81 Lion and the Cubs

"My lord, We have successfully distributed the gold and silver to the families and people are very grateful towards you" Joel reported the recent situation to Don.

While Joel was reporting, Don kept honing his close combat skills by hitting a wooden dummy until it blew to pieces just like the previous wooden dummies lying around the room.

Seeing Don sweating due to hitting the wooden dummies Arrora handed over a white towel to Don. Don didn't say anything but nodded her and wiped the sweat using the towel and threw the towel away.

"What's the situation among the soldiers?" Don asked Joel while controlling the air and water element around him to clean up.

"Many of them are very loyal to Warren my lord so when he bends the knee, they will without a doubt follow you..."

"What?" Arrora said with a dazed look.

"What are we gonna do about the soldiers we captured, my lord. In a way, they were just doing their duty"

After the battle, the surrendered soldiers were sent to the underground jail as a usual procedure and till now they were sitting in their jail without a trial.

"How many are they?" Don asked.

"Not many my lord most of the soldiers joined us because of King Hedor's cruelty towards the military and most of the remaining soldiers were turned against him when they saw the explosion. So we just have hundred and twenty-three soldiers in the jail to be exact "

"Bring them to me" Don suddenly said.

During the time Joel worked for Don, he became aware that this man wouldn't do anything without a reason or plan behind it so he learned not to ask any question but to obey his order and do his best.

"Yes my lord" as he said Joel bowed his head and made his way toward the door leaving Arrora and Don behind.

"You are going to recruit them, aren't you?" after seeing Joel leaving, Arrora asked Don.

"What do you think?" Don answered her with a question while Arrora started to think like Don and Knight as she rubbed her chin for a moment before answering.

"I think there are many reasons you would think to recruit them" Arrora said.

"Like what?"

"You require loyalty more than anything right? so you would have thought to recruit them because they have no king anymore so it'll be easier to earn their loyalty"

"Go on"

Seeing Don's look, Arrora noticed she's on the right track to guess his reasoning.

"If they were loyal to the end for even a king like Hedor, you are confident that they won't betray a ruler like you" Arrora was very sure about this point because she knew Don will treat them right because she herself was an example as well as the slaves they rescued who were now living happily in Everlight.

Even though Don and Knight orchestrated everything that recently happened in Emir, she knew the original King Hedor was not a saint, and because of his obsession with expanding his kingdom any means necessary would have eventually made other kingdoms unite against Emir and war erupt. She also knew that the original King Hedor would have imposed even worse tax rates and laws such as mandatory recruitment to militia than Gael did so as far as she's concerned Emir is in better hands now.

"My lord, they are here" as Arrora was talking with Don, Joel came back and reported to Don.

"Bring them in," Don said and watched Joel going outside of the door.

When Joel came back he was followed by a group of men in ragged and dirty clothes in chains.

The soldiers looked at Don with a mix of fear and caution while their laid eyes on Arrora the fear turned into amazement because of her beauty and grace.

"Why do you think you are here?" Don asked the soldiers as the soldiers didn't say anything but looked confused.

"Let me tell you a small scenario. In the jungle often a male lion will challenge another male lion for territory, for the lioness. if the current king wins it will be alright nothing changes, however... " Don could see some soldiers getting what he was going to say by looking at their terrified faces.

"If the challenger wins it will kill all the cubs of the previous king because it won't let anything alive other than the lioness because at the end of the day, they were the cubs of his rival " the soldiers stood there and felt their throats become dry.

"In your case, the defeated lion is King Hedor, the lioness is Emir and the cubs..." Don didn't finish his sentence but pointed his finger towards them

Many of the soldiers before Don regretted thinking about them trying to protect a king like Hedor but at that moment in their mind, they were bound by the soldier's oath as they couldn't betray the king who they swore their loyalty to.

"So you can understand what's going to happen to you right?"

The room went deathly silent as someone could even hear a sound of pin hitting the ground.

Suddenly a middle-aged man standing on the front dropped to his knees while tears started to pour out of his eyes

"Your Highness, I got a wife and two kids back at home, I know I have no right to ask you this but please give them a portion of my pension your Highness please" the man started to hit the ground with his forehead.

Before Don could say anything, many soldiers fell to their knees and asked him to look after their family members. Seeing the soldiers cry and beg, Joel's eyes became watery.

"Well, it's your lucky day" as he said Don flicked his wrist and a mound of little pouches appeared between the soldiers and him. The soldiers stopped their crying and begging for a moment and looked at Don bewildered.

As they were looking at Don, a pouch from the mound started to float towards the middle-aged man and fell into his hand.

"Open it," Don said as the man wiped away his tears and slowly opened the pouch. When the man looked inside the pouch his eyes went wide in surprise and shock as he Don and the pouch up and down.

"If you agree to fight for me that's your monthly basic wage"

For a moment, the middle-aged man suspected that he misheard the man before him. Fortunately, Don broke the silence and explained himself.

"When you agree you will be sent to my kingdom where you will be trained, when you finish your training and take the oath before the oath-taker you will get the same amount as my soldiers which is twice the amount in that pouch"

Hearing Don, the middle-aged man went rigid in shock but after realizing that he was not dreaming he held the pouch against his chest and regained his composure a bit.

"Your Highness! I will fight for you till I draw my last breath" the middle-aged man proclaimed while placing his hand on his left chest.

Just after a second, the man said this, Don sent a blade of wind that cut the chains on the man like cutting a banana. The man felt free and relaxed as he massaged his wrists. After getting up the man noticed Joel signaling him to come to stand near him as he started to walk towards Joel and stood behind him with an ear to ear grin on his face.

Every other soldier looked at the man with confused faces as they felt like their brains stopped working. They couldn't understand how a small pouch changes the man so quickly as he was crying and begging for a second and the next second he's smiling like he found a treasure.

However, their questions were answered when the man took out two shiny gold coins from the pouch. The moment they saw the gold coins they felt like they'd been struck by lightning and couldn't help but tempted to take the pouches before them.

"You can take a pouch if you agree to fight for Your Highness Don like your fellow friend did," Arrora said.

Clearly, the soldiers were tempted and started to walk towards the pouches but they were stopped by a wall made if wind by Arrora

"Each can only take one pouch, remember it" after she said this, the wall disappeared and the soldiers looked at Arrora while their hand and legs started to shiver in fear because they didn't know she is a mage till now and judging by her spell casting speed they realized that she's a powerful one at that.

After witnessing Arrora's wind wall, no one tried to grab more than one.

One by one after taking the pouch they knelt before Don and swore to fight for him then stood behind Joel.

After a few moments, the majority of the pouches were taken by the soldiers. However, there were six pouches and six soldiers remained before Don.

Don didn't ask anything but stared at the soldiers.

"My lord, We Linus brothers swore out loyalty to King Hedor and although though he's no more we can't betray our king even after his death so if you want to ki..." before he finishes his sentence, Don sent the wind blades at them but unlike before, it didn't cut the chains instead it cleaved the six heads cleanly from their shoulders.

The soldier's hearts skipped a beat when they saw this scene but before they could react they saw the bodies catching fire, a dark purple fire. In a second after their heads were cut off, their bodies were burnt to nothing by the hellfire.

Everyone who was standing behind Joel felt a cold chill running down their spines and swallowed their saliva. Seeing the six of them killed in mere seconds they were glad that they chose to agree to fight for Don and some soldiers even felt pity towards the Linus brothers while some of them cursed the brothers thinking about their stupidity.

"Take the coins and send them to their remaining kin," Don said looking at Joel and then he turned to look at Arrora.

"Send your team to pick their families…" Don pointed towards the soldiers as he continued "and gather them here. They can take whatever they need with them"

Arrora nodded her head made her way towards the door while Don looked at the soldiers

"From now on you and your families will live in Everlight"