Amelia and Ophelia: The Former Grand Duchess and Saintess.

Standing on the deck of the ANS Kingsmaker, the flagship war galleon of the 2nd Armada stationed on Pattu Island just south of the capital island, was the admiral of the fleet, Fleet Admiral Narn. An old demonkin who had seen the kingdom through its ups and downs, the oldest demonkin currently alive and staunch monarchist and supporter of King Alfonsis and his fathers before him. Narn has lived a very eventful life as the Fleet Admiral of the entire Royal Navy of Amma, crushing rebellions, fighting pirates, and being a voice in the royal court in ensuring that his section gets funding for advancements in naval technology. Even the current warships of the navy were of his design and even the merchant ships too, replacing the small sloops that could barely go five knots, but these new galleons and war galleons were able to go a total of eight knots even ten under suitable conditions, he even helped pioneer the new Javelin Launchers that replaced the old tactics of just having mages on deck with archers and then getting in close on the enemy. 

Given the current situation of the kingdom, one would think that his faith in the throne would be shaking and his current loyalty would be those of the people currently in poverty and suffering, but the opposite has taken effect rather, as he firmly believes that it was the fault of the greedy nobles who had pushed the nation into this situation in the first place, as a former commoner himself, Narn had a very noticeable grudge against the nobles of the country even before becoming an officer, even now, he is a firm believer in King Alfonsis and will do anything his king commands him, regardless of the morality of the situation, and it seems that this is a shared belief across the military and navy in its entirety. 

"Haa...Another wonderful day" Narn remarked as he took a sip of his coffee, a smile on his elderly face as he stared up into the azure sky. 

"Sir, orders from the capital, we are to sail five nautical miles near the capital and hold position to await further orders. It seems the delegation from the new nation is on its way and is expected to arrive within the day, most likely in the afternoon near sundown" The second-in-command, a younger demonkin by the name of Captain Ilan stated as he handed his admiral a small paper detailing his orders 

"Hmm, understood. We have about forty to fifty ships here, muster half of them and leave the rest on standby, we sail within the hour" Narn ordered as he placed the orders in his shirt pocket, finished his coffee in one go and then walked off the bridge and into the cabin 

"Understood sir!" Captain Ilan saluted as he then turned to the rest of his officers awaiting his orders 

"Order half the ships to begin preparations to set sail within the hour, leave the rest on standby, hope to it immediately!" Ilan barked 

"Sir yes sir!" His officers nodded as they ran around and set about their duties 

The sounds of crews hollering, grunting and the sounds of equipment being moved around on the decks of the ships filled the air of the naval base as they set out to fulfill the orders given, to them it was going to be another busy day, but had no idea just how busy it was going to be. 

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Meanwhile, on a balcony of the Royal Castle, Crown Prince Viktor and General Trochius were sharing a smoke as they looked out into the vast sea spanning the horizon before them. 

"Trochius, is everything prepared?" Viktor asked as he removed his smoking pipe and turned his gaze to the general 

"Yes Your Highness, the army is in position across the city and is hidden, if the delegation tries anything to escape, we will stop them from doing so, if they try to fight us, we will crush them, there is no reason to be alarmed and afraid. In fact, I believe that this day will go swimmingly, so banish those doubts Your Highness and hold your head up high, the fate of the kingdom depends on your ability to win over the visiting monarchy and unite their empire with our dying nation" Trochius replied with gusto and a beaming confidence in the prince beside him 

"Thank you Trochius, your may report back to my father" Viktor replied with a nod as he placed his pipe back in his mouth and turned his gaze back out to sea 

"Of course Your Highness, just call if you need anything else" Trochius said with a bow before he turned around and left. 

With Trochius gone from the balcony, Viktor let out a sigh as he finally relaxed. He had gone for a few days without having some sweet time with the local noble girls' thanks to them being banished with his sister to that goddess-forsaken prison, he wasn't even allowed to visit them due to his father's orders. He was even forced by his father to stop taking pleasure drugs, alcohol, and constant sex that he had been getting from said nobles, with the withdrawal of that high becoming apparent as he was finally thinking clearly after a long while. His junkie habits and attitude came to be as a response to try and drown out the feelings of losing his mother and had not only made him a constant playboy but had clouded his decision-making, with him now realizing that he was not fit to be a ruler and that the situation the kingdom was facing was now very dire. Something he and his father were ill-equipped to handle given the circumstances and their own attitudes toward the situation. 

"sigh...FUCK!" Viktor cursed as he threw the smoking pipe on the wall behind him, his clarity giving way to emotions he tried to suppress with his constant drug usage, sex, and alcoholism 

"Fuck! Shit! Dammit!" He continued as he slammed his fist down on the balcony railing multiple times, his anger and frustration on the whole situation spilling out. 

"We are so fucked! If I do not get this right, we are so fucking fucked!" He remarked as he facepalmed and paced back and forth on the balcony 

He then let out another long sigh as he sank to his feet and rested his back on the balcony railing, small tears in his eyes as he began to sob, the full weight of the situation crashing down on him like a hammer to a nail and his mind could not handle it. His thoughts harkened back to his sister, Toria, who despite his constant, high, drunkenness, and noticeable 'I don't give a fuck' attitude to everything, had tried to help him through everything, in the form of giving advice, doing his work for him, etc. With him being able to get away with this shit thanks to his father taking pity on him and seeing that the death of their mother messing up his mental state to a devastating degree. 

"Fucking hell Toria...is this what you were trying to prevent all this time?" He mumbled as he leaned his head back on the pillar railings and just sat there, his mind a mess 

After staying like that for a full two hours, Viktor then stood up and looked back out to see, his eyes catching something on the horizon, making him squint. He took a spyglass from the table near the door to the balcony and looked through it, his eyes widening as he saw the silhouettes of ships, ships he had never seen before flying a flag he did not recognize. His breathing became heavy as his mind finally clicked the pieces together and realized that was the delegation from the nation whose empress he was supposed to seduce and what's worse, they were earlier than he had expected, his heart began racing as he tried to handle the pressure coming onto him. 

He took a deep breath as he closed his eyes and tried to calm down, successfully doing so at least a tiny bit before he placed the spyglass down and turned to the door. If he could not seduce the empress, he was damned sure to try and be reasonable and try to find a middle ground, but if that could not be reached, the kingdom's dire situation called him to act with force as a necessity, something that made his mind hurt, rubbing it as he walked back into the castle 

"Fuck I need a drink" 

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Backtracking to two hours, right when Trochius had left the balcony. 

The moment the doors closed, Trochius dropped his smile and a disgusted and detestable expression formed on his face as his brows furrowed and he rubbed his forehead. 

"Goddess that was so fucking annoying" He mumbled under his breath as he rolled his eyes 

While on the surface, Trochius was a man loyal to the throne as commander of the entire military, he was in fact a two-faced snake who wanted nothing more than the downfall of the kingdom and its dissolution, with it being replaced by a military junta with him as the top dog. He had done a lot to get to this point, orchestrating the death of Queen Viktoria and making it look like an accident thanks to the nobles, miscommunication orders on multiple occasions to get the throne and the nobles to distrust and then hate one another, paying off noble girls to seduce, and make Crown Prince Viktor more and more addicted to sex, drugs and liquor, and then finally imprisoning the one person who could have sniffed out his deceit and threaten his plan, Princess Toria, on an island far from the capital. 

Originally, Trochius was part of a group of officers known as the 'Order Of The Hand' with five members just like a hand, but some mistakes on his end, allowed King Alfonsis to expose and kill the other members, with him being barely spared thanks to him wiping every trace of himself via faking his death and then coming back with a new face and identity. Once again rising through the ranks and becoming a general of the army, Now on his own, Trochius was keen on ensuring that his plans would be more discreet and successful, buying out the loyalty of his officers with funds he stole from the Royal Treasury that was supposedly to go to the people and to enhance the army. 

Now with everything going as planned, he had hit a small road bump, he did not account for a nation across the sea to be rapidly expanding and flourishing in such quick time that it attracted the attention of himself and the royals, he had sent several spies to report back on this new nation but each time the spy was sent, they came back headless or worse, not at all. What's worse is that they seemed to bring the promise of a new age for the kingdom, an age that he had no say in and an age that would thwart his plans and crush them, it may even expose him and his duplicitous behavior and treasonous actions. 

"To think the situation would turn out like this" He mumbled as he exited the castle and made his way to the military garrison base, 

Trochius was not going to just let shit happen however, his mind was already thinking of ways to sabotage this delegation and hopefully get the visiting monarch killed and make it look like it was the King and his son's fault, then swooping in like a hero and then claiming everything after the dust settled. It was a bold plan sure, but his bold plans from before had turned out quite well, so why not this right? 

"I swear, if you want it done right. You're gonna have to do it yourself" He mumbled as he flourished his sword inside his personal quarters, his mind settling on a course of action, 

His plan would be very simple really, cause the deaths of the visiting delegation via making his loyal soldiers attack them on their way to the castle, with the city filled with nothing but troops loyal to him, he would then storm said castle and kill Alfonsis and Viktor in a coup, then finally announce that the delegation had been murdered by the king, take credit in killing said king and then probably securing a deal with the other nation using his status as the avenger of the death of their monarch. 

"There is no way this will fail" He mumbled with glee as his crimson eyes glowed a nefarious glow 

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Inside his bedroom, King Alfonsis sighed as he looked up at the ceiling that held a portrait of him and his beloved Viktoria, She had come from a commoner family and had met him during their schooling days, she was a very talented woman who far exceeded what was thought to be possible by someone of her class and stature, she was good at almost everything, magic, hunting, academics and even using weapons, she was the dreamgirl for any in the academy, and she had just happened to like the one demonkin who was average at everything, Alfonsis. Despite him not being the best of the best, having average grades, average magic and even average skills, Viktoria had chosen him over everyone else who was objectively better, at first he thought it was because he was the crown prince to the throne, but after spending a lot of time together, it was because she treated her like normal, not out of wanting her because of her skills and looks like other people. She became a source of warmth and care for him and softened the self-centered ego that he had as compensation for his shortcomings. 

But ever since her death, nothing had been the same. His judgment had become cloudy and arrogant and despite him still showing great care and love for his kids, he did not really listen to them or try to talk to them properly. This was very much apparent when it came to Toria who Alfonsis saw as a woman who was throwing her life away by doing nothing and siding with the no-good nobles who had caused the death of her mother, his anger towards them spilling over into anger towards her and her attitude and sympathy for them. 

This clouded judgment, unknowingly to him, was also the reason why he could never decide on the simple short-term solutions proposed to him by the nobles of the kingdom, his mistrust and grudge against all nobles had been stopping him from doing anything good and it was something that he did not see. Instead, he justified this rage by repeatedly going on and on about how these supposed solutions were just another attempt by them to grab power from the throne and challenge him, Never once trying to understand where the opposition was coming from and always taking a hateful and defensive stance whenever his judgment was called into question. 

This blind hatred towards the nobles made him neglect his duties as king for the most part, as one of the strongest demonkin currently alive, he was not scared by threats of violence as he could easily overpower his enemies, this arrogant view of himself no longer smoothened out by his wife had made him unable to see the true things and danger happening around him, instead, creating a reputation built upon fear and strength, like when he ordered a massive purge on one of the islands after finding out they were planning an uprising with the help of a group known as the 'Order Of The Hand' making him personally kill the leaders of the group and then ordering the deaths of all on the island whether they were innocent or not. 

But it seems that this hateful rhetoric and ignorance of his surroundings finally caught up to him as his nation was now on the brink of collapse, as the economy was failing, materials needed to keep up the nation were drying out, and the populace was getting unruly. In his desperation, Alfonsis had arranged for a secret plan to force the visiting monarch of the Halkare Empire to marry his only son as a last-ditch attempt to save everything, he was banking on this one final solution and he was not going to take no for an answer. 

"My beloved Viktoria...please watch me from above" He muttered as he got to his feet, tears in his eyes he quickly wiped away before sitting down on a chair near the window 

{!} 

Suddenly, the door to his room swung open as Viktor barged in, his breathing was slightly ragged and the expression on his face was that of shock

"Father!" Viktor cried as he entered the room 

"Ay! Viktor, I told you not to barge in without knocking first no?! What is it?!" Alfonsis asked with an annoyed tone 

"Father, the delegation from the other nation has already arrived!" Viktor answered

"What?! Already?!" Alfonsis replied with wide eyes and a shocked expression 

"Yes Father, they were spotted on the horizon, they will be here probably with the next hour and a half" 

"Shit! Rally everyone, speed up the preparations now! I want everyone rushing and working their asses off got it!" Alfonsis barked 

"Yes Father right away!" Viktor nodded as he bolted out of the room 

When Viktor was out of sight and the door closed, Alfonsis sank his head into his hands as he let out a long and tired sigh, his brows furrowed as he rubbed his temple and placed an annoyed expression on his face. 

"By the Goddess, can anything else go wrong today?" 

A/N: And here we go! The second part of the Amma arc is now up and I must say, it felt good writing this chapter, I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I had writing it and if you have any comments or questions, leave them below for me to see and answer or react to. And as always Stay Safe and Enjoy Your Day!