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The Great Sorcerer Kamishiro
That’s the name people would whisper as he passed. Merchants gasped at the sight of him and flaunted their products. They stood with straight posture and bright smiles, moving out of the young emperor’s path to honor him. Rui hid bitter feelings under a thin smile. He wished that the village people wouldn’t treat him as if he was untouchable. His advisor, Nene, always said it was his fault that everyone was nervous around him because he never left the palace. The hypocrisy for someone who stays in her room making potions and playing tabletop games all day. Rui giggled to himself at the thought.
The emperor always loved to observe the townspeople. His people are about as creative as him, creating wondrous mechanisms and tools to assist with their different crafts. Rui enjoyed seeing their new works and ideas. He also looked for what his people may be struggling with. Rui tried to help with every problem his empire may face, big or small. Since he has the magic to help, he is always happy to do so.
Maybe he should start coming outside more. Seeing his own thriving empire is quite nice, though it is just the capital. Plus, he doesn’t want to be so feared by his citizens. He had commanded that the people do not bow before him or refer to him with royal honorifics. Rui would rather be treated as a familiar friend than a role akin to a god.
Of course, the people listened but out of respect for his rank but not because they actually believed they could form such a relationship with their emperor.
But there were some that did.
“Rui-kun! Rui-kun!” A voice shouted excitedly from behind the boy. The emperor turned to greet the owner of it.
A pink head of hair rushed his way, wearing a puffy pale blue dress. This detail was quite noticeable because this little lady would usually be dressed in a knight’s armor. The sorcerer’s face softened, adorning a cat-like smile.
Upon reaching the sorcerer the pink haired girl opened her arms enveloping Rui in a tight embrace.
“Hugsssss!!” Her voice was muffled, with her face shoved into Rui’s robes.
“Emu-kun, Emu-kun! Great to see you on this fine day!” He greeted, wrapping his arms around her and reciprocating the bone crushing hug. Emu giggled and pulled away.
The townspeople watched this interaction, baffled at the knight that was so boldly approaching the emperor. Emu was quite friendly with pretty much everyone in town, she was quite an interesting soul.
“Huh? Is that Rui I heard?” A voice sounded from the shop beside the pair. Another pink head peeked out from the window.
“Ah, Mizuki! It’s always nice to see you too.” Rui said as he and Emu strode towards the opened window.
“Look at the sparkly dress Akiyama-chan made me! It's so kyu-kyu-cute!!!” Emu said, grabbing the sides of her dress and spinning around so that Rui could see its design. Rui nodded, taking in and admiring all of the lovely details.
“You’ve done it again Mizuki. Quite a beautiful garment.” He complimented, turning back to her.
“It truly is a work of art isn’t it, eheh..!” Mizuki said, smirking with pride. “And it’s nice to see you too Rui, it’s great that you’re finally getting out of that boring palace.”
“Pft.. Says you, even though I barely see you out of your shop.” Rui retorts, recognizing the hypocritical tendencies of yet another friend.
“Maybe you would see me if you weren’t always in the palace!” Mizuki said, blowing raspberries at the emperor.
“But Akiyama-chan! I never see you at the town square to hear the news or anything!!!” Emu pitched in.
“Aha… did you really hafta rat me out like that Otori-chan?” Mizuki said, averting her gaze. Emu and Rui chuckled. “Well, seeya guys!” She said before slipping back into their shop.
“Aww… she’s leaving so soon..?” Emu sulked.
“Well, they probably have work to do. Then she can make more beautifully put together outfits like yours, right?”
Or she just wanted to avoid being ganged up on, Rui thought to himself. Emu lit up at his comment.
“Oh! I almost forgot about that! I need to go go go! and show Nene-chan! Seeya Rui-kunnnn~!” Emu said before running off towards the palace. Sometimes Rui wondered how such an energetic person like that could be so close with a shy and closed off person like Nene.
Rui smiled to himself before realizing that he forgot to ask either of his friends about his main objective. Today Rui was on a mission. He was recommended to try out a food vendor by his dearest advisor Nene.
Nene was like a sister to Rui; she came from a noble family that specialized in magical beings, biochemistry, and potion making. Their families are well acquainted and since he and Nene are around the same age, they've been friends since childhood. Rui and Nene share the same love for magic (though Nene didn’t have any aside from her potions) and theatrical performances.
Because Nene was Rui’s closest friend, she knew best how picky he was with his food. He doesn’t necessarily have a favorite food because of this. Rui absolutely will not eat any vegetables and certain fruits because of their weird texture. Other foods just taste too bland to him. He usually sticks to eating simple meals like bread and cheese and on some days he will only drink pulpless fruit juices. Some foods have managed to impress him such as one of the palace chef’s specialties: Omurice with demi-glace sauce. Even then, this meal was only rated a 7/10. Nene wondered how it only reached a 7 on the rating scale if it was one of the only meals he likes.
Nene said that she strongly believes that this food vendor will match Rui’s tastes. She said that she didn’t exactly enjoy the chef’s personality, but that’s because they’re similar to Rui, “a blabbering weirdo”. Sure, Rui tended to talk on and on about things he was passionate about but that’s kinda mean.
Anyways, because this person had no actual shop, they had no set location. Nene also didn’t pay attention to the name of the vendor or the stall when purchasing food. Rui planned to just ask someone but had missed his chance when Mizuki and Emu left him all alone. Well, that didn’t matter too much. He had a whole town of people he could ask.
Rui approached a pair of people dressed in interesting, uniform clothing.
“Excuse me, have you heard of a food stall that has recently opened up near here..?” He asked. The pair of people looked him up and down, giving him questioning gazes.
Huh, the emperor doesn’t usually get this reaction from townspeople. It would have been refreshing that they weren’t acting so nervously around him if they weren’t acting so suspiciously. One of the men’s faces changed into a brighter expression after a moment of staring Rui down.
“Oh, no sorry, we don’t live in this territory. We traveled here to trade and observe the different cultures.” The man responded.
Well that explains the weird reactions but Rui still didn’t feel quite right about these people.
“Ah, foreigners.. I see. Welcome to the capital then, and I hope that you enjoy your travels.” Rui said, nodding and giving the men a kind smile. He quickly walked away as the men nodded back at him, listening to his instincts telling him get away from them.
The emperor then approached another townsperson, selling carved wooden animal statues. Rui made a note to come back to this stall later, seeing a small wooden platypus on display. He thought that it’d look quite nice on his desk. The dark blue haired woman gave Rui that same intimidated look that he usually got from his townspeople and stood with shaky but orderly posture.
“E-Emperor Kamishiro..! -Uh Rui-san! To what do I owe the pleasure...?” The merchant greeted, way more nervously than Rui wished for. He gave the shaken lady a gentle smile.
“Oh don’t worry about me, I just came to ask about a new food stall that opened up around this area..?” Rui inquired. The merchant physically softened at his words.
“Ah, Tsukasa-san even has the emperor raving about his food? I’m not surprised. His food has lots of potential and he’s got good character, though he can be a bit much at times,” The merchant responded thoughtfully. Rui’s eyes widened at the great review of the food stall. Tsukasa, huh?
The merchant then continued, remembering that the emperor stood before her humble stall. “Oh, where are my manners! I-I shouldn’t have rambled that much.. His stall should be just down that road! A-all the way at the end.” She said, chuckling nervously.
“Ahah.. No need to be so nervous. Thank you for telling me.” Rui said, feeling bad for the nervous girl who kinda reminded him of Nene. “I’m glad I asked you about this. You seem to be well acquainted with the chef.” The girl nodded and Rui gave a smile. He began to walk off before remembering something.
"And if you wouldn’t mind, could you keep that platypus statue for me until I return?” He said bashfully. The girl nodded enthusiastically, taking the carved platypus off the display table.
Rui continued walking down the road finally spotting the food stall labeled ‘Soaring Pegasus ☆ Star Cuisine’. He could already smell the savory aroma of miso wafting through the air as he approached. A pretty decent crowd gathered around the stall, waiting in line and raving about the food. Rui worried that if people saw him they would give up their place in line but figured that it couldn’t be helped. He ought to ask Mizuki to make him a cloak. Or he could just disguise himself with magic.
Rui walked through the street towards the stall but before he could make it, his mouth was suddenly covered with a cloth. He was left with no time to process what was happening before his vision started to become cloudy. He tried to conjure up a defensive shield but quickly realized that he had become too weak to even lift his hands. The last thing he saw before he passed out was the stall disappearing behind a wall as he was pulled into a dark secluded alleyway