"Do you remember everything?" While walking to the stage area Joel asked Warren."Yes Joel, I remember" Warren sighed and said. After meeting with the king of Everlight, Warren received a message saying he should reveal it to the people however he wants about the matter he swore his loyalty to the king of Everlight.
In other words Emir was now a part of Everlight and he"s just a va.s.sal of the king of Everlight. It was not an utter shock to Warren because it was the king of Everlight that offered Warren to be a king in his stead in the first place.
It was either Warren or someone else under the king of Everlight.
Warren was waiting for Joel"s signal to go out and appear before the crowd gathered around the ceremonial stage. Even from afar from the stage Warren could hear the crowd cheering and chanting his name. As time went by Warren cold sweat appeared on his forehead thinking about the responsibilities and trust that people put in him, he knew he must do everything with this chance to not betray the trust of people of Emir.
Finally, a loud bell sound reverberated across the kingdom
"It"s time" Joel said, opening the door for Warren to appear before the people.
The moment the people saw Warren, the chanting and the cheering grew louder and louder
"Hail King Warren"
"Hail King Warren"
"Hail King Warren"
"Marry meeeeee"
Warren had never even dreamt of this moment before, he slowly climbed up the stairs while awkwardly waving his hand and smiling at the cheering crowd. Many fathers were lifting their children over their shoulders while many young girls were screaming in excitement saying Warren to marry them.
Fireworks burst above in the sky, searing their sparkling light and vivacious color onto everyone"s eyes. Each one drew a pattern into the sky like Emir"s flag, the shape of a panther, and finally the name Warren. The shapes were something unique and breathtaking, never to be repeated exactly no matter how many were ignited and sent to their sky-bound destiny.
Usually in a Coronation Ceremony, the soldiers of the kingdom prepare a walk and show off their numbers and strength before the people reminding their military power to the nearby kingdoms. However today the soldiers were freed of this task and the soldiers partic.i.p.ated in the ceremony as normal citizens along with their families.
.After the bursts of fireworks finished, Warren stepped forward and raised his hand towards the people as they stopped their shouting and chanting and looked at Warren with full of respect in silence. One of the men guarding the bulgy thing before the throne stepped aside to Warren to amplify his voice using the bound energy so that everyone could hear him.
Warren cleared his throat with a cough before starting his speech,
"I know we"ve been through a lot. We have seen war, we have seen starvation, we have seen our homes gets destroyed, our brothers die" Warren paused and looked at the people for a moment
"But we are still here. We"ve won wars We"ve won the starvation We"ve built our houses WE HAVE RISEN FROM THE ASHES"
"WE HAVE RISEN FROM THE ASHES" the people repeated Warren"s words in high pitch voices as the slogan reverberated through the town square.
Warren had to raise his hand again to calm the people before continuing
"And we were not alone in our struggles we had Everlight behind us, helping us every step of the way " Warren was an honest person so he couldn"t bring himself to take all the credits to himself since he knew everything he and the rebels archived was because of the king of Everlight besides Joel and the people of Everlight were standing just behind him.
"EVERLIGHT"
"EVERLIGHT"
"EVERLIGHT"
"EVERLIGHT"
Just like Warren"s name, the people started to shout the name Everlight in chorus.
"As you probably know, it was the king of Everlight who helped us the rebels, provided food for our family and rescued them from the explosion"
"Long live the king of Everlight" Someone shouted loudly from the crowd and more screams came next.
"To be honest we are standing here alive because of him, if it"s not for him we all will be turned into ashes and I don"t need to tell you why" Warren felt really grateful towards the king of Everlight when he remembers the day of the war. It was logical because if he didn"t feel grateful he couldn"t have successfully given his oath of loyalty to the oath-taker mirror.
"What he asked in return after doing everything is our loyalty towards him, is that too much?"
"No it"s not" just like before someone shouted from the crowd and more screams came next. Don was glad that he mixed few people from Everlight among the crowd to ignite their gratefulness towards him for this occasion.
"That"s why I swore my loyalty to him and accepted to rule Emir in his stead"
For a moment Joel could clearly see nearly one-third of the crowd looking hesitant to digest what"s just Warren said. However little by little smiles appeared on people"s faces and they started to shout
"Hail the king of Everlight" this time, it was not started by Don"s people but the people who were rescued by Don"s men from the explosions.
Compared to the kingdoms like Archeron, Emir was a backwater kingdom. Even with all the expansion of King Hedor it was still considered a small kingdom in power, size, population when it comes to major powers in the Moon Empire.
Most of Emir"s population was located far outside of the capital and only a small percentage of them were living near the capital. It was this small percentage of the people who had tangled themselves with politics and other things but most of the people living outside of the capital or small towns had not to care much for the politics or even who rules them.
Until now Don and Knight"s plan was targeted to this small percentage who cares about politics. Since the people living in villages didn"t care much for the politics, they are very easy to please because they were already living under the rule of the original King Hedor paying high taxes so Don knew it"s enough to get their support just by lowering the taxes. It was not only true for them but it can be applied to all the kingdoms, the people in this world who were struggling to live don"t care much about politics or who rules them or at least they accustomed to that. So it was easy and cost-effective for Don to get the support of the small percentage by helping them and giving them money.
Even if they felt like they didn"t owe him anything, they can"t do anything now because Warren has already sworn his loyalty to Don and the people have to follow their king Warren who serves Don.
"Do you feel like you deceived them?" Arrora said while standing on the balcony of the castle far away from the ceremony.
"No I don"t. It was either a short time of suffering or a long time of h.e.l.l " Don said to Arrora looking at the crowd when he heard her saying standing behind him.
"Do you think I deceived them?" Don asked.
"No, I do not, if it"s not for you they would have ended up facing far worse"
Arrora always knew that the original King Hedor"s thirst to expand his kingdom by any means necessary would certainly bring the war to the doorsteps and when that time comes it will be a lot worse than actually Don did with Gael just like she said.
"But I still don"t get why you can"t be the king instead of Warren "
"My first priority is Everlight, I made my move on Emir because it was a weak kingdom with a weak king"
before Don could finish Arrora suddenly said
"And also n.o.body would notice the changes in a backwater kingdom like this right?"
Don nodded seeing Arrora started to grasp the meaning of his actions little by little without him explaining.
"Hey Don, everything is set. You just crown him and don"t forget to remember who"s the boss here" Don heard Knight"s voice in his ears and waited for the right moment to make an entrance.
After hearing Warren"s declaration of his loyalty towards the king of Everlight, many people had no worries on their faces and looked excited and happy because they were grateful for rescuing their family members during the war and few of the people looked a little gloomy but they didn"t do anything because they knew they can"t do anything now.
Meanwhile, on the stage Warren finished his speech and waited for Joel to see what"s going to happen next. Joel stepped forward and looked at the people before speaking
"Now I welcome my lord, the king of Everlight" just when he said, the firework burst in the air, and a huge majestic dragon appeared on the air. The people looked at the sky with wide eyes and gaped mouths.
When the Dragon"s body started to slowly fade away a figure flying on a dark sword jumped down on the stage and landed on his feet comfortably.
"My lord" Everyone on the stage bent on one knee when they saw Don including Warren and Loren.
Seeing them knelt before him, Don raised his hand towards the sky as his black sword landed on his hand. Don touched Warren"s shoulder"s with his sword and turned his sword at the red cloth covering the bulgy thing to lift up.
The red cloth was lifted by Don to reveal a delicately forged head adornment, a crown. The crown was made of pure gold and inlaid with small diamonds and on the front of the crown a beautiful red colored big gem was placed and on each side of the red gem, there were two emerald gems etched on to give a majestic look to the crown.
Don reached his hand at the crown as the crown slowly floated towards him and landed on his hand. Holding the crown, Don stepped forward near Warren and placed the crown on his head which was perfectly fitted around his head. The crowd cheered and roared in excitement and happiness when Don placed the crown on Warren"s head and shouted both the names "Long live the king of Everlight" and "Hail king Warren".
Seeing Don still on his one knee, Don raised his hand and gestured at him to stand up. Stepping forward Don while they stopped their cheering and looked at him, some people started at him with respect and gratefulness while others looked at him with a mix of fear and a little hostility.
"This is the day that Emir became a part of Everlight, you all are now my people, people of Everlight, and under the rule of my loyal subordinate Warren, Emir will enter a new prosperous era. You will see the changes that are going to come in your life from now rather than I explain"
With that claim, Don threw the sword on the air and jumped on his sword to fly away leaving the cheering crowd. While all said and done, Don couldn"t help but feel he should have done this whole conquering Emir a little differently.Don knew the end of the day he and Knight were two rogue cultivators in the divine continent and had little to no experience in politics, mastermind plans and ruling. Don noted in his mind he needs to get a strategist in this kind of matters soon since it was no doubt to him that his plan of conquering Emir has mistakes and loopholes in it.