Rise of the Legendary Emperor

Chapter 138: Hard way or the Hardest way

"Don, the orcs are waiting for you in the throne hall"

Having heard of Uncle Dior's voice, Don turned to look at him

"Take care of him, Uncle Dior. I will find a way to heal him"

Gael was still unconscious even after Don poured a bunch of healing potion into his mouth. Fortunately, the healing potions were able to keep him alive but he didn't wake up until now and Don had no idea why.

Until now Don was busy trying to heal Gael and almost forgot about the orcs and the items in the space ring that Gael held in his hand. And when he was about to be on his way to meet the orcs, one of Joel's men came to Don with the scroll.

"Your majesty, you should take a look at this"

"Don, what is it?"

Seeing Don frown while reading the scroll, Uncle Dior asked as Don gave the scroll to Uncle Dior to read it himself

"Oh shit"

After reading the scroll, Don came to the throne hall and saw the twelve huge green orcs standing in awkward silence while looking at the throne hall with their big eyes.

When the orcs noticed Don, they stood nervously and Don couldn't even find a shred of ruthlessness or barbarism in the orcs but they looked harmless and innocent.

"How is the human?"

Hagu asked Don after he sat on his throne as Uncle Dior stood beside the orcs

"He's also an elf, he was just wearing a mask"

"Oh"

Hagu and the orcs never heard of such a mask that could make an elf look like a human but he was too nervous to ask any questions about this mask

"Guys, I have some bad news, Uncle Dior"

Don looked at Uncle Dior to break the terrible news to the orcs rather than telling them himself

Hagu turned to look at Uncle Dior to see a hint of sadness and gloom in his eyes as Uncle Dior sighed 

"Hagu, is your tribe located in the Kisa Forrest?"

Hagu and the orcs were shocked to hear since their tribe was supposed to be hidden 

"How? how do you know?

"Your tribe, they were captured by the soldiers of Zenith Kingdom"

Hagu felt like a lightning struck him as he couldn't believe what he heard

"No it can't be them, no one could have found the tribe"

"Its says that thirty-eight people were captured and the leader was an old woman "

Even though he didn't want to believe Uncle Dior, the numbers he said were the exact number after the attack of the slave merchant's guards.

"If that's true, I need to go and save my people"

The orcs nodded their head hearing their leader as Don shook his head

"You will get yourself and your tribe killed if you do that"

"I don't care! It's all my fault, I should have been there"

"Hagu, you should listen to him, they were sent to the mines but if you try to save them, not only the guards would kill you, they also kill your tribe or put you into the same mine"

"If you want to go to Zenith, go ahead get yourself killed or captured but if you trust me, I can save you and your tribe "

As he said, Don looked at the man who brought the scroll to him and the man stepped forward

"Can you reach the man who runs things in the mine?"

"Yes your majesty"

"Then give this to him and tell him to look after the orcs, if he could do that secretly, tell him he will get one more"

As he said, Don took out a medium quality life energy stone and threw it at the man while Hagu and the orcs stood stunned and speechless

"Look, with this, they will be safe in the mines until we can save them, but if you want to go ahead with your suicide plan, be my guest"

Don now had enough problems of his own so if the orcs wanted to play heroes despite his advice and help, Don would let them do and hit himself for wasting the money on them.

"Hagu, that's a medium quality life energy stone you're looking at, just like Don said, the slaver inside the mine would never hurt your people when he gets the stone, in fact, he would even let them work in the mine for that kind of wealth"

The orcs were not as dumb as they look and Hagu could see the point as he himself knew that he cant rescue his tribe without any help.

"Cat"

While the orcs were thinking about their next move, Don called Catalie as she appeared before Don

"Tell Reghys to show our orcs the Zenith mind without getting detected"

"Ok brother"

Nodding at Catalie, Don turned back to look at the orcs and said

"Reghys will show you the mine where your tribe is, you can see your tribe before making any decisions and if you want to rescue your tribe, she will drop you near the mine, I hope you make the right decision"

As he said, the orcs saw Don disappear from his throne leaving them with Uncle Dior

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"Don, what happened?"

Looking at Don's face when he appeared in the throne hall, Arrora could find a hint of anger on his usual expressionless face.

"I'll tell you later, did you finish the job?"

Arrora wanted to ask what's bothering him but after spending this much time with him, she knew better as she gestured him to follow her

Don followed her to the outside and when he stepped outside, he saw a huge bonfire in the center of the city square and when he looked closer, he could see the bodies burning

"Have you notified the people that those were the bandits?"

"Yes, the stolen goods we recovered from the camps was pretty good proof, and the people are very happy to get what belongs to them"

As far as Don was concerned, the people needed to know that he captured the bandits and killed them or they would mistake him for another typical noble-born king. Already his deeds of punishing Lord Massen and Ryan started to spread through the entire kingdom and healing the kid would bring him the support of the commoners that helps him rebuild the kingdom in his way.

And this tactic of his seemed working very well as he saw a bunch of people gathered around the fire and cheering the death of the bandits.

"Don, we should go meet with Arwen"

"Let's go"

He had to deal with the bandit problem as soon as he could and started to develop the kingdom. And after this, Don decided to visit Emir since he was getting some reports that the nobles in there were plotting against him and he couldn't let that happen.

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The downpour was getting more ferocious when Don and Arrora reached the final bandit camp where Cassek was hiding.

"Don, you're here"

Arwen saw Don and Arrora descending from the tree.

"How many of them are there?"

"Twenty-six, nothing we can't handle"

"Surround the area, I don't want Cassek to escape"

Arwen nodded his head and asked

"What about you?"

"I'm going in"

As he said, Don's figure blurred and disappeared from Arwens sight as Arrora followed him behind

When Don appeared at the camp's front, there were a couple of bandits patrolling the area drenched in the rain.

"STOP THERE!"

Don was not intending to sneak inside the camp, in fact, he was walking straight in

"Kill them"

Just when the word came out of Don's mouth, Arwen's archers rained arrows on the guards and killed them on the spot.

"Why don't you come out, Cassek?"

Don's voice echoed through the forest and just after a few seconds, the remaining bandits inside the camps came running out

Even though Don didn't meet Cassek in person, none of the bandits before him looked like a leader figure however when he saw youth and a girl walking out of the main camp in the center, Don guessed that the youth must be Cassek.

"King Don or should I call you as your majesty"

The girl beside Cassek was avoiding direct eye contact with Don while Cassek was addressing him

"You should come with me"

Don calmly asked Cassek as Cassek shook his head and laughed while the girl tightly held his arms

"Why would I? Do you think that I don't know what you did to Lord Massen and Lord Ryan?"

"Then you know, what I will do to you if you refuse"

"Come on Cassek, you lost most of your bandit friends, you don't have any choice but to come with us and face the consequences for your actions"

Cassek turned his gaze towards Arrora 

"You must be the woman who captured and killed my men"

Arrora did a small curtsy when she heard Cassek 

"In the flesh, I will kill you and your remaining friends too if you refuse to come with us"

"Enough chit chat, we can do this the hard way or the hardest way"

And when Don said that, his black sword ghost unsheathed itself and flew right into his hand.