Chp.41: A new danger

Initially, when the royal officials announced that the king would personally come to the Province of Baudonia to study a way to stem the epidemic, everyone thought it was a joke or, in the case of the more politically savvy, a strategy to prevent the population from getting too frightened. After all, only a mad ruler would have dared to approach a place where the terrible red death snaked its way. And even if the king had been so self-defeating and irresponsible, surely his ministers would have prevented him from committing such follies. After all, the kingdom was currently not completely stable and the only heir to the royal family was currently still a small child; one certainly could not risk that the sovereign contracted the terrible disease and died, leaving the throne vacant and a kingdom plagued by conflicts between nobles to take power.

Even if it was rumored that the queen was in turn quite skilled in politics, she was still a woman and in a nation like the Jurao Kingdom where patriarchal succession prevailed her regency or even just superintendence would hardly have been positively received by the nobles. Although recently the laws of succession of houses had also allowed women to inherit, it was still early for the Jurao Kingdom to accept a queen rather than a king. If the king had died, therefore, chaos would have erupted and all the most powerful nobles would have competed for the possibility of becoming guardians of the throne until the princeling had reached the age of majority, and probably the victor would have used this time to curry favor with him and thus gain more control over him to continue to lord it over the nation even after he becomes king.

Therefore, everyone was sure that the king wouldn't really come. He would probably stop in the border cities, where the situation was still safe, and it would be from there that he would manage the situation. He probably would have sent frontmen or heralds to reassure the citizens, to show that he was on to something. Surely, he wouldn't have thrown himself in the middle of a province in which the terrible red death was spreading.

But against everyone's expectations, the king had finally arrived. He initially appeared only in towns closest to the border, then began moving inland. Everyone thought he was just making a scene and that sooner or later he would stop, avoiding getting too close to what was presumably the affected area. Instead, King Marcus had gone on and visited each city, one after another, to utter disregard of danger and great shock on everyone's part.

But if this was greeted with great dismay by the upper class, it was not the same for the civilian population. The people of the Province of Baudonia, seeing that the king hadn't only kept his promise to bring supplies and medicines but also that he had really come in person, thus tempting fate and exposing himself to the risk of contagion, had developed a great admiration for the ruler. How many other kings and emperors would have risked their own lives for the people? Clearly, this caused the common people's admiration of King Marcus to grow enormously.

But what happened in the following days surprised everyone even more. Marcus didn't just carry food and water, he personally helped distribute them. Not only did he go to middle and upper class homes, but he descended into poor neighborhoods, mingling with beggars and bums, and made sure supplies were distributed fairly. Citizens had never heard of a ruler who behaved so humbly. Furthermore, every time he went to a new neighborhood Marcus delivered solemn and incredibly inspiring speeches, each one different from all the others, with which he invited the population not to get caught up in fear and not to fight for resources, but to help each other in that difficult period. The admiration of the people towards him grew to such a point that thefts and robberies dropped to values ​​close to zero only because people believed his words and even the most heinous thieves had decided to put a stop to their activities at least until end of the emergency. It wasn't a situation that wasn't going to last, and Marcus knew it, but at least now the guards had a lot less work to do since most of the citizens strictly followed the rules.

To top it all off, Marcus finally took three very serious measures. The first was the complete removal of all the priests he knew well were actually part of the extremist faction; with the excuse of wanting to protect them he had offered them safe passage to the Jurao Kingdom, and almost none of them had objected since they too were terrified of the red death. By doing so, the king had removed all those extremist priests whom the common people of the Province of Baudonia had long since come to hate, and these had already gained him more favor. The second measure he took was the establishment of a sort of emergency postal service: using the few flying mounts available, some soldiers would fly from one part of the Province of Baudonia to another carrying letters and messages, so that everyone could keep in touch and make sure their family and friends were okay. It was obviously a very exclusive service, given that the number of flying mounts was limited and that few people could read and write, but Marcus asked the part of the population who could do it to help the poor ignoramuses; as a result, even though many were unable to contact anyone, their admiration for the king grew just the same. But the real turning point came when Marcus launched an investigation to find out the causes of the appearance of the red death and had discovered that this was due to a bad cleaning of the urbanization projects caused by some corrupt officials who had misappropriated the necessary funds for this purpose; after presenting the people with irrefutable evidence, these people were executed in the public square one by one. Marcus had also sworn that once the emergency was over, he would make sure to start a fight against corruption in the Jurao Kingdom. Having eliminated a large part of the old ruling class of the cities of the Province of Baudonia, the king had installed in their place people of his trust who did the job ten times better even in that period of crisis, gaining even more the support of the civilian population.

In short, putting all these extraordinary actions together, Marcus had earned the admiration and approval of almost the entire population of the Province of Baudonia who now acclaimed him as a just king and a savior. He wondered amused what those people would look like if they discovered that in reality there was no epidemic, that all that quarantine was just a plan devised by a dragon to hide a monstrous crime that had taken place under his own nose, and that he was carrying out all those good and courageous deeds because he knew very well that there was no real danger.

Marcus had to admit that in the end the situation hadn't turned out badly at all. Even though he would have many headaches in the future, he still came out on top. There were no witnesses left of Carrion's crimes: his scouts, obviously trusted men, had confirmed to him that the labor camps throughout the Province of Baudonia were completely empty, and no prisoners or guards were to be seen anywhere; not even the bodies were left. Which meant that Haku had also won across the board and got what he wanted. Both the king and the dragon had emerged victorious from this situation, just as promised. The ruler had covered up Carrion's crimes and gained the favor of the civilian population, had rid himself of the bad apples of his army, and once back in the capital he would have the perfect excuse to investigate the nobles and merchants who thanks to Haku he knew were corrupt and could therefore have punished them adequately; likewise, the dragon had freed all captive beastmen and achieved a crushing victory over Carrion.

By now there were only two things left that still prevented the king from having peaceful sleep. The first was the continued absence of the high royal general, who seemed to have disappeared. The scouts had searched for him for a long time, but had found no sign of him. Marcus wanted to know where it was, because losing a Legendary level would be a major blow to the military power of the kingdom. He remembered Haku's words well: he would spare Carrion only once. He hoped that the high royal general was just hiding somewhere and that he hadn't decided to chase the dragon and thus meet his fate. Marcus didn't know how Haku planned to kill a legendary level… but something inside him told him that the dragon was absolutely capable of it.

The second thing that worried him, perhaps even more than the first, was the fact that currently the Jurao Kingdom was still under the yoke of Haku. In fact, the dragon had never spoken of dismantling 'The spider', and with it he could blackmail the king at any time. Marcus had already planned to send spies into the organization to root it out from within, but it would take months if not years, and furthermore the discovery of even one of the spies would have catastrophic consequences. Not to mention that Haku most likely possessed or could have created further dangers to be unleashed on the kingdom at any time to force it to obey him. Marcus certainly didn't want to become Haku's helper: even if he knew that their destiny was at least partially intertwined, he had no intention of being reduced to the role of simple subordinate. He wanted to join the game as a player, not a pawn. But to do that he needed a bargaining chip, something with which he could force Haku to relinquish any kind of control over the Jurao Kingdom, so that in the future they could play that game as equals.

But what could be the right bargaining chip? What could make Haku, an extremely intelligent dragon with zero empathy, to come to terms? Until a few weeks ago, not even Marcus would have been able to answer that question. But now he knew exactly what to look for.

"So, did you find him?"

The king was in a room of one of the many palaces of one of the many cities of the Province of Baudonia, and facing him was Thornag. "Yes, your majesty" the man declared. "The scouts flew over all possible rivers, and they found several boats. Many of them travel in the company of others. It was difficult to spot them because they possess some sort of cloaking magic and disappear when they approach population centers or if they notice that someone is approaching, but we still managed to intercept them"

Marcus nodded, but his frown didn't change. "You know I don't care about the other boats. Have you found the one the dragon travels in?"

"No, Your Majesty. He is likely traveling below decks" Thornag answered. "I was thinking of bringing in a high-rank mage and having him use a spell that would allow us to see through ships, or sense the heat inside them, so we could figure out where he is"

"Do it. You have my permission to use any means necessary" Marcus said. "We have to be absolutely sure where the dragon is. If we attack the wrong boat, Haku will unleash 'The spider' against the Jurao Kingdom. We have to get the right one"

Thornag nodded and took his leave, immediately leaving the room and leaving the king alone with his thoughts. Marcus knew he didn't have much time and that this could be his only chance, so he absolutely had to take it. Ironically, it was Haku himself who revealed to him the perfect bargaining chip, even though he suspected that such imprudence was not due to him but to the third subject involved in that diatribe, who had also become the target of the king.

If he managed to capture Haku's brother, even that dragon would agree to compromise.