The room Shiv was standing was truly extravagant and spacious. With the walls covered with murals and the ceiling with intricate carvings, the palace court room looked as if it was made by the gods themselves. On a higher platform was the king’s throne, which was made of pure gold and other precious gems covering it. To its left and right were similar thrones but with lesser decoration, occupied by the Queen and the Princess. On the lower platform on either side of Shiv were arranged a series of chairs, all of which were occupied by rich nobles who were dresses up in expensive clothes and ornaments.

Shiv who was summoned by the King was immediately brought to the palace courtroom where he came across some familiar faces. In the courtroom other than the royal family and the nobles and ministers, stood Vrolis, Golof, Grohl, Kate, Raven, Maya, Nadia, Rehan and Gist. For a moment Shiv was shocked, he stood frozen but was pushed forward by the soldier behind him. Stumbling a little, he moved forward and was met with smiling faces from his old comrades. Shiv weakly smiled back at them, he was not ready to meet with them as he partly blamed himself for being the cause of the quest failure.

Shiv then kneeled onto the ground on his left knee and bowing lightly he addressed the King of Brendon, Alivas Ironheart The Third.

“Your Majesty” Shiv said with respect, at least his voice was one with respect.

“So you are Shiv. Hm! I see” the King’s reply was one willed with doubts. The man called Alivas seemed old, with long grey hair and beard that matched his hair. His face was one that was filled with wrinkles but the blue eyes if his had the vigor of a young boy. With his right Hand brushing his long beard, the King spoke once again. “I heard that you were the one that had designed the weapon called Ballista. Is that true boy?”

“Yes your majesty, it was supposed to be a counter measure for the beast but sadly it did not pan out as I expected.” Shiv’s voice was filled with distress and despair. He fought back the waves of emotions that was welling up inside him and remained calm and composed.

“Ho! And Raven here said the one that came up with the idea of weakening the beast with a holy magic was your idea. Is that true as well?” Alivas’s voice was cold and loud causing many in the courtroom to shudder, but Shiv remained calm.

“It was just coincidence sire, the young guy over there came up with the idea. I just made him use the spell on my order.”

“Is that so? But all these people here insists that you were the one who slayed the beast, even Raven here thinks so. What is the meaning of this boy?” once again his voice thundered, anger was the emotion those words leaked out.

Shiv hearing the words suddenly looked at the red haired boy named Raven who winked at Shiv with a light smile. Slowly Shiv’s gaze fell on the others, every one of them had a smile on their face. Nadia was showing a thumbs up sign while Mary gave a victory pose. Gist on the other Hand nodded his head once with a smile.

“Why?” Shiv’s gaze once again fell on Raven.

“What do you mean why? It was your team that did most of the damage to the beast. I just happened to get the final strike. I am not a bastard that steals another’s kill. The reason I interrupted was because you were being ambushed by that Adrian bastard. I hate backstabbing, so uncool” Raven replied while he gritted his teeth on the mention of Adrian, it seemed like Raven had marked Adrian as scum just like Shiv and the others.

“You know, its fine to be a little selfish, boss” came Gist’s voice. “You are too naïve. If it were me I would have run behind this guy to get back my quest win. Well, it is not that I don’t like the way you are now, an honest guy is good once in a while, ain’t it people?” he asked to the other three who nodded their head in agreement.

“Ho! What a touching scene this has become! With this I have no other choice but to reward the group of seven for their accomplishment. Very well. I deem you worthy of the reward. For accomplishing the quest and thereby saving my people and my kingdom I tHank you from the bottom of my heart” the old man till then who was unfriendly and shouting spoke in a mild tone, this time his tone was of happiness and gratitude. The moment the king’s voice broke off, a sound resounded in Shiv’s ears.

‘Trrrng’

QUEST: SLAY THE NIGHT (Completed)The capital of the great Bredon kingdom now safe. The people can now roam the streets without fear. You who have made a great sacrifice to protect the city will always be cherished by the people who know of your pain. The king who knows your sacrifice has taken a deep liking to you and has bestowed up on you a title.

Difficulty : +D

Rewards

Title: Bringer of Hope

Fierce God Light Armor

10,000 Gold

+100 intimacy with the kingdom

+100 intimacy with guards

+100 intimacy with church

+100 intimacy with nobles

+5,000 contribution points

You are now a Hero to those of the Royal Palace and have a standing equal to that of a high ranking noble.

Shiv was overjoyed, so was everyone in the room. All of them had struck a fortune. Not only was the experience received really high, the pay was humungous. A total of 10,000 gold coins for each of them was truly overwhelming. Shiv immediately checked his level and found it to be 77. He had jumped from 72 to 77, a total of 5 levels. That much high was the amount of EXP gained from a B rank quest. Shiv when tried to open the title notification it gave him a warning saying that it was impossible to keep the title as ‘Child of Oberon’ was an irreplaceable title. While Shiv was busy tampering with the notifications, he King suddenly spoke causing all in the room to freeze.

“You boy have done a great thing for us. Not only did you take care of the vile beast, you have also given my country a really great weapon. I have seen it working with my very own eyes. Splendid. The speed, range and power of the attack is something I have not seen before. As gratitude for giving my kingdom a master piece I fulfill one of your wishes, provided it is in my reach. So speak boy.”

Shiv though for a while. Everybody in the room thought he would ask for more gold or be names as a noble. But what Shiv said was completely different.

“I need an army sire!”

The courtroom fell silent. Everybody in the room had their eyes on Shiv now. Some were anxious, some were confused, and some had doubt while some questioned the guy before them.

“Why do you need an army boy?” the king was now cautious. Not everybody would ask for an army in such occasions.

“Sire, have you heard of the village called Draklake?” Shiv humbly asked.

“Of course I have, after all it is part of my kingdom. I heard that the village has been prospering after the entry of a new chief. They even have a school for teaching skill. What of it?”

“I am the chief of Draklake, sire” Shiv said and once again the room fell silent. Shiv continued his side of the story. “Few weeks ago, I gave refuge to some who had escaped from the Han kingdom.” At the mention of refuge and kingdom, a courtroom suddenly became noisy. Most of the nobles began to call Shiv as traitor and all sorts of other curses were flying out.

With a slightly louder voice Shiv continued. “The Han kingdom has joined forces with the Orcs.” And once again the hall was silent. The king had a really serious face and he gestured Shiv to continue. “One of the refugee was the chief of a village burnt down by the marauding Orcs and so when I enquired them about why the kingdom did not provide any help, they did not even know the reason. At first I thought the entire empire was overrun by the Orcs and I guessed that the king of the kingdom had fallen at the Hands of the Orcs. But..” Shiv stopped and then looked around him.

Taking in a light breathe, he continued. “But a strange news fell on my ears. The kingdom of Hans has a new king and this new king has joined forces with the Orcs. Naturally when such a rumor reaches your ears one would without a doubt not take it seriously as no kingdom has ever allied themselves with the Orcs. But to make sure, I send in some spies. They were to investigate about the credibility of the news. What I understood from their report was, the Hans kingdom was amassing a huge army of Orcs. The villages were given to the Orcs as a playground. While the rich and the wealthy live safely in their guarded homes, the poor villagers were given as a play tool to the Orcs who love slaughtering. The women were captured and raped, the men slaughtered, the children made slaves. Villages burnt, fields destroyed. It seems that the Han kingdom has asked for the aid of the orc kingdom to help them conquer all the remaining kingdoms and then unite the continent of Orrinshire under their banner. I believe that is what they are planning. For this purpose, they have gathered and army 10,000,000 Orcs along with their army of 5,000,000. These numbers are not accurate nor do I know what they really plan but the way they have been doing things clearly indicate their desire to start a war.”

When Shiv finished explaining his reasons, panic broke out in the courtroom. Every single one of the nobility inside began to murmur between themselves, despair and fear filled their minds. The King’s eyes showed not even an ounce of fear, only anger flashed in those blue eyes.

“Silence” the king roared and in an instant the sounds died off. Gazing at Shiv, he spoke. “Boy! Are you sure? If I find out that they were some random lies you will be charged for treason and banished form my lands?”

“As I told sire, I do not know their intentions but what I said about them aligning with the Orcs is true so is the thing about the huge army. I have people from all across the Han kingdom in my village and every single one of them says the same thing, both the villagers as well as the adventurers too.” Shiv replied without delay, he knew that hesitating might kill him.

The King sighed and then clapped his hands twice, suddenly a figure in black appeared behind the king. The black figure had his face covered, no part of his body could be seen. He bent forward slightly so that his ears would be near the king’s mouth. The king whispered something and the black figure disappeared as he had appeared. Alivas then once again turned to Shiv and spoke, “Do you plan to fight with them with the army I provide you with?”

Shiv shook his head in denial, “I wish to build a wall sire”. This was the third time that Shiv had stunned everyone in the courtroom. This time even the king felt shocked from the reply he got. Not minding the others Shiv continued. “Our great kingdom of Brendon is a truly strategic place. We are located at the middle of the continent and at the same time shares borders with every other kingdom too. Yet we are unable to go offensive. Because if we were to attack a particular kingdom then the rest of the kingdoms might attack us at the same time. But the location has its advantage too. No kingdom would attack us as they might be attacked by a third kingdom. But right now the situation is different.”

“How so?” questioned the king.

“With Han and the Orc kingdom working together, they could easily conquer the elven kingdoms of Aldford and Penkort. If the two kingdoms were to fall, then that would mean the entire eastern continent would fall in to the hands of the Han kingdom, they would become Han Empire with such a feat. At this point someone would say that the other kingdoms would interfere. If that were the case the only kingdoms to interfere would be Northorn and Thorpes. Just say, the orc kingdom of Orkenfol suddenly decides to attack Thorpes at that time, what would happen? Now as for Northorn with Thorpes out of the equation and us unable to support any of the kingdom, they would not dare to fight either. Thus Hans would conquer the eastern side. With the eastern side in their hands, what do you think will happen to us? They could single handedly crush us, without fail. Everything up to this is just a speculation. But I believe you will soon hear news about the attack on the both the elven nations” just as Shiv finished saying, a messenger barged in to the courtroom in his hands were two scrolls.

The king received the scrolls and as he read through them, his face paled and his eyes lost its life. The scroll fell to the ground and his body trembled. With a feeble voice he spoke, “Penkort is under attack the orc and Han soldiers. Northorn and Aldford are preparing for war while Thorpes is fending of orcs from the Orkenfol. The size of the enemy is 12,529,000”

That day was something that nobles would never forget for their worst fears were coming true little by little. Just like the young boy had predicted, things were unfolding at a really fast rate.

“Boy, why do you want to construct a wall? What use is it against the mighty army?” the king’s voice was feeble.

“If it were an ordinary wall then it would easily break. What if it were fort in the shape of a huge wall?”

The king could not believe what he just heard. A fort in the shape of a wall. That was something he did not even dream about and here the boy was saying it so easily.

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