They looked into his eyes.

His irises were like grand treasures. Rubies were like dull colored stones and gold was but pyrite in his presence. Tales of hidden treasures buried and myths of tremendous wealth could not match the splendor poets try to describe the emperor eyes. The scelera of his eyes, unblemished white. It's said even heaven's purity could not compare. Contrasting the seraphic white was his cold coiling pupils. They were like black holes, abysses that swallowed all light. Their lord's eyes were focused on them. Sharp and penetrating. Striking their defenses, resonating fear through their body, resonating fear through their heart, and resonating fear through their very souls. Their stronghold of strength and security, broken and looted. There was nothing left to protect them. No sword to fight. No shield to defend. They were helpless as he stood in front of them. They could do little save cower in fear and await their fate.

The blonde noble borne with a silver spoon in his mouth, had everything given to him on a silver platter. Wealth, health, and beauty that make all the ladies melt. He had it all...and he would've traded these away if he could get away from the man his kingdom answered to.

It would be a lie to say that the Azulian prince was not afraid of Lord of Rouge, yet as there was fear, he was also awe of the fearful man. A reverence to the emperor's power. True, the prince was a capable person. His strength and agility was great, but that was on a individual level. His city, Azul, only thrived due to his advisors. It was not of his own doing. The blue prince knew his ability to lead paled in comparison to the red lord. And yet, it was not abilities that the prince coveted, it was a man.

The Lord of Rouge's power over this man was tremendous. And this man's power over the Azulian Prince was tremendous. The prince could only bow to the Red Ruler out of diplomatic reasons...and personal ones.

The stray. A lowly born peasant with no social standing. Abandoned as a child when his parents grew tired of caring for a sickly worthless son. His fate would have been to roam the corners of society, begging for scraps and stealing to live. But his fate changed on a moonless night when he proved his abilities in front his now liege. He rose in rank quickly and became the right-hand man of the most powerful man on the continent, if not their world. When his fate changed, he vowed that he would never betray his King, but now his iron oath, broken, and his loyalties...questioned. Rather live, he would take death to atone for his sins. How could he bear to face his majesty?

And they stood in a timeless eternity. Infinite years. In reality, it was almost 4 years since they first looked into his eyes since the last chapter.

It was really just seconds. Long silent harrowing seconds. The seconds that torture the souls and silent crying that your soul makes as you writhe in agony as you wait. The anger that boils and burns as you are stripped of your pleasures. A resentment filling in your heart and squeezes your chest. Your disappointment growing as you're forced to wait in an unknowing limbo. As time ticks away, each passing second decreasing your hope. The darkness creeps in, ready to extinguish your desire to continue. These are the seconds you waited.

And your waiting ends.

Akashi spoke.

The silence finally lifted.

"I hope that you all will join me at dinner tonight."

Akashi looked at them. A cruel smile.

And he walked passed them. The empty halls echoed his firm footsteps. The light streamed through the windows to illuminate his path. His men, frozen in their place, could only hear their lord's footsteps grow fainter and fainter until it was completely gone.

All three men fell to the floor. They let out their breath and gasped for air.

"Damn! I got caught up in ankle break again!" Aomine slammed his fists on the floor and got up. He reached out his hand to Kuroko.

Kuroko didn't move. He just sat where he fell. His eyes empty and listless. His head tilted down towards the floor and his arms on his knees.

Unable to take anymore silence, Kises let out a nervous laugh,"Haha, since Akashiichi just asked us to join him for dinner, do you think we have to join him?"

"You dolt," Aomine retorted, "Of course we're gonna have to go see him."

"But I thought it was just a request?!" Kise cried. "And don't call me an idiot! I'm a noble from Gelb."

Aomine facepalmed himself and smirked," Gelb's future looks pretty dim with you in charge."

"You're one to speak!" Kise wailed "You let your advisers handle everything while you go out to play in the city!"

Both men got up, ready to fight. Rude comments turned into yelling, and the yelling turned into a fist fight. Although both men was not able to land a punch on the other, their clothes were all disheveled and both the noble from Gelb and the prince from Azul looked more like ruffians than respectable men.

By the time their testosterone died down, they realized they were alone. Kuroko had left without them.

"Shit!" Aomine shouted, "Look what you've done!"

"What I've done?" Kise yelled back "It was cause you were being disrespectful to me and my countrymen!"

"I need to go find Tetsuya," Aomine started to shuffle his clothes back from disarray.

"Well, I also need to go talk to Kurokocchi!" Kise returned as he shifted his clothes too.

Both men raced down the hallway, both trying to get in front of the other, shoving and pushing each other like children.

Kuroko sat at the corner of the kitchen. He was quietly sipping his tankard of his favorite vanilla drink [no straw cause it hasn't been invented yet]. Obviously, Kuroko was oblivious to the fight that had gone on upstairs in the hallways since he left when the nobility started throwing insults at each other like peasants with a rude upbringing.

The sweet drink brought him a calming relief. Despite the kitchen bustling with activity in preparation for tonight's dinner, he felt quite cozy as he was nestled in the corner, sipping his favorite drink. Of course, his thoughts turned to Akashi and his flower. That was the immediate problem.

Akashi was already unpredictable as a person. However, he had always been reasonable in his rulings. Now that he was under the influence of "love," he may be even more so erratic. "Erratic." Never such a word would be used to describe Akashi. Even his latest action of inviting everyone to dinner was relatively normal. Akashi had acted as he always been, although there seemed to be a different atmosphere about him. If he was to described it, it looked as if Akashi was more-

"Hey, Can I sit down here?" A panting voice interrupted his thoughts. Kuroko looked up. It was Takao. Kuroko nodded and took another sip of vanilla drink.

Takao plopped down on a chair next to Kuroko and let out a large sigh. Kuroko didn't say anything and continued to sip his drink. Takao took this silence as a cue to start talking.

"So Shin-chan and I was going down the hallway and he was going on and on about how we have to prepare for ceremonies and stuff when suddenly Akashi suddenly appeared at the other end of the hallway! It's like he was a ghost. Well, he scared us like one. Shin-chan almost sh-"

"TAKAO!"

The tell-tale voice of the Archbishop rang out in the room. All the kitchen staff stopped and turned to the man, bowed their heads and resumed their activities. A silent blip in the tumultuous noise immediately forgotten. Nothing short of the Manor Lord will stop them from their work.

Midorima joined the duo in the kitchen corner.

"This is where you were! Do you realize how many things we have to do today!? We have to do all we can to prepare for the Michealmas ceremony! We need to take out the scrolls, make sure they are in perfect condition, read through them, make sure there are no faults..."

Takao stuck one finger in his ear as the archbishop droned on and on about preparations. Kuroko continued to quietly sip his vanilla drink.

This went on for several minutes. "We need to make sure we have enough candles to last us the entire ceremony and they must be of the highest quality of fats...blah blah blah each must be the exact same size as one another. We'll need to check if there will be enough accommodations for the people when they..." On and on Midorima went and finally finished with his mantra, "Man proposes, God disposes."

"Yeah, yeah, we have to do everything we can...so Shin-chan..." Takao lazily said.

"Stop calling me Shin-chan!" Midorima then continued on another tirade how he is to be respected and respected does not call for impertinent nicknames. The acolyte just nodded his head and the other man continued to quietly sip at his drink.

The trio was then interrupted by two noisy nobles as they cut across the kitchen. The kitchen staff did not even bother stopping. There was too much work to be done and two more entitled persons made no difference.

"Found you!" Both nobles proclaimed as they reached the corner, comically still trying to shove the other away.

"Tetsu, why'd you go!? Aomine exclaimed, "I was looking all over for you!"

"It's WE, we were looking all over for you Kurokocchi!" Kise argued. Both men looked like druken slobs.

Finally, the man in question stopped sipping his drink and said, "I went to get a vanilla milkshake. It's delicious."

Takao bursted into laughter. Midorima just shifted his glasses up and gave a disapproving look.

The noble pair collapsed onto the floor. They seemed exhausted.

"We almost ran into Akashiichi again." Kise mentioned as he was collecting his breath. "Murasakibaracchi was with him."

"We did not see Akashi with Murasakibara when he approached us and invited us to dine with him tonight," Midorima noted.

"You got invited too, Takao-san?" Kuroko perked up at this information. This was not ordinary. Usually, dinners with Akashi only involved the highest ranking officiers and nobles.

"Yeah! I'm super nervous about it actually. I'm really hoping that he doesn't sentence me to death," Takao said with a nervous laugh.

"This is... unexpected." murmered Kuroko. This dinner must be related to his flower if he's has extended an invitation to the acolyte.

"I am assuming that he has also invited Aomine and Kise to this dinner?" Midorima asked. He was curious to know who else Akashi had invited to this impromptu dinner. A strange invitation since Akashi himself came to ask. Usually a messenger was sent or Kuroko. But this time, Akashi was the one who came and sought him out.

"Yeah, we got invited," Aomine scratched his head. "Looks like we can't avoid him." Aomine stood up and dusted himself off. He didn't want to look uncouth in front of Kuroko.

"You don't think he'll execute us... do you, Kurokocchi?" The yellow noble whimpered like a puppy. "I can't die! My people need me!" Kise jumped up, pumped up by the adrenaline rushing through.

"I think your people would do fine without an idiot like you," quipped the blue prince.

"Hey!" Kise turned himself to Aomine. The flames of hostility ignited once again... but was quickly extinguished when Kuroko spoke.

"I may be executed tonight." Kuroko spoke in matter-of-fact voice.