Rule Breaker emerged from the ground of Unlimited Blade Works.
The twisted blade slowly rose among the countless swords scattered as far as the eye could see, before coming to rest in Emrys's hand.
He kept it between his fingers for a few seconds.
"Yeah, this isn't going to work," Emrys said.
Rule Breaker had a problem that made it unusable as it was in this situation.
Its size.
Seeing a dagger flying toward them at incredible speed would undoubtedly cause the population to panic. Especially since Emrys had no intention of tiring himself out explaining the situation to more than thirty thousand inhabitants.
Emrys focused his mental energy on the weapon.
The structure of Rule Breaker began to change.
Its proportions gradually decreased. The blade became shorter, the handle became smaller, until the entire weapon was nothing more than a tiny fraction of its original size.
Emrys continued.
Smaller.
Even smaller.
And smaller still.
Eventually, the weapon was barely larger than one of his phalanges.
Emrys stopped altering it.
That'll do.
Emrys left Dun Scaith and headed toward the Hill of Swords.
He sat at the top of it, crossed his legs, and calmly placed his hands on his knees.
Then he began shutting himself off from the rest of the world.
One sense after another disappeared from his consciousness.
All unnecessary sensations were gradually pushed aside.
He didn't need them.
He didn't need to hear the wind passing through the Hill of Swords.
He didn't need to feel the ground beneath his body.
He didn't need to perceive his own body.
He didn't even need to pay attention to the countless weapons surrounding him.
All of it became irrelevant.
Only one thing remained.
His Observation Haki.
Emrys extended it.
His consciousness spread throughout Unlimited Blade Works, then went beyond it, extending toward the inhabitants of Ulster.
Thirty thousand people.
Thirty thousand individual presences.
Thirty thousand auras.
Under normal circumstances, distinguishing each of them individually would have been an absurd task.
For Emrys, it wasn't.
Because he knew exactly what he was looking for.
Emrys didn't waste any more time.
The tiny Rule Breaker moved, shooting forward at incredible speed.
No sound was produced.
No trail was left behind.
Only movement.
The tiny dagger quickly reached the first person and passed through them.
Nothing happened physically.
No wound.
No pain.
The person didn't even realize what had happened.
But the moment Rule Breaker passed through their body, Emrys felt the foreign energy disappear.
"...It works."
The tiny dagger immediately changed direction.
Second person.
Then third.
Then fourth.
Rule Breaker continued moving.
Every time it passed through one of the inhabitants, the anomaly was removed.
The blade passed through their bodies and erased the foreign energy before continuing toward the next person.
Emrys increased its speed.
The tiny dagger became almost impossible to follow for anyone who might have tried to perceive it normally.
One presence.
Then another.
Then another.
Rule Breaker crossed the distance separating them.
Again.
And again.
And again.
The process eventually became mechanical.
Emrys detected a presence.
Rule Breaker moved.
The blade passed through the body.
The anomaly disappeared.
Rule Breaker moved on.
The process began again.
Hundreds of times.
Thousands.
Emrys's concentration didn't waver.
He didn't allow himself to think about anything else.
His Observation Haki remained fully extended across Ulster.
The tiny dagger moved through Unlimited Blade Works with extraordinary precision, following the mental map created by his Observation Haki.
Emrys continued.
Time passed.
One hour.
Then a second.
The operation was long.
Thirty thousand inhabitants were not a small number.
Even with his speed, there was a limit to how quickly he could process each individual presence.
But Emrys never stopped.
Nothing escaped him.
No one was forgotten.
Twenty thousand.
Fifteen thousand.
Ten thousand.
Five thousand.
Then fewer.
Finally...
There was no one left to process.
Emrys kept his Observation Haki extended for a few more moments.
He searched one last time.
The anomaly had finally disappeared completely.
Emrys finally allowed himself to relax his concentration.
The tiny Rule Breaker returned to him.
It stopped in front of his hand.
Emrys caught it between his fingers.
Then the weapon returned to its original size and flew away before sinking back into the ground of Unlimited Blade Works.
Only after that did Emrys begin restoring his senses.
Sound returned first.
Then touch.
Then the other sensations he had deliberately suppressed.
The Hill of Swords gradually became perceptible again through his normal awareness.
Emrys slowly inhaled.
Then he stood up.
His body had remained in the same position for approximately two hours.
He stretched his arms.
Then his shoulders.
Then his back.
He slightly rolled his neck, and the stiffness gradually disappeared.
"...That should be enough for now."
───
Life continued in Ulster.
The disappearance of the strange energy went completely unnoticed by the population.
There was no spectacular change.
No sudden awakening.
No visible phenomenon.
Nothing.
The inhabitants simply continued living as they always had.
And Emrys returned to his own occupations.
There were still countless things requiring his attention.
His research.
His training.
The development of the kingdom.
The inhabitants.
The different races living in Ulster.
There was always something to do.
Rou, for his part, also continued living among the population.
Despite the decision Emrys had made regarding his future, he still hadn't officially become the ruler of Ulster.
No ceremony had taken place yet.
No authority had officially been transferred to him.
No official position had been given to him.
For the moment, he simply continued living as he always had.
Things remained that way.
For a while.
Then one year passed.
Then a second.
Then a third.
Three years.
Three entire years passed without Emrys putting his decision into effect.
During that time, he continued observing Ulster.
And over the course of those three years, he watched Rou gradually take on more responsibilities without being asked.
Whenever a conflict arose, Rou was often one of the people called upon to resolve it.
Whenever an administrative problem appeared, he helped deal with it.
Whenever inhabitants needed protection, Rou was among the first to intervene.
Whenever a threat appeared, he acted.
None of this was particularly surprising.
Emrys already knew Rou was capable of it.
That was precisely why he had chosen him.
But there was another reason Emrys had waited.
He wanted Rou to understand something before receiving this responsibility.
Power was easy.
Responsibility was much harder.
Being strong enough to protect people didn't automatically make someone capable of ruling them.
A ruler had to understand that every decision affected other lives.
Every law.
Every punishment.
Every agreement.
Every mistake.
Rou had to understand that.
And throughout those three years, Emrys watched him learn.
Eventually, Emrys decided that he was ready.
It's time.
───
The announcement was made throughout Ulster.
The inhabitants gathered.
There were people of all ages, all builds, and all kinds of clans.
Hybrids could even be spotted here and there among the crowd.
There was no confusion about the reason for their gathering.
For years, Rou had been considered the natural successor to Emrys's authority if he ever decided to choose a successor.
The majority already knew that Emrys wasn't human, and it wasn't as if he had originally wanted to hide that fact from his population.
Although they didn't know exactly which clan he belonged to, the fact that he had stopped aging was enough to suggest that his lifespan was considerable.
He was the strongest person in Ulster after Emrys.
The one the majority naturally turned to whenever Emrys wasn't directly dealing with a situation.
Yet this time was different.
A genuine ceremony was taking place.
Emrys stood before the assembled inhabitants.
Rou stood nearby.
The atmosphere was calm.
Everyone already knew what was about to happen.
Emrys then spoke.
"Making a speech would piss me off way too much, so I'm not going to make it long. From now on, Rou is your leader. For everything else, talk to him."
Then he left the front of the platform and moved to the back.
Rou stepped forward in turn and began speaking to the population.
"I'm going to be brief as well. I have no intention of becoming king."
The statement was simple.
The inhabitants listened.
Rou continued.
"Ulster already has a king."
A brief silence settled over the crowd.
His name spread among them.
Rou's voice remained firm.
"And that will never change."
He was the one who had created the kingdom.
The one who had gathered its inhabitants.
The one who had given them a place to live without constantly having to fear those who wished to destroy them.
He had brought different races together.
He had protected them.
He had laid the foundations of their society.
"I'll be more like an administrator. At most, a regent."
A temporary leader.
Someone entrusted with the responsibility of protecting and managing the kingdom.
Never its permanent sovereign.
Emrys remained silent as Rou spoke.
The inhabitants accepted the proposal.
There was no real resistance or surprise.
To them, it made sense.
Emrys was their king in both title and power, and that would never change.
Rou would simply manage the complicated matters in his place, at most.
That distinction was enough for them.
But Rou wasn't finished.
"I trust that those gathered here will follow my words, but that may not be the case for future generations, who may never know him as the king he truly is."
Emrys was surprised by those words.
"What is this brat trying to do?"
"That's why I propose putting something in place that is more solid than a simple promise or a simple commitment."
Is he talking about a geis?
Rou turned toward Emrys and looked him directly in the eyes.
He wants me to give him the Code of Hammurabi?
Emrys made the pillar appear beside Rou.
Well, whatever. It's not as if he can force those who don't want to accept it to make the geis.
Rou placed his hand on the Code of Hammurabi and began speaking again.
"For all eternity, there will be only one king of Ulster."
A light burst from the Code and enveloped Rou.
A few seconds later, an even brighter light erupted and enveloped all the inhabitants capable of reasoning, proof that they had all accepted.
From that moment onward, this distinction became more than a simple tradition.
It became a rule.
Emrys could have stopped it, but he didn't.
Not because he wanted the title.
He still didn't care about being called king.
But aside from Rou's case, Emrys couldn't see what difference there was between a king and a regent. Unless Rou was petty enough to impose the same restrictions that existed on him onto the next one, the next regent of Ulster would be a king in everything but title.
Anyway, that's not how it works. The geis imposed by the Code isn't hereditary, so the next generation wouldn't have any obligation to respect the promise made by this one.
He had barely finished thinking that when Rou added another layer.
"But from now on, the Geas we have just made will also be reaffirmed every ten years for future generations."
Ah! He knew about that? Emrys thought, perplexed.
A normal law could eventually be changed.
A future regent could theoretically decide that they wanted a crown.
They could convince the population.
They could attempt to rewrite history.
The geis wouldn't allow it.
As long as Ulster existed, Emrys would be its only King.
There was now one final detail.
Rou wasn't immortal, so they would have to decide the rules for what came after Rou.
Rou immediately addressed that question.
"The position of regent will not be hereditary."
The inhabitants listened.
"No child will receive this position simply because their parent held it."
The principle was simple.
The next regent would have to be chosen based on their abilities.
But Rou went further.
"The acting regent will choose his successor from among several candidates following a long examination. Then that successor will have to pass one final examination that will determine whether they are fit to take on this responsibility. If they fail, the selection process will begin again."
Rou finished his speech.
"I won't go into all the details today. We'll have more than enough time together to talk about that. For now, I'll simply say: take care of me."
After Rou's speech ended, Emrys finally spoke.
"Well, fuck. That was extremely boring."
His voice was calm.
"I don't have much to add. You know the gist of it. If there's a problem, don't come bother me anymore. Go talk to him. Anyway, bye. I've got things to do. My Conqueror's Haki coating isn't going to master itself."
I can't believe I still haven't mastered it after three years. But this shit is hard. Maybe I should take a few hits from a kanabo to understand it.
Emrys left the platform, leaving the population with his words.
The population was accustomed to his personality, so his crude language didn't surprise anyone.
They simply did one thing.
Rou raised his arm and shouted at the top of his lungs.
"GLORY TO ULSTER!"
The population did the same.
"GLORY TO ULSTER!!!"