The Demon King's Hero Of Light

Obviously unsettled with her being so distracted, Gagranok, continued with a scowl.

"Not much is known about the human church, other than that it runs the humans as a king is supposed to run us. It is believed, from the little information we have managed to gather from the heroes, that the church is who sends them each time we crown a king. How they know our king has been crowned, is unknown to us, unless they have spies, but we have a very hard time believing that."

Aella didn"t, but she didn"t give him any reason to pause. It would be better if everyone believed she was still in the dark. Bugs had a tendency to scatter when light was shined on them, or they were exposed, and she wanted to squish them all.

"It has been speculated that the human church still has access to magic, which has been denied us since the first king locked away the library. Their church rules over the humans, dictating what they are to grow in their fields, and having them build cities on the lands they have stolen from us, to enforce their encroaching border."

"How did the war start?"

"The ancient doc.u.ments are locked away in the library, but it is believed that the first king initiated the war, demanding the humans leave this area of the valley that both races had lived in peacefully until then. All attempts to name a border between the two countries, has been met with disagreements, and when the first king disappeared, all attempts to form peaceful relations with the humans ended."

With a sigh, she turned to look at him and said, "Do you take me for a fool? I haven"t heard a single thing from you, since telling me of the Advisory Council, that I can trust to be true. Care to try and tell me something useful?"

Gagranok looked shocked. He backed up a step and cleared his throat. "Your Majesty, I don"t know what else to tell you. What I have told you, is what was told to me by the last history tutor. If anything I have told you is wrong, I sincerely apologize."

"Fine, you may leave for now. Destov, is there anything more you can tell me about taxes?"

Gagranok paused, glancing at the n.o.ble who gave him a weak smile, before bowing to her and leaving.

"If anything happens to you, Destov, I will have Gagranok punished," she added, before Gagranok was out of earshot.

"I thank you, Your Majesty," said Destov, looking slightly relieved. "It would be a major undertaking, to reinstate a tax system. The people are used to not having one, so there will need to be a lot of people involved to ensure it goes into place."

"Taxation is a process where we take money, or goods, from the people, to then turn around and use to better the kingdom, correct?" asked Aella, trying to remember what her father had told her about it. Even he had been vague when mentioning it, and she couldn"t remember exactly how the topic had come up.

"That is correct, however, most of the people no longer use coin money in order for our tax collectors to be able to collect. The best they could offer would be the goods they produce, for their own personal barter systems."

Aella nodded, watching as some of the servants were setting up her a bath, putting up walls for her to hide behind in order to bathe. She almost told them it wasn"t important, but then remembered the nipple piercing, and decided it would be fine. No reason to show that off.

"How does the army get fed? Do we have some way to get food to them?"

"No, they acquire their food on their way from one place to another. Any who live along their path are required to feed them if possible."

"That"s ridiculous, no one person could feed an army. No wonder there"s no one living along the borders, and everyone"s fled to the west. I want taxes to start in whatever form of currency the people have. If they make their living on clothing, then so be it, let them make clothes for the army as payment for their taxes. If they grow food, then they will be taxed in food. I want people to start buying the extra food from the farmers and bringing it to one spot to be divided up for use by the army and the Kingsman. That will include all those who work for the crown directly, so the tax collectors, the messengers, everyone. Get people together to start putting it into play, and send town criers to every major town and village to spread the news that there will be a yearly tax that will start being collected after winter."

"Yes, Your Majesty," he said, bowing deeply to her.

"What happened to all of the coins, if no one has any?" she asked, jumping down out of the chair lightly, and heading for her bath.

"No one knows," he said, keeping up with her, so as not to yell his response. "There have been concerns that magic may be involved, or thieves, but no one honestly has any idea."

"All right. I guess that can be all for now. Inform the staff that we will be there for breakfast in the next 10 minutes."

He bowed again and left with a guarded expression. She imagined it was a look of relief he was trying to hide, for being allowed to finally leave.

"What, you get to watch us bathe, but you won"t let us watch you?" cried Kieran in surprise as she stepped behind the wooden screen.

Pausing as she went to remove her boots, Aella looked down at the magical clothing and shrugged. Pushing the screen down, to the hoots and whistles of the demons, she grinned at them and fell backwards into the tub, fully clothed. Climbing back up out of the tub, everyone was laughing and groaning at her for ruining their fun, but as she stood there, their laughs stopped. Smirking at their looks, Aella knew her clothes were magically wringing the water out of themselves, drying super-fast. By the time she got to the doors, even her hair was dry.

"How did you do that?" asked Frederik in a whisper, reflecting the question in all of their eyes.

"Unlike the rest of the Demon Kingdom, I know a little magic," she said with the same smirk. Are you all going to eat breakfast in the nude? I really don"t mind honestly."

With shouts of surprise and laughter, they rushed to get dressed as she walked across the hall to the dining room. The table was only partially set, with the servants still setting out plates and cups.
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"I apologize for not having the table ready, Your Majesty. I thought you were eating in the old dining room. I a.s.sure you this won"t happen again!" said Edgar with a deep bow.

"Why would you think that?" she asked, sitting in her chair as one of the servants rushed to pour wine in her cup.

He paused before speaking up, "I believed you would return to your room to bathe, not bathe in the other room with your guards around you."

She wasn"t sure if he was speaking the truth, but decided it didn"t matter. She was hungry and they were bringing the food out. Everyone was trickling into the room, still tying strings and buckling buckles, talking and chatting about how unfair it was that she had magic.

"In that case, I forgive you. These fruit bread things are delicious, what are they called?" she said, holding up a triangle of bread dotted with bits of fruit.

"That would be a scone, Your Majesty," he said.

"So, how did you get magic, when no one else can?" asked Seifer, sitting in his chair, barefoot, dropping his boots behind him and grabbing a sausage as the plate was set down.

"I found the royal treasury," she said, grabbing a boiled egg and peeling it as everyone in the room froze in surprise and shock.

"The royal treasury?" whispered Orolon, the white advisor.

"Apparently, that"s a perk of being king. Only I can find it and access what"s inside of it. There were all sorts of nice magical things, but I only picked out a few."

"I thought that was a myth," muttered Jirga, to Varnin.

"Oh, it wasn"t. I was told that any who try to find it, and actually succeed at getting to the door, will find it locked, so give up on that idea."

She eyed each of the Advisors, listening to their heartbeats carefully and noting whose sped up and whose stayed steady.

"I have rea.s.signed each of my Royal Guards to new positions, which I am sure you would have already been notified?" she said, noting the nods from her Advisors before continuing, "and I have told them that I will be leaving after lunch to head towards the border to deal with the heroes. In my absence, two of them have been named Regent in my stead, and will take over running the things I have gotten started. I want the rest of the people moved by the end of the week. No excuses. Any who are still not moved will be jailed or killed. I don"t have patience for procrastination. They can get special permission to go back to their homes to deal with business if they need, but they will be moved.

"I have Destov informing the people of our kingdom that a new tax collection will ensue starting in the spring. I understand that there is very little coin in circulation within the kingdom, and intend to look into that. Until they have the coin to pay their taxes, people will pay in whatever currency they barter with. If that"s food, then we shall be paid in food. If it"s animals, then we"ll be paid in animals. I do not want there to be any arguing about this. It will run smoothly, or I will find new people to run these positions. You will all help him accomplish his task, in whatever way you can, and I expect daily updates. You better have your reports ready when I show up each evening, because I will not be happy with long drawn out excuses. Is that understood?"

They all looked very confused.

"Your Majesty," began Rannaun, stepping forward from his spot along the wall where all of the Advisors were standing.

"Rannaun," she interrupted him, looking up and making eye contact.

He froze, unsure what her look meant, and she teleported to right in front of him.

"What do you want?" she hissed, almost in his face, if it weren"t for her short stature.

His mouth opened, but no words came out. He was too stunned from her movement to respond.

Moving back to her seat with a single step, she said, "The other guards have been delegated as Generals of the areas I am sending them to. They will be outfitted before they leave, and I will be checking on them, as time permits. I am tired of my kingdom being in shambles, torn apart from everything. It is time we rise up and show the world we are worthy of claiming this area our home. Why the humans have not overrun us, I still am not sure of, yet I believe some of you may know that answer. Keep your knowledge for now. I will find it out sooner or later. I"m not here to fit into your world. I"m here to make my own, and it will be better."