Enlightenment of the Rogue Emperor by Jana Klánová #YAFantasy

Enlightenment of the Rogue EmperorRogue, Arcane and Desolate  Book OneJana Klánová Genre: YA Fantasy AdventurePublisher: Jana KlánováDate of Publication: 19th May 2023ISBN: 978-80-11-03194-7ASIN: B0C4LH4VYVNumber of pages: 526Word Count: 155k
Cover Artist: nskvsky
Tagline: Until death or authorities do us part
Book Description: Eugenie is a certified, double-vetted, regular, ordinary high-school girl living her best life someone more competent planned for her, in a perfectly normal world, where strange things don't happen because that is simply impossible.
Or so she thought.
Right the second she graduates, the rug under her feet gets pulled and she, alongside a young, mysterious scoundrel, takes a wild tumble down a mountain of myths and hoaxes that her country has been built upon into a whirl of unknown, scary… but oh, so exciting.

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Excerpt:

It was finally over. The last day of Academy began with arather underwhelming and bleak summer morning.

After spending four long years at the Military Academy ofthe capital city Concordam, cadets were anxiously shivering with expectationsfor the Commander’s arrival; it was his decision that would sort them intospecialized military branches and launch them into their new lives and careers.

While Eugenie sluggishly approached the classroom through adim academy hallway, she couldn’t help but overhear the excited chatter of herclassmates.

“Oh, I hope I go to the Navy! I submitted my preference forma day after the deadline.

Do you think they’ll still accept it?”

“I applied for covert ops!” exclaimed an annoying voice ofan annoying classmate.

“You just proved that you’re too dumb for that,” someonereacted, and a burst of clamorous laughter followed.

Eugenie rested her back against the wall outside theclassroom door. Waiting quietly all by herself for the chime to announce thebeginning of the end. When it finally rang, she slung her bag, packed inaccordance with the protocol for immediate transfer, over her shoulder and thenheaded into the classroom. It was easy to notice that the second she entered, thejoyous murmur of the class notably faded.

Eugenie was odd.

She used to strike everyone’s attention by being decisivelythe tallest girl in the class with a wordless greeting of an unimpressed stare–eyes cold and grey like a stone. Her chestnut hair, slovenly laid to hershoulders, naturally rebellious fresh face and slender stature were stillmaking people turn around, but it had been a long time since boys had droppedthe attempts to impress her, and girls gave up on involving her in recess chat.Eugenie did not seem bothered. By nothing and no one. She could returncompliments, but that idea never crossed her mind.

Days passed by without her saying a full sentence. Her wholeimage and emotionless behaviour that she had displayed steered her classmatesto the conclusion that she was an incorrigible, arrogant bitch.

She waddled to her desk at the back of the room andcollapsed unglamorously into the seat. Before classmates managed to revive theflow of the chat that Eugenie disrupted, the Commander of the Academy walkedin. In a blink of an eye, the class stood in a rigid salute, greeting.Commander Vance Ewin, who had constantly smelled like an ashtray, was aremarkably vital man in his early seventies. Or unusually worn out in hismid-fifties. No one knew for sure. His age was the first military secret cadetscame across.

“At ease, sit down,” he answered and casually slid his handsinto pockets of his heavily decorated olive-green uniform.

“The time has come for cadets to follow their own paths tocarry out the will of the motherland. As we all did. In the past years, whileya’ll have been training on the grounds of our Academy, your performances andphysical and mental strengths were up for some evaluations.

Last month you were ordered to submit your preference forms!If there is a match between your skills and the General’s demand, your wish islikely to be granted. If the demand can’t accommodate you and your preference,don’t think we’ll send you home. You’ll be sorted into a branch that willutilize your existing skillset the best… Well, I bet ya’ll know the drill bynow pretty well, so let’s move on to what everybody is waiting for.

I’m now going to hand out envelopes. Each envelope has anumber inside. A respective military branch officer will come later, call anumber, and if they call yours, you’ll follow, no questions asked. Until then,you’ll be quiet like a mouse. Instructions couldn’t be clearer.”

He didn’t wait for any response and barked the name of thefirst cadet in the alphabet:

“Aikman!”

Trissy Aikman was briskly on her feet and paced to theCommander confidently. There was no need to hesitate; they all had been throughsomething similar before. She saluted. The Commander then shook her handformally and passed the envelope to her. After that, she skittered to her deskto find her result. She raised four fingers in the direction of her besties,sitting across the aisle, to indicate which group she landed in.

Ingo Broft repeated the same protocol precisely.

“Dean!” Eugenie got minor heart failure when she heard hername. She stood up so rapidly that her chair tumbled on the floor with anear-splitting clatter. Her face flushed red from embarrassment. Eugeniestaggered as if she instinctively wanted to put it upright again, but she frozein motion. Fixing mess was not part of the envelope protocol. She oversteppedthe disaster on the floor and headed towards the Commander. The Commanderrolled his eyes and nodded, albeit begrudgingly.

“Commander! An amazon is attempting to destroy the Academyproperties!” Broft, now a successful navy candidate from Panumbreno, caused aboom of boisterous laughter.

“Broft! You think I can’t hear that damn racket? Well, Idid, but did you hear my order to shut the hell up and wait? Maybe you want torun laps till your hearing gets better?” Commander Ewin growled back at him.

“No sir,” the classmate peeped, humbled.

Eugenie made it to the Commander and saluted with apologeticeyes, but the Commander’s capacity seemed to be completely spent by thecorrectness of the envelope ritual while simultaneously emitting hisdon’t-fuck-with-me vibes in Broft’s general direction. After Eugenie returnedto her desk, she got her chair upright and hid her face away from the judging looksof her fellow classmates.

The Commander took only minutes to serve all the envelopeshe had at hand.
“Respective officers will be in here shortly. Make us proud. Make yourselvescount,” were the last words of advice they heard from the Commander before heleft the religiously quiet classroom.

Eugenie opened the packet slightly. But she saw nothing. Shepulled the paper out to see the other side. Empty. She flipped the pagefrantically and then inspected the inside of the envelope, utterly dumbfounded.

Eugenie was given a blank paper.

Every time a group of classmates left, her stomach clenchedtighter and tighter. It did not take long for the classroom to get deserted.The thick aura of frustration, condensing slowly around Eugenie, became theonly other entity to keep her company.

The blank paper’s gotta mean something. The Commander gavethe order to shut up and sit. That means I can’t just leave yet, Eugenieassessed.

She did not know how to execute the white paper protocol,but she was as sure as sun that no cadet in the Academy of Concordam was meantto take any action against orders.

I’m getting kicked out of the Army, she concluded, breakingout into a cold sweat.

The dreary tension was making every tick of the clock draglike years. Eugenie was in quiet panic mode, mentally preparing for thepossible outcomes of expulsion from the Army. The regime was not leaving manyoptions to anyone, but Eugenie did not fear the prospects that unsuccessfulcadets and students were haunted by.

It was the terrifying uncertainty of what would happen nextthat was curdling her blood.

On top of that, she was not even permitted to leave; an officerhad to allow that first.

The Academy had emptied. Eugenie did not hear a singlesqueak in the hallway for a long while. Suddenly, the silence was shattered byan ear-splitting tire screech from outside. Her desk by the window allowed alittle peek into the Academy’s backyard; Eugenie leaned in to quench hercuriosity, fuelled by the boredom. She witnessed how an executive limo hadparked in the middle of the backyard with almost dastardly disrespect to anykind of order. A distinct shape of an officer emerged from the driver seat andscooted across in an agitated rush.

Oh no, Eugenie thought. Nope. It’s not him. It’s NEVER him.He never visits the Academy. I wish that maybe someday, SOMEDAY, I’d get tomeet General Everian. He’s a rockstar just by the rank, an Imperial... and hislooks on top of that! She had been lost on a train of her gushing fangirlfantasies until steps in the hallway grew louder and disturbed Eugenie from herconvenient daydreaming.

Gingerly, she glanced through the open door in the directionof the incoming noise and in that second, her heart stopped beating.

A man in his late twenties, of a tall, athletic stature,with a decorated army hat pressed against black hair, brushed into a fringe,was rushing through the corridor like a merciless tempest. Even if this wasEugenie’s first time to see a general in person, she could clearly recognizethe sign of the Imperial family; a coral-red sash was peeking through hisloosely unbuttoned, anthracite officer trench coat. And yes, he was carrying along-hilted sword clipped to his belt.

There was no doubt left. General Alistar Everian was comingat her. A reflex immediately kicked Eugenie into a frenzied attention stance.

The handsome machine of authority charged into the emptyclassroom but quickly lost his momentum in front of the blackboard. Perhaps, hecame to a shocking realization that it would be easier for him to navigatewithout his hat. The annoying visor of his General headpiece kept invading hisline of sight constantly. He took it off, furrowed his thick eyebrows andpierced Eugenie with a fiercely stern gaze. Even across the classroom, Eugeniewas snared by his frosty blue eyes.

“It is alright, Cadet. At ease,” he uttered coldly. Adispleased grimace on the General’s face curved his lips and revealed hisperfect, glistening teeth.

Eugenie felt like all her blood had decided to go on astrike, despite her heart’s insane efforts. She tumbled down to the seat like apine tree defeated by a hurricane. General Everian paced to her, and with aswift move, he snatched a chair belonging to another desk and descended on it,right in front of Eugenie, with grace that would make a swan jealous. Eugeniepanted for a breath and leaned away in a desperate attempt to increase thedistance between them.

“Cadet, none of this is in my job description, and I have notime for this. Are you even at least aware of what could possibly bring mehere?” He was not smiling. Nor graceful. His voice was so neutral that Eugeniecould not tell if he was trying to comfort or intimidate her. She shook herhead and turned her eyes down in a negative response. The General softlyexhaled, and from his exasperated hand gesture, it was clear he was searching forwords.

“Alright. Let me tell you the story from my end. On one fineevening, I am sitting in my Commanding centre, minding my own business. Nothingtoo important. As a Cordam General, I am only responsible for supplyingmilitary personnel into seven provinces.” Even though he was ranting, Eugeniecould not help herself; all she could think of was how glorious General lookedwhen he was doing that.

“That’s the core responsibility of Cordam. We producesoldiers, officers, clerks, lawyers, doctors, teachers and all this—” he wavedhis hand impatiently, “—to maintain public order in the Unity lands.” Eugenienodded vigorously. The word he was missing was infrastructure, but she did notfind the courage to suggest it.

“Then this fat piece of – Commander-- waltzes in myCommanding centre and tells me: look, Alistar, I have one excellent cadet witha unique psychological profile, and I don’t know how to sort her after shegraduates, which is roughly in 14 hours. Now you see, cadet, I got played likea banjo by that stinker because you can already deduce, he got me to visit thehellhole he runs to check on your sorting process,” he fired off his version socasually as if they were drinking buds. Eugenie pulled another weak apologeticface. When General noticed her reaction, his murderous drive faltered. Helooked around erratically as if he was supposed to search for some hidden clue.

“Looking at you, I assume that you’re already guessing thecause of my presence. Can I see your envelope, please?” By the end of thesentence, he posed his hand in a demanding gesture to Eugenie. Even though hesounded calmer, saying no was not an option. Eugenie was shaking when shepassed the envelope to the General. He pinched it with two fingers andinspected it against the light without any due. He scoffed at his findings.

“Cadet Dean, why did you not fill out your preference form?You would get sorted by your choice, I can guarantee that,” there was anegligible hint of curiosity in his tone.

“I didn’t like any of the options, sir,” she repliedbluntly. Immediately, she regretted not thinking her answer through.

“And what would be to your liking then?” he fired back ather. This time she was ready with an answer. She had spent years waiting forsomeone to ask her this question.

“I’d like to be Emperor’s personal guard, sir!” Eugeniespouted proudly.

Although General Everian was a seasoned professional in histrade, he lost his face in front of her again. This time, he was genuinelybaffled.

“Do you know how ridiculous that sounds? Imagine as if I,when sitting here ten years ago, said: I wanna be a General, but there is nobox to tick in your form, so piss off.”

Eugenie just kept her eyes low; no military officer was everin the mood for delusions of grandeur.

“No wonder you couldn’t find a match in the preference form.Are you even aware that the Emperor has no dedicated military personnel?” 

“Yes, I know, sir. That is why I submitted an incompletepreference form. No matter what I’ll get sorted into, it will be adisappointing result.” The General could no longer maintain his ironcladcomposure, and his face got tainted with an amused grin.

“Why the Emperor? Why not… me, for example?” he actedfrisky.

“Ignore that question, Cadet,” he waved it away the secondhe noticed that Eugenie was violently blushing.

About the Author 
Jana Klánová is an author from the capital of beer and magic, Prague, Czech Republic.
Her work is hugely influenced by authors like Terry Pratchett, J.R.R. Tolkien, George R.R. Martin, Stephanie Meyer, Tara Gilesbie and other absolute legends.
https://www.janaklanova.com
https://twitter.com/JanaKlanova
https://www.bookbub.com/authors/jana-klanova
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/26602726.Jana_Klanova