Rise of the Legendary Emperor

Chapter 154: Now it's time to do it

Queen Sienna couldn't continue the marriage topic after hearing Don's determined decision and surprisingly princess Amber looked relieved.

"Well when you consider about marrying, let us know, King Don"

Queen Sienna smiled and said as King Edward nodded

The ministers and nobles deliberately avoided talking with Don and after a few standard inquiries like, how are you? What's happening in Agoria and Emir?, they quickly left the castle as fast as they could. After dealing with everyone, King Edward showed Don's chamber which was a spacious fancy hall with a huge bed in the center.

Don's black-armored guards were standing in the hallway and outside of the room while Arrora and Arwen took the adjacent rooms. While Don was in his room, Arwen kept overseeing the security and walked around the castle to make sure no one sneaks in again like Yvonne.

"I thought you're meditating"

Don was looking at the starry sky while he heard Arrora's voice

Why are you awake?"

She was still in her battle robes as she leaned on the wall and looked at the sky with Don

"You did know that Queen Sienna was trying to betroth the princess to you right?"

"Yes and I also know Amber isn't very excited to get betrothed"

"I think she's intimidated by your cultivation level"

"Whatever"

Even if Amber liked to marry Don, he would have done the same as now. He had enough problems as it is and didn't want to add another problem to the list by getting betrothed.

"Do you want to get married someday? or are you going to be a single forever?"

Arrora's question brought back some painful memories buried deep within his heart. She noticed the tinge of sadness in his eyes as she stayed long enough to know the little changes on his face.

"Did I say something wrong?"

"No"

"I stayed with you long enough to know that it brought up some bad memories, Don"

It was not only sadness, it was sadness plus anger that erupting inside Don.

"Yes" he said

"Yes, what?"

"I will get married someday"

"Oh?"

Don turned to see the surprise look on her face

"Is that really a surprise for you?"

"Yeah, a little bit, can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead"

"When you decide to get married, will you choose a princess or anyone? "

Arrora was slightly nervous when she asked because she didn't want to upset him again by asking this

"Do you really want to know?"

She leaned forward 

"It doesn't matter whether she's a princess or commoner, if she loves me after knowing everything about me and stay by my side, I will marry her"

"What if she's from another race? Then will you marry her?"

Arrora's heart almost jumped a beat when she asked this as even she didn't know why she just asked the question

"Yes, even if she's from another race"

She somehow felt a little happy hearing him because most of the kings would choose to marry a human girl and produce a pure blooded human rather than marrying someone from another race, the only exception she heard was the Emperor's son who fell in love with a druid and an elf.

"Now go to sleep, it's pretty late"

She looked outside to there was no light in the capital except for the light coming from the starry sky

"Yeah, good night, see you in the morning and by the way, are we leaving tomorrow or staying here?"

"No, we should leave tomorrow"

Arrora nodded as she left Don's room to go to her room and get a good night sleep with a festive mood

**********************************

The following day was started with a fancy breakfast that had dishes that Queen Sienna herself made. Patrick did not join them and King Edward said that he's doing some important research about something while princess Amber seemed to be in her previous talkative mood today.

"King Don, I'm thinking we should go to the gathering together if you like"

"Yeah sure, Lord Clemo, which route should we choose?"

Lord Clemo quickly swallowed the food in his mouth without even chewing 

"We should go to Vreston and then take the white orchard road, it'll take us directly to Enarin"

However, when Lord Clemo mentioned the name Vreston, Don noticed that King Edward was gripping his glass tightly as his forearm was shaking slightly.

"King Edward, is everything alright?"

This was the first time, Don saw a gloomy expression on Edward's face as he always had a mild smile on his face

Queen Sienna gently patted Edward's hands

"I can open up a portal to the white orchard's road, King Don, no need to go through Vreston"

"No, it'll take a toll on your body"

He quickly shook his head 

"I'm not that weak, Edward"

"Classic"

Lord Clemo giggled inside as he knew that calling Edward using his first name was a classic sign of a wife telling her husband to shut up, especially in front of the guests.

Looking at the situation, Don knew that there's obviously a history between King Edward and Vreston.

"It's settled then, King Don, when you're ready I will open up a portal "

"We should go soon, your majesty, there's a long journey ahead"

"Yes, Adria tell our men to get ready, we'll leave soon"

Don reminded Arrora. He didn't inquire King Edward about what happened between him and Vreston since it's none of his business but he had a feeling that the gathering was going to be nothing but uneventful. Still, Don was hoping Vreston king to mess with him so he could use that reason to conquer his kingdom because after having some conversations with Lord Clemo and King Edward, he realized that he could easily conquer most of the rank four kingdoms without losing too many soldiers on his side but he couldn't declare war on a kingdom without a reason.

"I already told general Brown to get our men ready, he will meet you when you're ready "

Queen Sienna said to King Edward.

"Alright, King Edward, I'll meet you at the lawn "

As he said, Don took Lord Clemo and left the dining room to meet with Arwen and the men before leaving Sigalla.

When Don reached the lawn, Arwen and Arrora were waiting for him with his men.

"Is everyone ready?"

"Yes"

Arwen nodded as he turned to see the twenty men in full chainmail and metal plates were walking towards them.

"It's an honor to meet you in person, King Don, I'm General Nate Brown"

Just like the soldiers, General Brown was also wearing full plate armor with the Sigalla crest on his chest. He seemed to be in his early or mid-forties and had a little scar on his forehead behind his brown hair.

"Pleasure"

Don shook General Brown's hand as General Brown looked at the black-armored men with awe.

"I must say, those are top quality armors, King Don, is this your special unit?"

General Brown saw his fair share of battles and knew enough about everything related to wars. When he first heard of the war between Don's men and Agoria, he was extremely surprised because it was not a war but a one-sided massacre. And seeing the quality of their armor and weapons, he realized why Agoria lost the war because compared to the armors that his men wore, the black armors could almost make the soldiers wearing it invincible in a battlefield.

"No, General Brown, they are just the normal unit"

Brown didn't completely believe Don but he couldn't show his skepticism on his face.

After the gathering, Don had to go to the ancient dungeon mainly to get the elixir to remove the curse on Nikalas's mother, Vivianna. Then, when the winter started, he planned to stop adventuring and develop his kingdom as well as start the construction of the dam. According to Stodemar and Ken, the construction work would last between four to six months and that was because of the winter or they would have done it within six months.

The winter was an important time as he decided to open his borders for all the races and increase the population of his kingdoms so he could raise a more powerful army than it is now. The elves had become an extremely effective archer unit as the dwarves and the demihumans became a powerful infantry unit. Since Knight was training the orcs, soon they would have a twelve men cavalry unit but with him opening the border, the chances of many other races taking refuge in his kingdom would rise. Of course, they could think of it as a trap to capture them, but Don planned to bring some demihumans, dwarves, and goblins from Everlight and make them roam around Emir and Agoria to put on a show.

Considering he has an immense amount of wealth now, he could start to develop his kingdom without thinking about anything else. What most of the rank four kingdoms lacked were wealth and power, but he had wealth and power to do whatever he wanted among the rank four kingdoms so Don knew what he needed to do now, make more wealth and become as powerful as he could before the end of the winter.

Until now he planned everything in his mind but from now on, he had to do it despite the dangerous and risks it would bring him, unlike when he was a rogue cultivator, now he could not avoid or ignore the risks, risks and dangerous were inevitable for a king with his ambition.