Rise of the Legendary Emperor

Chapter 165: Is this a freakin Joke?

After two days Don left the gathering, Joel finally returned to Agoria.

"Where's his majesty?"

Joel saw Arwen and the black-armored men working outside the castle repairing some tunnel pipes beneath the ground.

"Throne hall"

"Have fun, guys"

Joel laughed looking at the dirt-covered armors of them and went to meet Don at the throne hall.

When Joel entered the throne hall, he was talking with Lord Clemo and Arrora as he nodded at Joel to come forward

"Your majesty"

"You're back"

Don motioned Joel to take the seat beside Lord Clemo

"Your majesty, I have some good news and bad news"

"Bad news first"

He leaned back on his throne and waited for Joel to tell the bad news first

"The bad news is your majesty, some of the kings might avoid any kind of relation with Agoria and Emir"

"Some of the kings? Who?"

Joel nodded his head as Don had already guessed that it could happen

"Also, your majesty, I saw King Mattia and King Virgo having a serious conversation with some big-time merchants "

"Shit"

Lord Clemo frowned when he heard this

"Lord Clemo, you look upset"

"We might be in some serious trouble, your majesty"

"What do you mean?"

"Your majesty, Kingdom Monivelle, it's like the house for every major merchant guilds, businesses and traders, if we trace back an item, eventually the link will point at Monivelle, so"

"So if Mattia wants, he can make our lives harder buy manipulating the merchants or anyone who sells what we need"

Joel also had the same concern as Lord Clemo

"Even Miss Grega have to buy something from Monivelle, especially the construction materials"

They could not hurt him in a direct battle but they could slow the progress of his kingdom's development from using tactics like this.

"That seems like Gabriella's problem, doesn't it? It's with her that we made the deal"

"Yes your majesty, but if she didn't get what we need, at the end of the day, it's us who get hurt"

Joel said as Lord Clemo nodded

"Alos your majesty, if I'm right, King Mattia would probably know that we are dealing with Miss Grega"

He wanted to go there and rip off Mattia's throat but since he couldn't know for sure that he would make troubles for him, he had to be patient

"Joel, I want you to dig deeper into Mattia and Virgo, I want to know what's their spite against me, you'll get all the resources and support you need"

Joel nodded as Don looked at Lord Clemo

"Lord Clemo, let's just say if we need something from Monivelle, what about buying them using a different dealer?"

"The success rate of that plan depends on the size of the order, your majesty, if you sent a new face to buy a big order, they might guess something's off and try to rip us off by charging us an unreasonable price "

Don sighed and nodded

"Let's just wait for Gabriella to return, if Monivelle really tried to mess with me, I'll show Mattia that what I do to someone who messes with me"

"Can't we just kill Mattia? Your majesty"

Lord Clemo was startled to hear Arrora as he reminded himself not to get into the bad side of her.

"No, killing a king like Mattia, it would bring more trouble than good, one wrong move at this point will give others to unite against us, besides, I don't want to be the one who starts the war, I want to be the one who ends it"

"Yes, your majesty"

Arrora nodded 

"Is that all the bad news or do you have more? "

Joel let out an embarrassed smile 

"That's all, your majesty"

"Then hear the good news?"

"Since King Mattia has hold of influential merchants and whatnot, King Virgo seems to have a grudge against you, plus the big nobles might hate you by now"

Lord Clemo seemed shocked and Arrora chuckled inside when Joel kept pointing out these things

"I don't hear any good news"

Don said as Joel scratched his head

"What I'm saying is your majesty, because of this, the small merchants, guilds, traders may try to forge a business relation with you, there's also a chance for some notable families to come seeking a connection with you considering your power, your majesty "

That made sense since it was natural for the weak to seek shelter under powerful people and he wouldn't send them away if they came to him as long as there are benefits for him by helping them or associating with them.

"One last thing before you go Joel, bring me the files on the nobles of Emir, it's time I visit there"

Lord Clemo guessed that the nobles in Emir are going to have a bad time soon

"It's in my room, your majesty, I'll bring it to you in a few minutes"

Since Lord Clemo had no idea about the teleportation array in Everlight, Joel didn't mention that the files are in his room in Everlight. As far as Lord Clemo concerned, they were teleported from white orchard road to Agoria using a teleportation scroll and Don wanted to keep that way until Lord Clemo swears the oath before the oath-taker.

"And you Lord Clemo, ask the nobles, sorry the ex nobles here to meet me at my castle in Emir in two days from now"

After what he did to Massen and Ryan, only three major noble families were still here in Agoria.

"Yes, your majesty"

A few minutes after, Joel brought back the files from Everlight and gave it to Don. According to the file, there were five noble families in Emir as he looked at the file to find their criminal activities. There wasn't a single noble family who didn't commit any crimes but most of them were embezzling, land cheating, illegal acquisition of mines, and crimes that usually endangered anyone's life except for two nobles from two different families.

"Joel, this farmer's family you mentioned in Walter's file, couldn't you find their whereabouts?"

Joel shook his head

"Forgive me, your majesty, my men couldn't find a thing about their whereabouts, it's like they vanished in overnight, my guess though your majesty, they've been killed by Lord Walter's men"

"Why didn't Warren punish Walter? Isn't it clear that Walter killed them as you said?"

"There isn't any evidence, your majesty, it's the farmer's sister's word against Lord Walter's"

"No one would risk complaining about a noble, especially a commoner, I think she told the truth about Walter's sons, one day she complains that Walter's sons raped her nephews and the next day the whole family disappear, it isn't a coincidence"

Joel couldn't find a word as he himself knew that the woman told Warren the truth but he was unable to punish a powerful noble like Walter without any shreds of evidence to the woman's claims.

"Where's the farmer's sister now?"

"She's still in Emir, your majesty"

He knew that Walter might have left her alone since making her disappear like the farmer's family would be too obvious and draw more attention towards his family. But after a time, Walter would deal with the woman too if Don wouldn't deal with him.

After putting aside Walter's file, he took another file of a noble who committed a serious crime like Walter.

"Poisoning another noble family member, huh, this one has guts"

He was surprised to see that the culprit of this crime was a woman. After reading the full file Don frowned again

"So, the servants of Pedra poisoned Yashira who was noble because of their loyalty towards Pedra and Pedra had no idea or any knowledge about this, is this a freakin joke?"

The file mentioned that the two servants were hanged by Warren for their crime against Yashira but Don knew that the real criminal was Lady Pedra. He wasn't born yesterday to believe that two servants decided to poison another noble on their own due to loyalty, they were clearly ordered by Pedra and she would have given a hefty sum to the two servant's families.

"Your majesty, Warren"

"Warren what Joel? You're going to say there's no evidence pointing to Pedra, is it not true that this file says here, Lady Yashira was competing with Lady Pedra to buy the copper mine?"

Joel felt a cold sweat on his back hearing Don's stern tone as Lord Clemo could see the monster inside him starting to show its face.

But seeing Joel's frightened face, he sighed

"It's no one's fault, I've never done anything to prevent the crimes, I'm only punishing the criminals after the crime has been committed, what about forming a unit to prevent the crimes? a place where commoners and nobles alike can report their problems? "

"Like a city guard?"

Arrora asked

"A unit that far better than a city guard, we'll talk about the details later but for now, I'll take care of this problem" 

Already he had one special unit, the assassins under Arrora's command now to form another one, he needed a capable person who could lead the unit. Still, he was lacking a suitable person considering Gael was still unconscious and Arwen was leading the archers.

"Alright if that's all, I'll be in my room cultivating"