"Brother..." Loren stood behind Warren who kept looking over the city and its people through the windows.
The trickles of droplets from the rain made the view in front of Warren distorted. Due to the poor engineering, the pavement made of limestones became wet due to the overflowing of acc.u.mulated rainwater.
Despite the heavy rain, the children of Emir were playing and dancing on the streets like they were in some sort of festival. This scene made Warren's lips curve and let out a small grin on his face.
After meeting with the king of Everlight, Warren and Loren discussed their future as well as Emir's in great detail among themselves and with their close friends. When Warren was having the discussions, Everlight King's reputation among the people Emir started to go up in their hearts because they were given enough coins to take care of them and their family for a long time.
Even though Warren started the rebellion and nearly killed King Hedor, it was king of Everlight who gave them weapons and food for their people including the rebels due to that fact and the help they got from his people on the battlefield which nearly saved many of the rebels' lives, as well as many people from the explosion, King of Everlight took an irreplaceable place in their hearts.
Also, the dwarves who built those destroyed houses better than their previous state amazed the people and thanked the king of Everlight.
Additionally, Joel and a group of people sent by Don spread the news about his contribution to rebel and for the people of Emir to earn the trust and loyalty of the people.
"I'm going to swear my loyalty to him Loren" Warren turned around and said to Loren looking at her eyes.
"It seems to be the right choice, Brother"
During this time Loren came to realize that although people of Emir appreciate what Warren did, the people also started to trust the king of Everlight more than she had imagined to the point that if the king of Everlight announced himself as the king of Emir, people won't make a huge fuss about it except for some old fellows and n.o.bles.
However as far as she guessed, the king of Everlight had no idea of ruling Emir himself if not he wouldn't have offered the place to Warren.
"But the thing I'm worried about is, would his ambition to rule all the kingdoms affect us or not?" Since Warren was a soldier under King HEdor who kind of had the same idea, he knew about how a war could affect the livelihood of common people.
"It's not the time to think about that Brother if you won't be the king he can find others heck I mean who wouldn't be a king if they get the same offer" seeing her throwing her hands up like a child made Warren giggle and broke his train of thoughts.
"Besides, did you see his face? There wasn't any expression on his face like I felt like talking to a stone face. That kind of person is the most dangerous Brother, we can't know what they are thinking or planning so it's better to stay on their good side "
Loren couldn't explain her feelings clearly but she felt like she was being crushed by a powerful force before him. That feeling was due to Don releasing his battle energy aura to make his subordinates feel exactly what Loren had felt.
"Even though there are zero downsides to this deal, I can't help but think I'm going to be a puppet king under him"
"But it's better than nothing right. Also, look outside there are dwarves building our homes for us and an elf!" Loren's eyes immediately sparkled when she was talking about the elf.
"Half Elf Loren" Warren interrupted her but Loren seemed not to give a d.a.m.n.
"We heard the dwarves were hiding in mountains and elves in outer land forests but who would have thought they serve a human if you ask me that's a sign of what he is capable of"
"Oh I don't know about the elves serving a human, little sister"
"Never say never brother"
***************************************
"So the n.o.bles won't cause any troubles?" Don was sitting on king Hedor's throne and looking at Arrora with an open scroll in his hand.
"Unfortunately some of the n.o.bles fled the kingdom before my team could investigate but they found out that these n.o.bles were corrupt to the core" Arrora's face didn't hide her sickening feel towards the corrupt n.o.bles.
"What about the others?"
"There are nine ministers in Emir and all of them are n.o.bles, other than the ministers there are three n.o.ble houses and a merchant family who have a pull in power"
While Arrora reporting Don looked at the scroll and skimmed through the details that put together by Arrora's team after investigating the n.o.bles in Emir. As Don finished reading the scroll, there's nothing about the n.o.bles that could make him worry or bother him but Don wanted to make sure that it stays that way.
"Tonight send your team after each and every minister n.o.ble in Emir. Say that there is a new king in Emir and want their full compliance "
"It'll be done but what if they don't comply?"
"Kill them"
Hearing Don, Arrora just nodded and made her way to meet with her team. Although the n.o.bles were protected by guards, Arrora's team was specially trained for infiltration and a.s.sa.s.sination by Don and Knight so Don had no doubts about their success.
According to Joel and Arrora's report about the ministers and n.o.bles, they were all criminals who used their status as n.o.bles to do some pretty cruel things to the common people. So far as Don is concerned, ordering their deaths won't cause any lack of sleep to him if they didn't comply with his will.
For the n.o.bles who do comply, after appointing Warren as a king, Don planned to give all the proofs about their crimes to Warren and let him handle it according to the laws.
Few moments after Arrora left Joel came to see Don.
"My lord, Warren and Loren is here to see you"
"Let them in" Joel nodded and after a few seconds, Don saw the brother and sister duo coming towards him.
Unlike their meeting before, Warren didn't stand awkwardly but knelt in Don's presence like a subject in front of their liege as Loren also did the same.
"So I a.s.sume you accepted my offer" Don said while Warren lifted his head to look at Don.
"Yes my lord" just as Warren said the oath-taker mirror emerged from Don's chest and floated towards Warren. Both of their eyes went wide when they saw the oath-taker because not everyone can afford or have an ancient magical item such as this.
Even though the appearance of the oath-taker brought a shock to both of them, Warren had not thought to be deceitful so when the mirror came before him Warren started to give his oath of loyalty like the time he gave his first oath to King Hedor but unlike before there's no chance of him revolting against the man before him.
After finishing taking the oath from Warren the mirror turned around and floated towards Don to take his oath. Standing aside from them Joel could see Don is starting to recite his oath to the mirror but after hearing his oath, Joel realized it was a typical oath that any king would take.
When the oath-taker merged with Don and disappeared Don raised his hand and signaled Warren and Loren to stand up.
"The coronation ceremony will be held two days from now " as he said Don turned his gaze towards Joel
"Joel I'm putting you to this task, take this" Don retrieved a pouch from his s.p.a.ce ring and threw it to Joel
"Don't let me down"
"I dare not my lord, everything will be perfect I swear" Joel immediately knelt before Don and said.
"My lord, may I ask what the n.o.bles are saying about me being the king? " Until now Warren had no idea what the n.o.bles were thinking about this arrangement but just rumors about some n.o.bles fled the kingdom.
"Don't worry about the n.o.bles, they are being taken care of" hearing the answer, Loren couldn���t help but think the worst. On the other hand, Warren didn't mind him dealing with the pesky n.o.bles so he can do his best to serve the people of Emir without being nagged by the n.o.bles.
Seeing there's nothing to discuss anymore Don dismissed the three of them as the three of them bowed their heads and made their way towards the door.
"Hey, Joel did you hear anything about General Hozai?" Warren asked after leaving the throne hall.
"Yes he escaped or at least General Hozai thinks he did" Joel said while Warren, Loren frowned and looked at him with a concerned look.
"If my lord wanted to capture General Hozai he would have done that by now so I know he let him go" Warren signed when he heard Joel because even though General Hozai fought against him, he was Warren's idol and a person he looked up to so knowing him escaped made Warren's heart feel light.
"So when will he tell us his name Joel?" Loren asked as she had no idea about King of Everlight's name or his background till to this day.
When this question was raised by Loren, Warren also looked at Joel for the answer because he too had no idea about Everlight King's ident.i.ty.
"It's better if you hear from him you two, I'm sure he will tell you soon"
