THE RISE OF THE KNIGHTS OF SINNERS
#16# LUCK BEHIND A DISASTER
Upon arriving in Valdia, marquis Aiden gave time off to the guards including Leo. They were given a week off until Thalia returned to Valdia. After one week, Thalia returned to Valdia and in the morning, Marquis Aiden suddenly held a meeting that only Thalia and Leo could attend.
" Daddy's early in the morning asking for a meeting? " complained Leo who entered the meeting room in the palace.
" Sit down Leo, " said marquis Aiden.
Leo sat down and glanced to the left and looked at the father and Thalia who were still dressed neatly next to his father.
" sister? Since when? " ask Leo.
" I've been here all night discussing something important with my father, "Thalia replied.
" Take your conversation. We get to the point. Leo, do you remember when the king wanted to speak to me with four eyes? "
" Yes, my father remembers, "
" The king wants an arranged marriage between you and Licia's daughter, "
Leo opened his eyes wide. His drowsiness instantly disappeared hearing the words of the father.
" Wh-what? I didn't hear wrong, did I? "
" no. The king wants you to marry princess Licia and secure the throne from prince Theo, " said Thalia.
" No! I don't want to! Being a marquis I don't want to be a king. I want to live peacefully and freely as an ordinary resident not a leader! Besides, who would want to be betrothed to a rude woman like Licia!? " Lo tries to rebel because it is the reason behind this matchmaking outside of his desire to live freely.
" You said you forgot about Licia's daughter? " ask Thalia.
" I forgot about him but not his harsh treatment of me as a child, "reply Leo threw his face away from Thalia.
" Lo, this is for our kingdom. The king was very worried about giving the throne to Prince Theo because of the prince's proximity to the holy priest Deusia. The king feared the prince's bigotry could ignite the flames of holy war again, "split Aiden marquis.
" I don't care about dad! As long as Valdia is safe, I don't care about the future of the kingdom! after all if Gerelia collapses, we can become our own kingdom "reply Leo who still threw his face away.
" You're Leo's only hope. But if you refuse, I hope you have another way to deal with this. And I hope the challenge of your refusal is still the same when you meet the king later, " concluded Marquis Aiden
" What!? The king? "
" Yes, your highness and Licia's daughter are going to Valdia early next summer. I know you didn't really turn it down. Please think back, this is for the sake of the residents of Gerelia especially the followers of Angelus and black ethnicity. If Prince Theo became king, the blacks would be massacred just as they were in other western kingdoms. There is more discrimination against the Angelus. This kind of friction could lead us into a holy war that is more terrifying than ever. Think carefully before rejecting him and answer when facing the king later, "clearly marquis Aiden who was very hopeful of Leo.
Leo dejectedly left the meeting room without saying a word, he spontaneously slammed the meeting room door.
" It's too much to make him father king" Thalia said, seeing the meeting room door slammed.
" I know he hates being a leader but now the key to Gerelia's peace is in his hands. His decision will have a great effect on the future of this kingdom, "
" I hope he's really mature. Then my father wants a break, "
" Hmh I'm sorry Thalia had to take you to a meeting when you just got back, "
" It's okay dad. I'm your future successor and there will definitely be many sudden meetings like this, so I have to get used to it. " Thalia bowed and left the meeting room.
While marquis Aiden was still pondering in the meeting room. He regretted saying that to Leo because he had promised never to make Leo a leader.
***
For a week Leo did not leave the room. He was still angry and inexhaustible with his father who broke the promise. On the other hand, he was also not interested in princess Licia as he had fallen for the silver-white-clad girl while in the capital. However, this matchmaking was for the safety of the kingdom. Princess Licia herself has very many supporters even almost comparable to her own father, Prince Theo. However, Prince Theo never thought to get rid of his son instead he was very dear to his son after the death of his wife.
While the great influence of Princess Licia was precisely an opportunity for nobles to marry princess to get the throne of Gerelia. Princess Licia was like a crown contested by nobles. And for the sake of the princess and the kingdom, the king Gerelia chose Leo as his granddaughter's spouse.
The dizzy Leo thought about it chose to come out of the palace and sit quietly in the meadow not far from the city of Valdia. He sat there silently looking at the working people and pilgrims visiting the city.
While being cool to enjoy the scenery, from the southern sky seen a horde of thousands of birds flying towards the north. The sight was very unusual and became a spectacle of the residents. Leo himself wondered about the arrival of the bird because he felt this season was not the right season where the birds migrated from south to north and he had a bad feeling about the horde of birds.
Sure enough, shortly after thousands of birds flew through the sky of the city of Valdia, the ground in Valdia was shaken violently. The whole community panicked. They ran here and there to save themselves. All the inhabitants of the city were squeezed out of the city until many were wounded and trampled to death. Several buildings in the city began to collapse and the fortress towers also collapsed.
Leo who was worried about his family's situation immediately ran to the city. He ran staggering trying to balance his body from the unstoppable shaking of the ground. However, as Leo entered the city gate, the shaking stopped. He immediately ran towards the palace and thankfully his family was fine and the palace also did not suffer any significant damage. The occupants of the palace were already outside all including marquis Aiden and his 2 daughters.
" Dad!? " Leo approached the marquis of Aiden who was sitting in the palace courtyard with Melina and Thalia.
" Leo? Thank goodness you're okay, " said marquis Aiden.
" This is the first time Valdia has been hit by an earthquake. Thalia, Leo immediately lead the troops to evacuate the residents and search for victims in the ruins of the building. I'm sure there were many casualties from this earthquake, " continued marquis Aiden.
" Good dad! Melina please take care of me, "reply Thalia.
" Good brother! Me and Sely's sister will look after my father here, " said Melina.
Thalia went with Leo. The two of them split the task where Thalia led the troops to search for casualties in the city and Leo led the troops to evacuate the residents outside the city.
True as the alleged marquis Aiden, due to the many buildings in the city that collapsed, many victims were buried in it. At least when the troops led by Thalia began to move, already 80 deaths were found and the number could increase again. In addition, the death toll from being trampled was 140 people and 3000 people were injured. The victims were immediately taken to the medical tents that had been provided.
***
Elsewhere, Leo continued to wander around from village to village. It is fortunate that the buildings of all the villages in Valdia did not collapse and there were no casualties or injuries. It's just that the residents are still traumatized and choose to stay outside their homes for a while. Leo took a longer stop in the last village located not far from 2 hills where iron and stone mining.
Not long from the hill, came 3 miners. They ran to call Leo by name. Seeing the miners who ran over with panicked faces, Leo immediately approached them. " What's going on? " ask Leo.
" Young Tu-tuan, the iron mine collapsed and some of our comrades were buried there! Please save them, sir! " cry one of the workers.
Without waiting for long, Leo set out for the iron mine. When he arrived at the mine, there was already Indra with 3 divisions of Yurei troops who started digging the ruins of the mine.
" Sense how is the situation? " Lo comes to the senses.
" Mister Leo? The current situation, there are eight people who are buried, but according to reports of workers who managed to get out, this mine did not completely collapse just a few places, "clear senses while continuing to dig.
" All the people who are here, dig up this pile of land until the mine hole opens again! Use the tools to dig! " leo's orders were directly carried out by the Yurei workers and troops at the scene.
The excavation lasted until night. The Yurei workers and troops who were then assisted by the relief forces alternated digging. Just at midnight, the mine door was successfully reopened. Leo and the Yurei troops rushed inside armed with only a torch.
They went down every alley of the mine cave and found no sign of life. Leo decided to split the Yurei forces to split up to facilitate the search. After 1 hour of searching, the dispersed troops regrouped. They still did not find any miners.
Knowing his army was starting to burn out, Leo planned to stop the search and continue tomorrow morning. But, just as he was about to say, there was a groan for help from the direction of the passage where they were. Leo along with the troops immediately searched for the source of the sound. They walked down the long hallway until a dim light was seen at the end of the hall. Without saying anything, Leo immediately ran towards the light.
The more he ran closer, the more clearly his voice groaned. Sure enough, at the end of the hall was a big hole and the light was coming from there. Leo peeked at the hole, saw 8 miners lying limp with the body still buried in the rubble. One of them carried a stone that gave off a light blue light.
After all the workers were evacuated, Indra who was holding a glowing stone came to Leo who was still in the hole.
" Mister, "the senses thrust the stone.
Leo's forehead lifted, his eyes widened when he saw the stone that Indra grasped. " This rock? where did you get it? "
" Yes sir, this is magic energy stone. I took it from the worker. He also said, if this stone is obtained from here. "said indra.
The stone Indra was holding was an extremely rare magic energy stone. Unlike the Relic magic stones that are found in the Zehlicka kingdom, magic energy stones are magic stones that store large-scale magic energy. Magic energy stones as big as hand grips alone had magic energy depleted within a period of 100 years. Therefore, this stone is very rare and there are only 5 seeds in the world that are now stored in the kingdom of Angelusia.
***
Leo was silent, he looked to the right and left. Trying to figure out the origin of the stone. He walked around the hole and found another dim light from a small hole not far from where he was standing.He dug the hole with both hands and found another magic energy stone. The size is smaller than what Indra holds.
" again? Indra left the stone here. Quickly call all divisions of the Yurei forces. And order them to bring mine tools and some empty sacks! "
" Okay sir! " reply Indra who immediately ran out of the hole.
After waiting for 1 hour, the Yurei troops arrived while carrying the ordered tools. Leo then ordered all of Yurei's troops to dig and widen the hole. Marquis Aiden's son suspected that there were more magic energy stones buried here. In addition, he also closed and guarded the iron mine until an uncertain time.
And it turned out that the guess was correct, when the widening of the hole was done, many magic energy stones were found in various sizes. The deeper one dug, the more magic energy stones gathered. Even in a period of 7 hours it was 4 sacks filled with magic energy.
***
for a week, Leo and Yurei's army continued to search for the magic energy stone. No one was allowed into the mine except for Yurei's troops who brought supplies. Even Thalia herself who repeatedly forced entry was still prohibited.
During that week as well, there had been 17 sacks containing magic energy stones. This is a blessing for the disaster that befell Valdia. And today is the last day of excavation as little energy stones have been discovered.
As the day went on, Leo decided to stop the excavation because he had not found any more magic energy stones. However, who would have thought that one of the members of Yurei discovered the gold content. It was all visible from the cave wall that turned out there was a golden color line that the Yurei troops did not realize even Leo himself because he was too focused on searching for energy stones. This discovery clearly became good news again after the discovery of the energy stone earlier. But gold mining will not be continued by the Yurei forces but will be continued by the mine workers.
Leo and Yurei's men came out of the mine carrying 17 sacks of energy stones. The existence of the stone was only Leo and the Yurei troops who knew about it. When out of the mine, each sack was directly guarded by 5 Yurei members. The sacks were raised to buffalo carts and taken to the city under heavy guard by the entire Yurei army.
While Leo gave news of the discovery of gold to the head of the mine worker. This is happy news for workers. Even though night had arrived, the workers who had been unemployed for a week immediately entered the mine and began digging at the gold content discovery site. For the safety of the workers, Leo continued to supply various kinds of medicines and kept setting up medical tents. In addition, he also formed a new army that was taken from the city's guard troops. The new division is tasked with guarding the mine and will be built a special post on the site.
***
Upon arrival at the palace, the sacks of energy stones were directly infused into the empty space of the palace which was tightly sealed. Leo ordered 200 men to guard the door. The Yurei troops were given time off where they could clean up and rest because for a week they worked hard and only slept 2 to 3 hours a day.
Leo himself after cleaning himself and changing clothes went straight to the father's room.
" Dad, it's me Leo" he said from outside Aiden's marquis' room.
" Come in, I won't lock the door, "reply to Marquis Aiden. Leo entered with a large paper scroll and a handful of magic energy stones.
" What are you doing this week in the mines. Your brother keeps scolding the whole palace because you're not coming home. Not even your brother was allowed into the mine, "
" Ahaha.., forget about that dad. Now that we get to the point, "Leo unrolled the paper roll he had on the table. Marquis Aiden immediately approached the table and saw a picture of the design of the ship that had 2 wings on the right and left.
" What does this mean, Leo? Valdia doesn't have a port then what does this ship design for? " ask Marquis Aiden.
" This is an airplane. I redrawed this design from Valdius' notebook. There is no need for a port to run it, "reply Leo with confidence.
Marquis Aiden was astonished by the image. He thought Leo's design was absurd because there was no history of ships being able to fly.
" Are you kidding me? " ask marquis again.
" I knew you would ask, "Lo took out that magic energy stone and thrust it at him. " But with this in mind, airplanes can become a reality, right? "
Marquis Aiden was stunned to see the stone. He took it from Leo's hand and took a closer look. " This rock? It was unmistakable that this magic energy stone was the exact same in Angelusia. How did you find him? "
" I found him in an iron mine. Not just one but I found a great many until I reached seventeen sacks, "
" Seventeen sacks!? "
" Yes dad. And my reason for banning anyone from entering the mine for one week is to keep this stone secret. If any outsider knew about this stone and spread it then Valdia could become a river of blood. The existence of this stone became the secret treasure of father's marquisition. No one can know it, "
" Yes, I agree to your proposal. But if the flying boat was successful, wouldn't that make the kingdom suspect us? In addition, the construction of the aircraft must be done in secret and we have no place to build the ship, "
" I want to build a new basement north of the city. That space will be the place where this shipbuilding and the various experiments we can do with magic energy stones, "
" But the construction of the basement is very costly. Our money has been reduced a lot for the cost of repairing the city because of the earthquake, "
" Father take it easy, besides this stone, mined we also found gold content. I've built a security post there and the workers have halved the task of mining iron and gold, "
" I-this is a blessing from the gods. It is not wrong if Valdia is called a holy land of blessing, "
" With this stone we can make a variety of useful tools for the progress and security of Valdia, "
" Hmh. Leave the construction of the basement to me. Maybe the construction will take 3 months, "
" Thank you Dad for supporting me. Then I'm authorized to start doing other work, "
" all right. Construction will begin tomorrow. You don't have to worry about it, "
" Good father, "Lo came out of his father's room with a happy heart. He returned to the palace library which contained his innate books from Taiyoria.
The young man spent 4 days there redrawing the design in Valdius's notebook. Where in the book contains a lot of weapons designs and other tools that use energy from magic energy stones. All those plans are said to be Valdius made in the Elf kingdom located on a mysterious continent.
After completing his work, Leo began to gather the blacksmiths and weapons craftsmen and scientists of Valdia. They were selected one by one for the sake of the construction of secret projects. The selection lasted 10 days. A total of 120 blacksmiths, 10 scientists, and 40 weapon craftsmen were selected. They were assisted by 200 men who they chose themselves.
Because this is a secret job, before starting his job, Leo tells that the workers will be erased his past memories and only leave memories of his skills alone. This is done to maintain confidentiality. After delivering it, none of the elected workers resigned. They are very enthusiastic because this project is to protect Valdia in the future.
By that agreement, the next day the workers who were accompanied by their respective families were removed using memory-removing magic by the healers of Valdia's sorcerers. After the memory erasure of the workers was completed, they were allowed a 1-day break with their families. And the next day they started working.
Their workplace is in the basement of Valdia's palace which has been converted until the special basement of this secret project is finished. In addition, Leo also assembled a new army tasked with guarding a new secret underground space project. This troop had more complete combat capabilities and equipment than Aiden's marquis bodyguards.
The unexpected thing when the disaster that ravaged Valdia, actually took the treasure out of his land. Although the news of this energy stone is kept secret, but the residents of Valdia are struck by happiness because of the gold content in the Valdia iron mine.
And Valdia has obtained permission from the kingdom to make his own gold coins on condition of adding tax fees. That condition was approved by marquis Aiden, He also started to build a coin-making factory on top of the secret underground chamber construction land.
^^^To be Continue.^^^
