Rise of the Legendary Emperor

When Kayako turned her head, she saw a young man with greyish hair standing on top of a boulder nearby and aiming his bow at them. The black robes he wore fluttered in the wind as magical fluctuations radiated from his body.

"A peak great master"

Ukita mumbled and the moment Kayako and Nanbu saw this, they knew that they couldn't escape anymore.

"Captain Arwen, what's happening?"

Lord Clemo came running with sleepy eyes and when he saw Nanbu, Ukita, and Kayako, his eyes went wide.

"Did they try to escape?"

Arwen could sense Lord Clemo's heart thumping against his chest

"Relax, Lord Clemo"

"Captain Arwen, I told you that we should keep the shackles on"

"Lower your weapons"

Arwen ordered the men and leaped from the boulder and landed before Nanbu, Ukita, and Kayako.

"I wanted to see whether you still want to fight for your freedom"

The three of them looked bewildered hearing the youth talk.

"Who...who are you?"

Nanbu struggled to ask Arwen due to the pain he was feeling.

"First, you should meet his majesty, follow me, I think you had enough carriage ride"

Lord Clemo rushed towards Arwen

"Captain Arwen, what if they try to run again?"

They bought the group for five thousand low-quality stones and Lord Clemo would run away from Agoria rather than facing Don if they lost this group.

Arwen smiled and looked at the three of them for a moment

"They will choose to live here after they meet his majesty, Lord Clemo"

Ukita was an excellent judge of character as he traveled to many places and met many people. Looking at the youth before him, he couldn't sense any bad intention from his eyes, but there was something strange about him.

"Follow me"

The three of them stared at each other as Ukita slowly nodded and took a step forward to follow Arwen.

"Good, come"

Even though the forest was nearby, the three of them knew that they couldn't escape a peak level great master and a group of peak masters.

The three of them slowly followed Arwen while Lord Clemo kept nervously looking at them. Kayako noticed a bigger carriage behind them but she didn't know what's inside of it.

This was the second time Ukita in Agoria and compared to his first visit, this time the mood and kingdom felt different to him. He could see the villagers and black armored men fixing the houses and turning the mud roads into stone pavements. Most of the makeshift houses of the villagers now looked new and improved, plus, the people had smiles on their faces which surprised Ukita because people usually tend to avoid outsiders, especially the frightening army like the black-armored men.

And when he walked further on the way, Ukita saw the black-armored men preparing hot food and giving to the villagers and people who seemed like refugees. Now he realized what put a smile on their faces since who didn't like free hot meals in a climate like this.

"Captain Arwen, Lord Clemo"

"Greetings Captain Arwen, Lord Clemo"

The villagers and the black-armored men stopped what they were doing and quickly greeted them as the villagers bowed towards them with a smile.

"Lord Clemo, can we interest you with a hot boar porridge?"

One of the black-armored men who was preparing the food in a huge pot shouted at Lord Clemo.

"No, thanks"

His mouth said no but Arwen could hear his stomach grumbling and disagree with his mouth.

Fortunately for Lord Clemo, Arwen decided to go and have a bowl of porridge.

"Don't disappoint them, Lord Clemo, go and have a bowl"

"Oh no no, Captain Arwen, his majesty will be waiting for us"

But Clemo shook his head

"He will be waiting for them, I'll take care of it I order you to go, the capitol is closer, I can escort them to the castle"

Lord Clemo wanted to say no but his stomach growled again as he put his hand on his stomach and let out an embarrassed smile.

"I'll meet you in the castle, Captain Arwen"

Since Arwen said it was an order, Lord Clemo nodded and followed the mouth-watering porridge smell.

Kayako was glad that even though she was hungry, her stomach did not make any cries like Lord Clemo's.

As they followed Arwen in silence, more and more people, as well as more buildings, appeared in their eyesight indicating that they had reached the capital. Ukita thought the villages were transforming the sight of the capitol completely shocked. Unlike the villages, the houses in the capital looked newly built rather than repaired. Nanbu and Kayako didn't know but he had visited the capital once and he could say for sure that these houses and roads were newly built.

"Interesting"

Arwen noticed the white-haired man mumble under his breath looking at the new houses.

Kayako too noticed Ukita and signaled him to keep his mouth shut but Ukita couldn't help glancing at the buildings and the construction works happening in the capital.

The reason for Ukita's shock was nothing but the style of the architecture.

Each house was built using strong wooden planks, white bricks, metal

and had a unique style and design that couldn't be achieved by any typical builders unless these were built by the master builders, the dwarves.

However, the black-armored men working in the construction site were a little taller to be a dwarf but he wondered why they were wearing helmets to hide their faces.

Nanbu was more worried about themselves than staring at those buildings dumbstruck like Ukita. Just when they were crossing a group of kids playing on the newly built roads, Arwen noticed Kayako wiping her face and despite the water on her face due to the rain, he could tell that she was wiping off the tears.

Yet, Arwen did not speak anything but kept walking towards the castle.

After a few minutes, they could finally see huge archer towers and the gate of the castle. In front of the gate, there were soldiers in usual full metal plates standing and looking at Arwen and the black-armored men, they quickly opened the gate.

The soldiers and the people seemed unaffected by the heavy downpour and even with this heavy rain, the water level in this road didnt even rise up to her ankle.

"Captain Arwen"

When they entered through the gate, another lightly armored unit of soldiers with delicately made bows greeted Arwen. The three of them couldn't see their faces as they too covered their heads with black helmets, so they had no idea where they were looking.

A couple of people were renovating the castle by fixing the walls, roofs, and putting new windows. Despite the mess they were in, Nanbu wondered how every single person in this kingdom seemed busy with something ignoring this climate.

"Maids"

When they reached the entrance of the castle, Arwen raised his hand and stopped moving as he called out for the maids.

Just after he called, a group of girls in maid uniform came rushing to the entrance.

"Clean them up, they will meet his majesty afterward"

"Yes, Captain Arwen"

The maids nodded

"Huh?"

And quickly the maids grabbed Ukita, Nanbu, and Kayako by their hands before they could even react and led them to the bathhouses.

Kayako really could not keep up with what's happening to her, and she felt that she was losing her judgment. When they were sentenced to be sold as slaves and tortured by Noa, she thought she would either die or going to live the rest of her life as a slave and experience hell in real life.

However, after fainting in the cellar and waking up in the carriage, Kayako found herself not in shackles or another torture room, but in a luxurious bathhouse. Then, the maids flooded in and began undressing and bathing her from her head to toes, leaving nothing uncleaned.

Next was her clothes, the clothes she wore were torn and sullied by dirt and blood. And after the maids undressed her, they gently laid a red silk gown on her body and the gown perfectly fitted her body as it created no friction at all. After they adjusted the gown, the maids braided her hair and applied a sweet jasmine fragrance to her.

At the moment she was nothing but a slave, and yet, she was receiving a treatment that was equal to a noble lady. And just when she was about to ask the maids a question, a blonde hair man entered the room and motioned the maids to leave the room.

"Miss Kayako, his majesty will see you now"

Kayako quickly stood up from the chair before the mirror but the youth seemed not to mind even if she was sitting.

"The others are also waiting for you"

"Where am I?"

she asked the youth before her

"You're in Agoria, of course"

"No...yes...I mean why am I here?"

"It's better if you hear from that from his majesty, now if you follow me"

Kayako nodded and followed the youth behind and as she was following him, she couldn't help but worry about the student who survived in the attempt to escape Ishikara.

She was still getting used to this new silk gown as until now, she only wore cheap robes that were either too tight or too loose for her and she could tell that this gown was obviously not a cheap one.

She had to pull the gown's edge up to prevent it from tripping her down and after struggling with the dress, she finally came before a huge twin door that seemed to be the door to the throne hall where another two black-armored guards were standing.

"Lord Joel"

The black-armored guards greeted him and opened the twin doors to let them into the throne hall.

And just as the doors completely opened, she saw two familiar faces staring at her, Ukita and Nanbu.

"Kayako?"