Rise of the Legendary Emperor

Along the way, Don and his men came across a couple of refugee groups and sent them towards Agoria to take refuge. Although it was not much, it was a step forward to increase the population of Agoria and hasten the construction works.

After a long journey, the sun was at its peak and the men wanted nothing but stop marching and take a long rest under the trees

"Why is the carriage slowing?"

Don was meditating with eyes closed when Lord Clemo noticed this as Arrora put her head out of the window to look ahead

"There's a group standing on the way"

Arrora said as the carriage came to halt

"Come, let's go see what's happening?"

Seeing Don was still meditating, she didn't want to disturb him as she and Lord Clemo stepped out of the carriage

"Lower your weapon soldier, we mean no harm"

Arrora saw Arwen was aiming an arrow at the group on the way

"King Edward?"

Lord Clemo was surprised to see King Edward, the king of Sigalla in the front of the group with his royal guards

Arwen lowered his bow when he saw Lord Clemo recognize King Edward but still kept his guard up in case the guards tried anything funny

"King Edward, it's good to see you again, what are you doing here?"

Lord Clemo walked towards King Edward with a wide grin on his face.

"It's good to see you too, Lord Clemo, what would the people think about Sigalla if we didnt show us the hospitality of Sigalla?"

It was clear to Lord Clemo that he wanted to make sure that Don goes through his kingdom rather than taking the outer lands route.

"Where's King Don? Lord Clemo"

King Edward was gawking at the two carriages 

"His majesty is meditating inside, let me go tell him"

King Edward was an average built man with red hair, he was neither too tall nor too short and looking very calm and cool.

"Your majesty, King Edward of Sigalla is waiting for you outside"

Don slowly opened his eyes and looked at Clemo who is holding the door for him

It was an unexpected gesture by King Edward to personally come here to welcome Don as he nodded and stepped outside of the carriage to meet King Edward

When Don stepped out, Arrora noticed that King Edward is slightly surprised, maybe his surprise was due to Don's young age 

"King Don, it's an honor to make your acquaintance"

King Edward said with a smile and reached out to shake Don's hand

"Pleasure's all mine, King Edward"

Don shook his hand and let go of King Edward's hand

"That's a strong grip you got there, King Don"

"A firm handshake makes a great first impression, King Edward"

"That's very true, King Don, you'll never get a second chance to make a great first impression would you?"

Don nodded

"Let's go to my castle first King Don, the sun is scorching"

As he said, King Edward clapped his hand and then suddenly a portal appeared beside them

It was the first time Don seeing a portal outside of Everlight 

"King Don, shall we go now?"

"Lead the way, King Edward"

Don was not going to reject this gesture of King Edward as the horses and some of his men already looked tired from the long march.

One by one, King Edward and his men stepped into the portal 

"Let's go"

As he said, Don followed King Edward's men into the portal as Arwen and the men quickly followed him behind

After stepping out of the portal, they reached the capital of Sigalla. In the sky, the searing heat from the sun was the only entity present, not even a single cloud could be found in the sky. It was just a bright, gaudy sun stationed at the sea of blue. If not for the battle energy in his body, Don would have been a fool to wear full black armor in this weather, and if not for the design that let air circulate into the armor, the men would have bathed in their own sweat by now.

Sigalla seemed exactly opposite in the weather as in Agoria, people tend to stay in their house most of the time and in Sigalla, they stood outside wiping away the sweat on their faces. 

"That's where we are going, King Don"

King Edward pointed at the castle in the distance

five massive, round towers were scattered in a seemingly random pattern but had been built for an ideal defense and were connected by huge, narrow walls made of light green stone.

Small windows were scattered generously around the walls in fairly symmetrical patterns, along with same-sized holes for archers and artillery.

The portal disappeared when the last of Don's men stepped out as King Edward motioned Don to follow him to his castle.

While following King Edward, Don noticed that the people were in a better state than Agoria but seeing their dried mouths, the cracks that grew deep in the barren, he didn't have to be a genius to guess that this was the beginning of the drought. The clatter of the horse hooves echoed around the desperate landscape while they were marching.

The people looked at Don and his men with both curiosity and concern, the path to the castle was built in between the houses and shops that too had cracks on their walls.

There was no green as far as Don could see it and what seemed to the plants looked dried out and even the cactuses had no green in them.

The taverns and shops looked empty by looking from outside, there were a couple of small food stalls, one which seemed like a smithy, two or three merchant shops, and quite a few inns and taverns which had most customers compared to the rest of the businesses.

"Whoa"

Arrora was startled to see the prices of the drinks written on the boards outside of the taverns and inns.

Don didn't ask any questions to King Edward as he just nodded while King Edward was blabbering about the history of the Sigalla.

Eventually, after a long lesson of Sigalla's history, Don saw the castle gates, a sizable gate with hefty wooden doors, a drawbridge, and a group of royal guards standing in front of the gates, probably to welcome their king and Don.

Without a doubt, when Don noticed the two women, one older probably King Edward's age and the young one and knew that they must be the queen and the princess.

When they got closer, the young one looked shyly at Don while the other one welcomed them with a gentle smile.

"King Don, meet my wife Sienna, the queen of Sigalla" 

King Edward introduced his wife as a guard passed a bouquet of flowers to Queen Sienna

"Welcome to Sigalla, King Don"

Queen Sienna gave a bouquet of various color flowers

"It's beautiful, Queen Sienna"

But looking at Don's neutral face, Queen Sienna thought that he didn't like the Boquete "One must first master emotions to master the sword, Queen Sienna"

Don said as Queen Sienna nodded with a gentle smile and motioned the young girl beside to step forward

"This is my daughter King Don, Amber"

"King Don"

Amber curtseyed as she said

"Princess Amber"

Don nodded

"Please come inside, King Don, I hope everyone is hungry"

Queen Sienna glanced at the guards as they opened the gates and let everyone in.

Statues of kings were lined up inside of the castle gates, serving as reminders of the past. Thes castle showed signs of decay probably after being around for ages, but still by the looks of the castle walls, it was evident that the inhabitants were determined to repair any weaknesses to make sure this castle will be around for ages to come.

While walking towards the castle, Arrora noticed Amber glancing at Don and slightly blushing while he was talking with King Edward and Queen Sienna

And when Don reached the entrance of the castle, he just looked at his men as they formed a line while King Edward welcome the rest of them in

Arwen and Arrora followed King Edward to the living room where the maids were waiting with beverages, mainly liquors like wine, ale

"King Don, please"

King Edward gestured at Don to take a drink

"Can I have something else? I don't drink liquors"

King Edward was shocked to hear Don just like Queen Sienna and Princess Amber who just took a long sip of wine but quickly King Edward hid his shock with a smile

"Of course, maid bring king Don an orange juice"

"King Don, please, Lord Clemo"

King Edward gestured at Don to sit on the fancy red sofa behind him as he sat on the one opposite of Don with Queen Sienna and Princess Amber while Arwen and Arrora stood behind Don and Lord Clemo sat in his seat placed beside Don

"I hope that I didn't hinder any of your plans with my invitation, King Don"

"No you didn't, King Edward, I was planning to come here on my way to the gathering"

"wonderful"

King Edward laughed

The maid came with the juice and gave it to Don

"You're very different, King Don, can I ask why you don't drink liqueurs?"

Queen Sienna said as Don leaned on the sofa and took a sip from the glass

"I'm used to not drinking liqueurs Queen Sienna and I'll take water over any wines on any day"

"Water seems more valuable than wines nowadays, King Don"