'Til Kingdom Comes - The Banished Prince Vol 4: The System

Amadeus Becomes A Test Dummy...!!!

Sunday, 27th November 1442

The next day was a non-working day for everyone in the community as they gathered around to attend the sermons that were being conducted by Eagle's other Priests. It had been some time since I had gone for any of the Sermons, and everyone in the household dressed up their best on Sunday. All the essential services were open for the day that includes the Grocery, Bakery, Greasy Spoon et cetera while the rest of the town's services were closed for the day.

Eagle was wearing his trademark robe that was all black one-piece Padre's robe with a golden tassel at the sides as well as a huge sign of the Cross that was in golden as well. There were silver trimmings on the sides and sleeves of the robe that accentuate its uniqueness.

"Hey, Your Majesty...! What do you think of this new getup? Innes and Chadwell had designed this based on the papers that His and Her Royal Highness had brought back the other time.

"Looks good, Eagle. It makes you wanna soar above the attendees later on at the Coliseum." I praised at the way the new robe suited Eagle as he twirled around like a little ballerina while holding on to his censer. The censer that Eagle was holding on had been filled with some embers as frankincense's smoke was pouring out from the ventilation holes. It made Eagle look like an Angel. HAHAHAHA...!!! Angel my ass...!!! An Angel of Death From Above would be best suited for him. Hahaha...!!!

Our children were all dressed their best and both wore matching red coloured tunic and blouse with matching black pants with black boots. Heather was also in her red and black outfit as I was on an all-black long sleeve tunic with a V-neck laced opening and a pair of black tights. It had been some time since I had removed the Black Knight's armour off my self. We entered our boxed section in the Coliseum while the Priests and Priestess were busy selling their wares to generate more income. Artemis and Aragorn were brought to the boxed areas in the Coliseum to attend the Sermon, even though their races do not believe in such practices. Amadeus was there as he was wearing the newly fused Rare Class Cloth Armour Tunic and Pants and was slowly adapting to its weight and feel.

"His Majesty, I had tested the penetration force of our arrows on the enhanced pieces of armour as I can relate to you that I am very impressed with its durability. It even had a few sockets too, am I right?" Amadeus praised highly on the quality of the Cloth Armour right after its enhancement as he was overjoyed with it, despite being on the heavier side.

Aragorn noticed the Cloth Armour that Amadeus was wearing and he somehow scorned at its simplicity and lowest class among the set of armours. But when he held the material in his hand, he discovered that the durability had somehow upgraded, a bit heavier and sturdier.

"Great Elven King, His Majesty had redesigned this Tunic and Pants that I am wearing. Do you believe that if you stab me with your dagger, it would not penetrate through this?" Amadeus highlighted to Aragorn and before I could stop both of them, Aragorn removed his dagger and straight away stabbed into Amadeus' abdomen. The latter was rolling on the ground and writhing in pain...!

"Amadeus... You told me that the dagger would not penetrate through your armour, but why are you rolling on the floor instead?" Aragorn tried to bring Amadeus to his feet after he had seen the latter writhing on the ground like an earthworm on a hot stone...

After Amadeus finally got back to his seat, he rubbed his abdomen that was stabbed by Aragorn. "You should have given me a signal, you know, Great Elven King? There's no blunt force trauma pad underneath this tunic and if there is I would not be squirming on the ground earlier. The stab I received was like a punch to my face..."

HRH JR and Amy were snickering at my sides since they knew that the pain would be there for some time even though the dagger did not manage to penetrate or even leave a mark.

Aragorn was piqued with interest when he inspected the place where he had stabbed Amadeus and found that the dagger did not penetrate the cloth material but had left a large hematoma instead on the greenskin. "Tchick... that hematoma would be gone in a few days, I reckon. There should be nothing to worry about, am I right, Amadeus?" Aragorn gave a friendly punch on Amadeus's shoulders as the latter just sulked at being given a present on the very morning he wore the cloth armour. But overall, he was satisfied with the armour since it did not even puncture when he drove his specially made arrows into the material. He wondered how a live target would feel if one was to be bombarded by a barrage of arrows at a time. He would not look like a porcupine, however, he would be looking all blue and black over his greenskin. Hahaha...!!!

"Are you satisfied with the new improved Cloth Armour Tunic and Pants that have an attribute of +16 and +12 armour rating respectively, Amadeus? You have five sockets free and we would leave them as it is for the moment. Swing by at our house later on and I would like to hand you some booklets that had some special shouts, chants and spells which you would likely take advantage of. We humans had taken advantage of those, and the same could be said to Artemis and the other wood elves."

These shouts, spells and chants are our lifesavers and the only thing it uses is Mana, which everyone would be able to have them accordingly. Besides, how many Fighters, Rangers and Rogues do you have right now which would need such pieces of armour? I had duplicated 50 of them and had 49 left in my storage."

"Oh, His Majesty. We have 2 dozen Rangers, Fighters and Rogues in our midst so it would make up 75 of them altogether along with the leaders of each individual Class. I guess I would have to trouble you for the additional pieces then, would that be fine with you?" Amadeus was sheepishly asking for assistance and I gladly nodded my head in acknowledgement. HRH Amy and JR were happy that Amadeus was happy with the new improved pieces of Cloth Armour and did not mind the extra six pounds of mesh steel embedded within the pieces of armour.

"Alright, that settles then. Today your kin would not be going to the fields but would be best mingle with the rest of the community here. I would be making an announcement right after the service and I am hoping that everyone would be able to integrate seamlessly."

I highlighted to the Elven race and they were happy that I was taking this matter seriously and would be able to command the whole community of close to 15,000 in a single voice. Furthermore, they had seen how the people in this town was able to help one another despite being of different status before and became a single citizen of Gracehaven.

=*=

Before long, the Sermon that was being delivered by Eagle and assisted by Priestess Anastasis as she successfully projected Eagle's voice over throughout the Coliseum clearly and crisply. Just before Eagle concluded the Sermon, I excused myself and walked to the rostrum where Eagle was and took over.

"Good morrow, citizens of Gracehaven. It had been some time since I had made a speech and here I am again, right here in the rostrum and delivering you a message that would ben beneficial to everyone here in this town. We had been here for more than two years running and everything had been smooth except that we may have some interferences from the external forces which we are dealing with them soon."

"We would like to put our hands and hearts together to make our colourful interracial diversity, living together in a peaceful and harmoniuos community. We have the common folks, the Irish Travellers, The Romanian Gypsies, The Priests and Priestess from the Knaresborough Caves as well as the Wood Elven Adventurers from the Caras Kingdom and occasional visits from the Wood Elves as well as Dwarves, Gnomes and other mythical races."

"The moment as you had set your foot here in this lands, you are known as citizens of Gracehaven that does not segregate others indifference in languages, skin colour nor even where you all came from originally."

"You are one and are being treated as equals. If you can contribute to the community and society, you would be reimbursed well accordingly."

"In the next few days to come, the expert forges from the Dwarven race would be here to help us forge those mithril ores that they had gifted to us. Due to the process of gifting those pieces to us, two scouts from the Wood Elves had been caught in a mire and one of them had been grievously injured and is now being treated in the hospital and attended to by Priestess Isabela."

"From the extent of her injuries, she would be expected to be here for about three weeks or so to be fully rehabilitated. The Great Elevn King, Aragorn would be here to monitor the progress as well along. Now, we would like you to put our hands together for a new allegiance with a certain sub-race from the Wood Elves which called themselves as the Wood Elven Adventurers that made up of at least 75 combat-ready personnel that would lend a hand towards our current military force."

"There would be quite a handful of the womenfolk from their sub-race as well as we would like those who are working in the fields to show how you worked the machines et cetera. Also, with an influx of close to 100 womenfolk from the Wood Elven sub-race, we would have more people working in the fields."

"Everyone would be treated fairly and be reimbursed accordingly. Please do show how we humans interact with one another and guide them whenever necessary. These Wood Elves sub-race are land dwellers as I would like to see everyone to give a hand whenever they require, would that be alright?" I concluded my message as it had been a while since I had spoken to a 15,000 strong community as it felt good.

Everyone could see the tiny figure on the rostrum and giving them a good hearing as my voice projected by Anastasia far and wide across the newly renovated Coliseum that was said to be able in accomodating as many as 18,000 attendees.

"L O N G L I V E H I S M A J E S T Y......!!!" The almost 15,000 strong citizens of Gracehaven sounded in unison as cheers broke out in rapturous waves. Everyone seemed to voice their agreement in a single as the Sermon ended on a high note. It was not every day that I could get to talk or send a message to the community as this would be the best next thing that could have happened.

Since it was a non-working day, throngs of attendees streamed out as some went to get refreshments that were served in food wagons alongside the grandstand seatings.