Once Upon The Life of The Wise King

The Unrest

ONCE UPON THE LIFE OF THE WISE KING

Volume 2

The Fall of The Royal Family

Chapter 34 - The Unrest

Several years ago, Libra, who had been following the puppets, was shocked to find the puppets stopped searching for their master. The member of the anti-royalist suddenly stopped their search and began living like normal people. This confused the witch, so she called Priestess Bhavisha and asked her opinion.

The Holy Priestess believes that Azazel was back. The witch agreed with her assumptions, thinking that Azazel must have sent an order to his men to stop looking for him.

Things only went harder now that their only lead to finding Azazel was gone.

Nevertheless, Priestess Bhavisha warned King Wenhart about the possible attack from Azazel and the anti-royalist. Ever since then, their securities had been tight for several years.

Recently, King Wenhart received a report from General Huns. It was reported that there was unrest near the south border of the Luciel Kingdom.

King Wenhart sent some troops to observe the south border. The troops found bandits lurking around, therefore they rooted them out one by one.

The bandits that were lurking near the southern border were selling human slaves to the Jin Kingdom that was located in the south. The troops helped the human slaves by providing them temporary shelter and food on the southern border while they wait for the King's order.

Sitting on his throne chair, King Wenhart read the report about the human slaves. Turning his head to his left, he asked, "Shall we take them in?"

The Queen did not answer right away as she thought to herself. Is it right to just take them in? What if one of them is an enemy or a spy. I don't want a repeat of what happened before.

"I think it's good to save them all from s*****y," the King said.

"Your intentions are good, Wenhart," Queen Cielisse said, "but I don't think it is a good idea to just take them in."

The King paused.

"Do you think there are spies among them?" he asked.

"It is possible."

King Wenhart hummed as he stroke his beard. "You are right. What happened before must be avoided. What do you think we should do? I'm sure some of those slaves really need our help."

"Indeed." The Queen nodded her head. "We can't let them stay in the southern border due to unrest. Let us find a good relocation for them and assign people to watch their every move."

"I think the land in the west is a good relocation site. The land there is abundant with wild berries. It was a bit far from town, but the condition is good for a living. If something went wrong, it will have minimal effect on our people in town. Observing them will be easier as well."

"Then, let us make preparations."

The King ordered his men to hire builders to build houses for the human slaves. He was specifically instructed to make a high fortress with only one entryway. The high fortress was designed to make it difficult for anyone to come in and out. Only through the entryway, a person can get in and out.

Based on the number of human slaves, the builders built twenty houses. Each house can fit four to six family members. It took at least three weeks to build all the houses. When done, they took a day to rest. Then, the following day, they started building the fortress. Building the fortress took another two weeks to finish, plus the entryway with gates which took more or less three days.

Once everything was done, the chief builder sent a report to the King, informing him that the house settlement can be used any time and that the fortress and gates were working well for defense against enemies.

General Huns, who was resting after reviewing the papers in his tent, received a letter that was delivered by one of his men. He took the envelope, dismiss his subordinate, and looked at the seal on the envelope. It was the seal of the Royal family. He opened it, took the letter inside, and read. Then, he crumpled the paper and envelop and threw it on the fire.

"Newman!" General Huns called, and quickly, a soldier came into his tent.

"Yes, sir!" Newman saluted.

"Gather around those slaves, I have news for them."

"Understood!" Newman went out towards the tents where the slaves were living. One by one, he called them out and lead them to an open area where General Huns were already waiting for them.

Despite being saved from the bandits, the slaves still felt fear towards the soldiers even though they were freed from shackles. When they were taken in by the soldiers, they did not know what were the plans for them. They feared that they will become slaves of another nation.

"Everyone, listen!" General Huns told the slaves. "When we took you in from the bandits, we informed our King about your situation. Our initial order was to give you temporary shelter. Afterward, we were informed that the King has decided to give you your freedom by providing houses for you all. And as of this moment, the houses are already built." He paused to let the people absorb the information.

Tentatively, someone raised their hand. It was a boy around twelve years old.

"Yes, do you have any questions?"

"Uhm... sir... those houses, is it ours?" the boy asked with a low voice.

"That is right. Our King is kind. Aside from giving you back your freedom, he also gave you houses to settle, land to toil, and allowance, so you can start your livelihood," the General answered.

The people were delighted after hearing what the King did for them. They could not stop the big smiles from appearing on their faces.

"But," General Huns spoke, silencing the people in front of him. "What was given to you is not free," he said. "You must pay for these things as well."

"But, we don't have money," the boy said.

The General laughed at the naive and innocent boy. "It's not money the King needs from you all. It is absolute loyalty. Can you do that?"

It seemed the people did not expect the payment to be not monetary, but something else. Because of this, they started to feel more grateful to the King of Luciel Kingdom.

"Yes, we can give our loyalty to the King!" one of the men exclaimed, eliciting others to follow as well.

"Me, too! Me, too!"

"We will be forever grateful to the King!"

"By the way, what's his name?" the boy asked again.

"Good question, kid," General Huns said, chuckling. "Your King's name is King Wenhart von Sierra and rules the Luciel Kingdom!"

"Hooray!"

"Long live the King!"

General Huns ordered his subordinates to prepare the horses and carriage. Then, the people got in the carriage and they were ready to depart. Before leaving, the General asked his right-hand man to watch over the troops and keep looking out for the enemies.

"Don't worry, General. You can count on me."

"Great!" General Huns patted his shoulders. Then, he jumped on his horse and left with some soldiers and the people that they had saved from the bandits.

There were small children among the families of the people. It was not their first time to travel, but it was their first to travel without worrying about proper shelter and food which made it more enjoyable for them to watch the scenery they passed by.

"Mama, look!" a five years old girl exclaimed as she pulled on her mother's clothes and pointed somewhere up in the sky. "I think I saw an eagle."

The mother looked up but found nothing. "I don't see anything, Rira."

"No, I saw a bird. Mama, it's an eagle!" the young girl insisted.

Looking up, the mother did not find any kind of birds flying up in the sky. However, she thought that it must be her child's imagination thus she played along. "So, you saw it huh?"

"Yes! It is this big!" The child, Rira, gestured with her arms spread wide. "It is so big!"

The soldier riding a horse just outside the carriage heard the conversation inside. He also looked up in the sky and sure enough, there were no birds flying. He thought it was impossible to see any kind of birds in the area they were traveling at the moment due to its season. the migratory birds only came here, he thought.

After traveling for a week, they reached the Luciel Kingdom. Along the way, as they cross the town, they were welcomed by the people.

"Wow! They are so welcoming!" a teenage boy said.

One of the soldiers heard the teen, so he smiled at the boy and said, " Welcome to the Luciel Kingdom. I hope you will live here well."

"Thank you, Mr. soldier!"

The troop travel a bit more until they reached the west land area of the Luciel Kingdom where the King was waiting for them.