Earth: The Second

Guest's Arrival

Tomorrow is the day Udeka has to attend the discussion. But instead of preparing, he seems to prefer to accompany his guest which has just arrived. The man with full armor is an adult in his late thirties, with blond short hair, and blue eyes. Have a thin beard that has been trimmed neatly and a body that fits perfectly to his magnificent-looking armor. He may be the type of man that will steal the attention of all the females in the dance ball.

“Captain Roberto! Oh, you can’t believe how glad I am to see you in my humble settlement, sir!” greet Udeka. For this rare occasion, he takes a bath longer than usual, wears the nicest clothes he has, and even paying extra money for the cooks to make the fanciest meal.

On the table, meats, fruits, and soups are served for the two of them, in fact, it is probably too much instead.

“The honor is mine, Lord Udeka von Durlif,” answers Roberto humbly. Captain Roberto, is a member of Henriah’s military force and even bestowed the title of a knight. As a captain, he commands his own army, wherever he is commanded to.

Some days earlier, Roberto and his platoon had just finished their patrol at the Capital, when he received an urgent duty from his superior. Horundah, the trade city located on the west, is in the middle of a welfare development project. But because of the threat that the government always receives, they asked for protection from the military.

“You must be tired after the journey from the capital. Please eat and drink! These are the best foods of all the city!” said Udeka again.

“I will, thank you very much, sir,” Roberto takes a gulp of the drink that the maids are serving. A cool and honey flavored drink, that he never tasted before. He then took a bite of the meat in front of him. One of the best meat that he has ever tasted.

On the other side of the table, Udeka started to smile looking at Roberto’s reaction. Every noble might be educated to stay elegant, and hardly showed their emotion. But for the soldier that had worked tirelessly together with the foot-soldiers, this sumptuous feast is a rare occasion that he can’t taste every day.

“How is the steak? The combination of grilling technique and seasoning, are the only ones in our city,” Udeka continuing their conversation.

“Magnificent,” commented Roberto, as he wiped the side of his lips.

Udeka smiled, “Isn’t it? This town is prosperous with the tradings of goods and information! Many new and unique things can be achieved, but it’s a shame that not everyone agrees with me.” 

“Is that have the connection with the help that you requested on the previous days?” asked the Captain. He paused his meal for a moment to talk about more important stuff.

“Ah yes, what a shame,” said Udeka softly. “As a Duke, I always consider this role, as a holy duty to further expand the glory of the kingdom, but it confuses me how can some people be so cruel to against my duty?” acted Udeka.

“Indeed, that is a problem,” replied Roberto. “Is that what happened previously? When arrived, I saw many signs of fighting,” Roberto is referring to the destroyed gate, and craters on the mansion’s lawn.

“Yes! That is why I requested help from the capital!”

“But what about your soldiers? Horundah is an important city, there are supposed to be enough people.”

“The problem is, many of my soldiers can’t stand against the strength of that one man.”

Roberto, which in the middle of drinking lifts his eyebrow. “One man?” he asked.

“Yes! His strength can be considered inhuman! The gossips are, he posses some kind of Artifact together with him!” Udeka did not care anymore about the Artifact that he wanted. His primary goal right now is to destroy that village first.

“Then, this is a problem. Possession of  Artifact other than in the hand of the king is considered a violation of law and can be punished by death. If that rumor is true, then I as a knight have the obligation to punish him. May I know who is this man?” asked Roberto.

Udeka wipes his sweat away. One of the things that are new to him, is that he will be punished for having possession of Artifact. He is glad that he has given up on it.

“We have no name, but from the rumors that circulating around the city, he is called Man in Iron,” replied Udeka.

“Sounds like incredibly strong. So is this man is the leader?” asked The Captain.

“Yes! Absolutely! Tomorrow, I have a job for social welfare development on the outskirts. It terrifies me the danger I would be facing.” Udeka covers his hands to his face, pretending how afraid he is.

 “Well sir, we have accepted your plea and are going to present all of our strength to protect your duty.” 

“Oh, thank you! Thank you very much!” shouted Udeka, but actually, he is smiling mischievously.

***

The designated day is here, and both Udeka and Roberto arrived at the village’s plaza outside of the city. While Roberto is wary of their environment, he sees the people that are probably representative of the village. There are two adults, one is dressed as a priest, while the other one covered himself in a dark mantle. Meanwhile, there are teenagers among those representatives, Roberto asking what is he doing there.

The priest steps forward.

“We greet welcome to the Duke of Horundah, to the Outskirt village. And thank thee for a chance to hear our voices, the voices of the villagers. The three of us are representative of everyone’s wish for the duke, and hoping that the Duke would grant our wish to the reality,” said Father Risto.

This time, Thomas, the 14-year-old is taking a step forward.

“My name is Thomas, I may be a child in front of people’s eyes. But I want to do my best to the villages, and everyone in it!”

Roberto surprised. He does not believe that the kid is the one that represents the village. On the other hand, Udeka clicked his tongue, irritated.

After both of them has sit face to face, Father Risto stood up, and declare the start of the discussion. 

It started with Thomas’s opening speech, he tells how to live in the villages, his family and friends, also the job that he enjoyed every day. But then, the speech shifted into a more dark tone, of the incidents that happened months before, where Thomas lost his father because of Udeka’s command.

Udeka kind of worried about what will Roberto think, but instead, The Captain is quiet for now. Seems like he wanted to hear everything before deciding to himself.

“Therefore, as a representative, I hope that the duke would be able to grant these wishes: The first is the lifted of intimidation that occurred since the past months.”

“Nonsense!” shouted Udeka, which catch everyone’s attention.

Father Risto exchanged eyes with Thomas and was coughing. “My Lord, we wished that you would listen to it to the very end to hear what all of the villager’s wishes,” asked him.

“True, but I did not believe you guys put the words like that. There is no intimidation! I just do what is necessary to contain the people who seem like they are ready to rebel!” answers Udeka, where he just tried to twist the truth, so The Captain won’t be suspicious.

Thomas clenched his fist and glaring at that man. He prepared to jump out of the table when Adma whispered him something.

“Calm down. We don’t want to mess this up,” he looked at the man beside Udeka. “Do you know who is he?”

Thomas shakes his head.

“Figured. From what he wears, he probably is a soldier sent by the capital. Might be a high-ranking one.” Adma did not need to continue his words to know what would happen if they act recklessly. They might lose their head, and the village burned to the ground. 

Thomas decides that he will postpone the complaint, and continuing his speech. 

“Second, is that we asked for Lord Duke to cancel his plan to create a new district under our land, field, and home,” asked Thomas. But once again, Udeka showed an unamused face. 

“Instead, we asked him to invest more in the progress of our agricultural project. As the citizen of Henriah, we are also wished for the glorious kingdom, that can be achieved with the greatness of our people.”

Thomas moving forward with his speech. But as they already expect, Udeka never showed any resentment toward what he has done. Instead, his expression showed more anger toward Adma, Thomas, and Risto.

After Thomas ended his speech, Father is got up from his chair again.

“After hearing what the villager’s representative has to say, we wished that the Duke would give a response,” asked Father.

Udeka then got up, and clear his throat.

“As I said before, I don’t accept what those brat say about me. Me? Intimidating? You should found the better words, such as disciplining! and keeping the peace of everyone from the rebel like some of the people in this village!” shouted Udeka. Not only missed the point, but he also covering up his wrongdoing and put all the blame on the people that he persecute.

“For the second demand, I would say that you farmers are don’t know how to make money fast! If you wanted to get rich, stopped doing the dirty works and worked properly! Don’t you know how rich are the brothel owner? Especially when you have young girls that are willing to make their body a good use! Isn’t that life is much better than working in the field, diving with stones and muds!?”

Every time Udeka opened his mouth, only anger that Thomas can felt. He can’t hold it anymore. One punch. One punch is enough to let all of his anger to this fatso that he hates so much. His father is gone, his mother has to work twice, and he lost his happy childhood.

Finally, Thomas decides to let it all out with a punch to Udeka’s face.