If Belos was found out how ticklish he is when he was still the emperor... He would need bodyguards to protect himself from wild witches' tks.
Do you think one or two of his guards would just..let it happen? 😭
Like, if those guards in particular wanted to quit the job anyway bc of their dislike for Belos, they'd probably pretty much lead the witches to wherever he was, and innocently disguise it as 'these wild witches have been brought before you for appropriate judgement' or wtv, so that he'd have no idea what's happening when the chains on the witches turn out to be illusions and they fuckin *lunge* at him.
Also, can you imagine how embarrassing it would be to explain his need for extra protection? Bro can't blame it on an 'increase in wild witches' since they've already dwindled down to just Eda and a few others at the night market, which means that he'd either have to be blatantly honest, or make up some wild excuse that absolutely *no one* believes. Hell, the coven heads would just deduce his actual reasons anyway, and then secretly spread the message through basically everyone except Kikimora or the evil coven heads. Well, and Lilith, but that depends on whether she'd still be working for Belos or not at the time. Still, I can vividly imagine Darius manipulating a small abomination to hand Belos something and 'accidentally' brush against his side, resulting in some strangled noise eliciting from the oh so fearsome dictator, or maybe Ebberwolf having a few 'out of control' insects discreetly crawl their way to the backs of his knees.
Welp, I think I've rambled on long enough lolll, ty for the idea anon <333