122 Kingdom Agoria (1/2)

Leaving Korrinth, Don knew he's leaving a few loose ends but since he and his men were not ready to take on the Cold Moon Palace, he had to leave without tying those loose ends.

It was only Don's concern because after killing the Agorians if he also conquered Korrinth by killing their army, he wouldn't have enough men to protect the kingdoms which could make them vulnerable to many outside powers.

So now he could focus on building his army without worrying about anything for a while.

The kingdom of Agoria, terminated to the north-east by a ridge of miles high mountains, which were altogether impassable because of the volcanoes upon the tops. On the three other sides, it was bounded by the ocean. There was not one seaport in the whole kingdom since the coast was so full of pointed rocks, and the sea generally so rough that there was no venturing with small boats.

So in other words, Agorians had little to no income from their seas.

Since Agoria also just a rank 4 kingdom like Emir and Korrinth, there were not many cities or towns but had a single town also known as capital and a few villages. There were few functioning roads, no big buildings and the population was both malnourished and disheveled as Don noticed while marching towards the capital.

Each side of the road, the fields were mostly covered by grass, not because there were no farmers, or there had been a drought, but because of the taxes from the crown. King Garreth demanded more than the peasants could give and then took the machinery as payment. The soldiers in his army weren't local of course, they were hired from a kingdom over the waters.

Aside from the ocean, Agoria's land was mainly covered in jungles and had a rainy climate. And Don realized that the abundance of rain could be the reason for the lack of population around here.

Of course, not all the lands were empty grasslands, Agoria had more farmlands than Emir and Korrinth despite the weather condition and lack of people to farm the lands.

While passing through a tiny village, Don noticed the lack of interest of the villagers in them. They seemed like they didn't care about a huge army marching towards their capital. The most pitiful thing was the children running around the village, most of them were butt naked while some children only wore a rag as cloth.

”Do you have any food left in your ring Don?”

Arrora couldn't help but feel pity towards the children looking at them because from now on, they were citizens of Everlight.

”Here”

Don retrieved some food he keeps in his space ring as an emergency ration and gave it to Arrora and to some of his men.

The villagers were obviously startled and scared seeing big figures in black armor approaching their children but the sight of Arrora, a gentle-looking girl and the sight of food in their hands somehow comforted the villagers.

Unlike their parents, the children almost jumped forward and grabbed the food, the moment Arrora and the men offered them. Their hunger was too great to be cautious.

”When did you last eat?”

Arrora asked the little girl who was munching on the bread that Arrora just gave as fast as she could.

”two ah no no, three days ago”

Hearing the girl, Arrora regretted giving King Garreth a quick death. It was clear that King Garreth spent most of his treasury to hire mercenaries or for his own pleasures rather than improving the lives of his people.

”Don't worry little girl, soon everything will be alright”

Arrora patted and ruffled the girl's head as the little girl let out a gentle smile.

”My lord, who are you?”

After Don's men distributed some food to every hungry villager, an old man walked slowly towards Don and asked

”I'm your new King”

As he said Don, Arrora, men left the villagers behind to reach the capital.

Along their journey, Don came across a bunch of tiny villages that were no different than the first one. Poverty, hunger plagued the lands, even people of Emir who had nothing but barren lands seemed better than the Agorians.

Since there were no enemies on their way to the capital, men started to enjoy their journey by singing and whistling as they walked. even Arrora kept humming some tunes while walking beside Don.

While his men were enjoying the journey, Don was thinking about the bandit problem, the villagers told him about.

Apparently the bandit problem was a big problem in Agoria as King Garreth neglected to take care of it because of some unknown reasons. And according to the villagers, were several bandit camps scattered around Agoria. Because of the bandits, the merchants avoided coming to Agoria which led to the downfall of the economy.

Fortunately for Don, the tortuous lives of the Agoria here would pave the way for him to get their support much easier, at this point, any improvement to their life would be a huge deal for them.

Since Don's goal was to build a powerful empire, first he must improve their lives before taking them into the path of war and conquering. And even though the dying Agoria would be a greater challenge, he was not going to give up on them because if he made the right moves, he could turn Agoria into a strong naval fortress.

Of course, it would take a humongous effort and work to create a navy force but with the resources and life energy stones, he could find in the ancient dungeon plus with Ken, building ships and forming a sea force would not be impossible to achieve.