Chapter 0: PrologueMariejois was the current seat of the World Government, and it had been so for more than eight hundred years. In this place, also called the Holy Land, stood the luxurious Pangaea Castle, where the Five Elders gathered every day to… well, he wasn't really sure for what, since they honestly did absolutely nothing most of the time.
Who was he? Well, his name was Naruto A. Nerona, who had awoken not long ago from an incredibly strange dream that had left him pondering many things which, honestly, had him slightly perplexed at best… and utterly terrified at worst, if it turned out his dream hadn't been a dream at all.
However, before he could dwell on that, the door to his room opened, revealing the figure of his bodyguard, who came to wake him just as she had every day since that person had assigned her as his personal protector.
"I see you're already awake." Her tone, as always when addressing him, was a mixture of the typical arrogance of the Celestial Dragons and the respect owed to him as what he was—or rather, what he had been told he was—that is, her direct superior, even if, in terms of status, both were technically Celestial Dragons, and she was even one of the God Knights.
"Not by choice, believe me. I just had another one of those dreams," the young man said, making Gunko tense briefly in place. His dreams were the reason that person had ordered her to guard him, for her young charge had been born with the ability to see beyond the present, and every time he saw something, it came true to the letter.
"Hm…" Even so, she didn't let it show that this had unsettled her, and merely hummed to herself. She knew she needed to get the full dream out of him and report it to that person, but she also knew that since this young man was far more valuable to that person than she was, she couldn't force him—or he would simply refuse to speak.
So, with that in mind, she headed to the wardrobe and began picking out the clothes her ward would wear for the day.
"We can talk about it later. We have much to do today, after all."
Naruto didn't respond; he simply got out of bed and began dressing, knowing that although Gunko was incredibly sadistic, she was surprisingly prudish and easily embarrassed by the sight of a naked man… something he found incredibly cute. Not that he would ever say it out loud, since the young woman would—and most certainly would—shoot an arrow at his rear for trying to tease her. Girl stuff.
At any rate, once he finished dressing, he followed his bodyguard to enjoy a good breakfast in his private sitting room. It was nothing out of the ordinary: no caviar or exotic meats… those simply had no place at breakfast, at least in his personal opinion.
Still, his table was overflowing with the finest food prepared especially for the nobles of the world. Not that such a status had any real value to him; in fact, he considered it a personal insult to be compared to those abominations who dared call themselves gods. Of course, it wasn't as though he'd ever say that out loud—after all, he liked living a quiet life, and the fewer problems he had with his less fortunate peers, the more peaceful his days would be… even if that idiot Shamrock occasionally showed up to annoy him into joining the Kami no Kishidan, claiming that someone with his strength was wasting his talents. Not that he disagreed with the sentiment, but he simply had no desire to be subordinate to a fool like him—much less tolerate that moron Summers.
Normally, he wouldn't be allowed to insult those particular Celestial Dragons, since they were elites among elites, ranking only beneath the Five Great Elders. But he had the privilege of getting away with it for a couple of reasons. The first was that he belonged to the Nerona family: being of the same clan as that person, almost all its members held higher status than the vast majority of Celestial Dragons. And number two, his innate ability to glimpse the future in his dreams.
Oh, yes, he was well aware that because of this ability he had Gunko as his bodyguard and was allowed liberties that normally wouldn't be tolerated. He was even granted demands that other Celestial Dragons would never be allowed. For instance, he was permitted to punch that pompous, disgusting pig Charlos whenever his fists felt the overwhelming need to test whether a good hit to the face might finally shut that idiot up from talking like a complete imbecile.
Normally, he would have been executed for disturbing the order among the Celestial Dragons; however, thanks to his advantages, he had the ability to get away with it. Moreover, since he was—in his own opinion—far more intelligent than his peers, he had chosen not to let himself be blinded by the fantasies of power and the indulgences that had turned his companions into the spoiled, gluttonous pigs they had become. And because of that, he had chosen to devote his life to cultivating his intellect, which at some point in his early childhood had drawn the personal interest of none other than his own ancestor: Imu himself.
This was something incredibly curious, at least from a certain point of view, since he was one of the few—besides Gunko herself and a couple of others—who knew the true nature of that person.
Imu had simply told him that, in truth, he was thinking of abdicating the throne. Not for any particular reason, nor because he had lost the will to rule the world or anything like that; he was simply bored and wished to take some time off to enjoy a well-deserved vacation after eight hundred years at the top, and eventually return… or simply remain in retirement, lending a hand now and then whenever he felt like it.
It wasn't as if Naruto could really blame him for thinking that way; in fact, he could somewhat understand it. After all, having sat on the world's throne for over eight centuries, having conquered everything, and with no real desire to obtain more than he already had, his spirit was being crushed more and more each day, and he had simply been searching for a successor for some years now.
In truth, Naruto wasn't even the first of his attempts. In fact, he wasn't even in the single digits and, according to Gunko herself, was probably somewhere around the two-hundreds. In a way, one could even say that the Five Elders and the Kami no Kishidan had once been candidates to inherit Imu's throne, every single one of them failing… or destined to fail, as the case might be. After all, he could hardly picture someone like Summers being chosen as the new king of the world.
Returning to the subject of his frankly privileged life, the truth was that it wasn't nearly as glamorous as one might think. To begin with, since his ability to see the future was a rare gift—practically unique in the world—leaving the World Government's seat was nearly impossible for him, unless he wished to be escorted by so many Marines that sightseeing would be out of the question. Something about not being able to risk even the slightest accident.
Another particularly annoying matter was that, since he was being prepared to one day attempt to take the throne of the world, he had found himself more or less forced to study practically every waking moment. Fortunately, Gunko allowed him to train his physical body: after all, she had no desire to protect some fat imbecile.
But aside from that, his days were usually filled with studies of all kinds of incredibly tedious subjects, such as proper etiquette, economics, politics, methods of governance, and a very, very long etcetera.
In short, the goal was basically to ensure he acquired as much knowledge as possible so that he would lack as little as possible in the future. And if it weren't for his refusal to become a filthy slob like most of the Celestial Dragons, they wouldn't have cared in the slightest about his physical health.
After all, in the eyes of Imu—and therefore in the eyes of the Five Elders—strength was not truly considered an important trait. In their belief, the World Government already had more than enough strong individuals among its ranks.
Not to mention that, if he truly obtained Imu's throne in the future, he would be granted eternal youth and demonic regeneration, which would technically allow him to train and become stronger later on. Something that, of course, he absolutely did not want, since he loathed the idea of doing nothing but study.
Setting all of that aside for the moment, he finally finished his breakfast and, not long after, Gunko appeared once again carrying a new stack of books to begin the day's lessons.
Something which, without a word needing to be said, made him release a deep, heavy sigh. After all, even if Gunko was a patient and relatively pleasant teacher, that didn't change the fact that studying all the time was an incredibly bothersome task.
However, just before he could stand up to head to the study, he felt a sudden pain in his head, something that completely shattered his normally calm expression. He even broke his usual indifferent composure and brought both hands to his head, groaning in pain.
Naturally, this made Gunko worry. After all, it could only mean one of two things: either he was having a vision at that very moment—which could only be incredibly bad, since he never had them while awake—or he had been poisoned with some kind of slow-acting toxin that was causing him immense pain now.
It wasn't as though she held any special affection for her young charge or anything like that, but when her very life literally depended on him being in full health and remaining a valuable asset to the World Government… well, let's just say even the slightest issue could very well make even her, a Celestial Dragon, lose her head.
"Ah, damn, that hurt," Naruto muttered, rubbing his head. He really hadn't expected this to happen.
"What the hell just happened?" Gunko asked, for once genuinely concerned. Damn it, she liked having her head on her shoulders.
"It's nothing you need to worry about… just…" He had to pause, shaking his head in a vain attempt to clear his thoughts. Honestly, having some so-called higher entity screaming at you for what felt like hours was not an experience he wanted to repeat. "…Let's just say something interesting happened, that's all," he said, trying—and failing miserably—to divert the subject.
Gunko, of course, narrowed her eyes at him and was more than tempted to beat the answer out of him if necessary. After all, it was anything but natural for him to suddenly clutch his head and start screaming out of nowhere.
"Let's skip lessons for today," Naruto said, making Gunko raise an eyebrow and give him her best "a headache isn't going to help you skip class" look.
"I don't want to skip class, woman… well, no more than usual. But… I can't tell you about this. I need to speak personally with that person."
At that statement, Gunko's eyes widened noticeably. Her charge was one of the very few with the genuine authority to speak with that person, being her protégé and all. But in all the years they had been together, he had never once taken the initiative to speak with her; in fact, he seemed to actively avoid it. So if he truly wanted to speak with her directly, it could only mean that what he had just seen was something so important and significant that he couldn't risk the palace servants overhearing.
"Clear your head. I'll see how soon she can receive us."
With that said, Gunko simply left the residence immediately, not bothering with the door, instead leaping out of one of the windows. After all, she had no time to waste searching for the exit in that damned maze of doors and hallways.
"Easy for you to say, old hag… you didn't just have a damn dragon screaming in your damn brain," Naruto muttered, glancing up at the two maids—both incredibly beautiful, one blonde with blue eyes and the other brunette with chocolate-colored eyes—who now looked absolutely terrified by what had just happened. Apparently, he was going to have to calm down two frightened girls. Well, as he once told Gunko when she asked him why he didn't keep slaves: "A servant who wants to work for you is one who won't try to kill you in your sleep."
"Your Highness needs to rest," said the first maid, overcoming her earlier fear and reasoning that the best way to preserve her life was to help him get through the sudden headache… and, apparently, either missing the comment about a dragon screaming directly into his brain—or, more likely, choosing to ignore it.
"I could give you a massage, if you wish, Your Highness," the second one was a bit more proactive.
However, the last thing he needed right now was a massage or a nap, so he simply waved his hand dismissively.
"One of you can leave; the other, just let me rest on your lap and rub my head." What he really needed right now… well, what he really needed was an aspirin, but if he requested one he'd have half the medical staff of Mariejois flooding his chamber, and he had no desire to deal with that at the moment.
After a quick glance to decide which of the two would handle it, the blonde ultimately let her brown-haired companion take care of him, while she set about cleaning up the mess Gunko had made when she left through the window… without bothering to open it first.
Soon both women were at their tasks, the blonde glancing occasionally at her companion—or rather, at her master—with genuine concern. He was a good master, after all: he treated them with dignity and, though she would never admit it aloud, the sex with him was quite good.
Meanwhile, the brunette simply rubbed her reddish curls gently while humming a wordless tune that, in truth, helped a great deal with Naruto's headache; thanks to that soothing melody he was able to more or less put some of his thoughts in order and clear his mind to a certain extent.
He hadn't been lying when he'd said to… well, to nobody in particular, that a dragon had screamed inside his head. It had shouted at him about how it had been sending those visions so he would use what he saw in them and prevent his world—which was already in the dirt—from going even further down the drain; about how he was of the lineage of great kings and therefore had a role and a destiny in the grand order of things; and how, if he didn't move his lazy ass, next time it wouldn't shout in his mind but would strangle him in his sleep.
Of course, there were other things too, like the fact that, apparently, that hulking, overmuscled lizard was some kind of god of order who every so often chose a being to restore the world's balance and granted them some kind of ability to help in that task.
And, to be completely honest, the ability it had given him was, simply put, what he had been looking for since he understood that his fellow Celestial Dragons—save for a handful of exceptions—were nothing but scum who thought ruling by terror and censorship made them gods, and an Ability that would allow him to become the true and sole ruler of this world, and of many others.
The Gate of the Heavens!
End of Chapter.