The Fallen King (2)

The King sat on his throne, looking at the young man dressed in a Mage's attire sitting on a chair to the side.

Link couldn't sense any malicious intent from him, so he obediently listened and sat down. Hearing what Adrian said at the start, he felt pity for the man. He was cursed to roam an empty palace in a sunk and destroyed Kingdom. This was not a fate befitting a King.

"My predicament was due to ignorance and the lack of vigilance" Adrian sighed. "My Kingdom was prosperous. I might have been slightly lacking as a King, but I've always done my best. I listened to my people and acted to the best of my abilities.

Back in the old times, Kingdoms were divided by Ranks. From the weakest to the strongest.

My Moradir Kingdom was ranked the lowest. We lacked the knowledge, power and territory to earn a higher Rank, but we cared little about such matters. We were simple but we had everything we needed.

The location of our Kingdom was envied by other Kings. We were located between 2 high ranking Kingdoms. This lessened the Monster attacks greatly.

Back then, Monster waves were a very common threat. It had no pattern. Creatures of all shapes and sizes would start rushing towards a Kingdom. This made us always be on high alert. But since the waves that put their sights on us pass by the large Kingdoms around, few creatures make it through.

One day, when I was attending some meetings with a few government officials, I got a report that the number of migrants has been increasing significantly everyday. My people have tried to handle this by themselves, but the numbers turned into a problem. After being refused entry, they set up camps outside and refused to leave.

We had good harvest with a peaceful and safe City, but I never could have imagined that that would be the reason for our fall.

Little did I know at the time that Kings of various Kingdoms hated how peaceful our situation was. They had to fight Waves of Beasts every week and train their people to survive.. But not us, and this pissed them off.

It's not like I wasn't aware of how lucky we were and that I needed to think of a way to better our Mages and overall military strength, but I couldn't...

What did those Bastards expect me to do when they're all hoarding the Cultivation techniques and spells... Plus we barely had any extra funds for such matters. We had just enough to keep our Kingdom running well, but after all those people appeared out of nowhere, things became very bad.

Thefts, muggings, robberies, brawls, destruction of property and so on were happening all around the Kingdom.

I was getting report after report about how they were causing a problem here, how they did this and that... I had no idea how to handle it.

I couldn't kick them out, their numbers were too many. And I couldn't put them into a prison, since the one we had could barely fit half of the people that were caught.

Our financial situation started to slowly decline as we used money to compensate, fix or clean certain things. My Kingdom was in chaos as I couldn't keep up with all the problems coming up.

The only thing we could do is try to keep order as we tried to kick, beat or even tie them. But somehow, they'd either get free or return to cause more problems.

This lasted until our first wave in a long time came.

When the scouts detected movement and reported it, we mobilized all our military to prepare for battle... But the scene we saw that day drove us into despair.

The Wave was Huge...

Creatures numbered in the over 50 ran with blood-thirst and malice in their eyes as they locked onto our Kingdom.

That battle was devastating. We closed the gates and set up traps and prepared to the best of our abilities, but we still ended up losing more than half our Army, including a few Mages.

With the sadness and depression from losing their family, friends and or loved ones, my people were sitting on the edge, and when the childish and irritable actions continued after... Blood was shed.

It all started with a drawing on a wall of a dead soldier and a few beasts around him when someone came out of nowhere with a knife, stabbing the man responsible in the neck, instantly killing him.

I did not know how it all happened when citizens started dying. The new immigrants got weapons from somewhere as they attacked my people, killing so many innocent people for even the smallest argument and or disagreement.

I lost my mind and moved what was left of my army to deal with this. My order was to get rid of every immigrant criminal with a public execution.

What I thought would plant the seed of fear into their hearts, did the opposite.

I guess you already know what happened after that.

All of it seems like a dream. It happened so quickly.

One day people piled in front of our gates, and the next everything went to sh*t...

Literally, it all happened within 4 days" Adrian took a deep breath as he continued. "After a heart wrenching battle, they ran away, losing a few of them while we lost a 1 too many. We locked the gates and closed every path into the Kingdom as we buried our dead in peace.

At the start of next week, another wave came... Around 50 Creatures Again...

Long story short. We lost even more people, forcing even ordinary Citizens to take up arms and fight. Led by me.

That week was the worst week we ever went through.

The once bustling City with life and vitality turned into a quiet ghost town.

Days passed as we slowly started to get back on our feet, when a messenger appeared outside our gates.

He yelled. Kingdom of Moradir, listen carefully... You've attacked and killed the Citizens of our Jultin Kingdom and therefore our King, Keil the great, demands an explanation and an apology.

I was confused for a moment, before I understood..

This was all planned..

The appearance of random people, the chaos they created, the large waves and last but not least, the fight.

Jultin was the Kingdom right next to ours...

The one that usually cleared most of the wave before it reached us for resources

Of course, the next day in the early morning, a small army of people appeared outside, demanding my presence.

I'm guessing you can already tell where this is going..

The leader was Prince Hugo, who claimed to be representing his father, the King.

They mocked and looked down on us. Demanding I get on my knees to apologize.

Apologize for defending my people?

I refused, which led to some consequences I couldn't handle.

They declared War!

Large waves of soldiers approached and set up camp in front of our Kingdom, claiming that they'd be nice and give me 3 days to surrender or they'd start their assault.

Panic rained in my once peaceful Kingdom. They refused any form of deal I presented, pushing me into a corner... And they seemed to enjoy it.

I did not know what I needed to do, until I heard a voice speak to me one night.

'They conspired and killed your people.. Are you really going to surrender to them?'

The voice echoed in my study, when I saw a blurry blob floating in the corner. It continued.

'I can give you a chance.. Are you willing to take it?'

Back in that Era, our knowledge of demons, evil gods and so on was lacking. We have not learned of such matters yet.. So all I could see at the time was a god taking pity on us.

With one day left, I did not hesitate to do as he told me to.

He conjured a paper and allowed it to float to me. It held the corresponding information of an odd Ritual. After reading through it, I started with the preparations.

I should have just got down on my knees that day and apologized instead. I should have known my limits after realizing their plan. But my pride and thinking that i did nothing wrong, made me hard headed.

When I think about it, I did not make a single correct decision back then. Like I said, it felt like a dream. I was there, but at the same time, I was not.

That probably was a distortion effect by that damn God..