The Zodiac Empire

Chapter 12- The Witch Came Back

"King Naito, wake up."

Naito shielded his eyes from the bright sunlight shining in through the window as he sat up and grunted groggily. Alile stood over him, dressed in the outfit she wore at the feast, along with a mask raised over her head. Alsen and Cosena were both already up and dressed. They had bags under their eyes as if they hadn't gotten much sleep. He hadn't slept very well either, as his slumber had been disrupted several times by bad dreams, to say the least.

"I apologize for disturbing your slumber, my lord, but I have orders from master Sartur."

"Orders from my father...?" Naito rubbed his eyes and yawned.

"Yes, he's in town and going to give a speech shortly. He wants you three to come outside and listen. I'm supposed to be there, so I need to get going." Alile pulled the blizargwin mask over her face and bowed, then left.

"Why is father giving a speech?" Naito asked as he got up and changed out of his nightclothes.

"Who knows?" Cosena said, "Let's just hurry up and get there before he has something to be angry about."

"Can we at least eat something first?" Naito asked and his stomach grumbled in agreement. Maybe he should've tried to eat last night.

"There's still all that pizza the soldiers ordered." Alsen opened the fridge, took two slices of pizza out of the fridge and handed them to Naito. He ate them as they walked through the hallway to the elevators. Naito pressed the button and to his surprise, Alsen didn't fight him over it.

"Alile didn't tell us where exactly father is going to give his speech." Alsen whispered when they got off the elevator.

"She told us to go outside. I don't think he's going to be hard to spot." Cosena said. As soon as they stepped outside, she was proven right. Sartur stood before a large crowd of confused townsfolk, arms folded behind his back. He was surrounded by soldiers of the empire, all wearing blizargwin masks as well, holding up flags with the zodiac empire insignia on them. It was like they were around him to provide some type of protection. As if that man could ever need protection. Naito recognized Zento, Casele, and Alile by their outfits from the feast, standing directly in front of Sartur.

Sartur stretched his arms to his sides, inhaled a deep breath, and exhaled a satisfied sigh. "Ah fresh air...it's been too long, my old friend." he folded his arms behind his back and sauntered to his left. He pulled a microphone out of his pocket and spoke through it, "Greetings, citizens of Maeruthan! I'm sure you're all wondering who I am. Who we are." Sartur sauntered to his right, "I am Sartur Raizu, a wizard, and I am here representing the Zodiac Empire."

"The Zodiac Empire? What the heck is that?" murmured parts of the crowd.

"Is this man mad? Wizards were wiped out centuries ago!"

Some cops were alerted by all the noise and came over as well. "Wizards? Everybody knows they were wiped out by the late king Maru and his army about three centuries ago, were they not?" a burly cops asked as he made his way to the front of the crowd.

"Yeah, served them right for waging war on us in the first place!" his partner exclaimed.

"Huh?" Naito whispered. What were those cops talking about? Wizards never waged war on Maeruthan, it was the other way around!

"Shh, just listen." Cosena silenced him before he could speak his thoughts aloud.

"As I recall it, it was Maeruthan that invaded our land, and your own history books show that they used excessive force to commit genocide on us. But that was the past, and we are willing to look past what your ancestors did to us. It's all water under the bridge now, no?" Sartur stroked his beard, a smug, sly grin spread across his face.