#first emperor

Once again, Kishiar's extraordinary planning skills and keen perception are on display here. This man not only knew in advance what Yuder and Nathan planned to do during the duel, but he also used the duel and all the commotion generated by the event as bait for both Katchian and the Southern merchants, who would not be able to resist the idea of acting on this day when all eyes would be focused on the capital. Kishiar used both incidents to balance the consequences generated by each, using the attempted assassination of the prince to contain the fury of the Diarca House and the noble faction, and using the destruction of Inella's tomb to divert attention from what happened to Katchian. Not to mention how all this meticulous planning allowed the espionage group to infiltrate the Shining Palace and subsequently find the Southerners' base, returning with numerous pieces of evidence of Katchian's crimes and his alliance with the Southerners. And he did all this without telling anyone or letting on that he knew in advance about all the incidents that were going to occur.

Kishiar is incredible. Absurdly incredible. This man's mind works in unimaginable ways. May Kuyu continue to bless us with his meticulous and unbelievable plans.

But besides Kishiar's incredible planning skills, we also had a very good interaction between Yuder and Nathan, who, believe it or not, are already planning their next duel. They haven't even fully recovered yet and they're already imagining when they'll be able to fight again. Yuder was surprised and pleased to see that Nathan's resistance was greater than he imagined, because that meant that next time he could hit harder. And Nathan was literally able to read Yuder's thoughts about beating him up and responding accordingly, smiling and stating that he was looking forward to it. I'll make my decision here. They are best friends.

And Kishiar? Besides observing the exchange with pleasure, clearly satisfied to see the closeness between the two, he also presented them with the gifts he had prepared in the most Kishiar la Orr style possible (I know he practiced that beforehand when he was alone in the office. And I definitely don't want to have to enter a gift-giving competition against Kishiar, because he doesn't know how to play fair and will raise the bar absurdly high.), gifting Nathan and Yuder with new swords, since the ones they possessed broke in the duel. This would have been normal, if it weren't for the fact that Kishiar gave Nathan the First Emperor's sword, probably an imperial relic, and gave Yuder his old sword, equally of the highest quality. And considering that Kishiar already had both swords prepared the day after the duel, I believe he intended to give them to Yuder and Nathan regardless of what happened in the duel.

First Emperor: My Empress... Im actually in love with Archmage Luma and he is in love with me too...

First Empress, who was just writing in her journal that they were taking too long to break the news to her: I knew before you even slashed the wall to prevent him from leaving.

One of the parts that most caught my attention in this chapter was the information we received about the time of the First Emperor of Orr, where even in a period of peace after the Great Cataclysm, the First Emperor continually invited his comrades to duels.

Archmage Luma, the First Empress, the priest who became the Sun Pope, the founding king of another kingdom (I suppose it's Nerlan), all the influential and powerful figures who fought alongside the First Emperor answered his calls and dueled with him, not bothering to spare themselves, sometimes getting seriously wounded and needing treatment, taking months to fully recover. Fierce battles where, as long as they didn't die, anything was allowed.

Later generations speculated that this was a way to settle old grudges.

But, being, as we know, friends, why would they do something like that?

'Because they must have hoped they wouldn't grow dull in peace.'

The Great Cataclysm was an event of such magnitude that it literally defined the beginning of a new era for the world, an era without magical beings and with a new world order beginning to establish itself with the emergence of new kingdoms and the rise of mages as a force to be reckoned with. It is more than justifiable that the people who were on the front lines of this event, who fought and directly faced the horrors of that time, were so affected by what they experienced that they could not allow themselves to fully rest and relax, remaining alert, waiting for the moment when they would need to fight again, never fully believing in the peace that surrounded them.

But above all, the First Emperor, who insisted on these duels and continued fighting against his comrades, was the only person who knew that, because of his failures, another Cataclysm would inevitably arise. Did he insist on maintaining these duels because he couldn't rest, haunted by the trauma of what he experienced? Probably. But guilt for having failed in his duty must also have played a key role in his insistence on keeping everyone around him ready to fight whenever necessary.