Within the Dark Empire there are seven palaces, most of which are dedicated to a specific department of the country, which the palace lords serve as the ministers of. The Yellow palace lord is the head of commerce and finance, the purple palace gathers intelligence, most notably through the redlight districts, and the red palace is the military. The red palace is responsible for recruiting and training the soldiers of the dark empire's army.
In the chain of command, the red palace lord Yami, the demon-kin general, is usually the one at the top in the absence of the dark lord. If he commands something of a military unit, not even another palace lord holds the authority to rescind that order, but with the dark lord and red palace lord whisked away to the 3rd martial continent, the highest military authority in the country would naturally be the betrothed of the dark lord himself. Or so it would have been, if not for the last official orders Yami gave before getting shoved into the dark empire's special new aerial craft and whisked away to the 3rd martial continent...
"Unless approved by myself or the dark lord first, under no circumstance are the dark empire soldiers to follow any orders issued by the Dark Lady of the Pink Palace."
And that is why a certain dark lady wanting to command the dark lord's army is currently in the office of the lieutenant general Aoi, repeatedly poking and pinching the cheeks of the second in command of the red palace who is currently filling in for his superior during his overseas business trip.
"Poke, poke, poke, poke, poke…!"
"QUIT IT!"
"Boop!" Nox said, as she poked him on the nose.
"You little! I dare you to do that aga-!"
"Boop!"
*Snap*
"…!"
"Your brush broke again! …! Poke!"
After Nox had finished her business at the Yang estate, she left her kids and paternal relatives behind to go request for military aid, which was immediately shut down. After getting rejected, she decided to use her title and authority to barge into the highest-ranking officer's office just so she could try and annoy him into defying his orders.
Because of her position of being the one and only woman the dark lord ever took an interest in, using any sort of force on her would have dire consequences even to himself. Given how madly infatuated the leader of this country is with her, should he lay so much as a finger on her, he'd likely end up losing his head once the dark lord returned. The only ones who might be able to make her leave without risking execution would be the Palace Lords, but the majority of them refuse to do so. The blue and purple palace lords are scared of her, while the yellow palace lord is now worshiping at her feet. Meanwhile, the only palace lord aside from the absent Yami who might be willing to help him out has not responded to his letters.
*Deep inhale*
*Sigh*
"My lady! I beg of you! With all due respect, would you please, cease this childishness, and leave me to my duty?"
"Haha! You said duty! Anyways, you're pretty bad at your poopy-duty and now there is a stinky war about to happen!"
"And as I have explained to you, countless times my lady, in spite of you and that son of a-…! Ehem, despite the mess you and the blue palace lord made in Nishi, there is not going to be any war! With the emperor dead and the disappearance of their only immortal, an attempted uprising would be foolish to the extreme! Not to mention the enmity their royal family in particular happens to have accumulated with the other vassal states have helped us smooth over the incident and quell their worries to prevent them from humoring such an attempt in the first place. NOW WOULD YOU PLEASE LEAVE!"
"Boop! And I told you, it's not the noisy neighbors you should be worried about! It's the old goats from the rich kids' districts coming here to vandalize, and so we need to unite under the banner of this street's neighborhood watch to fend them off! Poke!"
"THAT IS IT! I AM DONE WAITING!!!" Aoi shouted as he angerly stomped out of the room as Nox followed behind, poking and prodding at him all the while.
"So, where we goin today Luti-Tooti?" Nox asked, taking a seat on his back after teleporting onto his back mid-flight after he stormed off into the sky.
Aoi just grumbled incoherently in anger as he sped up, secretly hoping the wind resistance would throw her off his back, as he headed towards his destination. Meanwhile, Nox started talking to herself.
"Oh yeah! I forgot to warn you he had that! On the plus side, it probably helped sell the performance! You can thank me later! …! Hey, don't blame the supplier! …! No, I'm pretty sure it's 'supplier', not 'messenger'! …! Well, I wanted him to have something to ward off bigshots, and I happened to have a leftover banshee parts! …! Okay, bye-sees! Whoa!"
*Swoosh*
*Crash*
Just as they arrived, Aoi suddenly stopped, sending Nox flying forwards, crashing into a green wall. The building that now sports a Nox-shaped imprint next to its doorway is the green palace, the main residence and workplace of the palace lord in charge of the Dark Empire's alchemy division, Grandmaster Alchemist, Mori Akira.
As its name would suggest, the green palace is colored green. The walls, the roof, the doors are either painted green or made from jade, even the windows are tinted green. Its structure seemed to be based off the dark palace, making it look very much like a smaller green version of the dark lord's residence, or that used to be the case.
The palace lord, upon his return from the last Kaguya alchemy festival, decided he would remodel his palace to better match his tastes. Normally, a total make-over like the one he had planned would be done in just a week or two thanks to the near overabundance of nascent souls on this continent drastically speeding up construction work. Unfortunately, the timing in which he chose to do this was rather poor, as the work force kept being dragged away whenever something happened. First, it was the construction of the Pink Palace which was already in progress by the time he started, then there was the destruction of the Dark Palace, followed by the Pink Palace, shortly followed by all the repairs needed across the entire capital after a certain immortal threw it like a baseball. It also did not help that the general populace of this continent are so strong, a simple bar fight could result in a whole street being raised to the ground. All this made the remodeling and redecorations of the green palace proceed haphazardly, and now it looks like two different styles of green castles had been fused together in a chaotic fashion.
Aoi walked up to the guards that were too busy saluting him to notice the masked woman spray painting the wall she had previously crashed into.
"At ease! Is the palace lord inside?"
"Yes, Sir!"
"Good! Go tell him the lieutenant general of the red palace is here to speak with him!"
"Well, this may be a bad time!"
"Hm? Is he refining pills? Or perhaps cultivating?"
"Well, no, but?"
"I only need a moment, so if it is not a delicate matter such as advancing his cultivation or refining pills then I am certain it can wait!" Aoi spoke as he pushed open the jade doors.
"Wait Sir don't-!"
"NOOOO! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE YOU FOOL!" Mori Akira screamed at the lieutenant, while dressed in his phantom detective costume.
"Excuse me?"
"WE JUST FINISHED PAINTING THE DOORS, YOU DUNCE!" The grandmaster screamed.
Looking over at the doors he had just pushed open, he saw a comedy and a tragedy mask painted on to the doors with a handprint smudged over them. Looking down at his hands, Aoi saw his palms covered in paint.
"I explicitly ordered that none may enter the front door until the paint finish drying! Does my word mean nothing to you fools!" The palace lord spoke, oozing with bloodlust.
"I apologize for the inconvenience! I was unaware of the paint and smudged your decorations! I am here to make a request on behalf of the red palace!"
"Hmph! Just speak and begone already! I have not the time to bother with you!"
"It regards the matter mentioned in the letters I have been sending you over the last few days! You had not given any reply, so I came here to ask for your help in person!"
"Hm? If this is about some mere pill request then you have wasted both my and your own time, now leave before I have your head! Hm?" Akira spoke, before glancing over to the side.
"No, I think you misunderstood me, I am not here to request you make pills, rather, I am here to-!"
"HEY, YOU! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" A soldier screamed once he noticed Nox.
*Swoosh*
"GET AWAY FROM THEREEEAAAAH!"
The guard flew over to drag Nox away from there, only for the palace lord to throw a pill that upon impact exploded, sending the man flying off to the side.
"It's marvelous!" The palace lord muttered as he walked closer to look at the mural Nox just spraypainted.
Nox had colored in the Nox-shaped dent in the wall, then painted over the cracks in the wall with thorny vines and blue roses. She had then proceeded to paint an entire garden of roses under a starry sky.
"It's so vivid it looks like I could step right through the painting! Miss, may I know your name?"
"Hm? Uh! Oh right! I'm retired!" Nox said, only just remembering she had been in disguise last time she met the green palace lord.
"This is the Pink Palace lord, Lady Nox, and the reason for why I am here! She has been using her position as our majesty's lover to pester me over the last few days, and I would like to request that you please help stop her from-!"
"Poke!"
"That! Stop her from doing that!" Aoi said, as Nox started poking his cheek.
Akira began stroking his chin while admiring Nox's vandalism before turning to the woman poking at the frustrated lieutenant's face.
"Great lady Nox! If at all possible, I would like to request your assistance in redecorating my palace!"
"Huh? Okay!"
*Snap*
And with a snap of her fingers, the entire green palace was painted over and restructured into a very edgy, haunted-looking western-style dark green castle.
"…!"
"That be 1 high grade magic stone!" Nox said holding out her hand.
"That was a rather curious ability you have, but I fear this might not be quite the look I was going for! It's a bit too dreary for my tastes!"
"What are you talking about, isn't this perfect for your backstory? Shouldn't the phantom detective live in a haunted castle? Just picture it! The phantom detective, fighting the evil sealed within his family castle to protect the world from its horrors, stalking the night from atop his spires to protect the innocents while fighting the ghosts of his past! I even made tons of secret passages both inside and outside the building to help you move around all sneaky-like for dramatic entrances!"
"Hm! Yes, I see the appeal now! It's almost perfect, but the aesthetic starts losing some of its appeal during the day!"
"I could make a barrier that creates an illusionary night sky for you, but that would cost you extra!"
"Hm? Yes, YES! That would be perfect! The castle of eternal night, I can see it clearly now! This could be the origin story for the curse sealed inside my eye!"
"Also, if money is not an issue, I could also install some enchantments to create an artificial fog and different sky settings to help set the mood!"
"Please do! And could you also install some inside the castle as well! They could be used as special effects!"
"Good idea! And for the interior lighting, I was thinking something in the line of…!"
While Nox and the palace lord were busy discussing how to turn the green palace into a very dramatic haunted castle, Aoi noticing Nox was distracted, quietly took his leave hoping this stroke of luck would last.
"A dark and ominous aesthetic perfect for a phantom to inhabit! I can already see myself brooding atop its spires with my cape fluttering in the wind!"
"Yeah, that's sounds nice! Now about the payment!"
"Of course, here you go!"
"Sweet! By the way, there is something I was wondering about?"
"Is there something the matter?"
"Just wondering why, you bailed on the grand finally I set up?"
"Excuse me?"
"Huh? Hey, where did Luti-Tuti go? Crap! Gotta go! See you later Phantom dude! Say hay to Riri for me!"
"Hey, wait! WHAT ABOUT MY PHANTOM CASTLE?"
"I'LL TAKE CARE OF IT LATER! BYE NOW! AND STAY MAGICAL!" Nox yelled as she flew off to search for the lieutenant general.
"Hm? It couldn't be, could it?"
As the green palace lord watched the magician fly off into the sunset, he stroked his chin with a pondering gaze.
He would later make plans to visit a certain alchemy fanatic who he would come to discover had been too embarrassed of his time as a magical girl and so had left the 2nd moon without telling his boss about the optional final performance like he was supposed to do.