"Your majesty""Who is there? Don"t you see we are in the middle of something"
King Garreth lashed out as Lord Clemo and Prince Jowan turned around to see a man standing in the entrance of the throne hall greeting King Garreth.
"Casek it"s you" however when King Garreth saw the man, his previous annoyance on his face disappeared and replaced with a small smile
"Sorry for interrupting your majesty, but we need to talk," Casek said and looked at Lord Clemo. In normal days, Lord Clemo would be annoyed every time he sees the sly faced Casek, the spymaster of Agoria. However, now he was relieved thinking that he should use this opportunity to leave the throne hall so he bowed towards King Garreth then at Prince Jowan and left the throne hall as quickly as he could.
Seeing Lord Clemo leaving the throne hall, Casek stepped forward and stood beside Prince Jowan.
"Tell me Casek, what news did you bring?"
"Your majesty, there"s a rumor going on that an Azrite deposit has been found in Emir"
King Garreth"s whole body went rigid when he heard Casek as he tightly clutched the hand of his throne
"What?"
"First I thought of it as just a rumor but the recent events happened in Emir and the sightings of the dwarves and King Garreth annulling the marriage "
"You knew about this?"
Prince Jowan interrupted Casek in shock and surprise as Casek nodded his head
"It"s my job, your royal highness. As I said, when we connect all the dots, the rumors might be not just a rumor "
"I KNEW IT"
As he said, King Garreth stood up from his throne like it was on fire
"Azrite deposit must be the reason for that b.a.s.t.a.r.d Harold to marry his daughter to that Don. He wants to put his finger on the pie"
Azrite was one of the strongest metals in this world as well as the rarest one. Only the most powerful kingdoms such as the Archeron Kingdom or Zenith kingdom could afford to buy the armors or weapons made of Azrite and even in those kingdoms, only the royal family members used the items made of Azrite.
There were only a couple of Azrite deposits in the whole Avelon Continent and the kingdom who possessed such deposits was no doubt that they were blessed by the heavens. However, since Azrite was one of the strongest and the rarest metal in this world when a deposit of it had been found in a kingdom,it would put the whole kingdom in the danger zone as many superpower kingdoms and families would appear like vultures to s.n.a.t.c.h it.
So if the kingdom had no power to defend the deposit, they had to share it or give it to the contender for the deposit. So if the news of Azrite deposit in Emir leaked to the higher-ranked kingdoms, it would be as easy as getting the candy from the baby for them to capture the deposit from Emir.
Fortunately, the higher-ranked kingdoms tend to not care about the rank 4 kingdoms so it would be relatively easy for King Harold or Don to prevent the news from leaking.
"Father, what should we do now?"
Seeing the naive face of Prince Jowan, King Garreth sighed
"If only you are a girl" King Garreth"s mind drifted away as Prince Jowan frowned
"Father!"
Prince Jowan"s shout brought back King Garreth from his imagination as he shook his head a little and looked at Casek
"Casek what are our options?"
"That depends on how much you want that mine, your majesty"
"Well I would kill whole Emir and Korrinth if I can to have that mine"
"We have two options, your majesty" Ca.s.sek said and raised his a finger and said
"First, his royal highness can use annulling of the marriage as a reason to challenge King Don, defeat him and ask for Emir in return for his life"
"What about Darlene?" Prince Jowan couldn"t help but ask when he heard Casek as Casek shook his head
"Your royal highness, as far as I"ve heard that Princess Darlene is a very independent and proud girl so I"m not sure she would agree to be a bet"
"What about Don"s cultivation level?"
"Already got that information, your majesty. He"s just a mid-level master and my spies informed me that Princess Kate and King Don had an unpleasant conversation about this matter "
The moment King Garreth heard Ca.s.sek, he felt b.u.t.terflies in his gut as a wide grin appeared on his face thinking that his son could actually defeat him
"There"s also a possibility of King Don could not agree to a duel since Lord Clemo told his royal highness"s cultivation level"
Lord Clemo was very lucky to leave the throne hall because King Garreth looked furious after hearing Ca.s.sek
Seeing King Garreth and Prince Jowan thinking about the first option, Ca.s.sek raised another finger
"The second option is a simple one, we directly declare war on Korrinth using the same reason and then we conquer Emir "
Of course, both Ca.s.sek and King Garreth knew that they had to face the force of two kingdoms combined but in this option, Don had no choice unlike in the duel.
"We will lose if we faced two kingdoms at once but if we take one kingdom out of the equation, we can turn the odds to our favor"
After thinking about everything, King Garreth decided to play it dirty and by looking at Ca.s.sek, he knew that Ca.s.sek also has the same idea as him
"We must hire someone outside to do the job your majesty so no one could see our involvement"
"And I a.s.sume you already know who to hire"
A small evil grin appeared on Ca.s.sek"s face as he nodded
"Yes, your majesty and if you give me the permission, I will hire men from the mercenary guilds to strengthen our force"
"You have my permission, Ca.s.sek. Hire as many men as you can. Darlene can"t face an entire army all by herself"
Considering a great master could turn the tide of the battle that happens between the rank 4 kingdoms, King Garreth didn"t want to take any chances with Darlene. Even though it was not efficient, overwhelming a great master with as many men as they could to neutralize the threat posed by the great master in the battlefield.
"Also send a letter to Harold as Jowan, challenging Don to a duel"
Although it was unlikely that Don would accept the challenge, King Garreth wanted to try his luck because if Don accepted the challenge, his life would become easier.
"As you wish your majesty"
Ca.s.sek said as he bowed towards King Garreth and Prince Jowan then he left the throne hall leaving King Garreth and Prince Jowan alone to put the plan on the road.
"You didn"t say which Kingdom father"
Since Prince Jowan didn"t hear the name of the kingdom that his father targeting to take out from the equation as he said, Prince Jowan asked
However, King Garreth didn"t answer Jowan but shook his head and his eyes showed nothing but disappointment at Prince Jowan
"You should use your brain more than you use that"
King Garreth pointed at Prince Jowan"s crouch as he said and seeing his father pointing at his crotch, Prince Jowan had an impulse to cover it with his hand but fortunately, he didn"t or this would have been turned into another embarra.s.sment for Jowan.
And seeing Jowan standing there without a clue, King Garreth decided to reveal the answer for his son
"Emir Jowan, they don"t have General Hozai with them anymore so it"ll be easier to sabotage them than Korrinth"s army"
"Right"
"You have a lot more to learn Jowan, a lot " as said, King Garreth walked away from the throne hall to his chamber while Prince Jowan headed towards the kitchen to see the new maid.
*********************************
Right now Don was standing in the balcony and looking at the rainy day outside.
The rain bore down mercilessly upon the entire kingdom, pounding on the rooftops and turning the cobbled streets of Korrinth into a warren of slick stones and muddy waters. The sound of a steady downpour of the rain gave a soothing relaxation to Don after a boring day of cultivation. Occasionally Don would manipulate the water droplets and make various shapes to hone his control over the water element since among the four elements, water was the hardest to master for Don.
"Beautiful isn"t it?"
As Don was enjoying the view, Arrora entered his room and wiped away the water drops on her face.
"How was your hunting?"
Don asked and turned back to see Arrora but when he saw her, she was heating up a kettle on the fireplace in Don"s room.
"What are you doing?"
And before Arrora could answer Don, he frowned and asked Arrora as she was taking mugs and pouches out of her pockets and placing them on the table before the fireplace like she"s making something.
"I"ll tell you about everything in a minute but first you have to drink this"
Arrora carefully grabbed the kettle and poured the hot water into the cups and then one by one she added milk, honey, and finally a black powder into the water.
"Here"
Arrora handed over the drink she just made to Don after stirring the drink with a spoon.
Seeing the cup of weird brown hot drink in his hand, Don was completely confused. Even though the drink emitted a very strong aroma, Don didn"t drink but asked
"What is this?"
"This amazing drink is called milk tea"