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Lahabrea had once told him that he was a very patient man, and he had never had a reason to doubt his words.
It was only after months of continuously assessing the remote country at the north of Ilsabard, that Emet-Selch was confident that it would suffice in his plans to usher in a new calamity.
It was a relatively simple plan, elegant even: Take over the body of a young soldier and raise him through the ranks, becoming a celebrated war hero among the common folk and then take over the power of the senate thanks to the general populace support to turn this half-dead country into a war machine to advance the calamity.
He had even visualized a preliminary roadmap for the upcoming decade to guarantee his promotion by using the fuel ‘ceruleum’ that its abundant in the region and putting his millenia of experience to use by developing tactics in the battlefield to gain notoriety. The only thing he is missing now is a body.
To his good fortune, a patrol compromised of new recruits of the 5th Legion had met an untimely demise due to crossing paths with a pack of Almasties, the beasts having made short work of the inexperienced soldiers and leaving only one survivor: A young man of auburn hair no more than twenty summers, his face mangled beyond recognition and struggling to breathe and maintain consciousness due to the severe blood loss he is suffering, dyeing the white snow under him a deep crimson.
Emet-Selch couldn’t be more pleased with this find, the face disfigurement a welcome boon that meant that he could restructure the face of the soldier into one more to his liking and the close death experience could be used as a convenient explanation to justify any changes in his demeanor to any of his peers and superiors.
And he only needed to wait for the soldier to die. Truly fortuitous.
When the soldier’s soul finally leaves his body an hour after, Emet-Selch takes possession of the young man’s body before it finishes exhaling its last breath, slipping into it as if changing into a new pair of shoes… If said shoes were several sizes smaller than his.
He uses his limited knowledge in healing to somewhat patch the worst of the wounds of his new body, just enough to put this body out of any immediate risk of perishing and starts the painfully slow trek back to where he recalls one of the military bases was located, hoping that he might cross paths with another patrol before he does with another predator.
He gets lucky again as another patrol of new recruits finds him soon enough, undoubtedly having been dispatched after losing contact with the doomed patrol.
The last thing he was expecting however, was to find Azem’s reincarnation among those recruits.
It doesn’t takes him long to learn about both this body’s identity and about Azem’s.
His body was the only surviving son and heir of one of Garlemald’s great noble houses, while she is the third daughter and youngest child of a minor merchant house that opted to join the army as a gunbreaker over getting married.
His recovery is slow thanks to the lack of healing magics, but he uses the time it takes his body to fully heal to learn as much as he can from this country: History, geography, rankings, trading routes, politics and military structure. And when he has memorized as much as he can and he’s able to flawlessly copy the writing of his new vessel, he decides to deviate a little bit in his plan.
He writes Azem’s reincarnation a letter thanking her for saving him, showering her with praises and inviting her to join him for supper as his way of thanking her.
He shouldn’t be too surprised when her answer is a hastily scribbled note that explicitly tells him where to ‘shove his teacup’ up to.
A few inquiries later he finds out that his new body, Solus, previously used to be in her unit and that due to his carelessness a large cargo of weapons and ammunition had been ruined due to being left unprotected against a snowstorm.
Since his family it's one of the major contributors of the army, he couldn’t be held accountable without the Galvus family withdrawing the much needed funds from them, so the rest of his unit was instead punished in his stead for his mistake.
Well, that explains the problem.
It takes him some time to get back into Azem’s good graces since his first priority it's still the Rejoining, but outside of his superiors initially dismissing his opinions due to his ‘previous’ doormat personality, no significant problems arise: In only twenty months he has managed to distinguish himself as a brilliant tactician and strategist and rise all the way to tribunus angusticlavius, gaining the approval of almost everyone in the Garlean Military for his accomplishments.
Sadly, Azem remains among the few that still doubt Solus sas Galvus. She’s stubborn to a fault, no matter how many times she is reborn.
He redoubles his efforts: He is the picture of a perfect Garlean gentleman to her whenever they are not in duty and strict but fair when they are, never raising his voice or losing his temper against her despite her open disdain for him and always treats her with respect. He brings her little gifts that appeal to her tastes and slips poetry that he composes into the pockets of her heavy coat, listens to her complaints and concerns and takes them into consideration and when she requests a transfer to a different unit, he lets her go instead of keeping her a prisoner - He treats her as an equal and makes it clear to her and anyone around them.
His constant invitations to spend the evening together bear fruit when she agrees to a single outing where she demands that there is to be no physical contact between them whatsoever, yet it is she at the end of the night who rewards him with a single kiss to his cheek as she expresses her wish for future soirees like this.
Unsurprisingly, she accepts to marry him when he proposes a year later and the year after that, they welcomes to this world their son Lucius.
As a newly appointed Legatus, Solus van Galvus would use a large amount of the funding his newly formed legion received to begin the next phase of his plans - It is the year 1514 when he introduces his prototype for a Ceruleum engine powerful enough to enable a small carriage hover over the ground, sparking the beginning of what would later be known as the ‘Magitek Revolution’. The concept of the engine itself was a repurposed old Allagan engine modified to run without aetherplasm and to be much less powerful and efficient than its original inception so as to not raise suspicions about his true identity.
Then over the following years he ‘improves’ the design, producing the first of the Garlean airship fleet and enhancing the weaponry the army possesses, he then introduces Ceruleum-powered heating and illumination to the general populace, revamps the roads of the capital and funds out of his own pocket the development of personal ceruleum based vehicles for the civilians.
All of this only serves to win him the support of the Garlean people and to decrease the senate’s influence over them and before long, people clamor for him to lead them.
The year is 1517 when he is appointed the new Dictator of the Republic of Garlemald. One of his first acts is to subjugate the nation of Nhalmasque and show the rest of the star the strength of Garlemald: A warning to anyone who might dare to oppose him.
If he had known back then… Would he have done something different?
In 1522 the entirety of the northlands of Ilsabard are finally united under the Garlean flag: It is now the perfect time to move onto the next step.
He watches Azem urging both Lucius and his younger brother Titus to put their toys away and lightly scold them about causing ‘Papa’ to be late today while she wraps their scarves and covers them in their heavy coats and hats in preparation for leaving the house, sushing and picking up Titus when he fusses and whines about leaving the warmth of their home and taking Lucius hand in her own while guiding him out to where he is waiting for them and his chest swells in pride at the sight.
They are but the perfect picture of the family of the newly appointed Emperor of Garlemald - His family, he corrects himself.
The parade it's ostentatious, tacky and a waste of resources in his opinion, but the masses need the show in order to be eased into accepting their new Imperial system to become the pliant pawns he will need in the future for the next Umbral Calamity, so he bites his tongue and keeps the mask of Solus firmly in place.
Maybe it was because he mentally kept complaining about everything about this that he didn’t notice, while another part of his mind tells him that he couldn’t have predicted this happening due to all the security that surrounded them and yet another part chastises himself over getting too comfy with his surroundings despite what he is.
It all happens too quickly: The vehicle where he and his family are pulls over in front of the Palatium Novum, a guard opens the door of the vehicle for him to step out and he takes a second, only a second to help Azem climb out of it and she smiles in gratitude at him with one of those smiles that he swears make the sun seem dull. There is the distant sound of a rifle shot, a whistle and then his face is bathed in warmth while Azem slumps over in his arms.
It’s only after he hears the first shriek from somewhere in the public that his mind starts working again and the smell of iron assaults his sense of smell, realizing with horror that the warmth pouring down his face is what remains of Azem. He doesn’t get the chance of doing anything before the guard from before shoves him back into the vehicle next to his sons, who are bawling and screaming in fear.
The assassin it's found less than a minute later: A Doman soldier with nothing to lose who took his own life before allowing himself to be caught.
The people immediately rally behind him and demand retaliation against the nation of Doma, the army sees thousands of new recruits sign in the days that follow and the streets are filled with people donning black in mourning.
He doesn’t even needs to don the mask of Solus, his grief and pain is as real as it can get and he wastes no time preparing the outline for the attack against Doma.
It would take him thirty years but in the end, his Empire would crush the Othardian nation like an insect under his boot and pay unto them a hundred times the pain they caused him because at the end of this, she still died due to his carelessness and he has no idea if her soul it’s still drifting through the Underworld or if she has already been reborn somewhere.
It doesn’t matters: It might take him another hundred, thousand years but he and his colleagues will finish what they started and recover their lost paradise and return their kin to them, he will eventually reunite with Azem and Hythlodaeus and will drop unto his knees and beg for their forgiveness if he needs to because he is not blind and knows his hands are soaked in the blood of countless and he is willing to wait for another thousand, thousand lifetimes for their forgiveness.
He is, after all, a very patient man.