight, had ended up inside this stone prison. A gigantic city surrounded by walls so impractical.

Ah…

The first time I marched through that gate, I felt more defeated than ever before. Yet, I held my head high and waved with a smile on my face to the sunken faces of the masses.

They were thin, frail, days away from starving.

As it turned out, all of the food was being sent to the front lines or to the nobles.

Yet…

And yet.

Those hollow faces smiled upon seeing me.

They'd heard my stories. They'd heard of my heroism.

For too long, much too long, they'd been a people without a leader.

I was one in name, not in presence.

And now that I was back in Catatran, the order they prayed for seemed to be on the horizon.

And, to their credit, it was.

The people had put their trust in the right man, me. The awesome, great, Greatly Terrible King Ixion.

I held council with the nobles and started different directives. The markets were centralized around Marlowe. Tristan established the patrols and brought strict law. Andrea, daughter of a fallen duke, had helped stabilize housing. And, ironically, the apple stealer was the one who regulated how food was controlled — it was spread more around the entire populace and not hoarded by the elites.

So, at the beginning of my true reign, I was nothing if not the most beloved man in Catatran.

But, naturally, there was still the threat of the Scourge looming over our heads. As much as Catatran needed me to act as king, the world needed me to act as a hero.

That's when I began scrounging up skilled people to run and manage the kingdom when I inevitably left for the front lines.

That's when I found my awesome chancellors. Se'van, from the Royal Assassins. Laura Sylvanyr, daughter of a Count. Cecelia Wreath, the distraught general. And the aforementioned Andrea Callamoure.

But, while I did hire these people and set them up to equal my rule in my absence, I never did make it back to war.

There were a few reasons…

First and foremost, I learned my kingdom needed me much more than I thought.

The nobles that hadn't been at war, the ones who'd sat back in their ornate houses with cushioned chairs in the foyer. The ones with so much food to spare they fed scraps to their pets. They'd been up to no good.

Now, I have an ability that lets me freely roam the world as a g-g-ghoooost!

Did I scare you?

…

Ahem.

I didn't exactly use the ability to spy on people as I do now, but I did use it sometimes to get a better view of the operations in place — see it with my own eyes rather than words on a page.

Yet, it was within one of these outings I laid witness to the thick film of grime slathered all over Catatran nobility.

I witnessed Marlowe take a young man aside who was diligently doing his work, then take him into his manor, and lead him to an underground room with countless others naked and hollow.

It was also then that I watched Marlowe make his way to an underground arena where a plethora of nobles gathered, all to watch one of Marlowe's 'shows.' 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Shows where these naked, half-dead citizens were made to fight one another or a beast. Usually with nothing but their bare hands.

And that as just one of his sick operations that catered to corrupt nobles.

Simply speaking, I was appalled. But, I'd never been taught to deal with this.

Nor had I ever been taught this was "wrong."

My reservations were only due to instinct, not some higher moral compass.

So, my solution to the issue? I talked to the man himself.

And, while I was an ideal king…

I was merely an ideal king because I was an idyllic fool.

That sly snake had used my lack of common sense and formal education to twist the narrative.