Chapter 2: Blame it on the Alcohol (I)

Shaar Adamas, the bastard who twice stabbed me before I eventually agreed to marry him, wasn’t born to be the ruler of the world. He, unlike me, didn’t have the blood of emperors and immortals flowing through his veins. Instead, he was an orphan, then a servant, and then a soldier.

Eventually, however, he rose to power, and, during that rise, people started to call him by a lot of names.

The Spacetime Prodigy. The Shadow. That guy you can stab with swords all you like and it won’t do a gods damn thing. But the one to truly stick during the later part of his rise was The Nightmare.

Oh woe to the noble who travels at night. Run mister officer if you're looking to fight. Come all ye slave born into the light. For the Nightmare is coming and his might will make right.

Long before the Nightmare’s Refrain gained popularity in the Elysian Empire, however, and long before Shaar carried out any of his more famous feats, such as stopping a war through simple logic, halting an invasion of necromantic insects through a single act of thievery, and kidnapping a princess to hand her over to an evil emperor, at one point Shaar didn’t exist.

And this is where our story truly begins, in the middle of nowhere in the northwestern province of the Elysian Empire, in an open field on the edge of the lands of the Lux clan. There, underneath the stars, a backdoor spatial portal to one of the Lux Clan’s long conquered minor dimensions opened, and out jumped two handsome young men.

One was large, a head taller than most, with steel gray eyes, a shaved head, and a raindrop shaped white holy mark in the middle of his forehead, silvery metallic scales growing out of most of his shirtless torso. And he was wearing a pair of almost torn up tan pants and no shoes, showing the damage from the fights he’d been in over the last few days and his lack of planning in not bringing a second set of clothes to fit his large frame.

Still, despite the state of his clothing, there wasn’t a single wound on his body.

Next to him was a more normal sized man, with long icy blue hair, silver eyes, and the type of perfectly trimmed beard you’d expect from a man who put a lot of thought into his appearance. Unlike the giant, he’d either not allowed his clothing to get damaged or had brought a second set, wearing a dark blue battle robe with black boots. And his eyes were looking around the field with an expression of distrust.

Before the two men could get much distance from the portal, however, two beautiful women jumped out.

One looked a couple years older than the two men, likely in her middle or late twenties, with dark azure eyes that sparked with lightning, shoulder-length dark green hair, and dark orange crystals growing in runic patterns along the exposed lengths of her arms. Wearing a black battle robe that seemed to merge ever so slightly with the shadows of the night, she was deliberately walking a couple steps behind the other woman. So, unlike with the friendly relationship seen from the body language between the two men, she seemed more like the second woman’s follower.

And the second woman, who had bright violet eyes, a ruby-like gemstone growing out of the center of her forehead, and long silky black hair, was glaring at the two men. Slightly younger than them, looking to be in her late teens or early twenties, she was wearing a silver tiara, a purple battle robe, and black boots, her beauty the type bards write songs about, with long legs, a flawless figure, and a face that would make even most women look twice.

“You know, you’d look a lot prettier if you’d smile once in a while, princess.” The blue haired man, Prince Daniel Larus of the Island Kingdom of Sisipha, grinned while focusing his eyes on Renee Securis Arma, the then youngest daughter of the Securis branch of the Elysian Empire’s royal family, as the portal to the Lux Clan’s minor dimension closed behind her.

“I can’t let you take that egg outside of the Elysian Empire.” Renee ignored Prince Daniel and instead focused her glare at the large man next to him, Adam Adamas, a common man born with uncommon talent in a small city of one of the island nations who’d started traveling the world to train himself after his parents died five years before.

And, in response, Adam just looked up at the night sky. “By the gods I hate royalty.”

“Present company excluded, of course?” Prince Daniel turned his head to look at his traveling companion for the last year and a half.

“No. I hate you too.”

“Oh, the pain.” Daniel held his hands over his heart, a look of mock offense on his face. “And here I thought we were friends.”

Adam rolled his eyes, ignoring the prince, and turned back to the Empire’s princess. “I won the egg fair and square.

“You can only blame yourself for not being talented enough and your family for not putting enough pressure on the immortal.”

He then took a step toward my mother, towering over her as the woman next to her, a woman who was supposed to be guarding her, looked at the both of them with a small smile on her face. “I’m not going to be staying any longer in this gods forsaken country. And I for certain will not be serving your gods forsaken family.”

Sadly, it’s impossible to be absolutely certain what had happened in the minor dimension that had been the immortal of the Lux Clan’s private residence before this confrontation, as the dimension collapsed three years later, making viewing the events that occurred there impossible even with the Past Sight skill of Lord Aeon, but, from context clues, analysis of events outside the minor dimension, and first hand accounts of multiple people who were there, several facts can be confirmed.

First, the Lux Clan’s immortal, half a year before, had taken a liking to Adam’s talent, taking him in as an apprentice, with Prince Daniel following along. Second, the Lux Clan’s immortal was dying a slow death from injuries he’d received a year before and, given the power structure of the Elysian Empire, his death would almost certainly lead to the collapse of the Lux Clan’s power. Third, the Securis branch of the Elysian Empire, the branch the Lux Clan was aligned with, started the process of ruthlessly helping themselves to the Lux Clan’s assets far earlier than could be considered at all polite, especially given they were known to have a treasure which could have easily saved the immortal’s life. And, finally, fourth, the immortal, partly to spite the Securis branch, had decided to throw a tournament in his minor dimension with some of the most valuable possessions of his clan as the prizes, and Adam, likely as the immortal intended, had won the grand prize, the egg of the most talented beast the Lux Clan had ever gotten their hands on, an egg which Adam had already bonded with his soul for hatching.

Then, at the end of the tournament, there’d been a big party where all four of the youths had gotten drunk to different levels, a party the two young men had then tried to sneak out of without being followed, obviously unsuccessfully.

“I could just have Ivette kill you.” My mother pointed at the other woman, Ivette Umbra, the adopted daughter of two elders of the Elysian Empire’s Umbra clan and an all around badass soon-to-be colonel of the Elysian army.

“It wouldn’t work.” Adam glared down at Renee, not even looking at Ivette, who he knew was dangerous, one of the most obvious signs of how his judgement was at the time impaired. “The egg’s already been sealed to my bloodline.”

“That bastard.” Renee looked away from the giant, not showing any fear of the man even as she cursed his master, likely because she was probably the drunkest of everyone there.

“Hey. I have an idea,” Prince Daniel injected, pulling his friend back as he warily looked at the female soldier before his wariness disappeared as the woman smiled at him and shook her head slightly. “How about we duel for the egg, two on two, protect the king style.”

Adam allowed himself to be pulled back but glared down at the prince.

Daniel, however, just smiled up at him and whispered, “Do you trust me?”

“Of course not.” Adam rolled his eyes again, but at least deigned to whisper.

“Alright then.” Prince Daniel smiled at the man and then turned back to the women, saying, “You’ll have to wager something of equal value as well, though.”

“Like what?” A look of excitement appeared on Renee’s face as an expression of contemplation appeared on Ivette’s.

“Let’s see. What could be of equal value?” Prince Daniel looked contemplative, having an expression on his face that would make people who knew him but weren’t on his side immediately want to run away. Sadly, however, at least at the time, neither my mother or Ms. Umbra knew him well at all. “Well, how about a roll in the hay, Ms. Umbra with my friend here and you with me?”

Now, knowing my father, it is very obvious his intent wasn’t actually sex. His goal was to throw out this suggestion to have my mother knock it down, allowing him to ask for actual resources he wanted. And then, given how he’d seen Ms. Umbra was not the biggest fan of how the Securis branch was handling the Lux clan, he expected her to not try her hardest at all so long as my mother’s life was not in any danger, allowing him and Adam to get said resources.

He hadn’t expected, however, in his own semi-drunk state, just how drunk my mother was, nor her level of arrogance and how little she thought of his combat capabilities.