276 Good News

Arrora didn't take a tour around Ishikara as she directly appeared in the middle of the throne hall and saw Nanbu was waiting for her. At the moment the black-armored guards were busy with removing Noa's portraits and status around the throne hall.

Unlike before, there was a hint of fear in Nanbu's eyes when he looked at Arrora. Even her own unit was covered in fear after the display of her might during the war as she single-handedly conquered Ishikara and killed Noa gruesomely.

"Bring all the soldiers we captured to the great hall"

After the war, the black-armored men arrested the surrendered as well as the wounded Ishikara soldiers and threw them in jail.

They had been waiting for their trial for three days and Arrora came to pass the judgment in the place of Don and Knight.

"As you wish, Lady Arrora"

Nanbu slightly bowed towards Arrora and rushed outside to bring the soldiers to her while Arrora gestured at one of her men to lead her to the great hall.

Currently, the great hall had been stripped of all the previous paintings, memoirs and statues belonging to the previous kings and Noa. Except for the single throne-like chair on the far end of the hall overlooking the hall, there was nothing.

Reaching the chair, she seated herself and put one leg over the other, and waited for Nanbu to come. She emitted an aura of a queen and every move she made had a certain grandeur and charm to it.

After reaching the Heavenly level, her body went through a slight transformation as her curvy body became even more perfect. Each strand of her raven black hair became shinier and flawlessly swayed on her pearl white robes.

After a few minutes, Nanbu and a bunch of black-armored guards entered the hall and behind them were the soldiers of Ishikara. Each of them was still wearing the armor that they wore during the war and had shackles around the wrists.

This scene reminded her of the time they conquered Emir and recruited the surviving soldiers to their army. Everything seemed similar except then, she stood behind Don and there were fewer soldiers, way fewer soldiers.

In a few blink of an eye, the previously empty great hall was filled with soldiers in shackles.

However even though there were fewer black-armored guards and the shackles could be broken easily, none of them dared try to escape. Even the strong-minded soldiers shivered in front of her as they could still see the damage she did to their army with a single spell. In the rank four kingdoms, Heavenly level mages were rarely seen and many citizens would die without seeing one but each and everyone heard the stories about the powers of a Heavenly level mage. Yet, the stories didn't do justice to the power she had displayed a few days ago.

��Lady Arrora, except for the few casualties, there are thousand and eight hundred soldiers in front of you"

A few soldiers had a heart attack when Arrora's spell hit them and they died before the healers could help them. Plus, the arrows fired by the elven archers pierced some of the soldiers' vital organs and killed them instantly.

Except for those who died, others had either chosen to surrender or been wounded by Arrora and her unit.

"Nanbu, hand over these to them"

Arrora flicked her wrist as a stack of yellow papers appeared in front of Nanbu. These pamphlets had information about various jobs available under their rule and the wages for each job. Obviously, soldiers had more wages compared to the rest of them considering being a soldier was more dangerous but the other jobs too had an ample amount of wages.

Amaryll and Uncle Dior discussed with Joel and Ukita to decide and revise the wages for each job. Since the treasury of Everlight had gold to spare after successfully selling the armors and weapons forged by the dwarves, they decided the wages with a generous mind to attract more people towards their kingdom.

"Yes"

Nanbu nodded and with a wave of his hand, he sent the pamphlets flying into the hands of the soldiers. The soldiers had a bewildered look on their faces as they reluctantly took a glance at the pamphlets in their hands.

However, when their gaze landed on the paper, their eyes widened in shock looking at the wages for each job. Previously they got fifty silver coins per month but the paper in their hands stated that a soldier's monthly wage is seven gold coins. It was almost five times their current wage and even the construction worker had more wage than them according to the pamphlet.

"You have two choices, swear your loyalty to his majesty Don and choose whatever job you wish"

While the soldiers were still in shock, Arrora opened her mouth and her voice sounded throughout the hall.

"The second choice is, if you still wish to remain loyal towards Noa, you'll leave the kingdom within the next two weeks"

She used the carrot and stick method as Carrot being the generous amount of wages and the stick being banishment. Just by looking at the faces of the soldiers, Nanbu could tell that most of them had chosen the carrot without a second thought since who would lose the chance to increase their wealth and support their family.

All of those who decided to choose the carrot had a small smile on their faces. Because of Don's reputation of being a ruthless as well as a generous ruler, they didn't doubt that this is a deception to make them swear their loyalty towards Don. Besides, they had to choose the first option if they don't want to leave the kingdom especially when the winter is just around the corner.

Being banished from the kingdom at this time was just as equal to being sentenced to death. That was the reason the refugees are immigrating to Emir and Agoria from some of the war-torn upper ranking kingdoms.

"Nanbu, take them away, they have a day to decide"

She waved her hand and ordered Nanbu. Many of the soldiers now in a festive mood unlike they felt before coming to the great hall.

"Tell Stodemar to forge enough armors and men to outfit them"

After the soldiers of Ishikara left the hall, Arrora looked at Nanbu and told him. Fortunately, another thousand soldiers could sustain the need for soldiers in their kingdom. 

"As you wish, Lady Arrora. May I know when you plan to meet the citizens?"

Arrora was quiet for a few moments 

"The nobles would have already packed their bags, I'll meet the people in a couple of days. Amaryll can handle the rest of the matters"

As she said, she stood up and walked towards the door to leave the great hall. However, when she was about to disappear from Nanbu's sight, he suddenly felt tingling vibrations in the hall. Then, out of nowhere Amaryll appeared in the hall.

"Arrora!"

Arrora halted her steps when she heard Amaryll's voice and turned around to see Amaryll running towards her with tears flowing out of her eyes.

"Amaryll?"

But instead of answering, Amaryll leaped towards Arrora and wrapped her hands around Arrora.

"Is everything alright?"

Being suddenly hugged by Amaryll for no reason confused Arrora.

"Knight...he's coming...to wake Don"

Amaryll's voice broke in joy as Arrora body went rigid hearing her.

"Nicolas said..."

Amaryll paused for a moment and wiped away her tears of joy from the face and continued.

"Knight got what he needs to wake him up"

Arrora wanted to say something but his throat tightened as she couldn't even utter a word. Tears had already started to roll out from her eyes as she stood there in the embrace of Amaryll like a statue.

"where...is...Knight?"

After struggling to speak, the three words barely escaped Arrora's mouth

"He's too far away to teleport, we have to wait until he reaches the border of the Avelon to activate the array"

Amaryll let go of Arrora and let out a wide beautiful grin looking at Arrora.

"Come on, let's go!"

She didn't waste a second more as she grabbed Arrora's hands and ordered Nicolas to activate the teleportation array.

"Nicolas"

Then in a blink of an eye, both of them disappeared from the hall leaving Nanbu. And after hearing the good news, Nanbu couldn't help but sigh in relief and smile.

These few weeks after Don's ambush erased the smiles from the people of Everlight and put them in a miserable state. But if Knight said he could bring back him from the dead, Nanbu didn't doubt him, or rather, he didn't want to doubt him.

At the moment, Knight and Lia were flying as fast as they could from the old tomb towards Avelon Continent. Because of the distance, the teleportation array couldn't teleport them back to Everlight from Elvelon as they had to reach the border of the Avelon to be teleported back.