57 Play of fate

The throne hall was very big and spacious. It was equal to that of a church prayer hall. The four of them walked in. Minos was in awe of the structure. It was massive. It didn't look like a Goblin palace no matter which way you look at it. Comparing it to normal medieval human palace would be insulting this fine architecture.

The hall was guarded with around fifty Goblin Royal guards. Thirty feet away from the huge door sat the ten ministers of Goblinia, five on each sides. Their height was comparable to humans as well. When they saw Vik, they stood up and bowed their heads with a smile.

This is their respect to the royalty. The ones who led the mere, useless and not even worth mentioning Goblins to the position they are in now. At the end of the room was the "Iron throne" of Goblinia. The throne of kings. Beside is was the throne of queen which was made in gold but smaller in size compared to the king's.

Vik's father was sitting on the throne while a beautiful elf with green hair was sitting on the queen's throne beside the king. She was Vik's mother. First princess of Elven Kingdom in Syliphid forest alliance. Of course, former first princess. She smiled kindly when she saw the four of them. Her gaze particularly locked into Saito for some reasons.

When they were twenty feet away from the throne, Vik stopped and went on his knee. Herjar followed the suite for the sake of respecting the royalty. Minos didn't know what to do and just followed their actions. Among the four, only Saito stood still with his head held up high.

Vik's father was sitting on the throne with one of his fist supporting his head. He was originally dissatisfied with the actions of Herjar and Minos, but when seeing Saito not bowing down to them, he was surprised a bit and smiled.

"Human named Saito, why do you not bow to me while your friends are bowing down?" he asked with a curious face. "I bow down to no man or women expect my parents, master and the God I believe in, no body else." Saito answered with a straight face. "HAHAHAHAHA! Well said brat! Let's see how this guy reacts." Nobunaga said while staying inside his soul. Nobunaga can now stay awake even when he's inside the soul or not being visited by Saito so he took the pleasure to look at what's going on outside.

While he said that Vik's face was not good. 'OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! WHY DID YOU HAVE TO SAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT! This is bad! If they took this as an insult then the Royal guards will tear him into pieces! I have to do something fast!' Vik was literally screaming inside his head.

'Now what are you planing?' Herjar said in his mind as he took a side long glance at Saito. Minos was staying indifferent to the things going on. Of course the Royal guards inside didn't stay quiet either. 3 seconds after he said that more than ten axe-spears were pointed at his neck. Of course, two of the Royal guards had a dagger on each of their necks while the rest had swords pointed at their spine from behind. Herjar and Minos didn't stay still when the Royal guards made their move. Vik stood up and sighed while scratching his head, he unsurprisingly knew this will happen when Saito said those words.

"Hahahaha, exactly the words I wanted to hear, I'm impressed indeed." Vik's father said while laughing and clapping his hand. Everyone except Herjar, Saito and Vik's mother and father were confused. "I was confused as to why would the great "Grim Reaper" bow his head to someone as insignificant as me since mister Minos is really nothing but a teenager in my eyes, I was really worried that none of my son's friends had backbone but you proven me wrong, I'm happy that my son was able to get some reliable friends." he said as he got up and walked down from the throne.

"Vik, you should learn a thing or two from mister Saito." he looked at his son and said. "Yes father." Vik obediently bowed his head while answering. "Men! Disperse!" he order the Royal guards since everything was over. The Royal guards didn't refute or anything and just obeyed the order.

His gazed then locked at Herjar. His held the question he wanted to ask. "I just bowed to a skillful and great Knight who is more stronger than me, nothing else." Herjar casually answered. "Hehehe, I'm not that stronger you know? I'm a mile away compared to you mister Herjar." Vik's father said modestly. "I'm an Assassin, I hear things that even you won't possibly know." Herjar said. Vik's father just smiled and stopped pestering.

He then looked towards Vik. "Vik, you know about how your grandfather led the forces of Goblinia and fought off the Orcs right?" He asked. Vik just nodded his head and didn't answer. "And you know about how I led them and fought off the Orcs for the second time after him right? Well, this is your turn to lead them into battle and fight those Orcs and come back home win the current Orc King's head." His tone changed at the last phase. Vik didn't look either surprised nor worried.

"Father, what if I didn't win? What will happen then?" Vik asked. "You will lose the right to the throne and you can only come back if you bring peace or bring his head to Goblinia." His father said seriously. The ministers looked at each other with worried faces. They were here since the time of Vik's grand father and helped his father rule well. Looking at Vik now, they were worried that the result would not be as expected.

"Don't worry father, I will not disappoint you!" Vik said with determination shining in his eyes. "Excuse me if I'm butting in, can we also join this "head for throne" qualification of his? We would like to help him as his friends." Saito said exactly what Minos and Herjar were thinking.

"Don't worry mister Saito, as his friends, you can join our war with the Orcs if you wish to join and he permits it, it's his fight after all." Vik's father said casually. "I don't really know, this is my fight and I don't want to involve you guys into danger and all...." Vik said.

"Are you an idiot? You know we will be joining you no matter what you say the moment he said those words right? Why are you acting all touchy now?" Herjar asked in an annoyed tone. Vik just scratched the back of his head and didn't say anything as he looked away.

"Now then Vik, how about you choose your commander to lead the army with you?" Vik's father asked. Vik thought about it for a minute and decided on an answer. "Father, if you don't really mind, I want to choose Saito as my prime commander to lead the army in the upcoming battle." Vik said. His words indeed shocked everyone inside the hall. Even the Royal guards. Letting an outsider be a commander is one thing but letting a human do that? This is even more unheard of.

"Uh...... Vik? You half asleep? Cause I just heard something unreal and having a hard time believing it." Saito said while scratching his head. He removed his helmet long ago because of the uncomfortable atmospheric feel. "No Saito, I trust your skills in commanding troops and I want to minimize the lose our men's life as much as, even if it means me going against the tradition! I don't want to repeat the incident that occurred twenty three years ago." Vik replied with a grim voice.

The hall's atmosphere became tense. Non of the Goblins retorted and hung their heads low. Their expression was that of sad and ashamed. "What happened? Why is the atmosphere so stiff?" Saito whispered to Herjar. "You don't know?" Herjar asked with a surprised look. Saito now became more curious to know what happened all those years ago. "You know what happened? Tell me dude!" Saito whispered again.

"What happened was, that's what I would like to know." Herjar replied with a no-reaction face. Saito turned his attention towards Vik's father who had an extremely sorrowful face. "If I ever ask you something like this again when you don't know the answer, say you don't know or slap me in the face for asking you." Saito whispered to Herjar again. "Got it." Herjar replied with a straight face.

'Did I get purposefully lead into his trap?' Saito thought in his mind. Rukkendi's gaze then fell Saito. "Mister Saito I......." Ruk swallowed his own words. Saito let out a sigh. "Your majesty, I would like to help, but I need to know what you know." He said.

Ruk let out a sigh. "Twenty three years ago, I lead the Iron Guard and marched to fight the Orcs, that time I somehow made an alliance with the Sylivians and Elves but my father, Vik's grandfather, didn't really like it, he wasn't convinced that they would really uphold their part and he was right, I was a fool to believe in them! There was never an alliance, all they saw was a perfect opportunity to reduce the Orc numbers, we were fooled, no no no! I was fooled." he said.

"I don't care if you are an idiot or a fool or a faggot, just tell me what happened." Saito said. "The Sylivians, the Elves and us had formed an alliance against the Orcs, our armies were supposed to meet with them at Dragoon plains but they never came, we faced off an Orc army of hundred thousand with only sixty thousand Goblins, my father came with me because he didn't believe in the alliance and guess what? He was right! The original plan was to face the Orcs with the joint force of one hundred and fifty thousand but only sixty thousand faced off the Orcs! My father...... My father..... He lost his life trying to protect me! We won the battle, but lost the fight! Only thirty nine men including me returned alive." Rukkendi explained everything with a sorrowful tone.

Saito, Herjar and Minos fronze after hearing his story. Only thirty nine out of sixty thousand returned alive. This is way too extreme for them. They could never imagine such a scene. Losing that many is a big loss. Even though they have a huge army, soldiers also have a life, a family. That many family had lost a member due to this war. Was it Rukkendi's fault? Was it the Orc's fault? Or was it the fault of Sylivians and Elves? All they could say is,

They were played by fate.