The Albastrom Kingdom

Albastrom Kingdom.

One of the seven mightiest Kingdoms in the world. It had ranked third for the Kingdom producing most talented warriors — whether it was in terms of the Kingdom's mightiest knights or adventure-seeking heroes. Such a mighty Kingdom will surely have some hold in power within the world, for the other Kingdoms will be wary of the Albastrom Kingdom, for fear of getting on their wrong side and accidentally inviting the wrath of a powerful army marching towards their Kingdoms at every little misunderstandings and disagreement. However, this only held true if this was the world a thousand years ago...

After years of bloody fighting and back-stabbing friends and enemies alike, all the seven Kingdoms realized that they were tired of continuing with such a chaotic life — they all wished for a new and better world devoid of such unnecessary complications as much as possible. For centuries the Kingdoms discussed as peacefully as they could to realize this dream they all shared together, even when a serious fight broke out between them, they will calmly and properly speak to each other face-to-face, rather than being quick to pick up their swords and shields like they were in the past.

Then, after 500 years they finally came to a conclusion — the Age of Merchants. In the spirit of welcoming this new world, the use of weapons was kept to a minimum, and the winners were decided based on the Kingdom whose merchants had better strategies and trades. Transitioning from the bloody warring world to a strategy-filled merchant world didn't take as much time as people thought, for it seemed like it was something that everyone has been waiting for — the Kingdoms' people were equally tired with all the wars as were those with high power within the Kingdoms.

Now here was where the problem lay. Though the Albastrom Kingdom had initially been one of the three most powerful kingdoms in existence because of their fighting prowess years ago during the Warring Age, they seemed to have a problem with adapting to the new Merchant Age, even after 500 years. In the current ranking for the world most powerful kingdoms, the Albastrom Kingdom always ranked dead last. Even the former weakest Kingdom, the Gertburgh Kingdom, that had always been quaking in their shoes whenever the Albastrom Kingdom sent their messenger to have a 'nice' chat between their Kings, had managed to rank fifth.

Truthfully though the difference between being fifth and seventh, didn't seem to amount to much, this was in fact false. In reality, if one were to compare between the two Kingdoms annual income that was brought by their merchants, one can clearly see that the Gertburgh Kingdom made at least five times the amount by the Albastrom Kingdom. Even the Sicilian Kingdom in rank six made three times more.

This fact greatly distressed and embarrassed all the Kings of the Albastrom Kingdom. For the last few centuries, since the emergence of the Age of Merchant, the Albastrom Kingdom had been a laughing stock. If no solution were found soon, Albastrom Kingdom, the Kingdom which borne Miracles will soon find itself with a new nickname: Albastrom Kingdom, the Kingdom which borne Incompetence.

Right at this moment, a beautiful young woman in a white lacy blouse and long skirt was walking on one of the busy merchant streets of Fristrom City, the capital city of Albastrom Kingdom. She had a white ribboned wide brim hat on. In her hands, holding it above her head, was a white umbrella which she was twirling happily while walking on the street. With every step she took moving forward towards her destination, new pairs of eyes will follow her movements, as they all wondered where this enchanting beauty was heading to.

Interestingly enough, though everyone seemed to be awed and curious about this unknown beauty, whether it was male or female, no one had approached her. However, it wasn't because they didn't want to, but couldn't. Just as anyone turned around and wanted to take a step further towards the young woman, they found that their footsteps were stuck in place, unable to take another step forward. Surprisingly, when these people gave up their intention to come in contact with her, they found themselves able to move again, but if they were to try or even thought of approaching the young woman again, they will be unable to move once again. Those who were quick enough to pick up on the strangeness of this situation knew that whoever that young woman in white was, it was not someone they should mess around with.

Suddenly, after minutes when by, and after probably succeeding in attracting almost everyone present on that street, the young woman stopped in front of a newly built and empty building, and without any hesitation, she stepped inside through the front door. At this action of hers, the street was suddenly buzzing with questions and talks about who the young woman in white might be.

As far as they were concerned, the new building was built under the instructions of the King himself. Based on the size alone and its location being on the merchant street, it might have been built for a merchants guild. According to all the gossips that had gone around regarding the building, for the sake of improving the Kingdom's merchant trade reputation, the King had made a drastic decision to buy the ownership rights of a famous shop and hired its talented retail merchant to be Albastrom Kingdom's, Chief Merchant. This merchant was tasked with expanding the shop's business worldwide and later also led the other merchants to for the Kingdom's new era of merchant trading.

When the young woman in white went into the new building just now, everyone seemed to wonder whether she might be the newly hired Chief Merchant. It wasn't that they were belittling a woman's capability in being a merchant, but currently, there were almost little to none female merchant trader in all the seven Kingdoms. It might have been because of the belief that women were only the Masters of Housekeeping been deeply instilled within the people's hearts for a very long time, that everyone tended to put very little trust in female merchant trader if they ever met with any. Thus, if the King had truly hired a female merchant trader to be the Kingdom's Chief Merchant, that was definitely a sight to behold.

Just then, as everyone was still gossiping around about this new piece of news, the entire street suddenly became unusually quiet as a handsome young man walked down that same street. If this had been years or even months ago, people would have reacted rather differently, whenever they spotted him within the crowds. However, nowadays, the only things that the young man ever heard were the hushed whisperings of how disgusting or sickening his presence was to them, they seemed to feel that the very air they breathe together will become poisonous if he were around.

"It's the banished prince."

"Why is that d*mned b*stard here?"

"How dare he showed up in the middle of the day like this!"

"Ughh... I suddenly lose interest to shop today."

There were even sounds of people spitting on the ground, either to avoid calamity or just simply because they hate him.

"Wait, where is he going?! Is he heading where I think he is?" someone suddenly shouted as they realized the young man was walking towards the newly gossiped-about building.

"Sh*t! That b*stard really went inside there." Similarly, just like the beautiful young woman before, the young man had walked inside the new building without any hesitation.