111 North and South (1/2)
The funeral that happened two days ago for Prince Nikalas, Vivian, and Riya was a simple one without any ruckus. Unexpectedly the only people who attended the funeral were Don, Arrora, Uncle Steve, and some maid friends of Riya as no one from the royal family didn't even come to the funeral.
Because there was no foul play had been found in Nikalas's room, the explosion was crossed off as rune drawing went wrong and King Harold didn't pay much attention to that matter ever since.
Also after Don had declined the duel challenge, there was no news about the Agorians either. For some reason, King Harold seemed worried and upset the last two days and Don knew that it wasn't thinking about Prince Nikalas's untimely demise.
At the moment Don was going to the throne hall to meet King Harold after being summoned by him with Arrora. Oddly the number of guards patrolling the castle and guards inside the castle was increased by King Harold and again Don knew it was because of the Agorians.
Entering the throne hall, Don saw King Harold was standing with a man and a woman and Don recognized the woman as she wore the symbol of Emir on her chest.
King Harold asked when the moment he saw Don as the woman ran towards him and knelt
”Do you know about this?”
King Harold looked furious and concerned at the same time when he asked Don while Don looked the woman kneeling before him and said
”Stand up and tell me what happened”
”Your majesty, we have a terrible explosion at the barracks. Most of our men are gone”
”What!”
This was the first time King Harold has seen Don showing his emotion on his face and it was very genuine
”Yes your majesty, our army it's gone”
”How? Who did this?”
”We found this on one body, your majesty”
The woman said as she took a half-burnt crest out from her pocket and handed it over to Don.
The letters and engravings on the crest were barely visible to Don but he could vaguely see a bull in the center of the crest.
”Give me that”
King Harold stepped forward and almost pulled the crest from Don's hand as Don gave the crest to him before he could have done that
”That BASTARD!”
Even though the crest was badly burnt, King Harold could identify the crest as Agoria's crest. Now it all made sense to KIng Harold, General Hozai disappeared and Don was here at Korrinth, they targeted Emir's army to prevent Korrinth from joining forces.
Since he heard the same news from his spies about the explosion in Emir, he had no reason to suspect Don for playing any tricks on him to save his men from the upcoming war with Agoria.
He already had enough headache hearing that they weren't able to hire skilled mercenaries from the guilds as they were already hired by the Agoria and now everything went from bad to worse.
”It's all your fault”
King Harold couldn't control his anger and frustration anymore as he shouted at Don.
”You think I'm happy about this? it's not your men that died”
Neither of them tried to hide their emotions as the tension between them increased
”Harold! Don!”
Suddenly Don and King Harold heard Queen Bella's voice as they turned to see her coming towards them and by the looks of her face, both of them knew that Queen Bella heard everything.
”We will lose the war before it even begins if we fight among us”
”If he didnt come into Darlene's life this wouldn't have happened, now our entire kingdom is at war and I blame him”
”And I blame Princess Darlene”
As he said Don turned and walked away leaving King Harold furious and Queen Bella shocked.
”How dare you walk away”
Leaving the throne hall, Don heard King Harold's high pitched shout from behind, still Don left without looking back.
”Can we go back to Everlight now and return here when the war starts?”
Don shook his head hearing Arrora's question since he still had some things to do in Korrinth.
********************************************
”Great job Cassek, Great job”
While in Agoria, King Garreth sat on his throne with an ear to ear grin on his face looking at Cassek, the spymaster.
”Also we hired mercenaries all the master level mercenaries from the guild and I took the liberty to hire some peak level apprentice mercenaries, your majesty ”
”You've never disappointed me Cassek”
King Garreth laughed as he said thinking about King Harold's situation.
It was not a surprise to King Garreth when Don rejected the challenge for duel even though he knew the nasty provocations written on it. And his all plan of conquering Emir and Korrinth had depended on Cassek's mission to destroy Emir's army and now that Cassek completed the mission successfully, he had no doubt in conquering both the kingdoms especially his main goal, Emir.