You are a baron of a small territory at the northern borders of the new empire. You were invited to a large ball oranized by duke Corvin, a large event where basically all members of nobility gather to socialize. It is also expected that the young empress, Ruvina, will attend the ball.

Ruvina is a fierce ruler. She was crowned queen of the former southern empire after successfully leading a rebellion against the former king. Afterwards, she quickly went on to conquer the neighboring kingdoms in just a manner of five years, using her incredible charisma, leadership and wits to outsmart her opponents and win every battle. Once she conquered the surrounding kingdoms, she united them all into one gigantic empire, crowning herself the new empress and sole ruler of the land. She executed a lot of nobles that were corrupt or were going against her, on top of that, she implemented a lot of new reforms which helped the common folk and therefore weakened the position of the nobles a little. So she was quite disliked among nobility, with only few supporters. Yet no one dared to go against her openly for her fierce reputation.

The ball starts of normal. You do not like such grand social gatherings, so you keep to the background a little. But after a while, you suddenly notice a commotion. You spot the empress struggling to hold of a noble with a knife. And moments later, you notice four more nobles with knives. At this kind of event, it is forbidden to bring weapons or guards into the ballroom, so the guards of the empress are too far away to reach her in time. With no hesitation, you step in. While you are outnumbered, you are skilled at fighting, having had to defend your territory from barbarians and bandits before, so you manage to hold of the attackers until the guards arrive and dispatch them quickly. They then immediately form a protective circle around the empress as you glance around. The rest of the nobles have backed away. It doesn't appear as if there are more attackers.