[RPG] [BT] End of a Tyrant: Removal of a Burden

[Dominic]

Louis-Joseph was shuffling through papers, filling out forms, signing
documents. "What good's a bureaucracy if there's no one there to lead it",
he though. The boxes with the copies of everything he overlooked since he
arrived in the city were starting to take alot of space, "and there's alot
left to do."

---

A messenger came into his room, hesitently. "Sir...?" he asked, timidly, but
Louis-Joseph was too focused on his work.

He came a little closer, and spoke a little louder, but was clearly
uncomfortable. "Sir...?" he asked again. Louis-Joseph heard his name in the
background, but as he was doing a few calculations the thought quickly faded
from memory.

The messenger came next to Louis-Joseph, and passed him a document with the
royal seal of Fwuvoghor.

-"What's this!?!", he asked, suspiciously. "Why would Fwuvoghor ever send me
a letter!"

-"News from your brother, sir." The messenger paused, and continued
carefully: "He... died, sir. Jean-Olivier Chénier, your brother, the King of
Fwuvoghor, has been defeated in battle... No one was there to save him... he
quickly fell from his wounds, they say..."

---

Louis-Joseph was stunned. "Jean... is... dead...?" The thought seemed so
umprobable... The man had survived, even thrived, so long with so many
ennemies... "He was much stronger than I..."

He pulled out a knife and unsealed the documents, about the right volume for
the appropiate papers. They seemed real... And the kingdom <b>had</b>
elected a new monarch... He just stared for minutes without end... it was
all so much, he didn't know what to feel, he was confused.

---

He felt angry. A Chénier had been slain, his own blood had been attacked...
"The family", he thought. "I have yet again fallen from graces, I am but a
knight, shuffling these unending supplies of papers to deal with these
ever-discontent serfs. Jean... He brought us power, he brought us influence.
However he pulled it off, he had been the only one to keep a relatively
steady influence, it was Fwuvoghor after all... With him in the background,
somewhere, doing whatever it is he did... atleast we knew for certain that
would be an army that would never harm us... He was getting frustrated, he
paced around the room. He felt so vulnerable...

---

The feeling dissapated though. "He was a scandal...", he muttered as he
stopped pacing and stood in the middle of the room, alone. "He was
insulting, he was trouble. He was dangerous, he brought us ennemies. He was
savage, uncivilized." He wasn't even sure anymore that his brother would
have been willing to even lift a finger to help him in times of dire need.
"They look at me and see him, I am judged by the actions and words of a
madman, I am cast apart, distrusted. Because of him, and his murderous
ambitions, his heart dark as coal."

"Now, perhaps, I can live without his ghost haunting me. It has been almost
a year since I last spoke to him, but forever his shadow loomed over me,
frightening or disgusting others. Now, perhaps, people will no longer summon
his name to disgrace mine, I shall be judged by my merits and mine alone."

He sighed with relief. "Killed by monsters... Good... I need not avenge my
kin, then, if this is the case. He can truly be buried and forgotten.

---

On the bottom of the document, where the ceremony details should be, there
was but a little notice: "details to come in seperate document".
Louis-Joseph was annoyed at this, he found it disrespectful.

The dark god of destruction and vengeance had been with Jean-Olivier all
this time, but as he had just found out, the dark gods grant weapons to
strike others, not armours to protect yourself and others. That day, a god
or goddess had probably simply entertained himself or herself by throwing an
overwhelming foe on Jean-Olivier's path. May his blood have pleased the
gods...
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