Dealing with the aftermath of Oswald's death and Cathal's heroic "sacrifice" was... tiresome to say the least. In short, Ashoka had not been given the luxury of sleeping peacefully for the next two nights.
The first thing that Eldrin and he had to deal with was Cathal's punishment. For whatever reasons, the Hand of Order had made it so the king could only impart his judgement on anyone marked a traitor face-to-face, which meant Eldrin had to travel all the way to where the fight had taken place.
Shortly after the Hand of Order had made its judgement, the awakened proxy had explained to them the circumstances behind Cathal and Corvin's actions. Eldrin was unsurprisingly devastated by the news of his uncle's death, but it also seemed as if a heavy burden had been taken off his shoulders. Ashoka had initially expected him to act at least a bit petty, but he had almost immediately forgiven Cathal for his actions.
Of course, that wasn't what surprised him the most; instead, it was Cathal. As it turned out, unlike Ashoka and Eldrin, no one in Casamir really knew how the Brass pillar actually functioned. To them, it was mysterious and elusive, and since no prince had been murdered by someone before in the history of Casamir, the two ascended had thought that killing one would result in immediate execution.
This meant that things were quite awkward when Eldrin finally arrived to free Cathal from the mystical confinement. The place was crowded by curious but tense onlookers. Some people used to live there but had run away when the furious fight reached near their house, and only now had they found the courage to return.
By the time Eldrin had arrived at the site, Oswald's corpse had already disappeared. Ashoka knew that he wasn't in a right enough state to see his uncle's dead body, so he had ordered someone to wrap and take away his corpse to the royal palace, where it would be preserved and prepared for a private funeral. Ashoka did not think it would be a wise decision to publicly mourn the death of a well-known mass murderer.
Then, it came the time for Eldrin to pass his judgement on Cathal. Originally, he had wanted to entirely forgive him, considering the circumstances, but eventually, Ashoka managed to convince Eldrin to give him a symbolic punishment at the very least, not something harsh. In the end, they came up with something that might just pass as a holiday for the ascended.
Right, as it turned out, true to the reputation of a government force, for the army of this constantly besieged kingdom, most of its Ascendeds were always overworked to oblivion, similar to the government of the waking world. Ashoka almost wanted to laugh, but he couldn't in the face of the crowd.
At last, Eldrin's final judgment was given. The heaven shone for a short second before finally going dark completely, as if the ancient deity had gone back to its slumber, and although the young king didn't know yet, this small decision was going to snowball into an avalanche pretty soon.
Shortly after the large crowd around the district was forcefully dispersed, the news from Corvin's side finally reached them, and it wasn't good news, quite the opposite instead.
In the end, Corvin had been too late. By the time he had arrived, the Fallen Demon had already made a wreck of the entire house, leaving nothing of the building standing. Ashoka hadn't seen the light of hope disappear from a man's eyes faster before.
Because Ashoka had taken his sweet time dripping the blood throughout Cathal's house, the abomination had also taken its sweet time rampaging through the house. This made it seem as though the abomination had eaten Cathal's entire family, who should have been sleeping at that time or had only woken up a few minutes ago. As for the lack of a corpse or any bloodshed, those who knew enough about the abomination's tribe and their characteristics would quickly come to a series of false assumptions.
The Fallen Demon could basically use its wide, trunk-like maw to swallow an entire human without leaving a single drop of blood, and its stomach, which was made to dissolve hard rocks and dense minerals in a matter of minutes, could definitely dissolve a human body in mere moments as well.
In reality, though, the mother-daughter duo were safely residing in a warehouse a kilometer away from their house. Meredith would definitely be scared for her husband's fate, so Ashoka promised himself to give them a visit the next day to assure her.
Of course, in the end, the fruits of this particular setup of his would not be ripe until Gaius and his cohort returned from their expedition.
Not knowing what to do, Ashoka and Eldrin lingered for a few more minutes before eventually deciding to return to the palace with the Ascended escorting them. The awakened proxy, though, decided to stay with the still grieving Cathal.
A few hours later, the sun rose over the horizon of Casamir, and dawn finally washed over the land. Ashoka, though, was not fortunate enough to get sleep during the night. That was because he was too busy performing his duty as the king's advisor.
'Gods, i hope this doesn't become a constant in my life...'
Eldrin was supposed to address the entire population of Casamir that noon, talking about what had transpired with Oswald and what was going to happen, but since Eldrin was still too young, it fell to Ashoka to design the entire speech.
That was quite ironic, considering Ashoka was more of an outsider and knew less about anything within Casamir than even Eldrin himself.
Eventually, noon passed as well, and Eldrin gave his speech at the capital city center. Ashoka stood behind him, watching as the crowd stirred around them with unease.
Soon after the speech, though, quiet rumors began to spread throughout the kingdom, speaking of what had transpired behind closed doors when the prince was reaping lives far away.
They spoke of the young king, who had not long ago punished his very uncle, now refusing to stop and punish him further when he had gone on a bloody rampage, forsaking the citizens of his kingdom.
They also spoke of the same boy who had helped punish Prince Oswald in court, once again standing in front of the king, convincing him to stop his uncle's rampage. Not only that, but when the furious king had appeared to punish Ascended Cathal for his crime, they said that it was the same boy that convinced him to forgive the Ascended.
These rumors were false, distorted, and most of all exaggerated and not showing the full picture of the situation, but regardless, they spread like wildfire, and that was because they were intentionally spread by Gaius's men in order to paint Eldrin's image in a darker shade for the people of the kingdom.
Well, at least the first section of rumors was. Ashoka did not know how his own name appeared in there, but it was a welcome development nonetheless. His best guess, though, was that they started because he had accompanied Eldrin to the district where Oswald had died, and the crowd had seen his face, and that, coupled with his recent reputation because of the court case, caused these rumors to form.
Even then, whenever Ashoka heard them, he felt nothing but shame and guilt... He knew the true picture after all, and in reality, he was no hero here...
But still, the one hurt the worst by them was Eldrin, as the rumors reached the palace by next morning.
Perhaps that was why Eldrin suddenly mumbled something out of the blue.
"The people hate me now."
Ashoka slowly looked up, confusion written over his face.
"What?"
Eldrin slowly moved his legs over the bed, shifting through the pages of the book on his lap. He lingered for a second before running a finger around the Crown's rim on his head.
"Their despise towards me is growing... I can feel it through the crown, also because all my powers from the Crown are disappearing..."
Ashoka stayed silent, not knowing what to say. After some time, he opened his mouth.
"Rumors are just rumors; don't mind them too much. They'll disappear soon anyways."
Eldrin did not respond, instead posing a question.
"Tell me, Ashoka, just how bad of a king am I?"
Ashoka couldn't help but frown when he heard that.
'It seems his confidence was shaken because of the rumors.'
He carefully thought of an answer. At first, he wanted to say something comforting, like how he would've done the same thing in his situation, but he quickly stopped himself. Eldrin had most likely already heard that a thousand times over by now, so he decided to be more truthful. The boy didn't seem to be looking for comfort anyways.
"You are too young to be a king. Too naive."
Eldrin looked up at him darkly.
"Everyone I've met till now has said the same thing once, one way or another. You're one of them now as well."
Ashoka's smile faltered.
'Damn me and my cursed luck!'
After thinking for a second, he changed his words. "What I meant to say is you are too weak, which is basically a package deal with being young. Your words don't really hold any power without the weight of the Crown, so it is hard for people to respect you and your decisions."
Eldrin looked at him silently. Then, as if a bulb had lit up over his head, his eyes widened. "That's right, Ashoka, you are a genius! Of course, I should try to form my soul core! Tsk, how hadn't I thought of it myself..." He paused, suddenly suspicious. "Wait. Is that why you're always so calm? Do you already have one?"
'What?!'
"No."
"Then how are you so calm?!"
'Um... Because the alternative is screaming.' Ashoka kept his thoughts to himself, and said instead, "Years of disappointment has build my character."
Eldrin considered this with the gravity of a king weighing a treaty. "That's stupid."
"Yes."
He paused for a second. "Actually, I'm surprised you hadn't tried it yourself already, considering you have all the resources."
Eldrin gave him a bright smile. "Actually, I had asked Uncle Alariv once before, and he had promised he would help me after my 15th birthday. So, I had basically forgotten about it all."
All the mirth slowly drained from Ashoka's face at the mention of Alariv. He slowly lowered his head.
"I see."
No one spoke after that, both lost in their own thoughts. Time passed slowly.
Then finally, as dusk arrived, news reached the palace that Gaius and his cohort had returned from the dangerous expedition, victorious.