Rise of the Legendary Emperor

Chapter 125: Dealing with the Nobles

Tabletops layered with trays of the most delicious food and drinks lined the walls, delicacies capable of making one's mouth water. A whole roast deer with sprigs of rosemary threaded through its antlers and stuffed with mashed potatoes and rye bread, marinated wild chicken, grilled fish with lemon, smoked meat, and a blueberry glazed ham, mounds of fragrant wild rice grown by the proud dwarven farmers.

Aside from the mouth-watering meats, there were potatoes and diced pumpkin smeared with butter and spices baked on hot stones, countless cheeses which apparently Ken had bought from his trip to capital that went with baskets of crackers and bread rolls shaped like seashells, and all sorts of varieties of salads and side dishes. A tureen or two on each table contained either hot soup or a hearty stew made by Amaryll.

While serving the food to everyone, Amaryll was showing her new clothes to her friends.

"Thanks Don, she never had so many new clothes in her life," Arwen said as Don just nodded.

Although Don bought her new clothes before, this was the first time he bought an entire floor of Luther and Grannar for everyone to choose what they like. 

"me king, be I looking good? this be tha first time I'm wearing these"

"Who's the lucky lady Stodemar?"

The dwarf startled when he heard Knight as he started to open and close his mouth without speaking anything

"You look good Stodemar"

Arrora bailed out the dwarf from an awkward situation as the dwarf let out a smile and joined everyone at the table

"Don what's our plan of dealing with Agorians?"

Arrora asked Don while tasting the soup 

"The bandits, I want them gone from my kingdom"

"Hmm, we should assign this task to our trainees. And one of Arrora's team can be backup in case the bandits have any surprises planned"

"We also need station some of our troops in Agoria"

"Yeah Don, we can't let our men running around in masks and armors"

Considering most of Don's men were from non-human races, it would attract some unwanted attention towards Don and his kingdoms. While in Emir, Don only used a couple of dwarves so it didn't bring any disaster to him but an army of elves and dwarves would cause a commotion and it could even attract the attention of the emperor.

"Teleport our men in Agoria back here tomorrow, we can teleport them back there if anyone comes knocking"

"Let's enjoy the feast shall we?"

Knight said and started to munch on every dish and stuffed them into his belly as much as he could

The rest of the night went with laughter, drinking games, and dancing as Don stood on the corner and watched them. As usual little Elrond started an archery competition using mini arrows and won. The drinking game between Arwen and Dhursir ended up with both of the men losing their consciousness due to the extreme hangover and surprisingly Stodemar was on his best behavior and Don saw him dancing with a dwarven girl all night until the girl got tired and went to bed.

That night Don did not cultivate but went to bed and closed his eyes hoping to get some good night sleep without any nightmares which he always gets when he closes his eyes to sleep.

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"Brother wake up"

Before even the sun fully rises in the east, Don heard Catalie's voice in his ears as he slowly opened his eyes.

And the moment he fully opened his eyes, he saw Catalie was bouncing in joy before him.

"What happened to you?"

Catalie looked like a grown up as she resembled a girl at the age of fourteen or fifteen and Don had no idea how that happened.

"I don't know, yesterday I felt sleepy and when I woke up, I grew up"

"Well as long as you don't bring a BOY friend here, I'm cool with it"

"Hehehe"

Catalie giggled after hearing Don and disappeared from his room so he could change into his usual more sleek black robes and put his black hood back on.

Don never felt comfier when he put his armor on and hood. After changing his robes, Don retrieved his black sword from the space ring and put on his back.

"I missed you, Ghost"

Don knew that if he used Ghost to fight with Darlene, she would have been slashed into pieces even with Randal's force shield around her body.

But Don chose not to use Ghost because he didn't want the person who was watching him while fighting Darlene to get curious about his black sword, Ghost was one of a kind.

Since fighting with the Dragon king broke his most powerful weapon Storm the battle hammer, Don was keeping it safe in his space ring until he could find someone skilled and loyal to forge it back to its previous state.

After leaving his room, Don reached the throne hall and saw Arrora waiting for him to go to Agoria, and beside her stood Benedict and Arya.

"Here"

As he approached them, Don took out the two keys and gave them to Benedict and turned to look at Arya's worried face

"Don't worry, you are one of my people"

Don said and walked past them towards the teleportation array while Arrora patted on Arya's shoulder and followed Don.

Reaching the teleportation array room, Don Nikalas reading his father's diary and working on the array

"Just call me Don"

Before even Nikalas could open his mouth Don said because he knew that Nikalas was wondering how to address him

"Ok Don, about the"

"You held your end of the deal, so will I. If the dungeon has that elixir, I will bring it to you"

"Thanks Don, it really means a lot to me"

"We'll talk more about the dungeon when I get back"

"Don't work too hard Prince, go fishing with the dwarves or do something to relax"

As she said, Arrora stepped into the array with Don and disappeared into the light beam.

"Shit I didn't tell them about the changes I made"

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

"Well that's new"

Unexpectedly, the usual white light beam did not appear when they used the teleporter as Don and Arrora appeared inside the Agorian castle without any commotion of the light beam and sound.

"The Prince already proved his worth, how can Harold not see or appreciate his talent?"

"Some people don't appreciate what they have before it turns into what they had" Arrora agreed with Don with a nod

"And by the way, black suits you well"

Even though Don looked good in the formal noble clothes in Arrora's eyes, he looked better in his usual black attire with the hood on. And the black sword on his back radiated a powerful aura around him.

"Let's go see the nobles in Agoria"

Leaving the room where he was teleported, Don headed towards the throne hall and when he reached there, he saw Lord Clemo sitting there and waiting for him with a bunch of noblemen and women.

Seeing Don entering the hall, everyone stood up from their seats and bowed towards Don as he nodded and sat on his throne.

"Sit down"

"Your majesty, this is"

As Lord Clemo went to introduce the noble beside him, Don stopped him with a wave of his hand

"I speak, you listen. If you interrupt me, she will break your nose as a warning. Got it?"

Lord Clemo had a bad feeling about this as he nodded his head so the nobles.

"From now on, there won't be any nobles in my Kingdom. Everyone will be treated as a normal citizen "

"WHAT? AH!"

A noble youth shouted when he heard Don but before he could close his mouth, he felt something heavy hitting his face and heard a crunching noise before he started to scream in agony

Witnessing what just happened to the young man, the other nobles kept their mouths shut even though they wanted to shout in disagreement

"Don't try to do anything stupid behind my back, I'm not a good man, I don't look for evidence or give you a fair trial when you get caught. If I get suspicious, I will kill you slowly and painfully"

Don intentionally released a murderous aura as the nobles felt a cold chill running through their spines and some of them even started to shiver, sensing the ominous aura in the hall.

"That's all for now"

The nobles wanted to talk to Don about stripping their title but the murderous aura he was still releasing wanted to get out of his sight before he does something crazy.

"You stay, Lord Clemo"

Lord Clemo's heart skipped a beat when he heard Don calling his name and asking him to stay 

"Tell me Lord Clemo, have you ever committed any crimes that are usually punishable by death or years of imprisonment?"

"No no no your majesty, I didn't dare to"

"Don't try to lie Lord Clemo, if you come clean now, I might forgive you"

Lord Clemo was on the verge of wetting his pants again as he started to shake his head

"No your majesty, I swore on my mother's grave, I didn't commit any big crimes until now"

"Big crimes?so you did commit smaller ones, tell me what did you do?"

Looking at Don's stare, Lord Clemo couldn't help but spill the beans hoping that he wouldn't get killed because the crime he committed was not punishable by death or even years imprisonment

"Your majesty, I once procured some lands from a farmer"Lord Clemo swallowed his saliva in fear as he continued

" by forcing him to sell the lands to me, and that's it, your majesty.I never committed anything other than that"