CHAPTER 52- Coronation Ceremony (2)

While Ray was trying to determine Valindra's motives and everyone was chanting, Ellaine decided to appraise his soul.

'Soul appraisal!'

She had already appraised his mother and she appeared holier than some of the saints, so she was pretty sure the new emperor would not give her any trouble and be kind like the previous empress.

However expectations were too different from reality.

The moment the skill was activated, she was plunged into darkness.

It was so dark that she couldn't even see her own hands. Even light skills didn't work.

She suddenly felt scared unlike she had ever before, almost as if someone was looking at her from the darkness and her life was not in her own hands at all.

'I-Impossible…'

She tried to reassure herself. After all, this was just a surveillance skill, she wasn't physically present here, and nothing could harm her.

However, she suddenly felt a chill run down her spine and started suffocating.

She couldn't breathe no matter what. The negative karma and killing intent in the soul was so overflowing that she almost wanted to gouge out her eyes and rip apart her skin just to escape.

Fortunately for her, the skill's duration ended and she once again found herself kneeling like everyone else.

She was still breathing heavily and sweating profusely but thanks to the veil covering her face and the loud chanting from everyone, nobody noticed.

Almost nobody that is.

The moment she had activated the skill, Ray got a message.

[Your soul has been appraised.]

That message prompted him to break eye contact with Valindra and look at Ellaine who appeared to be 'fine', chanting like everyone else.

Ellaine suddenly saw Ray looking towards her direction and felt her heartbeat stop.

'Will he kill me? I'm in his empire right now, he can kill me if he wants… but then the Twilight Empire will destroy the Celestial Empire…yes, I'm safe.'

Unexpectedly, she thought the new king would show her hostility, but he smiled slightly as he looked at her, confusing her even more.

'Why is he smiling? What is he planning?'

However she had already made up her mind.

'He has immense negative karma. He must have killed millions of people… at that age too! He's too big of a threat. I have to flag him as the highest threat and inform the senior priestess.'

And she knew what would happen after she did that.

The priestess would somehow find a way to kill this new king without anyone ever finding out.

Heaving a sigh internally, she still saw Ray smiling at her, but she didn't give any external reaction and went back to chanting.

"Long live the emperor!"

Ray kept looking at her with a smile while his thoughts were running pretty fast.

'She must have seen that I have a pretty huge negative karma.'

At this rate, she would inform her empire and people would be dispatched to finish him off.

To any normal king this would have been a complete dead end and they would have probably tried to justify that this priestess had made a mistake, or there was something wrong with the skill, but for Ray this was perfect.

'You, dear priestess… will be my entry ticket to your very own empire.'

If she did what he thought she would and flag him as the highest threat, it would go exactly according to his plan.

Interrupting his thoughts, the chanting suddenly stopped as he looked forward and found the cause.

Ambrosia had raised her hand to silence them.

"Everyone can sit now."

With ruffling noises, everyone sat down and watched with interest at the next event that was to follow.

The commoners and barons watching the broadcast immediately got comfortable and waited with bated breaths to find the thing they were most curious about.

Ambrosia suddenly declared…

"The new emperor has been crowned. From this day henceforth, Ray Celestia will be the true emperor and symbol of the Celestial Empire. His words shall be the law and his actions shall be inspirations for others to follow."

Following that she looked at Ray and nodded.

It was time for him to say something.

Not a speech, not anything crazy and definitely not a thousand line list about how he would help people and improve their lifestyle.

A slogan. Something to believe in.

Ray's father, on this occasion had said: 'To conquest.'

And then gone into war with every empire possible.

The dwarf empire's slogan was something like 'for money' and the elves were 'for peace', so what should Ray use?

If he didn't have to put on a public appearance, he could just say anything like 'freedom' that people loved to hear.

Without even getting up from the throne he put one hand on his chin as he appeared to contemplate.

However his decision was already made.

[Lust System: For sex!]

'Shut up.'

Ray moved his hand from his chin and looked up to face everyone with a smile.

Everyone looked at him with expectant eyes.

"To pleasure."

'Huh?'

Almost everyone had a face of confusion.

'To pleasure, what could this mean?'

Well, just by definition, pleasure was the feeling of happiness, satisfaction and enjoyment.

Now if one thought for a second, could one feel any of this if he or she was not free?

If he did say 'for freedom', that would indeed please the masses, but one could be unhappy whilst being free.

By this one statement, Ray meant that the people should pursuit their happiness.

At least that's what most people thought and they were extremely satisfied and awed by his brilliance and care for the people.

Ellaine was surprised but immediately knew he was trying to put on appearances.

Did Ray mean to be so deep and philosophical?

Absolutely not.

He just wanted to say… 'have fun, but don't get in my way.'

However 'fun' wasn't intimidating enough, so he switched to 'pleasure.'

He was sure the philosophers and so called literaries would write whole books on this one statement praising him, and well, he was correct.

Unknown to him, after a few days, every academy would have a new question included in their admission test: 'Describe what you feel about the empire's slogan 'To Pleasure' in a few pages.'

Leaving all that stuff aside, everyone seemed really pleased with the slogan.

And this was also attained to the fact that he had slightly used suggestion and pride aura together, so people thought that whatever he said was absolutely right.

And now, finally it was time for the big reveal.

The elemental affinities.

Ambrosia once again declared…

"And now, the emperor will have his mana affinities tested. The affinity stones are to be brought onto the stage, and the emperor would take each one in his hand one by one. If the stones lights up, there is a high affinity with that element."

Ray sat on his throne as he watched a woman dressed in mage clothes appear and set up a long table in front of the throne and place a few stones on it.

Looking at the stones Ray sighed.

'I really don't want to do this…'

The stones were kept on the table one by one, each beside the other. They were arranged according to rarity. The most common fire stone to the extreme left to the rarest of space-time at the right.

Sighing internally, Ray got up from the throne and walked forward to the table.

As he reached the table, everyone in the empire was going crazy from the anticipation.

Not really just because of the anticipation, but because multiple bets and gambles were going around the empire regarding on which element he had.

The highest bet was on him having a life element and the lowest bet was a fire element.

Ray looked at the fire stone in front of him and picked it up.

As everyone watched in silence the stone slowly… didn't light up at all.

He didn't have the fire affinity.

While some people banged their heads at losing the bets others were rejoicing.

Ambrosia and Isis were also holding their breaths. They wanted him to have a rare element too. It would further solidify his standing.

Ray moved to the next one and picked it up.

Water element… no affinity.

One by one he kept picking up a stone and leaving it back down.

Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, none of the stones showed a hint of light.

He had no affinity with the common elements.

While some people were mesmerized, others were anticipating still.

He started picking up the rarer elements.

Ice… no affinity.

Metal… no affinity.

Blood… no affinity.

Poison… no affinity.

Illusion… no affinity.

Lightning… no affinity.

Sound… no affinity.

Nature… no affinity.

…

And the final rare element shadow.

Everyone watched him as he picked it up and this stone… didn't glow as well.

Ray moved onto the next section.

The extremely rare elements and there were only two.

Light and Darkness.

He picked up the darkness stone and Ellaine was almost sure this one would light up, but surprising her it didn't.

And then he picked up the light element stone.

This time it was Ambrosia who thought it would glow up, but once again it didn't.

Forget Ambrosia who had a seven elemental affinity, Ray didn't have a single element he could use until now.

This time some people was starting to get slightly worried.

Ray without showing any change in his expression kept moving on the next section.

The elements that were almost extinct.

Life and Death.

As he picked up the life stone, Isis was cheering him on internally. She really wanted him to have this element. It could extend his lifespan like hers.

However, disappointing her, this stone too stayed dark.

And immediately afterwards he picked up the death stone.

'This time for sure…'

Ellaine who didn't like being wrong was almost wishing this stone would glow up making him an instant target for their empire.

But once again her hopes were squashed.

The death stone stayed unchanged.

At this point only the space-time stone remained.

An element only seen once or twice in the entire history and the individuals who possessed it were unspeakable beings.

Everyone waited with bated breaths as he extended his hand and picked up the stone.

As people watched the scene in front of them, everyone opened their mouths in surprise.

Some people outright started fidgeting and gasping not knowing how it was possible and the heads of the gambling houses didn't know what to do in this situation as well.

No one had in their nightmares ever expected this to happen.

The space-time stone in Ray's hand… didn't glow one bit.

Ray Celestia, the new emperor of the Celestial Empire, didn't have any element he was compatible with.