"Alright, here"s what you gonna do. You"re going to give the land back to that farmer or pay two times the value of the land to him ""Yes your majesty, I will pay three times the value, please don"t kill me or send me to jail"
Arrora couldn"t help but have a good chuckle seeing Lord Clemo"s face turn red
"If that"s all the crimes you committed, you"re safe."
"Thank you, thank you very much, your majesty"
"Now tell me, what do you know about the bandits I"ve heard about from the villagers?"
"Those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds!"
Lord Clemo"s shout surprised Don as he could see the genuine anger and frustration in Lord Clemo"s eyes but when Lord Clemo realized that he lost his control, he shut his mouth with his hand but it was too late for that.
"Seems like you"ve met them, Lord Clemo"
Lord Clemo sighed hearing Don and said
"Yes your majesty, I was robbed by them, twice"
Don couldn"t help but sense a hint of embarra.s.sment in Lord Clemo"s eyes and guessed that the bandits had done something more than robbing him but Don didn"t want to hear about that
"Do you know anything about them that can help me find their leader?"
"No your majesty, I tried to find their leader and their camps, but I didn"t find a thing but your majesty, you should ask Lamar about this"
"Who is Lamar?"
"He"s the vice-captain of the city guard, your majesty"
"Send a guard and bring him to me"
"Yes, your majesty"
"Tell Joel to come to Agoria and send some of your men to keep an eye on the n.o.bles"
Don said to Arrora after Lord Clemo left the hall
And after a while, Lord Clemo came into the throne hall with a dark-skinned man in leather armor. The man stepped forward and bowed towards Don
"Your majesty, I"m Lamar Boris, vice-captain of the city guard"
Even though his bow showed respect, his eyes betrayed his true feeling towards Don, indifference, and apathy.
"So tell me Lamar, what do you know about the bandits roaming these lands?"
"I don"t know anything, your majesty"
"Oh oh"
Lord Clemo knew it was a bad move by Lamar to lie because he had heard about Lamar was investigating the bandits and reported to King Garreth
"I don"t like being lied to Lamar,"
"I really..."
But before Lamar could finish, Arrora dashed at him and brought him to his knees with a punch to his gut as she put her sword on Lamar"s throat
"Last chance Lamar, if you lie again, you will die"
Don saw his indifference and apathy turning into fear and nervousness as Lamar finally opened his mouth while tears started to roll out of his eyes for some reason
"Your majesty, if I speak the truth they"ll kill Tisha, they"ll kill my little sister"
"They? Who are they?"
"We can protect you and your sister, Lamar"
Arrora said as she lowered her sword and let Lamar stand on his feet again.
"I"m not a patient guy Lamar, you either tell me or die"
"Its Lord Ma.s.sen, your majesty"
Lamar started to narrate the events that happened during his investigation of the bandits.
It was not a complicated story but a simple one. According to Lamar, he was investigating the bandit problem on his own and during his investigation, he heard the name Lord Ma.s.sen, a n.o.ble who was closely related to King Garreth"s wife from a dying bandit who tried to rob a coach and ultimately fail because of Lamar"s well-planned ambush.
So having heard of Lord Ma.s.sen"s name, Lamar reported it to Ca.s.sek, the spymaster so he could investigate Lord Ma.s.sen without raising any suspicions.
However the next day after telling Ca.s.sek about Lord Ma.s.sen, Lamar had received a box with two contents in it, one was a note and the second thing was a bloodied severed finger of his sister.
Fortunately for Lamar, they didn"t kill his finger but only cut the finger of her to send a message to him. So as the note said, Lamar dropped his investigation and never spoke about it with anyone until now.
"Lord Clemo, was he here before? Ma.s.sen"
"No, your majesty"
Hearing Lord Clemo, Don stood up from his throne and cracked his neck
"Come, let"s pay him a visit,"
"Your majesty!"
Lamar started to s.h.i.+ver and stutter hearing Don but he already started to walk towards the door.
"You have no choice, follow us"
Lord Clemo whispered to Lamar as Lamar nervously stared at Lord Clemo and followed him behind
"Which way is his home?"
"That way, your majesty"
"How far"
"It"s just a couple of minutes walk from here, your majesty.GUARDS!"
Lord Clemo shouted at the guards and in just a few seconds, Lord Clemo"s guards brought his personal fancy carriage to the castle entrance.
"Let"s just walk"
Seeing the size of the carriage and the people beside him, Don decided to walk rather than be stuck in the carriage with all of them.
"Ah s.h.i.+t"
Lord Clemo cursed inside and waved his hand at his guards to close the carriage door and started to walk beside Don showing the way.
"I a.s.sume you"re living here"
On the contrary to the houses he saw when he entered the city, the houses before Don were all luxurious and fancy.
"Yes your majesty"
Don barely heard Lord Clemo"s voice as he increased his pace so Don wouldn"t have much time to ask questions about his luxurious life.
After seeing Don, Lord Clemo, and the remaining guards of the castle, the maids working outside of the n.o.ble houses rushed inside to inform their lords.
It didn"t take long before the n.o.ble ladies and lords to come outside and gawk at Don.
"Do you want me to clear them up?"
Arrora noticed some n.o.ble youth"s and ladies following them to see what"s happening
"No, let them. They should see this"
Both Lamar and Lord Clemo had an ominous feeling hearing Don. For Lord Clemo who saw how Don treated the n.o.bles before, he guessed that something bad is going to happen to Ma.s.sen. However for Lamar, who was considering Don as a mad king a.s.sumed he"s going to get into trouble by meddling in n.o.ble business, after all, he didn"t know that Don hates the n.o.bles.
"Your majesty, this is the house"
If Don ranked the houses in Agoria according to their size and fanciness,Ma.s.sen"s house would be in the rank 2 only next to the King"s castle.
From the outside, this house looked gorgeous. It was built with bricks covered in render and has walnut wood decorations. Small, rectangular windows brighten up the house and have been added to the house in a very asymmetric way.
The building was shaped like a circle and it was fully surrounded by a patio.
The second-floor was the same size as the first, which had been built exactly on top of the floor below it. Second-floor had a very different style than the floor below.
The roof was high and triangular and was covered with grey wood s.h.i.+ngles. One small chimney sits at the side of the house. Large, skylight windows let in plenty of light to the rooms below the roof.
The house itself was surrounded by a gorgeous garden, including hanging grapevines, a paG.o.da, a pond, and many different flowers.
"Hey, look at this, its Lord Clemo"
The guard at the front gate emphasized Lord as he said. Clearly he had no respect for Lord Clemo and his voice barely hid the mockery in it.
"Do you want me to kill them? Or"
"Breaking a few bones would do and break an extra bone of him"
Don pointed at the guard who just ridiculed Lord Clemo.
"What?"
The guard had barely enough time to open his mouth before Arrora punched him in the chest.
"s.h.i.+t"
The lords seeing the scene almost felt the force of the punch as they saw the guard coughing up blood.
"AHHHHHH!"
Arrora didn"t even give the guy a time to steady himself as she broke one of his limbs like a twig.
"Ouch"
Lord Clemo heard the breaking sound of the bone and saw the bloodied broken bone sticking out of his leg and arm. And seeing the scene, some of the n.o.ble ladies threw up as the faces of the young lords became pale.
The metal gate opened as Don stepped forward. As Don was walking towards the house, Arrora was clearing the guards by breaking their bones and throwing them into the pond which turned the pond to red.
The screaming and crying sound of the maids had become an irritation to Don as he put a finger on his mouth telling the maids to shut the h.e.l.l up.
The moment the maids saw Don, they covered their mouths with their hand and looked pale.
Some of the courageous n.o.ble ladies and lords were still following Don but they kept their distance from him.
If the screaming of maids was an irritation to Don, the sound of bone breaking terrified Lord Clemo and Lamar. They looked no different than the n.o.bles looking at the gory scene, in fact the two of them looked worse.
"He should have hired better guards"
Lord Clemo and Lamar had nothing to say when they heard Don and the more time Lord Clemo spent with Don, the more he became afraid of him.
"What the h.e.l.l is going on here?"
Suddenly a young girl came out of the house shouting while correcting her dress.
But when she saw the maids standing there covering their mouth with their hand and then she looked in the direction of the maids looking to see a group of people walking towards the house.
She tried to shout at Don but when she noticed the pond, the sight of grumbling men in the pond stopped her from doing that.
"You like fingers"