From Trash to Their King

The Beginning of his Era

The blinding gleam of gold trade bars reflected off the deep, dark shadow silk of Kelvin’s robes. He stood at the edge of the cavernous vault, his mind numb, listening to the heavy, expectant silence that followed the Kingmaker’s question.

“When should we begin planning your grand coronation as our new King?”

The words hung in the subterranean air, thick and suffocating. Behind the ancient old man, a dozen high ministers, imperial generals, and senior arch-mages remained bent at the waist.

Kelvin took a slow, deliberate step backward, pulling his eyes away from the glittering hills of gold and platinum sigils. He looked down at his clean, bandaged hands that, just twelve hours ago, were bleeding from scrub-brush bristles.

“I haven't said yes” Kelvin spoke, his voice sharp enough to cut through the vault's ambient hum.

The Kingmaker slowly raised his head, a flicker of polite confusion crossing his aged face, “Your Highness? The sacred prophecy is absolute. The Primeval Zero-Seal upon your back…”

“I don't care about your prophecy” Kelvin interrupted, stepping toward the stone spiral staircase.

 “Three months ago, I was dragged across cold stone and locked in a damp cellar simply because I didn't possess any magical power. I was beaten until I coughed blood for the crime of breathing your air” he bitterly lamented 

“Sire, those were misguided fools who…” the Kingmaker tried to interject, rising slightly.

“Let me finish” Kelvin snapped, turning his gaze onto the old man.

“ust this afternoon, I begged your Arch-Mage for three copper coins of my own earned wages so I wouldn't starve to death in the woods, do you know his answer? Strip me naked and tie me to a pillar to be whipped until my skin tore open”

The ministers flinched beneath the cold intensity of his gaze

“You don't want me,You don't care about the guy forced to eat rotten scraps off the floor. You want a tattoo and a vault full of dead men's gold. If those void beasts had crushed my skull this morning, you would have swept my bones into the slop-pits” Kelvin said softly, his voice dropping into a hard, unforgiving register

“Yiur highness,The realm has been fractured for three centuries! The noble houses are corrupt, the void-rifts are widening, and the academy has become a playground for ruthless aristocrats! Without the Sovereign of Zero to claim the throne, the entire continent will crumble” The Kingmaker stepped forward, his serene composure cracking into desperate urgency. 

“Then let it burn” Kelvin said flatly.

Gasps echoed through the cavern. Several arch-mages exchanged horrified glances, clutching their robes, but none dared speak.

“Your Highness, please! The people need a ruler, the royal court…” Minister Vane, a rotund man in silver robes, fell to his knees

“The royal court didn't give a damn when I was bleeding on the academy tiles, Minister? Where was the royal court when Noah used my face for target practice? Where was the Kingmaker when Dean Martins laughed while I was thrown to monsters?” Kelvin cut him off, eyeing the man coldly.

The Kingmaker lowered his head, his voice trembling, “We were blind, Sire. We did not know the Core had awakened. But now that you are here…”

“If I take this crown, it won't be as your helpless puppet or a trophy to fix your broken world while the nobles drink fine wine in their towers. The rules change entirely, everything changes. Starting with the ones who made my life a living hell” Kelvin stepped closer to the old man, his eyes burning with quiet fury,

A sharp, dangerous smile slowly touched the Kingmaker’s thin lips. He bowed even lower than before, pressing his forehead almost to the stone, “Command us, Your Royal Highness,The imperial army, the treasury, the royal executioners, and the laws of this land are yours. Tell us, where shall your reign begin?” The Kingmaker whispered in solemn reverence. 

“Call the carriage,we're going back to the Academy” Kelvin commanded coldly, turning his back on the vault.

The obsidian-black hovering carriage glided silently through the towering gates of the Academy of Arcane Arts. Escorted by fifty imperial guards on flying griffins, the grand vessel came to a halt in the center of the main courtyard the exact spot where, just hours prior, Kelvin had been bound and stripped for execution.The entire student body had been summoned to the yard by royal order. Hundreds of noble students stood shivering in the cool evening air, whispered panic rippling through their ranks. Near the front stood Noah, his broken jaw heavily bandaged, flanked by a pale Alaric, Seraphina, and Chloe.

At the head of the crowd, Dean Martins knelt on the damp stone, his fine crimson robes ruined with dirt, sweating profusely despite the breeze. The carriage door opened and the Kingmaker stepped out first, holding his crystal-capped staff.

“Presenting the Sovereign of Zero, the Royal Heir of the Imperial Realm. All bow!” the Kingmaker’s voice boomed, amplified by magic to carry across the entire mountain peak.

Like dominoes falling, hundreds of arrogant mages slammed their knees into the hard stone. Noah gritted his teeth, tearing at his bandages as he was forced down by an imperial guard's heavy hand, then, Kelvin stepped down from the carriage.

He wore no rags, no stained apron, no cleaner's smock. Draped in weightless shadow-silk, the black lotus brooch gleaming against his chest, he walked with calm, measured steps across the courtyard. He stopped directly in front of Dean Martins.

“Look at me, Dean” Kelvin said quietly.

Martins slowly lifted his face, his eyes bloodshot, his lips trembling.

“M-Master Kelvin, Your Royal Highness. I have assembled the entire academy as requested. We await y-you-your gracious judgment”

“Gracious?” Kelvin let out a short, humorless laugh

 “Is that what you called it when you threw me to the Shadow-Stalkers, Martins? Was that gracious judgment?” He added, with smirk escaping from his lips 

“I was blind! I was ignorant,I thought you were a mere non-magical pest, a jinx. If I had known…”

Martins pleaded, tears spilling down his wrinkled cheeks, “if you had known I was powerful, you would have bowed because to you, weak people aren't human, instead they're trash to be kicked into the woods” Kelvin interrupted coldly, then turned his gaze toward Noah and Alaric, who flinched beneath his shadow.

“Noah” Kelvin called out.

Noah swallowed hard, his voice muffled behind his medical wraps, “Y-Yes your Highness?”

“Step forward”

Noah scrambled to his feet on shaking legs, shuffling until he stood three paces from Kelvin. He kept his eyes glued to the ground, utterly stripped of his former pride.

Three months ago, you dropped a jar of glowing ink on the library floor. You told me if I didn't lick it clean off your boots, you'd burn my fingers off with fire magic. Do you remember that?” Kelvin said, his tone conversational

Noah’s face drained of every drop of color, “I... I was foolish, Sire! I was an arrogant child but please, have mercy”

“And you, Seraphina, you used a breeze spell to blow dirty water from the gutters all over my clean clothes every morning for a week because you thought my reactions were amusing” Kelvin looked over Noah's shoulder at the pale noble girl.

Seraphina let out a muffled sob, burying her face in her hands as Chloe shrank away beside her.

“I didn't forget a single day,”Kelvin said, turning back to the Kingmaker, who stood patiently behind him. 

“Kingmaker” he called

“I am at your command, Your Highness” the old man replied instantly.

“What is the penalty for abusing, starving, and attempting to execute the Sovereign of the Realm?”

The Kingmaker’s violet eyes hardened into chips of ice, “Treason against the Crown, Sire. The legal penalty is the complete forfeiture of all noble titles, the total seizure of house assets, and public execution by the royal headsman”

A collective wave of horror washed through the courtyard. Several noble students fainted on the spot. Noah fell to his knees again, weeping openly through his broken jaw, “no pleasez have mercy” 

“Mercy?” Kelvin repeated the word, tasting it on his tongue. He looked down at Dean Martins, then at Noah, Alaric, and the terrified crowd. 

“When I begged on these very stones for three copper coins money I earned through honest sweat, did any of you show me mercy but I won't execute you” Kelvin said after a long thought.

Noah gasped, a desperate glint of hope lighting up his eyes, “Thank you! Thank you, Your Highness”

“I didn't say you were forgiven but execution is too quick. Starting today, this Academy is no longer a school for mages, It is royal property, under my direct command” Kelvin cut him off, his voice dropping into a chilling register.

He looked at Dean Martins, “Martins, you are hereby stripped of your position as Arch-Mage and Dean”

Martins gasped, clutching his chest, “Sire, my life's work…”

“You are now the head groundskeeper. You will sweep the obsidian halls every morning at dawn. If I find a single speck of dust, you don't eat for the day. Just as you treated me” Kelvin continued coldly.

Martins looked utterly crushed, but he slammed his forehead back against the cold stone, “I... I obey, Your Royal Highness”

Kelvin turned his attention to Noah, Alaric, Seraphina, and Chloe, “As for the four of you, your noble titles are stripped. Your families' allowances to this academy are revoked. You will serve as the academy's new cleaners under Martins' supervision. You will scrub the latrines, haul the heavy mana-pylons, and sleep in the drafty tool sheds”

“You can't do this!” Alaric blurted out in desperation, before an imperial guard struck him in the back with the butt of a spear, forcing him back down.

“I can,” Kelvin said softly, stepping closer to Alaric and looking down at him, then continued, “Because everything in this realm belongs to me now and if any of you attempt to flee, or if you slacks off on your duties, the Kingmaker’s executioners will be waiting at the gates”

Kelvin turned back toward his grand hovering carriage, his shadow-silk robes snapping gently in the wind.

“Kingmaker” Kelvin said as he climbed back into the luxurious vehicle.

“Yes, Sire”

“Post the royal guards at every entrance. Make sure our new cleaners get straight to work. They have three months of missed labor to catch up on” Kelvin instructed calmly 

“It shall be done exactly as you command, Your Royal Highness” the Kingmaker bowed deeply as the carriage doors clicked shut.

Kelvin leaned back against the plush velvet seat, looking out the dark crystal window at the mages who had once tormented him, now scrambling to find brooms in the dark. The era of his suffering was over. The reign of the Sovereign had officially begun.