"You want tea?"Arrora asked Don before he starts to deal with the bandit leaders and hearing her question, Don turned his gaze away from the leaders and looked at her as she shrugged
"What? Tea will go great with this chilling weather"
"Alright"
As Don said, Arrora disappeared from her place and appeared again in a flash with kettle and cups
Looking at her moves, it was obvious to Don that she was getting good at making tea as she prepared two cups and gave one to Don and the other cup floated towards Arwen as he took the cup and started to blow on it
When Don took a sip of the tea, just as Arrora had said, it felt good to drink something hot in this chilling weather.
"Now you can deal with these sc.u.ms"
But Don"s black sword, already unsheathed itself and flew to the four leaders and floated before them aiming at their throats.
Don was holding the cup in one hand and the saucer in the other while controlling the sword with just a finger. Don looked at the frightened faces of the four leaders as he said
"Here"s the deal, I"m going to ask two questions, where"s the rest of the camps? Where can I find Ca.s.sek?"
Don could see their eyes opened wide when they heard the name Ca.s.sek as he continued
"Answer one question, I"ll sentence you to labor for, say five years"
But somehow Lord Clemo felt like Don was lying when he heard but he kept his mouth shut
"Answer all the two question, I"ll let you go but if you don"t answer my questions I"ll kill you, do you all understand?"
The woman bandit leader nodded her head quickly with enthusiasm while the one beside her slowly nodded his head yet the other two didn"t nod but looked afraid
"Don"t think about lying, that sword has ancient magic in it, the sword will only show its true color when you tell the truth"
And with a slash, Don cut the cloth covering the mouth to let the first bandit leader speak but the moment the cloth went down, the bandit started to scream and begged Don not to kill him
"Useless"
The sword cleaved the bandit"s head clean off as the blood sprayed on the other three bandits and made them fear for their life. Moving to his next target, Don let the other bandit speak
"The other bandits camp I can show it to you, I can also tell you where Ca.s.sek is"
However, Don"s black sword did not change its color but remained black
"NO NO! I AM TELLING THE TRUTH!"
The bandit"s scream and shout echoed through the hall but silenced by the sword with a slash
Arrora always wondered about the black metallic sword of Don"s because she had never seen a black sword in her life and she was quite sure there were not many black swords in this world. Hearing the special lie-detecting trait of this sword, Arrora"s interest in the sword peaked as she looked closely to see the color changing
"This lie will set you free"
As he said, Don cut the bandit"s head and another head rolled on the hall"s ground as the other two bandits were almost covered in the blood of their colleagues.
The third leader was the woman as Don cut the ropes and let the woman speak
"My lord, your majesty, I can show you both the locations and where Ca.s.sek is"
Just as she said, Don retrieved a map of Agoria and sent the map flying to her. The woman wasted no time as she grabbed the map and marked the other three locations plus Ca.s.sek"s place with the blood.
When she finished marking the locations, the map came flying back to Don as he studied the locations however the black sword still remained black
"The swords, something wrong with it, IM TELLING THE TRUTH"
But just like the previous one, she was beheaded by Don and to everyone"s surprise, Don dint even give the last bandit a chance to speak as the sword cleaved his head to finish all the bandit leaders" life.
"But why did you kill him? the sword did not change its color, she was lying"
Arrora asked in confusion while finished his tea and gave the cup back to her
"Or is she?"
The sword already came back and went into Don"s sheath on his behind leaving Arrora with nothing but question
"A king who doesn"t keep his word"
Lord Clemo sighed inside and looked Don walking away from the throne hall with his men following him
"How do you know the locations were true ?"
"I don"t care how, but I know she was telling the truth"
She still didn"t know whether the sword thing was true or not but before she could ask anything Don gave her the map
"No need to capture the leaders, kill them all, bring their bodies and burn them in the city square before the people"
"What about Ca.s.sek? do you want me to capture him?"
"No just let Arwen surround his camp so he doesn"t escape, I will personally deal with Ca.s.sek"
Since the teleporter was fixed, it would take little time to send the men to the remaining locations and clean up this bandit problem. Don knew it was not a great triumph to be proud of because King Garreth could have easily eradicated the bandits if he wanted to but considering the leader for the whole this was the man he trusted, the bandit treated this land as their own hunting ground and pushed Agoria to its last breath.
"So what now?"
"Now I have an auction to join"
*************************************
"My lord, do you want anything to drink? anyone to play?"
From the moment Benedict came to auction the access keys, he was receiving all kinds of special treatment from the thousand arms auction house. Even though his friend was the manager of this branch, he didn"t believe him at first when he said that he"s going to auction not one but two access keys.
Although the notice of him auctioning the access keys was pretty sudden, the auction house did all kinds of promotions and advertis.e.m.e.nts to let the empire know about the auctioning of the two keys. Other than the two keys, his friend hinted to him that there would be many special items, ancient spells, and many more exotic things in the auction.
Currently, they were given the VIP room with a clear view of the auction stage by the auction house. While Arya and Benedict were ignoring or neglecting the special treatments given by the auction house, Gael was neck-deep in enjoying everything he could.
"Wow, slow down on those Gael, how many of those you had until now?"
Benedict couldn"t bear to watch Gael drink any more of the special complimentary drinks from the house.
"Who"s counting? it"s pretty great"
"Do you know how much it cost outside?"
Gael simply shrugged as he continued to gulp the drink
"Fifty gold coins"
Gael almost coughed up the drink when he heard Benedict and looked at the gla.s.s with horror but soon an evil grin appeared on his face
"Then I should drink as much as I can"
Seeing Gael ordering another drink, Benedict shook his head and turned to look at Arya who was still nervous about her visit to her home
"Relax Arya, they summoned you because they probably miss you"
Arya adjusted her gla.s.ses and nodded but Benedict could see her trying to hide her worries
"Don"t forget to buy s.p.a.ce rings his majesty told us about"
Gael reminded Benedict as the crowd started to fill the auction house.
Looking at the adjacent VIP rooms, Benedict noticed the banner of the Zenith kingdom as well as many big players from all over the empire. Since he had already notified Don, Benedict was waiting for Don"s voice to appear in his head through the Khal.
Benedict was glad that Don gave him the full freedom to buy anything he wants and gave him a considerable amount of life energy stones with a s.p.a.ce ring. While the auction house was preparing to begin the auction, Benedict remembered the things that Don asked him to buy such as new oath takers and s.p.a.ce rings.
After dealing with Arya"s summon and the auction, he couldn"t wait to go back to Everlight and start working on the apex machine and the teleporter as well as his personal projects. During his stay in Everlight, he came to love that place and its people, everyone appreciated and recognized the value of his works especially Don, and Knight who gave him their full support and resources.
Of course, he had already come to terms with the risks, if anybody else knew about the secret kingdom where elves, dwarves, demihumans, and many other kinds co-exist together, it would cause an uproar in the empire and all of the people in Everlight would be in risk.
Everlight could overpower most of the rank 4 kingdoms with ease but compared to the rest of the empire, it was still like a newborn baby and powerless against them. However, Benedict knew that if they avoided messing with the major powers and continued to grow their power, Everlight would be a major power in the entire empire soon.
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