As Kain and Alexis touched down in Necrograd, they did so to the delight of many civilians. They landed not in the sanctuary that was the palace/castle complex at the center of the city, but in one of the main plazas beyond the inner sanctum’s walls. It would seem as though someone had tipped the masses off that the two of them would be meeting the public there, despite it being a secret.

“My King! My King! Ronald Milgraves, with The Necrograd Times! Is it true that you went to deal with the so-called ‘Heroes’ ahead of time while they were still weak?”

An array of microphones was thrust towards the two monarchs as cameras flashed incessantly. Kain was starting to regret his actions in the creation of radio, rapid production newspapers and other such devices. He had inadvertently created the paparazzi menace that had plagued so many on Earth.

“We merely went to scout the ‘Heroes’ to see what they were made of. They were far fewer in number and thoroughly disappointing in terms of power. Only one, a non-combat ‘Hero’ has the potential to reach the heights of the 1000, and even then, they would be around the weaker ones. Roughly between the weakest and the 891st strongest. Even the one with the most broken combat-oriented power has no real discipline and could be dealt with in an easy manner. They are no threat at all. The bigger threat is not them, but instead it is the nations that stand against us. They might actually be more of a thorn in the side than the ‘Heroes’ ever could be.”

More camera flashes and overlapping questions forced Kain to point into the crowd of reporters.

“You. Your question.”

“Yes. Helbram Ghorst, The Daily News. Why do you say that the other two nations would be a bigger issue than the ‘Heroes’?”

Alexis was the one to answer.

“Simply put, the Heroes don’t work well together. None of them trust each other and as they all are drawn from different time periods, nations and have different ages, they all have different outlooks on life and on their situation. They also lack the mental fortitude to even stand in our presence. Only two of them could do so, and the only reason one of those two could was because he was too foolish to realize what he was facing. The nations of Ititlis and Rusk, on the other hand, have a vested interest in fermenting dissent in our Empire. They are already using the widespread knowledge that there are new ‘Heroes’ in the world to try and introduce rebellion and revolt in the Empire and its allies. Thus, compared to the rather impotent children that were kidnapped into this world, the nations of Ititlis and Rusk are far more of a nuisance.”

Cameras flashed and questions overlapped again, but both Kain and Alexis had no intention of letting the media control their meet and greet with the populace. They had somewhere they needed to be, and the paparazzi was in the way.

“We are on our way to an event, and your appearance would only cause anxiety in those we will be meeting. You will have another chance to ask questions in a few days, during the regular press brief that happens every three months. Any other important information will be released when it is ready. Now, I will only say this once. There will be no more questions today. You will make way now, or I will force you to make way.”

The media knew better than to call Kain’s words a bluff. The reporters made way, and Alexis nodded at Kain. A smile crossed his lips and the two seemingly vanished into thin air. They had not, in fact, teleported or sped off. Rather, Alexis had simply used Light Magic to bend light around them. The two of them appeared to have vanished, but in truth they simply went invisible and flew into the air, landing a decent distance away.

…

Samuel Ravenson looked nervously at the clock on the wall. It was the 67th time he had done so in the past two and a half hours. He was dreading the upcoming conference he was going to have. He was a preschool teacher, but he had no problems with the kids in his class. Save for two. Those two were the son and daughter of the Emperor and Empress of Darksol.

The two were nothing short of a nightmare for him. They acted out again and again, as if they knew that their position as prince and princess would keep them from any and all punishments.

He had, unfortunately, had the lack of decorum to send a letter to their parents and explain how the two little devils were making the class impossible to manage. He fully expected to die today due to his idiocy. He had heard that Kain and Alexis thought their ‘little darlings’ could do no wrong. No doubt today would be his last day alive.

Ten minutes before the conference was supposed to begin, there was a knock on his door.

“Oh, good. My executioner has arrived for the crime of slandering the royal children…” he thought, but the door opened, and the Emperor and Empress walked in, Elizabeth and Raziel following behind with shit eating grins on their pudgy little faces. Those two were far more intelligent than any kid should be at their age, and it scared the shit out of him.

“My apologies for coming early, but I assumed you would want this done with as soon as possible. We also want this dealt with quickly. There will be things to discuss with the affected parties afterwards.”

So, they were going to tell his wife and kids how they murdered him for crossing their kids?

“P-please take a seat. Can I offer you something to drink? I have… water…”

“No, no. Let us cut straight to the meat of it.” Kain said as he pulled a pair of folding chairs from nowhere and unfolded them.

“Of course,” Sam thought, “the weak little chairs that were here wouldn’t be strong enough to hold their weight! I should have thought of that!”

Sam sat in silence as the two little devils tried to act like angels.

“Then, I will ask you bluntly. How exactly have our children been disturbing the class?”

“W-well. They have been stealing things, damaging property and bullying both students and teachers alike. They are, unfortunately for us, untouchable. We can’t lay a finger on them, for obvious reasons. We can’t punish them, for obvious reasons. They are free to do whatever they want, and they have been doing whatever they want whenever they want to do so.”

Sam accepted he would die and wheeled himself from behind the desk. Yes, he was in a wheelchair after the two of them had tripped him and he had twisted both his legs. Seeing this, Kain and Alexis’ eyes widened, and they looked at the two ‘little darlings’ below them. The two devils looked back and feigned innocence and ignorance, but Sam could somehow tell that the two were not buying it.

“I fail to see why you cannot touch them or punish them.” Alexis stated as if there was no difference in position between her children and the others.

“You can’t be serious. They are the royal heirs! We can’t just-!”

Kain reached into a pocket dimension and withdrew a document.

“We clearly signed that during their entire education process they were to be treated as regular, ordinary children. You and the school are within your rights to punish Elizabeth and Raziel as you would any other child who acted in such a way. However, it would seem that you lack the ability to enforce such punishments, as such we will be granting you and this school the usage of Mary, the head maid. She will be the muscle you need to help educate our children.”

At the name ‘Mary’ the two kids started panicking.

“But Mom, Dad! We didn’t do anything! They’re lying!”

“Yeah! We wouldn’t hurt a fly!”

‘Holy shit,’ Sam thought, ‘they can actually speak in full sentences!’

“Elizabeth Baothry Nekronus, Raziel Thanatos Nekronus, we can see through your deception. We can tell he is not lying. His injuries have the residual energy you left behind on him, and even if we could not, we already had you under surveillance the moment you were born. You will be punished for your actions, and you would have been even had we not been told of your actions by this man.”

Sam realized they were not, in fact, going to kill him. In reality, they supported him! Huzzah, the nightmare twins would be stopped from their rampage!

The two brats glared at Samuel, but the two monarchs seemed to catch this.

“When we get home, you will both be given lessons by Mary. If you continue to act in a way unbecoming of your station, then you know what will happen.”

Kain’s threat seemed to hit home, and the two of them gulped audibly.

“Aside from this bothersome series of incidents, how have they been doing in preschool?”

“Well, to be honest, they don’t fit here…”

“What?”

Sam hurriedly explained.

“They are simply too smart to be here! They have a mental capacity several years above their actual age, in fact. If it were not for their age, they could easily be in 3rd or 4th grade!”

Kain and Alexis nodded as if to show that they understood.

“We agree, but putting a toddler in a 3rd or 4th grade class, especially toddlers as prone to misbehaving as ours, would not be a good idea. For now, they will learn to act appropriately. Only once they have learned discipline and how to avoid making a monster of themselves will we permit a grade skip.”

Sam was glad that they saw things that way, and thankfully for his sanity the Parent-Teacher meeting ended smoothly.

The next day, the two little monsters arrived by school bus, instead of by undead carriage like they usually did. Behind them was a woman who looked like an elderly maid, but also exuded a massive amount of potent energy. Thankfully, Samuel was only skilled enough to notice that she was leaking energy, not that it was as powerful as it was.

The brats attempted to misbehave several times over the next few months, but Mary was somehow always around when they thought she wasn’t. Slowly, over the course of the year, the two terrible toddlers started acting better, much to everyone’s relief. Samuel paid no attention to the news or current events, but he did notice the sudden change from large amounts of it to an utter lack of propaganda a few years after the two terrible kids left his class.

Almost a decade and a half later, the year he retired, he received a ‘Thank You’ letter from the two little devils. After being reprimanded, they had slowly grown to become better people, and owed him a debt of gratitude for forcing them down their current path.