64 Joel’s Story (1/2)

”How how did you know?”

The youth spoke before Don was so nervous he was unable to speak clearly.

”You had table manners, the one like nobles yet your body showed the hard labor you did so you are not a young master”

Hearing Don the youth's eyes went wide in surprise but before he could say anything Don continued

”And before you stepped forward yesterday you perfectly blended with the crowd and when you did, you didn't show any fear like the others so I guessed you were either a soldier or spy and then I saw the wounds on your body you were tortured by a professional weren't you? ”

The youth slowly nodded his head

”Usually a mere soldier won't be tortured like you, I guess the ones tortured you wanted some kind of information from you and looking at the state of you I bet you had already spilled what they wanted or you wouldn't be here alive and talking so connecting the dots I guessed you must be either someone in the upper ranks of the army or a spy but seeing your age and magic level you couldn't be an upper-rank officer that left only one option, spy”

Looking at the youth nodding and Don's reasoning Arrora was shocked but quickly understand all the logic behind it and waited for whats Don going to do about the blonde

”Yes, you are correct your high….lord...lord Don I was a spy from Kingdom Emir”

”What's your name spy from Kingdom Emir?”

”Joel my lord Joel Berkfloth”

Joel was very nervous, but at least he did not stammer like before.

”So Joel what's it gonna be army or civilian work?” Don asked.

”I don't know my lord I don't know I feel like I'm a failure I failed at the one job I know how to do”

Joel said as he shook his head and started to tremble.

”What made you think that you are a failure? ”

Hearing Don's question Joel slowly lifted his head as Don could see the young man's fury in his heart just by looking at his eyes. After a moment Joel decided to tell his story

”King Hedor hmm good”

The story Don heard from Joel was indeed a little cruel and sad one. Initially, Joel worked for King of Emir Hedor as one of the spies the King deployed around the empire. Joel was assigned to the nearby Kingdom of Emir, Kingdom Bracidia, a small yet resource-rich Kingdom than Emir.

According to Joel, the Royal family of Moon Empire in the capital conduct an empire wide inspection of its all kingdoms and rank them based on a kingdom's wealth, army power, and its people's life standard once every three years. Then the kingdoms were categorized into four ranks which are, Rank 1 to Rank 4 as Rank 1 being an extremely powerful and wealthy kingdom while Rank 4 is the exact opposite. If the Kingdom was ranked 4 for three consecutive times the empire would take out the privileges provided for a kingdom which basically means ending the kingdom and distribute its lands to the adjacent upper-rank Kingdoms.

Coincidently King Hedor had an eye for Bracidia's lands and its natural resources in Joel's story. Since Bracidia was ranked 4 for two consecutive times, King Hedor made plans to make it three. Based on Joel's story King Hedor asked him to poison Bracidia's water sources but Joel couldn't agree to it.

”What happened to Bracidia?”

Arrora interrupted Joel with a question.

”Bracidia is no more ” Joel said.

”Did you do it?”

Don could see the half-elf is just a second away from killing Joel if he answered yes and honestly Don would let her if he really poisoned the water source because there are many ways Joel could have poisoned the water and then prevented the people from drinking the poisoned water.

”No no, I didn't have it in me to do that”

”But someone did right?” Don asked.

Joel slowly nodded his head

”Yes I didn't know who”

”That still didn't explain how'd you get that wounds”

”When I said no to King Hedor I knew it won't end well so I've started to hide from him and gather information about the King that would prove all the cruel things he did before the Royal Family and I've put all of them in a safety box including the letters he sent while I spied for him in Bracidia”

”But you were found by the King I guess” Hearing the story and the state of Joel Arrora knew it doesn't take a genius to figure out how the things went down from there.

However, Joel shook his hand and clenched his fist till the nails started to dig into his palm