This
is an original story of mine. I'm pretty confident in my prose, it
shouldn't lose to your average web novel, so please have a look, if the
premise seems interesting to you. In terms of genres, I suppose it's romance/fantasy/slice of life with a dash of action here and there. Potentially some politics down the line. OP protagonist, strong from the start, but not to the level of being common sense breaking. Harem, obviously. Some of my founding motivations for this story were my desires to write a fantasy harem story that actually focused on the romance side of things, and dealt with the problems of "managing" multiple lovers in a somewhat realistic manner. I don't plan to go to heavy drama territory, but it'll certainly be a bumpy ride.
Premise:
What does it take for a single man to end a war between two empires? Wellman, a mage and adventurer of some fame, found that a public show of unprecedented magical power worked wonders. Unfortunately, this attracted the attention of the world’s rulers, who now each hope to draw him into their own faction with a political marriage. With high-born beauties tugging his sleeve each in their own direction, how is a man to maintain control of his life?
The Princess Harem
Prologue
I leaned on my staff, as a wave of weakness, the like of which I hadn’t felt in years, washed over me. My body was special, peerless in its capacity to recover and store mana, but that came with a price: it was also very high maintenance in terms of mana, and being squeezed dry like this made me feel very unwell. Only adrenaline and willpower were keeping me upright at this point. Imagine not sleeping for days, followed by hard physical exertion, and you might get a rough idea.
While catching my breath, I observed my handiwork: a chasm about twenty metres wide extended to my left and right as far as my eyes could see. To my left, it split a wide open field in two. On both sides, thousands of men equipped for war were getting back on their feet, after losing their balance to the tremors.
You look dreadful, Wellman, jeered a voice in my head. You were never this pathetic in your active adventuring days. All that sitting in that tower of yours is ruining your body.
Shut up, Ortec. Lend me some mana. My work isn’t done yet. I’ll recharge you as soon as I have the time.
Hmph. I’ll hold you to that promise.
As I felt invigorating energy pulses entering my body from the staff in my hands, I straightened my back and started walking towards the camp on my side of the divide. Although my staff was an exceptionally powerful magic item, the amount of mana I regained was small compared to what I had just spent. To follow the earlier analogue, this injection of mana was like a short nap. But at least I could now pretend not to be ready to fall over to the nearest soft spot in the ground.
The fame I had achieved in my life until now was by no means negligible, but I had never before been stared at like this. Some of the soldiers scampered out of my way like I was a dragon come to raid their camp, others just followed me with a mixture of fear and respect in their eyes. It was quiet, so unnaturally quiet for a war camp. No one barred my way, until I reached the large circular tent in the middle.
The entrance was naturally guarded. To my right, clad in steel and holding a halberd, was a hard-looking man, approximately in his late twenties. On the other side, dressed in a robe and armed with an enchanted scepter, a woman who looked very much capable, but couldn’t be called pretty even with the best of wills. I didn’t know their names, but I vaguely recalled seeing them during an earlier visit. What I did know was that they were highly trained veterans, imperial guards. The fellow with the halberd could actually use it as an effective weapon even if fighting alone, and the the woman was a powerful mage.
“Is the Emperor in?” I asked.
The man simply nodded.
“Then let him know I’m here.”
The guards exchanged a brief glance, then the woman turned and approached the covered entry. Just as she was reaching to pull aside the covering, an authoritative voice sounded from inside the tent:
“Let him in!”
The guard froze for a second, then pulled the flap aside and motioned me to go through. Normally, you’d be stripped of your weapons when going to meet an emperor, but such precautions were meaningless when dealing with a mage.
Inside the command tent, there were three men standing around a table with a map spread atop it. On the right side, a greying old soldier in an armour. I recognised him as Godras Harmuel, a veteran general and the mastermind behind the strategy that allowed the Divine Haiman Empire to recover and push back after being invaded and initially forced to retreat. He glared at me with piercing eyes, but I ignored him.
On the left side, a young man of about twenty, dressed not for battle, but in a royal’s garb in the colours of blue, red and gold. He was quite handsome, as far as looks go, but while he had a longsword strapped to his waist, he looked weak, out of place in a battlefield. Crown Prince Trymion, eldest son of the emperor. In contrast to the general, he was slightly pale and avoided my gaze, peeking at me from the corner of his eye.
On the other side of the table from me, a middle-aged man dressed in the same colours and showing a clear family resemblance to the youth. He was wearing a helmet that didn’t cover his face and a chain mail, also carrying a long sword at his waist. They were not ceremonial toys, but high quality equipment fit for a ruler. Though Emperor Toren looked slightly overweight, he was also decidedly more muscular and had the air about him that made him look much more at home in a battlefield than his son.
“Was that your doing, Wellman?” the emperor questioned before I could get a word out of my mouth. “The earthquake. And I’m told the field is split in two now.”
I approached the table. “As a matter of fact, Your Majesty, the gorge runs through not only this field, but several kilometres of the border between the Empire of Dolon Gur and your Divine Haiman Empire. Yes, it was my doing. You left me no choice.” My voice was steady, though in truth, I was taking quite a gamble here.
He frowned. “How? What kind of a trick did you employ? No one man has that kind of power!”
“I do. Ask your soldiers, they saw the whole thing.”
Several different expressions flashed on the emperor’s face. It seemed to me he couldn’t decide whether to be angry, impressed or afraid. From the corner of my eye, I saw the prince going even paler and taking a step back, while the old general on my right stared down at the map with a deep frown on his face.
“Godras, check his story.”
“Eh? But… No, nevermind. By your will.” Awakened from his thoughts by the the emperor’s voice, the old man made a small bow and left the tent. He did hesitate, probably unwilling to leave his liege and the crown prince alone with me, but only for a moment.
Emperor Toren directed a piercing gaze at me, as if trying to read my mind. “What do you want, Wellman?”
“You know what I want. This war of yours needs to end. And you will end it, or you will find me on the other side of that chasm, making friends with Emperor Dravian. I’m sure you would hate for me to do that,” I pointed my thumb in the general direction of the fissure, “in the middle of your capital.”
“You are out of line, mage!” the emperor thundered, hammering his fast on the table. “I will have you executed!”
Gathering what little power I had left - well, little by my standards - I laid my eyes on the map table between us, and applied a little pressure. The table’s feet gave in with a rapid series of cracking noises. I stepped on the table, now lying barely above the ground, on the broken remains of what had been its legs. As I approached the emperor, he inadvertently took a step back, unable to hide the shock on his face. He was not a short man, but I was slightly taller, and standing on the ruined table allowed me to stare down at him.
“Don’t be a fool, Toren. I just displayed my power, you must realise that at this point I’m beyond all laws, even your imperial decrees.” Looming over him, I could see the colour drain from the emperor’s face, as anger transformed to fear.
Oh, look at you! Putting yourself above the law. I’m proud of you, Wellman. That’s the first step to becoming an evil tyrant. Trust me, I know - I walked down that path once.
I ignored the cheerful voice in my head.
“Your Majesty!” I heard the tent flap open and the alarmed guards entering. Before they could intervene, I pointed my staff at them, without separating my eyes from those of the emperor, and expended a considerable portion of my remaining magical energy to wrap them in paralysing power.
It should be difficult to entrap individuals of their level, in my drained state, where I couldn’t hold a candle to them in a direct confrontation. As an emperor’s guards, they could certainly be compared to gold rank adventurers, whereas I was about ready to fall over with a light push. However, this spell was one of my specialties. I was very, very good at it. And more importantly, I caught them by surprise. Even so, I knew that I had only bought a little time for myself, the mage would break out of my spell at any moment. So I had to end this fast.
“The war ends. Today.” I said this very clearly, my tone implying that I was expecting a reply.
The emperor struggled for a moment to get a sound out of his throat. “I- if Dravian is willing to negotiate, then I as well…”
“He will,” I said with confidence I wasn’t sure was justified.
Turning on my heels, sparing but a glance to the emperor’s son or the paralysed guards, I walked across to the entry.
“Oh,” I said, as if only now remembering, and turned to speak to the emperor one more time. “Have your notary draft a preliminary peace agreement. The gorge will act as your new border, otherwise you’ll return to the pre-war borders. Neither side will pay indemnities. We can hammer out the details as we meet by the crevasse. I’ll bring Emperor Dravian. Don’t keep us waiting.”
I released the guards as I stepped out of the tent. Without stopping, I made my way towards the other camp, on the other side of the field.
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