Rise of the Legendary Emperor

"Arrora"

Amaryll gently called out for Arrora and entered the room with a loaf of freshly baked bread and hot porridge.

"You must eat something, Arrora"

Amaryll avoided her gaze from looking at Don's dead body which was lying on the bed near Arrora.

"I'm not hungry"

She didn't make any eye contact with Amaryll and continued to clean Don's face with wet clothe though his body was pale and clean already.

"You've been saying this for four days, you may be a Heavenly mage now but you still need food to live"

She walked towards the table to place the food while avoiding to look at Don because if she looked at him, she would start crying.

"Sit down"

After placing the food on the nearby table, Amaryll came to Arrora and sat on the bed as she grabbed Arrora's hands and forced her to sit.

Amaryll could see the black circle around her eyes, which was obviously because of her crying all day beside his body. Even though everyone in the castle was extremely sad because of what happened to Don, they involved themselves in many works to shrug off what happened while many went to the outside world to search for the cannibalistic creatures in their kingdom.

Just as they were speaking, Arwen and the dwarves were scouring the outerlands, Emir and Agoria to find the killers. She wrapped her hand around Arrora as she spoke.

"How long are you planning to be like this?"

"Until he wakes up, Amaryll, until he wakes up"

She placed her hands on his cold body and said

"And Knight will do just that"

Everyone in Everlight was keeping their trust in Knight, and Amaryll was not an exception.

"Didn't he ask you to be strong and ordered you not to cry anymore?"

Upon hearing her words, she let out a smile filled with sorrow and grief 

"He's not here to punish me, is he?"

"But he will, when he wakes up. Plus, he always trusted you to take care of things, so go to Ishikara and organize do what he would have done"

After the war, Arrora came directly back to Everlight and didn't leave this room since then.

"I won't leave his side again, "

She stubbornly shook her head

"You have to, if you don't go out there and form an army in Ishikara, the kingdom would soon be vulnerable to attack. We are already stretched our men thin by guarding Emir and Agoria. Do you prefer staying here doing nothing when everything he built crumbles? "

A minor change emerged in her eyes as Amaryll continued

"Don't forget that you are his right hand and you have to act like one, so quit being such wuse and do your duty? Don't make me pull my rank on you"

In seniority, Arwen and Amaryll were obviously on top because they were Don's first followers. Because of this, Amaryll held an influential position over everyone else.

"Eat this and go, I have a meeting with Amber"

She didn't even wait to hear Arrora's answer as she pulled her from the bed and placed the tray on her hands.

"Do you want to let him down?"

Amaryll asked when she sensed a bit of resistance from Arrora,

"If the answer is yes, stay here, else, go to Ishikara now"

Arrora couldn't stay here after this question because she would never let him down again, and even though she was reluctant to leave this room, she was given no choice by Amaryll.

"I will go"

Arrora said in a low-pitched voice after a few seconds and took a glance at Don before nodding

"Catalie, teleport Arrora to Ishikara"

The small vibrations emerged in the room and the next moment, Arrora disappeared from the room leaving Amaryll alone with Don.

The moment Arrora left the room, Amaryll collapsed on the bed as tears rolled out on her rosy cheeks.

"I don't know how long I can keep them together Don. I miss you, I miss you... so much, please... come back"

All her facade faded away to reveal her true feelings. She might have sounded strong before, but now her voice cracked in grief. And after wetting his chest with her tears for some time, she gently kissed his forehead before disappearing from the room.

*****************************

"Amaryll, you're back!"

When Amaryll opened the doors of Sigalla throne hall, Amber came running towards her like an excited puppy with open arms.

"Oh?"

Amaryll now realized how Knight felt every time she surprised him with a bear hug.

"Where did you disappear to?"

Amber asked while still clinging to her

"I was...busy and it's nice to see you too" 

Amaryll patted her on the back as Amber released her after squeezing her one last time.

"I heard about what Noa did and glad to hear that King Don is alright, speaking of where is he? He's fine right?"

Amaryll could see the genuine concern in Amber's face, and though she hated to lie to her friend, she had no choice but to lie.

"He���s fine, he's just secluded himself and cultivating nonstop to breakthrough"

Amber frowned a bit upon hearing Amaryll

"But I heard Adria is already at Heavenly level"

Don was a peak-level Grandmaster while Adria was just a low-level Grandmaster, so Amber had a hard time believing that she broke through to the Heavenly level faster than him.

"He's different Amber, I'm pretty sure that he would be stronger than Ar...Adria when he comes out of his seclusion"

"Hmm, you're right, but I have to ask, how do you people cultivate? If I'm not mistaken, you have two Heavenly level mages now and a few Grandmasters right?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

Amaryll giggled to avoid answering her and quickly changed the topic

"Did you have any luck regarding the thing I asked you to find?"

"What do you think?"

She winked at Amaryll and asked as she took out a small pouch from her space ring

"What you gave me, my friend, is the seeds of a rare kind of grapes called the black honey"

Among the herbs and seeds Arrora brought from the house where they met Aathreya in the underground, Kayako identified everything except the pouch of seeds in Amber's hands.

Since Reghys didn't know about those seeds, Amaryll gave it to Amber to help her find their use and origin.

"How did you find it?"

"I didn't, it's my brother who asked his herbology teacher and told me. He also said there's only one place in Star empire where they use black honey grapes to produce wine"

She paused for a moment and continued,

"According to my brother, the wine produced using the black honey grapes is extremely rich in flavor and taste and has huge demand throughout the continent"

She was rubbing her palms together in excitement and barely able to stay still on her chair while she spoke about the wine

"We must build a winery and start to make this wine Amaryll"

"Wow, hold your horses Amber, I'm not an expert but I think making wine is not a simple process, we need a place for vineyard and professionals who have prior experience of making wine, in other words, we have to build a whole wine industry if we want to make a single drop of wine"

Amaryll would have been just as excited as Amber if she didn't spend time managing Everlight after Knight left and learned the difficulties of managing a kingdom and its people.

"Not to mention, we are working on multiple big projects like building houses, roads for citizens before the winter starts, working on the dam, and now we have to deal with the post-war things in Ishikara"

"Don't worry, I have already hired a few experts to help us, we only need the workforce and a place to build a winery. Since the refugees are flooding Sigalla and Emir, it won't be hard to find workers and you can create work for your citizens reducing the unemployment rate of your kingdom, it's like killing two birds with one stone "

"Hmm, when you put it like that"

Amber's words made sense after Amaryll processed everything in her mind for a few moments. In their treasury, they had enough wealth to fund the whole winemaking process, and if what Amber said about the wine was true, it would be a brilliant investment to build a solid economy in the future.

Besides, Amaryll couldn't waste those precious seeds of black honey grapes after hearing Amber.

"What do you say, Amaryll? Think about the crowd it would pull towards our restaurants if we served a rare and delicious wine. Even the royal families of the other kingdoms would come to our hotel just to take a sip"

"I understand Amber but have you tried it?"

"Of course I would have, but as I said, huge demand. Trust me Amaryll, I tried to buy a bottle and used all my contacts even so, I couldn't get it. Also, if these seeds aren't worth much, my brother's teacher would have offered a hundred thousand medium stones to buy the seeds from him"

"What?!"

Amaryll's mind went black for a second, hearing the insane amount.

"Now you see my point right?"

Amber showed a foxy smile, looking at Amaryll's reaction. She knew that she could convince Amaryll using this point because one would be an utter fool not to recognize the value of such an item after hearing this offer, and her friend Amaryll was not an idiot.