149 Refugees

"Of course, that didn't completely stop the old fashioned kings to declare war against a king if he took in the nonhumans"

Don heard everything that Lord Clemo was saying without missing a single word as Lord Clemo continued

"If someone asks my advice about taking in the nonhumans, I would say that you better be ready to be at war every day and face the political difficulties in daily basis"

Just as Don thought, it all came to the single thing that matters most, power. Even if the emperor did not demolish the law against the nonhuman residency, he would think about sending his force to a powerful foe who could annihilate his force completely.

"The law of the jungle never changes"

Don thought to himself

"What about the church of great ones?"

"That I don't know your majesty, they usually only deal with the religious issues that mostly related to the false gods" Lord Clemo looked at Don's face to see if he could guess what he is thinking

"Your majesty, you don't plan to open the borders for the nonhumans right?"

"Of course not, Lord Clemo you can be at ease"

Lord Clemo sighed in relief but unlike Lord Clemo, Arrora knew that Don was lying as he's planning to do just that plus according to her guess, the coming winter would be a better time to open the border for the nonhumans

Just like Arrora guessed, Don was also thinking about the winter because no one would send their troops outside to let them freeze to death before reaching the destination. And thinking about this, Don was pretty excited, now he didn't need to worry about the emperor's wrath and he could use the wintertime to expand his army so if someone decided to declare war against him, he could welcome them with a surprise.

After traveling some time, the sound of rain hitting the carriage roof started to become less and less, and eventually, the sound completely stopped.

"It seems we are not in Agoria anymore"

Arrora looked outside and saw the sky clearing up to let the golden sun rays come out

"We should rest here for a moment"

Lord Clemo knocked two times on the carriage and the carriage slowed down

When the carriage stopped, Lord Clemo stepped out first and held the door open for Arrora and Don to step out

Sunlight touched Don's face after a long time. The air had become sweeter as the birds softened the morning with their chorus. Already the greyness was gone, evaporated as fast as desert rain, and the heat of the day can already be felt.

"Why are we stopping here? Your majesty"

Joel and Arwen came to Don

"The men should rest a bit"

Everyone started to stretch their limbs and enjoyed the sunlight while the horses had a morning snack of a small stack of hay

However, after resting a few moments, Arwen and the men saw a group of people in the distance, possibly walking towards them

" Stop right where you are"

Arwen fired an arrow as a warning shot that landed just an inch away from the man who in front of the crowd

Even from the distance, Don could see that the people were really exhausted and now they looked terrified plus exhausted.

"Lower your bow Arwen,"

Don said and looked at one of his men

"Go and bring one from the crowd"

"Yes, your majesty"

The soldier went to the crowd and brought a middle-aged man to Don.

"Who are you and these people?"

"I-I am Aax, my lord, we're nobodies my lord "

The name Aax was not common in these side of the kingdom

"Where are you from?"

"Ozoris Kingdom, my lord"

Don turned to look at Lord Clemo as he had no idea where Ozoris is

"They are refugees, your majesty, a year ago Inura kingdom started to invade Ozoris and they have been at war ever since"

"Ozoris and Inura are rank 3 kingdoms, your majesty"

Joel stepped forward and told Don

"You and those people look exhausted, don't you have any nearby kingdoms to seek refuge?"

"We have and we did, my lord but they chased us away cuz of the coming winter"

It was not a surprise that the refugees had been chased away because many kings would not like to feed extra mouths during the winter where they must save every bit of food to survive the winter. And even if they had enough food to feed the refugees, the accommodation and hygiene would often become trouble since many plagues have started in the past especially during the winter hence no one liked to shelter the refugees.

"How many people are with you?"

"We are a group of eighty people, my lord"

This day was getting better and better for Don as first he heard about the change in nonhuman residency and now, he learned that there are probably hundreds of refugees looking for a home to settle and currently what he was lacking in Agoria is the population.

"Do you know the way to Agoria?"

The man shook his head

"I don't my lord, but Utipa knows"

"Then go to Agoria and tell that I, King Don sent you to anyone you first see there, you can take refuge in my kingdom"

Aax suddenly dropped on his knees realizing that he and his people were offered to take refuge by the king himself 

"Thank you, thank you, your majesty"

"But don't think about loafing around, you must earn your keep just like everyone else in my kingdom"

"We don't dare, your majesty"

"Here give these to the children and weak"

Don waved his hand as a couple of trays full of food and drinks appeared before him

Don would have given the food but looking at the thin as stick kids and exhausted faces of the women, he chose to give the food before most of them die of hunger before even reaching Agoria

Aax hit his forehead on the ground a couple of times

"Thank you, your majesty"

Aax didn't even reject the food for etiquette as he feared that if he did, he would lose the chance to feed his kids 

"Let's go"

As he said, Don walked to the carriage and entered in to resume his journey leaving the refugees with the food

"Go and get Joel here"

After putting some distance from the refugees, Don said to Arrora.

"Yes, your majesty"

Arrora said as she opened the door and went floating towards the carriage that Arwen and Joel is in

Lord Clemo remained silent and in a few moments, Arrora brought Joel to Don while Lord Clemo moved his body to let Joel sit

"Your majesty"

"Spread the word that the refugees are welcome to take refuge in Agoria and I want to know every ongoing war and wars that ended recently "

"Consider it done, your majesty"

Don motioned Arrora to take him back to his carriage 

"Grandmaster"

Lord Clemo's heart skipped a beat when he noticed the magical fluctuation appeared around Arrora when she created a wind bubble around Joel to take him back to the carriage

And when she was returned, Arrora noticed that Lord Clemo was looking at her like she's a ghost

"What Lord Clemo, never saw a grandmaster before?"

Arrora asked as Lord Clemo slowly shook his head

"My lady, you-you' became a grandmaster"

Recently when he saw her fight with the guards in Massen's manor, she was a great master and he never thought that she would break through to the grandmaster level this quickly.

"You noticed"

"Then is he also a grandmaster?"

Lord Clemo questioned himself looking at Don and even the thought of him traveling with two grandmasters plus sitting in front of them instead of standing sent a child through his spine because even among the rank three kingdoms, there were not many grandmasters at a young age such as Don's or Arrora's and according to his knowledge, there was no grandmaster in rank 4 kingdoms, not even a single one. 

However, Lord Clemo didn't know that in the rank 2 and rank 1 kingdoms, grandmasters were becoming less and less rare as many youngsters and cultivators had started to get into the grandmaster level. Plus the prodigies like Rosaline, the princess of Archeron kingdom were looking to reach the heavenly level within a couple of years.

"If you stay loyal to me, you can get everything you want, Lord Clemo"

"I will be loyal to you as a dog, your majesty and if you ask me to jump, I will only ask how high"

If it wasn't for the lack of space, he would have worshipped Don by falling to his knees and touching his boots with his forehead

"Glad to hear it, Lord Clemo"

Until now he would sometimes think about running away from Agoria and Don but now that he had realized there's a grandmaster working for him and more possibly Don himself is a grandmaster, he would never again think about leaving the kingdom or doing anything against Don's wishes.