Chapter 256 256:- Aether Dragon [I]; Autumnming Islands

The Storm Isle Dynasty is located in the very north of the Eastern region. Due to its past, the Storm Isle Dynasty's territory is way bigger than it looks. Autumnming Islands is a group of 4 islands located more than 110 km from the Storm Isle Dynasty. These four islands are located 20 km away from the mainland.

In the past, back when many Kingdoms and Dynasties existed in the Eastern region, the Storm isle Dynasty had a big conflict with the Nepoca Kingdom of the past. The Nepoca Kingdom knew that they cannot fight the Storm Isle Dynasty so the past Nepoca King hence surrendered the Autumnming Islands to the Storm Isle Dynasty to resolve the issue.

At the same time, The Nepoca King did not see any value in those four islands that were located more than 20 km away from the Nepoca Kingdom's mainland. The King did not even bother to send his men to check who inhabited those islands. Also the other Kings of the past never really took any interest in those islands as those four islands were always surrounded by a thick layer of mist and it was very dark to navigate around those four islands.

No one even knew if anyone lived on those islands. Autumnming Islands were completely cut off from the mainland. Not even the merchants dared to go near the Autumnming Islands. The rare few ones who dared to venture into those islands never returned back. However, all these changed when the Storm isle Dynasty acquired the Autumnming Islands.

The Empress of the Storm Isle Dynasty personally visited the Autumnming Islands. The Empress met the race that lived on those four islands. The race that lived in the Autumnming Islands wasn't interested in any foreigners and didn't want to be under the rule of any forces. While the Empress wanted to make the Autumnming Islands an important part of her Dynasty.

The Empress of that time understood that if things goes like this a big fight could break out between both parties. She saw the great power that the people living in the Autumnming Islands had. The Empress didn't want a war to break out. The Empress was a very intelligent woman, to avoid a possible conflict between both parties, the Empress offered something that the people living in the Autumnming Islands found hard to refuse.

"And that offer was....?" Right now Aditya, Watson, and Leo were heading to the Autumnming Islands in disguise. While traveling, Watson was telling Aditya the history of the Autumnming Islands and the Storm Isle Dynasty.

Leo and his little sister once lived in the Autumnming Islands. Due to his past, he and his sister were forced to run away. When Aditya found them, both Leo and his sister had come to that city a few months ago and were struggling to live.

"The Empress wasn't willing to give up the Autumnming Islands as they saw the value of those four islands. Knowing that if a fight breaks out, the only way that she can win would be to kill every single inhabitant living in the Autumnming Islands which they didn't want to see happening, she decided to approach them with a peaceful solution."

"She met the leader of those inhabitants. She offered that the Autumnming Islands would remain semi-independent and would be left under the inhabitant's control. The Autumnming Islands would be considered a territory of the Storm Isle Dynasty but the inhabitants would remain independent and would be allowed to govern themselves. The Storm Isle Dynasty wouldn't interfere with the lives of the inhabitants. But in exchange, each year the inhabitants would have to pay a small percentage of their resources as a tribute to the Storm Isle Dynasty."

"So what happened?" Aditya asked while playing with a small gold dagger that he found in his treasury the other day. Leo was sitting opposite Aditya and remaining quiet. He didn't speak. His sword was resting on his lap.

Watson was sitting next to Aditya and peeling an apple. The old butler finally looked happy. He no longer looked exhausted and tired. The dark circles under his eyes had also disappeared from proper rest. It all happened because the Istarin Empire has found its new Prime Minister.

Watson has to admit that Spencer is very talented. He quickly managed to learn everything. With a single glance, he is able to remember things which made things very convenient. Around a half month ago, Aditya officially named Spencer as the Prime Minister of the Istarin empire. Spencer had become Aditya's Dragonian and was in charge of taking care of the Empire in Aditya's absence.

Because Spencer took over, Watson was able to relax. He finally was able to put the pen down. These days he didn't have to go to the study room anymore. Watson now had returned to work as Aditya's personal butler and his advisor. Because of all of the hard work, Aditya increased Watson's salary to 1000 royal gold coins per month. He also gave Watson a small piece of land near the capital along with 10,000 royal gold coins as a form of appreciation. Aditya told the old man that if he ever felt like retiring, he can retire anytime, neither Aditya nor Julia is going to stop him.

But the old man didn't like the idea of retiring. He said that he wanted to keep working. He even had plans of becoming Aditya's first child's personal butler. When he said those words to Aditya and Julia, the goddess's face was red as a tomato.

Watson had become a core part of the Istarin empire and Aditya's life. Aditya would definitely feel lonely without seeing his butler. Watson was one of the first few people whom Aditya had considered as his family. Even if Watson retires and quits his job, Aditya was still planning on seeing him regularly.

"Well, for starters, the inhabitants were not least bit happy about the fact that the Autumnming Islands were opened to the outside world. From what I know those people have been living in isolation for eternity. Maybe living in isolation is one of the factors that kept their race from going extinct."

"For the next few years, more and more inhabitants became dissatisfied and their unhappiness towards the Storm isle Dynasty increased. It was around 15 or 16 years ago, I heard that a fight almost broke out between the inhabitants. Some of the people rebelled against their leader who was responsible for negotiating with the Storm Isle Dynasty empress. However, their leader was very strong. He managed to suppress the rebel and make peace again." From the corner of his eyes, Aditya noticed Leo tightly clenching his fists.

"Things started to become chaotic when some narrow-minded inhabitants who lived that opening their islands to the outside world was a huge mistake attacked the merchants who came to trade. One and nineteen innocent people were slaughtered. The Storm isle Dynasty didn't like this. Especially the Empress was very enraged. The leader of those Inhabitants knew that if things went on like this, the rising tension from both sides would eventually start another war. So to calm things, he first punished the inhabitants that killed 119 innocent merchants. To peace make with both sides, he decided to marry a noble's daughter from the Storm Isle dynasty."

Watson glanced at Leo who was slightly trembling. Seeing this 15-year-old child suffering, Watson couldn't help but sigh feeling bad for Leo. "The leader had two children. And just like this 15 years passed. Just when everyone thought that things were beginning to calm down, on a certain stormy night, some of the Aether Dragons somehow killed the leader. The wife protected her children and sacrificed her life to prevent her children from getting killed."

Sigh!

Watson finished peeling the apple. He handed the apple to Aditya and then started peeling another one. "Leo and his sister Clara somehow managed to escape. One of the human merchants helped Leo and Clara escape from the Autumnming Islands."

What happened to Leo and Clara was very unfortunate. "This is what I was able to gather from our spies. We will don't know why after 15 years of peace some of the Aether dragons murdered their leader and their leader's wife." Watson wanted Leo to answer that. He was sure that Leo knew something that outsiders didn't know.

Another 10 minutes passed in silence. Leo was still remaining quiet. He then finally opened his mouth. "Because my mother was a human, neither I nor my sister was born with the Aether Dragon Race bloodline. Because of that, both of us were bullied from a young age. The whole Aether Dragon clan hated us. They hated the fact that we were so weak despite being the son and daughter of their leader. Other than our mother and father, not a single person from the clan ever showed us any love. Whenever our clanmates found us alone, we were beaten, and bullied very badly." Aditya sat next to Leo and then patted his shoulder. This boy has been holding it inside for a long time. He needs to let it out.

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Thank you for the reader Mark_Campos_5123 to gifting this novel with a ice cola.

[I apologize for not uploading yesterday.]