280 The winter is here I (2/2)
Clemo scratched the back of his head and nodded while avoiding direct eye contact with Arrora. He heard what she did to Noa and had nightmares about it.
”You can explain my rules and laws to the nobles. If they disagree, send them to me”
”As you wish, your majesty. Do I have your permission to set them up with some business opportunities like we did previously, your majesty?”
Don scratched his trimmed beard and pondered for a moment before answering
”Why not, just make sure they have a clean record and pay their taxes”
He wanted to send away Clemo without giving any more work but when he looked around the throne hall and saw Noa's throne decorated with pink roses and velvets, he changed his mind.
”And Lord Clemo, get rid of this idiotic throne and tell our men to forge another”
The pink color throne in a rather empty hall looked ugly and he knew he can't sit on the throne without feeling nauseated.
”You can go now, Lord Clemo”
”Yes, your majesty”
Lord Clemo bowed and rushed outside to start his busy day leaving Arrora and Don alone with a group of black-armored guards in the throne hall.
”Arrora, where's the status report of Ishikara?”
”The trainees are still working on that. I'll give it to you before nightfall today”
”Can't wait to see it. So what do you think about Vivian? Is she doing a good job?”
”Yes, she's personally training the new recruits with Nanbu and strategizing with Ken and Ukita to form an internal army unit which she named Police force”
”Sounds good”
Since there's no throne to sit and relax, he walked outside to overlook the capital and the people.
” look!” Arrora quickly pointed at the sky when she stepped out as he looked up at the sky only to find that unbeknownst to him, the snow had begun to fall on the ground. Under the gray sky, there seemed to be an uncountable number of snowflakes. They danced in the wind, flying all over the place, accompanied by the shouts of the citizens of Ishikara
Arrora held out her hand, catching the small balls of sparkling snow. She could feel a chill coming from her fingers.
”It's snowing”
”Winter is here”
As time went by, the snowing only increased and it did not seem to slow down.
The capital had been wrapped in a layer of white when the sky darkened. Don felt unbelieving at the fact that it would be a few months before the sun would bask the kingdom with its golden warm sun rays.
Walking along the streets of Ishikara, Arrora could not help but exclaim. ”The capital seems deserted, and soon, some nobles would also go to the upper parts of the continent”
”The upper parts said to be less affected by the winter, so it's natural for the rich to flee,” said Don as Arrora placed her hand on her ear and nodded.
”The status report is ready and waiting for you in the castle”
”Good, then we can quickly and effectively allocate people during the winter”
”I'm really happy that you're here, your majesty” Arrora blinked and then laughed. She didn't call him Don because of the black-armored men around them. Until he makes it official, she didn't want the people to know they are in a relationship.
”Why?”
”Because I'm not good at things like this but you seem like a natural ” She paused for a moment and seemed to look for her words. ”Whether it's your ruthlessness or the way you handle things, the results are super effective. I don't think anyone can be good as you in ruling at such a young age”
”Is that so?” his heartfelt warm for some reason hearing her words.
Unlike Emir or Agoria, Ishikara had a city wall around the capital.
Along the city wall, the trainees and black armored men were cleaning up the aisle of snow. When they saw him, they all bowed towards him with eyes full of respect and admiration.
”How is the situation here?”
”There are still refugees coming, your majesty and we're talking about bringing in all the villagers inside the city wall, in case this winter turns out to be harsher than the last one ” It was Nanbu who answered him.
”How many villagers are there?”
”Five villages, your majesty, the number of people living there is around four to five hundred”
”If we bring them here, do we have enough housing to allocate for them and the refugees?”
Looking at Nanbu struggling to answer, he realized that's the topic he was discussing with his men.
”We need to be ready for the worse, take in the villages, and if you don't have space for the refugees, move them to Emir and Agoria, they should share their homes with refugees until we build enough houses. Ask Amaryll for coins to hire enough carriages to get the job done”
”I'll get right into this, your majesty”
Receiving Don's order, Nanbu made his way towards the castle where one has to go if they wanted to teleport back to Everlight.
The rear section of the city wall had been transformed into a battalion to fight any enemy army forces. When all was quiet, most people would rest in the battalion to save energy. For the guards, a rotation system was implemented. Due to the low winter temperature, each warning patrol only stayed out for two or three hours before being replaced.
It was Vivian who laid these measures into place. When asking her, he found out that Ishikara had been targeted by some bandit groups during the winter. This meant that each winter saw hundred to two hundred soldiers being killed in the fight with bandits.
He toured the walls once again. It seemed that all was going smoothly, but his instincts told him that this winter is going to be anything but peaceful.