Sarcelle Renard

The Folly of a Felicitous Prince [CLOSED]

Whelp, let's see if the first character death actually goes to Adrian for not being able to hold that treasonous troublesome tongue of his.

The Folly of a Felicitous Prince [CLOSED]

Regent King Adrian de Hiertania

---

Even from the doorway, Adrian could clearly see the unbridled fury his brother was quite literally shaking with. Nobody else in the castle dared to aggravate the king, as his temper had only gotten worse as his sickness did, but Adrian refused to let Adhemar’s childish tantrums continue without reproach. So with his usual swagger, he approached the foot of his brother’s bed. The room was dimly lit, as if to try and hide the king’s declining health from onlookers. Not that it helped much, as there was no concealing the unnatural pallor his skin had taken on or the weariness that clung ever so tightly to his eyes. Truly, the man before him was a sad, empty shell of the brother that Adrian loved and respected, but still, in his own way, Adrian refused to give up on him.

An eyebrow was raised at the king’s declaration of Adrian’s discipline, a silent challenge that went unnoticed as Adhemar descended into one of his awful coughing fits, but the regent said nothing about the matter. Galeran would no doubt be overjoyed to have royal permission to get Adrian fitted for a tighter leash, but his ability to enforce such a thing would be quite amusing to see. All of the poor servant’s previous attempts had been so far thwarted, as Adrian had gotten quite good at derailing him with long, pointless tasks. But still, this time Galeran just might have enough support to actually pose a challenge. And Adrian enjoyed challenges.

A look of genuine surprise colored the regent's face when his brother continued speaking though. It was obvious that the king was not going to lose any sleep over the loss of Lutairi life, in fact Adrian suspected that he actually enjoyed the thought in some sick way, but it was somewhat odd for Adhemar to ask him for his thoughts on the matter. For a long time now, Adrian had been under the impression that his dear brother equated his insights to that of a mule’s, so for him to be seeking his input now… ‘What is he playing at?’ he quietly wondered to himself.

“Truth be told, I find it quite perplexing,” he began, scratching the back of his head in feigned bewilderment. “Time and again I have tried to rid us of these disgraceful bandits, in keeping to my promise to you for a ‘quiet and peaceful kingdom for Luthier to inherit,’ yet time and again my men keeping returning to me empty handed,” he said, his tone becoming rather pointed. “And now it seems that you are even better informed than me, the acting regent, on the various identities of these walking disgraces that seek to shame us.” Adrian allowed whatever implications could be derived from his conjecture hang in the air for a precarious few seconds before continuing, making sure to cut off whatever interjection his brother might think to spout. “Some individuals might even come to the conclusion that you are purposefully letting these men make a mockery of our kingdom by letting them run out of your control,” he said, his voice dropping quite low but with the steel of a man that had commanded authority for decades. As he spoke, Adrian had circled around the bed to stand next to his brother, all but towering over the sickly man.

His face took on a seriousness that was normally reserved for the battlefield and his eyes pierced straight into his brother’s weary ones, looking for any hint of guilt in him. Adrian was well aware that he was playing with fire here, but he knew that all the evidence he would need would be found in his brother’s expression should his suspicions be true. It was simply unnatural for the various groups of bandits to have eluded his men for as long as they have without outside interference, but none of the other suspects aside from Adhemar made sense to the regent. And if there was any way to infuriate the king into a confession, it was to insinuate that he was disgracing his kingdom. Of course, if taken even a step too far, Adrian ran a very real risk of recieving a rather intimate introduction to the headsman’s block, but he couldn’t think of any other ways to know for sure if his brother was indeed responsible.

“But of course, I am no such man,” Adrian sighed nonchalantly, all of the challenge in his voice and expression instantly replaced with his normal carefree self. “I am merely a second rate regent doing his best to fill in his dear brother’s rather large shoes.” With that, his trap was set. Now all he could do was watch if Adhemar would take the bait.

Well, that and pray to anybody listening that his neck wouldn’t have to give his head a teary goodbye later in the evening.

---

@AimeChambers

The Folly of a Felicitous Prince [CLOSED]

@AimeChambers Aye aye cap'n

The Folly of a Felicitous Prince [CLOSED]

@AimeChambers Please, Adrian is always inches away from giving his brother an aneurysm. It's how he shows he cares.

And if you have never seen a video of a fox diving for prey, I highly recommend it. They just look too goofy and adorable not to smile at it.

The Folly of a Felicitous Prince [CLOSED]

Regent King Adrian de Hiertania

---

The sound of metal striking metal was music to Adrian’s ears as he parried another one of his assailant’s heavily telegraphed slashes.

It had always been easy for the noble to lose himself in the flow of battle. After all, there were no sensitive egos to worry about stepping on here, no insufferable advisors constantly nagging him, and perhaps most importantly, his next move was always obvious to him. He turned aside another intense blow, but this time he pushed forward immediately and in one smooth motion he brought his opponent tumbling to the ground. The man landed with a rather ignoble crash behind him, joining his two fellow guardsmen. Deep down, Adrian knew that the self-satisfied smirk that was creeping into his expression must have been an insufferable sight for his sparring companions, but it had been far too long since he had this kind of exhilaration coursing through him.

“Come now, I thought you whelps promised I was going to break a sweat this time,” he boasted, despite his breathing being much more ragged than he would ever admit. He lifted his practice sword so that it rested on his shoulder and turned his eyes to the three guards struggling to their feet, one eyebrow raised.

“I wouldn’t look so high and mighty captain, your age is going to catch up to you one of these days,” Malcolm, the first of the guardsmen to get back on his feet, retorted good naturedly.

Adrian’s smirk widened into a full on smile. It had been a long time since he had been a captain of anything, what with this whole regent king business that had been thrust upon him. “Please, when I’m old, gray, and sitting in my rocking chair, you sad lot still won’t be able to score a hit on my beautiful face.”

The comment earned him scoffs and more grumbling, but it only brightened Adrian’s already good mood. A ray of sunshine broke through the clouds and graced the modest courtyard with its presence. The castle had plenty of more impressive ones, but Adrian had always been drawn to this one with its lonely willow tree. And it was against that sorry piece of wood that he propped himself up against on this rather unremarkable morning, enjoying the last few minutes he had before he had to get back to being the regent king. These sparring sessions were becoming more and more infrequent, but the escalating tensions between Hiertania’s oh-so-lovely neighbors had been eating up most of the man’s free time.

The sound of footsteps cut through the prince’s thoughts and echoed throughout the small courtyard. “Your expression speaks volumes about the good news you bring me,” he said all too dryly to the rather grim faced messenger. “Gentleman,” he addressed his men with a brief nod, “I do look forward to the next chance I get to thoroughly trounce you.”

---

Adrian ran his hand up the side of his exasperated face and then combed it through his hair as he climbed the stairs to his brother’s chambers. The messenger’s news did not surprise him much, as pillaging on the border had unfortunately become rather commonplace, but as it was the latest in an ever growing string of hostilities, it was only a matter of time before large scale violence broke out. It was unclear where exactly the bandits hailed from, but the details in the message led Adrian to suspect they were in fact Hiertanean. Nothing could be proven quite yet, so for now he would see what his brother wanted.

And there he was, in front of the doors to his brother’s chambers. Of all the times he had entered the room, Adrian could not recall a single time he had opened the doors “properly.” Most notably, there had been the time that he had actually kicked the doors open when he first heard about his niece, Ihana, and demanded that she be brought home. Adhemar hadn’t let him anywhere near his tower for a solid month after that one. “No sense in changing now,” he muttered to himself, throwing the doors open overdramatically and then proceeded to waltz into his brother’s room like he owned the place.

“Good morning brother, I was told you wanted to see me,” he stated matter-of-factly.

|[ ⚵ ]| Cloud Chasers |[ A Fairy Tail AU ]|

@Indra Just keep in mind that the magic section will be scaled back a bit, as the Librarium now has the maximum number of S class mages.

The Folly of a Felicitous Prince [CLOSED]

@AimeChambers

I only have four words for you

|[ ⚵ ]| Cloud Chasers |[ A Fairy Tail AU ]|

@Leslie Hall

_{Your secret is safe with me cap'n}

|[ ⚵ ]| Cloud Chasers |[ A Fairy Tail AU ]|

@Leslie Hall Huh, first we have Castle Vinheim and now there is this Nameless King Hero... I smell a fellow Dark Souls fan.

|[ ⚵ ]| Cloud Chasers |[ A Fairy Tail AU ]|

@Leslie Hall I totally understand, as it is my fault for not turning off the waffle iron sooner. If it comes down to it, I am perfectly fine with tuning down this version to an A rank if need be.

@Indra and @Denny you fellas should rip into this one too.

Albert Faust

Librarium Registration Card

Personality

<sub>A perfectionist in just about every sense of the word, Albert firmly believes in the power of planning and sticks rigidly to strategies and fallback strategies that he devises. And although he is generally calm and collected, he has proven time and again to actually have a very short fuse when things go catastrophically away from plan. But as long as things are going on track, he is rather cordial and polite to both ally and enemy alike. This changes once he starts fighting though, as he is very much so a combat pragmatist and has few qualms about using every advantage available to him.

As one would expect from such a man, Albert is incredibly analytical and meticulous, almost to the point of obsession. If given the chance, he will personally calculate and measure every minute detail of a scenario before acting, although even he is aware that such an opportunity will likely never come. This goes one step further, as the Library Hunter spends far more time keeping his quarters immaculate than one ever should. Juno help you if you track so much as a grain of dirt into his sanctuary.

And while not overly religious himself, he still believes in the Librarium’s message of advancement and promise of order. To him, the freedom the Sky Pirates preach about can only lead to anarchy and violence, as people need order to stay together. But at the same time, he is not blind to the corruption and abuse of power that runs rampant in the outskirts of civilization, with such displays being one of the few things that can make him trade in his politeness for a sharp tongue and barely contained fury. And with such a strong sense of justice, even Albert wonders sometimes catches himself wondering if he truly is one the right side.</sub>

“ The most beautiful sentence ever conceived by man only contains four words: All according to plan.”

| Nａｍｅ: |

Faust, Albert

| Alias|Nickames|Titles: |

The Hero of Velen, Albert of the Thousand Blades

| G e n d er: |

Male

| R a n k: |

S

| Ａｇｅ: |

24

| Sector : |

Library Hunter, Saint

| History: |

The Faust name is not one that is held in the brightest of lights. A family of wealthy entrepreneurs, the Faust line has always had a history of gaining the most when those around them lose much. When the Decretius Librarium usurped the throne, it was the Faust family that survived the ensuing chaos and came up near the top, having been handsomely rewarded for helping the church’s bid for supremacy. And thus, for over a century the name has been associated with greed and power.

Enter Albert Faust, fourth son of the current head of the family. His time with his family was brief, as he exhibited a potential for magic at the early age of 8 years old and was taken in by the Librarium. Many suspected one that had been spoiled by such a luxurious lifestyle wouldn’t make it far in the church, but Albert would go on to show that not only did he have potential, but also a talent for magic. But that didn’t mean life within the church was easy for him, as he noticed out of the corner of his eye the looks of disdain others had for him.

By the time he was 18, Albert was offered a number of cushy positions within the church due to his family’s name, but the young mage insisted on becoming a Library Hunter for reasons that he refused to disclose. His first few years as a Library Hunter went by without much recognition for him, but his skill at magic was honed by the countless close brushes with death that came his way as he traversed the unforgiving landscape below Pandora. In fact, not many even knew of the estranged son of one of the most prominent figures of the land. That is until the day that a 21 year old Albert showed up in Velen.

Facts regarding the incident are murky, but the prevailing story that the Librarium supports is that Albert singlehandedly subjugated a rogue Sky Pirate Guild that had been extorting the small town of Velen. And for his heroic feat, the mage was given the title of Saint and was lauded as a hero of both the Librarium and the people. While Albert accepted the title graciously and wears the saber that was crafted for him at all times, his mood takes a strange shift when talk of his deed is brought up.

Since then, the Hero of Velen has been hunting down other Sky Pirate Guilds, seeking to preserve the peace that the Librarium has created. So far, he has successfully taken down a score of rogue Sky Pirate Guilds with the aid of local Cleric Knights. However, despite his deeds, the Faust name still hangs over him though, making the public’s opinion of him incredibly divisive.

| Magic: |

Conjure Swords: Albert is able to compress his raw magical power into a sword-like shape. The created blades take shape near Albert and can then be controlled by him, but doing so takes a good deal of concentration. In order to cut down on this, the Saint has practiced certain pathing sequences, which he dubs configurations, so much that he hardly has to think about them. On impact, these swords shatter and release their compressed magical power rather destructively, although this is only truly dangerous to people if they hit an individual directly.

Despite being called Albert of the Thousand Blades, the mage has never controlled nearly half that number at once. Rather, he obtained that name due to his immensely large magic reserve enabling him to be able to keep creating his swords in what seems like an endless manner. This is obviously not the case, as he will run out of magical power if a fight becomes too drawn out. It should also be noted that while his configurations cut down how much focus he has to invest into the flight of the blades, he is unable to immediately switch between different configurations or use multiple ones at the same time.

Configurations

• Advance: Swords continuously form behind Albert in sets of four and are fired straight at his target. As the name implies, this configuration is often used while he is approaching his target.
• Fall: A stream of swords is formed and takes position about ten feet above a target. After a one second delay they all rain down at once, covering a sizable area. As this configuration takes quite a bit of set up, there is a rather large window for the target to evade or counterattack.
• Constrict: A ring of six swords are generated and encircle a target, rotate quickly around it as they close in. The swords spawn several feet away and take about five seconds to finish closing in.
• Guard: Four swords are created and quickly move in front of an attack, crossing over each other in a defensive manner. The resulting release of magic is often enough to cause weaker magic to dissipate or throw slightly stronger ones off course. This configuration must be used quite preemptively rather than reflexively and there is no guarantee that it will do much to stop magic with considerable power.

| Miscs : |

His saber, the symbol of his status as a Saint of the Librarium, is beautifully adorned and has Juno’s symbol embossed on the blade itself. While it is not usually his go to weapon, it is always at his side.